Meet My Planner And Get Your Own Just Like It

Here I am back from my blogging break (for good? momentarily? we'll see) to share with you my planner. So exciting, right? Right?

I know you're super excited. You saw this blog post pop up in your blog reader or on Facebook or Twitter or wherever and I know you just thought, "Yay, Kerri is back and she is going to talk about her planner! This is the best thing ever!"

Okay, seriously, I realize you likely had none of those thoughts. That's okay, it won't hurt my feelings. But stick with me here. Because if you are in need of a new planner, especially if you tend to favor academic calendars (August to August), you will want to pay attention.

I became reliant on a planner in college and continued to use that same kind through college and grad school and into my professional career. These days I use a paper planner at work in conjunction with an electronic calendar. But that electronic calendar has some serious faults to it. So I use it, but it's mainly for work. At home, though? Not so much.

Enter the Catholic Sistas Through the Year Weekly/Monthly Planner. This is now my planner at home. And I love it!! Here's why I love mine:

The month at a glance

It has a two page monthly spread that I love for getting a quick glimpse of commitments for the month. It also has a two-page weekly spread with each day laid out in columns from left to write. This column layout works really well compared to any other calendar I've ever seen. Why? Because each column is divided into four boxes that you can label however you want. Talk about flexibility!! The top box is already filled in for you with all the Church things you need to know: saints' feast days, liturgical color, daily readings, the Rosary mysteries for the day, and more. The next three are up to you. And you can label them one way one week and another way another week. Do it by categories (Home, Work, Kids, House, Homeschooling, Blogging, etc.) or do it by time frames (morning, afternoon, night). Totally up to you.

The front of the planner also has basic prayers, a short description about prayer, pages for notes, pages for contacts, and a page describing the Proverbs 31 Catholic Women. This planner can certainly be used as much more than a planner.

My week

It also has quotes from saints scattered through the planner. On each monthly spread there is a section for notes and on each weekly spread there is a notes section and a checklist section off to the side. I have to say, the checklist section is one of my favorites. Sometimes you have a list of things you want to get done, but it doesn't matter when that week it gets done, just that it does.

To see more of this calendar for yourself, check out the Sample Pages that are up on the blog.

Other things to note: affordable price at $7.50 (plus I believe it might be half off now, so an even better deal!). You get a link to a pdf and you can print it however you want. Some people spend the money to print it up at a print shop and get it spiral bound or something. For me, I printed it at home and put it in a three-ring binder that I already had. Again, flexibility!

I printed the cover on pink card stock and put
the whole thing in a purple binder.

In addition to the calendar itself, there are bundles. I will confess that I have yet to actually use a bundle, but I love the idea of the bundles. There are three: Blogging, Homeschool, and Household. I encourage you to go look at the CS Store to learn more about the bundles (all the details there).

So are you ready to get your own now?? Currently on sale is the Academic Calendar which starts on July 27, 2015 and will go through the end of July, 2016. Perfect if you have kids in school and/or are homeschooling or maybe you are in school yourself.

This review is part of the Catholic Through the Year Planner blog tour. Follow the link HERE to see the other posts in the series.

So Many Giveaways!

I don't often enter giveaways, bu every now and then there are some really interesting ones and i figure, why not! If you are a follower of CatholicMom.com at all you may be aware they there are weekly giveaways there. Most I pass up, but every now and then I'll enter just for the heck of it. Which brings me to this week ...

There is a great one there this week! I've made several entries now and figured I'd share. Go check it out HERE and enter yourself.

And speaking of giveaways, there is one happening on Catholic Sistas today and through the rest of the week as well. I'd totally enter this one too if I could. But since I can't you should go enter! Check it out HERE.

And speaking of Catholic Sistas., not a giveaway, but I have a book review over there today. I reviewed Embracing Edith Stein: Wisdom for Women from St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross by Anne Costa. Go check it out when you get a chance. Could be a good Christmas gift for someone you know.

While I wasn't writing here ...

... I was still contributing over at Catholic Sistas.

Although, I've cut back on my contributions over there slightly. I was handling a 7 Quick Takes post there once a month, but I have handed that on to someone else. I help her out some with it, but mostly just logistics. She's handling the ideas and writing the posts.

My usual once a month post is still there every third Friday and I've apparently been neglecting sharing those posts with my readers here. So I thought I'd share the links to my last few posts.

