7 Quick Takes

1.  Where Are You On Your Book?  

Editing. Starting on page one.  My new best friend Annie (the editor at Museitup) has given me 15 days to go through all the that, had, but, and, then, about, was, as, very, were, has been, had been, will be, as if, as though, ly adverbs, around, just, could only, some, going to, started to, began or began to, towards, backwards, forwards, should of's of my 312 pages.    Oy. 

2. How is Penelope doing?

She's having to be patient.  I'm stuck at 15k.  I need a structure, a scaffolding for this book.  I'm trying to discipline my mind enough to do it.  There seems to be an absence of will in my spirit these days, like my brain is fried and dull. 

3. How is Exercise doing?

See #2.  I have yet to do my first push up in the month of October.  

4.  What Else is Going on?

I'm still doing a daily rosary, still trying to keep the laundry from exploding out of control, still waiting for a dishwasher to arrive on the 8th and still have two weeks of baseball left.  We also have a homecoming this weekend and a child who turns 7.

I'm not sure if I
5.  Have you planned the party?

Not yet.  We have an idea. We have a date in mind. We need to get started.  Stat! What are we doing? Halloween party with costumes, bobbing for apples, that spook house under the table bit, musical chairs to the Monster Mash, a cake with vampire teeth --birthday girl's idea, broom races, and pumpkin painting.  Should be fun.

6. What Else?

I'm a bit sad because a favorite professor from Notre Dame, a man who taught my father, my husband and later me, (Political Theory and Camus), died this past week.  A bit of the heart of the campus for me, is no longer on campus. 

7.  Costumes for Halloween:  So far, I have one Rainbow Dash, one dinosaur, one cheerleader, one who wanted to be a vampire but can't so I'll have to sell her on something else, (Maybe she can be a Vampire Slayer Cheerleader), one who always squirms and then opts for a straight rubber mask --like a Gorilla, and one who I think will be a princess again because she loves them so, Link, and the inscrutable one still hasn't decided but is considering Moaning Myrtle again. (It was one of my favorite costumes that she created so I'm hoping).  

Witch Costume Will We Wear?

I love Halloween.  I make no bones about it.  I start thinking about it as soon as we get half way through September.  We have lots of costumes so that's never a problem though I've been known to work hard with a kid to craft "the costume" when they're inspired.  I love it when they're excited and when they're excited, I just can't help myself and we wind up going over the top. 

My husband also loves it.  He buys pumpkins almost every grocery stop. We carve them all.  We don't get many trick-o-treaters but it doesn't matter. We always buy candy. We always have lights on, and we always hope for more. Even if no one comes,  we have a blast anyway.  Even our youngest son last year got into the act and knows it is coming. He's planning on repeating his role as a dinosaur.  We celebrate it as a night of imagination and silliness and whimsy.  No shirkers, not even the one who thinks he's too cool and doesn't really dig sweet stuff.

However, there are those who would say that anyone who goes about saying Happy Halloween is deserving of a good chastening and to be horsewhipped by twizzlers and made to watch bible cartoons until they beg for forgiveness.  They claim that every year it becomes more depraved, more sugary, more a means of introducing the innocent to the occult, not to mention processed corn sugary nut added in many cases cheap chocolate goodness, than a time of letting children be whimsical and explore the dangerous world of imagination. 

There is a need, a desperate need in this world for deliberate silliness and joy that is not juvenile but rather, child like. Halloween allows for that explosion of creativity in expression, in carving, in costumes, in the celebration of everyone's play and pretend. Though it puts many a calorie on my hip and has never put a dollar in my pocket, indeed it takes many but I gladly give them, I say God bless it.  

So when this year, those who view Halloween as a doorway to all things grave made it such that my kids cannot be witches at the October 31st parade, my brain temporarily jerked into a rebellious mode.  I am not normally a rabble rouser, I normally get things and try to go along.  However, this stance is akin to handing out toothbrushes if you're not a dentist by trade.  The idea needs to be t.p'd.  But since it can't, since it has been decided, I can only register my protest through cleverness and/or out and out defiance.  

