What I Wore Sunday-vol. 14

Pin It

Happy Pentecost!  To start his homily today, Monsignor talked about how Pentecost is the only big church holiday that we haven't figured out how to commercialize.  He listed all the things we don't have for Pentecost, like parties, store sales, greeting cards, and special outfits.  As I sat in there in my special Pentecost outfit, I didn't know if I should feel like I had commercialized the day or not!  (And the card thing was funny too--I subscribe to a service that sends me e-mail reminders for church and secular holidays.  For some reason the subject always reads, Send a card for __________.  There are so many holidays that it just sounds so funny to suggest sending a card--holidays that I laugh because I am thinking, I don't think they make cards for that...)

Anyway, on to my red outfit:

Red Top: Wet Seal (don't look for it--I believe it is now almost 12 years old)

Skirt: The Limited

Red Shoes: Target

I love that the newest part of that outfit is the shoes which are still almost 6 years old.  Hooray for being thrifty and conserving!

I hope everyone has had a nice weekend and enjoys the rest of Pentecost :-)

For more What I Wore Sunday, click below:

Quick Takes-vol. 14

Pin It

--- 1 ---

I decided to be brave this week and talk about transubstantiation in the What's up with that? series.  However, apparently I shouldn't have thought myself so brave since nothing I said provoked any responses.  Check it out now if you missed it!  I also have a guest post up over at The Pearl and the Pilot about Lupus Awareness Month--did you know I have Lupus?

--- 2 ---

I finished the semester!!!  I know all of my readers will be happy that I will stop complaining about school on here.  I still have one more class for the summer term, but I have a couple of weeks off and it's only a one-hour credit, so it should be better.  Wahoo for almost being done!

--- 3 ---

Now that I'm done with the semester, I can start getting excited about other things, like our trip to Boston for Memorial Day weekend (somehow this has always snuck up on us, like Labor Day, and we never make any plans) and my trip to Birmingham, AL to visit my best friend!  Then I fly to NC and get to see my parents and brother and my nephew and my other best friend!  And some of my husband's family and go to a wedding!  Take a breath--I'm sure you need it after all that excitement.

--- 4 ---

I will now be taking book recommendations as well.  If you've already given me some, assume I forgot while I was punishing myself for reading anything not school-related.  Keep in mind that if I can't get it from the library, I probably won't read it.  And our public library isn't great, so nothing too obscure please :-)

--- 5 ---

I'm going to be helping with the "changing bodies" education for the fifth graders today at school.  Eek!  Actually, teaching this kind of thing is really exciting to me, but being told about it last minute is not.  I have 4 videos and no idea which one is usually shown and no one has given me any information about the curriculum or the philosophy for the district.  This is really important because I don't want to overstep my bounds and say something I'll get in trouble for.  I still remember when I was in fifth grade in an abstinence-only school district and how hesitant one of the teachers was to explain how the sperm get into the woman.  My most recent nursing and teaching experience was college students so I'm pretty sure if I went in there with the same spiel I'd get some upset parents.  So hopefully someone else decides to give me some more info OR take over themselves OR the kids don't ask any questions!

--- 6 ---

Have you heard about or seen this video?  (If you follow me on Facebook you probably saw.)  If not, take a look now.

--- 7 ---

What did you think?  I thought it sounded like a good idea at the end.  But then I thought back to how the maker basically called the CEO ugly, which seemed to conflict with the philosophy he wanted to portray.  And then I saw this post from Kristen Howerton.  So take a look at what she said too.

**If you don't yet follow me on social media, please consider at least following me on Twitter.  Facebook is good, but I'm thinking about taking a break from it in the near future so Twitter will be the way to stay in the loop!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

What's up with that: Transubstantiation

Pin It

An informal series addressing questions Protestants and Catholics have about each other

Welcome to the fifth post in this new series.  If you're new, check out at least the first post to catch up.

