Friday, September 30, 2005

A Gift From My Daughter

My 17 year old daughter has a communication disorder which falls under the umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorders. She rarely communicates with me in anything longer than single word sentences unless it is a dire necessity. She can speak, and does so to many people, in a monotone that sounds a bit like Ben Stein; schollarly and flat at once. She has an amazing intellect, but to most people she looks like a very handicapped young woman because she can't sit still for very long. She paces and talks to herself and hates places that are loud or crowded.

One of her aboslute favorite things to do is to surf the internet. She finds the most amazing web sites, and through her brother and sisters, sometimes I get a glimpse of the places she finds. I want to share one of her finds with you all because I found it so amazing that I went back to it twice to reread the entire series.

It pains me to think that there are people in the world who see my daughter as damaged or sub-normal. I find her amazingly interesting, and learn new things from her almost every day.

Follow this link for a peak into my daughter's world.

Pax

Today is the Feast of St. Jerome

There is a young gentleman in the parish where I work whose name is Jerome Michael. Yesterday was the Feast of the Archangels; Michael being one of them. He got two feast days right in a row. How cool is that?

Pax

At Least I Will Be Among Friends!

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
LevelScore
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)Very High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)Low

Take the Dante's" Inferno Test



via Ukok

Thursday, September 29, 2005

News Worth Taking For What it is Worth

My next favorite news program will be helmed by this man. Interesting that he isn't afraid to tell the interviewer that he is Catholic. I can't wait till the preview next week. I hope you are all watching. I know I will be.

Pax

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

23:5 Meme

Thanks to Martha Martha

This sounded like fun and sent me back through my archives which was really a neat trip back:

Rules:
1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to it).
3. Find the 5th sentence (or closest to it).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

"I pondered it, and considered it, and deconstructed it from every angle until I found the flaw in this man's thinking."

From a post from September 5, 2004 called God Forsaken


I want to pass the fun on to Mark Mossa SJ when he has the time between studying and mourning his fallen media icons.

With the Exception of Anchovies . . .

This is really spot on right about me!

Go figure?

Everything Pizza

Diverse and adaptable
You enjoy the full buffet of life
It's hard to you play favorites with friends... or flavors
There's very little that you dislike!



Pax

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

What She Said!

My pal Penni from Martha Martha has written a wonderful essay about Mass called Where I Spend My Leisure Time. I want you all to read it because I wish I had written it.

Truthfully I am going to ask her if I can copy it to give to my RCIA group this year. What better way to introduce them to the importance of daily Mass than with the story of one woman's reason for going?

Pax

The Mature Man

I was having a conversation with my 21 year old son and 15 year old daughter today on our drive home. We were listening to a radio program on which a male Dejay was going into apoplexy from laughing over something that was probably very immature and moronic to most women. My daughter made some comment about why not only the Dejay. but every other male in the studio seemed to be laughing moronically over this bit of silliness.

My response to her is that the human male, no matter how mature he may appear on the outside has the capacity at some deep dark level to revert at a moment's notice to the maturity level of a 16 year old who just told a fart joke to his friends. I have yet to see any man I know not have moments when this is not true. Deep down inside of every man is a sniveling little 16 year old moron waiting to laugh at a Farrelly Brothers movie, or the Blue Collar comedy Tour.

I am not trying to be a snob here, I admit that I too laugh at the Blue Collar Comedy,( but not so much the Farrelly Brothers). And, as much as I get annoyed at the fact that my amazingly together, mature, devoted spouse, mrangelmeg can descend more quickly than a crippled airliner into the depths of moronic humor at the sound of a burp, I would never want that part of his personality to be removed, because that too makes him the man that I love.

It is just a constant reminder that lurking in the depths of every man is a moronic teen ready to spring a fart joke on the party. Look out ladies, he's there in your man, waiting to come out, don't be shocked when he finally arrives on the scene. Just roll your eyes and love him all the more for the complex creature God created him to be.

Pax

Another Reason Why I Love B16

We are not some casual or meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary."

--From the Homily at his Inauguration Mass, April 24, 2005


Pax

Thursday, September 22, 2005

HASH(0x858abc0)
You speak eloquently and have seemingly read every
book ever published. You are a fountain of
endless (sometimes useless) knowledge, and
never fail to impress at a party.What people love: You can answer almost any
question people ask, and have thus been
nicknamed Jeeves.What people hate: You constantly correct their
grammar and insult their paperbacks.

What Kind of Elitist Are You?

I So Would Have Lived Back Then. . .

If only there had been flush toilets and air conditioning!








