New Sidebar Stuff

I've made some changes to the sidebar that I wanted to highlight for my readers.

HHS Mandate Petition
Besides my Lenten Resources, which I discussed in the previous post, I've got a link to the National Petition to stop the HHS mandate at the top of the sidebar.  Check it out, click, and help fight religious bigotry in the U.S.!

Divine Office Widget
The next new feature on the sidebar is a Breviary widget which I got from Coffee and Canticles: The Divine Office in Your Life.  I'm really loving this way of praying the Liturgy of the Hours.  For someone who is online more than I probably should be, this is a very handy way to have the prayers for the various hours, the Office of Readings and the Mass in one place. (You can also use this widget on iPhone, iPad, and Android Mobile.)

If you look across the top, you've got the Liturgy of the Hours (under "Breviary) the Mass readings (under "Daily Lecture") and a seemingly endless variety of Prayers available (under "Prayers", of course!) . If you click "More" you can even choose your language and make sure the day is set correctly.

Elizabeth Scalia, aka, The Anchoress, has a very inspiring post about praying the Divine Office during Lent on her blog.  She tells her readers that it has changed her personally and spiritually.

Free Online Books and Films
Also, scrolling down the sidebar to the second to the last list, I've got some free online films, talks and tv, including free audio books, Christian classics, Catholic classics, and documentaries.

Lenten Resource Page

Check out my new Lenten Resource Page.  Click on the Lenten Resources button to the right (on the sidebar) to go to a separate Lenten Resource page on Dymphna's Well.

Right now, I've got some fasting resources and Lenten family resources.  I will add to them as I find new and inspiring things on the web.

Edited to add:  I've added some Catholic and Orthodox Lenten Homilies.

Blog Highlight--Budget Bytes

I've discovered a great blog--Budget Bytes.  They post great, inexpensive recipes *and* the cost per recipe and per serving.

I think this is a great idea!  Not all of us have the money to go out and buy expensive ingredients and few of us want to eat the same thing every day.  Budget Bytes wants to prevent both.

It has a section on stocking your kitchen.  This section is very basic and limited, which, when cooking on a budget, is nice to see.  Each item, from individual types of spices, to plastic storage containers, is listed by category and by price.

The website recommends portioning out your recipes to avoid overeating and further stretch your budget.  They have a variety of recipes including desserts and drinks.

Stop by and take a look.

Happy cooking!

Odds and Ends

I wanted to catch you all up on some additions to the blog.

On the sidebar under the Catholic New Media Advent calendar, there is a St. Andrews novena prayer, said between now and Christmas.  Under that, click on the Advent Wreath picture for a daily meditation on Scripture.

Our December Devotion is focused on Advent and the coming of Christ.  Click on the Our Lady of Advent icon for a peek at an Episcopalian blog, The Advent Door done by artist Jan Richardson.

Underneath that, our virtue for December is Union with God.  Click on the beautiful Saint Gemma holy card to go to http://www.stgemmagalgani.com and read about how she achieved this union. There is so much valuable information there about this wonderful saint!

YIM Catholic is a wonderful new site that posts about positive things happening in the Church around the world.

Take time from your busy Christmas preparations to check out some of these sites.

Homeless in America

I found a powerful and challenging blog--Homeless in America.  It is a Catholic blog, complete with quotes and inspiration on the sidebar by Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa and Saint Bernadette.  Yet, it does not (that I've seen) argue or pontificate about what style of liturgy is the "right" style.  It doesn't wring its hands about the minutia of daily worship.  It doesn't spend its time and waste its space complaining about how horrible things are in the Church.

Instead, it challenges its readers to think about the "least" in the world; in America.  It reaches beyond a particular political fashion du jour and gets to the meat of Christianity--seeing God in the poor; living our faith in Jesus by getting out of our spiritual and financial navel gazing and putting our values where our faith is.

This is where Catholicism excels--although not nearly as much as it could.  The Church built the first schools.  The Church built the first hospitals.  The Church has nurtured men and women who have literally given up everything to serve God's people year after year for their entire lives.