This week I want to go ahead and talk about transubstantiation.  (I think that's kind of brave of me!)  However, as I've pointed out, I'm not here to be an authority on Catholic theology, but rather to share personally what my beliefs mean to me.  (Transubstantiation: Christian doctrine: the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox doctrine that the bread and wine of Communion become, in substance, but not appearance, the body and blood of Jesus Christ at consecration.)
Catholics have no idea what a foreign concept transubstantiation can be to some Protestants.  I cannot stress that enough.  I think we all forget or never actually realize the profound significance of the culture and traditions in which we are formed.  If certain ideas are never introduced to you as a child or you are even taught that certain ideas are wrong, it can be very, very hard to wrap your mind around a new concept.  If you have never really been immersed in another culture or religion, you have likely never had a good opportunity to realize that there are perfectly normal people out there who believe something you absolutely cannot understand and do not know how a sane person could believe--or vice versa.  (This is very important to remember for when we talk about Mary later on.)

Some Protestant traditions do have an easier time with the concept than other traditions.  For instance, some more liturgical denominations believe that while the elements of communion do not become the actual body and blood of Christ, they do believe that Christ is present "in, with and under" the elements.  Some common names for these different doctrines are Real Presence, Consubstantiation, and Sacramental Union.  Most liturgical traditions do hold that something mysterious happens in the celebration of Holy Communion.  Denominations who identify as "evangelical" will likely be of the mind that Holy Communion is symbolic.  So you can see where bigger leaps need to be made in understanding.

I'm not sure what your faith is as you are reading today, but whatever it is, it's likely that you are Christian because that's the demographic I write for and it's likely that you have a strong familiarity with the Bible.  There's a lot of really crazy stuff that happens in there.  Walls falling because people are blasting trumpets.  Really old women having babies.  Guys being swallowed by fish and spit out again.  And God's son being born of a Virgin?  And then dying and coming back to life??  That's wild!

So here's what I have to say about Holy Communion: if we can base our entire religion on the belief that our God was incarnate and made man, born of a virgin, and then died and was resurrected, why would we question His ability to be present to us in Communion?  If our God is as awesome and amazing as we proclaim and point to in our Bibles, why would this idea of Communion being more than symbol be anything all that surprising?

Many Protestants do not feel there is biblical evidence or support for this.  Their interpretation of scripture just does not lead them to this conclusion, even if they can read the above paragraph and say, Sure, I can admit that God is certainly capable of that.  The Catholic response is that Jesus said, "This IS my body" and "This IS my blood".  (No one needs a definition of "is" right?)  Which I thought was a good argument for Christians who insist in baptism by immersion and as adults--we are to be baptized like Christ and Christ was immersed as an adult, right?

But the "is" argument usually isn't enough (it's not really for me) which is where John 6 comes in.

⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Many Disciples Desert Jesus

⁶⁰ On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
⁶¹ Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! ⁶³ The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. ⁶⁴ Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. ⁶⁵ He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
⁶⁶ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

The thought is that Jesus would not have let the disciples leave if they had simply misunderstood because in John 3 Nicodemus questions Jesus saying that he must be born again:

⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” 

Jesus clarifies for him--he doesn't let him walk away confused.  Our priest has said that Jesus knew this would be a difficult teaching to accept and that not everyone would.  And that's fine.

My point today for this post is not to make everyone believe in transubstantiation, but rather to have you think for just a few moments about the wonder and mystery that could possibly still be happening today in our modern times.  Many times we wonder where are all of God's messengers today?  Why doesn't God speak to us today the way he once did?  Why are there all these amazing stories in the Bible but things like that don't happen now?  Miracles happened all the time during Jesus' ministry--could the Sacraments be modern miralces?

It makes me wonder what exactly it is that makes us think this is the case.  It seems unnatural that God would just stop with the wonder and mystery after Jesus.  God knows us--He knows that we need guidance and contact with Him.  In what ways might God be making miracles happen in your life today?

For more on John 6, check out this article from Catholic Answers.

What I Wore Sunday-vol. 13

Pin It

In an effort to stay focused on finishing my paper, I skipped doing a 7 Quick Takes on Friday.  I thought about doing it late, but it's not a huge deal.  I did want to do it mostly to re-share that I had 3 posts this week I enjoyed writing and I definitely met my goal for getting some posts up.  I hope you'll check out the What's up with that? post on Catholic rules, thoughts on the greeting card companies' exploitation during Mother's Day, and my review of the movie Lincoln.

