admin December 25th, 2006
Merry Christmas!
May God bless you and yours abundantly this Christmas (although not necessarily in a Prosperity-Gospel kind of way) and in the coming year. I will be posting later today or tomorrow about my Christmas thus far: the good, the bad, and yes, even the ugly! Stay tuned, and I look forward to hearing how your holidays shaped up as well.
admin December 21st, 2006
How did I miss this one when it came around?
Don’t know if I want to feed into the Obama hype machine by linking even my puny li’l blog to the Barack Obama Christmas carol, but if you want to spin over to YouTube and give it a listen, it is funny.
admin December 20th, 2006
Stupid test…
| Link: The Who Would You Be in 1400 AD Test written by KnightlyKnave on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test |
First I came out as The Prioress. I liked that. Then the blog went wonky during the upgrade, and I retook the test - with the SAME ANSWERS, thank you! - and came out as The Monk. Not that monks are bad, but I liked being the Prioress! Grumble…
Curtsy to Paul (and thank you for the offer - yes, I will be e-mailing you about Mary, probably right around the New Year!).
admin December 20th, 2006
Possible lead in the Case of the Dubious Devotion
I found some references to - I kid not - Our Lady de Leche. Still looking for a credible source, and/or some sort of Church sanction. That’ll probably have to wait for the weekend at least.
Re: some of the points in the combox, I think you guys may have more wisdom and prudence than I. I’m going to try to get to the root of this one, because now it’s just going to irk me if I don’t, but in general I think I’ll take the advice of…I think it was Timmay (if I’m miscrediting, please forgive me)…and shift the burden of proof to the questioner.
The same co-worker and I got into a discussion today about miracles. I’ve decided my summer research, assuming I enter the Church at Easter and am thus not still embroiled in directly RCIA-related research, will be about miracles. Specifically I think I’ll look into Marian apparitions, but I may branch out from there.
I’m going to try to switch to the new version of Blogger tonight, so hopefully there will be minimal service interruption. If I’m not available tomorrow, that’s why (of course, if I’m not available tomorrow, you probably won’t be able to read this post, so consider it a post facto explanation if you’re reading it after having been unable to access…).
Bonne nuit!
admin December 20th, 2006
Hitting walls on the Milk Grotto…
No dice so far on finding any obviously-credible support of the “Milk Grotto” - but I did find a site (with NO e-mail contact info) that is ostensibly owned by the Franciscans, specifically Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land - haven’t been able to find out much about them. If they’re legit, I wish they’d hire an experienced webmaster, who could tell them about domains and contact info and so forth. Calling your site “Franciscan Cyberspot” is fine, but I could call my site “Franciscan Cyberspot” - I have no way of verifying if they are who they say they are.
Anyway, their site is ridiculously hard to navigate. The links are hereand here, but since the site is not very well designed, I’ve also pasted the relevant references below - these are the most credible references I’ve been able to find to the Milk Grotto. Nothing on New Advent, nothing on Catholic Answers, nothing on the Holy See’s site…but there are a couple of small references to it on this obscure site (and some personal pages as well).
1.2 In the sanctuaries: the friars serve in welcoming the pilgrims and also the care and maintenance of the shrines.
The new chapel called the Theotokos beside the Milk Grotto Shrine in Bethlehem will be inaugurated t the end of this year.
and
The Church on the “Milk Grotto”
In Bethlehem the sacred area around the Nativity Grotto has been the focal point of all tradition. Nevertheless in Bethlehem a small Chapel has been for long centuries a devotional site. The “Milk Grotto” over which today a small Chapel rise, is frequently visited by local women, Christians and Moslems alike, to ask for the intercession of Mary. mother of Jesus. A legend recalls how some Mary spilt some milk while breast feeding baby Jesus and this is the reason for the “white” stone of the cave. A tradition going back to the VII century located at this site the burial place of the innocent victims killed by Herod the Great after the birth of Jesus.
Argh.
admin December 20th, 2006
Help?
So most of you reading this probably know I’m in RCIA, and am struggling on a couple of points, primarily Mary, Mary and Mary. Last week, after the discussion with my co-worker about the breastfeeding Nativity scene, she went trawling the Internet for stuff on the Virgin Mary’s breastfeeding. She then sent me a link, with the comment “Sometimes Catholics just ask to be made fun of!”
Before I link to this, be warned: it’s from a virulently anti-Catholic site. I mean, I clicked onto the index page (because it’s always worth considering the source) and found a picture of John Paul II, headed with “The Antichrist’s Family Album” or something to that effect. So needless to say, I’m automatically skeptical of what they’re saying. Taking this site at its word is a bit like asking Osama bin Laden how to keep kosher. It’s just not the best idea! BUT, here’s the thing: I’m not even Catholic yet, and I’m already being called upon to defend the Church. I feel exceedingly ill-prepared for this.