We are being made impotent as a church by infighting about things that even Jesus admitted would not last. It is time we wake up.  It is time we live our faith.  It is time we become Christian.

Keep Calm and Say Your Rosary!

Hat tip to Lucy of Mystical Rose Design who pointed out this great Esty shop (hers, I think) that has this ingenious necklace charm design! As she said in her comment to my Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake post, say the rosary, then have your cupcake!

Relax in the House of Turquoise

I wanted to point out a cool blog I've just discovered.  House of Turquoise is all about home decorating with the color...turquoise!

It is a calming experience just stopping by and bathing in the world of cool aquas.

I'm thinking of getting back in touch with my inner lover of all things blue. I have gotten off to a running start with my sun room, which I painted a couple of years ago with an "obnoxious turquoise" floor and a faux stone walk way.

A Few New Blogs and Websites

I've discovered two new blogs that I wanted to share with you all.

Vivificat is a bilingual (English and Spanish) blogger who is an Oblate of St. Benedict and a military officer. He has an interest in Eastern Christian spirituality and posts many spiritually helpful things in that regard on his blog.

Father Moses of Fasting and Feasting Through the Church Year is a monastery cook at Holy Resurrection Monastery in California and blogs about Christianity and fasting.  He posts recipes which would be very helpful in this Lenten season when we may be scrambling to find appropriate fasting type meals.

A third website is not a new one for me, but one I really like and appreciate.  Catholic Home and Garden strives to preserve Catholic culture and traditions and support our growth in holiness.  It seems to have expanded exponentially since I visited last, with lots of pages devoted to traditional spirituality in addition to the original section on the Catholic Garden that attracted me to the site.  It seems that there is a bit of something there for almost anyone.

A Beautiful New Blog and Some Thoughts on Beauty

I wanted to highlight a beautiful new blog I have saved on my sidebar under Catholic (Western).

 It is Kindred Spirit's Trail of Flowers blog. She combines gorgeous artwork, breathtaking poetry and inspirational quotes for a restful reminder of what is important.  Her blog is the sort of place you want to stop by every morning before getting down to the business of the day,  every afternoon while drinking a cup of your favorite tea, or every evening before going to sleep.

Her blog is perfectly illustrative of the spiritual concept that "beauty will save the world".  Humanity's search for beauty has led us down many a stray path in recent times and our despair is reflected in much of our art and music. As we give in to this despair, we dig ourselves a hole which is difficult even to see out of.

True beauty, in all its forms, is the way to and expression of the Divine in the world.  Genesis tells us that "God saw that (His creation) was good."  Mankind attempts to encompass that Beauty through our own creation.  When we reject that goal and create things that purposely go against our quest for Beauty, we debase our own soul.    

If you like the art at A Trail of Flowers, drop by the Art Renewal Center whose mission is to support classical realism in art. The artwork they have in their online library is inspirational, breathtaking and gorgeous as well!

This includes the picture above, A Young Woman Holding a Bouquet of Summer Flowers by Ferdnand Toussaint.  You can browse their museum and even buy some of their prints.  Part of their mission is encouraging high standards in today's artists and  to that end they have a category of paintings in their gallery called "Living Masters" that you can enjoy and purchase as well.

As many of us try to dig out from recent winter storms of historic proportions, I encourage you all to continue the search for Beauty in all its forms and to visit A Trail of Flowers as part of that search.

Catholic Roundup's Blogger's Advent Calendar

RAnn, at This, That and the Other Thing is a contributor to Catholic Roundup's Advent Calender, which has an advent related post for each day until the Feast of Stephen on December 26.  Check back to this post and read their enlightening Advent musings.  It should update automatically.

Preserve Our Heritage

Conveyor has asked that I let you all know of a Traditional Liturgical Association in Ireland: The Catholic Heritage Association.  They are a lay organization whose aim is to promote use of the Latin Mass, Gregorian Chant and Sacred Polyphony in the Church.  This is truly a cornerstone of Catholic heritage that has been lost for three generations now and deserves to be preserved for the future.

