How to think about Halloween as a Catholic

By SIMCHA FISHER, CatholicEducation.org

How delightful it is to be Catholic, when so few things are forbidden — so few things are out of the question.

While I was busy rubbing my hands together and thinking about how hilarious and yet subversively informative my post about Halloween costumes was going to be (once I got around to writing it), noted overachieving spoilsport Jimmy Akin went ahead and wrote it. Even worse, the big show-off produced a slick video about it, including some very relevant images of kittens and puppies. He also, without losing his rhythm, got sidetracked by thinking about delicious brains.

Akin makes the sensible point that people are attracted to spooky stuff for a reason — that God made us so that we enjoy small doses of peril and tension, because it prepares us to deal with the real thing, which will surely come along sooner or later. (This is where the adorable and extremely relevant, but adorable fighting kitties comes in.) So as long as we don't spend our lives wallowing in gore and ghoulishness, it's healthy and normal and perfectly fine to indulge in a little dramatic scaring and screaming from time to time. Therefore, spooky Halloween stuff? A-OK.

Akin's point reminds me of something my sister once pointed out: that when Daddy tosses the baby up in the air and baby laughs, it's because there really is a joke there, albeit a very simple one. The situation says, "You're in danger!" but the baby knows, "But it's Daddy! I'm fine!" See? Funny stuff right there, if you're a baby. And a pretty good analogy for the delightfully childlike question, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Whee! There's yet a third answer to the question of whether creepy, gory costumes and other Halloweeny practices (or scary stuff in general) are appropriate for Catholics to indulge in: some Catholics argue, "This isn't just a little holiday from the somber demands of my Faith — it's actually my way of laughing at the devil! I'm spitting in ol' Nick's eye and reaffirming the truth of the triumph of the Resurrection when I . . . um. . . buy this rubber mask of a clown with an axe splitting his forehead open. See? Ad majorem dei gloriam! Wooooooooooooooo!" I used to roll my eyes over these rather contrived arguments, thinking, "Gee whiz, just admit that you want to have fun sometimes, and stop trying to make some big religious deal out of everything."

But honestly, now I think that even overthinking it can be a perfectly legitimate Catholic approach, if that's what appeals to you.

Click here to continue reading.

That's My King

I posted this before, but the high schoolers will hear it on Sunday. Plus, it's just COOL. How could you and I not be inspired by these magnificent poem from Dr. S. M. Lockridge?

The Hour that Matters Most

The following are excerpts from The Hour that Matters Most by Les and Leslie Parrott with Stephanie Allen and Tina Kuna.

When you're at home, you want to breathe deeply, lower your shoulders, and relax. There's a feeling of belonging, acceptance, and contentment. At least there should be. Healthy homes--homes that function as they should--refresh, recharge, and renew. They become places where children's identities find flight and values take root.

For Stephanie Allen, her own home was none of these things. As a busy working mom of two active kids, it was all Stephanie could do to keep up with the demands of the daily schedule. Church youth group, soccer practice, and school activities meant lots of time in the car, and very little time for real interaction among family members.

Stephanie longed for the kinds of relationships she remembered with her own parents and sibling when she was growing up: relationships built on conversation and connection--often forged around the dinner table. She remembered the way her family would linger after a meal just to talk and catch up, and she wished her own family could do the same. But after a long day at work and a couple of hours shuttling kids from one activity to the next, who had time for making elaborate meals? Some days it was all she could do to keep up with everything and get a meal on the table for her family. She realized that she needed a game plan.

Stephanie started meeting with a friend once a month to assemble meals for their families. "It was a great time for us to talk and laugh," Stephanie remembers. "And at the end of the day, we each had a month's worth of meals in our freezers, ready to pull out when we needed them. One less thing to stress about." Those monthly "assembly days" provided a sense of liberation from the dreaded daily chore of scrambling home after work to pull together a wholesome for the family....

"So many moms are working hard and trying to keep up, but it's really difficult," she says. "The bottom line is that we just want to raise great kids."

Creating Comfort
Chicken noodle soup, meatloaf, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, bread pudding, brownies, doughnuts, apple pie. These are commonly referred to as "comfort food," and with good reason. Most of us find great comfort in a tasty meal we've grown up with, a meal that doesn't have to be explained by Gourmet or Saveur magazines.

