Human Dignity

Here's a beautiful little short film, starring Bella star Eduardo Verastegui, which is all about human dignity.

The Butterfly Circus
http://www.thedoorpost.com/hope/film/?film=4dd298f102c77b625cf37a9e7744ac68

Pass it on!

This Makes Me Happy

Prelates Place Friendly Wager on World Series
Bagels and Tastykakes Are on the Line

NEW YORK, OCT. 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- As the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies set to square off in baseball's World Series, the archbishops of the two cities are placing a friendly wager on the outcome.

Cardinal Justin Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia, and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, settled the terms of the bet Tuesday evening, the dioceses reported in a joint press statement. Cardinal Rigali will send a case of Tastykakes to the Big Apple if the Yankees win. Should the Phillies take the World Series, Archbishop Dolan will ship a dozen bagels to the City of Brotherly Love.

"Cardinal Rigali is one of my closest and dearest friends," Archbishop Dolan was quoted in the statement. "For several years he even served as my archbishop, so I feel a particular loyalty to him."

In 2001, Archbishop Dolan was named auxiliary bishop of St. Louis, where then Archbishop Rigali was leading the archdiocese. In the light-hearted note, Archbishop Dolan lamented his friend's loyalties to the Phillies: "I know he has exquisite taste in most matters. I just wish he had better taste in baseball teams."

Cardinal Rigali also noted "great esteem" for his colleague. "He is a gifted spiritual leader who has been a true friend for many years. "That is why I am so sorry he will be disappointed when the Phillies successfully defend their World Championship." "We have the cream cheese ready for the bagels that I know will be arriving shortly after the Repeat in the City of Brotherly and Sisterly love," the cardinal noted with confidence.

The best-of-seven series begins tonight at Yankee Stadium.

GO YANKEES!

Happy National Chocolate Day!

Happy National Chocolate Day! Yes, there is such a thing!

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/10/28/national-chocolate-day.html

It's a day definitely worth celebrating. Have you had your chocolate today?



Great or Memorable Quotes About Chocolate:

"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get!" ~ Forrest Gump

"Save the earth: It's the only planet with chocolate" - Magnet on my Mom's fridge

And on the eighth day, God created chocolate.

"To love is to will the good of the other in a way that is in accord with its nature," said Dr. Asci. Let's recall that wonderful class and "will the good" of some Milka! (They have some at Meijer's here in South Bend and at the South Bend Chocolate Factory!")

Chocolate is proof that God loves women-kind.

There is no choco-holics anonymous because nobody wants to quit!

I am not overweight. I am chocolate-enriched.

Day (and Night) Dreaming...

So I promised I'd write a little more about my experience at Boundaries Bootcamp. One of the things that came up in the talks at the conference was that in order to have good boundaries, you have to have a good sense of who you are and what you value. John & Henry encouraged all the participants to take some time when we got home to think about our values, and then also, thinking about who we are and what we want to accomplish with our lives and then set boundaries that protect or enhance that vision.

This reminded me a lot of what Matthew Kelly wrote in his book "The Rhythm of Life" and so I went back and started looking at that.

Since the conference, I've been trying to do a little bit of soul-searching and have spent some time thinking about this more. It's hard work! To be quite honest, I know what I value, but I do not know what I want - what I want in life, what I want to accomplish, etc. I've been floating through life, doing lots of useful and good and wholesome things, but I don't think I could say that I have a clear sense of where I'm headed or what my life's meaning is.

