RE: Sugar coding your homeschooled moron

Since socializing and people skills seem to be the main concern of these students, then those are the issues which I will address.

In the real world, dears, you will not be with people your own age every single day.

One of the greatest potential strengths of homeschooling is giving children the opportunity to interact with people of many different ages on a regular basis, which is exactly how it will be once they hit the ‘real world.’

If you’re worried about ‘people skills,’ public school isn’t necessarily the place to be. There are good public schools which I would consider perfectly valid options in situations where homeschooling really isn’t possible; in my own experience, I would have willingly returned to public school after a five-year homeschooling period had my family been just thirty minutes SE of where we live currently. Looking back, therefore, I can say without any extreme and unreasonable partiality that, when surrounded by people your own age and similar maturity levels, there isn’t much room to be different, without potentially being [sometimes unintentionally] repressed by your peers.

I was lucky in high school – my preferred circles at the time were with public schoolers, and I somehow managed to get into an exceptionally amazing crowd of nonconformists who were comfortable with themselves, knew the importance of self-respect and respecting others, weren’t afraid to do things their own way, and built each other up in everything. Even in the most heated debates – and we had plenty of them – what it always came down to was that we were friends, and that at the end of the night, that was what mattered. But I resent how different I was made to feel years earlier in elementary school, when I was told that I had an accent and made fun of because no one could pronounce my last name. It’s been a long time since I recalled how they used to chant “AISA NO-NAME!” but it still stings, because I did not have the self-confidence then to stand up to them and be proud of who I was. At that age, being surrounded by people  my own age was not fun, not cool, and not productive.

Being allowed to thrive and really be yourself is so important, for different reasons at different points in your life. At every age, you search yourself on a different level. Finding yourself at five isn’t anything like finding yourself at fifteen, but it’s a constant process, and you need to have room to become self-aware and become comfortable with yourself at any and every age. To be able to do that, sometimes you need people who are younger than you to look up to you and give you a reason to be better at setting a good example for them. Sometimes you need people who are older than you to lovingly teach you humility and impart wisdom beyond your years. In the real world, you’ll need to be able to switch gears on the fly and comfort the crying toddler who has temporarily misplaced their parents one minute, then speak calmly and coherently to the adult who is ten or fifteen or twenty years older than you the next.

And if you, like myself, aspire to be a good parent one day, public school is not necessarily the place to learn when to be a parent and when to be a best friend; I think the most you can hope to find absolutely anywhere is a good outlet for commiserating when your own parents are being ‘unreasonable.’ <– extreme sarcasm

I am curious; you go to school with the same set of people, year after year, day after day, but how many of those people are actually, really and truly, your friends? Do you know them? What do you know about them that won’t be superficial information two or three or ten years from now, if it isn’t already? Are they so very dear to you that when you end up on opposite ends of the country for college and work and life, you’ll make a point of driving or flying out to see each other someday, sometime, and with whom you’ll not merely be content to be ‘facebook friends’?

I wonder how much of your extra-curricular activities take place outside of your own school building, with people who don’t go to your school, especially when you’re in high school. The real world will expect you to move in different circles, constantly adjusting to the norms of each circle. Will you wear masks, or will you be able to bring your true self in its fullness into each circle?

Haha, I’m having too much fun with this post.  Look no further than this blog, dears, for a completely and hopelessly “sugar coded” homeschool moron.

Third-year college, and I seem to be doing alright. I don’t mean to brag, only to highlight what has remained important to me because of what values homeschooling helped me to recognize and embrace. I’m still on good terms with my parents, still happy to be home with the family every night, still happy to be with my siblings, still so relieved to have an eighteen-years-younger-than-me baby in the house, still Catholic, still singing and playing guitar for God, still maintaining good grades in school, still very good friends with certain people I’ve known for five or ten or twelve years, still open to the possibility of a religious vocation, though still very much wanting to be a pro-Life wife and mother… still following my dreams.

I think that’s the most important thing I’ve learned from homeschooling. The things that you do have to be things that you want for yourself. Regardless of difficulties, you can’t do anything you’ll hate or hate yourself for. The career is just an aspect of life. The big picture is your constant-yet-ever-maturing vocation. And what it really does come down to in the end is what’s being taught in the home. No matter if you’re homeschooled or go to public or private school, what’s going on at home with your parents and siblings? Are they setting you up to follow your dreams? Are they helping and supporting you in choosing the major and career that you were created for? Is it about the money? The social status? Or is it about your unique God-given talents and ability to make the invisible God visible through your life?

On Early Marriage

Yes, Mr. Bob approved my thesis. LOL, yesterday we had to write them up on the board again, and he tackled mine first.

Mr. Bob: So… where is this one going?
me: … You’re asking me what I mean to cover?
Mr. Bob: Yes.
me: Ah. Well… I was going to cover.. the science and stats behind guy and girl wiring, the dangers of premature heart-giving and the resulting emotional divorce, ask why would you go shopping for what you can’t buy, and even worse, why go shopping for what you don’t intend to buy in the first place, explore the question, “Do you love me because you need me or do you need me because you love me?” and –
Mr. Bob: Ok. Ok, that’s plenty. You’re good to go. *pause* I thought you were going to talk about Facebook or something…

What???? What does Facebook have to do with the dating game as the average American teen knows it to today only being a training ground for divorce??? I am not that shallow. Doesn’t he know that from my bashing The Pursuit of Happiness’ “I’m An Adult Now?”

Lol. Jk. Gotta love Mr. Bob.

Anyway. Mother sent me some related links and a thread. Wanted to share share =)

A Case for Earlier Marriage

While many sit wringing their hands over the seeming demise of marriage as an institution and the concomitant breakdown in sexual ethics, none are willing to state the most obvious reason — it is being delayed too long. [...]

[...] studies fail to reflect the reality that pre-marital sex, pre-marital pregnancy and cohabitation are not decreasing as the age of the unmarried increases. [...] Studies also cannot take into account physical, psychological, social and spiritual risks to persons during this extended non-marital period.

Against Eternal Youth

[...] well-meaning parents of the 1950’s confused vulnerability with moral innocence. They failed to recognize that children encouraged to be childish would jump at the chance, and turn childishness into a lifelong project. They were unprepared to respond when those children acquired the bodies of young adults and behaved with selfishness, defiance, and hedonism. [...]

Fifty years ago, when the average bride was 20, the divorce rate was half what it is now, because the culture encouraged and sustained those marriages. But if we communicate to young people that we think they’re inherently incapable of making a marriage work, they will surely meet that expectation. [...]

During those lingering years of unmarried adulthood, young people may not be getting married, but they’re still falling in love. They fall in love, and break up, and undergo terrible pain, but find that with time they get over it. This is true even if they remain chaste. By the time these young people marry they may have had many opportunities to learn how to walk away from a promise. They’ve been training for divorce. [...]

It’s not youth that passed us by, but adulthood.

The Cost of Delaying Marriage

[...] My late mother-in-law, who married at 20, told me that in her college circles in the mid-1950s, a man who took a woman out for more than three dates without intending marriage was considered a cad. Today, the man who considered marriage so rashly would be thought a fool. Likewise, a woman. [...]

A 20-year-old bride is considered as pitiable as a 30-year-old spinster used to be.

And the thread which I’ve been watching — and have been very amused =) I love the 4real moms.

How old were you when you got married?

Shall we dine?

One of our assignments for Honors this week was — Following up on last week’s discussion – we now pose this query… You and Leonardo  are planning a dinner party and can invite three guests from our list of nominations. Who will they be?  Why did you chose them?  What question would you ask each of them?  And what might they ask each other?  In other words, what are you curious  about concerning these people?

Below is my post on the class’ discussion board. Ahhh… I’m tired. Boy, I can’t wait to get graded on this… (NOT!)

If I were to have the honor of having Leonardo da Vinci and three others over for dinner, I would invite Martin Luther, Galileo Galilei, and Pope John Paul II. I would choose these three because of their part in the history of the Church. I would think that they would be able to discuss their roles and the misconceptions that surround them without getting heated. And I would most definitely want in on that.

