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Are You Ready for Advent?

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Truth be told, I’m not. I usually dig out the Advent wreath well after Thanksgiving and the start of Advent, and we don’t light it every day.  I confess we’ve been uneven in our use of a Jesse tree.

Does it count that for the last few years, I have gotten the kids a Trader Joe’s chocolate calendar and they open a door every day of December?

I thought not.  

I know Advent is a great time of preparation, so I’m hoping for better success this year.

Here are some new books in case you, too, might need some fresh ideas to make Advent a time of joyful preparation:

*Father Gary Caster, a priest of the diocese of Peoria, has a new St. Therese-inspired book out:   The Little Way of Advent: Meditations in the Spirit of St. Therese of Lisieux.

Father Caster’s latest book, like his previous title The Little Way of Lent, provides for each day (in this case, of Advent) a Scripture passage, a reflection and a little quote from St. Therese.  For those who love Father Caster’s preaching style and his prolific writing, The Little Way of Advent does not disappoint.

(Go here to read my Q&A with Father around the time that I reviewed The Little Way of Lent).

*A Catholic Family Advent: Prayers and Activities by Susan Hines-Brigger offers family-centric activities, reflections and Scripture for each day of Advent.  I especially liked the “talk together” portion to spark conversation, perhaps around the dinner table, before lighting the aforementioned Advent wreath.

*Lisa Hendey has a slim new volume O Radiant Dawn: 5-Minute Prayers Around the Advent Wreath, with short, very do-able reflections for most, and also some for younger children, for each day of the Advent season.

*Advent and Christmas Wisdom from St. Vincent de Paul by John E. Rybolt, provides short reflections and quotes from the writings of St. Vincent de Paul, particularly focusing on the saint’s reputation as “the Apostle of Charity.”

The above appeared in this weekend’s edition of The Catholic Post on the book page.  Even as I wrote it, I began to realize that our family does “do” Advent a wee bit better than just the Trader Joe’s chocolate calendar.  And does it not surprise you that the way we excel at keeping Advent and Christmastime is through books?

So in addition to trying to make some of these new books part of my Advent tradition, I also plan to take a look (as we get closer to Advent) at some of our favorite classic Advent/Christmas books–including many picture books–that might help you keep Advent well, too.  Watch for a special series of posts as Advent draws closer.

The Electoral College and Voting

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After Mass this morning, I took our younger kids to go and vote.  I’m always so grateful for the opportunity to vote.  I was personally surprised at how easy the ballot was this year in our district.  Both our (excellent) state Senator and state Representative ran unopposed–I liked getting to show the kids how I could only vote for one person in quite a few races.

The kids got stickers, too!  As a side note, our youngest really, really wants the chance for kids to vote.  We are all wearing our stickers proudly.
We’ve had some discussions in recent days about the electoral college, and what that means. I subscribe to the lovely blog Like Mother, Like Daughter and a recent post  gave some ideas and links to help kids (and grown-ups!) learn about the electoral college, and work to call the election one way or another.  So we are taking a little break today from regular schoolwork, and our very halting start at kids NaNoWriMo, to do math, geography and other subjects via politics.
We printed off multiple copies of this map, and right now the kids are working to color in the likely states for each candidate.  They are using the Real Clear Politics website’s predictions as a start, because there are so many “toss-ups” listed, and it gives us the opportunity to check the latest polls and make our own predictions. 
Our 12-year-old just pointed out, “Romney has more states, but Obama has states with more elecctoral votes.”    They are just getting to their predictions, but the Real Clear Politics site provides many, many polls for each state, so the kids will have a chance to see who’s likely to win each of those states.  After discussions about the margin of error in polling, the nine-year-old has decided to flip a coin for each toss-up state; not a bad plan. 
After they finish this map, they will start on a new set of maps based on the FiveThirtyEight blog, run by Nate Silver for the New York Times (note to self: make a request at the library his new book, The Signal and the Noise: Why Most Predictions Fail, But Some Don’t–I’ve heard an interview or two with him and keep meaning to check out the book).  
The Five Thirty Eight map is more “filled in” (for some time, it has been calling the race for Obama) and I will be interested to see whether the kids’ predictions match Silver’s own predictions. 
I took the time to do some reading up on both websites, and from what I can tell they are both reputable as far as details.  The former leans conservative; the latter leans liberal.  Regardless of their political bent, the sites seem well-respected by most, and by each other.
Kind of late to the party, I have (just today, if I’m being honest!), put on hold a number of youth books at the library about the electoral college and presidential politics.  Doing so reminds me about one of our favorite authors, Jean Fritz, who has written many, many excellent books about American history and presidents.  I love everything I’ve read of hers, but probably my favorite is Homesick: My Own Story, her memoir of living in China as a child.  She is still writing books; here’s a look at her book newly published last year about Alexander Hamilton.   If I’m still alive at 95 years old, I hope I am still writing.
Have you voted yet?  Are you doing anything special to mark today? 