Then I stumbled across a friend's facebook page which had some really helpful questions pulled from John Maxwell's book Put Your Dream to the Test: 10 Questions That Will Help You See It And Seize It. Here are the questions:

A dream is an inspiring picture of the future that energizes your mind, will, and emotions,
empowering you to do everything you can to achieve it. (xiii)

1. The Ownership Question: Is my dream really my dream?
2. The Clarity Question: Do I clearly see my dream?
3. The Reality Question: Am I depending on factors within my control to achieve my dream?
4. The Passion Question: Does my dream compel me to follow it?
5. The Pathway Question: Do I have a strategy to reach my dream?
6. The People Question: Have I included the people I need to realize my dream?
7. The Cost Question: Am I willing to pay the price for my dream?
8. The Tenacity Question: Am I moving closer to my dream?
9. The Fulfillment Question: Does working toward my dream bring satisfaction?
10. The Significance Question: Does my dream benefit others?

I guess I have some more thinking (dreaming) to do.

Halloween Costume Ideas?

Does anyone have any interesting Halloween Costume Ideas?
Suggest your own (post a comment) or vote on which of the following you like best!
I'm trying to keep it cheap and easy: no over-achievers!

Here's a few I've found online or come up with that have some promise:

* Nurse (buy scrubs, get stethescope?)
* Super-Fan (ND apparel overload, foam finger, rally beads, temporary tatoos, sport horn - I'm mostly excited about the sport horn!)
* Mime (white face with stars over eyes, black pants / shirt)
* Go as a Die (singular of 'dice' - cardboard box painted like a die).
* Lame Excuse (Write various excuses on Post-It Notes, attach them to your body and walk around with a cane).
* Greek Goddess (white sheet(s): Think Toga, fake vine & grapes (for crown), white shirt, safety pins, gaudy, greek-looking jewelry or clay pot (to put candy or figs in).

Others?

Preaching Assignment #6(ish)

Here's My Latest Preaching Assignment

Brief Sermon Report (5%):
Visit 1 church on the day of their main service; choose a church that is different from your own tradition. Prepare a two-page report offering three commendations (page 1) and three recommendations (page 2) for the preacher. Due October 30th.

Consequently, this morning I forced myself to get up at 7 (after going to bed at 2:30am) to get myself to the 8am celebration of Holy Eucharist at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. James.
Interestingly enough, the Episcopalian Eucharist is VERY similar to a Catholic Mass, albeit with some rather stilted English (ye, makest, Thine, etc) and some additional pious confessions of our sinfulness. I felt very much at home as the practices and prayers are almost identical to my own as a Catholic. This was my first time attending an Episcopal service.

The reason I chose to go to the Episcopal Cathedral is that - well, it was one of the only services I could find that I could actually attend. I had already made plans to go to Divine Liturgy at 10am as I normally do each week with my friends, and had forgotten about this assignment until very late last night when I checked my email and some friends were emailing about going to Granger Community Church today to complete this assignment. Rather than calling off my normal plans at the last minute, I figured I had to find another way to squeeze in a non-Catholic service before Divine Liturgy; the earliest one I could find that I knew would be over before Divine Liturgy- was St. James'.

Also, St. James Cathedral happens to be the site of St. Margaret's House - the day center for women and children where I worked this summer. Over the summer I had met the bishop / rector of the Cathedral, and he had jokingly suggested that if I ever wanted to be ordained, they would be glad to welcome me into their diocese... to which I politely replied, "Thank you for the invitation, although I do not feel called to the ordained ministry..." (not even going into they very small detail about me never wanting to leave the Catholic Church). Anyway, at that point he had invited me to join them for worship sometime and so I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to take him up on his offer.

The homily for the day was interesting; but that's not what I want to write about.

What was even more striking to me was the open invitation to all to receive Holy Communion. For Episcopalians, as long as you are a baptized Christian, you are welcome to receive Communion in their church, regardless of what denomination you are a member. Obviously as a Catholic, my own discipline and beliefs barr intercommunion with those ecclesial communions with which we are not fully united. It was a rather strange feeling to be the only person in the entire church (very small community) which did not go up to receive Communion. I wondered if it offended them that I abstained, given their intentional open-door policy on Eucharist, or seemed like I was rejecting their hospitality, or whether they might have realized I was a Catholic and thought that I was looking down on their celebration as "invalid" - and therefore, frivilous to partake in.