We drove over to Albany yesterday to spend Mother's day weekend with my grandmother and some other family.  Mimi had a new outfit for the occasion and loved getting to bring us with her to Mass to show off her new Catholic granddaughter and grandson-in-law.  In honor of the special day, my WIWS picture is with my grandmother.  I believe her outfit is all Alfred Dunner :-)

Dress: Target

Cardigan: Old Navy

Necklace: Not sure, but those dark beads are magnetic so I just wrap it around and can change the length

Shoes: Same black pumps from Target you've seen before a million times :-)

The dress goes down to my knees with the buttons all the way down as well.  I've never considered this to be an immodest dress (it is sleeveless, but I always wear my cardigan over it in church), but today was a differ story.  I must have moved some way during church and I popped a button open.  A KEY button.  There was a little boy about 7 in front of us bouncing around the whole Mass.  When he turned around and was looking at me, I realized my dress was unbuttoned and I had just been up for communion.  No idea when it happened or who saw, ahem, things.  Needless to say, I was mortified.  At least it's not my regular church...

My aunt and uncle took us to Saratoga yesterday and we went to an olive oil shop the three of us had been to before, but my husband hadn't seen yet.  They have these little tankards with taps that you could sample all these different olive oils, balsamic vinegars, and seasoned salts.  Things like chipotle olive oil, basil olive oil, French Provence, etc.  There are at least 30 different tankards and there was no product that could be bought that isn't able to be sampled.  Awesome place.  Then we had some bubble tea, rode the carousel (my aunt and myself) and then hit up the Irish pub for appetizers before returning to Albany for ice cream at Emack & Bolio's, a favorite spot of ours.

My aunt and uncle hosted my great-aunt and great-uncle with my grandmother and us for a big dinner before we left.

The whole crew, minus my husband, the photographer.  That's Ralphie cat :-)  Can you tell my grandmother and great-uncle are brother and sister?

For more What I Wore Sunday, click below:

Movie Review: Lincoln

Pin It

We never see movies in theatres unless it's a really special movie or we have passes.  A lot of people say this but when asked they can say they have seen a few movies in a year.  We see a movie in a theatre once a year or less.  When I worked in the hospital my manager used to give out free movie passes for different things.  I had to stay a few hours late once for a nurse who had an emergency and got a pair and then got another pair during an ice storm.  These passes were acquired in the fall of 2010 and winter of 2011.  We finally used the second pair in January when we went to see The Hobbit.  The last time we saw a movie before then was in February of 2012.  So as you can see, we don't see movies in theatres.  All of this to explain why I will be starting to review the Oscar nominees from this past round since they are now available on Netflix :-)

I was excited about seeing Lincoln because he's always been my favorite president.  There is something about the mystery of the things we do not know about him coupled with the amazing task he undertook that has always intrigued me.  Couple that with the fact that Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar for Best Actor and I was getting even more excited.

For those who don't know the premise, the movie is a very small snapshot of Lincoln's life (and his presidency for that matter).  The entire movie takes place over a matter of a couple of months while Lincoln is trying to get the 13th Amendment passed (the amendment that outlawed slavery).  While it definitely takes some concentration to follow everything that is going on, it's not too far over most people's heads.  Sometimes following an older pattern of speaking and politics (especially of history) can take a little more effort, but this was easy enough.  From what I read there are historical inaccuracies, but one historian reviewer said that what he finds important is if people see the movie and then want to know more about Lincoln and I definitely think it serves that purpose.

The opening scene does contain a lot of violence, but violence that really happened.  I can see it being a good film to include in high school history curriculum because the objectionable parts are mostly historical truths and things I think high school children could handle.  A younger child may also be able to learn from the movie if you're fine with them seeing the violence, though the beginning could easily be skipped.  The only reason I would really hesitate to recommend it is that I don't think they would be able to follow the intricacies of the politics to really benefit.

The great greeting card company conspiracy

Pin It

As we all know (or should know at this point), Mother's Day is this coming Sunday.  It's basically a holiday made up and proliferated by Hallmark and jewelry stores.  And so is Valentine's Day and Father's Day and Grandparent's Day.  Aren't we all just allowing ourselves to be exploited by marketing ploys of greedy companies?  Absolutely--but maybe that's ok.

