No School!!!

I love to watch our boys experience something exciting that I experienced as a kid, something that is just, well, rite of passage stuff. I can see them respond exactly as I, or their Dad, or nearly every other kid did, and it is such a delightful thing to see, and to remember back when it was my own experience.

One such instance: No School due to snow!!

Is there anything,  ANYthing, more exciting to a kid than getting the news that school is cancelled for the day? I dare say there is not, and this evening our boys got to feel that excitement, for the very first time. Yes, indeed, in anticipation of the coming winter storm that is to arrive tomorrow, their principal has called school off for the day, following the lead of the local school district.

The boys are ecstatic! Not only do they get the day off, but they get to stay up a bit later tonight since they won't have to get up early. And at 11 and 13, this is just the first time for them. As most readers will know, prior to this school year we only homeschooled our boys, so when it snowed there was no checking for school closures. I, their teacher, would sometimes shorten their day, or even give them the day off to play in the snow, but that still didn't compare to a school cancellation where they don't have to get up, put on a uniform and GO out to school.

We are so happy with our boys' school, Queen of the Holy Rosary Academy, on so many levels. That topic is an entire blog post, and I need to write it one of these days. But just today, as we all wait in gleeful anticipation of the winter weather that would close our school, and especially as former homeschoolers, I am thankful that I can watch our boys enjoying another rite of passage that they wouldn't have known were we still homeschooling, one that their mom and dad so well remember enjoying too:

NO SCHOOL, due to snow!

(I might just have to make a few--it is Lent, of course--cookies tomorrow....)

God bless you!

New Archbishop for Portland, OR

Good news this morning for Catholics in my hometown, Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Alexander K. Sample Metropolitan Archbishop of Portland, Oregon. According to the Badger Catholic blog, Archbishop Sample is "very much in the mold of Cardinal Burke."

Prayers for Archbishop-Designate Sample and the Portland Archdiocese!

A Mother's Vocation

"My dear," said her husband, the cob, one afternoon, "do you never find your duties onerous or irksome? Do you never tire of sitting in one place and in one position, covering the eggs, with no diversions, no pleasures, no escapades, or capers? Do you never suffer from boredom?"

"No," replied his wife. "Not really."
"Isn't it uncomfortable to sit on eggs?"
"Yes, it is," replied the wife. "But I can put up with a certain amount of discomfort for the sake of bringing young swans into the world." 

~ E.B White, The Trumpet of the Swan

Date Change: Apb. Lefevbre Documentary

Due to post production technical issues, it has become necessary to delay the release of the Archbishop Lefebvre documentary.  Look for a new release date in late March or early April.  

Updates will be posted here as soon as information is released.

Sunday, February 24 at 1:00pm

Movie: Archbishop Lefevbre - A Bishop for the Church.  

The life story of this son of the Church who was an African Missionary in Gabon, Archbishop of Dakar, Apostolic Delegate for all French speaking Africa, Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers,  Member of the Preparatory Council for Vatican II, Founder of the Society of Saint Pius X. How did he come to find himself in the center of a storm which is still buffeting the Church to this day?  

This documentary retraces the life of Archbishop Marcel Levebvre.  The film will be screened at RONNIES 20 in St. Louis on Sunday February 24 at 1pm and in Kansas City the previous day, Saturday, February 23 at 3pm at CINEMARK Palace on the Plaza.

View the trailer.

In the Bleak Midwinter

Sometimes there are too many things to blog about. Shall I review the St. Francis deSales Oratory Gaudete Gala which took place Saturday evening? The boys' school choir recital at a nursing home? The boys' induction into the St. Stephen's Guild last Sunday? All of these topics are most blog-worthy but, alas, I am occupied with preparations for Christmas, and blogging must take a back seat to these.

But we are in Advent! And certainly it is a time of anticipation and preparation, both externally in our card-sending, gift-wrapping, decorating and menu-planning, and, perhaps more importantly, interiorly in our prayerful meditation, reading and pondering of the events leading up to the Nativity of the Christ Child.

And so, I leave you with one of my favorite seasonal poems. A beautiful meditation in itself!

* * *

In the Bleak Midwinter

By Christina Rossetti

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.
 
Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

* * *

A blessed Advent one and all...His coming is nigh!

Friday-After-Thanksgiving Dispensation!

For my American* readers who follow the traditional Friday abstinence I offer a reminder that Pope Pius XII granted us a dispensation to refrain from abstinence on the Friday following Thanksgiving Thursday.

Enjoy those turkey leftovers today!
 
*My blog stats show me that I do indeed have international readers dropping in now and then!