Be Not Idle

As I’ve noted elsewhere, I’m a klutz. At the same time, I enjoy doing household projects like refinishing furniture. However, there are some things better left to the professionals.

But I can’t afford a professional. Therefore, I barter for help.

This past weekend* marked the visit of my bachelor brother. In less than five hours, he put up three shelves and a hanging lamp, plus assembled a barrister bookcase that I’d been tripping over for two weeks. His payment? Lunch at Gar’s Lounge in Marine City.

Next month, one of my friends is going to paint my bathroom. He’s a bachelor and I’m stocking his freezer with pre-made (and homemade) meals.

My former college roommate M’e has offered to spend a couple of days helping me install a new kitchen floor. I will probably make her sushi… or take her to the Vernier for the speciality of authentic sushi.

And on the fun side, I’ve invited friends from my various clubs to help me put up and decorate the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving. And no doubt I’ll help them with wrapping gifts, etc.
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*Known coloquially as “Keith-o-rama”

This is the first year I’ve put a political sign in my yard. It’s not for any candidate, but to ask my neighbors to vote down Proposal 2. It would amend the Michigan Constitution to allow research on human embryos. That’s right: amend the state constitution. The goal of the proposal is to enfold it in the fabric of our state, thus making it difficult to repeal. Even proponents of embryonic research point out that Proposal 2 allows for NO review NOR oversight of the research.

I wasn’t surprised to hear that Gov. Granholm supported the proposal. She’s been irking me since she blew off a debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters in her first run at the gubernatorial office. Recently she shirked her responsibility by blaming our one-state recession on President Bush.

However, she shocked even me in her words about Proposal 2. She said, “As a Catholic, I can say to be pro-cure is to be pro-life.”

But the Most Reverend Earl Boyea, Bishop of Lansing, gave everyone a spirituality check .

Saint Paul reminds us that we must preach the Truth in season and out of season. The Truth will never go unspoken. To be in favor of Proposal 2 is not to be pro-life. A well-formed Catholic conscience would never lead a person to support Proposal 2 “as a Catholic.”

Bishop Boyea was installed as the 5th bishop of Lansing in April. He’s a young fellow, just 56, and he seems like just the fellow to oppose Gov. Granholm’s consistantly pro-abortion stance.

Whispers in the Loggia has more about the bishop’s statement.

This week Sarah at “just another day of Catholic pondering” is hosting the Catholic Carnival. And yours truly is participating. (gulp!) Check it out!!
http://snoringscholar.blogspot.com/2008/10/catholic-carnival -196-explorations.html

…into a wall.

It happened this evening when I woke up from the fourth or fifth of my long naps throughout the day. I’ve been ill, probably food poisoning, and I’m not quite myself yet.

I decided to lie down in the guestroom because it was a little cooler there. So when I awoke, I was discombobulated. I turned the wrong way and smacked my little toe - my little broken toe - against a wall.

I didn’t exactly wake up even at that point. It was like an out-of-body experience but the only “light” was a fire in my foot. And I definitely didn’t want to be anywhere near it, let alone “go into” it. And there seemed to be words spontaneously coming from my mouth, but it definitely wasn’t a charismatic event.

So now I’m awake and repenting of whatever I said when I hurt myself. I remember quite distinctly when Father Castenier, the priest of my childhood, told all us children that we must make a good Examination of Conscience but also that absolution would include any sins we might have forgotten. This is definitely one of those situations.

Postscript to my fellow Abbott and Costello fans: Niagara Falls!

I’m spreading the word about a national call to pray for the United States of America.  I know that some of you aren’t Americans, but I’m asking you to pray for my nation and its new leaders.

For my Catholic friends and family, there’s a Novena starting Monday, October 27, and continuing through Election Day, November 4. The CatholicVote.com Team suggests Catholics “stop everything we are doing at 9 pm (your local time) and pray for our Nation.”  

Fr. John Corapi is urging Catholics to pray the Rosary to Our Lady of Victory for the Novena. He writes, “Pray that God’s will be done and the most innocent and utterly vulnerable of our brothers and sisters will be protected from this barbaric and grossly sinful blight on society that is abortion. No woman, and no man, has the right to choose to murder an innocent human being.” The Novena prayers can be found at his website.

FastforHope.com has information about the National Days of Prayer and Fasting, November 3 & 4. They ask, “At this crucial time of transition, please join your fellow Americans in lifting our eyes, our hearts and our prayers to our Heavenly Father, pleading for His mercy.”

…You lead me in directions I would not have chosen for myself. Give me the wisdom to discern Your Will and the courage to follow it. - from a prayer by Fr. John Catoir, Joyfully Living the Gospel Day by Day

I’m not living up to my potential and neither are most of you.

Most of us have moments of inspiration. We watch a program about a quadrapalegic woman who learned to paint with a brush in her mouth, or we read an article about a low-income couple who managed to make a home for orphans. We feel uplifted by their courage and inspired by their example. 