I have many questions for them, and I would sit at the table with a notebook and a pen next to my plate, the first page being a list of questions I would have thought up well before they arrived for dinner…

Of Martin Luther, I would ask:

1. Is Protestantism today what you envisioned it to be?
2. For one so learned in Theology, how does it make you feel when people today try to separate Faith and Intelligence?
3. What would you say to the man who claims to be Christian yet denies the Incarnation?
4. What would you say to Cafeteria Catholics now, or to so-called ‘Liberal’ Catholics?
5. Say you were in a room with Dr. Hahn, Matthew Kelly, or Michael Walsh; would you finally come home?

Of Galileo, I would want to know:

1. What did Maria Celeste and Suor Arcangela look like?
2. Were you frustrated that the Church could not, at the time, reconcile the truths you had discovered with the Faith, the way Maria Celeste evidently managed to do in time? If so, did you ever feel that your daughter was preaching to the choir in her letters to you?
3. How did you form such a beautiful relationship with your daughter? What advice would you have for fathers and daughters today who wish to be blessed with the same?
4. Did you ever regret putting Maria Celeste in the convent?
5. What did you like to talk about best with His Holiness, Urban VIII?
6. Could you give me an account, as best as you can remember it, of your debate with Urban VIII about floating bodies after the banquet at the Florentine court?
7. Your comments, please, on His Holiness’ JPII’s observation, “A tragic mutual incomprehension has been interpreted as the reflection of a fundamental opposition between science and faith.”?
8. Pray tell, how do you like your Basilica-turned-museum? Do the things that I have read about you there make you smile now? Have you accepted them as the Church’s apology?
9. Please, how does it make you feel, you who were always a devout Catholic, to see how the enemies of the Church today use your case to criticize the Faith that you, as we know from your eldest daughter, so undividedly loved and strove to uphold? How does it make you feel when they overlook your own chosen loyalties?
10. How do you feel about the myths that surround you, particularly concerning your supposed defiance leaving the trial chamber, a legend that was not born until nearly 125 years after your death? What would you say to them now?

Of His Holiness, I would beg to be told:

1. How did you find it in yourself to love the man who tried to kill you?
2. What is your favorite song?
3. What was the most difficult theological question anyone ever asked you?

As I run out of questions that I have written down and search my mind for more, perhaps I will hear them speaking to each other…

Leonardo will ask His Holiness, “What is love?” and I will eagerly listen for his definition. In how many words will His Holiness define what the entire Theology of the Body outlines and more?

I think I hear Martin Luther ask Galileo, “How did it feel to be considered, in your time, the biggest enemy of the Catholic Church since myself?” And when Galileo has given his reply, he will ask of Luther, “Where did your logic go? If I, an untrained layman, could explain the fundamental misuse of the Bible to Christina d’Medici in defense of my findings *not* contradicting Sacred Scripture, how could you, so learned in the Faith, have erred so greatly?” and I will lean forward in my seat with my pen hovering over my pad, anxious to hear some wisdom… Should I ever learn to be as great a thinker as these men, I think my biggest fear would be erring as Luther did.

His Holiness and Leonardo now turn to listen to Luther as well, and when he has done, His Holiness will ask, in a quiet mournful tone, as a father to a child who needs his correction, but his love more than anything, “You began with your heart in the right place, a heart clearly after St. Paul’s in reprimanding St. Peter… How did you fail to separate the sin from the sinner?” and I will grow cold inside, because I know how often I have failed to do so myself… I will listen quietly, and try as best I can to internalize what is being said. I want the words branded in my mind, burning so terribly that I need not write them down and will never forget them.

There will be a pause… and then His Holiness will turn to Galileo and ask, “Was there any resentment against Us when you died? Especially in light of the fact that what led to your great suffering was not even your own fault; merely that you had misunderstood Cardinal Bellarmine and acted in what you truly and honestly believed to be an entirely appropriate manner?” When he has given his answer, Galileo will then ask His Holiness, “How would you have handled the ecclesiastical politics of my time?”

Questions, questions, questions… there will be no shortage of them. Dinner will be long gone and dessert long past, and perhaps we will sit around a fire after having opened a bottle of Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio… How appropriate for the company… and perhaps when all conversation is extinguished and the guests have taken their leave, I will turn to Leonardo and ask him, “Did you ever regret not settling down and having a family?”

And when he has answered that, he may expect to see me yawn and bid him goodnight, but I’m afraid there’s one more thing I want to ask…

“Can you teach me to draw?”

OWNED… PUNK’D… EPIC FAIL… can I smile smile for a bit? xD

Smackdown: Barack Obama OWNED by College Student at Colorado Town Hall [FOX News]

“Punk-A-Prez” Zach Lahn PUNKS Obama on massive healthcare government expansion

Bento Box in the Heartland: A Response

No, I haven’t finished the book yet, but I wanted to address the chapter about arranged marriages. Linda compares her two divorces that started as “love marriages” to her parents’ strong arranged marriage. Linda recalls her mother saying that love marriages weren’t popular in Japan because “… everyone knows they don’t work… always end in breakup.” She makes it sound as if the reason her attempts at marriage failed were because of — just that — the fact that they were “love marriages”. But I disagree.

Linda made it clear that had her mother not chosen to fight to make her arranged marriage work, and instead, had returned to Japan, she, along with her entire family, would have been disgraced.

I argue that it is not a question of whether the marriage is arranged or for love. The issue here is the mindset.

I remember reading an article on dressing modestly. It addressed the fact that sometimes, the definition of “modesty” is affected by the culture. The article gave the example that a woman completely covered up in one part of the world might be “modest” by the standards of the society in which she moves, where everyone well covered up is the norm; whereas the girl on the other side of the world who dresses scantily may be “modest” by the standards of her culture, because it is the norm where she lives; and no doubt if these two ladies were to exchange places, they would be shocked by the standards of the other.

In the same way, it is not whether it is a “love marriage” or an arranged marriage, but rather — is “giving up” a disgrace or not? If Linda’s standards concerning a “love marriage” had been the same as her mother’s — that it would have been a disgrace to not fight to make the marriage work — then what kind of marriage it was would have been completely irrelevant. The question is: Is divorce acceptable? A godless society as opposed to a God-centered one will have different standards, and they have been and will continue to shock each other. I, on some level, will never get over the fact that some people out there simply don’t get what I believe marriage is — indissoluble. And I’m sure those people think I’m crazy for not looking at marriage as just the same as any other stage of relationship — severable.

(Ahaha. WordPress thinks “severable” isn’t a word.”)

If going back to Japan would not have disgraced Linda’s mother in the eyes of the society in which she moved at the time, would she have left? It’s perfectly possible. But the standards that she chose to live by were that you only get one shot at forever and you work it out, period, no questions asked; standards that she apparently did not pass on to her daughter. What a pity.

Don’t'cha LOVE being on the offensive? :D :D :D

http://www.4marks.com/VID0001371GTZG

Aha. Awake, yet?

NINO’S HOME!!!

Haha. Pics — http://gukkhser.multiply.com/photos/album/212

Pics of Nino

No, I haven’t actually seen him yet… hehe pics via the webcam which Daddy brought to the hospital. He’ll be coming home tomorrow. In response to Annika’s comment — his [nick]name is Nino :D

hehe tulog...

:D gising

ang laki ng mata.. hehe

:) Yun na, for now… Sabi ni Daddy he got lots of pics already, and he’ll send some tonight from the hospital. :D Will share with all of you when they come.

I hope your Christmas Season has been as beautiful as mine. God Bless.

IT’S A BOY!!!!!

yes. it’s a boy. i have a third brother. and i’d write more except the kids are yelling and refuse to go back to bed and are jumping up and down asking if it’s too early to wake friends/family up with phone calls. heaven bless them :)

YEAAAHHHH!!! *pumps fist* MABUHAY!

Yep. That’s definitely the corniest title I’ve come up with yet, but it’s straight from the bottom of my heart.