Worth a Listen, Marathon Edition: Nick Cannon’s "Can I Live?"

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(Sharing great songs that are inspiring, uplifting and/or are otherwise “worth a listen”)

For those who only know Nick Cannon as the host of America’s Got Talent, did you know he had a career as a music artist and actor?  He probably still does for all I know, but I am not in the know about those things.  The first time I ever heard of Nick Cannon was when people were sharing several years back this video for  this song.

Now, for someone who has been active for several decades in the pro-life movement in one form or another, I was truly and utterly thrilled to see someone do this kind of song well.

That’s because (and maybe true for you, too) over the years I have been at many a pro-life banquet or other gathering with a heartfelt song that didn’t quite move hearts the way we all desire a song to do.  This song does, in my estimation, or at least it tells a compelling story.  And always tears me up a little bit, and seems appropriate to share during October, Respect Life month.

This helps me to segue into my big announcement that I am running my second marathon later this month.   How exactly does that segue?  Well, I will be running the marathon as part of the group LIFE Runners.

For those who know me, to actually announce I’m doing a big race in advance is not my style, but I wanted to get out the word about this great group. In fact, when I ran the marathon last year, I didn’t tell anyone about it (except my hubby) until afterwards.

To be honest, I really didn’t like running a marathon, so some may be asking (including my dear husband) why I want to do it again.  There are various reasons, but mostly just so that I can have a somewhat more positive experience, physically.  I finished, but it felt really, really hard, (unlike a half-marathon, which I consider a fun and do-able distance).  I was signed up to do the very same trail marathon I did last year.

But then I happened to hear a LIFE Runner (I think Dr. Pat Castle) on EWTN radio several weeks back talk about their weekend to run the St. Louis Rock ‘n Roll Marathon–there are already more than 300 LIFE Runners signed up to do this event (either the full or half-marathon).  When I realized it was so close, and the same weekend as my marathon, I had a long talk with my husband and we both thought it made good sense to switch over.

I am very excited to get to meet the other LIFE Runners, though a little intimidated because checking out the board, many are military people who are probably super-speedy runners, unlike myself.  I was wondering if I shouldn’t ask the LIFE Runners to change one of the Scripture verse mottos from “Race so as to win” to “Race so as to finish” which happens to be my motto when it comes to running long races.

Dr. Pat Castle, a board member of LIFE Runners, who heartily welcomed me when I joined the group, asked me to promote here that people can still join Life Runners and do one of the races on the weekend of October 20-21.  Visit LIFERunners.org for more information or to sign up.  It couldn’t be easier, and took me just a few minutes.  If you’re already planning to run a fall long race,

I’ll also be raising money for the pro-life charities pegged by the group, something I don’t normally do, since I consider running enjoyable and don’t like to ask people for money.

My LIFE Runners t-shirt arrived in the mail the other day, increasing my excitement level.  Now I need to ensure I can finish in the 7-hour time frame.  That shouldn’t be an issue, since I finished my first, not-pleasant marathon last year in just over 6 hours.  I’ve also done a lot more training this year than last for the marathon distance, so I hope for a better experience, even if my time does not improve greatly.

Just to bring it back to the music, I do have a marathon playlist for my iPod app, and “Can I Live?” is on it.

UPDATE: I have set up my fundraising page for one of the LIFE Runners beneficiaries, Good Shepherd Children and Family Services in St. Louis.

Are you doing anything special this month for Respect Life Month?  Anyone else doing the marathon or half-marathon as a LIFE Runner?  I’d love to connect!

