The Augustinian Call

Things are stressful, but there is nothing like a good ole fashioned talk about Saint Augustine to put you into perspective.  

He said lots of cool stuff that I could try to repeat, but there is too much that really hits home with me, so I won't start.

One person that I do keep in mind is Saint Monica and her relationship with her husband.  She put up with hardship faithfully and I wish I could be a better person and not complain about the usual abusers out there.

Augustine reminds me that God loves me no matter how far I could fall, but he also convicts me that I am called to the greater sainthood.  It is not an easy road to love and not receive too much in return, but at least children see your convictions well.

"The retreat in question is to be taken to mean, not only the careful avoidance of occasions of sin, but still more that, when engaged with the enemy, we lift up our minds and hearts to the things of God, fastening our eyes above all on the One to whom we have pledged our virginity. 'Gaze upon the excellence of your Lover,' St. Augustine reminds us."

Pope Pius XII Sacra Virginitas quotes from St. Augustine's De Sancta Virginitate

The Year of the Priest

The Upcoming Ember Days

This is cool, check it out on Fr. Z's page.

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2008/09/ember-day-awareness-day/

The Best Wedding Pictures Ever!!

I had to upload some of my favorite pictures that I took from this weekend of a friend's wedding. I am so happy for her, everything was beautiful. My pictures always come out great when it's perfectly cloudy like it was for her wedding. The last is a second line parade to the Irish Pub Finn McCool's in NewOrleans.

The Smallest Greatest Gift

Well, the bobble heads talking off their head again. Check out the Curt Jester's article here.

Link of my Stem Cells for Idiots video here.


Random information:
I found St. Cyril in an antique store yesterday on his feast day!

The Opinion of a Healthy Taxpayer

I received in the mail recently my first health insurance card. Because I obtained a job at a public school this year, individuals are provided with free (is it called premiums?) plans, minus the copays.

I don't like doctors and I must admit I haven't visited one in about maybe 10 years, minus the dentist and the optometrist. I don't get sick very often either, if I do, then it doesn't last very long. I attribute this health to being aware of the things that make people ill these days, living a Christian lifestyle, and good genes. I feel this allows me a certain perspective in the health care proposals set forth.

Though I am happy to have the option now to go to a doctor, I am closely following the current debate. I recognize today, that yes, of course my money pays for illegal immigrant care. I recognize that tomorrow, no matter what the outcome of the current reform, I will probably be paying for health care for immigrants and poverty stricken peoples who don't pay taxes. Capitalism demands I fight to get ahead, or at least I have that choice to protect my wealth. Whereas, social justice within our church doctrine calls communities to fend for those who do not have means and cannot find the means on their own.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church sums up the argument in one sentence in regard to the freedoms of a capitalistic society where it states, "Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails social justice, for there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market."(CCC2425)

There are gray areas in this debate if we are to follow the same guidance from Faith in God that the American fore fathers believed in. My opinion is that I agree whole heartedly with the teaching of the Catholic Church, but that I do not want to pay taxes for services that I do not use now. I am not naive about health care, I know I may need it soon, but I'd rather pay out of pocket.

The Best Kind of Thankfulness

There are plenty of things to comment on in the news lately, but I would like to follow the idea of another blogger and author, Mary and Me, and write my own list of thank yous.

1. I am thankful that Christ has only brought upon me about 2 days of 'dryness' in the Spirit. (They were quite horrible)

2. I am thankful that I live in a state and community and family that works, prays,plays, loves each other together.

3. I am thankful that even though I work at a public school this year, some of my coworkers and I have already prayed together for things at work. (thus annointing the workplace)

4. I am so grateful that I have many faults that compel me to call on Jesus Christ.

5. I am most grateful, thankful, awed, that I may still be allowed into the Kingdom of Heaven despite myself because of the Sacred Blood spilled from Jesus Christ the Son of God, and that I am allowed to die into Him when I receive the Eucharist.