This moment was a stark reminder of the divisions in the Body of Christ. It was a sad moment for me - and reminded me that there is still much work to be done in the field of ecumenical dialogue. At the same time, it was also a reminder that open-door policies on the Eucharist do not necessarily in and of themselves create union among different ecclesial bodies. While their openness and hospitality is a nice gesture, by itself it cannot create the unity it strives to attain.

At the same time, there is hope! I don't know if you follow Vatican news (ZENIT.org), but it seems as if there is a great deal of progress that is being made in ecumenism! First, there are a great number of Anglicans who are currently seeking communion with Rome - mostly those who feel that their own ecclesial bodies are betraying the tradition by admitting both openly homosexual persons and women to the ordained ministry. Rome is planning to admit them into full communion while allowing them to maintain their form of liturgy and prayers, almost as if forming an Anglican Rite within the Catholic Church.

http://www.zenit.org/article-27295?l=english

Even more exciting - is that there have been great strides made recently toward reunion between East and West - Orthodoxy and Catholicism! This is HUGE! I personally believe that JPII, whose great prayer and hope it was to see this in his lifetime, is now pulling some major strings up in heaven and helping push things forward in a way that he was unable to do during his life here on earth.

http://www.zenit.org/article-27299?l=english

That's all folks, TTFN.

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Now, as a 24 year old, I'm not too concerned with Breast Cancer. At the same time, every time I go to the doctor's office, most of the time they ask me: "Do you make sure to do self breast exams monthly?" Apparently, it's something I should be doing.

So today I went to check my mail and realized that because was fall break, no one had sorted the mail! We had three large bags of unsorted mail, and 50 gazillion boxes/packages everywhere. So as any good Assistant Rector would do, I dutifully set out to sort the mail so that when our residents return tonight / tomorrow (ND vs. BC tomorrow! Watch for me at the game!!! A friend gave me her ticket =) ) their mail will be in their boxes! (And also to see if I had gotten anything...)

Anyway, so I'm going through the mail, pulling out catalogues that are STILL coming in for residents who graduated six years ago... trying to figure out what to do with oversize envelopes that don't fit in people's mail boxes, etc. and I stumble across a letter addressed to one of our residents - the outside has this ridiculous image of a young girl grabbing her chest and the slogan "Feel Your Boobies!" on it. At first I thought it was a little inappropriate. I was a little put off. "Really?" I said out loud. Then, lightening up, I thought it was a bit funny. I shoved it in her mailbox and went on with my sorting.

So then I sign on to my computer and MSN's top story is now that MEN are also suffering from BREAST CANCER. MEN! Who would have thought? I mean, there are ubiquitous jokes about "man boobs" - but I never really thought they could actually GET BREAST CANCER! Apparently, they can.

So this reminded me of the letter I saw while sorting mail and I decided to do a google search. Here's what I found! "Feel Your Boobies" is actually a website and a whole campaign to get young women to do breast exams (informal ones, which apparently are as effective as the official ones they try to teach you at the doctor's office!).

Here's a testimonial from one YOUNG, YOUNG WOMAN - I mean, she's only two years older than me! - whose life was saved by this ridiculous, a bit scandalous, and otherwise humorous campaign!:

“I recently saw a Feel Your Boobies car decal on my way to work and later that night in the shower, I remembered the decal and ended up finding a lump . . . If I hadn’t seen the decal who knows if I would have found the lump. Thank you for such a wonderful foundation.”
Julie, 26 years old – Middletown, PA

So go ahead, feel your boobies. It just might save your life.

http://www.feelyourboobies.com/

Also, check out the following verses which seem appropriate to the occasion:

Psalm 22:10
Proverbs 5:19
Song of Songs 4:5, 7:4, 7:7-9
Isaiah 49:15
Luke 11:27

My Most Annoying Class Award Goes To...