"7 Quick Takes Friday: Role Model Saints for Dads"

In honor of Father's Day in June, I used my last 7QT post to explore some saints that are good role models for dads. St. Joseph is in there, of course, and 6 other great saints or blesseds.

"Marriage: A Catholic Understanding"

I asked my Catholic friends to describe marriage in 5 words or less and compiled them for this post. I got a whole range of responses and it was fun to see the variety. A couple to whet your appetite:

Two imperfect people walking together.

The foundation of the family.

Two words: redemptive suffering.

I like it a lot.

"The Revolution of John XXIII: The Second Vatican Council [Review]"

My first official review! I was so excited to have this opportunity. This movie appealed to my fascination with both history and the history of the Church. I learned a lot while watching it.

"The Assumption: Finding Mary in the Darkness"

A short excerpt:

At a young age I developed a fear of death. I don’t know what it was that caused me to fixate on this. It wasn't the death of a relative or family friend. Not that I recall, anyway. I would often find myself lying in bed at night thinking about what happens to a person in death. My imagination ran wild during my bouts with insomnia at a young age. Often my mind would zero in on a feeling of complete and utter emptiness or nothingness. For a young girl, this was incredibly scary.

"Do You Fit God In Or Do You Have An Appointment?"

My September post was a short one (I was out of town and didn't finish it prior to my trip, so ...). But I ask an important question and was hoping for some good comments and maybe some discussion. And I did get some good comments. Check it out and leave a comment if you have something to add (or just to say hi).

I hope some of these sound intriguing enough to go check them out. More updates to come very soon. Still trying to come up for air.

Bored Puppy Syndrome and Other Odds and Ends

Recently a friend of mine referred to her young children as bored puppies. The reference was to the craziness that seems to come out of nowhere when it is time for quiet time or nap time or bed time. I immediately realized that I too have a couple of "bored puppies." Every. Single. Night.

We have the same bed time routine every night. It hasn't changed in months and months. But that doesn't matter. Put them to bed, turn out the lights, crack the bedroom door ... and then the partying begins.

Part of the issue is that it is still light outside at this time of year. That certainly doesn't help things. You leave two three year old boys in a semi-dark room for just a couple of minutes and the chatter starts. That chatter quickly escalates, especially if no one goes in to put a stop to the madness!

This was Monday night. Which really isn't any different than most any other night. I was feeding Silas in his room listening to things slowly get out of hand in the room down the hall. Nothing like two bored puppies chewing up everyone's shoes and nothing being done to stop it. At least in this case there was no destruction. But still ...!

By the time I was finally able to put Silas down (who was only half done and didn't care for being stuck in his crib when he wanted his second course) I walked into the other room to find Bored Puppy Syndrome in full bloom: they were in the opposite beds, there was lots of giggling and shrieking, stuffed animals went flying through the air, and bed sheets were all twisted up. Honestly, I have no idea how I managed to NOT laugh at the antics. I play mean mom on TV, but really I'm laughing on the inside.

The amazing thing is how quickly these two little guys can hop back into their beds and have all the stuffed animals back in place. Two seconds flat. Seriously! Those are some mad skillz!

Threats of timeout, a chat with Hubby, and then I managed to get back to Silas. I continued to listen to things escalate once again (they just can't help themselves) and watched as Hubby enforced timeout. Eventually we had two sleeping boys. It just takes us an hour or more to get there. It is so much like watching bored puppies it's surreal.

In other news, Silas is now 6 months old and I did not get a picture of him on the day of. But we're finally having some professional pictures done this coming weekend and I can't wait to see some beautifully done pictures of all three boys! He also had his 6 month well visit and he's doing well. He's growing and gaining weight but apparently plateauing on the growth charts. He's healthy though, so we're not concerned. I'm going to take him back in a month just for a weight check and as long as he's going up we're not going to worry about it. He may just be a peanut. That's okay with me.

We did attempt to start him on some rice cereal, but it didn't go over very well. He was completely confused by the spoon. The boys had no interest until well past 7 months old, so I'm tempted to just put it away and wait. Hubby thinks we should keep trying. "We" would prefer to wait, but "he" is welcome to keep at it if that's what "he" wants to do.

Finally, I forgot to post here that I had an article up on Catholic Sistas this past Friday. Check out Marriage: A Catholic Understanding when you get a chance. I was especially surprised that Big Pulpit linked it up on their Friday Extra post. Never would have guessed that in a million years, but very honored by the link up.

