Lenten Thoughts

I've struggled somewhat with this first Lent as a baptized Catholic. Family difficulties abound, and every Lenten assignment that I pick up at Sunday Mass appears to have been written exactly to address my personal faults (ouch!). The dear priest who had become my Confessor and Spiritual Director was called to shepherd a distant parish in our diocese just before Advent, and until last night I had not gotten up courage to go to Confession again (it had been five months -- TOO LONG FOR ME!)

On a brighter note, the "Why Catholic" series began again with this Lent and I was invited to join a group that meets in the home of a couple who were very active in leading my RCIA group. Last Sunday, we decided that our assignment for the week would be to go to Confession and receive the Holy Eucharist this week.

The Lenten Reconciliation (Penance) Service was scheduled for last night, and I made arrangements to attend. I missed the Advent Penance Service; for some reason, I did not find out about it until it was over. So this was my first attendance at this particular type of service.

All I can say is, OH MY!! We had four priests (three visiting) celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation and our permanent Deacon assisting with the service. I prayed my Rosary on the way to Church and was deep in meditation when I arrived with one decade to do later. The service itself was wonderful; I cried profusely through much of it (but I was not the only one in tears). Then I got in line for Confession with my dear Pastor. I don't know what I was waiting for; THIS was exactly what I needed.

After I did my Penance (and no, I'm not going to tell you what it was *hah*), I went for pie with one of my best friends. I felt about a hundred pounds lighter. Later, in bed, I prayed the final decade of my Rosary and fell right to sleep.

Thank you Jesus!

Marriage and Children

(Previous installment in this series: From My Father's House to My Husband's House )




I embarked on the sea of matrimony with high hopes that my husband and I could raise the kind of happy, Godly family that I had grown up in. At the same time, I was aware that the Watchtower organization had, over the years, discouraged married couples from having children. Back in 1941, when my mother was in her early 20s and before she had ever met my father (who was a new Navy seaman at the time), in a book paradoxically titled Children, Joseph Rutherford proclaimed (on pages 311-313, emphasis mine):

"Childbearing

Marriage and childbearing are the means
of carrying out the divine mandate to multiply
and fill the earth. This mandate was
given to righteous man and woman in Eden,
and even so the mandate must be carried
out by righteous men and women on the
earth after Armageddon and who have received
righteousness and the right to life
from God, by Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:23;
John 17:3) From Eden to Armageddon it
was not possible for the divine mandate to
be carried out, for the reason that no righteous
human creatures appeared on the earth
qualified to carry it out. ...

... Clearly the men and women
of the “great multitude”, because of their
being righteous and having the right to life,
will marry and bring forth children without
hindrance. They will occupy and fill
the place that no human creature
could fill from the time of Eden to the Kingdom.
Should men and women, both of whom
are Jonadabs or “other sheep” of the Lord,
now marry before Armageddon and bring
forth children? They may choose to do so,
but the admonition or advice of the Scriptures
appears to be against it. ...

The prophetic picture seems to set forth
the correct rule, to wit: The three
sons of Noah and their wives were in the ark and
were saved from the flood. They did not
have any children, however, until after the
flood. They began to have children two years
after the flood. (Genesis 11: 10,ll) No children
were taken into the ark and none were
born in the ark, and hence none were
brought out of the ark. Only eight persons went in
and eight came out of the ark. (1 Peter 3 : 29;
Genesis 8: 18) That would appear to indlcate
it would be proper that those who will
form the “great multitude” should
wait until after Armageddon to bring children into
the world. It is only a few years from
the time the “other sheep” are gathered to the Lord
until Armageddon. That entire period is a
time of much tribulation, concluding with
the greatest tribulation the world will ever
have known. Speaking of that very time,
Jesus says : “Woe unto them that are with
child, and to them that give suck
in those days!“-Matthew 24: 19, 21.
That would seem to mean that those
who would have infants during Armageddon
would suffer much greater woe because of
their care of the same. It is a great
responsibility to rear children and care for them
now, and it would be far greater difficulty
to care for them during the time of the
great tribulation upon the earth."

So first Judge Rutherford talks about childbearing from Eden to "Armageddon" while making absolutely no reference to Jesus Christ and His redemption of fallen man through His incarnation and death on the Cross. Then he tells young people in 1941 that the Great Tribulation is so close that they should wait until after Armageddon to marry and have children. Finally, his implication is that if these folks are so weak that they cannot wait to marry, they certainly should not have children because by doing so they will suffer "greater woe".

This is the kind of book my father studied when he was becoming a Witness in the 1940s. It is not surprising, then, that he originally told my mother that he did not want to have any children. He completely believed that he was living so close to Armageddon that he and mom could safely wait until after Armageddon to have children.

My mother disagreed. She was her mother's daughter, and my grandmother had ten beautiful children and announced to anyone who would listen that she "would have had ten more if the Good Lord would have given them to me". Finally, another Witness informed my father that children were part of the "marital due" mentioned in the Bible. My father was told that if my mother wanted to have children, he must give her children.

So, it being rather of a miracle that I and my sister exist at all, I always (from my earliest memories) wanted to have children, and entered marriage with that as my dearest intention.

