She Made It To Eighty!!!!!

Given my Mom's many health issues over the past eight years-some scarey moments, some serious moments, and some threatening situations, have given us all reason to believe that her health would get the best of her; however, my Mom's a fighter, and this has been made more evident over the past few days as we celebrated her 80th birthday!

My brother and sister-in-law, my sister and brother-in-law, and my two nephews, Sam and Nick, got together to give her a celebration, with not too much fanfare. (My Mom does not go for big parties) She just wanted her family around her. So that's what we gave her. We had ravioli-made by Sandy, and I made Mom her favorite dessert, cheesecake, along with Italian cookies.  That was on Sunday.

From day to day, I never know how she is going to feel or what kind of a day it will be. Each day is a challenge, so I ask God for strength to see both her and I through it. God is teaching me patience in a big way.

Today, my sister and I took her to Sal's in Monroe, for lunch, which she enjoyed immensely. This morning, she wasn't feeling well, but she is a trouper and did just fine.

None of my family members like having their picture taken, especially Mom; however I managed to sneak a couple of pics of her today, which she doesn't know about, so please don't tell her!

In any case, God has blessed Mark, Sandy, and I with seeing our mother reach the day she became an octogenarian. Today, July 8, 2015, is that day.

My Dad never made it to eighty; he passed away seventy-one days before his seventy-eigth birthday.  This past January 25th, he would have been 90. How I wish he could have been here to celebrate Mom's 80th with us.

I thank everyone on behalf of my Mom, those who sent cards or called her to wish her well.  The past few days have been very touching, and I thank God for the blessing he has given us.

What was Vatican II really about?

I was just a mere child of 8 when I heard on T.V. that the Pope was calling for a new council for the Church in the 20th Century. What exactly did this mean? At 8 years old, I must admit, that I was ignorant of what was going on at the time. After all, I had just received my First Holy Communion, which was the most blessed day of my life! Little did I know that the priest from whom I received my First Holy Communion, would be involved in a sex-abuse scandal, many years later. As I said, I was ignorant and perhaps, blind to what was happening. Or maybe, because I'd just received Jesus, which was the most important thing to me at the time, nothing else mattered. 

I had also heard that clergy and religious were beginning to leave the Church in droves! That totally surprised me-and I wondered why. I guess you could say that 1962-1965 were tumultuos years, all the way around. I loved the Church, and I remembered someone giving me a nun doll during this time. I used to love practicing celebrating Mass and using white Necco wafers for Holy Communion. Strange child, I was. After all, I was a girl, and females do not celebrate Mass-only males do. 

In any case, Faith was something beautiful, and I wanted to learn as much as I could from attending Mass on Sunday. My Mom always made us sit in the back, which I did not like because I found it very distracting. I preferred to sit in the front, so that I could be as close to Jesus as I possibly could;  I wanted to hear everything the priest was saying. 

Now, I loved to sing the hymns at Mass, and would often sing them at home too! I later became a member of a choir and always sang my heart out. I'm an alto, and loved singing the harmonies. 

Getting back to Vatican II, we'd been told that some major changes were going to be implemented-like hearing the readings in the vernacular, instead of in Latin. The priest was going to face the congregation, instead of facing the Tabernacle. We would no longer kneel when receiving Holy Communion; we would instead walk up in line, and be able to receive Communion in the hand, as opposed to the tongue. As time went on, female lectors, and the use of Eucharistic Ministers were becoming the norm. There were also female altar servers, too!

So what did this all mean to me? I have to admit that it was a little overwhelming for me to digest and to understand. For eight years of my life, we worshiped one way, the Mass was celebrated one way, and now, things would be radically different! Back in '65, when I received the seal of the Holy Soirit in Confirmation, I would have never suspected what was coming down the pike, so to speak. 

Fourteen years (after Confirmation) later, I was called to serve in a Catechetical Ministry to children with special needs, which would contine for 35 years and counting.

Two years later, I was invited to become a Lector. Four years after that, I was invited to become a Eucharistic Minister.  Yes, I was becoming very involved in the Church! When we give of ourselves, it is a beautiful thing. My spiritual life was indeed, being fortified, in more ways than I'll ever know!

So why do I bring up a Council, that perhaps had a very profound affect on me, enabling me to embrace everything the Church is? Because I, along with others, have been learning that some of the changes that were implemented, were not supposed to be implemented! O.K., I can accept this, but why was the Church doing things for 50 years, which it wasn't supposed to be doing in the first place? O God, help us! The answers to these questions are a little complex, but the short version is that some bishops and priests misinterpreted the documents, and perhaps got a little carried away in the process?

After celebrating Liturgy for so long, in the way we've become accustomed to, it's hard to believe that Vatican II never said anything about the approval of altar girls, using Eucharistic Ministers at every Mass-(they are to be utilized in cases of emergency only). Lectors-females supposedly should not serve on the altar; however, the Church continues to allow women to read because the women want to be an active part of the Liturgy. As a woman, I've loved being a part of the Liturgy, but if it's not in the Vatican II documentation, then we shouldn't be doing it, right?  Yes, this is a hard pill to swallow, especially for me; but if we are being asked to be obedient to the magisterium of the Church, shouldn't we obey?

The 50th anniversary of Vatican II invites us to revisit the documents, to understand what it was all about. I am in the midst of doing that now, and I will be discussing it more in the near future. 

May God bless us in his mercy. 

The New Common Core Curriculum

All week long on EWTN's Johnette Benkovic's show, "Women of Grace,"she's had Susan Anderson, an educator, explain to us about the Federal Common Core Curriculum that is being taught in Public schools. It has been a thorn in the side for many teachers, because it presents traditional material in varied and very difficult formats, making it very difficult for teachers to teach in the manner they're accustomed to. To add to the frustration, Spanish-speaking children are learning right alongside their English-speaking peers, which would be alright if the Spanish kids knew English! Unfortunately, they don't!

They even have Common Core in the parochial school system, which is even more unsettling, because it teaches things that go against what they are taught in their Religion class. There is a governmental indoctrination here that disturbs me to the core.

Instead of concentrating on academics, the government is concentrating more on social teaching and immorality. Only parents and those given the responsibility of teaching their children to learn ethics and morality, which are usually taught in a religious school setting, should be doing so-not any curriculum devised by the government, especially by those leaning to the Left!

We really need to take a stand and defend our children's right to all that is decent, wholesome, and true. Otherwise, they will never truly learn.