I'll stop here, and think of something scientific to write about next time. But truly, the cognitive capability of gratitude and memory of the miracles worked on our behalf, is the very essence of an exercise in the unknown.

The Joy of New Life

Yesterday my older brother named his first child.

His little wife was in labor a long time and she lost lots of blood during the process. Luckily, I was caught behind a wreck in completely stopped traffic and I texted both my brother and my friend who teaches at a Catholic high school. She was able to pray with her classes all day. I am so grateful for it, now that I find out more information about the hard birth and surgery my sister-in-law experienced afterward. You'd almost think where they were was a third world country. (But it was America)

I am glad to hear she is doing okay. And her experience only makes me desire to have children one day even more. I could tell today that my brother is a proud father when I received an email announcing the news of the baby. He's always been quite allergic to initiating emails.

In praying for them, I hope to know that all things depend on God's Grace, and that our actions are only an extension of God's Grace. She needs healing safely and to be out of pain. Please pray for Natasha.

The Queen of Angels and the Amphibian

Exercise time for this Burmese Python is being let lose in the activity room with the doors closed. Her name is Hera and she currently lives at BREC's Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center where I worked this summer.

While I did gain an appreciation for this type of wildlife, I didn't use extra time to 'play' with the snakes. Hera is actually getting too big to handle and will soon be moved to Florida at a preserve area that specializes in big snakes.

Snakes, interesting as they are, are still feared immediately by people who are not familiar with wildlife. Even the program aides mentioned to me after I left that children say they are taught that snakes are evil. When I was there this summer sometimes the visitors from other places surprised me with their fear or indifference for snakes that are healthly for the environment. Where I grew up, there was a large swamp that backed up to a levee and canal. In the neighborhood, we often had visitors of the no leg sort crawl up in cars or on porches, and then they'd had to be delt with. But Kingsnakes, garter snakes and grass snakes help the flow of the food chain when they visit the neighborhood.

All of these creatures are part of God's grand design. The second day at work I held a ball python named Deuce. He stayed curled up and cold. It was a little creepy at first, but the animal was very calming after I relaxed. In my mind I was trying to think of the references in scripture to snakes and why the perception is what it is. The main one I think of is Our Lady crushing the head. This image is the most visible in Catholic churches where I live in the Marion statues of the Queen of Angels.

These constrictor amphibians squeeze the last life out of their prey after the initial strike. Then they swallow it whole. Much like the capacity of addiction and sin in the life of man. But in the natural world, the prey can sometimes fight back during the struggle by clawing or knawing out the flesh or eyes of the snake. In the spiritual realm, coming up from a recurring sin can be a similar struggle.

Even though I didn't 'play' with the snakes while I was working, and I am obviously not interested in studying herpetology, I did try to educate the children and people that came in about the watershed area and pollution that effects it. I couldn't really educate about the grace of God at a state funded program, but I was educated and reflective about the role of the serpent in the foundation of the world and the image of sin.

The Best Jerusalem Bible is a Well Loved One

I have been looking at a Jerusalem Bible on the shelf of my favorite used book store for about , oh... 2-3 years. Hoping each time I go in that it's still there and I will feel like having a reason to spend the 25 dollars all at once.

I bought it today! Along with a new Swann's Way by Proust. It has a two fold purpose for me, get back into knowing every nook and cranny of scripture and remembering those wonderful college years attending noon mass at LSU with Father Jacques Seynaeve. I loved it when he was serving for mass. In that time period, most of the time there would only be about five or so of us attending daily masses. Another girl and I would almost rush to see who could help him the most in the sacristy. He could never remember our names, and almost every time I mentioned my last name: Schmitt, he'd say "Oh, (something in German)" and I would say, Father I don't speak German. But I was always, always completely charmed by him, and the fact that he looked like an angel in only his alb.