You would have thought that the passing of more than thirty years from the Children book would have caused my father to realize that there was something wrong with its reasoning. After all, my father was a very intelligent man, a professional man, who exhibited good judgement in other areas of life. He was also a wonderful father to my sister and I. But my dear father repeated the "logic" of the Children book to me when I married. "Woe to those suckling a babe in those days", he would say. And "If you must get married, for goodness sake do not have kids!"

Of course, the year being 1974, the Watchtower folk had invented a new reason for believing the end was at hand -- the fact that, according to their calculations, 6,000 years of human history would end in the fall of 1975. Some even said that this meant that Armageddon would be over by the fall of 1975, because they felt that the Millenial Reign of Christ must commence in that year.

I'm certain that my father's fears for me and my potential children were quite real fears. He was a true believer, and he loved me very much. However, I did not follow his advice. Rather, I found the words of another friend to be quite comforting:

"If you believe that God can take care of you and carry you through the Great Tribulation, why would you doubt that God can bring your children through it as well?"

Why indeed?

Happy New Year!!

The PS22 Chorus, absolutely amazing!

The Feast of the Holy Family

*JMJ*

Today is the Feast of the Holy Family. At this morning's mass, Father Andy reminded us that Mary and Joseph were ordinary people, flesh and blood like us. He also reminded us that Our Lord, the Word, became flesh. This stands in stark contrast to other religious traditions in which humans seek to escape the fleshly for the spiritual. Jesus, through the incarnation, has healed our flesh; we are not to escape our human nature, but to live it for His Glory.

So on this beautiful day that honors Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, let us pray for all families of the earth. Let us ask our Lord to bind up what is wounded, to heal what is broken, and to grant peace and love in the hearts of fathers, mothers, and children.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Amen.

Pray the Divine Office -- with Music!!

Wow, a poster on the Coming Home Network International Forum just posted about a wonderful new resource -- Divine Office -- Liturgy of the Hours . To this point they are recording and posting the Invitatory, the Office of Readings, and the Morning Prayer for each weekday. The prayers are also available for download as *.mp3 recordings.

Early in my journey, I discovered morning and evening prayer from the LOH posted as recordings on the EWTN home page. I would lock my door at work and pray. Praying in this way opened new doors of understanding in my heart. It was a priceless experience!

Then one day the prayers disappeared from the EWTN page, and I could not find a similar resource available. Just before my baptism, my dear friends Tom and Gloria Cabeen sent me the one volume Christian Prayer as a gift and I resumed my LOH habit. But I have seriously missed the beautiful music!

Many thanks to the owners and operators of the new web site, and a H/T to CHNI Forum .

Merry Christmas from a Holiday Handicapped Nana

By the time most Nanas get to be 56 years old with 6 grandchildren, they have the holiday celebrations "down to a science". I have wonderful friends who all have their special holiday traditions and who are each experts in some facet of Christmasology.

But alas, Nana Ruth is a neophyte in the celebration of the Lord's birthday...

Since celebrating Christmas is still not a "family thing" for everybody at my house, I have had to work at learning about Christmas traditions. I have tried to focus on spiritual traditions. For example, I am praying my first Christmas Novena this year.

I helped with the Christmas Social at my college, and attended with my grandson (who loved the whole thing). We also went to the CCD Christmas party, the Elementary School Christmas party, and his homeroom Christmas party. Haydon has already received a number of Christmas "present bags". I have surprises for him and the other grandkids stuffed in my trunk for the big day. But I have been trying to impress on Haydon the spiritual meaning of the Season, and that Christmas is Baby Jesus' birthday, not Haydon's birthday.

Yesterday, after we went to his homeroom party, Haydon came to my room with a ribbon bedecked candy cane with a piece of chocolate attached to it. He solemnly presented it to me as my present.

I have to confess, I was tempted to tell him to keep it. To tell him, "it's yours, you can have it". He loves candy canes and adores chocolate!

I'm happy to say that I resisted the temptation. Swallowing hard, I smiled and said "Thank you very much". How can I deprive him of the joy of giving me a present?

So have a Blessed Advent, a Merry Christmas, and a wonderful New Year. And send me your favorite Christmas traditions, so I can start to figure this whole thing out.

Ave Maria!!

Christmas Novena -- Day Two

With a h/t to Tiber Jumper

As the passage of time would tend to indicate, I am struggling with the telling of my story. One factor that looms large is sorrow and regret of the "if I only knew then what I know now" type.

So I found this portion of today's Christmas Novena prayer very comforting:

I love Thee, my dear God; I love Thee, my only good. I regret the many years when I have not loved Thee, but rather spurned and offended Thee. Forgive me, O my beloved Redeemer; for I am sorry that I have thus treated Thee, and I regret it with all my heart. Pardon me, and give me the grace never more to withdraw from Thee, but constantly to love Thee in all the years that still lie before me in this life. My love, I give myself entirely to Thee; accept me, and do not reject me as I deserve.

Please be patient with me. God isn't finished with me yet!

The entire Novena from the EWTN website