Eclectic Amateur

Worst of all apostates is the clever person who can explain the Faith but who loves only himself.
— Pavel Chichikov

One family’s many ‘blessings’:

Walt and Wendy Cukierski are the proud parents of eleven “blessings” — Walter Jr., Weston, William, Wellsley, Wyatt, Wade, Waylan, Woodman, Walker, Wiley and Wilson (due any moment).

The Cukierski family, whose home is in the state of New York, has their own Internet apostolate specializing in Catholic sacramentals and dedicated to “help[ing] save the innocent unborn and to draw folks closer to the Catholic faith.”
…
“Walt and I met on the third day of college,” says Wendy, via e-mail. “I was 17 and he was 18, and within a month, we knew we wanted to be married. We were wed at the age of 20 and will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary next February.”
…
In addition to evangelization and pro-life activism, the Cukierski’s love “raising chickens, organic gardening, hydroponics and all things simple.”
…
The Web site for The Cukierski Family Apostolate is www.cukierski.net.

RTWT. Wendy Cukierski reminds me of these lines from Wendell Berry:

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
— from Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

I have gotten to know Wendy somewhat from various email lists and forums. She has clearly mastered the art of laughter at the end of the world. And, I think Walt must have asked (and answered) the question Mr. Berry recommends for us all.

They are very blessed.

Well.

We thought we would take Barbara Nicolosi‘s advice to othercott The Da Vinci Code this weekend.

Silly us! We assumed that a major Dreamworks release would actually have at least one screen playing in Ann Arbor.

Nope. All Duh Vichy, all duh time.

Gaaagh!!!

UPDATE: It was an information glitch — Over The Hedge actually played Ann Arbor (as shown by the Showcase marquee). But, one was unable to determine that via the Internet early in release week — closest showtimes were appearing as Canton, Brighton, and Wauseon, Ohio(!). Mea culpa.

From an old e-quaintance, Marty Helgesen, and last seen online at The Curt Jester, comes a little ditty about the joys of the new liturgical season:

Around 1990 an Episcopalian friend at work, who was born Jewish and raised as an atheist or agnostic, was complaining that Christmas isn’t the only Christian holiday that’s been commercialized. Easter has, too, with the emphasis on fashions. She said her favorite season is Lent because it’s completely spiritual. (It is hard to commercialize a season based on penance and self-denial.) Completely ignoring her real reason for liking Lent and the context of the original song I wrote the following words to the tune of “Raindrops on Roses” from The Sound of Music:

Sackcloth and ashes, and days without eating,
Mortification and nights without sleeping,
A hair shirt that scratches, a nettle that stings,
These are a few of my favorite things.

When it’s Christmas,
When the tree’s lit,
When the cards are sent,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I can’t wait till Lent.

On that note, may you have a holy Lent. I may empty out the posting queue, but I shall try to give up reading blogs and other non-essential Internet this Lent. (Pray for me!)

Hilary has relented and posted Chiefly On Prayer, outlining the advice received from her spiritual director:

A few have asked me for some details about what Fr. Spiritual Director said to me when I asked him, “how do I pray?”.

Now, another friend has posted something to his internal list that says others who are just beginning to approach the Faith want to know, simply, how do I pray?

What are the right words to say? How do I make the sign of the cross. Should I try to memorize things? What if I get something wrong? If I try the Divine Office, do I have to do it all right? Does it count if I leave bits out and only do it occasionally? What is mental prayer? What do the great spiritual writers mean by “meditation?” Is it hard? If I am just thinking about God and sort of daydreaming, does that count for anything? What if I just can’t make anything happen at all and just sit there like a lump; does trying count? Does effort count even if you do it wrong?

Since I have that voice in my head too, let’s see what the recommendation is:

This is what he laid out:
(This is all from St. Francis who wrote it all down in beautiful and lively style, very easy to read and refreshing as a cool drink. So, naturally, for more details, go to the Introduction. But it was all the details that threw me off. So I asked for it boiled down to point form. Which I pass on here. It is only a starter kit, but the instructions for going past this will have to come from higher authorities than I can provide.)

Step one is Remote Preparation — being good, receiving the Sacraments regularly, avoiding unecessary distractions like too much TV or (ahem!) internet. A regular life, that is one more or less set to a daily, unhurried schedule and avoiding occasions for sin.

Spiritual reading. That is the bible, especially the Gospels. After that, some saint you particularly like, or some non-canonized but very reliable spiritual writer like Father Faber, Newman, Abbot Marmion, Dom Delatte etc. Keeping the liturgical year and its meaning in mind.

Step two is Direct Preparation for meditation. It takes a little effort. You have to think ahead of time what will be the topic for your meditation (e.g. based on the Gospel of the day; or with the help of a good book of meditations.

Step three is the actual prayer time. Set aside a period in the day. Everything I’ve read says early in the morning, before the daily dust storm comes up to cloud your sight. Set aside a particular place too. This is very much in line with the deep Catholic understanding that we are physical beings, and that the body as well as the intellect and will is involved. Turn off the music (never trust a spiritual director who places tinkly background music to help you “relax”) unplug the phone and don’t sit facing the window if it can be helped.

Now the hard part: the actual praying.

Step four is put yourself in the presence of God. This is, according to Francis, a simple act of the will. “Lord I acknowledge You are here with me.” Francis offers four different ways, the first of which is simply this little act of will. Only he says it fancier.

