Just some easter egg fun with two cute girls.

Martha vs Mary

I sure do love freshly cleaned carpets!

It doesn't really feel like Holy week to me just yet. It always gets really intense starting Thursday, since that is the day of the Last Supper, then of course Good Friday when Jesus dies on the cross, and Saturday, while we wait, since He is in the tomb...

...but right now at the beginning of the week I just feel like it's all about the preparation. I have mentioned this before, but holidays and such are so different now that I'm the mom. I'm the responsible one in the end, and if things don't go right it's on me! There is much to think about; outfits, gifts, meals, family members. I always feel like a Martha when the holidays come around, when in my heart I know I need to be more of a Mary.

This Easter we are having Easter dinner at my house though, so it's hard to not plan, you know?

Also, I do love how the family looks especially spruced up on Easter! This is a way to glorify the Lord, right?  To show up in his house dressed up, fresh, beaming, beautiful for Him? I hope so, I like to think so. But then I'm always wondering, is focusing on this making me a Martha? When am I supposed to have time to sit and be still when everyone always needs me and there are so many preparations?

If anyone would like to share some more insight into this story, I'd be grateful. I've never felt I actually have a good grasp on it. Maybe it's just never been explained to me well before. I always end up confusing myself in the end because I so identify with Martha and her practicality! I know it sounds bad but, how could Jesus not see there were things to be done!?

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Marthaopened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” 

-Luke 10

Palm Sunday 2013- the beginning of Holy week

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout in riumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!

He is just and endowed with salvation,

Humble, and mounted on a donkey,

Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

-Zechariah 9:9

"The next day the crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm brances and went out to meet him, shouting,

Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the king of Israel!"

Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:

Do not be afraid, Daughter of Zion; 

see, your king is coming,

seated on a donkey's colt"

John 12

and so it begins....

the journey to Pascha....

Quick Takes

Hey hey friends! It's Friday! And since I only got 1 post in this week, I really wanted to do a Quick Takes to sum up some of my week :) So, I only have a little while to write before I have to get dinner going so here goes!

-1-

I promise I'm not just putting this post up to hide the *Vaccine post* I am actually quite happy with the aftermath of posting the most controversial subject I've tackled here on my blog. Okay, so aftermath sounds a bit dramatic. I didn't know what to expect honestly. I've read some pretty heated forums though, and I know people can get worked up so maybe I was bracing myself for the worst. Ultimately, I think it's just been good having some discussions and getting people's thoughts on the subject. I really appreciate everyone who has commented and can honestly say I respect every single person who has weighed in.

and please, if you haven't had a chance to comment, go ahead and still do so. Let's keep the conversation going!

-2-

My friend was commenting on my blog and how she was a bit sad that I hadn't been using my big camera much as of late. So I'm going to make a point of it to take it out more instead of always relying on my Galaxy III phone and Instagram. 

Beth, these pictures are for you!!!

-3-

This weekend marks the last week before Holy Week, hence the end of Lent! Whoa, it went fast this year. I can't believe Easter is almost here. 

The greatest thing we gave up was t.v. at night. Mike and I talked about how it's been so good for us and we are planning on mostly continuing it after Lent is over (which, we need to remember that is what practicing giving up things is for - to truly become detached so that it's easier to give them up when you should, year round!)

Biggest failure was me trying to give up lipstick. I sucked at that. I'm way too attached to my Burts Bees lip stain :/

-4-

Spring this year is weird. It snowed a good amount last night and this morning. I had to laugh at one friend on facebook who said "March, you are drunk. Go home"

-5-

Yesterday we wrapped up the 40 Days for Life Campaign at the local Planned Parenthood.

We went down with the whole family (usually just one of us goes at a time) and it was nice gathering at the candle-lit vigil with about 30 other people. This year was the year I participated the least, what with 3 kids and all, but the times I went down there felt very good and fruitful. You know you're doing something right when people yell out the window how "pathetic" you are....

    "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you". - Matthew 5

-6-

Lou has been a great little pray-er lately. We say our prayers after dinner now, instead of right before bed, and this works much better for our family. She gets excited when we do a whole rosary instead of just a decade. Mike and I are very proud and I continue to love having a 4 year old around!! If you need prayers you should ask her, she'd be happy to help you out :)

-7-

Speaking of prayers, here are a few prayers and/or quotes from our new pope Francis: (taken from his facebook page) I've been enjoying hearing more about him and seeing how he interacts with the public. Very cool. We are blessed that the Holy Spirit guided the cardinals to elect him!