The Prioress
You scored 10% Cardinal, 74% Monk, 52% Lady, and 27% Knight!
You are a moral person and are also highly intellectual. You like your solitude but are also kind and helpful to those around you. Guided by a belief in the goodness of mankind you will likely be christened a saint after your life is over.

You scored high as both the Lady and the Monk. You can try again to get a more precise description of either the Monk or the lady, or you can be happy that you're an individual.








My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:



















free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 5% on Cardinal





free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 95% on Monk





free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 83% on Lady





free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 5% on Knight
Link: The Who Would You Be in 1400 AD Test written by KnightlyKnave on Ok Cupid

Tagged, to the Fives

Mark and Suzanne have both semi tagged me -- and I really didn't want to do any work this morning, so here goes:


Five things I want to do before I die

  1. Five minutes of open mike at a comedy club
  2. A trip to Ireland
  3. Publish a book
  4. Complete Gradual School
  5. Hold a great grandchild (though not too soon, if any of my kids are reading)

Five things I can do

  1. Crochet
  2. make killer brownies
  3. play the flute
  4. sdrawkcab epyt (thanks to being dyslexic)
  5. make new people feel welcome in a group (comes from being shy and not wanting anyone to be left out)

five things I cannot do

  1. stay organized for very long
  2. speak a foreign language (I could kick myself)
  3. suffer fools gracefully
  4. the splits (trust me you don't want to see me try)
  5. live without the Eucharist

Five things that attract me to the Opposite Sex

  1. a sense of humor
  2. a nice smile
  3. strong arms
  4. a well trimmed beard
  5. common faith (what can I say I am a sucker for a nice Catholic guy, ask mrangelmeg)

Five things I say most often

  1. did I say that out loud?
  2. did I hear someone say chocolate?
  3. It's called a turn signal buddy, use it sometime!
  4. someone tell me what to make for dinner I am too tired to think
  5. I love you.

Five Celebrity Crushes This is fun, mrangelmeg and I have an agreement that we can only fall in love with someone that we never have a chance of meeting so I have thought about this a lot.

  1. Msgr. Georg Ganswein (what can I say, I'm hot for secretary)
  2. Hugh Jackman (aussie, happily married, but NOT as wolverine)
  3. Hugh Laurie (happily married, either with or without the English accent)
  4. Jim Caviezel (happily married, even before he played Jesus and Bobby Jones)

I just realized that the first guy is celibate and the last three are happily married, what does that say about me I wonder.

A very early celebrity crush was on Tony DeFranco the singer, I know I know. I still cringe when I think about it, but when I saw him on a retrospective of the 70's I was as giddy as a little girl. And when they showed him as an adult it turns out that he actually walked away from the music business because he didn't want to be "handled" I call that integrity. Now he is a happily married man who runs a media company for Christian families. Who knew?

Who should I tag?

Anyone who wants to take this from me can have the tag.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

What Every Good Girl Needs!

I agree with Tony at Catholic Pillow Fight; if you want your daughter to grow up to be strong and pure and true to her ideals, she needs a man in her life. That man needs to be her earthly father who will be there to tell her how much value she has every day.

My father died when I was 13, so for most of those very important years I didn't have a dad around to tell me those things. It is only by the grace of God that I didn't succumb to the societal pressures that I heard every day screaming at me as I grew into adulthood. I think it was because my father had laid the groundwork so carefully before he died that when I was confused I could here him say to me that someday there would be one man who would love me for who I was and not for what I looked like or what I would give him or do for him.

I was willing to wait for that man because my father promised that it would be worth the wait. Every day of the nearly twenty-three years that mrangelmeg has been a constant part of my life has born witness to that message that my father instilled in me all those years ago.

So you see, if my father, whose message was cut short by disease and death could make a difference in my life, just think how much more powerful a message your's could be if you are alive and involved in your daughter's life for the long haul. Make every day count. Take time each day to let them know just how special they are and how precious a gift they will be to their husband. Let them know that it will be worth the wait for that one man who will love them as God does.

Pax

Monday, September 19, 2005

How Can I Keep Silent?

I have tried. I was going to say nothing about this, but when God creates something this beautiful, admiration is called for -- no required. So finally my silence on the topic is ended.


Georg, the Cutest Secretary in the World





need I say more?


Pax

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Sodom and Gomorrah Got Nothing on Us!

This article from this morning's New York Times proves that this world is becoming more depraved by the minute.

No longer will someone have to wait by their mail box, or be tied to their house for their satellite or cable pay per view channel, or surf the net on their computer to get their fix of porn. Now it will be as close as their cell phone or wireless PDA.

