September 2011 (Year A)

				1 Col 1:9-14 Lk 5:1-11 Green	2 First Friday Abstinence Col 1:15-20 Lk 5:33-39 Green	3 Saint Gregory the Great Col 1:21-23 Lk 6:1-5 White
4 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Ez 33:7-9 Rom 13:8-10 Mt 18:15-20 Green	5 Labor Day* Blessed Mother Teresa* Col 1:24-2:3 Lk 6:6-11 Green/*White	6 Col 2:6-15 Lk 6:12-19 Green	7 Col 3:1-11 Lk 6:20-26 Green	8 The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mi: 5:1-4a or Rm 8:28-30 Mt 1:1-16, 18-23 or 1:18-23 White	9 Saint Peter Claver 1 Tm 1:1-2, 12-14 Lk 6:39-42 Abstinence White	10 BVM* 1 Tm 1:15-17 Lk 6:43-49 Green/ *White
11 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time September 11th Liturgical Considerations Pope Benedict XVI Prayer in Commemmoration of 9-11 A Time for Remembrance, Resolve and Renewal: Statement on the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 Sir 27:30-28:9 Rom 14:7-9 Mt 18:21-35 Green	12 The Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary* 1 Tm 2:1-8 Lk 7:1-10 Green/*White	13 Saint John Chrysostom 1 Tm 3:1-13 Lk 7:11-17 White	14 The Exaltation of the Holy Cross Nm 21:4b-9 Phil 2:6-11 Jn 3:13-17 Red	15 Our Lady of Sorrows 1 Tm 4:12-16 Jn 19:25-27 or Lk 2:33-35 White	16 Saints Cornelius & Cyprian 1 Tm 6:2c-12 Lk 8:1-3 Abstinence Red	17 Saint Robert Bellarmine*; BVM* 1 Tm 6:13-16 Lk 8:4-15 Green/*White
18 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Is 55:6-9 Phil 1:20c-24, 27a Mt 20:1-16a Green/*White	19 Saint Januarius Ezr 1:1-6 Lk 8:16-18 Green/*Red	20 Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, Saint Paul Chong Hasang & Companions Ezr 6:7-8, 12b, 14-20 Lk 8:19-21 Red	21 Saint Matthew Eph 4:1-7, 11-13 Mt 9:9-13 Red	22 Hg 1:1-8 Lk 9:7-9 Green	23 Saint Pio of Pietrelcina Hg 2:1-9 Lk 9:18-22 Abstinence Novena to Saint Therese of Lisieux White	24 BVM* Zec 2:5-9, 14-15a Lk 9:43b-45 [Our Lady of Walsingham] Novena to Saint Therese of Lisieux Green
25 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Ez 18:25-28 Phil 2:1-11 or 2:1-5 Mt 21:28-32 Novena to Saint Therese of Lisieux Green	26 Saints Cosmas & Damian Zec 8:1-8 Lk 9:46-50 Novena to Saint Therese of Lisieux Green	27 Saint Vincent de Paul Zec 8:20-23 Lk 9:51-56 Novena to Saint Therese of Lisieux White	28 Saint Wenceslaus*; Saint Lawrence Ruiz & companions* Neh 2:1-8 Lk 9:57-62 Novena to Saint Therese of Lisieux Green/*Red	29 Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael Dn 7:9-10, 13-14 or Rev 12:7-12a Jn 1:47-51 Novena to Saint Therese of Lisieux White	30 Saint Jerome Bar 1:15-22 Lk 10:13-16 Abstinence Novena to Saint Therese of Lisieux White

SOURCE: http://www.wf-f.org/LitCal2011/Sept2011.html

March in Texas

Oh, my goodness, how I love March in Texas!
I saw my first BlueBonnet today!  I got so excited that my son had serious doubts about my sanity. The Indian Paintbrushes are springing up all over (no pun intended) and the weather has been perfect!

We survived the Ides of March (thank God) and I pray for no friends like Brutus!
And now it is St. Patrick's Day followed soon by the Feast of St. Joseph on the 19th.
Many blessings to all my blogging buddies!
 
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

The Devil's Beatitudes

This reminded me of C.S.Lewis' The Screwtape Letters

If the Devil were to write his Beatitudes, they would probably go something like this:

• Blessed are those who are too tired, too busy, too distracted to spend an hour once a week with their fellow Christians in Mass -- they are my best workers.

