"I know the beauty of our Lord by it." - Hopkins

Summer breaks are short around here and the past few days we've been dragging ourselves around, quietly mourning the fact that soon the Routine will again be the routine. Laura goes back to school on Wednesday.
     So we went to the North Carolina Zoological Park today for a few short minutes before rain and routine rolled in. The park's flowers and flowering bushes are, at the moment, simply stunning. As I walked through a small butterfly garden the zoo has built, I was again surprised at how a small plot of ground, well-tended, can completely untie you from the normalcy of your environment, whether pavement or busyness or loneliness. It's witchery. And it makes me want to be a gardener. Not someone who dabbles in his yard, but someone who takes hold of it, who tends it, who works in the midst of a garden to discover the joy of vocation and creation and Gardener. A gardener creates something good, a temporary beauty that tills eternity.
     It was a peaceful and good day. And the clouds passed and the sun shone brighter and gentler.

Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend about centering prayer and how popular it is becoming among Christians today. (I'm not a fan, if you're interested.)
     I was not thrilled today, therefore, when a new priest in our parish began talking about prayer and said, in a nutshell, that how we pray is unimportant - whether as a Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Christian, etc. - but only that we pray.
     He said the catholicity of the "Our Father" teaches us that we're all God's children and that God just wants us to pray - however we please. (If you feel like praying to Kali, pray to Kali?) What's important is that it comes from the heart.
     And then, after the homily, we rose and said together, "I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins."
     (We pray "Our Father" because we have been united to Christ, because we are His body and therefore may pray with Him, "Our Father.")
     And then the priest caps it off by saying, "Accept it or not, but that is Catholic teaching."
     I am frustrated.
     It is difficult to hang on to peace and participate in the Mass - to receive Christ in the Eucharist - after a homily that is so ... incoherent.
     I covet your prayers and suggestions.
     Lex orandi, lex credendi - How we pray is how we believe. That's the teaching of the Church. How we pray matters. Prayer is theology.
     Section 1124 of the Catechism says: "The Church's faith precedes the faith of the believer who is invited to adhere to it."

Prayer

from Liturgy of the Hours

Christ the Lord is our day and our sunlight, shining on all men and never setting. Let us praise him, saying:

R: O Lord, you are our life and our salvation!

Creator of the stars, we offer you in gratitude the first-fruits of this day, and we commemorate your resurrection. R

May your Spirit guide us today to do what is pleasing to you: may your Wisdom lead us always. R

Let us join together with joy at Mass this Sunday, at the table of your word and your Body and Blood. R

Our souls give you thanks for your immeasurable kindness. R

It's Friday Night

It's Friday night and here I sit. I was going to take the kiddies to the drive-in, but they backed out at the last minute. Laura told me I could still go, but I told her there's probably not too many things more pathetic than a grown man alone at a drive-in. At least that's how I felt then. Now I'm regretting my decision. Oh well. I've got better things to do than go out and watch a movie based on an 80s kids' cartoon.

Or I'll think of some.

Potter-Head Emerges and Speaks

Be at ease, there are no spoilers here.

So ends the Harry Potter series.

From start to finish these books are a ball. Many thanks to Jo Rowling for writing a series that is bloody brilliant - for making story fun again.

Now I've been reading a couple of reviews where people are talking about the many Christian allusions spread throughout the last book, and they are there, but let's not take them too seriously. I appreciate that they are there, don't misread me, but the books are and always have been for me altogether different than, say, spiritual meditations on our Lord.

I think the thing that is most often misunderstood about Harry Potter and Jo Rowling is her idea of story and fun - that's what these books are. They are not Tolkien or Lewis, and, at the other end of the fantasy-religious spectrum, they are certainly nothing like Phillip Pullman. They are Jo Rowling. They're tongue-in-cheek romps that eventually lead you into some rather dark and sobering stories about, well, death - nevertheless, all this talk about dying and living and temptation and (even) resurrection, however, are dealt with beautifully without feeling as if they are misplaced in a book that also contains bogey-flavored Everyflavor Beans.

Now, I have some literary complaints, technical complaints, but they ring hollow from a critic who has not done what Rowling has done. So, if you don't mind, I'll keep them to myself.

For those of you who don't like Harry, I'm truly sorry. If you don't like him and haven't read the books, read them. Or don't. But don't judge them by what you have heard or by watching the movies. (The movies don't capture the playfulness of this series. The movies are enjoyable, certainly, but I've found them to be very different tonally.)

And if you read them and don't like them - well, isn't it an excellent thing to make up your mind for yourself? And if you're indifferent about them - that's OK too.

Miscellany

Yesterday I headed out to Wal-Mart to buy some Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Back and there again is a 40-minute jaunt. For ice cream. Why? Well, they have a better selection and are about a dollar cheaper there (child labor, I suspect). But mostly, taking into account the price of gas, because they have a better variety. The favorite flavor, currently, is Pistachio Pistachio. What else needs to be said? It's pistachios.

I saw Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream and picked it up. It has bits of waffle cone covered in fudge with caramel swirl. And it has a picture of the man himself on it. Very good.

So on the way out to Wal-Mart, to get back to my story, Anna and I are listening to the *secular radio station* and "Bohemian Rhapsody" begins playing. I turn it up for Anna's sake, to educate her in the world of Rock-and-Roll music. As the song gets to the middle, bouncy, operatic section, Anna starts dying laughing. I swanny, if she hadn't been buckled up she would have rolled onto the floor. It was high-larious.

Her two questions about the song were (1) Why [do Queen] sound like girls? and (2) Why do they write silly songs like that?

I figured any thorough answer would involve a conversation about drugs, among other things, so I just said people liked to write silly music sometimes. A six year old, after all, is only a six year old.

And, finally, to wrap up my miscellany, I am expecting to receive the Harry Potter book today. I suppose it will be read by Monday, if not earlier. Mock away, mocking world. I'm a Potter-head - not an in-line-at-the-book-store-at-12:01-dressed-up-like-Hagrid whacko like some of you out there, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the series. I'm becoming quite excited to see what becomes of the Boy Who Lived.

The Back Fence

Do any of you home educators have a specific lesson plan book that you're crazy over? Or, if there is not one that holds a special place in your heart, what are the basic elements you think a good planner needs?

Today I received a planner in the mail that, honestly, is not any more useful than a regular planner, so I was thinking about purchasing something like this Moleskine^® planner+notebook instead.

Suggestions?

Hot

It's hot in North Carolina even when it's not hot.

Not being raised in the South, I find it somewhat less comfortable than others. But, Man! I can barely stand it outside long enough to take my Netflix movies to the mailbox. This whole mailbox system, by the way, seems like it could be done better, closer to the house. Meanwhile, I'll continue to use my children as my little mail-bearers.

Catholic, XXIV

Beer.

Untimely Ripp'd

The following is completely ripped out of its context, like Macduff. But it struck me as oddly relevant all the same, like Macduff.

As G.K. Chesterton put it: the modern young man will never change the world, for he will always change his mind. Western theologians were concerned to change their theology to fit the world, and the last thing on their minds was to change the world to fit any theological vision. They wanted a revolution in theology, not a theology of revolution.
- Steve Hayes, Notes from Underground