I have been to only a few events in my nearly-18 years that were intended solely to celebrate my roots. To name two — June 2002, when we went with some of the Brods to support Amelia Gordon, honored with the 2002 Pearl S. Buck International (PSBI) Woman of the Year Award; and Diversity Day in April of ’07. I suppose if I counted every family reunion, every Pinoy gathering, there would be a lot more, but here I’m only counting those where we gathered with the express purpose of ‘being patriotic’. Last night’s gathering was such.

The fight began at 11. Mum told me the luncheon girls were predicting that Manny would lose… ahhh… I do believe I had the best seat in the house. Haha. Seriously, though, I was smack dab in the middle, right in front of the TV, between Tito Gil and Jon. We were all crowded comfortably together in the Almarios’ living room. Some of us were on the couches, some standing behind the couches, others on various chairs, and a few of us on the floor. It didn’t really matter where we were as long as we could see. By the end of the first round, it was clear that Tita Fides was attempting to steal my title as the loudest person in the CFC community. Rotfl.

I don’t really have much to say about the actual fight. We discussed it in the car, and I did say that was the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a while… especially when Manny hit Oscar’s face four times in a row. *Wow* Too sweet for words, I gotta tell you. And then the mommies were reprimanding me for being so bloodthirsty… but I’ll cover that part in another post.

I’ll probably see a lot of fights just as *awesome* as this one before I’m really that much older. But what I’ll carry with me forever is the mood of last night.

You could say that Pinoys are patriotic to a fault. I admit I’ve heard/seen things I’m not impressed with… there are definitely people who do not really understand what “Pinoy Pride” is, and they give it a cheap meaning. But the same could be said of “Proud to be an American”; people can give that a pretty cheap meaning, too. It depends on one’s grasp of what one really stands for.

Pinoy Pride, being ‘patriotic’ — and this is coming from a full-blood Pinoy, yes, but, mind you, one who was born and raised here in America, so my perception is probably very different from my parents and extended family back home — seems to have more to do with blood than anything else. It’s totally true that we’re better off in America. Why would I deny that? I don’t really think that I have to go into specifics for anyone reading this. So when I say I’m proud to be Pinoy… it’s not that I’m putting down America’s government or something.

Pinoy Pride is something that I experience… when I say to Mom or Mama that a particular phrase translated into English completely loses its depth… or when I talk about the general parent-child relationship in Filipino culture being completely different from the parent-child relationship in the American culture… or when I say that nothing beats Pinoy cooking… or when Mom finds stuff like moymoypalaboy on youtube and we laugh and say that that’s a perfect example of why Pinoys never get depressed… or when Tita Cynthia laughs quietly and says that she’s not worried about the economic ‘crisis’ here in America, because, “Poverty? Go to the Philippines. Why should I be worried? These people that are worried… they have no concept of poverty. After what I’ve seen in the Philippines, I’m not worried.”

That is Pinoy Pride. When put that way, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful things that I have been blessed with.

And that is what I experienced last night, in a way that I can’t remember ever experiencing it before. Again, it’s really a blood thing. The few times I’ve watched boxing for random reasons, I never felt a bond, say, with any of the American fighters. Why would I? “Proud to be an American” doesn’t cover that. But Pinoy Pride does. Because of the blood. We were cheering Manny… did any of us know him personally? No. But he was part of us… we were bound by blood. And that is what we were cheering last night. That is what we gasped over… groaned over… yelled every time he landed a punch… flinched when he was hit back… cried out and laughed in exhilaration during the slow-motion play-backs… every time he got de la Hoya… “Manny is gradually reconfiguring de la Hoya’s beautiful face,” that’s a line I’ll never forget… and went crazy over when the stats were up, showing 224 punches landed by Manny to de la Hoya’s 83. This was our blood brother, and he won for us. Our hero. Does that sound pathetic? Not to me.

And at the same time, the laughs afterwards — at Manny’s english, for instance — show that it’s not as if we put him up on a pedestal and idolize him. It just goes to show that our Pinoy Pride does not blind us… that we do not fail to recognize that he is a fellow human being, that while we glory in his glory, it’s no insult to him to laugh at the line Tita Fama particularly picked out, “I deserved my sacrifices,” complete with amusing Pinoy accent xD. I think that hit me as much as anything else did that night.

That’s a night I’ll be shivering over for a while yet… and I can’t wait for the next one.

Mabuhay!

Re: Cafeteria Catholics… Aren’t They Hungry?

The plain fact of the matter is that sin is no longer recognized as sin.

Many people who are ‘good’ are content to stay that way. How do you get past being content with being ‘good’ and realize that you need to be striving for the ‘best’? The ‘best’ has become ‘hard’ — ‘too hard’ to strive for. Our good friends mean well. They don’t mean to brush aside Church teaching as if it didn’t count for anything. The problem is that they don’t see the need to delve.

It is, in part, a generation thing. My grandmother, her siblings, and some of my mom’s cousins, are perfect examples. Many of them have stayed Catholic purely because their parents were. It was enough for them to live in the Faith that their parents died in. They didn’t question. They didn’t explore. They just lived. And particularly in the Filipino culture, the parent-child relationship was [and still can be] very different from parent-child relationships in America. The commandment “Honor your father and mother” was a commandment, not a suggestion. It still is.

But for a lot of kids, teens, and young[er] adults these days, that’s not enough.

Questions aren’t a bad thing at all. By all means, ask away!! Search for the Truth with your entire person, make it so that it becomes a part of your being, until you are so set in it that nothing less will suffice… You’re not dishonoring your parents by questioning their beliefs. But how many people make time to look for the answers? Furthermore, of the few people that actually do make time, how many look for the answers in the right places? For there are answers. And there are answers that are right, that have been right, that are right, and that always will be right and will never change.

“First, it must be remembered that the Church is always in advance of the world. That is why it is said to be behind the times. It discussed everything so long ago that people have forgotten the discussion.” ~ G.K. Chesterton

But again, it’s partly a generation thing. Because parents lived in times when it wasn’t the ‘thing’ to question, they don’t realize that their kids need more. They don’t recognize that their kids need a different kind of upbringing than their own, according to the times, and yes, the culture. This isn’t more of that whole shallow ‘relevance’ thing. Truth never changes, and that is what makes the Church ‘valid’ no matter what the century. But the message of Truth has been so watered down, dumbed down, in so many places. Is it really any wonder that kids have questions? I don’t blame them one bit. But geeeez, what happens between the ages of eight and eighteen? Mum shared with me something a priest said; a child of eight years old, preparing to receive the Most Holy Eucharist — you ask that kid if it’s ok to kill a baby, and they’ll say it’s murder. (Duhhh.) What happens to children between the ages of eight and eighteen, that at eighteen, all of a sudden, it’s ok to kill babies?

Evil is evil! Sin is sin! What the heck changes in these kids minds?

I get the feeling that some parents are afraid to tackle their kids’ questions. It makes me sad, oftentimes frustrated. Don’t they realize? If they don’t teach their kids, someone else will. But sometimes, parents don’t have the courage to delve into those matters that they simply weren’t well-versed in at young ages. So they leave it up to God, trusting in His mercy.

Heavens, I’m not saying I don’t believe in His mercy, in His grace, in His faithfulness! but a homily I heard at CSB struck my heart. Fr. put it this way — Say your little boy/girl at eighteen decides to move in with his/her girlfriend/boyfriend. You, the parent, do not agree with them. You think it’s wrong. You know the Church teaches something something about the Sanctity of Marriage. But you don’t say anything because you figure the kid won’t understand, and you just hope that one day they will. The kid more or less knows you don’t approve. What happens? The relationship deteriorates. The parent is afraid of talking to the child. The child, knowing the parent disapproves, becomes afraid to talk to the parent because they dread that their parent might bring it up at anytime. They don’t invite their parents over for Christmas dinner. Etc., etc., etc. The parent-child relationship is dead.

Whereas if the parent had spoken, what might have happened? What if they’d said something like, “It’s your life, your old enough to make your own decisions, but this is what we [your parents] believe, and here is why…” and then the relationship is not entirely broken. The parent is not afraid of their child. The child is not afraid of their parent imposing their beliefs on them, because they’ve already gotten their part out, and they’ve clearly stated that they’re not going to try and interfere. Maybe the kid will actually invite the parents over for Christmas dinner.

