More Pasch

Because Easter is a 50-day season, I'm saving up some Easter posts I came across for future reflection!

Enough of Weariness and Dreariness at Laudator Temporis Acti

Education Objective, Not Subjective at A Full LIfe

Behold! All Things Have Become New at Short on Words

Happy Easter at Susan's Soliloquy

Reality at Naru Hodo

Victimae Paschali laudes at Leave the lights on

O Death, where is thy sting? at Running River Latin School

Easter Resolutions at Two-Thirds Unschooling

Final Thoughts on Eggs at Waltzing Matilda

The Courage to Do Good at Orwell's Picnic


(By the way, I've been using this Next feature well described by the Bookworm. At first I wasn't sure if I liked it, but I am finding it easier and less overwhelming than looking at the huge number of unread blogposts when I load up my Reader. The one disadvantage is that there's no one-click "share" feature. I always click "share" whenever I want to mark a blog-post to remember and look at again, so now that I'm hitting "next" instead, I don't have an easy way to remember what posts I particularly liked. Still, the ease of use of the Next feature is very attractive and as the Bookworm says, it's fun to see all the pretty templates and easier to leave comments this way.)

Surrexit Christus spes mea!

"The Easter proclamation spreads throughout the world with the joyful song of the Alleluia. Let us sing it with our lips, and let us sing it above all with our hearts and our lives, with a manner of life that is "unleavened", that is to say, simple, humble, and fruitful in good works. "Surrexit Christus spes mea: precedet suos in Galileam" – Christ my hope is risen, and he goes before you into Galilee. The Risen One goes before us and he accompanies us along the paths of the world. He is our hope, He is the true peace of the world. Amen!"

From Pope Benedict XVI's Easter homily today. (HT: Blog by the Sea)

The reference to unleavened bread comes from Scripture:

“This boasting of yours is an ugly thing. Do you not know that a little leavening has its effect all through the dough? Get rid of the old leavening to make yourselves fresh dough, unleavened loaves, as it were; Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Let us celebrate the feast not with the old leavening, that of corruption and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (I Cor. 5:6-8).

“Be on guard against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Lk. 12:1).

“They finally realized he was not issuing a warning against leavening, used for bread, but against the Pharisees' and the Sadducees' teaching” (Mt. 16:12).

You can see from those what "unleavened" lives look like -- as the Pope says:

simple, humble, and fruitful in good works

So that is #1 on my examen! Believe me, I have a ways to go!

(ETA: Fr Jaki quote on the Pasch and the Papacy, at GKC's Favourite -- seems to relate a bit to this leavening theme).

Liturgical Year Examen -- Easter

Good idea over here at Conversion Diary.

I love chances to take stock and think where I've gone and where I should go.

At least it might help stop me from eating way too many of those Cadbury Mini-Eggs.

Fought Out On a Spring Morning

This post Resurrection and Hope at Quiddity reminded me of the chapter of Creed in Slow Motion that I just read to Kieron last week. A couple of excerpts:

The species goes on, but what about the individual? Does Death triumph here, too? Does immortality belong only to the race, or can the individual human being look forward, somehow, to immortality?

That issue, too, was fought out on a spring morning. There's a fascinating verse of St. Matthew, just after his description of how St. Joseph of Arimathea took our Lord's body and buried it. "But there were two who sat on opposite the tomb, Mary Magdalen and the other Mary with her." They cannot drag themselves away, spectators of the great world conflict between life and death, which has now reached its final round. If nothing happens on Easter Morning, then it is all over; there is no hope left for human hearts. Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando, says the Easter sequence; "Life and Death met in wondrous combat". And the darkness fell, and the sabbath dawned; and you were not allowed to go out and look at the tomb on the sabbath. But as soon as the grey twilight of Sunday morning came, Mary Magdalen and the other Mary were there, with their spices. And they looked, to find the stone rolled away, and the soldiers asleep, and the tomb empty.

and this following part reminded Brendan and Clare and me of some of the things Chesterton said; not surprising, since Ronald Knox was led to the Catholic Church by Chesterton and gave his requiem mass:

But at the root of it all. you see, baptism has made a permanent difference: we are no longer what we were. The devil had a natural claim over us, so to speak, until the day when we were christened; now he hasn't, now it is Christ who has the natural claim over us. Life has triumphed over death in our souls. Grace has been implanted in us, a principle of supernatural life, a seed that sprang from our Lord's tomb. That garden of the Resurrection was the nursery garden of the whole Church. And that's why we must never allow ourselves to grow despondent over our sins, even when we find ourselves falling into them again and again; there's something in us stronger than sin, Divine grace, which is always thrusting up like a plant rooted in our souls, always claiming us for itself. There is no autumn in your soul; as long as you believe in Jesus Christ and in what his Resurrection has done for you, it is always spring.

And just as Christ, by rising again, has planted this irresistible principle of victory in your soul and mine, so by his rising again he has planted an irresistible principle of victory in his Church. Again and again, when you read the history of the Church, you will come across periods when it looks as if the whole thing was no use, and there was nothing for her but to chuck up the sponge; the world keeps on persecuting her, and it seems bound to get her down. You see it in the Dark Ages, when the barbarians invaded Europe; you see it at the time of the Reformation, when half of Europe was torn away from her influence; you see it at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, when it looked for a moment as if religion had ceased to count. You will live your life, maybe, in equally troubled times, when it will look as if everything we Catholics care for were going under. But the Church is the Church of the Risen Christ, and till the end of time every death she undergoes will be the prelude to a resurrection.