But true comfort, the kind that heals emotional hurts and turns around bad days, involves far more than our palates. One dictionary defines the word comfort as "a feeling of relief or encouragement," or "contented wellbeing." A quick review of the word's origin, though, uncovers a deeper meaning. We get the verb to comfort from the Latin com- + fortis, meaning "to make strong" (that is, like a fortress).

So to comfort literally means to make someone stronger. And that's exactly what you do for your children. Comfort fortifies their spirits. Whenever you encourage your children with uplifting words, console them with a tender touch, relieve their sorrow with your mere presence, support them with heartfelt praise, or provide a wholesome meal and the love that's served with it, you are helping to make your children strong.

What would strengthen your home?
If you pressed a magic button to instantly strengthen your home, what would it do? We don't mean the physical house. We mean the feeling, the chemistry, and the climate of the relationships within it. We're talking about the spirit of your home.

Would you want it to include more laughter? Meaningful and engaging conversations? Vulnerability and respect? Mutual support? These are the things most parents mention. And if you're like the hundreds of parents we've surveyed, you're likely to sum up the desire your have for your home by saying you want it to be the safest place on earth....

...Understanding what makes a healthy home is not the same as building one. That requires being proactive. And in the pressure cooker of our busy daily lives, being proactive is where most of us get bogged down. When emotions are frazzled, bills are mounting, and time is in short supply, doing something proactive can be the last thing on our minds.

But what if that doing were actually easier than you imagined? What if it took less time and were simpler than you could even believe?

That's where the hour that matters most comes in. Countless studies have shown that if parents could take only one proactive and practical step to engender family commitment, appreciation, affection, positive communication, time together, and all the rest, it would be to establish a regular dinnertime around a common table without distraction. One hour a few times a week. That's it.

Click here to learn more about The Hour that Matters Most.

Mother Teresa on God, Love and Charity

These are quotations from Mother Teresa: Her Essential Wisdom, edited by Carol Kelly-Gangi.

I can understand the greatness of God but I cannot understand his humility. It becomes so clear in him being in love with each one of us separately and completely. It is as if there is no one but me in the world. He loves me so much. Each one of us can say this with great conviction.

Do we believe that God's love is infinitely more powerful, his mercy more tender than the evil of sin, than all the hatred, conflicts, and tensions that are dividing the world? Than the most powerful bombs and guns ever made by human hands and minds?

Don't allow anything to interfere with your love for Jesus. You belong to him. Nothing can separate you from him. That one sentence is important to remember. He will be your joy, your strength. If you hold into that sentence, temptations and difficulties will come, but nothing will break you. Remember, you have been created for great things.

Don't search for Jesus in far lands--he is not there. He is close to you; he is with you. Just keep the lamp burning and you will always see him. Keep on filling the lamp with all these little drops of love, and you will see how sweet is the Lord you love.

We are able to go through the most terrible places fearlessly because Jesus in us will never deceive us; Jesus is our love, our strength, our joy, and our compassion.

Jesus loved us to the end, to the very limit, dying on the cross. We must have this same love which comes from within, from our union with Christ. Such love must be as normal to us as living and breathing.

Let us not be afraid to be humble, small, helpless to prove our love for God. The cup of water you give the sick, the way you lift a dying man, the way you feed a baby, the way you teach a dull child, the way you give medicine to a sufferer of leprosy, the joy with which you smile at your own at home--all this is God's love in the world today.

We have to love until it hurts. It is not enough to say, "I love." We must put that love into a living action. And how do we do that? By giving until it hurts.

True love causes pain. Jesus, in order to give the proof of his love, died on the cross. A mother, in order to give birth to her baby, has to suffer. If you really love one another, you will not be able to avoid making sacrifices.

Love is, just like Christ himself showed with his death, the greatest gift.

Love is not patronizing and charity isn't about pity, it is about love. Charity and love are the same--with charity, you give love, so don't just give money but reach out your hand instead.

I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds. Yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.

The words of Jesus, "Love one another as I have loved you," must be not only a light for us but a flame that consumes the self in us. Love, in order to survive, must be nourished by sacrifices, especially the sacrifice of self.

We should always ask ourselves, "Have I really experienced the joy of loving?" True love is love that causes us pain, that hurts, and yet brings us joy. That is why we must pray and ask for the courage to love.

Reptile Adventures

 

A couple guests slithered into OLV Teen last night. Thanks to Reptile Adventures for making our snake-themed night a success. If you are interested in having Reptile Adventures for your birthday, school event, or any other function, visit their website or Facebook page. You can also email them at info@reptileadventures.org or call at 863-1192.