I would make a joke about this, but it is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. Where is the sport?

The fire is coming, can you feel it? Pray for us all. Lord have mercy.

Pax

Friday, September 16, 2005

Fortune Cookie Friday

Your Fortune Is

He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Congresional Absurdity

Okay, I am not one to watch Supreme Court Nomination Hearings closely, but I do have a passing interest in this particular one. I want to share with my two loyal readers what has to be the epitome of absurdity in statements coming from a sentator at the hearings: I am not making this up, I copied it word for word from the New York Times article this morning.


"The American people are entitled to answers," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts.



Since there is at least one American family who is still waiting for our pal Ted to give some answers about one night when a car went off the road and a woman died, what gives him the moral right to make a statement like that with a straight face? I ask you?

Pax

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Rest in Peace Dear Sweet Child

Susan Anne Catherine Torres died September 11, 2005 after a very short life.

May her soul rest in peace, and my God comfort her father who fought so hard to make sure her life was a reality.

Pax

Sunday, September 11, 2005

The Grace of Tears

Today we added the Kyrie from the Mass of remembrance to the liturgical music at mass this morning in honor of the anniversary of 9/11, and the ongoing recovery from Katrina.

Instead of playing flute for this particular part of the mass, I chose to help the singers, so I stood in the front and looked out over my worshiping community as we sang the Greek refrain Kyrie Eleison, Criste Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, and then those haunting verses, begging God for mercy and comfort for His people.

As we sang I could see my pops, Gunny: John Cornwell, Gulf War Veteran, back in the right corner, his head bowed. Suddenly it struck me, the power of the words that we were singing. Everything, all the evils we have seen and done and have had done to us in this world we are asking to be washed away with our tears: Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.

I could barely make it to the end of the final refrain, the tears were streaming down my face. Luckily Jim, my dear friend is a man who comes prepared with a handkerchief so that I could dry my eyes.

Then I sat and was in awe of the readings this Sunday. Readings that ask us to live in a constant state of forgiveness. Challenging us to treat others with a mercy that we ourselves know so well, because that is how God in heaven treats us. Isn't it amazing how the Liturgical cycle works. The anniversary of 9/11 was about forgiveness. A challenge still being felt and tried to live out.

Today's liturgy was such a powerful experience for me. I just had to share it with you all.

Pax

Nothing Surprising Here

brigid
You are St Brigid's Cross: St. Brigid is an Irish
saint who hand-wove a cross,out of rushes she
found by the river. She made the cross while
explaining the passion of our Lord to a pagan
man.


What Kind of Cross are You?
brought to you by Quizilla



via Catholic Pillow Fight
Pax

Friday, September 09, 2005

Fortune Cookie Friday

Your Fortune Is

Man who jump off cliff, jump to conclusion.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

The Perfectionist in me is Humbled

Gradual School is where you learn. Grades just shouldn't matter. I give myself this little speech every semester, and then I go out there and work my tail off to get the best grade I can.

I once told a psychologist who asked me about my perfectionist tendencies that I wanted to be a perfectionist, but I just wasn't quite good enough. I was really only joking, or so I thought at the time.

Gradual School has been the proof of that rule in my life. I work as hard as I can in every class I take in Gradual School. I do my very very best, and I usually get an A-. I don't get a straight up A. But I tell myself that that is okay, I am there to learn, not to get good grades.

There are even some semesters when I promise myself that I am not going to put so much pressure on myself to get A's. I have too much other work to do, or my family needs me, so I allow myself to not work so hard. But then when crunch time comes I find that I am so enjoying the subject matter that I don't mind the work, and I get grades that are one percentage point above a B+. Even when I am not killing myself I am still getting A's.

So, I am humbled, each semester that I am still getting A's in Gradual School. Part of me hopes each time that this will be the semester that I will actually get a B+, just so that the pressure will be taken off, but then when the grades finally come and I see that I have gotten another A or A-, I realize that I did work really hard, not because I was in some obsessive frenzy, but because I was so enjoying studying the topic I was studying that particular semester.

Don't tell mrangelmeg this, but I could keep studying stuff for the rest of my life. Well maybe not at $300 a semester hour though.

Pax

A Closet Hippie Mystic? Who Me?

Julian
You are Julian of Norwich! It's all about God, to
you. You're convinced that the world has a
happy ending. Everyone else is convinced that
you're a closet hippie, but you love them
anyway.


Which Saint Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla


Okay so the truth comes out, I am a little bit hippie, deep down, just check out the sandals collection.

via Martha Martha

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

This site is certified 72% GOOD by the Gematriculator



Via Catholic Pillow Fight

Couldn't Resist This One . . .