Print is Alive and Well: My CPA Midwest Wrap-Up

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Last week, I had the great good fortune to attend the Catholic Press Association Midwest Regional Conference, hosted here in Peoria.  The editor of The Catholic Post, Tom Dermody, and his staff at The Catholic Post organized a terrific two-day meeting, and I for one came away with many great ideas and insights.

Regular readers of Reading Catholic will note that I usually refer to Tom as “my editor,” but I started to feel strange about that, as if being “my editor” is his only job, working on polishing my monthly column for the print edition of The Catholic Post and giving me advice about writing and other things.  But however much it may surprise you (she says jokingly), he is actually really busy, whether in putting out a newspaper every two weeks, or organizing regional conferences.

That’s one point of this post: to acknowledge and praise the work of print journalists in Catholic press, and share with my online comrades the amount of work that goes into print publications.  Back before there was an Internet, I worked in newspapers, magazines, and then in media relations during the high-tech days when we used to fax press releases to reporters.

Because I now work primarily online and love so much about it, I had forgotten the intense amount of effort goes into print publications, until I got the chance to be with those print journalists for several days.

My ultimate message for Catholic people active online?  Keep doing it, but at the same time be sure that you are supporting and reading print publications.  If you don’t already subscribe to your diocesan newspaper, please take a moment to do so.  Here’s where you can subscribe to The Catholic Post, for a start.

There are also many worthy national print publications.  Having those “strewn” around the house for kids and adults to find is a way to create a Catholic culture in your house.

One real-life example:  Several months ago, my 11-year-old was delighted to see Pysanky eggs featured on the cover of the beautifully-produced  CNEWA’s magazine One,  since we enjoy doing Pysanky during Lent.   I’m not sure how she would have seen that otherwise; even though the magazine is online, I wouldn’t necessarily have found it or linked it, and she’s not online like we grown-ups are.  Because we give to CNEWA, we get the magazine, and it’s “around” for people in our house to discover.

Now on to the CPA Midwest and some of my snaps from the two-day conference:

Here is Billy Atwell, director of Communications for the Diocese of Venice, Florida, and Penny Wiegert, editor of The Observer, newspaper of the diocese of Rockford, Illinois. Penny is a true force of Catholic media, being a past president of the national Catholic Press Association.  She was great to meet and hear from, as were so many others, from Chicago to downstate Illinois, to St. Louis, to Iowa to Indiana, Florida and Washington, D.C.
Here is Tom Dermody with Sonia Nelson, advertising manager of The Catholic Post.
The general session was “Communicating Across Today’s Generations” by Dominic Perri, a consultant to the USCCB and others.  I don’t have a non-blurry photo of Dominic, but his presentation was very informative about how different generations experience Church life.  What was most helpful in experiencing this firsthand was when Dominic broke us into generational groups each group we answered questions about what we wanted other generations to know about ours, what we wanted to know about other generations.

Here’s a blurry photo of the baby boomers working on their answers.

Later that day I attended two great breakouts–one by Tammi Finch of a local web company, Web Tech Services on social media–I have tons of take-aways from that; and one by Bob Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, on “When Politics and Religion Intersect.” Bob’s talk was both very thorough but rather depressing (sorry, Bob!), since he explains so much of the way things are going from a legislative perspective.  Ultimately, there is hope, because there are good people in Springfield and Washington, D.C. who work for Catholic values and rights.

Before dinner, Monsignor Stanley Deptula, celebrated Mass for the attendees in the St. Thomas More chapel of St. Mary’s Cathedral for the convention-goers.

Monsignor Deptula shared that that day, September 20, was the anniversary of Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s ordained in this very cathedral–St. Mary’s Cathedral.

After the Mass and a walk through the cathedral, we boarded a Peoria Charter Coach bus, and Pat Kellogg, who is retired from the diocese, gave us a wonderful short tour of downtown Peoria and Grandview Drive on our way to a terrific dinner at a great local restaurant.  Here’s a kind of dark photo of Pat “touring” us:

The next day’s focus was on Archbishop Sheen, as Monsignor Deptula, executive director of the Sheen Foundation, gave a funny and incisive presentation on “Lessons from a Great Catholic Communicator” about the life of Sheen and the cause for his canonization.  Everyone took copious notes and asked many, many questions during his talk.  Afterwards, Bonnie Engstrom, a nationally prominent blogger in the Peoria diocese whose son’s healing is the “alleged miracle” put forth for Sheen’s beatification, spoke about her family’s experience.

