Reflecting Back...and Forward

I've finished work on our parish's vacation bible school, which will begin this upcoming Monday and run all week, and now as August is approaching, I begin to look toward preparing our home education year once again. As I blog this, our oldest son is off to a rising senior picnic at the college he wishes to attend the next year. He has been entirely home schooled with the help of Mother of Divine Grace. We have remained convicted to our belief that formation/education within the family is one of the best routes to take in battling against an anti-Christian culture. Especially while reading: Hold on to Your Kids lately, I'm convinced home education may not only be a viable choice of education, but might very well be necessary to preserve all that is good in our children; I agree with the book (mentioned above), that our children need to remain parent-oriented, and no matter how good a Christian school they may attend, there is still the strong pull toward peer-orientation.

While there is no perfect school situation this side of heaven, we feel we are doing what God has truly marked us to do in raising our children as our own and as His in this fallen world. I pray always for the grace to see us through this awesome responsibility.

I posted this next reflection a couple years ago, and I think it is a good reminder to look upon today.

"The family is the basic and most important unit of society, the one God looks upon as its firmest support. And it is perhaps the part of society most insidiously and ruthlessly attacked from all sides.....Many lost sight of the fact that parents have the right to educate their own children, and, in the face of excessive state intervention, have ended up renouncing an elementary right and this is due in part to these inhibitions - there are imposed certain kinds of teaching dominated by a materialistic view of man. In such methods the pedagogical and didactic approaches, text-books employed, schemes of work, curricular programmes and school materials deliberately set aside the spiritual nature of the human soul....."

In Conversation with God, Vol. 3 Eleventh Week, Friday

Christ Needs You

Christ needs you, and calls you to help millions of our fellow men to be truly human and to work out their salvation. Live with these noble ideals in your soul....Open your heart to Christ, to the law of love, without placing conditions on your availability, without fear of receiving noncommittal replies, because love and friendship do not vanish over the horizon. [JPII Address in Javier, 6 Nov. '82] They always main their plentitude, for love does not grow old.

St. Thomas teaches that we love someone when we desire the good of that person. If, on the other hand, we try to take advantage of the one concerned, either because it gives us pleasure or because he is of use to us, then properly speaking, we don't love that person: whatever we want, it is not his good. When we love, we desire what is the best for the other; our whole person is directed to this love, independently of our likes or dislikes or moods: the payment and the price of love is to receive more love. [St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, 9, 7]

In Conversation with God, Vol. 3 Twelfth Week, Friday

Catholics for McCain

Love it. God bless him for this honor toward our Blessed Mother.

If you're on Facebook, you can find this group at:
Catholics for McCain (click the title to follow the link).

Happy 15th Birthday, darling daughter Jamie!
God bless you on this special day and always!

Love, Mom!

Happy Fourth of July! God bless you all!

And Happy 175th Birthday to my little town of Minerva.

Hold On to Your "Catholic" Kids

I'm so excited and grateful that one of my blog readers from Michigan, pointed out to me that there is a Hold Onto Your Kids (see book below, next post down), with the Catholic element being implemented. Still based on the principles of Dr. Neufeld's book, you can find this insightful blog at:

Hold On to Your Catholic Kids

They also have a discussion loop by the same name located at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/holdontoyourcatholickids/

Thanks to Mary for the tip!

Blessings!
Denise

I am reading...

Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers
by Dr's Gordon Neufeld, and Gabor Mate

Anyone else reading this one?

1930s Marital Test

80 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Oh my, my friend Esther scored 10 points higher than I! I guess God created me to be present during the 60s and now and not the '30s, for obvious reasons :) Alas, I love the 30s!

Thanks Esther for posting this.

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

Visit: Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, for more information on the saint of the day.

As usual, Oswald Sobrino of Catholic Analysis offers us thoughtful insight in his article:

Replacing Incomplete Catholic Orthodoxy with Full Catholic Orthodoxy

Summer has come to the Village of Minerva...

So much has been happening and I haven't much time to blog these days, but all is well here with the family. We have wrapped up our homeschooling year and this new year brings with it preparations for college for our oldest son. I hope to keep you informed and report back later! :)

In the meantime, we have enjoyed God's blessing us with a seminarian at our parish for the summer. I share with you one of his excellent photos, up above, and two links to read his futher thoughts and see his wonderful photography. His life/vocation story are contained at his blogspot:

The Night is Passing!

and his photoblog:

Mike G's Photos

Michael (Mike) gives permission to use his photos as long as we link back to his photoblog, and I will tell you, his pictures are so wonderful, I had quite a time choosing one to sample at my blog! What is very nice is that you can see my church here in northeastern Ohio and some of it's great stained glass windows and outside features, through Mike's talented lens right at the homepage of his photoblog. Minerva never looked so good....

Thank you Mike!

God bless all my friends ~ keep me in your prayers, you are in mine.

A gentle whisper....?

If you ever google ..."is God trying to tell me something?..", you will not be left unaided. Recently, I have felt more like I need to be listening, quietly, as if God is indeed trying to tell me something. I can't quite place my ears on it...but I'm trying. Somehow, documenting this notion seems to validate it as true. So, I googled....and I read umpteen entries on just this subject. I leave you with just this one to enlighten you ever so gently and quietly:

God's Trying to Tell You Something

"And after the fire came a gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19.11-12)