Speaking of Catholic Sistas, if you don't follow the blog, I encourage you to check it out. We're currently working on a series of posts on the Anima Christi prayer (part 5 went up on Monday), there is a series started on Proverbs 31, and this coming Thursday I put up a guest post that is a letter from a mom to her unborn daughter who is not expected to live very long after birth (prayers for all of them, please!). The Thursday post will bring tears to your eyes! I'm amazed too at how this worked out. I won't go into details, but as it turned out, Thursday is also the day this precious baby will be induced. Putting the post up that day is a total coincidence. God works in amazing ways!! Anyway, all I can say is, we have a lot of good stuff going on at the blog. Posts go up usually four days a week and we have a lot of great talent.

There's a brief update on the goings on in these parts. I've been so sporadic with my blogging lately, but I do like to share when I can. I'm hoping to do another Lawn Chair Catechism post this week, too (I missed last week). Hopefully you'll hear more form me soon!

Today's Post at Catholic Sistas

I have a post today over at Catholic Sistas. I decided to do another "The Catechism at Random" post. These are always fun. Put the last paragraph number form the Catechism into www.random.org and it spits out a number. I go to that paragraph and that's where I get my post topic from.

This one was a little difficult at first, but ended up being a good reflection. At least for me.

If you are not familiar with the Catechism or you're not Catholic and don't know what the Catechism is, let me share what it is briefly. Basically, it contains all of the teachings of the Catholic Church. Practically everything in there has references to the Bible or to the writings of the early Church fathers.

If you're curious about the Catholic Church and her teachings I would recommended checking out this online version found at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church's website. You can also get a version here or check out your public library.

Anything you ever wanted to know about what Catholics believe can be found here. And don't forget to check out my post as well on The Catechism at Random. I'm thinking I might do more of these posts in the future, too. It's a great way for me to learn as well. There is always something new to learn in our vast and rich Catholic faith.

Hope you enjoy!

Jesus, I Trust in You

In a very last minute situation on Wednesday (i.e., yesterday) I agreed to fill an empty spot on the Catholic Sistas calendar for Thursday (i.e., TODAY). In a matter of only 3 hours I wrote a whole post and got pictures edited and inserted without any previous plans.

So how did it turn out? Well, I think the Holy Spirit had His hand in this one for sure. I've never worked on something like this is such a short period of time. Here's a brief excerpt:

Jesus, I trust in You.

It is a short prayer, but one that is incredibly powerful. It evokes complete surrender to Jesus. A trust like no other. It would be hard to even utter these words if you had any doubts about trusting Jesus. Whenever I profess these words I feel a peace and a lightness in my soul. I trust Jesus and I know he’s “got this.”

Jesus, I trust in You.

Whatever my prayer is, I surrender to His will with these few words. Maybe the desires on my heart are not the plans God has for me. Maybe my prayers won’t be answered as I think they should be. Maybe they will. But I can accept God’s will, whatever it is, when I put complete trust in Him.

Read the rest at Catholic Sistas here: The Divine Mercy: Jesus, I Trust in You.

The Joy of the Crucifix on Catholic Sistas

A few weeks ago I realized that my April post for Catholic Sistas was going to fall on Good Friday. I debated doing a reflective post on the importance of the day or keeping it simple with a short prayer and some art work of the Crucifixion.

Then I decided that I wanted to write a post on the importance of the crucifix for Catholics. While some Protestant denominations do use the crucifix in their churches, a large portion of them do not. The crucifix seems to be much more common in Catholic Churches (both Western and Eastern, though I learned there are some differences). I was very interested in this topic and was fascinated by some of what I was reading. But, formulating something still wasn't coming to me.

I sat down to write, because I couldn't put it off any longer (pesky deadlines), still thinking I was going to write something about the crucifix and why it is so commonly used by Catholics, and instead this story came out.

We turned off the windy country road onto a gravel drive. As we started up the hill I looked around at my surroundings. I would be spending the next three days at this retreat center. The driver was telling us about the old retreat center across the road. But I had stopped listening as I noticed a large crucifix at the top of the hill ahead of us.

This was my first impression of the retreat center. As we ascended the hill, the life-size crucifix dominated the view in front of us. Only once we turned the corner did I notice the retreat center and the other people arriving.

It always amazes me how the Holy Spirit works. Apparently this is the story I was meant to tell today. Read the rest of it here: The Joy of the Crucifix.

