A Happy and Holy 2008

The new year begins (as always) with the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God.

I thought I would end the year with some FAMILY links. The family is under attack in the UK in new and scarier ways. Jackie reports on more pressure from our sinister-ministers to get sex ed taught to little kids.

She says "So we start the New Year with more of the same! The government wanting to corrupt our little children...well they're NOT getting mine! Even if i have to devote the whole year in the fight for our children's innocence..so be it!" I add my vote to that!

Meanwhile Fr Ray Blake and Paulinus are reporting on the move to make Catholic bishops explain why they want Catholic schools to teach ... Catholicism!

It is the family that is the root of !ny community, of a nation. I am reading the Charlotte Mason Home Schooling series. Book Two is Parents and Children which I have linked with the short summary. Miss Mason writes as a high Anglican and her philosophy works well for Catholic parents whether they home educate or not.

Familiaris Consortio is my favourite encyclical.

The Holy Father has set his sights on the family for the New Year with his message THE HUMAN FAMILY, A COMMUNITY OF PEACE.

Family war stories

Like most families we have stories about the wars handed down to us. My grandfather lost his arm in WW1 thanks to a canon wheel. He learned to swim, play snooker and do all sorts of things with only one arm. He died before I was born. My gran and her sister my great aunt lived together in a little bungalow and we would take my aunt to Mass each week-but gran would never come.
She had stopped going after the war. I am not sure whether it was after the first or second world war, but she despised war and blamed the Church for supporting it. Her only brother died on the last day of the WW 1 -shot somewhere in the trenches in France only a few days after his 16th birthday.

It was not legal for a 15 yr old boy to be out at the front of course-but by the end of the war there were few men left and lads were allowed to sign on without much in the way of background checks being done. Jack's death stayed with my aunts and gran for the rest of their lives.

My aunt Eileen had been a priest's housekeeper for many years and had been engaged. Her fiance was killed.

In WW2 my uncle was in the engineering corps and was among those who entered-I think it was Belson-at the end of the war and had the task of burying the piles and piles of bodies the Nazi's left. He never talked about it so I don't know the details.

Now we know those who have served in Iraq.

Tomorrow-we remember and pray

Happy All Saints

Church was packed this morning. That's a good thing to see. We were relegated to foyer land as there was no room in church.
The school was there and Father reminded the children-most of whom do not attend Mass-that this was their home, a place they had a right to attend and no one should stop them. Good for him.

We had hardly any trick or treater's last night.
The children had made lanterns out of pumpkins-one of which was called George, my 4yr old said. The other two remained sadly nameless.

Now I know there are those who don't like pumpkin lanterns for All Hallows Eve, but we love the warm orange glow, and my 16yr old is quite artistic and can make pictures by takind off the skin and letting the light glow through the flesh.

We have begun our Nov prayers for our dead friends and family. We do so with the hope of God's mercy. It's good to be Catholic.

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Not much time to blog at the moment. Helping the oldest to get the final bits done so he can go to EWTN in January. Very exciting-and a bit scary.

Must make cuppa for the Maths tutor...(yes we have a Maths tutor-I know my limitations LOL)

My daughter has been baptised.

Yesterday at Mass my youngest child was baptised.

We had a visiting priest who made the event very special and reminded the parishioners just what baptism is for. He talked about Original Sin and how my daughter would be cleansed of it and brought into the body of Christ.

Father made it very clear how important our promises as parents and godparents are. We are promising God and my daughter that we will bring her up in the faith.

He anointed her chest, and her head and poured a great deal of water over her. I think he really wanted to make sure all that original sin got washed away.

As many of our friends and family are not Catholic or are lapsed this was a wonderful moment for evangelising and I was touched that Father used it so well. He pointed out that we need to put Christ first in our lives and that could mean giving up things that are bad for us, but which we rather like. He used the Gospel from the previous weeks showing the continuous thread of the Lectionary- saying even if our families disapprove we must answer God's call.

Afterwards we went for a little party. Sr 'Mary Kate' could only stay a short time; nuns work so hard and she had something to get back to.
May I ask you to pray for her sister who is having a lung biopsy today. It is a scary time as you can well imagine.

We had a beautiful day-and I might even go public and post some photos...at least I'm thinking about it.

More Greenbelt

We went to Greenbelt for the day on Monday and met up with our old friends from my husband's old church.

It was a lovely day and it was great to meet up with people we haven't seen for a long time.
In the main arena a very good stage play cum musical was put on by a theatre company who had worked with the children for a couple of days to make the production. It was basically telling the story of 18th century slavery and William Wilberforce.
At the end there was a short film about modern day slavery. Very good.