I do not wish my children to learn to be disrespectful, however....even the most modest of my children wasn't taking this without a grain of salt and touch of derision.  They recognize that this is play and pretend and not real.  I trired to explain but it's hard when one's own heart isn't in it. Eventually, I just can't.  "I don't think this will lead to the occult.  I presume our weekly mass, daily prayers, Catholic school years, constant talking to you all about an integrated Catholic life and the example your father and I have presented with our lives and our friends and our family are sufficient to the task and won't be undone by a day of pretending to be vampires, ghosts and witches. I trust that we are forming your hearts and minds well enough to withstand the assault of costumes and candy, whimsy and silliness." 

"Yeah Mom...blah blah blah."  "So, we really can't be witches?"
"No witches."
The car was silent for a moment...only a moment.
"No witches.  What about wizards?" One asked.  "I'm going as a werewolf. They didn't say that was against the rules." another volunteered.
"Can I go as Glinda of the Wizard of Oz? She's a good witch." a third chimed in.

My oldest called from college.  Filled in on the latest news, he who had played Giles Corey in Arthur Miller's play suggested going as the cast of The Crucible. 

My first thoughts had run to Wendy, Samantha, Sabrina and Hermione.  Clearly none of us were taking this well.  None of us wanted to follow the spirit let alone the letter of the law. There were all sorts of arguements about why if not Witches, were fairies or elves or orcs or gobblins or superheroes that might be darker allowed?  What about fairy tale villians and Disney villians and supervillians? What about Starwars and StarTrek, mummies and zombies, or just plain monsters like vampires and Frankenstein?  What was the line? What moved the line? Where would the line stop? They could feel the options of costumes shrinking before them and it bothered them.  We'd stopped at the comic store for one girl to get a t-shirt. 

Then it hit me.  "We should go as interogatives." I got a lot of blank looks.
"Who." "What." "How." "Where." "Why" and "Which."   There were evil grins all around by those who got it and the obligatory explantion to those who didn't.  They suggested going as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I got treated to a chorus of "Sand Witch!" "Sand  Witch"  I smiled. 

PB&J might be a great protest, since that is also banned due to allergies.

What will a day of going as parts of speech lead to? One shudders to imagine...but then, I believe that's how we come to have these sorts of over scrupulous rules about holidays, by being afraid to let imagination occasionally run free.  

Living this Year of Faith

October 11th starts the year of faith, the Bishops have suggested that we spend the next 365 days delving deeper into our relationship with Christ and her Church. That sounds fine enough, but how?
Here are a few methods for turning this year of faith into a rich experience. The goal is to grow so pick a few that will stretch your soul and steel your faith.

