Happy Thanksgiving

When I was a young teen and into my twenties I was a very rebellious person and ungrateful person. I am not sure really why or what I was rebelling against and why I couldn't be grateful.  I had a wonderful family. Parents who loved me. I just think I didn't know who I was or what I wanted in life or where I was going.

As time went on and many years at that,  I matured and  I came to find that where I was going and what I wanted needed a foundation and that foundation is Jesus Christ. Through the love of Jesus I have found and discovered there are many things to be grateful for. Many things, such as family, shelter, love, faith, Holy Mother Church, the Blessed Mother and most importantly Jesus Christ and what He has done for us and how he pours His love and grace out upon daily.

So, I just want to say to all Happy Thanksgiving and remember there is much to be thankful for but the most important is God's love for us and the way He sent His son to die upon the cross so we can spend eternity with Him.

Please remember in your Thanksgiving prayers those who are suffering and hurting and pray they find food and comfort from friends and family and mostly importantly experience the comfort from our Lord.


Diane

Marriage is a Sacrament

First I want to say that I am in no way an expert on marriage. Far from that but because I am always trying to grow my family closer to God, grow in our relationships I have recently been trying to truly understand what marriage is, according to the Catholic church and what are roles are.

Marriage is a sacrament. The definition of sacrament according to Catholic Reference: A sensible sign, instituted by Jesus Christ, by which invisible grace and inward sanctification are communicated to the soul. The essential elements of a sacrament of the New Law are institution by Christ the God-man during his visible stay on earth, and a sensibly perceptible rite that actually confers the supernatural grace it symbolizes.

What is needed to make a marriage a sacrament is also defined by the Catholic church.

Catechism of the Catholic Church: 1623 According to Latin tradition, the spouses as ministers of Christ's grace mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church. In the tradition of the Eastern Churches, the priests (bishops or presbyters) are witnesses to the mutual consent given by the spouses,¹²⁴ but for the validity of the sacrament their blessing is also necessary. The thing that is needed and is essential to the marriage covenant is the freedom of both the man and woman to express their consent to the covenant. In other words, no one could be forced into a marriage and the sacrament doesn't happen when words are spoken by a priest or when the marriage is consummated but when each person says his vows and makes his commitment to the covenant. This covenant in which a man and woman establish a partnership that embraces their whole lives.

Earlier this week I listened to a talk by Steve Woods from Family Life Center. This was back during the presidency of George W. Bush, so a little ways back. At this time President Bush was trying to defend marriage between one man and one woman. Now Mr. Woods had a good point. He didn't think the president would succeed and he stated that he predicted that in the next several years or so there would be homosexual marriages.  (Well, that has happened). What struck me, though,  in his talk,  "Strengthening Your Marriage" was something else he said and it was that the problem with marriage is not so much homosexuals wanting in as it is heterosexuals wanting out. He reflected back to when Martin Luther penned, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, denying the seven sacraments. Well, he took marriage away from God and gave it to the state. Marriage was instituted by God from the beginning and how sad that we now have to stop and define what marriage is, that the world is trying to make it be what it is not and where will it end? We don't know but without it being a sacrament or under God it can't be good.

So again, according to God's Holy Word:

Matthew 19: 4  -  Have ye not read, that he who made man from the beginning, Made them male and female? And he said:      5 For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh.
6  Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.     

"Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy.  In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats his Church, because it is his body "and we are its living parts" (Ephesians 5:25-30).

There isn't any other way to see marriage, other than a sacrament. Marriage between baptized people is a sacrament, for married love is a sign of Christ's love.

Cleaning for guests

My son is having a party tonight. Several of his friends from his drama club have come over. I am sitting here now listening to the noise of enjoyment and resting because we did a lot to get the house ready for his friends. I usually have a routine that I follow during the week for regular cleaning and after the weekend our house gets pretty messy but today we needed to do a lot of cleaning before our guests came.

I certainly wanted to involve my son in this process, well, because one it is his party and two because he needs to realize that we put our best foot forward when we have guests over. I don't want to get prideful over our home and what we have and look at us kind of thing. That is not the reason for parties. Parties are had because we want to enjoy our friends and want to have them around and enjoy them.