7 Quick Takes Friday, Vol. 56: Double Posting Today, Lenten Mission, Kiddisms, Praying, and More

~1~

Rarely do I write a 7 Quick Takes post on a Friday when I also have a post going up over at Catholic Sistas. But apparently I decided that this week was going to be crazy week. So read this post, but please go check out today's post at Catholic Sistas as well: Uniting Our Lenten Sacrifices with Christ Crucified.

~2~

Earlier this week was our parish's Lenten Mission. I used to always go to these, all three nights even. But since having kids they have gotten harder to attend. Sometimes I've gone alone, sometimes Hubby goes, sometimes we go together and put the kids in the nursery, or sometimes we skip it altogether. This year we went on Sunday night and put the older boys in the nursery and kept the baby with us. The boys don't care for the nursery. We almost never use it on Sundays, so it is just special talks like this when we use it. Usually they scream and cry and the volunteers have to pry them off of us, but they always end up having a good time.

This time, we tried to bring them over to the train table to help get them interested in something. They were interested, but not enough to forget about us. They were keeping a close eye on us and not getting too close to the train table. Then I pointed out the two play kitchens. That did it! Off they went with no thought at all of us. I grabbed Hubby's arm and said, "Let's go!" and we were out of there.

No screaming, no hanging off of us. And all for a play kitchen. Not the trains. Go figure!

~3~

The first night of the Lenten Mission was very good! One of my favorite priests, Fr. Frank, was the speaker on the first night. I spent a lot of time walking around with the baby, but I was still mostly listening. I did step out during the first half to change a diaper and kind of missed the point of what was being discussed (I checked with Hubby later and it was a run-down of evangelization in the early Church) but the second half of the talk was excellent!!

Here is basically what I got out of it. Sometimes, trying to follow Jesus is very difficult. It can sometimes feel so hard that we might give up or declare that we are not "good enough" to be able to follow Him in all things. Fr. Frank pointed out that St. Paul tells the people in one of his letters (I forget which one) to follow him. That's right, follow St. Paul. By this he means that while he is following Christ, we can be following Paul, and others may then follow us and so on and so on. What it basically comes down to is that all the saints are available for us to follow behind in our quest to follow Christ. We're not alone in this journey. He used an analogy of being on a hike and hiking on a trail in a single file line. You are in the middle of the line and you can't see where the group is going. You can only see the person (or the backpack) right in front of you. So you have to follow that person. And the person behind you is following you.

I know I fail at following and imitating Christ all the time. Fr. Frank said to find a saint or two and follow them. And if we are following someone who is helping us to be more like Christ than others may then follow us.

~4~

And for a complete change of subject:
Some time ago Hubby taught the boys how to dip their toast into the yoke of a fried egg. They love doing it. And now, every night when we put the boys to bed, as we start heading out of the room, we hear Peter say, "Fried egg? Fried egg?" Every. Single. Night.

Hubby has told me he also asks for a fried egg when he wakes them up in the morning too. This boy loves his fried eggs!!

~5~

Teaching kids to pray is so amusing. Up until now we haven't specifically taught them much in terms of prayer,we mostly demonstrate it for them (which is incredibly important, of course) and we have worked with them on doing the sign of the cross. They are slowly picking things up. Ethan often "prays" with us when we do bedtimes prayers. It sounds like a cross between a drone and a chant. Maybe he'll be a monk one day. Since they have been soaking up the alphabet and counting in both English and Spanish, I decided that maybe now was the time to start teaching them a prayer. My choice was the Hail Mary. For one, they love pointing out "Mama Mary" in pictures or stopping by her statue at our church to say "hi," and secondly, it's a fairly short prayer.

So we got started one morning and I said a few words at a time and had them repeat after me. What I have learned during this process is:

1. Even a short prayer can feel long when you are doing it a few words at a time.
2. It's very easy to forget the words yourself when you chop it up into little bits. No matter how well you know the prayer yourself.
3. When you only do the first half and decide to wait on teaching the second half until another time, you end up inadvertently teaching them that there is applause between the first and second half of the prayer.
4. Two year olds skip words like: of, the, is, a, you, your. So when I say "is the fruit" all that is repeated back to me is "fruit." Or "of your womb" becomes simply "womb."
5. Once they start getting it, one child will think that when you say the first set of words his job is to then say the next set of words.