It's all well and good for us to say that every day should be Valentine's Day or every day should be Mother's Day.  We don't need a holiday to give our loved ones a card or gift or tell them how much they mean to us.  Except that most of us do.  I think we should all take a second and be honest with ourselves and realize that the great thing about holidays is that they force us all to take a few minutes to appreciate the people in our lives the way we should every day.  Yes, we should spend more than just Christmas and Thanksgiving with our families, but will we?  Probably not.

My grandmother, mother, and nephew :-)

So while we allow Hallmark to con us into paying three times as much as any person should pay for a teddy bear with purchase of three greeting cards, it's probably a good thing.  We're human.  And we need reminders.  We need special days.  Don't let the perfect (every day is Mother's Day!) be the enemy of the good (a Sunday in May).

For more on Mother's Day, check out this blog post on how to make Mother's Day easier on the non-mothers.  I like our priest's idea of reconigzing all women--we've all been mothered and nurtured in some capacity.

What's up with that: Catholic "rules"

Pin It

An informal series addressing questions Protestants and Catholics have about each other

In my last post for this series on being a physical and spiritual being, I found myself drifting into territory that probably should have been a separate post.  If you haven't read that post, I recommend doing that now because I see this as a bit of a "part II" with part III still on the way.

In my past defense of Catholicism to other Protestants I have used an explanation based on the simplicity of the human mind and life hundreds or thousands of years ago.  Practices of Catholicism that seem odd or legalistic (like how to give money or requiring fasting) made sense for a simple people who needed someone to tell them how to be a "good Christian" (think Medieval times).  In our highly intellectual age we tend to think that we don't need anyone else to tell us how to be a "good Christian"--we know what we believe and we know how we should behave.  We can say things like, What would Jesus do? or try to act with a Christian conscience, "do the right thing" or "have a good heart", but is that always enough?

All of the Catholic rules that rub Protestants the wrong way are based in the idea that giving strong, clear guidelines will cause Catholics to live correctly.  Children are usually given specific rules for their behavior like no interrupting when adults are talking.  When we give them a general rule like, Be good! it doesn't always work so well...

I think of Catholic rules as guidelines for a "fake it 'til you make it" kind of time in my life.  If you're a Protestant who thinks Catholic rules are too legalistic, just think of it as structure and discipline.  The Church has rules so that Catholics can maintain a certain level of discipline in their faith and not fall away.  The "spiritual but not religious" mindset can sometimes be so reliant on the individual's self-will to stay faithful that there is little fall-back plan for when times are tough.  This is also where the Catholic emphasis on the importance of the church community comes in.  By going to Mass every week and participating in a faith community, there is support for the tough times in our faith.  This is not to say that an individual who has a belief in Jesus Christ's resurrection but lives only with a Bible and no faith community does not believe, but it does seem much more difficult to me.

In the last post, I mentioned the definition of religion from Tyler Blanksi that religion is lived faith.  I think that's what is going on with Catholic religious rules.  Some of these rules are also tied to that same idea that we are both physical and spiritual beings.  Catholics must genuflect and kneel and stand for various reasons and are required to be physically present at church for holy days of obligation instead of just being intellectually faithful and aware that day because the whole body is put into use for God's service.  We were made by God so if God saw good reason to give us a physical body then there is likely good use for it.  Jesus was resurrected in bodily form and that is significant for us.

My brother (a Presbyterian minister) told me not long ago that there was a movement afoot in the Presbyterian church to look to Catholic spiritual practices for inspiration in using the whole body for worship.  He said it was found that many Catholics still feel tied to their faith long after falling away because of the physical expression found in Catholicism; smelling incense, kneeling, touching holy water.  When the body participates, the mind is much more likely to remember.  It's why we teach children songs with motions (something Protestants love!).

As a Protestant you might be thinking that you know Catholics who follow the rules, but you still don't think they have faith as good as yours.  And maybe they don't.  But you'll notice they are still going to Mass every week and that is something.  Even if it seems like Catholics are just going through the motions, it may be only those motions that are holding them within the Church, hopefully long enough to come back to a full faith.  All Catholics will admit that just following the rules will not be enough and that empty, rule-following faith will not cut it when it comes to eternal life, but hopefully it will be a thread onto which they can hold if all else has failed.