Not too long ago a woman told me she was going to stop cleaning her house when she had company because she did not want to seem prideful and have her guests spending more time looking at her home than enjoying each others company. I thought about that and wondered if that is actually best. When cleaning our home prior to the arrival of guests we are showing hospitality and showing love and consideration for them.

We won't always have opportunity to clean our home before guests knock on our door but if we have the opportunity I feel it does show that we care for them enough to pick things up off of the floor, to sweep, hang our clothes up and put out a few snacks.

Having a routine of cleaning our home can the need to do a rush of cleaning when guests are coming. We are then prepared and able to open our home and show love and hospitality as our Lord has requested of us.

I love to watch old shows. I love old movies and I love all the old sitcoms. I thought today I would watch a Father Knows Best. I first started watching a Christmas episode and then I decided it was too early and thought I would watch a Thanksgiving episode and then I ran across this. Many times people make fun of sitcoms such as Father Know's Best  and maybe especially because they think it is corny but much of what happened in this episode still happens today. Father said something he shouldn't have. He criticized the youngest daughter's poem and hurt the little girl terribly. He needed to apologize and she was very forgiving. Isn't that how we should be of each other in our families. Forgiving. We know we will hurt each other but we learn to be forgiving. Hurting someone as we all do at times and then needing their forgiveness makes us realize how important they are to us.
Father also realized how grateful he was to live in a country where he could pray and worship and have religious freedom and also freedom of speech. This family was very grateful for such things. Things that seem to be at stake for us right now. Things that could be lost in the near future. I hope to remember this Thanksgiving and everyday our freedoms and pray they are maintained and pray through this time of uncertainty over the universal health care and the freedom of the Catholic church that more Catholics will grow in their faith and reach out to the world.

Why modesty?

Pope Benedict XV has taught very clearly about modesty in an encyclical letter (Sacra Propediem, 1921), commemorating the 7th centenary of the founding of the Franciscan Third Order.

"One can not sufficiently deplore the blindness of so many women of every age and station. Made foolish by a desire to please, they do not see to what degree the indecency of their clothing shocks every honest man and offends God. Most of them would formerly have blushed for such apparel as for a grave fault against Christian modesty. Now it does not suffice to exhibit themselves on public thoroughfares; they do not fear to cross the threshold of churches, to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and even to bear the seducing food of shameful passions to the Eucharistic Table, where one receives the Heavenly Author of Purity."

 "women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing" 1 Timothy 2:9.


When talking about modesty, it doesn't necessarily mean dresses. If that were the case a couple of weeks ago when at my son's high school ring day, all the young girls with short skirts and super high heels would be considered modest and the young girls who were in nice slacks would be immodest.

Dresses are feminine, dresses can definitely be a sign of modesty. Nice slacks can be modest also.Tight fitting jeans, though are immodest.

We women have a very hard time with body image. Even young girls do, which is why most dress as they do. They are seeking out affirmation. Problem is, it is the wrong kind of affirmation. It is an affirmation that causes her brothers in Christ to fall into sin, to encourage other women to dress immodest and it is a sense of pride, believing that she made her self as she is and that she will always be that way. 

As a Christian woman grows in Christ she learns that her value is not in the shape of her body, her makeup or how she looks.  Her value is in the Lord. He value comes because she was created in the image of God and loved so much by Him that He sent His son to die for her. When realizing how much she is valued and loved by the Lord she will dress for Him.  Modesty is about love and honor, the love and honor we have for God and our neighbor and ourselves.

Modesty promotes marriage and encourage the marriages around us instead of contributing to tearing them down.

Modesty also promotes friendship, the friendship between women and the friendship between women and men.  Dressing immodest in front of another person's husband or son can cause the wife and mother great distress. Men, also have voiced great upset because of the immodest women and young girls that tempt them into sin.
 Let's encourage women in their honoring of the Lord by the way we dress.

Diane Ruth
 

History of making the Sign of the Cross

 I made the sign of the cross all my life, before and after prayer, when walking into the church and other times when like your scared or in a frightful situation. I never knew why, I was just taught to do that and so that was what I did.  Go to a hockey game or other sporting games and just before some of the players play you will notice someone making the sign of the cross.  Why and where did it start?