It's a start and I find it incredibly humorous to do this with the boys. We laugh a lot while learning the Hail Mary. I think Mama Mary probably laughs with us.

~6~

Went to the dentist on Tuesday for my regular 6 month cleaning. After having the dentist check everything out, how pleasant to then hear him say, "Well, it's not any worse." Um ... thanks?

On the plus side, he did say we can wait another 12 months before they do X-rays again. They use the child thingys on me and they still make me gag. I really do have a tiny mouth. And can't they come up with a better way of doing X-rays?

~7~

I'm going to wrap up this post by sharing my pains from last weekend. I woke up in horrific pain on Saturday morning. I've had a "crick" in the neck before, some worse than others, but Saturday morning's was the worst I've ever had. I can still feel some of the effects of it today (Thursday). By Saturday night I was dreading going to sleep because I knew I would wake up in more pain. It dulled a little over the course of the day Saturday, but not nearly enough. Sure enough, I woke up Sunday in a great deal of pain as well. It's been almost a week and I can still feel a little pain when I turn my head to the right, though it is definitely not nearly as bad as it was. I do not remember ever having a neck/back/shoulder issue like that ever in my life. Ever. I hope that was a once in a lifetime thing!

Pleasant note to end on, right? Ha!! I should have used that pain for good, but the idea of "offering it up" never occurs to me until afterwards, never in the moment.

That's it for today's Quick Takes. Don't forget to check out my post at Catholic Sistas today. And, of course, thanks to Jen for hosting 7 Quick Takes!! Go check her out as well.

Life's Distractions and Contemplating Lent

I've been contemplating the distractions in my life lately. Particularly the negative ones. I turned my thoughts into a blog post and you can go read it. Come on over and see my thoughts on distractions, prayer, and the upcoming Lenten season.

You can read my post Removing Distractions, Seeking God over at Catholic Sistas today. 

Hope you enjoy!

Pregnancy Loss Remembrance Day

Today, October 15, is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. This is a day to remember all those babies who have passed on to the next life before they could experience much of this one. This is a day to help women heal as they recognize the true gift their children are to them, even when they only had a short time to be with them. This is a day when women can share stories, cry tears of healing, and not feel alone in their grief.

As a Catholic I believe that my children are in heaven with God, held tightly in Mary's arms. I believe that my desire to baptize my children is enough for my children to have received "baptism by desire." I believe that they are now saints, they can pray for me, their father, and their siblings, and that one day, God willing, we will all join them in heaven where our family will be complete.

My children in heaven are:
Casey Marie, lost too soon on March 31, 2008
Zachary Thomas, lost too soon on January 11, 2009
Brigit Ann, lost too soon on May 10, 2010

In commemoration of today, everyone can participate in the Wave of Light at 7 P.M. in whatever timezone you are in. Light a candle (or more than one) for one hour beginning at 7 P.M. in remembrance of the babies lost due to miscarriage, stillbirth, or early infant loss. If someone in every timezone across the world did this for one hour, we would have 24 hours of a candle lit somewhere for all these babies.

Also, over at Catholic Sistas today, we are hosting a link-up. We hope that others will take some time today to write something about their own children and share it on their blogs which then they can share with our readers at Catholic Sistas. Sharing stories is something women often do to help each other in the healing process during tough times. It helps to know that we are not alone and that others have experienced similar grief to our own. If you are able to participate we hope you will. And check back on the blog throughout the day as we post a series of stories on pregnancy loss. There will be lots of good reading over there today, don't miss it.

I just wanted to share once again the Pregnancy Loss Resources that I have put together. The most comprehensive list I have so far is the Miscarriage.InfantLoss Board on Pinterest. In addition, there is the list of resources I have listed right here on this blog. See the link at the top of the page or click here. I'm always interested in other resources, so if you know of one I have not linked to yet, please let me know. And please share these resources with others who may be in need of them.

Finally, if you know someone who has lost a child due to miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss, tell them that you are praying for them today. Or at the least, let them know that you are remembering their child today and will light a candle for them. Nothing brings comfort to a mother more than to know that her child is still remembered by others. It's so easy to feel that you are all alone in remembering your children, that everyone else has forgotten. Bring a smile to someone else's face because she does remember even if she never mentions it.

Thank you for taking the read this and for remembering the children who have touched your life in some way, no matter how small.

