Updates and A Marriage Prayer

Andrea here! It's been a bit of an absence from me, but I have a couple more substantial blog posts in the works and here are a few little updates!

Pio turned 7 months at the end of October!

Happy boy!

And he is slowly improving in his sitting skills. He's still our lazy boy, though!

What a ham!

And we also have another one cooking away!

We'll find out in about a month if this is a he or she!

I am now 17 weeks along and I feel so much better being on the other side of the first trimester!

I also wanted to share a prayer my husband wrote for our wedding day. We say this prayer together every night and it always seems appropriate no matter what the day was like. 

A Marriage Prayer

Oh dearest Mother, perfect spouse of the Holy Ghost, we entrust our marriage to your Immaculate Heart. Cover us with you mantle. Purify our love in the fire of your love for your Son, and, once purified, offer it to Him and never let us stray from Him. Help us to love each other through and for Him. 

In times of adversity protect us and comfort us. In times of comfort remind us that all that is good comes from God. Help us to be selfless, patient and understanding, seeking to give more than receive. Help us to b the perfect companions and helpmates for each other along the way to heaven, and to raise many little souls for eternal happiness with God.

Protect us from Satan and the world, which want to reduce our love to selfishness and tear us from each other and from the arms of your Son. Above all, let our love for your Son grow daily, until the day when, together, we come home to rest in His heart for all eternity. 

A Tim Powers Short Story

Anthony here. Speaking of Tim Powers . . .

Tim Powers is one of my favorite writers. He writes "secret histories": novels that take place in and around historical times and places but which fill in the blanks, so to speak, giving the story of what was really going on — and turns out, what was really going on is usually supernatural and very, very weird. Powers finds little odd things in real history, like spy Kim Philby getting disproportionately overwrought over the death of a pet fox, and gives them explanations in the story that make a creepy amount of sense. He weaves history and “what really happened” so well that you might much later later find yourself reading about, say, the Port Royale earthquake of 1692 and thinking, “Oh, yeah, that’s when Blackbeard was messing around with voodoo.” And then you do a double take, because of course that’s not what happened. But Powers’ stories, weird as they get (and they get weird) make that much sense.

But what I really like about Powers’ writing is that he writes from a solid worldview. Evil actions are evil, and have consequences. Characters can screw up, and neither the character nor the reader has any doubt that what they did was wrong, even if you can understand why they did it.

In an interview, Powers once said,

I really don’t read contemporary fantasy much. But I hope it manages to work from a bigger perspective than the default philosophies of the late 20th century – like "Don’t be judgmental," and "Violence never settles anything," and "People don’t do bad things because of informed deliberate choices, but from lack of education or an abusive upbringing," and "Recycle your aluminum cans." Fantasy fiction that worked from this sort of standard-issue assumptions would reek of 1990, and would be pretty tepid stuff compared to the fantasies that grew out of the more robust philosophies that preceded (and will doubtless follow) those of the late 20th century."

Not that Powers preaches. In fact, he doesn’t set out to write to a theme or shoehorn a message into his stories. He thinks stories should be stories before anything else, and if you set out to “say something” you risk hurting the story. In the same interview, he said,

I was on a panel once in which a woman said, "Dracula is actually about the plight of 19th-century women," to which I replied, "No, it’s about a guy who lives forever by drinking other people’s blood – don’t take my word for it, check it out."

Ha.

Anyway, I was rereading an awesome (and creepy) Powers short story the other day and thought it was pertinent in light of what's been going on with the synod. To my great (and non-copyright-violating) pleasure, Jimmy Akin got the web reprint rights, so I can link to it here.

Through and Through

by Tim Powers

ALREADY when he walked in through the side door, there were new people sitting here and there, separately in the Saturday afternoon dimness. The air was cool, and smelled of floor-wax.

He almost peered at the shadowed faces, irrationally hoping one might be hers, come back these seven days later to try for a different result; but most of the faces were lowered, and of course she wouldn’t be here. Two days ago, maybe—today, and ever after, no.

The funeral would be next week sometime, probably Monday. No complications about burial in consecrated soil anymore, thank God . . . or thank human mercy.

His shoes knocked echoingly on the glossy linoleum as he walked across the nave, pausing to bow toward the altar. In the old days he would have genuflected, and it would have been spontaneous; in recenter years the bow had become perfunctory, dutiful—today it was a twitch of self-distaste.

There were fewer people than he had first thought, he noted as he walked past the side altar and started down the wall aisle toward the confessional door, passing under the high, wooden Stations of the Cross and the awkwardly lettered banners of the Renew Committee. Maybe only three, all women; and a couple of little girls. 

They never wanted to line up against the wall—a discreet couple of yards away from the door—until he actually entered the church; and then if there were six or so of them they’d be frowning at each other as they got up out of the pews and belatedly formed the line. silently but obviously disagreeing about the order in which they’d originally entered the church.