I really dislike my preaching class. Here's why:

* I have to wake up at 8:30 on Friday in order to get there. (Blah! Who likes to get up at 8:30am when they go to bed at 1:30, 2am every night?)

* I am a lay person, so I don't see myself as doing much preaching (lay persons are not permitted to preach within Mass). That being said, there is the implicit expectation that I will preach at a dorm Mass as part of my training and I'm not sure how I feel about that...

* There are an exorbitant amount of readings... Shouldn't this be worth more than a measly two credits?

* This class effectively breaks down my ego, while my other classes build it up. It's easy to get an A on a paper you've spent lots of time working on; it's very difficult to deliver a good homily.

* We have to give our homilies in front of the entire class. So if you do poorly, everyone knows it. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't express myself well in words. The thought is beautiful in my mind and when I work at writing it down, but when spoken more often than not comes out in a garbeled spew of words that need some deciphering. Public speaking (hence: preaching) is not one of my gifts!

* Inflexible deadlines! One of the things I've discovered in graduate school is the concept of flexible deadlines / extensions. While I would have never dreamed of asking for one in undergrad, I've taken advantage of this on more than one occasion in Grad School. If a paper is lousy, I know I can just ask for an extension and work on it some more to make it better. There are no extensions for homilies... You can't say to your congregation, "Uh, I'll get you a sermon on Monday.." It has to be done on Sunday or else.

* Writing homilies is hard work! It involves praying with a scripture for several days in advance, waiting on God, listening for Him to speak through it a word that will reach not only my heart but also those to whom I will be preaching. Sometimes 'inspiration' comes, sometimes it doesn't. The fact that it's a team process (God-me) means it's not entirely in my hands. That's the frustrating thing! Especially when it's Thursday night and you're still waiting!

* My professor is Lutheran, and has a distinctly Lutheran bias, sometimes which I appreciate, and other times, which I don't. I like his emphasis on preaching being about what GOD has done and what GOD is doing in our lives - and about GRACE, and FREEDOM, and all that good news stuff - but sometimes he gets a little bit touchy when us Catholics start talking about COOPERATION with God's grace and the human response being an important part of the picture. Granted, we have to hold the two in tension... but it can be difficult when our theological emphases are of a slightly different color.

* Taking this class has made me hyper-attentive to all the homilies I hear at Mass now. This would seem to be a good thing; but it's not! I can't just listen to a homily now without critiquing it to death! This rather than being a help, has been a distraction. Not to mention, it has made me aware of how dismal many homilies are these days! The real gems are few and far between.

*Preaching is not about sharing all the cool theological insights you've gleaned from your coursework and wowing people with your eloquence. (darn!). It's about being an instrument through which God speaks to His people. I'm going to have to work on this one. Perhaps I should adopt one of the following as my motto: "I am not the answer, it's not my praise I sing, I am just the herald of the great King!" "He must increase, I must decrease." "Apart from me you can do nothing."

Swine Flu?

What do you call 3+ days of extreme fatigue, terrible cough, combination stuffy / runny nose, body aches, headache, and feeling like a menopausal woman (periodic hot flashes / fever)? I think I might have swine flu.

I've thought about going to the Health Center on campus, but I'm not sure they can do anything to help me and I might just need to ride it out. We had a confirmed case of it here in the hall this past weekend, and so it's quite possible I caught it here.

How does it compare to regular flu? It's about the same: you basically wish you were dead.

For the time being, I'm camping out in my room and waiting it out, trying to have as little contact with the outside world as possible. So far, that seems to be effective.

In the mean time, here's some flu facts that you should know, courtesy of the CDC. http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm

Take these everyday steps to protect your health:

* Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.

* Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.*

* Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.

* Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

* If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.) Keep away from others as much as possible to keep from making others sick.

Other important actions that you can take are:

* Follow public health advice regarding school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures.

* Be prepared in case you get sick and need to stay home for a week or so; a supply of over-the-counter medicines, alcohol-based hand rubs * (for when soap and water are not available), tissues and other related items could help you to avoid the need to make trips out in public while you are sick and contagious.