What Every Catholic Should Know: 7 Quick Takes

Today I have a post up over at Catholic Sistas as part of the 7 Quick Takes series. In this installment I list (with the help of the other sistas) 7 things that every Catholic should know.

I tried to keep the list brief and added links and references to the Catechism. In many ways it should be a review or a way to build a bit more knowledge on something you already know as a Catholic. The intent was not to address things that Protestants don't understand about our faith or to provide Catholics with answers to questions from their Protestant friends or family members.

Quite simply, what should you as a Catholic really know? That's the goal of this post.

The list could be a lot longer, but I only had 7 spots. So it is what it is. But that doesn't mean you can't add to the list. Come on over and check out today's 7 Quick Takes post, Catholic Catechesis installment and leave us comments with what else you would add to the list. Add any references too if you can easily find them.

This, hopefully, is a great post to file away somewhere to refer back to when you might need it. Especially with additional comments added on.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Things I Contemplate Over

I have a new post up today over at Catholic Sistas in which I reveal a recent contemplation I had over a diaper change. The whole idea was what a privilege it is to do this often unrewarding task.

In writing the piece I mostly was thinking of my thoughts from that one particular day. However, it did briefly occur to me that I have this privilege where others do not. Where I almost thought I never would either. I didn't include that in the post, that wasn't my point, but it is definitely another way of looking at it.

When you suffer from multiple pregnancy losses or infertility, being able to change your own child's diaper is looked at much more as a privilege. It's something I don't take for granted, this ability to tend to my child's basic needs. I have three children who I was not able to do this (and many other things) for.

So you get some additional thought from me on this topic just from stopping by here. But don't just stop here, I sincerely hope you'll head over to Catholic Sistas and check out today's post, Contemplation Over A Diaper Change.

Look forward to seeing your comments there!

Free Will, Pride, and Humility

Last Friday I wrote a post for Catholic Sistas called "Come Holy Spirit, Give us Humility." It is the eighth post in a monthly series we have been doing since December on the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.

I have known that I was going to write this post since last November. I have had lots of different thoughts about it since that time. I prayed about it, I looked for anything I could find on humility during those many months, I looked for examples of humility around me (lots of that to go around between both Pope Emeritus Benedict and Pope Francis), and I tried to let the Holy Spirit lead me to the right words.

There was one thing on my mind a lot that I thought tied into the virtue of humility quite well. But when all was said and done, it didn't make it into the post at all, which was probably for the best. But it's continued to be on my mind so I'm going with it here in this space.

There are people in our world, some of whom are very well-known public figures, who claim to be Catholic even when they hold viewpoints that are contradictory to the Church. In some cases, these people are just poorly catechized. But in more notable cases, it's obvious that poor catechesis is not to blame.

For those who were educated in the faith at some point with the Church's correct teachings on an issue, I've often seen that a person will still hold onto erroneous beliefs simply because they think they have the "free will" to do so. I'm thinking of one person in particular and her very public stand on her supposed faith and the issue of abortion. However, I believe this applies to a lot of people. She is not an anomaly, just one of many very lost and confused souls.

There are many problems here. First a misunderstanding of Free Will. Second, pride. And third, an unwillingness to humble oneself before the Church.

Free Will
I hate when people throw around the idea of free will as meaning that they can do whatever they want. That's not free will. To properly exercise free will, one has to have a well-formed conscience. Without that, you really are just doing whatever you want.

The God-given gift of Free Will is so that we will love God because we want to. He didn't want a bunch of robots on Earth who would love Him for no other reason than He made them that way. No, He wanted us to freely choose to love Him. The problem is that we can also abuse this gift of Free Will. Adam and Eve did and pretty much every human being since then has at one point or another.

Choosing to use Free Will to take a stand contrary to the Church is nothing more than an attack against the Church. When a person claims to be a faithful Catholic and loves the Church, but then claims to hold beliefs contrary to Catholicism based on nothing more than Free Will, there is no love there. This is a downright rejection of God's Church and God Himself.

Pride
I look at this abuse of Free Will and I can't help but think that it is rooted in pride. Pride is not a virtue. It's a vice. It's one thing to be proud of your husband for completing a big project at work or proud of your kid for getting an A in a really difficult class. In those cases and similar ones, we are showing pride in someone else's hard work and dedication. But the kind of pride that we should not be delving into is the kind in which we are looking inward to ourselves only with the belief that we know better than God.