Last week there had been five, counting her. And afterward he had walked back up to the front of the church and stepped up onto the altar level and gone into the sacristy to put on the vestments for 5:30 Mass. Had he been worrying about what she had said? What sins you shall retain, they are retained. Probably he had been worrying about it.

As he opened the confessional door now, he nodded to the old woman who was first in line. The others appeared to be trying to hide behind her—he could see only a drape of skirt and a couple of shoes behind her. He didn’t recognize the old woman.

He stepped into the little room and pulled the door closed behind him. They wouldn’t begin to come in until he turned on the red light over the door, and he needed a drink.

Read the rest there.

Tim Powers on God and Time

A J.K Potter illustration from
one of Powers' stories

Anthony here. I just discovered that one of my favorite writers, Tim Powers (who writes awesomely weird and weirdly awesome stories) has commented several times over at Jimmy Akin’s blog. I’ve spent a fun few minutes using my wizard librarian search skills (site:http://jimmyakin.com “tim powers”) to read his comments. Some fun Tim Powers-ish moments resulted (as when he speculates on the existence of an “anti-purgatory” — now I’m waiting for that to show up in one of his stories).

One comment jumped out at me because he sets out in a clearer way than I can the distinction between how God sees time and how we do. He’s responding to one “Realist” who quoted the new age-y theologian Schillebeeckx who said,

“The historical future is not known even to God; otherwise we and our history would be merely a puppet show in which God holds the strings. For God, too, history is an adventure, an open history for and of men and women.”

There are echoes of Teilhard de Chardin here, with God and humanity evolving together towards an “Omega Point” of perfect thought and consciousness. (It’s easy to see where we got the idea, implicit in many of our attitudes today, that God can learn from us!) There’s also the problem of free will: if God knows what I’m going to do before I do it, is it really freely done?

Tim Powers’ response neatly disentangles all this:

Hello, Realist! 

Unless his context led in a different direction, Schillebeeckx was weirdly wrong. For one thing, the Catechism says (paragraph 600) “To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of ‘predestination,’ he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace.” 

I’ve always thought that the whole problem of predestination and free will derives from “If God knows what I’m gonna do next Tuesday, then I’m not free to choose what I’ll do next Tuesday.” But this implicitly assumes that God experiences time sequentially, as we do — “now it’s 2006, it used to be 2005, soon it’ll be 2007 …” 

Actually, God doesn’t “remember” or “foresee” anything. It’s all happening live, now, from His perspective. God is no more locked into being exclusively in 2006 than He’s locked into being exclusively in Chicago. He’s in all times and all spaces at once. The moment of me typing is no more “now” to Him than the moment of my birth — or of my death. He’s looking at the whole show at once, and observing each free choice we make as we make it. 

It’s crazy to imagine, as Schillebeeckx apparently did, that God can be surprised by what happens “next”!

Properly understanding God’s relationship to time has all sorts of implications for things like free will, predestination, prayer, and creation. A lot of our difficulty in grasping these subjects comes from our impulse to put God within our own time-bound cause/effect system. Once we see that He who creates and upholds time is not the least bit conditioned by it, the problems drop away.

Feast of the Assumption

Mary was placed in the center with freshly picked flowers and sugar flowers from our wedding cake.

DINNER

Wine spritzer 

Crepes stuffed with bacon, ham, and swiss cheese served with a raspberry sauce

Crepe stuffed with Nutella

Grapes

DESSERT

Mini cheese cakes topped with a Nutella raspberry sauce

Pio even joined in the festivities! 

Mary, Queen of Heaven, pray for us!

Pio: Belated 3 Month Post!

EATING

I believe he's been going through a bit of a growth spurt of late as he's been nursing more frequently. 

SLEEPING

Pio will do 5 hour stretches during the night but recently he's had a somewhat tiring habit of waking at 4am, 6am and then 8am (I am not a morning person at all!) He's actually quite good at napping when I soothe him to sleep. I'm not sure if I'm shooting myself in the foot and he'll become poor at self-soothing to sleep. We shall see...

INTERACTING

Pio's had a huge jump in interaction this month and it's been so much fun! Pio's eye contact has increased so much and he is tracking objects from side to side and up and down like a pro. During mass today, my husband was singing the Creed and Pio was in the Baby Bjorn. He stared up at my husband the whole time transfixed. He's also more interested in other people and makes eye contact with people around him.

MOVING

He's getting more confident in moving his hands and he's starting to try and reach for his feet. Fingers are also making their way into his mouth and he's pulling more objects to his mouth for sucking. He tolerates tummy time a little better, but still gets frustrated he can't see well. Head control is coming along though.