I was tweeting from the conference (@ReadingCatholic on Twitter) because I had my laptop there and it was easy to do so while listening to the speakers.  In fact, tweeting an event is basically a form of taking notes, and is helpful in keeping me focused on what I’m hearing.  I tweeted for the first few minutes of Bonnie’s talk, but stopped.

I had read through Bonnie’s story before on her blog, but had never heard her speak in person about it in detail.  It was amazing, truly so.  I just had to close up my laptop and listen to and soak up all she had to say, and so did everyone else.  Wonderful.  The story of the alleged miracle told by Bonnie is remarkable and beautiful, and should be heard widely.  If you are in the market for a speaker for a Catholic event, please consider contacting Bonnie about it.  She had a room full of experienced journalists enthralled.

Afterwards, while we all snapped photos and talked with Bonnie in front of a photo of her son James Fulton, Tom Dermody (that would be my editor Tom Dermody) said the funniest line of the day, which I did tweet eventually:

“We have to use ‘alleged’ before miracle, but we don’t have to use alleged before ‘adorable.'”

Have you been to a conference lately?  What positive experiences and insights did you come away with?

Sheen Mass of Thanksgiving, Part 3: Wrapping Up and Keeping it Real

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This is my final wrap-up post about the Mass of Thanksgiving for Fulton Sheen.  You can read Part 1 here about before the Mass (perhaps destined to be known hereafter as “the mantilla post”?), and Part 2 about the Mass itself here.

This is basically the keepin’ it real edition, to explain some of the back story and to make fun of myself, share a family joke, and have an epiphany about online life and camaraderie and perspective.  I am definitely increasing the drama level here for effect, and I hope that works.  Perhaps it is only helpful to me, but I’m going to share it anyway.  Here it is:

No one tells me anything.

I’m not sure exactly how it came about, but since I’m from a big family, some of us became fond of complaining this to parents or other siblings, once we were mostly grown and away at college or starting careers.  Mom & Dad, you’re going to New York to visit another sister?  Someone got into law school?  Someone has a new boyfriend?

All purpose response: “No one tells me anything!”

Fortunately this had become a family joke before most of us started having children, so we had a very strict unspoken protocol of personally talking to each sibling when a new baby was on the way.

And no other sibling could spill the beans.  This meant that to avoid awkward conversations around that time, if you had heard from a pregnant sister (or sister-in-law), you usually didn’t answer the phone for a few days to be sure you weren’t going to get a different sibling who might not have heard the news yet.  Which would be me because… pause for effect here… No one tells me anything!

These days my siblings and I use the expression with each other because we are all almost too busy to keep in touch.  It’s also helpful to use if I am feeling left out about something with friends or those close to me, I  say that to myself, since it usually makes me laugh and realize that it’s not the case, and I need to just plug on and be positive.

As perspective on what I’m going to share, keep in mind that I wasn’t officially “covering” the Mass or the Sheen weekend events for The Catholic Post.  I’m a freelancer for The Post, writing my column and this blog. So I’m not in the know about every Catholic event, but I do like to sometimes write here on Reading Catholic about events from my own perspective.

So being out of the loop for me is not necessarily a bad or unusual thing–I’ve got my specialty here with books, and in general I like to stick to it.

My first “no ones tells me anything” moment when I found out that Lisa Hendey and a few other Catholic people I know online were coming to Peoria for the Sheen weekend.

I had another “no one tells me anything” moment after I saw late Saturday that there was some kind of reception at the Sheen Museum on Saturday night.  And there were Lisa Hendey and Alexis Walkenstein (of The Maximus Group), hanging out and having fun just a few miles away.

And what was I doing?  I was in my pjs, sprawled out with kids and dog, watching Love It or List It while also checking Facebook on my ancient iPad.  Nearby, my husband Joseph read something intelligent.  I am a morning person, so my brain shuts off around 8 p.m.  Love it or List It is just about right then.

I know this actually is exactly what I wanted to be doing then, but still… I can do that next Saturday night!  Tonight my online friends are having fun in the same area code as me.

Not only am I melancholic and insecure when it comes to online friends, but apparently I am also prone to jealousy and possessiveness.