I was one of those who was poorly catechized. Before I was dragged brought more fully into the Church I held contrary beliefs to Holy Mother Church. But I don't think these were rooted in any sort of pride on my part. I was just ill-educated. However, when you know the Truth and specifically go against it, I can't help but wonder what is going on deep down in that person.

They say Free Will gives them the ability to believe what they want. But at the same time they say they are faithful to Catholicism. You can't have it both ways! The only explanation I can come up with is pride. A sense of knowing better than God knows and therefore, thinking that holding contrary beliefs is somehow justified.

Humility
The opposite of pride is humility. To be humble, you often have to put your own desires aside in favor of others. A prideful person can't do that. Pride is focus on self while humility is focus on the other. Let's go a step further.

When I was learning my way back to the Church I had to reconsider some of my viewpoints that were contrary to the faith. There were things I believed that I didn't even realized were against Church teaching. Some of those beliefs were pretty easy to reverse myself on once I understood the Church's position more. Others took me more time. Contraception was one that I really had a hard time understanding. I read a lot and still couldn't quite "get it." Eventually, I had to make a choice. Set aside my objections and accept what the Church taught whether I understood or not *or* walk away from the Church entirely.

I chose the route that kept me in the Church. Essentially, I willingly humbled myself to the Church. I decided that the Church was much older and wiser than I was and the best path was to trust in Her. This took a great deal of humility on my part. The best part is that by doing this I also opened myself to fully embrace the Church's teachings. If I had not been willing to humble myself I'd still be struggling with this teaching and may not be Catholic today because of it.

When a person is unwilling to humble themselves before the rich history and long-standing beliefs of a 2000 year old faith because of their own pride, they will never experience the richness and beauty that is the Catholic faith.

Overall, I feel sorry for those who can't see beyond the pride and error that has put them on a path contrary to the teachings of the faith they claim to profess. To get them to the point where they can be humble before the Church will take a lot of work. They have many hurdles to get through before that is even possible.

Let us pray for all those who are misguided in their understanding of the faith and who are too prideful to see the error of their ways. Let's pray that they will one day be brought to a point where they are willing to be humble before Holy Mother Church. St. Augustine, pray for us. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.

[This post is my fourth in a row as part of the "7 post in 7 days" challenge.]

7 Quick Takes at Catholic Sistas

It's a little later in the day than I usually post, but I wanted to go ahead and get this in here. In case you're wondering where I've been, I'm still writing over at Catholic Sistas. And I have lots of ideas for posts I want to do over here as well. Eventually I'll get to those too.

In the meantime, I polled the Ink Slingers at Catholic Sistas about their favorite blogs. Today's Quick Takes post is a sampling of some of the blogs they shared with me, as well as some of my own favorites. Our only requirements were that the blogs were Catholic and that none of them on our list were written by any of us. We didn't want to appear too biased.

So come check out the Sistas' favorite blogs (or as many of them as I could squeeze into one post without going overboard) and then leave us a comment with some of your favorite blogs. And shameless plugs for your own are more than welcome!!

Reviewing a New Book at Catholic Sistas

I got the opportunity to review Pat Gohn's new book, Blessed, Beautiful, and Bodacious: Celebrating the Gift of Catholic Womanhood. I was very excited since it was a book I was planning on buying and reading anyway. Check out what I had to say over at Catholic Sistas.

Your Mission: Short and Sweet

I feel like I've been neglecting this poor little blog for the last few months. I know I said I was going to be writing less, but I didn't intend to stop writing altogether. Sorry for that, dear readers.

Today I'm home from work so I thought I'd pop in with a short post. Sort of an update. But then I realized that I don't have a lot to say, really. I mean, I do, if I wanted to write a longer post (and I have plenty of things on my mind I could scribble away about), but I don't. Short and sweet was my objective for today.

So, getting to the point ...

The reason I'm home: strep throat. I don't think I've had strep throat since I was a kid. I certainly done recollect the last time and I'm not certain enough to say I've never had it, so let's just say it's been a very long time! This winter has been terrible! I'm generally a healthy person and am not used to being sick this often. I guess this is the result of having kids now, particular kids who spend their days around other kids.

Second, I had an article on Catholic Sistas last Friday: Ignorance Demands Charity and Patience. I was pleased with how it turned out although it's not the article I thought I was writing. The Holy Spirit has a funny way of making that happen. So the end result is not as much my doing as that I allowed the Holy Spirit in to dictate the direction of the post. Hope you like it!