----

The only good part of having swine flu:

* I don't feel guilty about sitting home in my PJs eating Ben & Jerry's and sipping tea while catching up on some good ol' facebook stalking!

Boundaries Bootcamp

So I just got back from a week-end long conference in Chicago sponsored by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend, co-authors of the book Boundaries: When to Say Yes, When to Say No to Take Control of Your Life.

It was an excellent weekend! I learned a lot and gained much confidence as a result.

Here are some tidbits, pearls of wisdom I gleaned from the weekend:

* 2 Corinthians 9:7 – “Give as you have purposed in your heart, not begrudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

* Keep a misery journal. Write what is getting you down in a journal and then try to figure out what the source of your misery is. Then, make a rule for yourself which will enable you to avoid whatever it is that is causing you misery. (For example, in my life, reading relationship books when I'm hormonal usually makes me depressed. Therefore, my rule is "know thyself. Don't read relationship books when you're hormonal!")

* I learned that I am hypervigilant. I'm constantly assessing where everyone is at emotionally and trying to keep the peace instead of doing what needs to be done or instead of speaking up for myself when I need to because it might cause a disturbance. I learned this weekend that I needed to own my space - realize that I take up space on this planet too, and that I shouldn't apologize for that fact!

* Also, I learned that I have to accept that other people are adults and are responsible for how they feel and how they react to others. I am not responsible for keeping others happy!

* There are three types of people on the planet. Wise people, fools, and evil people, roughly speaking. When you confront a wise person, they thank you for it, and learn and grow from it, changing their behavior accordingly. When you confront a fool, they usually respond negatively and make you feel guilty about it. They often won't change their behavior unless you set limits with them and have consequences for their actions. Finally, there are evil people, who are out to hurt other people. The only ways to confront these people effectively are with lawyers (law), guns (police), and money (money can buy you protection in some instances).

more to come!

http://www.cloudtownsend.com/videoserver/video.php?clip=CCNT2046

Pysanky Making

So it's been a while since I've made Psanky. I really wish I had more time to work on them, but being a full time graduate student and an Assistant Rector doesn't lend itself to having much spare time to work on making decorative Ukrainian Easter eggs, especially ones that take 2-3 hours to do and also- there's always the whole "should I as a leader in the hall be breaking Du Lac (student handbook policy) by having lit candles in my room?" (required for working on the Psanky)? After all, I'm not above the law... but wasn't there something about the "spirit" of the law? Could using candles for Psanky making be considered keeping the "spirit" of the law? Perhaps I am rationalizing.... tee hee.

Here's some pics of the eggs I made over the summer:

To Go or Not to Go?

So I have a decision to make. And fast!

I have to decide if I am going to go on a trip to the Holy Land over Christmas Break, or whether I should skip it and stay home.

I guess I should do the ol' fashioned pros & cons list:

Pros:
+ travel to where Jesus lived and walked
+ get to experience middle eastern culture first hand
+ buy some pretty sweet religious goods
+ travel to a new part of the globe / collect some new passport stamps! =)
+ Add to the list of World heritage sites I've been to
+ did I mention: See the Sea of Galilee, Go to Caesarea Philippi and stand on the rock where Jesus said "You are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my Church...?", Via Dolorosa, Church of the Nativity, Swim in the dead sea, Qumran, Temple ruins, etc. and much, much more!

Cons:
- Safety? (Is the US military / dept of defense / state dept really the best source of info? or is Nuclear war a real threat? Who really knows?
- Am I willing to travel somewhere where security threats are a possibility and accept consequences for my life? (if something did happen....)
- less time at home during the break
- Family as a whole is not too keen on this...

I recently contacted a friend from Iran and I'm asking him his thoughts on it... who knows who to trust anymore on the security issue? Supposedly Iran and Israel are ready to attack each other...