PLAYING

He's definitely starting to become more playful with smiley shrieks. He's also started reaching more for hanging objects (and really anything that's in front of him). He is starting to show increased smiling with tickling!

COMMUNICATING

Pio cries when he need to be fed, if he's uncomfortable or if he's overtired. He's started to talk more when he's happy as well, but we don't have a full on giggle yet. I can't wait for his giggle!!!

I Have a Prayer

The following is the influential Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech adapted to a modern situation of discrimination and oppression within our world today. I wrote this a few years ago.

An extraneous number of years ago, a great God, in whose image we are created in today, transformed, from the dust of the earth, a man and in turn a woman, whose disobedience cast a permanent shadow upon the soul. Through the death and resurrection of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, man was endowed with an opportunity for grace that beams like a piercing light to the human race shackled by sin. It came to be, a prophecy fulfilled.

But even today, man cannot untangle himself free from sin. Even today, man is still shackled by his own devices and blinded by his own ambitions. Even today, man lives in a populated world of death, in the midst of murderers in denial who are veiled under the pretense of an educated title. Even today, man turns on his own, and has chosen to persecute the most defenseless and innocent of his brethren. And so we are obligated today, to protect the children from the very persons who have the responsibility of bringing them into this world.

These children were created to come into the world to live their lives according to God’s plan. When God indelibly wrote on each man’s heart, giving him a sacred soul, He claimed each one for Himself. This soul in each human being is the proof that all men, yes, all men from conception forward, would be guaranteed the equal dignity deserved and the rights that follow according to both natural and common law. It is obvious today that the world has chosen to ignore this condition, insofar as her citizens of the womb are concerned. Instead of acknowledging this fact, the world and witnesses to this tragedy have turned a blind eye to the silent cries of a methodic massacre occurring behind the closed doors of sterile rooms.  

But we refuse to believe that such cruelty will continue. We refuse to believe that hearts cannot be softened and that men have forever lost their conscience to underhanded persuasions from the devil. And so, with God as our witness, we demand for these children exactly what each one of us has received, a fullness and richness of life with undeniable rights.

We must speak out at all times to remind the world of the escalating tragedy at hand. This is no time to speak softly or to hide behind indifferentism. Now is the time to bring the truth into the current reality. Now is the time to unveil innocent bloodshed and invoke the name of God in our earthly battle. Now is the time to speak for those who were never given the chance. Now is the time for the realization of the dignity entitled to all men, at all stages of God-given life.

It would be fatal for the people of the world to undermine the importance of this issue. The darkness enveloping the minds of the oppressors will not pass until there is a ray of light struck into the very depths of their souls. Two thousand and ten is not an end, but a beginning. And those who expect a silent retreat from the Lord Almighty and his faithful will have a rude awakening if the world returns to business as usual. Until the unborn are recognized to have equal rights, no peace shall exist in this world. Rest assured, justice will be carried out, be it in this world or the next.

But there is something to mention to those fighting in this battle for souls, as we all stand by with a sense of helplessness while our fellow neighbors are sacrificed to the will of others:  In this battle to protect our young souls, we ourselves must rise above the violence of our fellowmen. We cannot appease our Lord by breaking one of his commandments as a means to fix a commandment already broken. Our protest must be vocal, but with conditions of charity and peace. Our weapon of choice must include the powerful Rosary of Our Lady. May she hear our genuine plea and intercede on our behalf, that God may mercifully look down upon this pitiful race and change the hearts of men as only He can.

We cannot fight alone.

As we struggle, we must always keep our eyes towards the Heavens for guidance.

We cannot retreat.

There are those who have attempted to appease us with superficial laws plagued with loopholes. We will not be satisfied as long as unborn children are handed over by their own mothers to be subjected to such torturous brutality at the hands of “medical professionals”. We will not be satisfied as long as a child is stripped of the chance for a full and natural life. We will not be satisfied as long as the life giving duties of God are undermined. No, no we are not satisfied, and continue to “hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill” (Matthew 5:6).  

Let us rise “de profundis,” out of the depths of despair.

And even though many spiritual battles lie before us, I still have a prayer. It is a prayer deeply rooted in gifts of hope and faith from an Almighty God.

I have a prayer that one day the world will rise up and live out the true meaning of its being: “And you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind and with your whole strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like to it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31).

I have a prayer that on the day of announcement of the life created, all mothers will rejoice in the gift received.

I have a prayer that one day, doctors will again be the keepers of the gift of life, assisting mothers in nurturing the life within them.

I have a prayer that one day the world, even as it wreaks of the stain of man’s sin, will show the mercy that we have been shown by God.

I have a prayer that all children will one day live in a world where they will not be judged according to a perceived burden, but by the inherent life and soul they possess, being made in the image and likeness of God.

I have a prayer of petition today!