What I’m wondering is whether the “Catholic legend” described (a) actually exists, and (b) is endorsed in any way by the Church. Anyway, does anyone have any insights? Anyone heard any of this stuff? My guess is that the eBay sale in question - if in fact it took place - was done by someone of the P.T. Barnum school of eBay sales - especially since I should think that would be a first-or-second-class relic, if in fact it existed, and the Church would not look kindly upon someone buying or selling it. But any other thoughts are very welcome.
By the way, cute story: last night, when I knelt down to say my prayers, I set the book I was about to start reading onto the bed. It’s called Mary and the Fathers of the Church: the Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought by Luigi Gambero. Miko (my gorgeous tuxie cat) hopped up onto the bed while I was saying my prayers; that’s not unusual. He looked down at the book, sniffed it, and then started LICKING THE FACE OF THE VIRGIN MARY. Now, this cat has a bit of an oral fixation, but I’ve never seen him lick a book before. (I confess, I did pick it up and sniff it to see if someone had spilled a foodlike substance onto it…nothing as far as I could tell.) Too cute!
admin December 19th, 2006
‘Tis the season…
For the last three years or so, I have worked in close proximity to University Advancement. I currently work for Alumni Relations; before that I worked for one of our colleges, but assisted the development officer. In case you don’t know what “development” really means, it means “fundraising” - money and in-kind gifts are their raison d’être. They want your money, they want my money. That’s what they do.
Mind you, I don’t have some sort of fundamental problem with fundraising. It’s necessary. I think that’s unfortunate, but I don’t have some deep-seated disdain for fundraisers or their profession. (I do have a certain distaste for some fundraisers I’ve met, and for some tactics I’ve seen…but that’s a whole different story.)
Anyway, I was looking for our membership manager a little while ago, and got to talking to some of our Annual Giving staff while I was down that way. They got a request to do a year-end appeal last Friday from one of the smaller units on campus, one to which I have a particular attachment and at which I know several people - well, really the whole full-time staff, since it’s only about three people.
They’re a great program. But I’m not particularly a fan of the director. She’s not a bad lady; she certainly means well. But here’s the thing. Last Friday was December 15. You don’t start thinking about a year-end appeal on December 15. Your year-end appeal should be in the mail by December 15, and that’s really pushing the envelope as it is (excuse the pun). The reason is, basically, that you are competing with who-knows-how-many other organizations for very few donor dollars. You do NOT want to be the last one to arrive. Worse, she just got the list to the AG office yesterday (December 18), and it was RIFE with problems. As of this morning, the poor AG woman and the director were still hashing out the list. That means that the letters and labels probably won’t be printed today, which means, in essence, that our Annual Giving woman is going to be scrambling to get everything done and into the mail before the university closes Friday afternoon. Then there’s the holiday. So these won’t be hitting mailboxes until at least December 26 or 27.
I currently have about half a dozen year-end appeals from various organizations sitting in my mail basket at home, as well as a few e-appeals. That’s not counting the ones I threw away outright. Shortly after Christmas, I will sit down, balance my checkbook, and decide what I can afford to give and to whom I will give it. I don’t have a lot money to go around, and if this appeal were to appear in my mailbox on, say, December 26 (which is optimistic), the best they can hope for from me is consideration. They are very unlikely to be a priority, when they arrive that late.
But here’s the punch line: I’m not on the list. I volunteered with this unit; I got pledges for a walk-a-thon for them; I used to donate to them via payroll deduction (until contract issues froze my paycheck and I responded by cutting back dramatically on my donations to the university). So really, timing of the appeal aside, I’m a very likely prospective donor. But for some reason, I didn’t make the cut. My parents and boyfriend, on the other hand, DID make the cut, and their only connection to the unit is having pledged me for that walk-a-thon. In fact, my boyfriend’s only connection to the university is through me, and he recently asked me to put him on the ‘do not mail’ list because, as he observed, it’s a waste of postage for them to mail to him in Canada when he’s not going to give them money. My father, at least, earned a degree here, though I don’t think he’s particularly interested in giving the university any money. Furthermore, because the director does not use the centralized university database, she does not have my parents’ most current address. So, since they moved about nine months ago, the mail is probably just going to get returned undeliverable anyway.
If the director were new, I could easily explain all this away. But she’s not. She’s been the director there since at least 2004, because that’s when I remember volunteering there…and according to the AG rep I was talking to, she did the exact same thing last year.