See more images from the night on our Facebook page.

Pigs

October Parent Newsletter

Our October Parent Newsletter went to inboxes last week, but if you missed it, you can always look on the newsletters page on this blog. Click here to view the newsletter and all the good tidbits inside. Thanks for reading and supporting our youth in their faith formation.

What Scares Us About Confession

 

By Tylor Starkey on The Catholic Dormitory

I remember a dear friend who, when in the process of converting, was dreading her first confession. So much so that, when the time came, she was crying the entire way to the confessional. She was scared, confused, and she didn’t entirely know why. Afterwards, she confided that she didn’t want to have to go to the priest, to Christ, and lay out all the things she had done. She didn’t want to seem like a bad person and she knew that’s exactly what she sounded like.

What terrifies us so much about our own sins? To the point that we often cast blame on others for our transgressions, we downplay their importance or even convince ourselves that they weren’t really sins at all. We convince ourselves that we’re not “that bad”. We try to make it seem like we didn’t have a choice or we didn’t really know what we were doing.

We’ve all heard the lines… Maybe I’ll go to the next parish over where I don’t know the priest that well. Maybe I’ll just leave out how many times I’ve done that particular sin. Maybe I’ll talk a bit lower so Father won’t be able to tell it’s me.

Why do we do these things to ourselves? When I was a recent convert, I remember thinking that, surely, these priests have better things to do than listen to my confession. Surely they don’t want to hear all the bad things I’ve done or how often I’ve failed myself and God. The longer I’ve been in Seminary, however, I’ve learned to look at it a bit differently. Here’s an example:

A friend of mine was recently ordained to the priesthood. During a summer camp for high school youth, a month and a half after his ordination, he set up for the night to hear confessions. And these kids lined up out the door. He heard confessions for hours, by himself. After a long night I went to get him, telling him he’d seen everyone. He took off his stole, looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Brother, there is a life after Seminary, and it is magnificent”. He was exhausted, sweating and smiling ear to ear.

I’ve heard from so many priests that the one time they feel most like a priest is in the confessional. Don’t believe me? Ask any of them.

Click here to continue reading.

A to-do list for college-bound seniors

From the Idaho Statesman and McClatchy Newspapers. See this article in its original form here.

Here's some of what high school seniors are thinking about when they're not doing homework, participating in their extracurricular activities, hanging with friends, sleeping, eating or texting: their college list, testing, campus visits, applications, essays, transcripts, activity list, letters of recommendation and scholarships.

• Let's try to destress the situation by creating a fall timeline and breaking each of these bigger tasks into more manageable pieces:
• Finalize the college list, making certain it is balanced with reach/target/safety schools. Be sure to include an in-state safety school for financial reasons.
• Review the standardized testing calendar and register for the SAT in October, November or December or the ACT in October or December.
• Find out whether any colleges on your list recommend or require SAT Subject Tests and register for the tests.
• Check your school's calendar for and take advantage of any teacher work days to schedule campus visits.
• See whether any colleges you're considering offer open house dates or discovery days for seniors.
• Determine which schools offer early action.
• Decide whether a binding early decision option at one college makes sense.
• Figure out which of the colleges on your final list are on the Common Application and which are not.
• Research the number of essays required or recommended by each college and create a document for each college listing their essay prompts and deadlines.
• Set up accounts on each college's website.
• Create a document to keep track user names and passwords for each college.
• Prepare a timeline of activity based on each college's deadline (i.e., don't work on the Common Application if none of your early-action colleges accept the Common Application).
• Brainstorm essay ideas for colleges with the earliest deadlines.
• Write a first draft of essays. Edit essays and edit again. Ask a trusted source to review essays.
• Meet with college representatives when they visit your school.
• Review and order high school transcripts. Find out how your high school sends transcripts to each college. Most high schools transmit transcripts electronically.
• Prepare your resume/brag sheet/activity list and give it to your references.
• Research which colleges accept letters of recommendation, how many they require and how many they will accept.
• Ask teachers, coaches, advisers and employers for letters of recommendation.
• Begin researching scholarships.

Faith Like a Mustard Seed

Remember that having faith small as a mustard seed is not a place to cease following the Lord but to put our deepest selves into learning to love the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and our neighbor. Mustard seeds grow into magnificent trees when treated with care and cultivated.