Maybe the kid won’t get it. But you know what? Your conscience is clear. And for all you know, years from then they might realize what you meant all along. You don’t know what you could do. Parents will say a lot of things kids don’t get then and there. But it’s a fact that sometimes, one day, they just might remember. And if they recognize the wisdom in your words, by God’s grace, they just might act on them! The point is, wouldn’t you rather have said it?

Generation ‘thing’ or no, it still comes down to the fact that sin is no longer recognized as sin. Because if it were truly recognized as what it is — and that is that it removes your soul from a state of grace and renders you in danger of eternal fire — then who would hesitate to tell people, anyone, their friends, their children, even kids telling their parents, “That’s wrong.”? Not because they want their kids to get the idea that there’s rules and Someone up there punishing us if we break them, no. That’s the wrong concept, too. But if you knew that someone close to you was about to do something that would put them in danger of eternal fire? Why on earth would you keep your mouth shut? How can you settle in complacency? How is settling in complacency loving?

Don’t go back to arguing, “Well, I don’t want to impose my beliefs; that’s not loving,” because you don’t need to impose. You just can’t afford to keep quiet either.

Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate with them:

- by participating directly and voluntarily in them;

- by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;

- by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;

- by protecting evildoers. (CCC #1868)

Notice the third one? Who has an obligation unto whom? Love your neighbor as yourself. Sound familiar? Do you love yourself enough to better yourself and strive for heaven? Do you love others enough to try and help them better themselves and strive for heaven also?

Jesus didn’t impose either; He simply taught Truth. He is Truth. So, granted, you shouldn’t go up to your best friend and start listing, “This is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong… and you’re upholding all of them,” or something. Pray, discern, ask God to guide your words and to show you when and where He means for you to speak, but speak and do not be silent!!

When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began to occupy himself totally with preaching the word, testifying to the Jews that the Messiah was Jesus. When they opposed him and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your heads! I am clear of responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” So he left there and went to a house belonging to a man named Titus Justus, a worshiper of God; his house was next to a synagogue. Crispus, the synagogue official, came to believe in the Lord along with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians who heard believed and were baptized. One night in a vision the Lord said to Paul, “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city.” (Acts 18:5 – 10, emphasis mine)

Backtracking a bit, when did Truth become ‘too hard’ to strive for? Here’s what I don’t get: Every Catholic is expected to believe — yes, expected, as in commanded, not “allowed” or “asked” or any other word that implies suggestion — that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ, that it Is His Flesh and His Blood. See CCC #1733 – 1737.

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. (1 Cor 11:27 – 29, emphases mine)

So now, let me ask you something. If an 8 year old is supposed to believe this, is supposed to grasp that he/she is supposed to believe this even if all of his/her senses tell him/her otherwise, tell me, when did everything else become ‘too hard’? Don’t tell me the Eucharist is easy!! It’s the only recorded instance in the Bible where it says that disciples left Jesus because what He taught was ‘too hard’. So where did we suddenly get this need to make everything ‘relevant’, to water down, to dumb down, what Truth Is, to the point where the Truth gets lost in how we try and get the message out?

What about when people don’t know that there’s something more to be striving for? But how can they not? Does America look like paradise to you? because it looks completely saturated in the Culture of Death to me. Too many good people are content to stay ignorant of the issues that hit hard. Figures they strive to stay in a state of grace. But ignorance is the second greatest evil next to deliberate wickedness.

Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man. The promptings of feelings and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders. Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest. (CCC #1860, emphasis mine)

(Side note to myself — I find it funny that wordpress thinks ‘imputability’ is spelled wrong…)

Analogy — our family has reached the point where we’re not afraid to dig, we want to dig, because we know the answers are there. We’re like the kid who thinks he’s not incredibly hungry, but reaches for a bag of chips and finds, once he starts eating, that he’s actually very hungry and can’t stop. But many people we know are like the kid who is hungry for breakfast, but doesn’t want to stop playing, and so he stays upstairs and plays and plays and plays until he’s famished and it’s practically lunch time. And then he gets sick.

What do you do when you know people know that there are things they don’t understand about Church teaching — you’ve heard them say so themselves — but they’re content to leave it at that? They know there’s something missing, but they’re content with what they’ve got? Everything’s ‘too hard’ so don’t bother?

We’re all so used to what’s around us. We’re blind to evil. God help us! The devil is so good at what he does; he figures it’s dangerous for people to know there’s something missing, so he figures out a way to get us to the point where we don’t even realize that there’s anything lacking. Good is good, and fairly easy most of the time; who would want the best?

Souls are at stake here, people.

Aren’t they hungry?

A Week in AZ

10/08

I got up at about 6, left at about 6:45, got to the airport at about 7:45. I got through security np, found my gate, and sat to wait… and wait… and wait. Lol. I had my journal with me, so I figured I might as well write. I ended up staring at a blank page for most of the hour-and-then-some that I was waiting… didn’t write anything worth sharing… lol. I attempted to write a poem. Fail. I think I was half asleep. I would have let myself sleep if I hadn’t been afraid of sleeping very soundly. SO, anyway… started boarding at 9:15ish, left about 10 minutes late, but we still arrived in Detroit on time. I had apple juice.

I got off at gate A11… and had to go all the way to gate A75. That was super neat, there was this tunnel with lots of flashing lights and catchy music playing. Haha. And then there was this fountain… it was so cool. It was this round black… thing… and the top was flat… and the water was shooting out… and yet there was no water running off of it. I was lazy… didn’t stop to take a picture… regretted it afterwards, I’ll get to that later. Anyway… my legs were killing me by the time I got to my gate. Luckily, Taco Bell was right there. Yumm, Chicken Quesadilla and Dr. Pepper. I didn’t realize how short of a stop-over two hours is. I had JUST enough time to finish my lunch before it was time to board. And I did not finish my Dr. Pepper, shame on me for throwing that away…

I had a good nap on the plane. Drank more apple juice and ate some Twizzlers. I forgot they weren’t the kind with filling. I HATE the kind without filling. Oh well… Listened to my iPod when I woke up here and there, just enough to get me to fall asleep again.

I called Dev’s cell as soon as I got there, and panicked slightly, because she didn’t pick up. I tried her mom’s, but I guess I had the wrong number… so I tried the house phone, Aiden picked up, told me he’d call Dev, but a minute later, I saw Dev. Lol. Honestly, I think she got taller… xD First stop — Chipotle. Had a good chat on the way there. It was hot!!!! Hotter than I’d expected… like that heat that’s blinding at first? Yeah.

We got to their house, and the first thing I did was pull out my photobook :D and then Dev and I took some time to catch up in her room, I borrowed Aiden’s guitar, and we pulled out our Ball dresses. We discussed our parallel lives and brainstormed for blog posts… something about “The Consequences of Being Charitable.” Haha.

Sometime later, JP came in, so I started taking pictures. Well, he noticed that, and wanted to show me their camera…

and made me very nervous in doing so (he did a good job with it, but I was scared he’d drop it… haha…), and then he left the room once dd had persuaded him to let him have the camera, and came back to show me… Mickey Mouse.

Uhm…. notice anything… out of place? *cough*

Yes, well, once Dev and I realized exactly what was… amiss… Ian was given the task of helping John Paul with finding paper to use… and then JP brought his DVD collection in to show me, and spent a good twenty minutes asking me if I knew this story or that story… and I did recognize a great many, but I enjoyed hearing him tell me all about the ones I had never heard of.

Dev started cooking dinner, so I continued to babysit JP. First, we played fort with the couch cushions. He explained everything very, very carefully, so that I might understand that if I put my foot in certain places, I was sure to get bitten by a shark. He did not want my foot to be bitten off. *nods* We hid from arrows and bullets and sharks as best we could, and then when the arrows and bullets ceased, we went fishing. John Paul introduced me to the Mommy fish and the Daddy fish and the Baby fish and the Baby fish’s brothers. Well, we caught them and threw them back several times, and then all of a sudden, all the fish turned into sharks except for the Daddy fish, who went and hid. Mhm. And it seems that JP told his dad that he would be going home with me.