Oh well - more money for Right to Life (one of the appeals currently in my basket). I think I know what I’ll give to that unit this year: a 2007 calendar, with prominent dates marked: “BEGIN LIST FOR ANNUAL APPEAL”; “DISCUSS YEAR-END APPEAL WITH ANNUAL GIVING”; “ENSURE ANNUAL APPEAL IS OUT”…
admin December 15th, 2006
Out of (and into) the mouths of babes…
One of my work friends sent me a link today that about had me falling down laughing. Now, we all know that the Virgin Mary and Jesus had their time on earth before Carnation and Gerber, right? (If not, see me after class. You bring your knuckles; I’ll bring the ruler.)
Good-o. I did find some artistic renderings of Mary breastfeeding Our Lord, but decided not to post them (they lack a certain je ne sais quoi in terms of perspective, and don’t look like any actual breastfeeding I’ve ever witnessed). If your interest is really that piqued, do a Google image search for Mary Jesus breastfeeding and tell me what you think.
Anyway. So my co-worker - who is a militant advocate of breastfeeding, as well as the right to breastfeed in public - sent me the following story. I had to post on it - I could hardly stop laughing. For the record, I think breastfeeding is generally better than bottle-feeding for a variety of reasons. I myself was a Carnation baby, since I came around right around the time of the PBB scare, and I recognize that breastfeeding doesn’t work out for many women, for a variety of reasons. But it’s economical, and it’s basically healthful and natural, and if I am blessed with children, I certainly hope to breastfeed them.
What’s more, I support women’s right to feed their babies wherever they may find themselves. I do think that a bit of reasonable discretion is not too much to ask (i.e. don’t yank up the shirt at the McDonald’s counter, drag down the nursing bra flap with the shirt up, plop the baby on, and look daggers at anyone who happens to look your way, much less who is less than comfortable with what you’re doing), but I think people tend to flip out waaayyy too much about a woman quietly sitting at the side of the room (or the window seat of a plane) with a baby snacking away. If you’re making a reasonable effort to be discreet, then I think we should cooperate with you. I would even argue that (again, reasonably discreet) public breastfeeding is consistent with the ‘culture of life’ that Christians, and particularly Catholics, seek to promote.
Anyway, on to the story. For those of you who don’t know, Tesco is a British supermarket chain. That’s relevant to the story. I’ve cleaned up some of the spacing and such. And with no further ado, save a curtsy to Brandy and her source Hathor, here we have it!
I received this in my inbox a few days ago and I’m still cracking up…I can’t credit it to anyone, but if you know who wrote it please let me know!
A Breastfeeding Militant Nativity Scene…
Went to Abigail’s school Christmas concert. Each class did a little something followed by a song or 2. Anyway, Ab’s class did a Nativity scene, with Ab as Mary. A few minutes into their bit Ab promptly lifted her dress & shoved baby Jesus up it. The script then wandered away from what they’d learnt & goes as follows….
Joseph: “What are you doing?”
Mary: “I’m feeding our baby.”
Shepherd: “Have you got a bottle up there then?”
Mary: “Don’t be silly; he’s having milk from my booby.”
Joseph: “That’s disgusting.”
Mary: “No, that baby milk they have in Tescos is disgusting. My baby’s having proper milk.”
Shepherd: “What’s a booby?”
Mary: “Those sticky out bits ladies have.”
Shepherd: “They’re not boobies, they’re nipples.”
Mary: “No they’re not, they’re boobies.”
Joseph: “So why can’t Jesus have milk from a bottle then?”
Mary: “Because I haven’t got a breast pump with me - you forgot to put it on the donkey.”
Shepherd: “Can’t you ask the teacher for a bottle to feed Jesus with?”
Mary: “No because this is the best way to feed Jesus. Anyway bottles haven’t been invented yet, & even if they were I’ve just had a baby, so if you think I’m faffing about round Tescos to buy baby milk when I make proper milk in my boobies you can think again!”
I felt a teeny bit sorry for their class teacher - she did try her best to steer them back towards their proper lines but she was laughing so much she didn’t really stand a chance. The line about Joseph forgetting the breast pump finished her off - she slid to the floor & couldn’t get up for laughing….
Clam again:
By the time I got to the bit about Joseph having forgotten to put the breast pump on the donkey, I was shaking with laughter in my chair (at work, mind you). By the time I read the part about “faffing about round Tescos to buy baby milk when I make proper milk in my boobies,” I was howling.
All I can think about is a child I once knew (neither me nor TBS, for the record) lifting up her shirt for a pet bird to admire, saying “See my boobies?!”