St. Francis

So, I had picked up a movie on St. Francis, and had good intentions of watching it on or near his feastday (Oct. 4th), but unfortunately, it didn't happen. I just got around to it this weekend (Sat & Sun).

What a great movie! I watched St. Francis by Michele Soavi (Italian movie with english subtitles). I think it's pretty realistic account of his life - and thankfully one that doesn't portray him as a ridiculous tree-hugging lunatic (not that three-hugging is bad...) but hopefully you know what I mean...

Also, St. Francis' character reminds me so much of a few friends of mine which is weird! You'll have to ask me which two!

All Dogs go to Heaven...

So recently, I've been thinking about dogs. Why, you might ask?

Well, I often find myself chasing after squirrels here on campus, or collecting acorns and stashing them in my room and then carrying a few in my pocket so that when I encounter one, I have something to offer them that might actually be good for them (as opposed to the other students on campus who try to feed them things like pizza and candy bars). My conclusion: I need a pet!

"But Rachel, aren't you living in a dorm right now?" you might ask. Well, yes... but I'm thinking about getting one when I graduate in a year and a half, and I figured I ought to do some research... And I'm not entirely pet-less. I currently have a pet beta fish, Kerygma, who I got my senior year of college. He's still alive (amazingly!), but lately he has been a little slow and his appetite is waning. Things aren't looking up for him, and I fear his days are numbered.

So anyway, during the last week I've taken three or four "What Dog best suits your personalilty" type quizzes, and I've gotten all kinds of dogs:

Anatolian Shepherd Dogs, Labrador Retrievers (the most normal breed of the whole pick), Doberman Pinscher, Vizsla, Pomeranian (I hate yippy rat dogs! How did I get matched with this is beyond me!) Great Danes (not so sure I'd want a dog that's quite possibly taller than I am...) Irish setters, Boxers, .... and the lists go on and on. These are just a few highlights.

In the end, don't all dogs go to heaven? :) I guess it doesn't matter what kind of dog I get then.

Or maybe I should just volunteer at an animal shelter for a while.

Meanwhile, here are some of the cuter options from my results:

Trendsetters

So it seems ND has started a trend of honoring Obama even though he hasn't really accomplished anything yet...

Really, are the members of the awards committee for the Nobel Prize THAT concerned about keeping up with current (and otherwise unfortunate) fashions?

Friendship

I received this quote in an email from a friend and thought I would pass it on:

from Jesus to Katya: "A friend is one who inconveniences himself, who deprives himself of something or of many things to offer them to you. A friend is one who will give up his time of rest for you. A friend is he who can in a moment give up the comfort of his home so as to make you feel comfortable, loved and appreciated. A friend is he who leaves his land to help you save yours. A friend is he who confides his sorrow and his joys, who is always transparent with you and who always takes you toward growth in faith and love of God. A friend is he who builds, who unites, who gathers, not one who tears apart, who destroys, knocks down, so he can sit on top of the rubble. A friend is he who gives his life to save you...as I did."

So I left everyone hanging!

I apparently changed MBTI types. I got an ESFJ this time around... although, based on the descriptions of each, I think that I am still an ENFJ. I think I over-thought some of the questions and answered them a little off from what I would normally do.

Anyway, we got this extended handout on it- and here's the comparison between the two:

Characteristics associated with people who prefer sensing: (s)

- oriented to present realities
- factual and concrete
- focus on what is real and actual
- observe and remember specifics
- build carefully and thoroughly toward conclusions
- understand ideas and theories through practical applications
- trust experience

vs.

Characteristics associated with people who prefer intuition (N):

- oriented toward future possibilities
- imaginative and verbally creative
- focus on patterns and meanings in data *
- remember specifics when they relate to a pattern *
- move quickly to conclusions, follow haunches *
- want to clarify ideas and theories before putting them into practice *
- trust inspiration *

I'm definitely an "N". I can stop having my quarter life crisis now.