When Mrs. McIntyre and Aiden came home (I forget where they had been… the doctor?), I told Mrs. M what we had been doing, and she went, “You’re fluent. That’s scary.” Hahahaha. I am immensely proud of still be fluent in 3-yo talk after four years. :D

Mary had come home with Mrs. McIntyre, and she had dinner with us. After dinner, we went to Eileen’s house for the teen rosary and game night. Meg led the rosary, and then we played Apples to Apples (Aiden won xD) followed by Amoeba.

AHHHHHHHHHH my wrists hurt for a long time after Amoeba. I love that game!!! and I’m going to introduce it to the YFC as soon as poss. Hopefully this Sunday xD They didn’t enforce the boy-girl-boy-girl rule, so of course it was girls vs. guys, aaaaand the girls won twice! Funnnn. Honestly, I think my wrist popped… haha.

Dev and I didn’t stay up talking… we slept in the living room on the couches that had been the fort xD

10/09

I woke up at about 8. Dev had set her alarm for 9:30, but the sun was up, and I woke up, let myself drift in and out of sleep for a bit. After a bit, Mrs. McIntyre came into the dining room and started looking through my photobook. It was very quiet and peaceful, so I lay there for a bit and looked up at the ceiling… at the fan… the altar… the crosses… Our Lady of Guadalupe… Eventually, Dev woke up, and we sat up and ended up chatting with Mrs. McIntyre for about an hour. We talked about lots of stuff… it was a very homey, good-beginning-to-a-morning type thing :D like my talks with Mum.

The boys woke up one by one, and when they were all up, we met for prayer and breakfast at 9:30. I forget exactly what time Dev and I left for her math class… which I spent attempting to catch up in my journal, and then we went to Savers. Oh my goodness. It is a very dangerous place for me to be. Hahaha. I TRIED to focus on finding a costume for the party that night, but goodness, it was distracting… rotfl. We went home and had lunch, which was absolutely delicious. Ian was cooking corn tortillas, Mrs. M had chicken, Dev prepared a salad, and Aiden was grating cheese.

Dev and Mrs. M left for Walmart, we needed some stuff for that night’s party, and the boys and I continued eating. Ian made another batch of tortillas, and he and Aiden insisted that I try one with butter. Mmmmmm. After we cleaned up, JP decided to be a tiger, and he wanted me to be a lion. OK!! And then apparently I needed tutoring. I’m very, very bad at roaring, I’m afraid. *hangs head* I sound nothing like John Paul says I ought to… At any rate, I was very thankful for that time that I got to spend chatting with the boys while crawling around with JP.

When Dev and Mrs. M got home, we started baking immediately. SPEED BAKING!!!!! She made this chocolate/cheesecake cupcake, and I made upside-down plum cupcakes.

And YES, we actually got them into the oven within the half hour that we had!!! Haha. John Paul wanted to help… so he handed me plums to cut in half and core. But once that job was done, he wanted to do more… so they ended up making edible playdough. It smelled delicious, and I bet it tasted even better, but I didn’t get to taste it. :( lol. I would have liked to… ah well.

Dev and I left for the wake once the cupcakes were in, and Mrs. M followed once the cupcakes were done. We only stayed at the wake for a bit, but I got to meet some of Mary’s siblings and her mom, and we enjoyed the slideshow of her grandfather.

Mrs. M arrived at the wake as we left, and we traded cargo (the cupcakes) before proceeding to Eileen’s house for the Murder Mystery Party. Ahahaha that was funnnn. I was Aladdin. And I was completely innocent. It was CINDERELLA that destroyed King Henry VIII. We seriously couldn’t figure it out. (Wow, between 10 girls, our logic and clue-finding skillzz totally sucked. Rotfl.) Chelsea’s accent was the funniest. And Ms. Sherlock Holmes looked quite dashing with a ponytail.

Hahaha. We did take a break for dinner, pizza :), and then after we’d completed the act, we played Mafia and I killed everyone, so Cinderella and I were hated for the rest of the evening :D Oh well. Guess that means I can keep a straight face. *hem*

We…. took a bunch of awesome pics, OF COURSE. And then headed home…

and when we got home, JP decided he wanted to sleep with me on the air bed. Okkk!

Oh, I’d taught him to call me Ate. He pronounces it the way Lexie and Tintin do. So adorable. So we played tigers and sharks under the blanket and then JP told me a story, and I recorded part of it. Mrs. M came in and tried all sorts of things to get him to come sleep with her, from “Do you want a bedtime story?” to “John Paul, I miss you.” Nothing was working; he absolutely insisted on sleeping with me. Ok, new tactic. It’s called *lights out*. Well… at first, JP was quite content to stay with Ate and Devin, even though Mommy missed him… but then when the lights were out and the door was closed… here was John Paul, less than a minute later, trying to sneak out of the room without waking Ate and Devin up xD We cracked up when the door closed behind him. We could hear Mrs. M asking him if he was ready for a bedtime story. Haha.

10/10

Dev and Mr. McIntyre left for ASU pretty early, and the rest of the family went to the funeral for Mary’s grandfather, so I was home alone. I called Mum while everyone was gone, and talked to her and the kids for about half an hour… but then Yena took the phone and then forgot that I was there, so I was going, “Hello, hello?? Hello, nandito pa ako…” and finally, Paco took the phone and explained that Yena and Migi were fighting. (I kinda figured that out from the noise…) So then I asked to talk to Mum, and we had a good chat about lots of stuff.

Dev and Mr. M got home from ASU at around 1ish, and they’d brought me home Chipotle xD with extra rice, and I finished it in one sitting, I was so proud of myself.. hehe ang babaw… Mr. M took a nap, and meanwhile, Dev and I went to the library and checked out a bunch of movies. When we got home, we left again for… mm, I can’t remember whose house… but the boys were already there, in the pool, and Dev and I sat and talked with the mommies. We talked about chocolate, the 4real board, psychologists, being foodies, books, basically a bunch of stuff that I just love listening to mothers talk about. There are just some subjects that are so… so mommyish, so homeyish… :) I love homeschool moms. They’re the absolute best people to talk to.

Mrs. McIntyre and the boys had come there straight from the funeral, so Dev and I headed out with Mr. M and Aiden first. We dropped Aiden off at baseball practice (whew!!! sounds majorly intense…) and Dev and I got dropped off at home, and we got started on the pizza dough. We put on HSM (ahahahaha yep. We actually borrowed HSM1 from the library… what possessed me, I wonder? maybe because I saw an HSM2 poster at Eileen’s house…) but we turned it off before we finished the first three chapters. We watched baseball and the Suite Life instead, and some other show on the Disney channel (oh geez. It was about THE most awesome miniature golf course EVER… Ian and I went on and on and on and on about it afterwards, because it was just TOO COOL FOR WORDS. Geez, I wish I could play on it… what show does that to me these days?!). When the rest of the family got home, we ended up refrigerating the pizza dough, because Mrs. M had brought home sandwich fixings, so we had sandwiches for dinner :D and then Dev and I went and watched the rest of HSM in her room, followed by Becoming Jane. AAAAAAHHHH I HATE THAT MOVIE!!!!! and I love it. It’s one of those movies one loves to hate. Or hates to love. I mean, it is such a lovely movie, and I KNOW she did the right thing, but I HATED IT!!! lol. And I hate crying during sentimental movies, honestly… I don’t mind crying when someone dies, but AAAARRRGHHH!!!! good movie. Yup. Would love to watch it again. Or not. Paolo called at some point in the middle of it all, before anyone had gone to bed, about 8 something in AZ.

10/11

The morning started off with chores which they did not let me help with, except for tidying up JP’s area. Hah, but I snuck in washing dishes later…

We made pizza for lunch!!! and then the family shared a bunch of funny Walmart stories… well, some funny, some slightly alarming… lol.

After lunch, Dev worked on the sleeves of her dress, and I made a huge fuss over what to do with my hair… such a girl, aren’t I, when it comes to my hair… lol. Well… let’s skip over the fusses shall we? Heh.