Then much to everyone's delight a couple of episodes of Shaun the Sheep were shown.

In the Film tent this year they showed Amazing Grace (of course) but also to my surprise Into Great Silence.

We had a good day. I enjoyed chillin' at the Tiny Tea Tent and the kids just enjoyed the sights and chocolate chip cookies.

We had a chat with those running the Iona Community.
Had a look in the book tent,
Heard Chaz'n'Dave singing from somewhere
Noticed that one of the seminars was by that Sister who set up Helen House the children's hospice. I would have liked to hear her speak as I've worked in a children's hospice and loved it.

A stronger Catholic presence could be good there. Lets see more habits and dog collars around the place. Let's see Confession at the counselling tent.
Let's see Catholic books for sale and Catholic papers.
Pro-life topics tackling abortion and euthanasia, stem cell research and adoption.

There's a lot at Greenbelt that worries me.
A couple of years ago some friends found me after they had been to a seminar and wanted to know why John Paul II was so opposed to Liberation Theology. They had been fed a right load of ...anyway they asked me about it and I was fortunate to be able to explain the reality of those suffering under so-called Liberation Theology and how the Holy Father never did like priests with guns etc. They had not been told that side of the story.
A couple of weeks later at my husband's church a girl from some Methodist seminary preached on Lib Theo-obviously Greenbelt inspired and said that no one with any wealth could receive the Gospel. It was only for the poor.
Umm.

But despite all the problems, there is just something about Greenbelt...love it, hate it...I bet we'll be there next year.

My husband's FIRST anniversary

A Year ago today by husband was received into the Church. He took the name John - St John Bosco as his Confirmation saint and received his First Holy Communion. (He has received his first Sacrament of Confession the week before).

He was sponsored by 'Sr Mary Kate' - more on her later :)

Discipline and the Sacrament of Confession

The Good Lord in His infinite mercy has given us the gift of His Sacraments. One of those is the Sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation.
As parents this is a brilliant gift of grace that can help us with our families, not just our spouse and children but the inlaws as well.
We have to train our children how to go to Confession, and how to properly use the graces God offers through that Sacrament.
But of course Confession is not a way of getting away with it. I know some protestants think this-mind you, I have also come across some Catholics who treat Confession like this.
Going to Confession is just part of the process.
I can remember one of my children who had been naughty towards his sister being taken to Confession. I helped him examine his conscience so he went in and confessed his sins.
On coming out of church I was telling him how he now had to stop this behaviour because he had told God he was sorry.
"But I enjoy doing it!" cried my little horror.
He never did do it again, but this was more because he would have to apologise to his sister and re-confess each the sin. He was only just beginning his confessional career and Father was a softie, but having to apologise and make up for his behaviour at home sure helped him stop doing it.
Confession AND reparation is important.
I don't see how we can expect full absolution if we are not prepared to apologise to those we have hurt. It's much easier to mutter a Hail Mary than to go to the person we have hurt and humbly say sorry.
I think it encourages bad behaviour in children when parents have a 'no consequences let Confession deal with it' approach. Priests are not asked to bring our children up-we are.

Parents protect our children.

I've just received the August edition of the Education Otherwise magazine. In it there are articles that look at how the government here in the UK is trying to curb the rights and freedoms of parents to educate and care for our own children. EO is calling for us to stand up for ourselves and to fight to keep our rights and protect our children.

We look at Germany where home schooling was made illegal by Hitler and the law has remained. There families must leave the country or face persecution if they are to maintain their rights.

We have seen recently that a govt publication has been pulled after it was finally seen over the Internet telling parents how to sexually molest their toddlers!

But this publication has been out there and widely distributed for over 7yrs with NO parental outcry. Why would German parents be so quiet and apathetic about something so damaging to their children?



I do not think it is much different here in the UK (though I get the impression American Christian parents would and do fight this stuff). So much is pushed on our children that is bad for them spiritually and robs them of their innocence under the guise of 'education' or entertainment. We must fight back.

We must also as parents be there for our children when others encroach on their innocence. I am so grateful to God that he has allowed me to be home now full time. An incident occurred in my own family where I know if I had been working full time I would never have picked up on it until perhaps it was too late. Being there meant I could protect my child.

I beg you parents don't ever let your guard down. Don't assume that because someone says they are Catholic that means they are going to act Catholic.
As Dr Ray says 'Hold your kids tightly...'

This is our vocation.