Daily Archives: January 23, 2012

Salt and Light Television – A Beacon of Hope

Monday, January 23, 2012

I arrived in Toronto from Tel Aviv Saturday evening, and now have a series of meetings both here and in Ottawa over the next couple of days before returning to Edmonton. This has given me the opportunity to drop by the Toronto studios of

Salt and Light Television

today. I saw their setup, met with the staff and celebrated Eucharist with them. Founded by Father Thomas Rosica in the wake of the 2002 World Youth Days in Toronto, this Catholic network is dedicated to being what the Lord has asked all of his followers to be: salt of the earth and light for the world.

Particularly striking is the youth of the entire team. (Except for Fr. Rosica, that is. Since he and I are the same age, we can only qualify for “young at heart”.) At Salt and Light one encounters young adults who are truly committed to the new evangelization. When I met with them as a group, their questions revealed a real desire to make known to others the joy and excitement they have received from their relationship with the Lord and the service of His Church. And this is precisely what they are doing through their beautiful and very professional programming. If you are not yet familiar with them or their work, check them out at www.saltandlighttv.org. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Fr. Rosica and his team, together with their benefactors, for their ministry of evangelization and catechesis in the world of modern communications.

On another note, this is the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Christians throughout the world are gathering to pray for the unity so deeply desired by the Lord for his followers. The unity of the Church is inextricably linked to the new evangelization. As Jesus himself taught, it is precisely through the witness of unity among His followers that others will come to believe in Him. Division weakens our credibility before the world. Please be sure to offer prayers, not only this week but always, that the Holy Spirit will lead us to overcome our divisions and thus one day rejoice in the unity for which Christ gave His life.

Excerpt from: 

Salt and Light Television – A Beacon of Hope

Read More

little fingers, little minds

Monday, January 23, 2012

Regular bloggers will laugh at the unpredictability of my posts. But I do not apologize. My blog name proclaims what I believe: embrace the now. For me, the now has been filled with getting settled in to a new year, and trying to find our rhythm of homeschooling again after three weeks preparing for and celebrating Christmas. But I’m back now…snapping ever so many photos when I’m able, and hopefully will be sharing more of our life in the days to come.

I decided after Christmas that the time was ready to start my Jeremiah on some real reading lessons. We’ve been enjoying playing with letters, telling stories, drawing them, cutting them out, talking about their sounds, etc. I have to admit, I’ve been nervous about the whole process, because even though I began it with both my two older ones, truly it was their year at our local elementary school (when we moved and I was post-partum with our fourth) that their reading took off in new and wonderful ways.

My “philosophy” if you will, about teaching reading is inspired by both Montessori and Waldorf. The truth is, I feel torn because my little guy wants to jump into the world of reading that his big sister and brother have entered into (thankfully they are often willing to oblige with read aloud). I see that there is truth in the

better late than early

mindset, but I also feel strongly that if a child wants to try, why should we hold him back simply because he hasn’t lost his first tooth yet? I do think the danger that the Waldorf philosophy addresses is simply the loss of the child’s

sense of play

and his

sense of being in his body

. A child who is intellectualized too early can become what I call a “head person.” These sorts of children aren’t hard to identify, and I admit that my first born son can seem this way at times because of his current obsession with chess and other strategy games. I feel strongly that creative activity and lots of play are the antidote for this. Children learn through play a great many things, and when the television is in the closet (or a hidden corner of the home), or simply not present at all, learning happens all the time, so beautifully. And video games? Let’s not even go there.

I’m not a teacher, or an expert of any sort when it comes to literacy. But I have read a lot on this topic and one of the greatest discoveries I have made is how much better the process seems to go when lots of one-on-one time is available. Sitting together, reading aloud and just being in the presence of the other. The teacher must strive to be more of an observer than a giver of knowledge.

Together we sit, we begin. He reads…not very much yet, but the process is beginning.

We play games, looking for rhyming words and practicing our letter writing.

We take lots and lots of breaks for foot fights and general silliness. Isn’t this part of the beauty of homeschooling?

We create our own games too, pretty much every day.

And then I find myself taking photos like this one. Madeleine came home from the library last week with six Nancy Drew novels and finished them in less than a week.

It begins here. Learning to love words, learning the beauty of sound and stories. I’m so thankful to enjoy this process with my kids. I tell you, as I mother them, I am

growing up

, in so many ways I never knew possible.

Continued here:

little fingers, little minds

Read More

A Substantial Matter

Monday, January 23, 2012
Thumbnail

Dear Theophilus,Just the other day I had a discussion with a friend over the term consubstantial. He had difficulty with its inclusion in the new English translation of the Nicene Creed

See original:  

A Substantial Matter

Read More

New gay marriage quarter

Monday, January 23, 2012

So Canada is releasing new quarters ie 25 cent pieces. I think there are six. The artist is a guy named Gary Taxali. Anyway he was being interviewed about his coin for marriage and he said he made the two joined rings identical because he thought having different ones would imply straight marriage but he thought it was necessary to make it about gay marriage. Apparently everything has to be used as a platform to promote the gay agenda. A coin cannot feature traditional rings because it implies heterosexuality… Gimme a break!

Original article: 

New gay marriage quarter

Read More

Down the Rabbit Hole!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass it’s time for your daily dose of crazy!

So as I was attempting to find some pretty pictures of Our Lady (as I am wont to do.) on google I discovered a picture of Our Lady of La Salette with the pope on the other side and I thought “hey I run a bitchy blog lets see what this is”

If you thought the obsessed-with-the-third-secret-of-fatima gang were scary….

Listen, I’d love to be all up into Catholic conspiracy theories like the real pope in hiding in Italy or that the third secret was never revealed or that Fr. Corapi is an alien (or something, what the hell happened there any way?) but I just don’t have time. But these people…ok I’ll just pop some quotes down here

“The 1944 Holy Ghost/holy spirit Judeo-Masonic Sacramental curse and the androgynous effects were taking off in WWII and further provoked by Masonic government propaganda”


“Judeo-Masonic Anti-Pope John Paul II actually did this in a little known ceremony in March, 2004: Obeying the command of this April 21, 2010 Third Secret, John Paul II transfers remains of St. Peter from the Vatican to Fatima in a symbolic admission that the Vatican no longer has the Apostolic Authority.”


Did you know that praying the 5 “Our Father’s” is actually Satanic? I guess that Jesus fellow and His writing prayers was severely misguided since He didn’t listen to Our Lady of Fatima.

“This woman is not Sr. Lucy, but a phony Sr. Lucy that was implanted and specially picked to serve the purpose of the false Fatima line and the Vatican II religion that has been foisted on the world since the Fuentes interview. In addition to the photographic evidence, the fact that the post-Vatican II “Sr. Lucy” is not the real Lucy screams out all over the place.”

I’M IN HEAVEN! God I love crazy people! Is this Kitsch? I don’t even know, it might be too much to be kitsch who knows, who cares this is HILARIOUS!


Read this article: 

Down the Rabbit Hole!

Read More

  • What did I miss ???

  • sample
  • sample

  • CC Archives

  • sample
  • facebook twitter youtube
  • sample
  • sample