I decided to take his class on the Gospel of John. I think at that time, I wasn't experiencing the power of scripture yet. But one day I opened up the gospels and they came alive in a moment. Then I took his class.

He slowly and carefully dissected the words for all of us to understand. He loved his large Jerusalem bible and touted that it was the 'best' bible to use for study. (Probably because it had originally been written in French, his native language.) He is Belgian. I still have my notes for the final oral exam. I will always remember I forgot to use the word shema.

When I loned the bible I used for that class to my brother, and then he moved to CA, I wanted it back for a long time just to read my notes and marks written amongst the pages of John. I finally received it back when I flew there a year or two ago after several years. Inside were all the trappings of a wonderful Catholic experience helped by a scholar of the scripture.

I don't know where Fr. Jacque is today, but I hope he is well. I know Father Jacque must be charming all the young people in Belgium! And today I would love to tell him I purchased a Jerusalem Bible of my own and hope to use it in a Theology program this semester, God willing.

The Exciting Education Experiment

Oppositional Defiant Behavior is not new to me as a teacher. The one or two behaviorial issues I've had in the past diagnosed in my classes were only considered behavior issues because I worked at Catholic schools without a full support staff.

At my new school, one taken over by the state and given to a charter system, I am teaching the same grades I taught last year at a Catholic school. It is a mostly impoverished area, but people generally have jobs. I don't think I have any students that are officially oppositional defiant, but the signs are telling.

Here's the rub, I feel oddly challenged and fulfilled in this position. Children who live in a culture of poverty only know what they know. Because I finally finished my master's and received the 'official' teaching certificate, I can finally go and work where plenty of other certified teachers have quit before.

While it was sometimes boring to study all of the educational theory and science, it comes in handy while modifying My behavior, to show love to students who do not experience caring on a daily basis.

It has only been a full week of school and tomorrow is Friday, always a Yea! from me on that one no matter the past week! But I don't think I have ever put so much effort into a first week of school before. I didn't have too. I like it and I like the students, they are very real, like me.

I don't have grand ideas for my position, I'm only hoping to use some technology and show them lots of love. Which is the key, I hope, for great success and desire to do well.

Education is true Freedom after all!

The Case of the Missing Morality

My favorite thing to do in the summer is visit the library and borrow all of the mystery and crime series DVDs that I can find.

Agatha Christie’s Poirot ranks at the top followed by Miss Marple, Foyle’s War, Inspector Morse and Prime Suspect. The murder and mystery is great and sometimes I get lucky and get a good peek at a dead body in the show, but morality of the main characters glares amidst the mystery.

This summer I decided to branch out and go beyond Christie’s timeless approach. Inspector Morse was supposed to be educated and smart, but he seemed somewhat crass and flirty toward anything that resembled a female. I couldn’t even finish Inspector Lynley Mysteries, not enough murder and too much soap opera ‘life’ happening.

Today I was finishing up my borrowed Prime Suspect series 3 and 5. I saw the last series when it came on television. The murder and degradation interwoven between societal classes is compelling and Helen Mirren is magnificent, but her character…

Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison is a lesson on how NOT to seek happiness in life. Throughout the series she says ‘she loves her job’ and ‘she’s doing what she always wanted’, but she goes about it in the worst ways.

In her search for meaning and happiness in life she chooses abortion of a fetus conceived with a married man. This happens after she is dealing with a pedophile case. Understandably the case is affecting her decision, but not in a way that might complement what her character says about every person deserving justice.

What is revealed (spoiler alert) in the last series is that she became a police woman to please her father and make him proud. While this is noble, it is made less so by the character’s portrayal of a woman who avoids intimacy and trust with other people. The detectives she has on her teams are almost always immediately put off by this character’s idealized superiority.

The balance of the show I think must be the ferocious fight for justice in public while the vulnerable woman makes poor, poor decisions in her private life. This must make good television, but it does little for me other than to help me try to understand motives for sin and practicing mercy.