• Blessed are those Christians who wait to be asked and expect to be thanked -- I can use them.


• Blessed are the touchy, with a bit of luck they may stop going to Mass -- they are my missionaries.


• Blessed are those who try to appear very "religious" and get on everyone's nerves -- they are mine forever.

• Blessed are the troublemakers -- they shall be called my children.


• Blessed are those who have no time to pray -- they are easy prey for me.

• Blessed are the gossiper -- for they are my secret agents.


• Blessed are those critical of church leadership -- for they shall inherit a place with me in my fate.

• Blessed are the complainers -- I'm all ears for them.


• Blessed are you when you read this and think it is about other people and not yourself -- I've got you.

Author unknown. I found this at http://ramblinggopsoccerom.blogspot.com/

Live in God, Not in Fear

H/T to the Bible Geek! (aka Mark Hart)

It’s an interesting fact that the command repeated most often throughout the Scriptures is “be not afraid” or (its close grammatical relative) “do not fear”. The command not to fear (given to us by God) is repeated even more times throughout the 73 books, than the command to love. That should tell you something about how badly God wants us to live in Him and not in fear.

Think about that for a moment -- Live in God, Not in Fear. Pretty powerful in its simplicity and strength.

There are great places throughout the Bible that speak of courage and the need to trust in God in the face of fear. Here are some places (in the NAB Bible) that you can read and pray through. In fact there are 51 places -- pretty good number for a way to start each day of summer! We are going to start the second week of June and read one a day on weekday mornings -- that takes us through mid August.

Some of the Fear verses in Scripture (A few of these include more than one verse):

Gospels (#1 - #15) - Old Testament (#16 - #25) - New Testament (#26 - #51)

1. MT 1:20
2. MT 10:26, 28, 31
3. MT 14:27
4. MT 17:7
5. MT 28:5, 10
6. MK 5:36
7. MK 6:50
8. LK 1:13, 30
9. LK 2:10
10. LK 5:10
11. LK 8:50
12. LK 12:4-5, 7, 32
13. JN 6:20
14. JN 12:15
15. JN 14:27
16. ACTS 9:31
17. ACTS 18:9
18. ACTS 27:24
19. 2COR 7:1
20. HEB 13:6
21. 1PT 2:17
22. 1PT 3:6,14
23. 1JN 4:18
24. RV 1:17
25. RV 2:10
26. DEUT 1:21
27. DEUT 31:8
28. JOSH 1:9
29. JOSH 10:8
30. JOSH 11:6
31. JUDG 6:23
32. 1SAM 12:20
33. 1CHRON 22:13
34. 2CHRON 20:15, 17
35. 1MACC 2:62
36. PS 3:7
37. PS 23:1
    
38. PS 46:3
39. PS 49:17
40. PS 53:6
41. PS 56:5, 12
42. PROV 3:25
43. ISA 7:4
44. ISA 10:24
45. JER 42:11
46. JER 44:10
47. BARUCH 6:14, 22, 28, 64, 68
48. HOSEA 10:3
49. HAG 2:5
50. ZECH 8:13, 15
51. MAL 3:5

Remember – there is no need to fear. God is in control.

TU again to Mark for organizing these scriptures for us! If your parish is looking for a speaker (especially for the youth group ages), I highly recommend the Bible Geek, Mark Hart! Here is an example of his style via a YouTube clip. Enjoy!

After School Theater 2007/2008

Whew!!! We had our end of the year Theater Program last night. I told my husband, "It was almost exactly what I had pictured." That is pretty darn good in "Soutenus-speak."

Most of my actors are very young (2nd - 4th grade) and we rehearse AFTER school for ~1hour only 1X a week. I guess I expect a lot from them. I have two amazing older students on whom much responsibility rests. They are in 6th and 7th grade.

My biggest headaches were technical in nature. The sound system at our school leaves much to be desired so just trying to control feedback and distortion is a major obstacle. All I can say is, "My husband is a genius."

Lists always help me plan and access. In case you are interested here are the pros and cons:

NEGATIVE

• Technical problems (errrr, "opportunities")
• Lighting (non existent)
• Constant din of noise from the audience (they do this at Mass, too.) I kind of expected it but cannot help but be flabbergasted at the selfishness every time it happens.
  