100. Go to mass more regularly. If you do not go weekly, begin. If you go weekly, try for a daily.
99. The rosary. If not a whole one a day, a decade a day.  Grow into it as the year progresses.
98. Pick a saint, learn about them. Read their writings, know what made their lives sanctified.
97. Begin reading from the Old Testament regularly.
96. Sing at mass.
95. Perform a Corporal act of mercy --feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick.
94. Brush up on your church history.
93. Watch Catholicism, the series
92. Go to a Theology on tap series.
91. Receive the sacrament of Reconciliation.
90. Start saying The Divine Mercy Chaplet.
89. There are 35 doctors of the Church, look through them for the right specialist, then read that Doctor's writings for the year.
88. Practice spiritual acts of mercy.
87. Fast.
86. Read the daily readings online or via the Magnificat.
85. Pray with your family.
84. Adoration. Give an hour a week.
83. Give a little more of yourself at mass.
82. Give a little more in charity.
81. Surrender some time for others by volunteering.
80. Try the Total Consecration to Jesus Christ through Mary
79. Make a pilgrimage to a Cathedral or Basilica.
78. Visit a hospital, shut-in, or prison.
77. Place a crucifix on your wall in your home.
76. Listen to a Catholic speaker/Catholic radio.
75. Create deliberate beauty in your home.
74. Practice real forgiveness.
73. Find a spiritual director.
72. Create a spiritual bouquet.
71. Read a book from the New Testament.76. Listen to a Catholic speaker/Catholic radio.
70. Pray with your children.
69. Pray with your spouse.
68. Pray for your children.
67. Pray for your spouse.
66. Familiarize yourself with the catechism.
65. Listen to some of the great music of the mass.
64. Serve in your parish in some capacity with the liturgy.
63. Give something up.
62. Invite someone to come eat and share your faith with them.
61. Invite priests or nuns to come and dine and share their faith with you.
60. Abstain from meat on Friday as a little sublimation.
59. Tithe.
58. Be a part of the Liturgy of the Hours.
57. Research a lay order you might consider joining.
56. Read a psalm a day.
55. Discover the joy of Catholic writers like Percy, Chesterton and O'Connor.
54. Find and follow a daily meditation, like the three minute retreat, Pope Benedict XVIth's Reflections for day to day, or A Year in the Life of Saint Paul.
53. Take in great Catholic art.
52. Catholic bloggers, discover them.
51. Be present to your family, your friends, everyone.
50. Meditate on the 7 Dolors of Mary daily.
49. Participate in the seasons of the Church.
48. Teach CCD.
47. Learn the parts of the mass.
46. Become politically active and involved on Catholic issues.
45. Sacrifice something like diet coke or fast food, consider it a cross of toothpicks.
44. Ask God for something.
43. Work earnestly in all things.
42. Keep holy the Sabbath day.
41. Pray for those in purgatory daily.40. Foresake a bad habit you think you can't.
39. Wear the cross or crucifix.
38. Review the readings prior to the mass.
37. Get to mass on time.
36. Stay to the end.
35. Attend a mass said by a Bishop or Cardinal.
34. Read the letters/notes from the Bishop or Cardinal in your area.
33. Recite an act of Contrition every day.
32. Count your blessings.
31. Offer up your pains, struggles and petty grievances.
30. Cheer someone up.
29. Provide prayerful witness for the unborn.
28. Remove occasions of sin from one's life, even sins of convenience.
27. Reconcile with an estranged acquaintance, friend or family
26. Failing that, pray for the estranged acquaintance, friend or family.
25. Prepare a feast for your family. Invite the estranged.
24. Seek to have a family rosary once a week.
23. Love your spouse well.
22. Love your children well.
21. Create a Marian Garden as a place of prayer for your home, or a prayer table.
20. Take an online course on some aspect of your faith that you know to be weak, the Sacraments, Church History, apologetics.
19. Pray for the intentions of the Pope.
18. Do what is necessary for an indulgence.
17. Participate in a Novena.
16. Form or join a prayer group.
15. Attend other sacraments, like Holy Orders, Marriage and Confirmation, pray for those receiving them.
14. Go on a retreat.
13. Pray with your children before they go to bed.
12. Listen.
11. Keep a spiritual diary.
10. Visit a cemetery, pray for the deceased.
9. Subscribe to a Catholic magazine, read it when it comes, cover to cover.
8. Clean out your closet. Give away half. joyfully.
7. Live within your means. Give the excess away.
6. Dress beautifully and modestly.
5. Honor your father and mother in prayer, thought and deed.
4. Invite someone to come to mass with you.
3. Reaffirm what it means to be Catholic, what identifies you as Catholic.
2. Do all things great and small with great love.
1. Receive the Eucharist frequently.

Lastly, whatever you do, whether with a willing heart or merely a dutiful flesh, do. Sometimes the heart follows, sometimes the heart leads. Ours are faiths smaller than 1/1000'th a mustard seed. But perhaps this year, we can grow them to move the molehills if not mountains.