I have a prayer that one day, in this world, with its “pro-choice” supporters, with its leaders unleashing the chains under pretenses of “women’s rights” -- one day in every corner of our world, a child, no matter the manner conceived, will be accepted and loved and allowed to grow, to thrive, to learn, and to one day decide to place his or her own life in the hands of God the Creator Himself.

I have a prayer of intercession today!

I have a prayer that one day the chilled, iron hearts of men will melt, our leaders will remove the self-interested magnets from their moral compasses, doctors will return the power of taking lives to God alone, and God will enlighten many to recognize the logical beginning of a human life at conception; for as said by the prophet Ezekiel, “I will give them another heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, says the Lord.”

This is our hope, and this is the gift of faith that we carry with us, rosary in hand, on our way to the prayerful protests on the corners of abortion clinics.

With this faith the size of a mustard seed, we will move this mountain standing between justice and us. With this faith, our world can be cured of this sickness of soul that has spread throughout. With this faith, let us all strike our breasts and exclaim with fervor, “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof; say but the word and my soul shall be healed.” With this faith, we work out our salvation on this earth doing and spreading God’s will, that one day we, although unworthy ourselves, may hear the words, “Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

On our way to eternity, we fight for His will on earth, that some day all God’s children will pray with new meaning:

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

And if God’s children are to rejoin Him for all eternity, this must be believed with conviction.

And so Thy will be done in those countries who permit these murders under the excuse of legality, and we ask to be delivered from this evil.

            Thy will be done in occasions of children conceived with medical problems.

            Thy will be done in occasions of children conceived by teenage parents. 

            Thy will be done in occasions of children conceived under financial difficulty.

Thy will be done in occasions of children conceived through the heinous crime of rape.

Thy will be done in occasions of children conceived who are unwanted by their own parents.

And when God’s will is implemented upon this earth, as it is in Heaven, when He is allowed to reign His creation, we will be privileged to hear a different cry from the once endangered unborn once they are finally permitted to take their first breath:

            Born at last! Born at last!

            Thank God Almighty, we are born at last!

Pio: 2 months

 10 lbs 4 oz and 23in

EATING

Pio has been a good eater and nursing is now finally painless! During the day he goes between 2 hours and 4 hours between feedings and at night he goes 3 to 5 hours! Nursing sessions are lasting longer and he's finally consistently nursing on both sides!

SLEEPING

Pio usually sleeps three hours at a time but he has given me a couple nights where he slept a five hour stretch at a time and I felt quite spoiled! He's still sleeping in the little rocker but often towards the morning I pull him into bed on my side and let him sleep on his tummy which he loves! I may invest in a side rail for the bed in order to be able to still pull him into bed with me once he starts rolling.

INTERACTING

Pio is responding more and more to our expressions and voices. When he gets excited he starts moving his arms and legs a lot more! He stares more intently at us and he is awake more often during the day.

MOVING

Pio is playing with his hands more often and he is finding his hands to suck on more often. I think he is going to be a thumb sucker! He is improving in his head control, but he really doesn't like tummy time unless he's sleeping. We think he gets frustrated that he can't see what's around him when he's on his tummy.

PLAYING

He's batting at hanging objects with better accuracy these days!

COMMUNICATING

He's cooing more! Hurray! He responds to us talking to him with coos at times which is adorable! And of course he cries per usual when he's hungry, tired, frustrated, etc.

 

Hard to believe my little boy will be bigger than me someday!

I've done a trial of using the Bounty select a size paper towels with a spray bottle filled with water and baby castile soap instead of the conventional baby wipes. I even cut the paper towel roll in half so it goes farther. It seems to be working really well and I like that I can easily control how much paper towel I use and how much moisture depending on the mess! I think it should save us a little on the cost of wipes in the long run.

Recently, I was getting really down about how much longer it is taking than I anticipated to drop the postpartum pounds. Pre-pregnancy, I tended to wear a lot of natural waist fitting skirts and dresses and most of those clothes no longer fit around my waist. I was getting more discouraged the more my closet dwindled down with clothes I couldn't wear. Also, certain outfits I owned aren't as practical now that I'm nursing. So my amazing hubby gave me the go ahead for a thrift shop spree :)

I went with my mom and we found some really fun summer outfits that flatter my new curves and constant nursing schedule. I feel so much more confident now that I have skirts and dresses I look forward to putting on!

Anth has been super helpful in helping to motivate me in losing the extra weight and being encouraging  and understanding when I get discouraged. He's doing a calorie counter himself as he finds it motivating but I find it hard to count every calorie throughout the day. I'm going to try to just generally eat less and exercise more. He got our bikes up and running for the summer and Anth and I will switch off watching Pio so we can take turns exercising. Pray I stick to it!

Sweet family memories!