The Heart of a Father and Teacher

Enjoy yourself as much as you like - if only you keep from sin. -- John Bosco.

St John Bosco is a particular friend of our family's. For one thing, my husband's birthday is today, on John Bosco's feast day. I don't think it's an accident! for in many ways my husband's way of doing things reminds me of the kind saint who evangelized through fun and laughter and games as much as by an honorable way of life and a kind of strict loving standard in his fathering that doesn't really need many words or overt disciplining tactics to be an excellent influence on his children.

(Happy Birthday Dear Husband)

There is some information about John Bosco's life at Catholic Culture.Pope John Paul II named Don Bosco "teacher and father to the young." This punctuates his life witness and teachings as recommendable to all teachers and parents.

He is the patron of schoolchildren and the young folk.

Son of Venerable Margaret Bosco. John's father died when the boy was 2 years old, and as soon as he was old enough to do odd jobs, he did so for extra money for his family. Bosco would go to circuses, fairs and carnivals, practice the tricks he saw magicians perform, and then present one-boy shows. After his performance, while he still had an audience of boys, he would repeat the homily he had heard earlier in church.

From this site about Blessed Luigi Guanella and St John Bosco:

"There I had the example of so many virtues, and the spiritual direction of Don Bosco who did so much good to all. Don Bosco's heart was like a magnet which drew all to himself; his words, few and well-pondered, were as lightning flashes to the mind. My eternal gratitude to Don Bosco and his works."

From this Life of St John Bosco

The greatest heritage that Don Bosco left the Church was his "preventive system" for the education of youth. When asked for the secret of his success, which transformed big institutions into a family of love, he answered with three words: reason, religion and kindness. When reasoning is used instead of threats, when God is the housemaster and when there is no fear but rather love, the end result is a true family.

A letter written by John Bosco near the end of his life described his attitude towards the boys from the streets he provided for:

Let us place ourselves in their service. Let us be ashamed to assume an attitude of superiority. Let us not rule over them except for the purpose of serving them better.

This was the method that Jesus used with the apostles. He put up with their ignorance and roughness and even their infidelity. He treated sinners with a kindness and affection that caused some to be shocked, others to be scandalised, and still others to hope for God’s mercy. And so he bade us to be gentle and humble of heart.

They are our sons, and so in correcting their mistakes we must lay aside all anger and restrain it so firmly that it is extinguished entirely.

There must be no hostility in our minds, no contempt in our eyes, no insult on our lips. We must use mercy for the present and have hope for the future, as is fitting for true fathers who are eager for real correction and improvement.

In serious matters it is better to beg God humbly than to send forth a flood of words that will only offend the listeners and have no effect on those who are guilty.

There are more details about John Bosco's method of Preventive Discipline in this pdf.
And here is another pdf, an article by Katherine O'Brien-Johnston -- Christlike Discipline.

And more here from the Salesians -- how a saint corrected children (another interesting connection -- that one of my heroes, St Francis de Sales, was the inspiration for St John Bosco in his gentle, loving and high-expecting style of guidance)

This saint of the day site about Bosco quotes GK Chesterton in reference to education:

“Every education teaches a philosophy; if not by dogma then by suggestion, by implication, by atmosphere. Every part of that education has a connection with every other part. If it does not all combine to convey some general view of life, it is not education at all” (G.K. Chesterton, The Common Man).

Finally, we have a little book around the house called The Life of Dominic Savio. It is a biography, BY St John Bosco, ABOUT one of the boys in his school, who is also now a canonized saint. So it is a saint's life written by a saint, which makes it unusual. Here is an online version of the book. The book made an impression on my oldest son, so much so that Dominic Savio is his confirmation patron. (And St Francis de Sales is my second-born son's confirmation patron).

God of mercy, You called Saint John Bosco to be a father and teacher of the young. Grant that inspired by his ardent charity we may serve You alone and never tire of bringing others to Your Kingdom.

St John Bosco, pray for us!

ETA: There is a good article about John Bosco at Castle of the Immaculate

Epiphany

Today is officially the feast day of the Epiphany, though it's not really the traditional Epiphany day, and it is a turning point -- bringing our holidays to a close and starting us back to our ordinary lives.

Next Week:

• Sean will return to school
• Liam has one more week at home, but he will probably be busy -- programming to do, thesis to write, book to read.
• We will return to homeschooling, probably transitioning back in slowly.
• I'll be cleaning the house, which needs it.
  

Today and tomorrow I am going to make some sort of start simply by picking up things that are out of place and restoring them to their places. This usually works to get me re-engaged with how the house works. Putting away the baskets of folded laundry might help, too. And I will start putting away the Christmas decorations, which is always a bit sorrowful.

Today I hope to:

• Play Robo-Rally with the boys.
• Make pizza.
• Keep the fire going.
• Finish Kant and the Nineteenth Century (I have typed this enough times so that it sounds like a rock band name).
• Keep an eye on Aidan (he seemed to have a partial seizure this morning -- he has these very infrequently, about twice a year. I am never QUITE sure it is indeed a seizure, but he used to have scary full-blown ones, usually entailing an ambulance trip and sometimes a respirator. These ones look like the very beginnings of the old complete seizures -- he gags, gets disoriented and starts repeating the same sentence over and over -- but he pulls back out of them himself whereas he used to go into grand mal. We'll take the improvement! But anyway, he seems totally back to normal and is laughing up a storm and "buzzing" -- his word for bugging-- his dad and siblings).