"Jesus Christ conferred power upon Peter, but what sort of power was it? Jesus’ three questions to Peter about love are followed by three commands: feed my lambs, feed my sheep. Let us never forget that authentic power is service, and that the Pope too, when exercising power, must enter ever more fully into that service which has its radiant culmination on the Cross."

""I would like that all of us, after these days of grace, might have the courage - the courage - to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Cross of the Lord: to build the Church on the Blood of the Lord, which is shed on the Cross, and to profess the one glory, Christ Crucified. In this way, the Church will go forward."

I will end with some of my fav Catholic memes on the new pope:

Happy weekend friends!

Vaccines

I am writing a post about vaccines because this is a major topic of discussion and controversy within my group of friends, my church community, and the larger regional area where I live. It is a really touchy topic and unfortunately, I have personally known people that have lost friends over it. Which is why I have put off writing about it. But, I decided to go ahead and do so because the thing is, it’s only fair that both sides should be able to present their information. Watching this debate play out, I have often felt that people who denounce vaccinations have been a lot louder and bolder than those who quietly vaccinate their kids but don’t raise a fuss. Therefore, I’d like go ahead and be brave and get some of the information I have discovered out there, in the hopes that it can be a springboard for you. I definitely do not wish to create unnecessary strife between close friends, but to get my viewpoints out there so that when the topic comes up, I don’t feel bad about defending myself.

I ask that if you don’t feel you can read this calmly or if you worry that it would impede your friendship with me, that you refrain from reading it. I hope you understand my intentions and don't feel personally attacked in any way.

I will be upfront with you - I believe vaccines are safe and effective. As a person who is generally distrustful of the government, as a person of faith who is 100% pro-life, and as a person familiar with history - I have come to the conclusion that we ought not throw away one of the biggest contributions worldwide to the health and well being of children because some people (highly outspoken people) make the claim that they are dangerous.

I do not believe that vaccines are dangerous the majority of the time.

I don’t see the evidence for it. The people I know who denounce vaccines have made many claims. I used to believe some of them, but have come to be more distrustful of the source of these claims, and instead to trust those scientists and doctors who have devoted their careers to testing vaccine safety. People who wholeheartedly promote vaccinations because they know the science, they know how the immune system operates, and they know that historically speaking, we have never been in a better place to fight preventable childhood illnesses. I trust these scientists, but I know many of you don't, and hold many reservations about taking your kid in to get those shots. 

Trust is huge here. The decisions you make are largely based on trust. I am going to conclude with some additional thoughts on this but first I want to go over three major topics that I found helpful in my decision to follow the vaccination schedule. 

RISK

FINANCIAL GAIN

PRO-LIFE ISSUES

This is going to be my longest post ever so here goes….

RISK

Let’s start with risk and risk assessment. It’s true, Vaccines carry risk. No scientist or doctor will deny this claim that is often vigorously put forth by anti-vaxers. They claim that vaccines are extremely risky (if not downright toxic) so why would we put our children at unnecessary risk?

You have to consider that there is virtually no medicine, even natural remedies that carries no risk. Allergic reactions are unpredictable, human error, contamination, unexplained issues, whatever it may be. Nothing we do to our bodies can be seen as 100% risk-free, right? So when I’m told I should not vaccinate my baby because there is a risk that he will develop autism, or that he might have a bad reaction to them, instead of running the other direction in fear - I have to ask some key questions like: “How great is that risk?” and perhaps more importantly, “What is that risk compared to the risk of him acquiring a childhood disease and what are the risks associated with those diseases?”

In modern America, most parents my age have never really seen childhood illnesses at play in full force. I can ask my grandmother about polio or measles, but because vaccines have been so effective, I just do not have firsthand knowledge of what these diseases are capable of. (As a friend pointed out, vaccines are a victim of their own success!) In the year 2013, the risk seems so tiny that my child will go out and about and contract polio. The temptation is then to avoid the vaccine, which carries a risk of a reaction, in order to take the perceivably smaller risk of contracting a disease I have never seen and that just doesn't seem that scary!

This way of thinking is understandable. Especially when you consider some of the less threatening sounding illnesses like chicken pox or whooping cough. Why not just allow our children to be exposed to these naturally? Why not let the modern hygienic practices eradicate these diseases? I get that. Because I used to think this way myself. As a matter of fact we put Louisa on a delayed vaccine schedule because honestly, chicken pox, hepititus B, and polio just didn’t scare us all that much.

But here is my attitude now: these diseases are frightening. Especially for really young children. Do a little bit of historical research before shrugging off these diseases as ‘not that scary.’ 

In Seth Mnookin’s book, The Panic Virus, he spends the first few chapters showing how historically, families worried through the first several years of their children’s lives because it was a very real risk that they could contract one of these diseases and become seriously ill, hospitalized, or die. Look at polio, for example. Picture yourself raising your baby in New York City in the summer of 1916. In this noteworthy epidemic, Polio mysteriously hit the city and spread to surrounding New England states so rapidly officials couldn’t keep up with the number of cases. There were thought to be 23,000 cases with 5,000 deaths in one summer! Talk to your grandparents about this. Ask them if they knew anyone who contracted polio, and if anyone was affected for the rest of their life because of it. This was a disease that was spread easily, and for which there was no cure (by the way, there still is no cure.) Quarantine measures did not help, nor did better hygiene. Imagine if you had a newborn at this time. You would have been pretty frightened.

The reason we do not still have polio outbreaks like this is not because people wash their hands. It’s because of the development of a vaccine. And guess what, if people do stop vaccinating on a large scale (which has been the trend in some areas of the US) polio could come back. According to my pediatrician, polio is nearly eradicated worldwide, but we aren't quite there yet! An infected person could potentially travel here and put the non-vaccinated population at risk. It is vital that we kick it all the way, like we were able to do with smallpox in the 1970's. (Another horrifying disease, just take the time to read about it) And it wasn’t just polio and smallpox. Diseases like pertussis, measles, and even dramatic cases of chicken pox claimed the lives of infants as their parents and doctors watched helplessly. Contrary to popular belief  we still do not have an actual cure for most of these diseases. The only thing we have is a vaccine.

Now, to address the risk of getting vaccinated. What do you think the chance of having your child have a negative reaction to say, the measles vaccine is? When you take your child in, do you think he or she has say, a 10 percent chance of getting a seriously high fever or something worse? 5%? 1%?? If you look at the evidence, the abundance of medical studies out there (and YES, they are out there) then you would see that the risk is more like 1 in every million vaccinated individuals will have an allergic reaction (for the MMR vaccine). If you want to have access to studies I suggest looking here and here (to start)

Do not let anyone tell you that “there’s not enough research available” on the safety of vaccinations. There are literally decades of data and hundreds of studies; one just has to be able to sort through it all, and since we are not all scientists, sometimes that research is hard to wade through. But we can look at the conclusions of the studies, and as to date, many, many, many studies have come back showing that vaccines are safe. 

What is missing are solid studies showing the opposite! I have yet to come across a reliable, large scale study showing that vaccines harm children. I have seen charts that link mercury poisoning to the autistic-like behaviors. But that does not prove to me anything (not to mention the fact that thimerosol (a preservative) has not been used in the MMR vaccine since 2002.)

The history of the production of vaccines is not 100% flawless. Mistakes have been made. Back before they put preservatives of any kind into vaccines, there were cases where doctors would leave the vaccine formula out and bacteria would grow in it. In one case half a dozen children died because the vaccine had been compromised by a deadly virus. So I am not trying to claim that vaccines have a perfect past. But, throughout the later part of the 20th century, and going into the 21st century, I have seen the evidence for rigorous testing, and data to show that for most people, most of the time vaccines are safe and they help our immune systems prepare for the worst. The body can fight off something it has already built an immunity toward! This is a good thing.

As far as the body being assaulted by a bunch of vaccines all at once (or, 37 total by the time children are done with their schedules, in other words -taken over a period of 7 years) the main thing I have read to debunk this claim is that babies, from the moment they take their first breath, are bombarded with germs! Absolutely bombarded. Babies build their immunities quickly, because they have to to survive. An additional introduction to a weakened disease does not pose a huge threat, especially when compared to how many other things the immune system is already dealing with. More research on my part needs to be done on this, but I rest assured knowing that my kids come into contact with literally thousands of problematic germs every single day, and their bodies are designed to handle it.

One final thought on risk. Here is a scientific concept that Mnookin discusses at length. People may not realize this; but you cannot prove a positive. Basically, anti-vaxers want to have more evidence that vaccines are safe. I am fine with that. I think the information should continue to flow in that “proves” safety. I think we should always demand that safety be demonstrated to us, on an on-going basis!

But what anti-vaxers will never, ever receive is 100% proof that vaccines are safe and will never, ever cause any harm what-so-ever. The makers of your run of the mill children’s vitamins can’t even say that. That’s because it’s impossible. In literally all scientific theories, the possibility has to remain that one day they will be proven wrong! This should not frighten or deter us. When the vast majority of evidence shows that vaccines are safe for most individuals, and when history shows that diseases have been eradicated or nearly so, then we can think rationally about risk-assessment.

In the end, a person does have to weigh the risks and benefits. Some people are going to tell me that they know someone who has had a bad reaction to a vaccine, or that they themselves have. I am not arguing that no one will ever have a problematic reaction. That is scary and if it happened to one of my children I would want to know why it happened! I would want to be paid attention to. As of now, I place my trust in the medical field that they are giving my kids the safest current preventative medicine available. But I do understand going into it that a risk is present, once again, just like in virtually all other areas of medicine. 

Big Pharma Ghouls and Sick Freaks

FINANCIAL GAIN

It is easy to claim big companies garnish little trust from folks when profits are in the picture. This is clearly true in the medical field. So when it comes to vaccines, people are understandably suspicious of those companies that develop vaccines.

What I have read leads me to ask the question: if you choose NOT to vaccinate, do you think anyone benefits from your choice? You better believe it! If you go to an anti-vaccine conference (a lot of them are focused on autism awareness) you would see the hallways lined with “alternative” remedies, supplements, expensive procedures, and even vaccines! Yes, there are "alternative vaccines" out there. In fact, you should be most suspicious of the famous (infamous) Andrew Wakefield. He was the surgeon who, in 1998 began the whole autism/MMR controversy when he did a small study (with 12 children) and published his findings in the British medical journal the Lancet. After more than a decade of subsequent research and inability to duplicate his findings that the Measles disease was found in the gut of autistic children, Wakefield has been almost universally denounced. The Lancet renounced it's publication of the paper and has since apologized for not sustaining its historical level of academic rigor when deciding to publish this study.

I decided not to go too much into the autism debate in this post because that constitutes another HUGE area to tackle. Perhaps I will devote an entire post to it, but I have found that many (most?) of the anti-vax people I have spoken with are uncomfortable with that claim. Still, Wakefield and his followers have done so much to spread the idea that vaccines are NOT safe and that we should instead trust people like him to keep our kids healthy! 

My point with Wakefield here is that one of the reasons he has been discredited by his peers in the medical and scientific community (in addition to his shoddy research practices, inability to duplicate his work, and ethical questions of testing and doing procedures on youth) is because he had in place pending patents for alternative vaccines before starting his research! Essentially, he stood to gain much when he started doing his research! Does that make you trust his findings more or less?

Because of this disturbing information, I have come to distrust anything or anyone who has any connections to Dr. Andrew Wakefield (actually, I think his medical license has been pulled, so I shouldn't really call him doctor) Unfortunately, that includes one person who I previously places a lot of trust in. Dr. William Sears’s son, Dr. Robert Sears. He wrote a book called The Vaccine Book. I love Bill Sears (the father) and Mike and I apply many of his Attachment Parenting techniques, like baby wearing and co-sleeping. We loved his sleep book, as well. However, when his son wrote the Vaccine book, he was in contact with Wakefield. If you want to discuss financial gain by Big Pharma, you must also be honest and accept that people like Bill Sears also gain when people don’t vaccinate.

This list of people includes naturalists, chiropractors, herbalists, and alternative medicine-type people I personally know (and respect!) I just ask that people not automatically demonize big pharma when it comes to vaccines because they might make some money. I did a little research and found out that the vaccinating pharmaceutical companies are NOT government affiliated. Meaning, the government does not benefit financially from the production of vaccines. The few remaining vaccine producers in the US are not really gaining huge profit margins from making these vaccines. (here is an interesting article about pharmaceuticals and vaccines) The future of vaccine production is actually in jeopardy as of right now!

This section of the post was only meant to point out that tossing around allegations about financial gains from vaccines does not convince me that they are bad. The truth is, someone out there may be profiting no matter what choice you make for your family!

PRO-LIFE ISSUES – moral and ethical dilemmas

Finally, in this post, I have to address an issue most near and dear to my heart. Many of you have seen the photos I’ve posted of me and my family participating in pro-life rallies. We are dedicated to the well being of the unborn. In fact, we are dedicated to the dignity of all human life, from conception to natural death! The reason this comes up in the vaccine debate is because when they were first developed, the disease had to be grown. Since I am not a biologist, here is a short explanation of how this works.

“Using cell strains and cell lines, researchers can grow human pathogens like viruses in a particular type of cell to attenuate them – that is, to weaken them. One way viruses are adapted for use in vaccines is to alter them so that they are no longer able to grow well in the human body. This may be done, for example, by repeatedly growing the virus in human cells kept in culture at a much lower temperature than normal body temperature. In order to keep replicating, the virus adapts to become better at growing at the lower temperature, thus losing its original ability to grow well at normal body temperatures. Later, when it’s used in a vaccine and injected into a living human body at normal temperature, it still provokes an immune response but can’t replicate enough to cause illness.”

Here is where it talks about where the fetal cells come into play:

“In 1941, Australian ophthalmologist Norman Gregg first realized that congenital cataracts in babies were the result of their mothers being infected with rubella during pregnancy. Along with cataracts, it was eventually determined that congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) could also cause deafness, heart disease, encephalitis, mental retardation, and pneumonia, among many other conditions. At the height of a rubella epidemic that began in Europe and spread to the United States in the mid-1960s, Plotkin calculated that 1% of all births at Philadelphia General Hospital were affected by congenital rubella syndrome. In some cases, women who were infected with rubella while pregnant terminated their pregnancies due to the serious risks from CRS.

Following one such abortion, the fetus was sent to Plotkin at the laboratory he had devoted to rubella research. Testing the kidney of the fetus, Plotkin found and isolated the rubella virus. Separately, Leonard Hayflick (also working at the Wistar Institute at that time) developed a cell strain using lung cells from an aborted fetus. Many viruses, including rubella, grew well in the resulting cell strain, and it proved to be free of contaminants. The strain was eventually called WI-38.”

As you can imagine, upon finding out this information I was initially pretty stunned. Yes, it is true that in order to develop vaccines, two cell lines (In addition to WI-38, another line called MRC-5 has been used to develop vaccines like Rabies and Shingles) had to be used that were originally derived from aborted babies.

Confronted with this moral dilemma I looked into what my Catholic church has said on the subject. Many moral theologians have weighed in on the issue and while it's true some have come down on different sides of the issue, there have been several official statements made. Here’s a summation of what I found: “The ethical quandary created by the tainting of these otherwise beneficial vaccines is obvious and vexing. Parents are more than justified in wanting to protect their children from these potentially life-threatening diseases. It can be legitimately argued that parents have an obligation to take reasonable steps to protect their children. Likewise, as a society, we must take into consideration the morality and cost of failing to prevent widespread outbreaks of disease. Thus, there is a civic responsibility associated with vaccines and controlling diseases...The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, and the U.S. and British bishops conferences have studied the issue in detail and concluded that using the vaccines is morally permissible. “

So, this has brought me much peace of mind. However – it has also been said that parents, once they find out the origins of vaccines, have the moral impetus to demand vaccines that are ethically sound (that have not been derived from these two fetal cell lines.) This is honestly something I have not been good, partially because I was not fully aware of the issue. This is a critical part of the moral accountability we have as parents and pro-life people. I have asked my pediatrician before but have not followed through with. As Christians who do not believe abortion is justified in any situation ever – so we need to follow through with alternative vaccines! This is a mission I am going to pursue, and if you are pro-life you should too. However, based on the information I have read from the bishops and from the Vatican, I can see that giving my children vaccines in order to protect them and others is morally permissible.

Here is another quote: “If such collaboration with abortion has already taken place, and the only vaccine made available for serious diseases contains material that was cultured in fetal tissue from an abortion, may Catholics -- out of concern for their own health or that of their children or the community – submit to this vaccine without committing serious sin? Most Catholic moralists have replied in the affirmative. The recipient of the vaccine took no part in decisions to base the vaccine on this morally unacceptable source, but is coping with the results of immoral decisions made by others.”

Conclusion

I have come to see that a lot of this issue comes down to trust. In this crazy information age, we have to be very careful about the quality of information we receive. Where do you get your information? Is the source trustworthy? Do you trust your own research – or in other words, are you a graduate of the University of Google (as Jenny McCarthy likes to say)? Or, do you generally trust the medical establishment? Do you believe the CDC is trustworthy? Or do you trust those who distrust the establishment, such as Andrew Wakefield and his ilk?

I think we have to be careful and honest when addressing this issue. Since we are not all immunologists, medical doctors, statistician, or professional researchers, we must acknowledge that we do not completely understand how the body works or how immunity operates (despite the fact that some people like to think they do.) We have to trust someone when it comes to these issues. But instead of typing in “vaccine safety” to Google and expecting to verify beliefs we already hold, we have to seriously have to ask ourselves who is trust-worthy and who’s information is accurate?

I don't know about you, but I find it very frustrating when someone posts an article about any issue, only to look at where this article is sourced and end up being super skeptical because this person/organization has little or no credibility! You have to keep in mind that literally anyone can publish claims these days on the internet. Nothing has to be peer reviewed, edited, or even scanned over for basic elementary grammar. The sad thing is that people are willing to believe those claims, especially if it is information you believe already backs up your way of thinking.

When it comes to vaccines, I have presented some of the information I have found as best I could. The sources I've used are not flimsy. The claims I have made are based on evidence, research studies, and professionals who have also come to the conclusion that vaccines are safe, effective, and need to continue to be in use lest many of these diseases come back. 

If you want to comment, feel free - just make it civil - thanks!

List of sources:

The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear by Seth Mnookin (published 2011) (I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK)

http://www.historyofvaccines.org/

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/123/1/e164.full

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/24/3/622.full

http://www.rtl.org/prolife_issues/LifeNotes/VaccinesAbortion_FetalTissue.html

http://www2.aap.org/immunization/families/faq/VaccineStudies.pdf

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0504240.htm

http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228

This moment

Sweet children asleep in our bed.

Happy Friday

Peter, the rock on which Christ built His church!

Christ telling Peter he is the rock.
He also says, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Mthw 16:19

Yesterday was such an awesome day. It started out good and then got unexpectedly better when I got a text from Mike saying,

 "WHITE SMOKE!"

Lauren and the girls, watching the white smoke and waiting for the new pope's name to be announced.

If you don't know what this means by now, you must be living under a rock : )  Even if you are not Catholic, you've most likely seen the news reports and know that white smoke signaled the election of a new pope!

My aunt and cousin (who is currently contemplating a religious vocation; aka might become a nun!) were over visiting and it was lovely sharing this grand event with them! They are the only other Catholics in my family and so it worked out perfectly that they just happened to be over visiting when we got the news.

It was a refreshing, invigorating, joyful day; a day so many of us desperately needed. It gets discouraging to turn on the news or read an Op-ed viciously bashing the Catholic church day in and day out. But for the last couple of weeks, culminating yesterday with the introduction of a humble man as the new leader of millions of Catholics worldwide - well, I think that got people talking positively about the church. For a moment, at least. The ceremony, the ritual, the gathering of hundreds of thousands at the steps of St. Peter's is something our modern world struggles to understand. This Church that strikes so many as archaic has survived into the present day, and people are scratching their heads. Is there something to this whole catholicism thing?

I believe people are wired for mystery. In the ancient Catholic church, the church we believe was established by Christ as he walked the earth 2000 years ago, mystery still exists! There is so little mystery left in our world. But when the cardinals from around the globe come together and close the doors to elect the successor to Peter - people couldn't help but be intrigued!

I love that he was smiling!

Once the pope came out to give his first blessing, the square was filled by people all over the world. People loved the new pope immediately, especially once they saw what a humble man he was!

This is another thing I love about the church. It is a church that exists in every country on the planet. It is a universal church, a church for all of us. It is a church where the same mass is said everywhere. I could understand what was going on if I attended one in Italy, France, Mexico, or China. The new pope is from Argentina. The last pope was from Germany. This is not a local church started by a local pastor. It is a church instituted by Christ to survive the ages. The gates of Hades will not prevail. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. - Mthw 16:18

Francis I (really, he is to be called just Francis)

A Servant

I love this photo that is circulating around now. It is a picture of the pope before he was elected, at an AIDS hospital. See what I mean by a humble man??

May God bless us all. 

Friday Instagram dump

I still like Instagram. It occurred to me that some people who read this blog (ahem, mom) don't have Instagram, or Facebook, so you might not get to see some of these pictures. So, this post is for you. I get that you probably don't care as much to see my attempts at artsy-fartsy shots. I know it's the kids you are truly interested in, but I threw some in for good measure. Hope you enjoy.

 

and Happy Friday!