We left the house at about 5:15ish, got to the Pattersons’ at about 5:30ish, played 8-ball with Aiden until the girls came down (Dev went up), and then we took pics outside. There were five of us girls — Cary, Maleah, Mary, Dev, and I — and then Aiden, so Mr. Patterson was coaching Aiden, and he had him kneel in front of us with his arms out.

This would be his “Guys, eat your hearts out; I’m the luckiest guy in the world” pose. rotflwtime. We left their house at about 5:45, and Mrs. Patterson drove the six of us. We played the alphabet game, which Dev and her dad had introduced to me, and I totally lost. Blah! Haha. We got to Scottsdale at about 6:15, walked around a bit with the girls, we had a fairly big group, but I’ll get to that later… Shall I begin my crazy narrative of the Pride and Prejudice Ball? Here goes:

So the first dance, Grady took Dev and I was considering simply sitting it out, but Dev spotted some guy and jerked her head towards me and so he came and got me. I don’t remember his name now, but he wasn’t very… *cough* interesting (I’m counting on nobody from around there ever finding this blog. Please excuse my bluntness…)… he smiled… a LOT… and didn’t say much, the conversation we had was very vague and general… stuff… *ahem*

The second dance was about to begin, Dev and my partner and Grady and I were standing close to each other, and Grady goes, “So are we switching partners…” and Dev goes, “Or we could just keep the same partners…” but I gave her a *mortified* look, so she consented to switch. *coughthankheavenscough* *coughidontthinkdevwouldvethankedmeforit* That dance was a lot of fun, it was fairly simple, and Grady was very pleasant and funny.

The third dance, I was with Aiden, which was a lot of fun. Aiden and I nailed that thing PERFECTLY. And now I forget how it goes. Ahahaha. Let me see… we were in sets of four, first couple cast down, walk up between back to our spots, second couple cast up and walk back to between to their spots, then… wait… I think first corners switch, second corners switch, then circle four halfway, and first couples cast down and second couples step up. Yes, I think I got that right. I’d know it again if I danced it.

Fourth dance, I was with Jeremy, but while Jeremy’s a truly interesting guy, I highly regret that dance, because it was a waltz, and Jeremy is incapable of waltzing (which reminds me, Dev also had a story of a certain someone who was also very much incapable of waltzing… last year was it? xD so we’re even, I suppose…). We had a break after that, and our group claimed a corner of couches (two couches at first, and then all of a sudden when we went there at the next break, there was a third couch there where no couch had been. There were enough of us in the group to keep others from joining us), and then we were piped back in by the bagpiper guy (piped at the beginning of the dance, and then piped us back into the gym after each break, much like the cowbell in the Moeller cafeteria), and I forget now who I danced with for the 5th dance. I believe it was Jeremy again. Yes, that was it. Now, that dance was awesome, we were in sets of six, and so it was me and Jeremy, Mara and Grady, and Dev and Aiden. There was one part where the girls were required to take hands and skip around the guys, and then the guys would do the same around the girls, but the guys had a MAJOR problem with a) skipping, b) holding hands. Actually, no, I take that back… Aiden and Jeremy didn’t make much of a fuss at all, but GRADY was HILARIOUS. He REFUSED to hold hands with the guys and ‘REFUSED’ to skip, but I say ‘refused’, because when the six of us took hands and circled, HE was the only one skipping(!!!!!!) and the rest of us walked calmly. Absolutely hilarious.

Sixth dance, I was with Anthony. That was a lot of fun, and he made me laugh… he’s a karate guy, and it was evident. *nods* I appreciate that. There was one part where we were supposed to do a full turn on the spot, and you could just tell that he was a karate dude, because the movement on his part was akin to some crazy spin block in a kata? Yep. I quite enjoyed myself.

Seventh dance, some random dude asked me… I wasn’t even turned towards him, like, I was standing with Jeremy and Grady and all of a sudden this guy comes up to me, he’s on my left, and bows. (Again, God forbid this guy find this blog… hahahaha.) Well, at first I thought it wasn’t such a big deal, he was an ok dancer, I guess, but I freaked out at the very very end, because the first and last couple, at the ends of each lines of sets, stand out for one round, and then go back in because there’s a new couple at each end at the end of each round. Anyway, so things went well…. until we were the end couple. And THEN this guy starts dancing a jig!!! Uhm… my ettiquette is… weak… and I decided to look around and pretend as if I did not know him. *cough* It’s kind of… hard to do… when you’re standing right across from them. Bah.

Eight dance… another waltz, I believe, which I sat out because I wanted to. Actually, Cary and Maleah and I went and took pics elsewhere. Ninth dance was the pumpkin dance, and that was the best dance of all!!! There’s three chairs, and two lines leading up to slightly to the side of either chair, so the three people can see down between the two lines. The person in the middle chair holds a pumpkin, and they hand it to one of the persons sitting next to them and skip or something of the sort down the middle with the other person, and then the person with the pumpkin moves to the middle chair and one person from each line sits down, so you have no idea who you’re going to be paired with. It’s funny when the person in the middle makes a show of not being able to decide, puts the pumpkin down on the seat, and takes the hands of both persons. Especially when it’s three guys skipping down all together. Ahahahahaha.

So then, we had another break. Claimed the couches again xD OUR corner, no one else’s. And then when we came back in… Tenth dance was the shoe dance. All the girls take off one shoe and throw it in a pile in the middle, the guys charge down the gym and grab a shoe, and then the girl that they got the shoe of is their partner for the next dance. Jeremy got mine. Geez! So we all went around hunting for the guy that had our shoe, and Jeremy was like, “You’re kidding, right?” lol. Three dances in one night. What the heck. Honestly. Jeremy and I botched the 9th dance. Actually, no. We got it perfectly right except for the part where we’re supposed to promenade up the middle together… and he was attempting to spin me and failing totally. Alright, alright, that was my fault… Oh well! Eleventh dance, I sat out, I was busy taking pics. Twelfth dance was a waltz, and I sat that out, too.

So then we took group pics, there were 21 of us in the group. Funnnn. OH, I must tell about the dude I nicknamed ‘ the huzzah guy’. *nods* You see, there was one extremely enthusiastic guy there that just.. well. He was certainly dressed the part… and when Lord Scott was making his speech, this guy kept bursting out in loud “Huzzah”s left and right. At first, some people joined in, but come the end of the speech, he was the only one doing it. And then he burst out in random”Huzzah”s throughout the dance. And during the dances he was conducting people from where he stood waiting for his turn to move. Honestly. This guy freaked me out. Oh don’t get me wrong, he looked nice enough. But I did not want to dance with the huzzah guy. So I kept hiding behind the other girls during break. Rotfl ‘course they’ve seen him before, and they’re used to him and they say he’s quite nice and some of them danced with him, but not me. Period. So, yes, I successfully avoided the huzzah guy for the entire night, thank you.

I talked music with Cary most of the way home. And… we got home at 1:12 AM and I went STRAIGHT TO BED. lol. Anyway, here’s a bunch of pics from the dance –

That would be my hair. I had no idea how it looked till Dev took this picture.

I thought this would turn out too dark, but I guess not :D I like it.

~the beautiful job Mrs. M did with Dev's hair ~

Yes, that's ONE clip. I can't get over how she did it.

"Do something manly!!!"

*wow*

The group... minus Caitlin and Molly

10/12

I got up at like 10, Aiden had already filled Mrs. McIntyre in on the dance… hilarious… Omigosh and I still haven’t uploaded the videos!!!! AAARRRGHHHH I will do that later today!!!! Mass at 11:30, Dev was one of the lectors, and Aiden and Ian were the altar servers.

When we got home, we watched Return to Me. Nice movie, I liked it. It was annoying, again, but Becoming Jane was still eons worse, so. And then we went to eat at My Big Fat Greek. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS I can’t get over it. I’m spoiled for their Calzones now. I cannot have a calzone anywhere else, ever, ever again. Please agree with me that this looks absolutely decadent –

Florentine Calzone

– because it is. I can’t believe how much I ate.