Stop by their blog and offer a word of support.  They put out a journal twice a year called CHRISTVS REGNAT.  

Being Truly Grateful

In reading Fr. Stephen's blog, Glory to God for All Things, God has generously given me more to think about with regards to gratitude and why it so easily disappears. We have been given abundance. Or, rather, *I* have been given abundance. God has given me people and things throughout my life and, as is common, I have taken them for granted.

Fr. Stephen quotes Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain as saying,

The destruction of man lies in the abundance of material goods, because it prevents him from experiencing the presence of God and appreciating His benevolence.

By way of illustration, Elder Paisios tells the following story:

I lived in a place that had no water. I had to walk for two hours to get to a rock where water was leaking from its side. I placed the jug underneath and waited about an hour until it was filled up. The limited amount of water created in my soul various feelings:

Every day I was in agony: “I wonder, will the water be dripping from the rock?” I prayed to God to continue to make it drip. As I was walking towards the rock, I was anxious to see whether I would find some water and I prayed. When I could detect from far away the water glittering as the sun beams were falling on the rock, I glorified God. On my way back, I constantly thanked and glorified Him for the water He gave me. So, the small amount of water impelled me first, to constantly pray to God to make the rock drip and secondly, to thank and glorify Him, as He is the giver of all good things.

Elder Paisios ends with this advice:

The same thing applies to everything. If we are found in a difficult situation, we must not be upset; instead we should realize this is God’s way to make us feel closer to Him and become aware that He is the grantor of everything in our lives.

Indeed, Glory to God for all things!

Two "Quiet" Blogs

I've discovered two "quiet" blogs.  Both blogs are meditative and thought provoking.  Neither blog has a comment section.  Both blogs encourage you to email the authors with feedback. 

A Circle of Quiet combines photography, recipes, poetry, quotes, books, and posts about family and friends.  You gets the feeling that you are sitting down to tea with a close confidant.

Holy Experience is a truly transcendent encounter. Like A Circle of Quiet, it has no comment section, but you may email the author, Ann Voskamp, with your observations.  The blog's music, The Gift, by David Nevue, is one part of the whole, rejuvinating atmosphere that is this blog.

The holy experience starts with the header.  An orange sunset takes you into a quietly dark background full of poetic posts, beautiful pictures and deeply thought-provoking essays.  It is truly a blog like no other and Ann Voskamp is extremely talented at what she does.


Stop by both blogs for a bit of tranquility. 

New Links

I have created a new link category on the sidebar: Catholic Psychology and Recovery. Right now it has Sober Catholic, Paul's website, along with Sober for Christ, Catholic Psychology and Christian Friends in Recovery.

I think recovery, in the broad sense, is something that we are all called to do--to recover from our tendency to give in to our human nature with no thought for the higher things to which we are called. Addiction of all kinds is so very common in today's society replete as it is, with distractions.

Catholicism is well suited to the sometimes difficult changes that need to occur in life's journey.

Check them out!

On Blogging, Texting and Tweeting

I've been thinking of the future of blogging in light of recent technological developments such as Facebook, texting and Twitter.

I have confessed to relying on YouTube to fill in blog posts here on the days when I am otherwise uninspired. Occasionally a video will make me think of a friend or relative on my Facebook page and I'll post it there.

I don't "tweet" (or is it "twitter"?) but the Facebook status updates serve the same purpose--to say something short, sweet, and witty to amuse my friends. I have sometimes condensed a post from here and put it on my Facebook as a status update, knowing that most of the people who see my page there do not read my blog.

So, I began to wonder what the future of blogging will be in light of this new technology. Have we run out of time to write and read blogs? Do we feel uncomfortable reading our loved ones' opinions on things religious, social or political?

Personally, I think blogging by default will be useful for going deeper into a topic and enjoying the written word in a way that can't be done in a shorter format. Although, as a haiku author, I do appreciate the beauty in brevity.