Step five is self-abandonment to His divine help to make a good meditation. A little acknowledgement that you can’t do it at all without assistance. Francis says it better and more 17th century, but that’s the gist. You can also ask for help with prayer from your guardian angel, Mary and the saints. Just be simple.

Step six is Considerations: points to think about that you have prepared ahead of time. Francis (and everyone else,) recommends a particular scene from the life of Christ. Often His Passion is recommended, but here is where a sp. director whom you see regularly and who knows you well will be able to help. Get him to suggest or at least approve your topics. Fr. Sp. D. said it is often good to take the Sunday readings. Or the daily ones. (from either Kalendar).

Use your imagination to put yourself into the scene in as detailed a way as possible without becoming distracted from the point. (We moderns are tremendously helped with a lifetime of television and movie watching here. We are really good at reading the gospel and seeing the movie play in our brains. Just put yourself in the movie. Also, this is where your preparation pays off. You ought to have read the passage slowly and with care to get the details firmly in your mind. “Ah, yes, here’s where Jesus goes back and asks the boys to stay up with Him. Imagine how he must have felt to see that they’re napping in His most dire moment.” that sort of thing.

Which leads me to the next thing. Go on to what St. Francis calls ‘affections,’imagining not only with the senses but with the heart. This is the emotional part. Allow yourself to feel compassion for our Lord’s suffering; love; contrition; rueing one’s hardheartedness, etc. Don’t by any means try to generate feelings, but use your will to allow them and use them as prayer even vocalizing a bit if you’re not too shy.

Go to next point when you’re getting no more savour out of this one. (Otherwise, stay where you are.)

Step seven is the resolutions and the big thing is to be SPECIFIC. Just saying, “I’ll try to be better” or nicer or less cranky or whatever, is just wishful thinking. Try something like, “The next time I have to work in the office, when so-and-so does that thing that drives me crazy, I’ll hold on to my temper and try to remember Thy mercy to me on the Cross.” See? Specific.

Step eight is of course, asking for help to fulfill the resolution, acknowledging that there is simply no way to get better without constant grace.

Conclusion is your thanksgiving and a “spiritual bouquet” a kind of set of rememberances that you take with you throughout the day. It fulfills in the spiritual realm the purpose of the little bunch of flowers that people would carry around with them through smelly streets, a nosegay.

Some people say that keeping a journal of the topics, meditations and resolutions, plus any lights given to you in prayer is a good idea. This sounds like a good idea to me, but please, try to remember that the word “journal” is not a verb.) Just write it down briefly in a little pocket notebook if you are forgetful as I am. But don’t start making up things that didn’t happen.

When Fr. had explained all this, I asked, “and that counts? That’s prayer?”

Yes. That counts.

So, there you are. I’ve shared.

Thanks for sharing.

Hilary writes some more, this time on prayer:

Today I had a conversation with Fr. Spiritual Director about prayer. I said that I simply didn’t know how to pray. What does it consist of? How do you know when you are praying and when you are just sitting there thinking about God? When you are daydreaming? When you are merely thinking or spacing out?

I am certainly aware that most of the time when I want to be, I am not praying. I am conscious of being repelled by prayer as well as nearly equally drawn to it. The struggle to enter into prayer is the most immediate battle in fighting the Giant.

I told Fr. Sp.D. that I really didn’t understand prayer and it was a big obstacle to trying it. (Here’s a secret for you all, if you see me “praying” in church, it is likely that I am sitting there doing something entirely different.)

I have the same problem… have know it for at least twenty years. I hope Hilary can eventually share what Fr.Sp.D. advised as the correction.

Hilary White gets a touch autobiographical, and explains why she’s now a “shrieking traddie”:

I had been looking for truth and justice, as had all my friends. But where most of them gave it up as a hopeless quest, I actually managed to find what I was looking for. I found Christendom, but, it seems, only managed to get there in time to attend the burial, the funeral Mass having long since finished.

Well, here I am, and here we all are. The survivors of the Great Change. The terrible conflagration happened anyway and nary an atom was split. Here we are now, the refugees, the people who have looked around at the devastation and seen that things were, quite simply, better before our parents (and I suppose grandparents) decided to give up on the old way of thinking. We are the backlash generation. The Young Fogies.

Read the whole thing.

All this might lend some inkling, some vague hint as to why I have turned out the way I have.

Yes, it does.

I don’t qualify as an Evil Traditionalist, but I share the feeling of having awakened to discover that I’m living among the ruins. So I suppose that makes me a Young Fogey too.

The official medal results for the Torino 2006 Olympics are online at:

http://www.torino2006.org/ENG/IDF/MDL/MDL_Big.html

The Wikipedia page for Torino 2006 has the schedule, day-by-day results, and information on each country’s athletes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Winter_Olympics

(Motivated by frustration at not being able to easily get good medal counts from the Ann Arbor News‘ reporting.)

Homeschooling tie-in: Nancy is using the Olympics as an excuse to get the kids to do country reports, and also as a math exercise in graphing the various medal counts (which is why we care about getting those numbers!)

Jim Curley has good insight into why singing matters:

I have also learned that God wants not only our minds (because this is what I tend to give Him), but also our hearts. Song helps us to give our hearts. This also why the restoration of singing together-whether hymns or folk songs-is important to the restoration of a Christian culture. People need to know how to give their whole being. Music helps us do this. People resist. Singing makes them self-conscious. But this is exactly why it needs to be done-to thrust aside the self in order to give your entire self in song…

Thanks for the reminder, Jim. It’s too easy to think that “it’s only singing,” and to leave the work to the specialists and professionals.