In my research I found that  the making of the sign of the cross is most prominent in the Roman Catholic church but is also practiced among the Eastern Orthodox and Episcopalians. I also was able to find that writings regarding the sign of the cross goes back as far as Tertullian, one of  the early church fathers who lived between 160 and 220 A.D. Tertullian wrote, "In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting of our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupieth us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross."           

"Let us not then be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Be the Cross our seal made with boldness by our fingers on our brow and in everything; over the bread we eat, and the cups we drink; in our comings in, and goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we awake; when we are in the way and when we are still. Great is that preservative; it is without price, for the poor's sake; without toil, for the sick, since also its grace is from God. It is the Sign of the faithful, and the dread of evils; for He has triumphed over them in it, having made a shew of them openly; for when they see the Cross, they are reminded of the Crucified; they are afraid of Him, Who hath bruised the heads of the dragon. Despise not the Seal, because of the freeness of the Gift; but for this rather honor thy Benefactor." -- St. Cyril of Jerusalem, A.D. 315 - 386

In the early days of Christianity when persecution was so strong, Christians had to hide their faith. Making the sign of the cross was a way of identifying themselves. One site stated that Christians would use a stick and mark the ground with a cross as identification. Also, I heard one Christian apologetic state that as Christians were being persecuted they would make the sign of the cross to let each other know they were Christians. Considering the persecution they went through at that time knowing another believer was there with you would provide some comfort.

I had a book on Lutheran catechism and was surprised to find that  Martin Luther urged his followers to use the sign. In his Catechism of 1529 he instructed fathers to teach their households the following: "In the morning, when you rise from bed, sign yourself with the holy cross and say, 'In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.'...At night, when you go to bed, sign yourself with the holy cross and say, 'In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.'"
Some of the meanings behind the sign of the cross are first that making the sign of the cross shows a sign of our faith, that we are people of the cross, of Jesus. Second there are different meanings behind the way it is made.

Sometimes you will see a priest or bishop make the sign with one finger, that represents the oneness of God, with two fingers it represents that Jesus is fully God and fully man, three fingers means the Trinity and five fingers as we do it today is to remind us of the five wounds of Christ that were suffered for our sake.
In all the years of my growing up I did not know how this started or what the meaning was besides it was a cross and Jesus died on the cross. For a time because of my lack of knowledge I stopped making the sign of the cross. I did not know where it came from or why Catholics did it or what it meant. For me it was interesting to look this up. I love apologetics and love to read Christian history.  Today we have so many ways to find out truth. The internet has many wary things on it but if you look you can also find historical facts.  It's the writings of the ancient fathers that helped shed light on aspects of faith for me. The study of church history that includes time before the middle ages is what helped me to see what early christianity was and what to look for today.

Diane

Just a little Thanksgiving note

Just a little post with a little link about the first thanksgiving. I love this story. It is pretty interesting.

ttp://www.traditioninaction.org/History/B_005_Onate_Thanksgiving.html

New Site

Blogs like closets can tend to get cluttered, so I wanted to kind of go in a different direction and felt a need for a restart and do some cleaning.  I live in the United States and after our recent election I became very saddened by, not just the election but also the hateful remarks I have seen in our local newspaper and on popular news sites aimed at the Catholic church and our Bishops. It has caused me to realize how much the world is lost and doesn't know what a jewel the Catholic faith is.

Of course, as always, evangelization starts at home, so that is always my main focus. So many women neglect this sacred calling and walk out the doors of their homes daily and forget about their family. I feel this is so sad.  In order to pass the faith on, we must start with out families. I have a teen age son and I am so concerned about the world he is growing up in. He must be strong in the faith. I must be strong in the faith. What a heavy responsibility lies on us to pass that faith on. I hope others will join me in prayers for our families, that we can raise up a generation that will know God's will and do it. 

As we pass this faith on to our children, we and they will be salt and light to the world. People will notice.

I heard someone, who I don't remember his name,  today speaking on Catholic Answers radio say we are in a time now when we must bump up what we are doing. If we pray the rosary once a day, pray it twice. If we go mass once a week, go daily. In other words, do more. God is at work in us. He is faithful. What we give him, he will multiply.

I want to leave you with this promise from our Lord:

Philipians 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he, who hath begun a good work in you, will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus

Hello