Another thing blogs can do is focus on a specific topic to the exclusion of the minutia of the author's daily life. Sometimes its not all about me (although the internet in general does tend to feed *that* temptation quite well.) The flip side of blogging is the ability to think out loud and journal on a subject of a more personal nature long enough to reach some sort of conclusion or closure.

And, of course, there is the sharing aspect of blogging. Short updates on fact that I hate mosquitoes (my latest Facebook update) don't really tell you much of anything about me and don't really express much of an opinion on anything.

Another thing I like about blogging is I am not forcing my opinion on anyone. Anyone is free to read and comment, or not. When I have my periodic urge to share with the world, I can do so and at the same time leave the world free agents to choose their level of interaction with me.

It is fascinating to watch the modern world of technological communication develop and unfold. Who knows what the future will bring?

New Blogs

I've discovered some new blogs through Sunday Snippet. (See post below.)

This, That and the Other Thing is RAnn's blog and she posts mostly about books. She is the originator of the Sunday Snippets, is a paralegal, reader and book reviewer.

S.A.G.A. is Renee's blog and stands for St Albert the Great Academy. She is also a reader and book reviewer.

Christian Evidence and Witness Christ are both Brother Luuk's blogs. Brother Luuk is an Irish Dominican and also participates in Sunday Snippet.

Creative Minority Report is one I found indirectly through Sunday Snippet. It covers news and culture from a Catholic world view and gets its name from the Holy Father.

Believing Christians should look upon themselves as such a creative minority and ... espouse once again the best of its heritage, thereby being at the service of humankind at large. --Joseph Ratzinger

New Blog

An internet friend of mine has a new blog.

She is poetic. She is wise. She is Scottish.

Check it out.

Her blog is called "The rose of all the world is not for me" and is taken from a poem by MacDiarmid.

New Link

I have a new link on my side bar (under "Catholic--Western") to Vox Nova. Here is their stated purpose:

Vox Nova is a response to the ecclesial mandate to promote the common good in every sphere of human existence. We come from varying backgrounds and carry diverse social outlooks, traversing a wide range of demographics and political sympathies. Vox Nova is free, to the furthest extent possible, from partisanship, nationalism and demagoguery, all of which banish intellectual honesty from rational discourse.

United in our Catholic, pro-person worldview, yet diverging in our socio-political opinions, we seek to provide informed commentary and rigorous debate on culture, society, politics and law, all while unwaveringly adhering to, and aptly applying the principles of Catholic doctrine. We are not intellectually wedded to any single political ideology.

This is exactly what is needed, imo. Partisanship politics both within the Church and the country has turned many off to voting, to involvement in the community, and to Christianity. The mistaken notion that Catholicism is included in those christian groups that abhor and distrust education, deep thinking and honest dialogue must be countered forcefully. The continuation of our freedom and civilization depends on it.

Blog News

For the jillions and jillions of you who follow Sweetie's blog, I have decided to add the last date she has updated it on the title over the link on the sidebar. She updated it today.

Enjoy!

I Found My Thrill

One of my pet peeves is people who put unnecessary quotation marks around words. Now, there is a blog dedicated to such perplexing punctuation mistakes--The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks.

Quotation marks around a word or phrase that do not indicate a person speaking, are used to indicate irony. When people use them instead, for emphasis, interpreting the supposed ironic meaning behind the quotes can be a hilarious venture.

This is the idea behind The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. Bethany Keeley, the blog's author, likes to reinterpret the meaning of signs that misuse quotation marks and speculate about their supposed irony.

One of my favorite misuses of quotation marks is when stores put their sale signs in quotes. So...its not really a sale? You are admitting that you jacked up the price artificially so that your "sale" is not really a sale? Because, that's what you are saying when you put "sale" in quotes.

Anyway, stop by Bethany's blog and have a laugh at the misused quotes.

The "sale" pic above is from The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks.