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I always feel like I have very little to talk about. It's Saturday (yay!) and that's about it.

1.)  I can share that in less than a week (and this is a super YAY! for me) one of my bloggy friends will be visiting for about 2 weeks.

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2.)  She's actually the bloggy friend of the whole family - those of us who blog, anyway.

 
3.)  I never thought internet friends could ever be visualized in the flesh. Did you?

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4.)  It is Lent now, and I muchly desire chocolate and bread.

Or rather, HAS come

5.)  I also feel the need for a particularly juicy sausage.

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6.)  However, tomorrow is SUNDAY, which means chocolate, bread, and sausage! Oh, and of course... wine.

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I shall have a wonderful day tomorrow, despite the fact that Daylight Savings begins, and I'll have to greet the morning (oh evil day!) an hour earlier than I'd like.

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Other than that, Sunday - especially Sundays in Lent - is ALWAYS a good time. :)


Until next time, gentle audience. (Thank you, Jane Eyre on Broadway, for treacly lines like this.)

God bless, and have a wonderful Lent!
Cat

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sunny and breezy

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I’m giving up alcohol for Lent. I know; sounds like the title of a horror movie, doesn’t it? Especially coming from me, since as most of you know, I love alcohol. Five PM beer and Cheez-its has been a part of my habitual routine since I was old enough to apply for academic scholarships. I’ve never gone a full month without drinking, so what gives? And why Lent? I’m not even Catholic!

Lent is the approximately forty day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Lent is honored every year in New Orleans, via Mardi Gras season. The intention of Mardi Gras: get as drunk and fat as possible before Ash Wednesday, because then begins the Lenten fast. The idea for Catholics (and many modern Christians) is that Lent is a time of preparation through prayer, repentance, tithing, and self-denial.

During Lent, many of the faithful commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penitence in memory of the forty days of fasting Jesus undertook in the New Testament Gospels. In the old days, Lent was serious business and mostly related to food. In some places, all animal products were strictly forbidden. In other places, people wouldn’t eat for days.

We do these crazy things because Easter (contrary to what the media would have you believe) is our big holiday, NOT Christmas. Easter marks the resurrection of Christ—you know, the thing the entire Christian faith is based on. Kind of a big deal. In order to prepare for such a big deal, people like to cleanse themselves and deny themselves something, as God denied Himself His only son.

Our modern version of Lent is somewhat watered down. People nowadays give up things like soda, video games, TV, or sweets (as in the case of my mother and husband this year). Rarely do people get rid of all animal products, and no one I know is planning to carry a cross up Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives.

Usually, I do nothing for Lent. I make excuses like, “It’s a Catholic thing,” when in fact, giving something up for Lent is really just a way to remove the idols from our lives—idols that keep us from God.

I have several idols: books, sleep, reduced fat Cheez-its … but alcohol is one of my favorites. There’s something about Happy Hour that makes me happy. Something about good wine and good bourbon that makes me laugh a little louder and feel a little better. After a long day, it’s nice to know a cold beer is waiting for me—somewhere. Which is why I’m giving up alcohol for Lent.

See, I’m not the cleanest Christian. I drink. I love to cuss, and violent horror movies are my favorites. I don’t go to church enough. I don’t “serve” like I should. I hate volunteering, and the thought of going on a mission trip to a third world country gives me the creeps. However, like all of us, I am a work in progress, and despite my badness, God still loves me. I probably give him a good laugh on my really bad days. We have a tight relationship, filled with laughter, praises, and the occasional righteous shouting match. I feel it is time for me to give something back, and what better than one of my most infamous idols: alcohol?

This could be a rough month with school, work, a new novel, and now, a two-month-old puppy. There will be no breaks for a drink at five. There will be no “drinking lunches.” I will have to find other ways to unwind, like riding my super cool beach cruiser, going to the dog park, and well, reading a TON of books just to keep my hands away from the liquor cabinet at 5:30 PM.

This is my first Lenten fast. I’m prepared to grow closer to God. I’m prepared to give a little back, since He did give me life, after all. He gave me a wonderful family, a wonderful husband, and the perfect job. I owe Him just a little bit, so here you go, Lord. Take my idol. Let the Lenten fast begin!

And before you even ask, no, I’m not pregnant.

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By Natalia Nowakowska

As the Catholic Church embarked upon its observance of Lent last week, many congregations will be holding in their hands brand new, bright red liturgical books — copies of the new English translation of the Roman Missal (the service book for Catholic Mass), introduced throughout the English-speaking world at the end of 2011 on the instructions of the Vatican.