This is the only other series I have seen, next to Law and Order, where bad guys get off the hook. But I think that is another article for another summer. In the mean time, I am fascinated by the criminal mystery stuff and will continue watching it.

Fiction reflects that there are many evil things in the real world. Discovering the truth doesn’t always happen in so poignantly a way in real life, but morality in the form of modesty, prudence, charity and justice will always shine forth from the page, screen and present actions of people who chose to practice it.

The Job Hunt

I am sooo preoccupied trying to find a teaching job in Louisiana. I have worked for Catholic schools for a while now and it has made me penniless, so I am holding out for a nice, resources abundunt public school job. If it's God's will maybe I'll get something decent and nearby. So if you read this, Pray for me!!

The Dialogue in Honduras

A friend is in Honduras as a missionary. Please read her blog Witnessing Hope linked here and to the right of this posting.

The ACLU Fights for the Rights of Catholic Inmates

An inmate at Angola Prison in Louisiana called in the ACLU to fight for the right to view the Roman Catholic Mass on television. They fought for him and he won the right to the mass, the holy eucharist and personal meetings with a priest. Read the story here: Death row inmate, ACLU win fight to have Catholic Masses shown in cells

This type of activism that allows prisoners dignity is freedom fighting in its true form. I would say that for the fight for members of Islam to have prayer carpets also, and members of Protestant churchs to have bibles.

The beauty of the story is that it allows for the individual, no matter what they have done, to repent in the fullest way they know how. As the prisoner who kissed the crucifix three times before he died in the story of St. Therese of Lisieux, inmates have the opportunity to recieve Christ's full mercy.

I had no idea that prisoners in Louisiana weren't allowed to view the Catholic mass. I am not sure how that is in the southern area of LA, but I know Angola just touches the Bible Belt of the US and I have lived on that edge where most people practice a protestant faith. I want to take a moment to suggest everyone read A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green by Thomas Cahill. It was so amazing to see this man changed by love he experienced while on death row that he had never recieved in the outside world. So many, many people do not know love, therefore to allow the fullness of God's love, the Holy Eucharist, into one man's life is one step closer to Christ's Kingdom Come.

The Hands of Humility

Recently, I moved back to the city. The one thing I will miss about my former home is one of the priests at the church parish I attended. I remember when I first saw him give a homily. His sincerity struck me more than any homilist I have seen.

This priest is from Vietnam and was sent to the parish as an associate pastor. He barely spoke english, and still forgets to pronounce the 'th' sound when reading the gospel. After I heard that first homily, I found myself listening intently everytime I next heard him in masses.

The most humble aspect shown through when he spoke of his home in Vietnam and the many Catholics there that need good priests. He is older now and was a priest who escaped the communist regime. But his sincerity shines through as he asks the body of parishoners to pray for him.

One last thing, I don't mention his name, because I don't want to massacre the spelling. But I also noticed his hands and the way they were shaped like those on the Shroud of Turin. I will miss hearing his enthusiam and sincerity for the Gospel.

The Sacred Heart

Dinoscopus has a short article on the Sacred Heart and Josefa Menendez. Please read it. I discovered this blog on the Catholic New Media Awards website in Best Blog by a Cleric.

When I look upon the Sacred Heart, sometimes it is hard to understand the capacity of Christ's mercy. I'll pray to try, and give the same mercy to others.

The Science of Scarcity and the Will of God

Manically thumbing through the pages of an economics college textbook before my recent ‘materials interpretation’ certification test, I came to the conclusion that economics is yet another science that expresses the infinite beauty of God’s creation.

The physical and spiritual aspects of man directly relate to micro and macroeconomics. Microeconomics has a singularity that is most involved with the affective nature of man, whereas macroeconomics encompasses the effect of the world community upon standards set for man. The micro economy of a man’s spirituality is his company that can be run down or become amazingly successful. The macro economy is the level of spirituality that man is held too according to God’s law.