Then we channel-surf for another hour instead of starting that To Do List we wrote during Lent. Or we continue that novel that’s not really very good - and its subtext might even be bad - because it sure beats spending a couple of hours working on the novels that have been bouncing around our heads for the last decade.

We feel moved, but we don’t move.

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A Review of Danny Gospel and Odd Hours

Can you hear the Gospel ringin’, ringin’ softly through the pines? Death has taken our dear mother. We are walking in a line; we are walking in a line. - “Walking in a Line” by Grey Delisle, from her country album The Graceful Ghost

Danny Gospel is the first book by author David Athey.  Dean Koontz’s Odd Hours is the fourth novel in a planned series of seven.  So why am I reviewing them together?

It’s not just because both protagonists - Danny Gospel and Odd Thomas - have mighty strange monikers.

Strong parallels run between them. Both protagonists live with grief. Danny Gospel is haunted by the death of his family, the estrangement of his surviving brother, and the fear that his ex-fiancée Rachel died on 9/11. Odd Thomas still grieves for his true love. Both have supernatural visions. For Danny, it takes the form of a mysterious woman. For Odd, the spirits of the dead appeal for justice and, in this particular book, a recurring blood-drenched dream tells him what will happen if he fails. Both men are on what Marvin Olasky would call a “mad mission,” a calling to help others that is risky. 1

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Holy Cross Church in Marine City, Michigan, has the usual Christian symbols: the Cross, angels, a slain dragon, grapes, etc. Other images seem to evoke the area’s maritime history: a ship and a lighthouse in the northern window dedicated to prayer for sailors.

The window depicts Jesus walking on water and Peter, even in his moment of doubt, calling out to Jesus to save him.  On either side of the scene are medallions with boats: Noah’s ark on the right and a tall-masted ship on the left. Beyond the ship is an ancient tower lighthouse that casts its light upon the water (see photo above).

I’d studied the window numerous times, puzzled by the contrast between the modernity of the ship and the antiquity of the lighthouse. I didn’t understand the meaning behind the image until I read Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols, written by Mike Aquilina and illustrated by Lea Marie Ravotti.

Signs and Mysteries focuses on Christianity, art, and history. In less than 200 pages, author Mike Aquilina explains 25 images used by early Christians. Some symbols are familiar, like the fish (ichthys). Most Americans have seen the ubiquitous car icons (including their Darwinist counterparts) and Christians know the Greek word for “fish” is an acronym for “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior”. However, Aquilina explains how the fish comes from the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, and ultimately represents the Eucharist.

In the introduction to Signs and Mysteries, Aquilina discusses how the Christian minority of Syria were revitalized in their faith and culture after archeologist Dr. Emma Loosley reintroduced them to the symbols of the ancestors. Aquilina writes:

…Christians who truly know the cross, and the fish, and the lamb, and the lighting of the lamps - those who truly know the ancient symbols of the Church’s doctrines and rites - are Christians who are rooted in the faith, and they know their roots run very deep indeed.” (pp 8-9)

So what does the tower lighthouse mean? It’s a symbol of the Church: constructed from the “stones” of the Apostles and other saints, rising from the waters of Baptism, reaching to Heaven, and guiding a ship (a Christian) by night across troubled waters. 

Signs and Mysteries is a short, pithy book. I hope Aquilina writes a sequel to explain symbols that developed later, such as the pelican.

One caveat: the publisher could use darker print. This book is printed in a light brown ink like a coffee stain. I suppose the printer meant to give it an aged appearance, but it detracted from Lea Marie Ravotti’s fine illustrations and made the print difficult to read.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Signs and Mysteries-Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols .

I finally gave in and turned the furnace on last night. It was 60 degrees Fahrenheit and cooling off by twilight, so I worried that the little ceramic heater in the bedroom might be overtaxed.

So I reveled in the tropical paradise that is 64 degrees.

The Anchoress has been praying and fasting, including giving up bread and noodles and other lovely foods. I find prayer and fasting difficult at times, but giving up certain foods isn’t hard at all.

The secret is that I LIKE food. Today being Friday, I had no meat. But I had an apple and an egg & cheese sandwich on potato bread for lunch. And for dinner, I had a killer eggdrop soup. I added chives, green onions, tofu, and salsa. Mmmmm!

In college, I couldn’t stand most cafeteria food. But I liked to try new things, and I could eat anything on rice.

And I do mean anything.

One summer my pal Michele and I subletted a room in a frat house. Money was tight, so we ate college student fixin’s. I ate toast for breakfast, fruit for lunch, and “suicide rice” for dinner. For the uninitiated, that’s rice with whatever you have on hand. If you’re lucky, it’s beef bouillion cubes or soy sauce. If you’re not, it’s pickle relish or some horseradish sauce that one of the guys gave you from their trip to Arby’s. 

But I still ate it.

My prayer life is kind of like that, too. Sometimes I think of someone I should pray for and it’s easy to send a Shout Up. Other times, I literally have nothing to say and my mind goes blank. But I give it the ol’ college try.