And that's it. Short and sweet. Mission accomplished.

Writing on Marriage

I'm over at Catholic Sistas today writing on the vocation of marriage. I explore the five characteristics of a vocation as they pertain to marriage. Did you know that marriage is considered a vocation? Here's a very short excerpt (I don't want to give too much away):

Marriage, too, is a vocation. I think this is too easy for many of us to forget. And for many of us, we might not have ever been taught this concept. I wasn't and it has taken awhile for this concept to fully unfold for me. And I’m sure I still have a long way to go. So, how is marriage a vocation? To answer this we need to look at the characteristics of a particular vocation.

Click here to read the whole article.

Today on Catholic Sistas: Be Vigilant

I have a new post up today at Catholic Sistas. Once again I am using my background as a musician as a jumping off point in an attempt to make an analogy to the spiritual life. Here's a quick excerpt, see what you think:

Normally, I’m not a big fan of listening to Mass on the radio. Most of the time though I leave it on anyway and try to listen and get something out of the readings and the homily. Recently I left work early and when got in my car the mid-day Mass was just beginning. I almost turned the station but stopped instead as my ears listened carefully to the opening hymn being sung. I couldn't help but notice that as each verse was sung the tempo got slower and slower. By the end of the hymn it was dreadfully slow compared to where it had started.

As a musician I can tell you exactly why this happened. And it is very common. I bet we've all experienced it at some point. I've experienced this phenomenon at churches, in processions, in parades and on the football field (think marching band), and in large groups of singers with no leader to keep the tempo. Sound actually travels pretty slowly. It’s why you see the lightning before you hear the thunder (unless the storm is right over you). Without a leader or some sort of tempo-keeper singers and musicians start listening to each other. Because sound travels slowly, things start to slow down.

Go on over to Catholic Sistas to read the whole story.

Keeping Busy, Keeping it Real

The blog has kind of gotten away from me the last week plus. If you've been following the Saturday Smiles posts you know that I've fallen down on the job the last two weeks. I do plan to continue those posts, but sometimes life gets busy.

Busy. Ack! I hate that word. I especially hate using it as an excuse. Everyone's busy. My time isn't any more valuable than anyone else's.

Regardless, things have been a bit crazy. At times like these it is the blog that falls by the wayside. But I'm not giving up, I'm just taking a break and may be blogging a little less from now until the New Year. We'll see, I'm not making any promises.

Right now, my focus (after God, family, and work) is getting through a retreat weekend that is coming up soon. I'm not attending the retreat but I am one of the people working in the background to make it happen. It's also my last retreat to work on, I'm rotating off the group and handing the reins off to someone else. I don't know who that someone else is yet, though. If you could say a prayer that we find someone to replace me and that this next retreat weekend is successful, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

After all that, I am obligated to do two posts in December for Catholic Sistas. One is already started and I'm working on it this week. The second is totally up in the air. Anyone have any ideas for me?

Oh, and then there is this holiday coming up. I can't even think about it yet. I have no idea what I'm getting for my boys for Christmas this year. Hubby and I did decide that we are not doing gifts for each other, but instead we're buying a new TV for our family room. One thing decided!

Finally, I am thinking about adding a couple of things to the blog. I hesitate a bit to do this because the blog is already a bit busy looking. I have two things in mind and may do it as pages at the top rather than adding more stuff to the side bars. The first is a list of my current prayer intentions (thanks to priest's wife for the idea); the second is a list of what I am currently reading. I think both ideas would be good for me to have to keep track of these things. Might as well share it with my readers too.

So that's what's going on with me. I'll be here on and off during the next month and hope to be back blogging regularly in January. I miss it, it's a good outlet for my desire to write. And because I like sharing fun things here too, I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I did:

From Catholic Memes on Facebook

Have a wonderful Advent and Christmas!! I'll post when I can.

Children and Faith

Today you can find me over at Catholic Sistas. I am sharing about my awe in the intuitive nature children have of God and the spiritual world. Here's a small snippet:

As we begin the Year of Faith, I thought this was a good time to remind ourselves of how that childlike acceptance of faith and the spiritual realm really looks. Only through the eyes of children can we do that. Some of my friends graciously agreed to share some of their stories with me.

Although the post is mine, the stories are what really make the post what it is. I can't take credit for any of that! Thank you to all my friends who shared the stories they had of the faith of their children.

Read more at What our Children can teach us about Faith.