This is not a new experience for Catholic congregations and clergy. The rare book collections of the world’s research libraries are full of the ‘new’ liturgical books produced for European dioceses between 1478 and 1500, on the orders of bishops making enthusiastic use of the recently developed printing press. Some of these books, missals printed on vellum in full folio size, are too heavy for me to pick up. Others, tiny breviaries with heavily-thumbed pages, would fit in your pocket, or that of a late medieval priest. In their prefaces, bishops explained that the point of printing these new liturgical books was to reform the church. Their aim was to provide parishes with new liturgies which were an improvement upon the service-books already in use, both the “crumbling” liturgical manuscripts from which communities had been praying for centuries, and recent, pirated printed editions. This fifteenth-century initiative was reprised during the Counter Reformation; echoing the actions of late medieval North European bishops, Pope Pius V’s Breviarium Romanum (1568) and Missale Romanum (1570) provided the entire Catholic world with new liturgical editions in Europe and beyond. The printing of improved liturgical books was therefore at the forefront of many high clerical minds in Renaissance Europe, just as it is a priority for the Vatican today.

The links between these Renaissance-era projects and what is currently happening in English-speaking Catholic churches go beyond a general impulse by high clergy to roll out improved worship-books, however. I’ve been struck by how similar the language used by fifteenth-century bishops, Pius V, and the current Roman Catholic hierarchy is. Late medieval bishops, in their neatly printed prefaces, complained bitterly at the “corruption,” “distortion,” and “manifest errors” of old liturgical books. The provision of the 2011 Roman missal is, meanwhile, justified with reference to the oversimplified, “plain,” and possibly inauthentic words of the earlier translation. Fifteenth-century prelates stressed that an authorised, printed liturgy would ensure a “unanimity” in worship which symbolised the essential unity of the church; the modern Congregation of Rites states that the new missal translations will function as “an outstanding sign and instrument of… integrity and unity.” Late medieval bishops took care to stress the academic credentials of the clergy-scholars who had prepared the new editions; Benedict XVI has thanked the “expert assistants” who worked on the new missal, “offering the fruits of their scholarship.” The language of liturgical reform, corruption and renewal, unity and authenticity, which we hear today is also that of the sixteenth and fifteenth-century church, which had in turn inherited it from the early medieval church.

New books, same story. Yet the introduction of new books for worship is about power and authori

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BOOK OF THE DAY-February

No need to wait until the end of February for the complete list. Here it is–plan ahead! Click on the link above, and also follows us on Facebook at Litland Reviews http://facebook.com/Litlandreviews

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At church, before communion, we often sing The Agnus Dei. "Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us." I often wonder what my kids are thinking when they hear the verses of the Agnus Dei. During Lent many of us teach our children that Jesus died on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven. The imagery of Jesus as the Lamb of God is a natural extension of this teaching and the symbolism is worth discussing during the Lenten season with your kids.

John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus as the Lamb of God: "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29 NIV)

God offered up the perfect sacrifice, his Son, the “Sacrificial Lamb." Through Jesus' death on the cross and His resurrection, we can have eternal life if we believe in Him. "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." (1 Peter 1:18-19 NIV)

When we sing about the Lamb of God, we remember Christ's death on the cross and the sacrifice, and we praise God and offer our thanks and devotion to the Lamb, our Redeemer. "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" (Revelation 5:12 NIV)

Lamb of God Crayon Resist Lenten Craft
In art, the Agnus Dei symbol is often depicted as a lamb bearing a cross or banner. We made our own Agnus Dei artwork today for our stArt project. Starting with a white piece of paper, we cut out the lamb's body in a cloud shape.

While the kids were busy cutting out a head and legs out of black paper, I took a white crayon and wrote "Jesus" on each of the white body pieces. I also added some white swirls to look like wool. Using watercolor paint, the kids covered the lamb's body with paint and, through this wax resist artwork, it was revealed to them that Jesus is the "Lamb of God." Our sins are represented by the paint and Jesus, written in white crayon, takes away the sins of the world. I cut out a cross shape out of brown construction paper while the kids painted.

After the paint dried the kids assembled their own Agnus Dei artwork. The artwork indeed reminds us that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.





Other Lamb of God Crafts:
Lamb of God Washcloth
Lam

5 Comments on Lamb of God Lenten Craft & The Ultimate DVD Read and Share Bible: Volume 2, last added: 3/25/2011

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This is not subliminal advertising--honest. It's the only picture I had of Jack Knocking Head on my laptop and he just happens to be leaning against something that I won't mention here today but may mention here tomorrow but have definitely over-mentioned on twitter and slightly on facebook.

Deciding what to give up for Lent has been a tough decision. Last year I attempted to give up green pens and failed. Accidentally failed. I picked up a pen, scribbled something and voila, failure.

But I forgave myself.

This year, I am giving up tapping Jack's head and watching it wobble when I'm supposed to be writing.

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Another week of Lent has passed. We've had many chances to draw closer to Jesus. Have we taken the choices to do so? Or perhaps instead made choices which took us farther away? 

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We've almost finished the third week of Lent--half-way through. I made some intentions at the beginning of Lent. Some of them I'm doing better on than others. One of my intentions was to spend more time in prayer, but I'm not too sure I've been following through on that one as I should.

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