Scarcity, in particular, is the mover and shaker of the science of economics. Scarcity is when our wants are greater than the resources available to satisfy them. (Microeconomics 7th ed., Arnold) The science of scarcity is then broken down into: infinite want versus finite means and how the individual and community deal with it.

Imagine then, that the will of man is a desire to attain perfection. Men desire at different levels, but all to the same end. The imitation of human saints is a finite resource, where the imitation of Christ is infinite with God’s will. The infinite desire and will of God, who satisfies completely, has no ceiling as far as human knowledge extends. But, God has set the high standard for the community of man as the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Using our definition of scarcity, man’s desire to be like Christ, is limited by his formed will and knowledge, both finite resources. After God’s grace takes over, man’s will meets at a higher place with God’s will. Fig. 1 is an imagined attainable region and slope of desire for man to succeed in his endeavor to be holy.



Unfortunately, man does not always know his true wants, knowledge of God.
Consider a quote from Tanquerey’s The Spiritual Life that examines the value of the knowledge of God. “All creatures, according to their degree of perfection, are an image, a likeness of God; all proclaim God for their Maker and bid us join in praise of Him, since their own being, all their beauty and goodness, is but a created and finite participation in the divine essence.”

Man’s participation, or desire to participate, is limiting to himself. Thus he defines his slope to perfection pre-empted by Jesus Christ. The weakly formed will of man is a slower slope to the full will of God for man to seek Christ. Where the greater will, or desire to be like Christ is the faster slope to attain saintly perfection. Fig. 2 is too simple to show that God’s will is ingrained in men no matter if they acknowledge Him or not. But it does allow for varying degrees of man’s desire.



This is only a limited interpretation of an exact science with abstract infinites. But God’s complex creation of man and Earth, for me, is easily seen in various forms of science that reflect physical attributes of perfection and organization. In the same way that economics depends on scarcity, God’s 'Kingdom Come' is seen in man’s desires. We are limited so far as what grace God provides and what level of desire we have for God's grace.

The Rights of Man and Media Inter-woven

Who says media is living in the past? Don't blink, you may miss the next internet trend as media is transitioning into a dynamic force for America's Freedom of Speech. This is clearly seen in the individuals who are rallied by social networks and instant feed sites in other countries who are beginning to share the basic 'rights of man' mentality.

Media, though currently evolving, has become the moniker for people's rights. Around the world we see that an electronic rally has complex effects on the society. People, governments, land, language and economies are effected to name a few examples. Where do people get such ideas?

Rights of the rational man, stemming from Locke, Hobbes, & Paine have long been parts of a more complete truth that Man has free will. Thus ideas become cross-cultural in an inter-society where mutual understanding of freedom of voice has become the the momentum for a new definition of civilized.

Media has become the 'new' definition of civilized. Ideal rights of man are the underpinnings of this freedom of voice which all classes of society seek. This is exciting news, because any advocate of the un-thought-of peoples of the world may make a way for them.

One small voice is multiplied if it is spoken for the Truth. I pray that more people use the current media to speak for freedom and the dignity of man. If we wouldn't have had muckrakers such as Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair, the truth may have continued to be smeared over. Media is a means of communication for the masses and hopefully it will continue to find ways to show truth in content from the many individuals that explore it's past and future.

The Arc of the Covenant

I took pictures for a friend's wedding. I like this one the best, probably because Our Lady rocks.



So then, the great Mother of God, so mysteriously united to Jesus Christ from all eternity by the same decree of predestination, immaculately conceived, an intact virgin throughout her divine motherhood, a noble associate of our Redeemer as he defeated sin and its consequences, received, as it were, the final crowning privilege of being preserved from the corruption of the grave and, following her Son in his victory over death, was brought, body and soul, to the highest glory of heaven, to shine as Queen at the right hand of that same Son, the immortal King of Ages.

-- St. Pope Pius XII