It pretty much sums me up. I couldn't do my job if I didn't believe that Catholicism held the fullness of truth. Why help others become Catholic if all religions were interchangeable?

Pax


You are a Believer

You believe in God and your chosen religion.
Whether you're Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or Hindu..
Your convictions are strong and unwavering.
You think your religion is the one true way, for everyone.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Ethical Maturity and Homework, Yucko!

I may not have as much time to post in the ensuing weeks as I would like.

God has prompted me to take the class in Christian Maturity, and then changing my major it just made sense to pick up a class in Medical Ethics online to get that out of the way so that I wouldn't have to take an ethics class the same semester as my MA final. What that means in real time is that I will have assignments due each week, and at the rate that I read and write, it will leave precious little time for blogging. I hope to keep up a bit, perhaps commenting on things I see during the day or things I read in my studies.

I have to admit that now that I have started re-reading Seven Storey Mountain for the Christian Maturity class I remember how much I loved it when I read it the first time at 30. What a difference 15 years makes though, I see it in such a different perspective now than I did back then. Can't wait to talk about that with my classmates this weekend.

The ethics homework is a lot less fun. My greatest problem there is that I just don't think or write like a theologian. I had that problem in Foundational Theology. I have a distinctive voice when I write and I really struggle when I am challenged to write outside of that voice. I have been told that rather than writing as a theologian for other theologians I write theologically for the BOLP (basic ordinary lay person - no knowledge or vocabulary of theology).

I intend to turn in the first assignment for ethics class in my own voice, and see how the professor decides to grade it. Depending on how low the grade is and how desperately I want to get an A I will decide whether I should change how I write my assignments. I am guessing that I won't change much.

Either way, this will be a very interesting semester. I will check in as often as I can.

Pax

Monday, September 05, 2005

This is where the Church was!

Archbishop Alfred Hughes was right in the thick of the refugees doing what he was called to do, minister to his flock.

Thanks to the Angry Twins for the post.

Pax

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Shameless Self-promotion Delayed by Hurricane Katrina

Today was the day I was going to participate in an act of shameless self-promotion and ask you all to redirect your browsers to Hereditas Magazine because I happen to have an article in the fall issue. I have been anxiously awaiting the publication of this for months now as it is the second piece I have had accepted for publication in the past year, and I was looking so forward to getting some reaction from my two loyal readers.

But now, sadly I find that hurricane Katrina has delayed the site feed going on-line (it was supposed to happen on Friday); they are in Louisiana after all. Even cyberspace is a victim of the devastation.

Oh well, this is a humbling experience for me. It is such a little thing I have lost in comparison to those who have lost everything, even their lives and the lives of those they love. So I can lose this little thing without whining, or complaining. But someday soon I do hope that you will all get to read my article. Until then say an extra prayer for those who are still trying to recover from Katrina, and those who are trying to help in the recovery efforts.

Pax

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Update

Check out CatholicNews.org for an informative update on the cause of the destruction in the Gulf Coast.

Maureen Martin has done it again. Oh, and if you haven't done it already, give to one of the worthy Charities helping all the victims. If we don't lend a hand, who will help us when it happens to us.

Thanks Maureen for reminding us that laughter helps, even in the most distressing times.

Pax

Friday, September 02, 2005

A Day of Blessings

Mrangelmeg had to have a medical procedure today, so I went along with him for moral support. It was a day of blessings.

The day was long, but the procedure went as well as we could have expected. We are back home and things look good. I got most of my Gradual School reading done for the week while I was waiting for mrangelmeg to emerge from the medical office where they were working on him.

This morning we encountered an older couple who talked too loudly and too much. In fact the woman was talking so much that I couldn't think, or do any kind of studying. If it weren't so funny, considering my post about Mark and his retreat earlier this week I would have been pretty mad. I just offered up the distraction and tried not to laugh too hard. Everyone else on the waiting room felt the same way about the poor woman. We heard her entire life story in the hour or so that she talked non-stop. Thank heavens her husband's procedure didn't take long.

Mrangelmeg's procedure took longer than most of the others in the office, in fact for a long stretch of time around noon I was the only person in the waiting room. That was when I began to read Seven Storey Mountain. I was pleasantly surprised how much I remember from the last time I read it.

Now we are back home, mrangelmeg is resting comfortably, and we are hopeful that his ear with heal completely. Praise God that his Doctor sent us to this Doctor who knew exactly how to excise this type of tumor.

Now all we have to do is watch and pray and take care of the scar as it heals.

Pax