I had one of those moments when when Brandon Vogt tweeted that he was going to see his “friend Monsignor Soseman,” and I thought, hey there, Monsignor Soseman was my friend first.

As a matter of fact, Mr. Brandon Vogt, Joseph and I were friends with Monsignor Soseman when there wasn’t an Internet.  We were friends with him back when you were probably still in grade school, young one!

Then I had my epiphany.

When you’re feeling “no one tells me anything,” remember: it’s okay.  You’re part of the family.

We are all part of the same Catholic online family, and I don’t have to know everything, and neither do you.  If I don’t know about some cool conference or some great reception (even in my own area code!), it’s all good.

Just like my siblings are always my siblings, we are all family no matter what.

If you’re in the Catholic online community, you’re part of the tribe–there’s no secret handshake or code.  (And if there is, you can just keep it to yourself, because that’s not the tribe I’m talking about).  I’m part of this, and so are you, however small our impact or own little corner.

When I reach out to other Catholic in online forums like Twitter or seek guest writers or feature some great bloggers, online friendships grow and flourish.  Some day those may and have lead to real-life meetings and most won’t, but we are all part of that same Catholic faith and support each other.

So if you are a Catholic blogger or Twitter person and feel left out or not in the loop when you see people posting photos or seemingly having a great time at a conference, or getting lots of comment or …..fill in your own blank here.  We all have our insecurities.  Just remember you’re not alone, and I feel the same.

After my epiphany, I got out of my “no one tells me anything” mood (and my pjs) by Sunday morning when it was time for Mass.

Of course I was genuinely thrilled to see Lisa Hendey, who I haven’t seen in several years.  She is just delightful and upbeat in person, as she is on her terrific Catholicmom.com, as well as her always-encouraging writing for Faith & Family Live.

Here we are with the aforementioned Brandon Vogt, whose energy and output rivals that of Sheen.

I also loved getting to meet Alexis Walkenstein of The Maximus Group, who is just as cute and endearing in person as she is online, but curses, I didn’t get a photo of her.

I also got to see a lot of local friends, some that I see often and some that I don’t.  Quite a few have blogs that are featured on the sidebar here, Catholic, Local and Online.  Many of them have done their own excellent blogging about the Sheen Mass.  Here are just a few of the bloggers who were there, and please let me know me if I left anyone out, and I will update here.  I am linking to their Sheen Mass post if they have one:

*Britta of “By Prayer and Petition.”

*Marie of “Help Them to Heaven.” 

*”I Wonder Why.” 

*”Stumbling on the Way to Emmaus.”

And Bonnie Engstrom of A Knotted Life.  Especially if you feel you may have had a tough day, head over to Bonnie’s post about her family’s experiences during the Mass. (Kind of makes me a little sheepish about those “no one tells me anything” moments).

As many know, their son James Fulton’s recovery after 61 minutes not breathing after birth is what is technically called the “alleged miracle” being put forth for Sheen’s beatification.

During the Mass, my husband asked me several times, “Where are Bonnie and Travis?”  I kept looking, but never did see them until after the Mass, but didn’t hear about their travails with Travis’ shirt and tie, nursing baby and so forth, until I read about it on Bonnie’s blog.  Here’s the photo I snapped of Travis and James Fulton after the Mass, Travis by this time being minus his more formal wear.

Hey! There’s Tom Dermody, the editor of The Catholic Post, just behind James. I did get a photo of him after all.  Here is his CNS story about the Sheen Mass.

The Engstroms were also popular with the Catholic (and other) papparazzi. I couldn’t resist getting a photo of that.

I also got to visit with the talented and energetic Brandon Vogt.  I even took a photo of him with Monsignor Soseman.

But remember,  Brandon, he was my friend first.

What’s your best memory of the Sheen Mass?

Do you have an epiphany about Catholic online life to share?

What do you think about mine?

Quotable, Venerable Fulton Sheen: Books

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Today is the Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Mary’s Cathedral.  I think it should be an inspiring morning.

Here’s a quote for today.  I have so many great ones, but when I came across this I thought, Yes!  Now here’s another reason why Fulton Sheen is one of the patrons of this blog:

“Any book which inspires us to lead a better life is a good book.” 

–Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Thoughts for Daily Living