At about 9 PM, Dev and I began our Bourne Marathon. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH. Lol it was absolutely hilarious… because after each movie, I was like, “What’s he got left to do? He’s already done so-and-so…” and always, after each movie, Dev would rub it in that he did have things left to do. And now I’m longing for the fourth. Haha. Oh, and I was predicting stuff and failing totally… EXCEPT when I predicted an explosion and then everything blew up and I yelled “I WAS RIGHT!!!!” but then my predictions were completely dead from there on. WE only watched the first two that night, we watched the third the following night… oh, we stayed up till 2 AM talking… a lot about Cafeteria Catholics, and again about our semi-parallel lives, and again about Catholic colleges, and Catholic families, and everything that you only hear from Catholic homeschooled teens and practically no one else. I cannot think of a single conversation that I have had with any non-homeschooled teen that was ever anywhere near as spiritually filling as the conversations that I have had with Catholic homeschooled teens, especially Dev. Isn’t that sad? and yet I suppose I ought not be surprised… but it can be so discouraging sometimes. Bleh.

10/13

I got up late… about 10ish… obviously. Haha, was so tired from that conversation… looked over Dev’s shoulder as she was editing her paper and then left at 10:40 for her english class. We went straight to Walmart afterwards, we needed stuff for dinner, and then we went home and had lunch, and then I started making the leche flan. Jeremy arrived as I was putting it in the oven, so we went outside at about 2:30 and started jamming until 6:45ish when the curry was done. We went through our iPods for things to jamm… I remember playing You and Me, Here I Am to Worship, Crazy For This Girl, Mighty to Save… and now I totally forget what else. Haha. Jeremy started playing songs he’d written and I followed. Meanwhile, even though it was rather chilly, John Paul and Ian actually played with the hose. (It was freezing!!!!!!!! They didn’t mind!?!?)

Devin had made her killer chicken curry (I could eat that for days. Seriously.) and Jeremy stayed for dinner, and the whole family was there and we had very interesting conversation at dinner. Let me see… baseball… and moving… and food… oh yes, food… oh, and how the removed thing works. You know, the whole, “my cousin once removed on my mom’s side” thing, I’ve always found that so confusing, but then they got confused with the Pinoy system (or is it only my family? ahaha), and we decided to stop before we got even more confused. Haha. Jeremy left at about 8:20ish? and then we prayed the rosary, and then we watched Bourne Ultimatum. Oh, and throughout all the movies we had been watching, we were snacking on lots of things… juice and brownies and pretzels and popcorn and apples and… yeah. Feasting. Haha.

10/14

We went and climbed mountains!!!!!!!! after Dev got home from her class, and then we went to the mall and oh here’s a picture of Devin driving –

– and of course I had to take pictures of all the sharp pointy things as we climbed mountains… wait, I just went backwards, didn’t I? So we went and climbed mountains because Mrs. M said I had to do something pertaining to AZ. Hahaha. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and the trail was not too steep, only tricky. We took weird videos. Haha. Oh, and on our way there, we were at a stoplight, and the cars in front of us were the perfect shade of blue and green… Devin and I are so weird. We began talking about bridesmaids dresses. Because of the colors of the cars. How do cars make us think of bridesmaids dresses?! rotflwtime. The green and the blue just went together… an olive green type… and a pastel-ish blue… lovely. Perfect for tablecloths and napkins and bridesmaids dresses. *nods* We decided to document our conversation while climbing down the mountain. I have to upload that video sometime… Oh, so here’s something sharp and pointy:

this is my country. seriously. SHARP AND POINTY is sooo aisa

And here are two gorgeous pics from the mountain, the latter using my incredibly awesome zoom… haha.

You know, I really think you should just go view the whole album. Here. And now we can move on… So we went to Walgreens and got drinks (I wish I could get AZ iced tea out here, it’s sooooooooo good) and then to the mall and had lunch there, and then we watched Kung Fu Panda. *KADOOSH* Hahaha. And then to Walgreens to hunt for pasalubong (although what I really ended up getting was a keychain and a scorpion for myself… but I did get a puzzle for the kids! … lol), then home for a quick bite of dinner, and then to Dev’s karate class. They made me do things. Ahhhh. Hahaha, I’m so out of shape. But hey, I had a good time. I liked everyone I met, they were very, very kind. But boy was I tired when we got home!!!!

I can’t remember now if we watched anything that night, or if we just talked and talked and talked… either we did the latter or we did both. Haha.

10/15

I asked everyone to sign my photobook. :D The whole inside front cover now belongs solely to the McIntyres. Oh, John Paul decided to give his horsey a haircut. *nods* I think Devin saw fit to take the scissors away after that… haha. And then they did the goodbye wave… and Mr. M took me to the airport… and then it was all over. I had a croissant and a cup of white hot chocolate at Starbucks and got some Cactus Jelly, Prickly Pear Jam, and Jalapeno preserves for Mum, and then… yep. The first flight was delayed… giving me half an hour to walk from Terminal A to Terminal C and I was not smart enough to use the shuttle thingy, so I ran and was out of breath with a stitch in my side… but I did not miss my second flight, praise God, and I got home safely… and yes. Here I am, an experienced traveler. Haha. Oh, and because it was night, the super cool fountain was off and there wasn’t time anyway. So yes, I regretted that horribly. lol.

Some final pics:

Ate, JP, and DD (if you pronounce Ate the way JP does, we all rhyme! lol...)

:D best friends... for six-ish/seven-ish years now! and counting :D not to mention matching shirts!!! lol.

:D byebye!

There Will Be Tears (a.k.a. Yes, Aliens Have Arrived)

Oh I cried last night. And I’ll tell you straight out.

I didn’t cry for myself. I cried for all the babies.

And I’m crying again now.

The babies… the children… no, no, no, not blobs of nothing… but LIFE… murder…

Maybe I am angry at the lack of understanding of the core values of the Church, of the non-negotiables.

Maybe I am angry at all the lies that were told, and all the truths that were pushed aside.

Maybe I am bitter, disgusted…

But God is still God.

I am not angry at God. And I am not bitter towards Him. And I am not disgusted with what He has willed.

I am only thinking of what an amazing Kuya said… We Are The New Jerusalem.

Are we in exile, then? Does America need to hit bottom? Does America need Obama to teach us how much we need God, and how foolish we have been to turn our backs on Him? Is this Babylon? Is this Assyria? Maybe.

I’m not sad for myself. I don’t mean to make it sound like I’m not growing anymore, but I think those who know me best will understand what I mean when I say — I weep for those who have to find themselves in these next four years. I weep for all the innocent children who go to school, and whose teachers have more influence over them than their own parents. I weep for the families who have fought so hard against the tide, fought to keep their families intact, fought to pass on that understanding of the sanctity of Life to their children. I weep for the unborn.

What is that prayer I learned while I was in AZ? “Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I love you very much. I beg you to spare the life of the unborn child that I have spiritually adopted who is in danger of abortion.” Think of all the children who will be spiritually adopted by the faithful in the next four years. Think of the numbers.

Can you imagine… FOCA… but no. Don’t go there.

Anti-Catholicism is still the only tolerated — accepted — prejudice today. Ready for the persecution? No, don’t tell me I’m overreacting. Persecution of the Church has never ceased, and you can’t suppose it won’t get worse these next four years? But it’s our road to heaven. For that, I am thankful.

Yes, yes, there’s still something to be thankful about, there always is. See? I’ve not gone off my rocker. I simply can’t unload everything I wish I could unload into this post.

But here. I will share with you one of the thoughts that I comfort myself with, and I hope you will, too, if you have need of comfort — Yes, Aliens Have Arrived.

You’re reading the words of one, now.

‘For in the sin of the first man, Adam, we were expelled from the homeland of paradise and sent into this world of exile, and thus we live in this middle earth as if we have no homeland here…’

I find it so easy to forget that this world is temporary. I find it so easy to forget that I don’t belong here. But I don’t, I don’t, I don’t, and I know I need to hammer that into myself. I think last night did that for me in a way that nothing else that has ever happened to me has done. Yes, I’m an alien. Silly, silly me, I don’t belong on this earth. I belong in Paradise.