I am up to Charles Peirce and William James in the philosophy book. Pierce is said to be a "realist" in that he did believe in objective reality, not just subjective perceptions. He rejected Descartes' approach and went back to the notion of metaphysics as "scientia generalis".

'The business of metaphysics is to study the most general features of reality and real objects."

Peirce and James were Pragmatists, of which school the Catholic Encyclopedia says:

Knowledge begins with sense-impressions. At this point the Pragmatist falls into his initial error, an error, however, of which the idealistic Intellectualist is also guilty. What we are aware of, say both the Pragmatist and the Idealist, is not a thing, or a quality of an object, but the state of self, the subjective condition, the "sensation of whiteness", the "sensation of sweetness" etc. This error, fatal as it is, need not detain us here, because, as has been said, it is common to Idealists and Pragmatists. It is, in fact, the luck-less Cartesian legacy to all modern systems.

St. Thomas says:

Cognition is brought about by the presence of the known object in the knowing mind. But the object is in the knower after the fashion of the knower. Hence, for any knower, knowledge is after the fashion of his own nature (Summa theol., I, Q. xii, a. 4).

So acknowledging that perception is filtered through the subjective, does not necessarily mean that reality proceeds from the subject.

But starting with the subject and his reasoning or experiential process ends up casting radical doubt on even that much. This is the legacy. Nietzsche wrote about a man biting off a snake's head and springing up victorious. But in fact, I think the snake bites the man's head off, and the man seems to feel better without his head troubling him any longer.

(sigh)

To try to wrap this up a bit, if you look at the etymology of epiphany as Greek meaning "to manifest" or "to show" and consider that "ancient Liturgies speak of Illuminatio, Manifestatio, Declaratio" -- all these terms speak of a relationship between something that can be known, and the potential knower (and in these terms, of course, a communicator is also implied -- in one case the communication is by means of lighting the darkness, in one it is a primarily visual appearance, in one it is an auditory telling).

In other words there is no proceeding from the mind of the knower. Rather, the reality is proceeding *from* the outside and by some conveyance process making it possible for the subject, the individual, to know. Empirical reality is conveyed through the senses, but we have knowledge that is not understood directly through the senses. Even empiricists trust in processes that do not derive strictly from phenomena and our perceptions of them. Peirce, who was trying to reclaim this traditional understanding -- he thought of himself as philosophically in the tradition of the Scholastics, though his philosophy differed from theirs as I am understanding it -- saw it as necessary to reclaim metaphysics as well.

I think that is where my thought process as a teenager probably diverged from Descartes' and his followers in Western philosophy. ... though I still get muddled with the details of the western philosophy. But anyway, what I was trying to think through was not a fundamental skepticism but a way of increasing certitude by disallowing alternatives or doubts.

The Catholic Encyclopedia article on knowledge expresses it this way:

Truth and certitude are conditions of knowledge. A man may mistake error for truth and give his unreserved assent to a false statement. He may then be under the irresistible illusion that he knows, and subjectively the process is the same as that of knowledge; but an essential condition is lacking, namely, conformity of thought with reality, so that there we have only the appearance of knowledge. On the other hand, as long as any serious doubt remains in his mind, a man cannot say that he knows. "I think so" is far from meaning "I know it is so"; knowledge is not mere opinion or probable assent.

It goes on to say more about the standings of belief and faith as related to knowledge, which is interesting, but doesn't quite relate to the thread of thought here.

But back to epiphany -- as a Truth to be known, revealed or manifested to the knower. There is still a personal aspect there, but the Thing that is to be Known in no way depends on whether the individual actually DOES know it. I think that was always a given in my mind as much as the First Cause, so the way my mental process worked, if I could show myself that my consciousness was not a hallucination and that it did not come from itself, then I could eliminate the problem of subjectivism from my thinking and avoid that loop of self-referentialism.

Hmm, that makes a bit of sense to me, though I don't know if it is expressed well enough to make sense to anyone besides myself.

Anyway, a blessed feast day to all!

Sierra Minutiae

My brother-in-law made a drink called Atholl Brose and handed it out in bottles to the family clan. It's pretty good, at least I think so, at least the slightly-over-half of me that is Scottish. I think it's a bit like mead.

You make it like this (at least the individual portions -- he must have multiplied it):

Ingredients:

• 3 rounded tablespoons of medium oatmeal
• 2 tablespoons heather honey
• Scotch whisky

Method:
The oatmeal is prepared by putting it into a basin and mixing with cold water until the consistency is that of a thick paste. Leave for half an hour and then put through a fine strainer, pressing with a wooden spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Throw away the oatmeal and use the creamy liquor from the oatmeal for the brose.

Mix four dessert spoonfuls of pure honey and four sherry glassfuls of the prepared oatmeal and stir well. (Purists insist on a silver spoon for stirring!) Put into a quart bottle and fill with malt whisky; shake before serving.

Ha ha, now where is my claymore?


Clare did a Pygmalion photo shoot today, with Liam; Kieron took most of the pictures, I took some; they are here. We had a lot of fun. I took this photo of Clare uploading photos; it turned out soft focus because of the light, but I thought it was cute -- the basket, the old-fashioned flower girl clothes, and the laptop.

I wish there more than just two more proper days of the holiday -- on Monday, Sean goes back to school, and though Liam has one more week, he has to start buckling down to get things done before he takes the train ride back.

(sigh)

I am learning Flash.... using this ActionScript 3.0 Game Programmer's University -- and I finished my first lesson today. Fun!

I did the first day of my January Challenge -- and did all right, not great. It will be easier when the candy and honey oatmeal liquors are gone.

