After starting his book, Transformation in Christ, I became captivated by the writings of Dietrich von Hildebrand. I’m now half way through the biography his wife wrote of him, Soul of a Lion. [Kudos to Erin & Phil for the Christmas present!] This man was truly a genius and the book is very interesting. I intend to post some more thoughts/exerpts when time permits.
There are several versions of the bible in print today. Here’s a description of several. When it comes to interpreting Scripture, a good place to start for guidance is with the document Dei Verbum [Word of God]. The bible commentary I personally enjoy the most is that which is part of the Navarre bible, offered by Scepter Publishers. The best (in my opinion, of course!) introduction to the Old Testament is a book written by the Rev. Michael Duggan called The Consuming Fire. It was the textbook used when I took Old Testament at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Finally, I highly recommend the program called Catholic Scripture Study if you are interested in starting a bible study group. It is awesome. I’m no prophet, but I would not be surprised if some day these studies are found in every diocese around the world. They are that good.
Those who know me know that I love homeschooling and Montessori education, and the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in particular. (It is a Catholic Montessori program.) I intend to post helpful links, ideas, and suggested reading on these topics and put them under the category “education”.
For anyone with children/grandchildren in the 3-6 age group, there are a lot of free catalogs that you can order to start to get familiar with Montessori materials. A good one to start with is Nienhuis. A secular book that has been indispensible to me is called Basic Montessori, by David Gettman. Another favorite website for homeschooling in general is Catholic Heritage Curricula. They sell the book Natural Structure, by Edward and Nancy Walsh, which is a good introduction to Montessori activity within the home setting.
On the back of every Knights of Columbus magazine is a vocation story. Last month it was by a diocesan priest in Georgia. Here’s an exerpt:
As a priest, I thank the Lord each day for the gift of my vocation. As one who stands in the person of Christ, I believe the spirituality of a priest should reflect an internal and external integrity. A priest is to maintain a simple life and have a keen sense of pastoral charity. I embrace the great privilege and responsibility of priestly ministry. It is my life’s labor to bring Christ to souls and souls to Christ through word and example.
God bless his labors!
I have a beautiful image to include with this post, but I can’t figure out how to load it. Was extremely simple to load jpgs with blogger… anyway, it shows two hands cupping together a mound of dirt, and growing out of the dirt, a tiny seedling.
A while back, I joined the Arbor Day Foundation and received 11 free saplings in the mail. Unfortunately, they arrived about the same time as our 3rd child, and subsequently got tossed into the garage, where I hoped they would stay cold enough to survive until I got around to heeling them in somewhere. Although the package clearly and repeatedly says, “open immediately! plant immediately!” it was at least 2 weeks before I even remembered they were out there. When I finally got around to opening the package, how disheartening to see nothing but 11 small, skinny sticks with a few little root hairs. They were either dormant or dead. Not expecting much, I planted all of them into one big pot, used some quality potting soil, and kept them watered well for 2 more weeks. My husband liked to joke, “what nice sticks we’re growing!”
Imagine my amazement, then, when one day I noticed a tiny red bud leaf on one of the “sticks”! And since that day, numerous leaves have grown on 7 others, and I have repotted them to continue growing until spring. Amazing. These seemingly dead “sticks” might someday be 30 feet tall, providing shade for even my very tall husband, and home to all sorts of little creatures.
Recently I was listening to a talk by Johnnette Benkovic. She used the word “dormant” to describe the faith of a baptized person who is not living a Christian life. Immediately I thought of my little trees, and finally had the image I’ve been searching for to understand better the nature of faith. I’ve long believed that faith is a gift from God. And we believe that we receive this gift at the moment of baptism. Yet, we all know people who were baptized but are clearly not living lives of faith. There were long periods of my own life where it seemed all but impossible to believe in the existence of anything supernatural. If faith is a gift, then why the struggle? Because faith is alive, like my saplings, and must be nurtured in order to grow. When we see a baptized person not living like a Christian, it is because his faith is dormant. Faith grows in the soil of prayer (our own and that of others,) and with the “water” of the sacraments and the Scriptures.
I love nurturing plants, but infinitely more important than that is nurturing the faith of my children. The growth of their faith isn’t clearly as evident as in my plants… how nice if we could somehow “measure” their spiritual progress! Aren’t we so much more complicated than that, however. Nurturing is what parents do. With every act of discipline and every act of kindness, with every minute of wrestling and storytelling and diaper changing, we are nurturing our little ones, and praying that God will grow our little saints.
The daily Mass readings can be found here. Whenever I’m at Mass, at least on the days that the kids aren’t distracting me too much, there are lines that jump out at me during the readings. They are such a source of nourishment for me!
Today, Ezra tells the weeping people, “Do not be saddened this day,
for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!” (Neh. 8:10)
They were weeping because they had just heard the Law of Moses read to them, and they realized how much they had been failing to keep God’s commands. The strength they needed was the strength that all sinners need… the strength to admit our sins, to admit when we’ve messed everything up, and the strength to trust that God can make all things new.
Today’s Psalm 19: “The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul…” When was the last time you felt refreshed?! Imagine being lost in a foreign country, for hours, and then finally running into someone who spoke your native language and was able to point you in the right direction. That’s a refreshing moment! When we read the Scriptures, our souls are refreshed in the sense that we find direction. In this world, it is easy to find ourselves lost if we don’t keep referring back to the very Word of God in our bibles.
I once went on a silent Opus Dei retreat [you can see the place here] in Indiana. The priest who gave our talks said many helpful things, but what I remember most was this: “If you only have time to read one book in your life, it should be the book of the Gospels.” Wise words to a book junkie like me!