How appropriate was our assigned reading last week in English class.

‘… our Lord has kindled for us many spiritual lanterns that we must light up for ourselves with heavenly piety and holy doctrine, so that no one will remain in darkness of heresy who wishes to see the light of truth. What are these lanterns that our Lord has given to us to enlighten the dimness of humankind’s infidelity? They are the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, the bishops, the priests, and the many other divine teachers of God’s church. And we have great need to observe the right doctrine and the holy examples and obey the holy gospel with fear and fasten it firmly in our hearts…

‘We cannot always have laughter… I well know that everyone desires to see true joy in middle earth. But it is not, was not, nor ever will be… we should seek true joy where it is… in Christ himself in… the kingdom of heaven… the Lord himself says… “In hoc mundo pressuram habebitis. Mundus hic gaudebit; vos autem tristes eritis, sed tristitia vestra convertitur in gaudium.” “You will have oppression in this middle earth, and middle earth will rejoice in this and you will be sad. But you will be free from sighing, for it will turn again for you into joy.” …

‘… we should be very thoughtful and very sorrowful as long as we are here in our efforts… so that we may again rejoice in the heavenly home of the celestial kingdom. Nor should we ever consider the labor and trouble here in the world too long, because it comes to an end. But the rewards never come to an end that are gilded for us on behalf of those troubles…

‘… while we are here living, let us ask the mercy of God, so that he might send us out thus in the love of eternal life that we might the more love the eternal homeland than this present life and always think the more about the life to come than about the one we lead here. These are the days of toil and labor as we ourselves may understand in the manifold torments that daily fall on human kind in tempests because of our deeds.’ ~ unknown homilist in Anglo-Saxon Spirituality by Robert Boenig

I also remember something Mrs. McIntyre told me about… The grandfather of a teen from their homeschooling group had died, and while I was in AZ, we went to the wake. Mrs. M told me afterwards what the grandmother had said… that she knew that that day, she was blessed. Blessed. Isn’t that beautiful? Blessed in her sorrow, in her grief, in her loss, but by heaven, she was blessed.

There will be tears… but — and this makes me smile — we are blessed. We are blessed with this cross.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

God bless the faithful. And God help America.

I Believe in High Stakes

Heck, you bet I do. I think I’ve hit on the highest stakes ever. (*Maybe I should go edit my CREDO post…*)

I am loving this post, which, among other things, tackles defining the term ‘Cafeteria Catholic.’

Catholicism has to be taken and lived out as a whole, or not. In one of his homilies this past month, Fr. Tom reminded us that when we approach the altar, we receive all of Christ. All of Him. Not just bits and pieces. When we receive the Eucharist, we receive Christ in His fullness. And if we come to receive all of Him, then we are expected to live out all that He Is. Not just bits and pieces. How can we be truly One with Him if we deliberately fail to uphold all that He stands for?

But I wanted to hash this out even further. If we’ve settled the fact that Catholicism can’t be taken in bits and pieces, then let’s go further. Why not? IOW, why Catholicism? What does Catholicism offer that is so… profound, for lack of a better word… that we cannot afford to not take it as a whole?

Slowly, now. A bit at a time.

God created Man. Yes?

So then it follows that… as God created Man, He knows how we are meant to function? that He knows our full potential? that He knows all that Man was created to be? I think that makes sense, doesn’t it? He created us with purpose. God alone knows why we’re made the way we are. So let us say that we do not know everything we need to know about how to be human. We’re not like other creatures. We have free will. To use extreme examples, by our free will, we could choose to live like birds? but that would not be what we were created to be, yes? So that would be silly, because we would be failing to be… human?

God created the universe as a hierarchy; some things are “higher”, more valuable, and more important than others. Each human being may be equal in value in the sight of God, since all are made in his image; but irrational animals are not equal to human beings. They do not have rational souls, free choice, or the knowledge of God. If animals were equal to humans, eating meat would be cannibalism. ~ Peter J. Kreeft, Catholic Christianity

So, having established that, having free will, man could choose to act in ways that man was not created to act, to do things that man was not created to do, that if we act certain ways, do certain things, we could, if you will, fail to be human? let us move on.

We believe that Jesus Christ was [is] both fully God and fully Man, that He possessed two complete and whole Natures in one Person.

If we believe this, then what we, as Catholics, are saying is that we believe that the Catholic Church was founded by God Himself. We believe that Mother Church was not founded by men claiming to be inspired by God, or visited by an angel, etc. etc., but that God Himself, our Creator, entered Time in the Person of Jesus Christ and founded the Roman Catholic Church.

We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what is to be believed. Any theories we build up as to how Christ’s death did all this are, in my view, quite secondary: mere plans or diagrams to be left alone if they do not help us, and, even if they do help us, not to be confused with the thing itself. ~ C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Yes, that is Christianity. But I want to take this further.

I do not view Catholicism as a ‘religion’ the way Protestantism is a ‘religion’ or any other denomination is a ‘religion’. What the Catholic Church teaches is not merely a set of rules. It’s not merely a ‘how-to-get-to-heaven’ deal. At its core, the knowledge that the Catholic Church possesses is, quite simply, how to be human.

If God created Man, and if He knows how man is supposed to be human, and if Jesus Christ is God and founded the Church, then the knowledge that God Himself gave to the Catholic Church is how to be human. So Catholicism — forgive the crudeness — could be viewed as a hand-book on how to be human.

If you want to take it even further, God intended for Man to be perfect. If God intended for man to be perfect, then Catholicism is a hand-book on how to be the perfect human, because that is what we were created to be: We were created to be perfect. To be without sin, without error, without blemish! To be  pure and whole and holy and beautiful in every way, in all that we experience, in all our actions and our words and our thoughts, that our very being was meant to be perfect, perfect. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that beautiful?

In one of our discussions in ToB, I told my Sisters that I didn’t agree with the phrase, “Errare est humanum,” because really, to err is to not be human. Now, we are imperfect by nature, but we were not created to be. Our fallen natures are not a part of the original creation. Adam and Eve could have chosen to stay perfect, and then we might be all that we were created to be… but because of the Fall, we don’t know all that we need to know about how to live the way we were created to live. We need help. What better source than our Creator?

What more could we ask for than a hand-book on how to be everything He intended us to be?

Wow.

And that is why we cannot take Catholicism in bits and pieces. It’s not about Someone up there punishing us every time we make a mistake, it’s not a “do this/don’t do this or you’ll go to hell” thing, it’s so much deeper — It’s all there, everything that we need to become human, everything that we need to become perfect. It follows, then, that in failing to make correct use of that knowledge that God has given us so fully and so freely, we would be failing to be human?

Ouch.

Those are some pretty high stakes, eh?

On a side note, as I was hashing this out (with the help of my two best friends ever, much thanks to them =), one point that I want to clarify is the misconception that the Catholic Church is all for bashing all other denominations and denounce them as utterly and completely wrong.

Not exactly.

To use an analogy similar to the one Fr. Riccardo used in Common Ground (I changed it a bit, and sort of made it… more… colorful? lol, I hope no one minds), say there’s a box. That box contains all the pieces you need to build the perfect human. What the Church claims, then, is that She has that box, She has all the pieces, and that God Himself, in Person, gave Her that box.

I don’t doubt that various persons might very well have been inspired by Christ to do this and do that, to come to realize so-and-so. By our nature, we long for Truth, and Christ is Truth. In seeking Him, I don’t doubt that Protestants may very well have hit on truths that led them to disagree with whoever founded the denomination they initially belonged to and found those 3000 + other denominations.

But what Mother Church claims is that She has all the pieces. Not that other denominations are wrong, so much as that they do not have the fullness of the knowledge given to the Church, because the Church’s knowledge comes directly from God and is completely uninfluenced by the opinions of imperfect humans. IOW, they don’t have all the pieces. All other denominations are still influenced by the imperfect fallen human nature. The reason there are over 3000 Protestant denominations is because of the difference in human opinion. They cannot agree amongst themselves, they are not united.

Perhaps my next post should be on the four marks of the Church…