• Extremes of parental involvement. I had NO stage Moms (thank God). But the same 3 or 4 do everything they can to help and the others . . . NADA!
  
• A classic example of things that drive directors crazy: 1 child showed up in new shoes for the performance. I wanted to scream but I decided to let go, as they say, and "Let God."
  

If you have ever done theater or dance you KNOW you do not wear a new (unapproved by the director) pair of shoes for a performance. Do they slide on the stage, the steps, while you march around the audience in the first scene? Do they stay on while skipping on the stage? Will she end up with blisters? NEVER throw in unknowns like that -- especially when the child is in ELEMENTARY school! This is a child who hardly ever remembered to bring her costume to practice -- at this age I rehearse them in costume the last 5 weeks, at least. I make a huge big deal about rehearsing in what you are going to wear and having it approved by me. So, did I scold the child? Of course not. Now, I WILL have to address it next year. This is not a choir recital where you stand in one place. This is a PHYSICAL, moving and grooving kind of play! Ahhhhhhhhh! OK, I think I am over it.

POSITIVE

• The kids remembered all their lines and even stayed in character (ok maybe 90% of the time)
• They gave it 100%
• They remembered the change I made the day of the show, the finale position and the decorum of the bows.
• They had fun
• All the on-stage costume changes worked
• No one fell off the stage, threw up or cried
• Our guest artists rocked. They were downright inspirational..
• Our guest dancer was A M A Z I N G! even on our feeble & frighteningly frought with hazards, little stage. She nailed the pirouettes, turns in second, fouettes and aerial against said "stage inadequacies." Oh, let me be clear here -- I AM thankful we now own a stage. It is just NOT a dance stage. It is akin to putting a great rider on a horse that is green. If the rider knows how to ride it will probably be ok.
  
• Our guest singer and band brought in the middle school grades of our school. They did 4 beautiful Christian songs -- one that was original. The pre-teen age group is a difficult demographic to motivate solely with a "school play done by the younger kids." Our two older theater students fit closely with this age group, also! I feel blessed that they had peers taking the stage with them. I hope their example of joyously living their faith sticks with all of us! Here is a sample of one of my guest artists -- Nick (filmed here working with Jake -- both young men are pretty well known over at KidzBop.com)
  
  
• My husband wore all hats with stellar success and finesse: live music, sound man, sound cues for kids, solo singer at intro, stage set up and strike, co-director.
• My wonderful 4 to 5 Moms looked around and did what needed to be done to make the play shine....refreshments, backdrop and stage skirting, hand sewn costume pieces, actor motivation!
• My 7th grader asked to do one of the most difficult songs in the show; the Rain song. She asked! I told her if she could learn it and audition it in (I think I gave her the time frame of) 2 weeks, I would see . . . . She did and I was ecstatic. It was a bit "unadorned" but her beautiful voice and characterization made it work. And then . . . .
  
• 2 students in the 3rd grade went out on a limb and learned the back up vocals to that same song ON THEIR OWN. They caught me at recess and asked if I would listen to what they had been working on -- AT RECESS! Picture this: Kids running all over the place, shouts of a nearby game of tag, pounding of running feet, balls flying and these two girls stand together and sing the Rain song back up vocals PERFECTLY and like nothing else is going on around them. Well, my heart melted. They sang back up in the play and it made the Rain song even better.
  
• Keep in mind that After School Theater is unlike summer stock or community theater in many ways but one BIG difference is that I see these kids 1 time a week -- after school when they are tired and hungry and we DO NOT have time to eat. We meet for only 1 hour and then do not get to practice again for a week. We practice wherever we can find space and do not get the stage until the week before the play.

What Do You Collect?

In the 6th grade our teacher asked us to share with the class, "what we collected."
I come from a seriously "Heinz 5" ethnic stock. We are a kaleidoscope of nationalities on my Mom's side but the "Menefee" Scottish frugality was definitely a dominant trait in my family. Maybe because my Mom was born during the great depression we inherited a waste not, want not philosophy of life. I like that this trait dovetails nicely into being environmentally responsible. I think I have always been "green" I just didn't have a buzz term for it.

Anyway, back to my story. . . . Mrs. Reid (my 6th grade teacher) asked us, "What do you collect?" She started at he top left side of the room and each student responded in turn - right down the rows. I was in the third row about 2 or 3 desks from the front.