The story is cute, particularly if you accept (as I do) that it’s probably authentic. (The Canuck is skeptical. He may be right; I’m gullible.) Some discussion with my co-worker revealed that we both suspect the child had younger siblings, and that’s why she (a) knew about breast milk, and (b) had such strong opinions about breastfeeding vs. formula feeding. She must’ve overheard her mother arguing about it with people. But here’s my only thing. My first reaction was: “Unless ye become as little children…” but then I thought more about it, and my problem is that it’s not so much adults becoming as children. In this case, it’s more like the kids becoming as adults, particularly with the lines that made me laugh the hardest: “I don’t have a breast pump; you forgot to put it on the donkey” and “faffing about round Tescos when I’ve just had a baby.” Where’s the innocence? So despite the fact that I think this is hilarious, I think it’s a little sad too. How much bickering has little Abigail heard already? And irrespective of whether her mother intended this or not, the child is thoroughly indoctrinated. Reminds me a bit of the scene in About a Boy where Hugh Grant is arguing with Toni Collette about her son performing “Killing Me Softly” at the school talent show. (For those of you who haven’t seen the film, it’s worth a watch, though the out-and-out narcissism of the major characters just drove me bonkers. And it’s not especially kid-friendly.) Collette (the narcissistic, idealistic-to-the-point-of-delusional hippie character) is saying, “He’s expressing himself!” and Grant (the narcissistic jerk character) is saying, “No, he’s expressing YOU!”
Well, notwithstanding that, it’s still a hilarious story. I’d love to hear what you-all think in the combox…
admin December 14th, 2006
I GOT IT!!!
I just talked to the development director at the church - I got the job! YAY!
Thanks be to God! 
admin December 12th, 2006
My childhood Communist indoctrination
When I was a wee ‘un, I had this book my mommy gave me. It’s called Fanshen the Magic Bear, by Becky Sarah, illustrated by Dana Smith. I liked this book as a munchkin. It had pretty illustrations (really very well done), and it was a fanciful story about a girl named Laura who has an encounter with a talking bear. It was also ragingly socialist, but we’ll get to that. I don’t know how the book survived all of my book purges over the years, apart from the fact that it’s very small and I probably didn’t know I still had it, but I ran across it when I was moving a few years ago and The Big Seester and I had some good laughs. Now I keep it as (a) a reminder to myself of how I was indoctrinated, and (b) in case I ever need to give evidence, either against my mother or in defense of myself. :-p
Regrettably, I cannot post this book in its entirety. It’s pretty short, but it is copyrighted (oh, the irony), and I don’t know what the bounds of the law are. Since the material is copyrighted “only to prevent its being misused; feminist, left, and movement groups, and people working with children, will be given permission to reprint,” I have to acknowledge that the holders of the copyright would probably consider my distaste for its precepts to be prima facie evidence that my reprinting it entails misuse. So to be cautious, I’ll simply offer a précis of the story, and perhaps some choice quotes.
Laura is a tax collector in a small kingdom. She and her pony Marigold don’t like their job, because they don’t like taking people’s things, but she is forced to by the king. (”…the king made her do it. He wouldn’t even let her quit her job, adn she was afraid of him.”) As one might expect, the king is indolent and oppressive, taking more than the people can afford to give while he’s rolling in the loot. After collecting ‘rent’ from people who can’t afford it, and hating her job, Laura meets a bear, who turns out to be a magic talking bear that Laura heard stories about from her grandfather when she was small. Fanshen and Laura talk about her job, and Fanshen suggests that Laura stop collecting the taxes. Laura is shocked, but decides she likes the idea, and promptly goes to give everything back to everyone. They are all, like her, shocked at the idea, but all agree. They go to confront the king, who has a temper tantrum. Everyone agrees on an equal division of the land (they give a piece to the king too), and he eventually gets on board with the agenda. They also make a park, and Laura’s job is to care for the park. A year later (at which point everyone is happy and everything is copesthetic copacetic (thank you, Bill!)), Laura tells everyone about Fanshen’s part in it.
Something I did not know before today: “fanshen” is actually Chinese. William Hinton, who apparently wrote a book about the Chinese Communist revolution. He defined “fanshen” thus:
Mind you, this book was published in 1973. There’s a lot more subtext than I’m describing here - after all, on the back of the book the publisher, New Seed Press, describes their publications as “…children’s books free from racial, class, or sex-role stereotyping.” There’s Molly the ferrywoman, Marigold is male, the illustrations carefully make some of the people black, Laura herself looks vaguely Native American or Asian…yadda yadda.
I’ll tell you, it is only by the grace of God that my out-and-out Marxist phase was as short as it was. I also had a comic book about the injustices of sharecropping…
Ah, my mother. Love her to bits, mind you, but she’s nuts.