Kevin and the teenagers have been watching Errol Flynn movies the past few days -- Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk.

Did I say that I wish there were more days of holiday left? Christmas isn't officially over until Epiphany. But maybe Paddy will be better off with less screen time and sugar so readily available.

Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and the Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon. -- Henry Higgins.

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas to all!

A Spiritual Christmas Crib

I think my friend Chari sent this out quite a long time ago -- she got it from a book or from someone else -- I suppose that covers all the possibilities : ). It is so sweet. I posted it three years ago at my household blog but thought I would put it over here now. Are We There Yet? posted an idea for making it hands-on for little ones. If you want a simple little set of cut-outs on the Nativity, look at Papertoys. The printable is in PDF or gif form, colorised or black and white.

The following directions show you how to build a spiritual crib in your heart for Christ. Use it to put Christ into your Christmas in a real, living way. Start on December 1. Read the thought indicated about Christ's first crib. Practice it during the day. Do this daily during December and make your heart a worthy crib for Christ on Christmas Day.

DEC.1 - THE STABLE
Frequently during the day offer your heart to the little Infant Jesus. Ask Him to make it His home. --Sweet Jesus, take my heart and make it meek and pure.

DEC.2 - THE ROOF
See that the roof of the stable is in good condition, so that the Infant Jesus is protected from rain and snow. This you will do by carefully avoiding every uncharitable remark. --Jesus, teach me to love my neighbor as myself.

DEC.3 - CREVICES
Carefully stop every crevice in the walls of the stable, so that the wind and cold may not enter there. Guard your senses against temptations. Guard especially your ears against sinful conversations. --Jesus, help me to keep temptations out of my heart.

DEC.4 - COBWEBS
Clean the cobwebs from your spiritual crib. Diligently remove from your heart every inordinate desire of being praised. Renew this intention at least three times today. --My Jesus, I want to please You in all I do today.

DEC.5 - FENCE
Build a fence about the crib of your heart by keeping a strict watch over your eyes, especially at prayer. --Sweet Jesus, I long to see You.


DEC. 6 - MANGER
Fix the best and warmest corner of your heart for the manger of Jesus. You will do so by abstaining from what you like most in the line of comfort and amusement. --Mary, use these sacrifices to prepare my heart for Jesus in Holy Communion.

DEC.7 - HAY
Supply the manger of your heart with hay, by overcoming all feelings of pride, anger or envy. --Jesus, teach me to know and correct my greatest sins.

DEC.8 - SOFT STRAW
Also provide your manger with soft straw by performing little acts of mortification; for instance, bear the cold without complaints; or sit and stand erect. --Dear Jesus, Who suffered so much for me, let me suffer for love of You.

DEC.9 - SWADDLING CLOTHES
Prepare these for the Divine Infant by folding your hands when you pray, and praying slowly and thoughtfully. --Jesus, let me love you more and more.

DEC.10 - BLANKETS
Provide the manger of your with soft warm blankets. Avoid harsh and angry words; be kind and gentle to all. --Jesus, help me to be meek and humble like You.

DEC.11 - FUEL
Bring fuel to the crib of Jesus. Give up your own will; obey your superiors cheerfully and promptly. --Jesus, let me do Your will in all things.

DEC.12 - WATER
Bring fresh, clean water to the crib. Avoid every untruthful word and every deceitful act. --Dearest Mary, obtain for me true contrition for my sins.

DEC.13 - PROVISIONS
Bring a supply of food to the crib. Deprive yourself of some food at mealtime or candy as a treat.
--Jesus, be my strength and nourishment.

DEC.14 - LIGHT
See that the crib has sufficient light. Be neat and orderly about your person; keep everything in its place in your room. --Jesus, be the life and light of my soul.

DEC.15 - FIRE
Take care to have the crib of your heart warmed by a cozy fire. Be grateful to God for the love He has shown us in becoming man; behave with grateful respect towards your parents and relatives. --Jesus, how can I return Your love; how can I show my gratitude to You?

DEC.16 - THE OX
Lead the ox to the crib. Obey cheerfully without making excuses and without asking "why."
--I will obey for love of You, Jesus.

DEC.17 - THE DONKEY
Bring the donkey to the crib. Offer to the Divine Infant your bodily strength; use it in the service of others. --Jesus, accept my service of love; I offer it for those who do not love You.

DEC.18 - GIFTS
Gather some presents for the Divine Infant and His Blessed Mother. Give alms for the poor and say an extra decade of the rosary. --Come, Jesus, to accept my gifts and to take possession of my heart.

DEC.19 - LAMBS
Strive to bring some little lambs, meek and patient. Do not murmur or complain. --Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Yours.

DEC.20 - SHEPHERDS
Invite the shepherds to pay homage to our newborn King. Imitate their watchfulness; stress in your speech and thoughts the idea that Christmas is important because Jesus will be born again in you. --Jesus, teach me to love You above all things.

DEC.21 - THE KEY
Provide the stable with a key to keep out thieves. Exclude from your heart every sinful thought, every rash judgment. -- Dear Jesus, close my heart to all that hurts You.

DEC.22 - ANGELS
Invite the angels to adore God with you. Cheerfully obey the inspirations of your guardian angel and of your conscience. --Holy Guardian Angel, never let me forget that you are with me always.

DEC.23 - ST. JOSEPH
Accompany Saint Joseph from door to door. Learn from him silently and patiently to bear refusals and disappointments. Open wide your heart and beg him to enter with the Blessed Virgin Mary. --Saint Joseph, help me to prepare for a worthy Christmas Communion.

DEC.24 - THE BLESSED VIRGIN
Go meet your Blessed Mother. Lead her to the manger of your heart and beg her to lay the Divine Infant in it. Shorten your chats and telephone conversations and spend more time today thinking of Jesus and Mary and Joseph. --Come, dear Jesus,
Come; my heart belongs to You.


"Devotions in Preparation for the Coming of the Christchild, and at the Crib, from Christmas to Purification" by Rev. Frederic Nelson, published by Marian House, Powers Lake, ND 5877

Hidden Treasure of Glaston

During Easter break I finished reading THe Hidden Treasure of Glaston to Kieron. It was a good read (see Amazon reviews and there's also a review at Love2Learn (scroll down)). It was a nice time of year to read it, during Lent, because it sort of moves in its plot from winter to spring, from a quest to its fulfillment. In fact, one of the chapters contains a vibrant description of Holy Week and the Triduum in the abbey.

There is some information about Glaston Abbey here, and here.
There are pictures here, and I had Kieron read about the history and archaelogy of the abbey.

He also read about monastery life and order from several sources, including What your Fourth Grader Needs to Know, and the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, and Old World and America.

In one of those nice life coincidences, Liam was visiting a Benedictine Monastery in Oklahoma during the same time as we were finishing reading the book. Connections! Also, from the library arrived today Into Great Silence, which I've had recommended to me by several people. I hope to get the other kids to watch it with me and get some idea of the monastic life in visual form.

The book is rather satisfying philosophically because the Holy Grail and Excalibur are of course symbols -- icons -- as well as real objects in the history of the Abbey. Old books become an icon during the course of the book too.

I had hoped to get around to working a bit on calligraphy while we read the book and also some illuminating, since this is a big interest of mine from way back, but we didn't. However, earlier this year Kieron had read Across a Dark and Wild Sea about St Columcille and during this time he made his own ink and did some calligraphy in the uncial form.

Kieron is a wonderful kid to do these kind of loose rabbit trails with. I suggest books for him to read or sometimes just leave them lying around, and often he thinks up his own projects, and he always is at least willing to consider my suggestions (which I make in sympathy with his interest in hands-on, artistic or scientific type projects).

To be philosophical for a moment, I notice that once I get a good working relationship going with the individual child, learning becomes a lot easier and more delightful. Liam and I had a very dialectical relationship. My learning relationship with Brendan really took off the year I started a literature/map/history type unit approach. With Clare I learned to back off, and rely on encouragement and inspiration and sometimes a casual suggestion in the line of what she is interested in. Sean is extremely concrete and likes to "get it done". I've learned to work with his desire for efficiency and also give him good books and pretty much let him alone to develop his own relationship with them. I can tell how interested he is in a book by how fast he gets through it. I have learned from all of them how to learn and they also teach me a lot in their areas of interest. This is something Dorothy Sayers mentions as a natural result of real education in her essay The Lost Tools of Learning.

The little ones -- I'm not quite sure yet. And anyway, this line of thought is getting far away from the original Hidden Treasure. But one thing about the little ones -- they were really listening to a good part of this book. It is meant for ages 10 and up; I never would have thought of sitting down with Aidan and Paddy to read a book like this one, so far beyond their comprehension level. But they actually did absorb bits of it. Aidan loved shouting "Mystery of the Abbey!" whenever I said Abbey, and for some reason (I think it was the way his hair looked in the illustrations) the main character Hugh made him think of his young friend Malachy, so he corrected me, "Malachy!" every time I said Hugh. So he was listening and enjoying himself even if he wasn't getting everything out of it that Kieron was ;-).

This kind of receptive learning reminded me of when I read some of the Holling C Holling books to Sean, who was about six at the time, with 3 year old Kieron gravitating around us. A year later Kieron could narrate sections of Seabird, to my amazement. I guess interest across the age range is one of the "hidden treasures" of the homeschool.

Every Face I Look At

Every Face I Look at Seems Beautiful -- the title alone is worth contemplating, and the post by Lissa is a treasure. The comments are fascinating, too. I have only just skimmed them because I am still trying to stay off blogs for Lent, but I am looking forward to browsing through next week when we have our spring break.

I came to Lissa's post by way of Amy's at Epiphany Springs; Amy with her thorough-going honesty brought up some questions she has about just HOW to cultivate patience, particularly in a houseful of high-needs kids. There are interesting comments there, too.

I hope you are having a blessed Triduum. Speaking of beauty in a face -- we participated in our tiny local church's Way of the Cross on Good Friday yesterday, and this meditation and prayer by Pope Benedict XVI particularly struck me:

From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. 53:2-3

He had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

From the Book of Psalms. 27:8-9

You have said, “Seek my face”. My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek”. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Cast me not off, forsake me not, O God of my salvation.

Lord, grant us restless hearts, hearts which seek your face. Keep us from the blindness of heart which sees only the surface of things. Give us the simplicity and purity which allow us to recognize your presence in the world. When we are not able to accomplish great things, grant us the courage which is born of humility and goodness. Impress your face on our hearts. May we encounter you along the way and show your image to the world.

This evening we have the privilege of participating in an Easter Vigil mass up at our "station church" -- this is a first and we are looking forward to it. My daughter will be cantoring, and my two sons will be altar servers and help light the candles for our procession into the church (actually a chapel).

My oldest son Liam is spending the Triduum and Easter at a Benedictine monastery in Oklahoma with some other students on retreat, discerning his vocation. Please pray for his discernment and safe travels and for all of us, and I will be praying for you.

Merry Christmas!!!

Looking into Eternity

But for those first affections,
Those shadowy recollections,
Which, be they what they may,
Are yet the fountain light of all our day,
Are yet a master light of all our seeing;
Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake,
To perish never

---Wordsworth, Intimations of Immortality

My youngest, Patrick, turned five last week and I am noticing he is every day less of a baby. He can see beyond his own day to day concerns, and think about how and why things are.

One example -- our Tintin comics, which he loves me to read to him, are often missing their first and last pages on account of much thumbing through the years by several older siblings. The one he picked today started on page five, giving a new meaning to "in media res". He raised his eyebrows at where the story started (with the detectives arresting the hero) and asked, "Is that really where it starts?" When I showed him the page number he said, "Oh -- so the page before that was where they found him?"

Later on he asked me (when Tintin gets swamped by a wave and wakes up on board a fishing ship) "Is he still hungry?"

"What do you mean? Why would he be hungry?"

He flipped back a page (a page is a long time in the eventful life of our hero) to where, before the storm came up, Tintin was fishing for something to eat and could only hook a giant shark.

"Oh, I see. I guess he must still be hungry. Later on he probably got something to eat in one of the parts that the book doesn't show."

He seemed OK with that.

When I was cuddling him to sleep a bit later we got started talking about grandparents. He is fascinated now with relationships. Who is Mama's Dad and mom? Are those the ones you went to see in Alaska? Who are their mom and dad? Somehow the hidden truth about our lives came out. Grandma and Grandpa's mom and dad are dead. Old people die. In fact, everybody dies eventually.

This was when I really saw him as not-a-baby-anymore. His face flushed, his eyes got bright with unshed tears, and the corners of his mouth turned down. He twisted my hair in his fingers as he questioned vehemently. Why do people die? What happens to them after they die? What if they don't want to die? Why do they have to go away from their homes, especially if they LIKE their homes? He asked big questions, the ones that have haunted the race since before Homer's time. He asked them in such a way that it was clear that he had some idea of the significance of the "rage against the dying of the light." He was not satisfied with the stock, soothing, limited parental answers; he brushed them aside, and I felt a bit silly for offering them. It reminded me of the story Charlotte Mason told:

I know a three-year-old girl who was found alone in the living room by a visitor. It was spring, so the visitor thought he would entertain her by talking about 'the pretty baa-lambs.' But she looked at him solemnly with her big blue eyes and said, 'Isn't it dwefful howwid to see a pig killed!' We hope she didn't witness the killing of a pig, or even hear of it, but she made a very effective protest against twaddle,

Paddy, too, had bigger concerns than the answers I tried to frame to his level of maturity. Finally, he turned away abruptly and put his head under the covers and subsided into sleep.

In sleep now, his eyelashes are long and his hands are still soft and gently curled like a baby's. I wish I could have given him better answers. I wish I could have explained to him that living forever in temporal sequence would be a curse -- the Flying Dutchman. That's something that a slightly older person could understand. It is one of the themes in Pope Benedict's Spe Salvi:

But then the question arises: do we really want this—to live eternally? Perhaps many people reject the faith today simply because they do not find the prospect of eternal life attractive. What they desire is not eternal life at all, but this present life, for which faith in eternal life seems something of an impediment. To continue living for ever —endlessly—appears more like a curse than a gift. Death, admittedly, one would wish to postpone for as long as possible. But to live always, without end—this, all things considered, can only be monotonous and ultimately unbearable.

But to a barely five year old, who still mostly lives in the "appropriate calm of blest eternity", who is just beginning to understand that this life is not eternity, this would make no sense at all; not yet.

"Your hearts will rejoice"

It is not the elemental spirits of the universe, the laws of matter, which ultimately govern the world and mankind, but a personal God governs the stars, that is, the universe; it is not the laws of matter and of evolution that have the final say, but reason, will, love—a Person. And if we know this Person and he knows us, then truly the inexorable power of material elements no longer has the last word; we are not slaves of the universe and of its laws, we are free.

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

The photo in the header echoes for me the truth of these words on hope. The trees are frosted with winter, and you can see the small St Francis of Assisi figure with his eyes downcast in contemplation. It was said to be St Francis who first established the tradition of the creche, a presentation of the Nativity. Here, he is keeping vigil over the memory of my twins, who I lost at 16 weeks gestation just around this time of year, 10 years ago.

I did not find out I had lost them until later, until that Epiphany of 1998, but the sorrow seeped backwards and still tinges my Advents. I miss them still. They were both boys. There are times when I can almost see them running with Kieron and Aidan and Patrick, or feel a strong sense that someone is missing even though my living children are all around me. By now, they would be nine years old. (Oddly, their due date was the very day that Aidan was born a year later, which is just one of several temporal signs that have provided consolation through various sorrowful times in our family life).


As Pope Benedict says, this is not the last word, though.

In some way we want life itself, true life, untouched even by death; yet at the same time we do not know the thing towards which we feel driven. .... The term “eternal life” is intended to give a name to this known “unknown”. Inevitably it is an inadequate term that creates confusion. “Eternal”, in fact, suggests to us the idea of something interminable, and this frightens us; “life” makes us think of the life that we know and love and do not want to lose, even though very often it brings more toil than satisfaction, so that while on the one hand we desire it, on the other hand we do not want it. To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and in some way to sense that eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality—this we can only attempt. ...... This is how Jesus expresses it in Saint John's Gospel: “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (16:22).

We celebrate our Lord's birthday just after the winter solstice, just after the shortest day of the year. Though the days are still short and cold, they have almost imperceptibly started to lengthen. We can't see it clearly, but it is there nevertheless. The seeds buried under the cold soil are not dead. We are not prisoners of the universe; we are free. The things that matter are eternal. It is the opposite of Frost's "nothing gold can stay." Everything that is truly gold -- precious and durable-- will stay, though the rest burns away or vanishes. My sorrow is mixed with hope, because my twins are eternal souls, and precious to God as they are to me.

... in Christ, God has revealed himself. He has already communicated to us the “substance” of things to come, and thus the expectation of God acquires a new certainty.

It is the expectation of things to come from the perspective of a present that is already given. It is a looking-forward in Christ's presence, with Christ who is present, to the perfecting of his Body, to his definitive coming.

There are several others who are mourning during this season. Please pray for them.

Holy Silence

I found this reflection by Pope Benedict XVI made in December 2005 -- Angelus

"It is therefore particularly appropriate in the days that precede Christmas to establish a sort of spiritual conversation with St Joseph, so that he may help us live to the full this great mystery of faith.

"Beloved Pope John Paul II, who was very devoted to St Joseph, left us a wonderful meditation dedicated to him in the Apostolic Exhortation Redemptoris Custos, "The Guardian of the Redeemer".

"Among the many aspects on which this Document sheds light, the silence of St Joseph is given a special emphasis. His silence is steeped in contemplation of the mystery of God in an attitude of total availability to the divine desires.

"In other words, St Joseph's silence does not express an inner emptiness but, on the contrary, the fullness of the faith he bears in his heart and which guides his every thought and action.

"It is a silence thanks to which Joseph, in unison with Mary, watches over the Word of God, known through the Sacred Scriptures, continuously comparing it with the events of the life of Jesus; a silence woven of constant prayer, a prayer of blessing of the Lord, of the adoration of his holy will and of unreserved entrustment to his providence.

"It is no exaggeration to think that it was precisely from his "father" Joseph that Jesus learned - at the human level - that steadfast interiority which is a presupposition of authentic justice, the "superior justice" which he was one day to teach his disciples (cf. Mt 5: 20).

"Let us allow ourselves to be "filled" with St Joseph's silence! In a world that is often too noisy, that encourages neither recollection nor listening to God's voice, we are in such deep need of it. During this season of preparation for Christmas, let us cultivate inner recollection in order to welcome and cherish Jesus in our own lives."

Memories of Goodness, Doors of Hope

"Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory and hope which is so necessary to man. Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart’s memory so that it can discern the star of hope.…

It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope."

--Cardinal Ratzinger, Seek That Which Is Above

----------------------------
I found this Advent Tree that my mother in law made for her own children and handed on to us. We used to hang it up in Oregon where we lived when the older kids were small. It got misplaced when we moved here to California several years ago and my 11 year old just found it. So today I hung it up:


You can see the numbered pockets at the bottom for every day of December. My mother in law put old bits of jewelry and "sparklies" in the pockets and every day the kids would dig out the treasure for the day and hang it on the tree. You can barely see the first 3 treasures hanging up. My daughter, who loves vintage things, was fascinated by the jewelry from 40-50 years ago. It is history now!

I was thinking how easy it would be to make this into a Jesse Tree using the ornament ideas and images you can find all over the internet. But the sparklies are family tradition, so we will not abandon those even if we do add on to them.

Aidan took over the camera and got a picture of me ---

and of his daddy -- you can tell it is getting colder around here by the way we move closer to the fire~!

And a very artistic one of his sister with her violin:

"Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope.”

Liam holding his baby brother Patrick Gabriel who came home from the ICU on Christmas Eve. Paddy's fifth birthday is today!

Seasonal Craft

I remember making a yarn doll like this, with my very boyish then six-year-old. He loved little crafts like that, using real materials, with something he could actually play with as an end result (of course, for him "dolls" were "guys" who would then go on adventures and defeat many enemies). There are some with braided legs, like this, too. You can do the same thing with corn husks.

We also made sock dolls like this. ...my daughter, then 8 or 9, and her younger brother. Here's another one. They were Kateri dolls, I remember -- with black braided hair and Native American clothing -- though I don't remember why we were doing that. She had buttons for eyes, I think....they are probably still around somewhere but I haven't seen them for a long time.

Here is a felt angel.

The reason I'm looking all this up is because I was thinking of working on some sort of simple felt or cloth Nativity scene with my younger three. Last year Kieron made a Nativity scene out of Sculpey clay. I think it would be pleasant to work with textiles this year, and we certainly have some around the house to spare.

While we were visiting Shawna a few weeks back, she and her little daughter showed us how to do this flat felting -- for Jesse Tree ornaments. It is charming and quite simple to do even for little hands. I don't think we'll get around to obtaining the proper supplies this Advent for this family, but I certainly would like to try it sometime.

Advent Resolutions -- Domestic Church

Realizing that my natural tendency is to float off into abstract realms (stepping pleasantly over scattered Legos and discarded socks in the process) I decided to post a short list of my Advent resolutions, so that I can track accountability. This fits into my Learning Goals category -- December was for the Domestic Church. Providentially, because this is something I have not been focusing on enough recently.

As always, if something wonderfully more appropriate shows up in the course of the season, that is not mentioned in the list, I will try to look at it as an opportunity rather than a distraction. The list is for navigational purposes only.

• Clean one area of the house per week
• Kids declutter their rooms and environments -- start this week and continue throughout.
  
• One craft per week with the kids -- doesn't matter what so long as it's a craft! --and more possibilities available.
• Adding bits of beauty and space and cleanliness to the house (during Lent I started by working on the cupboards and corners and "hidden places" and this worked well -- inside to outside, details to big picture)
  
• daily private devotions
• family devotions-- daily prayers and activities connected with the season
• Giving/Receiving gifts
• Service project -- still off in the realms of "would be nice" -- nothing specific yet.
• Some type of prayer project -- I am thinking geographical or to do with life issues.
  
• Reading related to Advent and Christmas
• Learning the reasons and backgrounds for various traditions

And oh, yes, review the past year and plan for the future. That will be the fun part for this particular person who loves to introspect, but finds setting up an Advent decoration to be somewhat penitential.

To make the practical activities listed above into occasions for interiority, I'm going to allow myself to journal about how they go and what I discover (bad and good) in the process. Not on here, necessarily -- I doubt if I will have time, for one thing. But even journalling inside my head or in scattered notes is often helpful.

Advent Things

Good reminder from Cindy at Dominion Family:
Little Grains of Sand(As to what it has to do with Advent, that is here)

Faith at Dumb Ox Academy: New Years Resolutions.
(The liturgical year ended last week with the feast of Christ the King; so this is the new year now)

Pope Benedict's new encyclical is up: Spe Salvi
(HT Bridget at Our Magnum Opus)As she said, it looks like great Advent reading.

Darling Christmas Montessori shelf from Theresa at La Paz Home Learning.

Deep Dark Cleaning from Pleasant View Schoolhouse -- because I hope to do some serious cleaning this Advent, both interior and of the home variety. (Also, Elizabeth at Real Learning's All Good Things)

December Themes and Plans from Dawn at By Sun and Candelight

Gift Giving Ideas from Love2Learn Blog

Advent School

This post started over at Schola et Studium but I think perhaps it fits better over here.

Faith at Dumb Ox Academy wrote about her plans for Advent School. I liked that title even though I'm not really a schooly type, so I'm borrowing it! I immediately had a visual image of a purple file folder. I know, that is strange, but rather typical for my rightbrained, global thinking mind -- to think of a colored container right away. : ). Anyway, I'm going with the purple folder idea to contain all the things I want to do this Advent.

(Right now I have a file folder organization system where there is a plain manila folder for each week and each month. For each season there is a colored folder, and for the "transition week" (almost every month changes over in the middle of a week) there is an orange folder which is really helpful for me as a visual reminder to get things in order for the next month). So the purple idea works nicely for me to set apart the month as different from the rest of the year.

Some general context:

• Helen at Castle of the Immaculate has compiled a bunch of Advent Dreams and hopes.
• Here is TeachingMom's great Advent Calendar.
• And here is a compilation of Christmas units at Real Learning.
• Here are some Christmas printables and other information.

All the possibilities are overwhelming, of course. I thought:

For organization of Christmas prep

• Flylady's Holiday Control Journal. (I was looking for a different Christmas checklist that I used last year, but I can't find it right now -- anyway, what I did was to write the different tasks on green index cards, and divided them into weeks, and every day I would try to make progress on the different tasks).

For academics

• Most of the stuff will stay the same, but I thought I would have Kieron read Geraldine MacCaughrean's Jesse Tree and go over Madeleine L'Engle's Glorious Impossible.
• He can also do the Snow lapbook. ...maybe now or maybe in January, depending on how the other things go.
• The littlies -- I will try to get a list of craft-y type projects for them --which Kieron can do too.
  

For liturgical year/family life:

• I think Helen's post is a great place to start (see above) -- so organized, with all the feast days, and beautiful, too.
• I found this December calendar in pdf with various secular occasions contained.
  
• And here is the Catholic Culture December calendar, too.

The theme -- preparing for Christmas and a New Year, and giving to others.

Details remain to be worked out. But the sick children have been on my mind.

Note:

Advents in our family tend to be "lived" rather than celebrated because almost every December we have a child in the hospital. (See Christmas Vigil and A Bit More on Advent for the 2005 and 2006 ponderings on this) Plus, I'm not really a home-decorating or practical-life type person. And I come from a very devout but slightly austere Christian tradition. My mom's efforts, admirably, were bent towards simplifying rather than elaborating Christmas. I remember hymns, once-a-year fancy cookies, beautiful Christmas classical missae on the stereo, an Advent calendar and a simple creche. That sufficed.

For all those reasons we tend not to have built up very complex Advent celebrations. Which is fine, of course -- it's not an obligation of the Faith -- but I think it would be nice, if we don't have a medical issue this year, to reflect upon and contemplate the season, and some simple activities and traditions can be conducive to that.

More resources and thoughts:

• Last year I started a simple Liturgical Year cyber-notebook. It didn't go much further than starting it and adding some links, but I am hoping to go back through it and pull out some of the things that we didn't get around to last year. (Here is a link to the paper Lit Year notebooks I made last year -- I still have to get them out this year) .
• Here's a bunch of Christmas booklists I collected... including a list of our Christmas bookshelf. (We have a few more books than that, and I collected a couple more last year, but that's a partial list).
• And Cay's idea for an Advent Grab Bag. This is one possible way to work through all the immensity of resources out there without getting too overwhelmed.
• Two more from Virginia Knowles: Advent Family Nights, and Christmas Treasury.
  

This post is getting away from me so I had better close now. Today is the day Liam, my oldest, comes home for Thanksgiving break. Off to prepare, and rejoice!