"Collect? Collect!" I was frantically thinking. "Who has money to spend on knick knacks and junk? If I HAD extra money I sure wouldn't buy bric-a-brac with it."
I was pretty sure of myself and my opinions back then (I guess some things don't change all that much!).

Kids were enthusiastically responding to her question. "I collect spoons. I collect kitten figurines, I collect rocks, I collect comic books . . . . stuffed animals. . . . Barbie dolls. . . . records. (yes, records --- grooved vinyl discs that played music on something called a "record player")"

It was getting dangerously close to my turn and I had NO answer.
"OK, I rationalized, if I could collect something what would it be?"
Nothing warranted enough interest that I would actually spend money to amass a collection.

"OK, I rationalized, "What do you like?" That was easy. I liked ballet and horses. That didn't help -- what was I going to say, "I collect old ballet & horse shoes?"

I was feeling that kind of panic that slowly but surely wells up inside you very gradually but physically and seemingly unstoppable . . . . It was making me very uncomfortable, my mouth was dry and sounds were seeming distant. I knew might to start to either giggle or cry uncontrollably at any minute. What would I collect, what would I collect, what would I collect?

The answers were still enthusiastically being spouted by my classmates, "I collect Madame Alexander Dolls (her dad owned the bank), I collect barrettes, I collect marbles. . . . bottle caps. . . . tropical fish. . . . I collect Pez containers.

My brain suddenly shifted a bit and I thought of the question from a different perspective. I asked myself. "What makes you happy?" And then it hit me -- I loved birthdays. I loved knowing that a day was special to someone. I knew every family member's birthday. In fact, I was shocked when I learned that most of my friends did not even know or think to ask their parent's birthdays. I knew my parents' birth dates, I knew their parents' birthdays, I knew the dog's birthday, for goodness sake! The knew the best birthday of all -- Christmas.
So, I kind of DID collect something.
I heard Mrs. Reid say, "And, what do you collect, Peggy?"
"Birthdays!" I said, quite confident and quite relieved.
Then something happened that surprised me. Everyone got really quiet and turned to look at me. The teacher paused and said, "That is a very interesting collection. Would you like to add my birthday to your collection?" heads were nodding up and down all over the room. Others were asking to be added to my "collection."
That day in 6th grade I started a collection to which I have continued to add. A few years later I made a goal to fill everyday of my birthday calendar. Although I have over 365 birthdays I still do not have everyday filled. I also made some rules.

1. The person has to be someone I know personally (the only exceptions are Pope JPJII, Pope Benedict IV and Dr. J (yeah, Dr. J, go figure!)
2. If I can't remember who someone is or I completely lose touch with them they get "archived" and their date doesn't count toward filling every day of the year. I used to just delete their names but as I get older that is harder to do; probably because I have known so many of these people for so long. So, if we exchange a Christmas card or email every 2 or 3 years and I feel like I can legitimize keeping them on the birthday calendar. Some of those people are pretty doggone special and I know we are there for each other should an emergency arise.
   

All of this interest in days and what makes them special made me stop and think. . . .When did the secular calendar start to take precedence over our most beautiful Church Calendar? Certainly before my time or did those children of the 60s, 70s and 80s who went to parochial school got some taste of Feast days, Ember days, Rogation days and the like?

Funny how God leads us back to Him in an infinite number of ways. My birthday collecting helped me realize that no matter how tough of a day I might be having -- somewhere, someone that I knew was having a birthday. That usually made me smile.
What I was searching for was hidden in that birthday collection . . . .finding what is historically and communally special in a day. The church calendar fills that need until my cup is overflowing. As I began to learn more about my faith and as I fall madly, deeply in love with the Catholic Church, I realized that feast days, Church celebrations and observances filled my calendar with rich traditions and teachings and love.
This is my new collection. The Church calendar of days. It guides us, enriches our lives and keeps us focused on the realities of our purpose in this life.

Funny to think that Mrs. Reid's question started me on a journey that God intended all along. He knew the joy I would find in 2008 and He let Mrs. Reid plant the seed.
Praise God.

source: The beautiful Horse Ballet painting was painted by Michael Schur
URL: http://www.cw.co.za/mschur/