FYI

It seemed as if I was spending most of my time complaining and griping about stuff, and it got wearying.  Therefore I have begun a new blogging adventure at http://1magpiecollective.blogspot.com and I hope you’ll join me there.

Stop! Before you read any further…..

Go see Carolina Cannonball’s blog, specifically her post about the 2009 blog awards (for which I was nominated) and vote for my blog!

The relevant post is right here, so you don’t even have to go look.

And I’ve made this a sticky post, to remind you every time you visit until the voting is closed.

All I can promise you if I win, is more of the same Church Belligerent Militant that I do, even if not very regularly.

A bit peeved by this.

Occasionally, as a supplement to (or a replacement for) whatever is in the checs’ science textbooks, we watch some of the nature programs on PBS, such as “Wild Chronicles”, “Nature”, etc. Over the past few weeks I have come to the conclusion that these shows aggravate me just a bit. Sometimes the program highlights an animal that is endangered and the things that are being done to restore the population in the wild – captive breeding, relocation efforts, etc. I would be interested to know two things about the people who work so tirelessly on these projects. First, are these people professing to be Christians in their private lives, and second, how do they feel about human life issues – specifically abortion and contraception. It is just so sad to read about the astronomical sums of money being spent by the supporters of the culture of death to advance the cause of abortion of human babies, while simultaneously there is also a pile of money being thrown at people who raise money to buy an island so that chimpanzees can live there after their release from research laboratories.
Last night there was a program about Keiko, the killer whale who was rescued from a water park and rehabilitated, then released into the ocean. According to the narrative, Keiko never did have a 100% “wild” life with other killer whales. He was released in the western North Atlantic and did journey across to Norway, but chose to live out his days in a fish-less fjord – being fed and petted by children and adults for a few years until he died of a virus. Seems to me he had no real ‘quality of life’ as a killer whale. But he was deserving of hundreds of thousands of dollars in research, equipment, etc. while a human baby who survives an attempted abortion is just thrown into a trash bin to die alone?
Don’t get me wrong, I love animals. But I believe that humans are created in God’s image and that animals were created for our use, and to ascribe a higher order to them is perverting the intent of God and playing with stuff we have no call to play with.

I have another little rant, about prom dresses and First Holy Communion, but I’ll save that for later.

Looky! Blog Awards!

These blog awards are something I actually have a chance to win, so please go nominate me!

WARNING: Offensive Images Follow

I posted a while back about being kicked off a knitting-community website with no warning and no explanation. I still have yet to receive any response to the three polite emails I sent to the site owner and the “legal” department. The only thing I ever received was a form letter that mentioned ‘vile’, ‘disruptive’ activities in which I supposedly engaged – I suppose to some people the fact that I am pro-life, anti-homosexual-marriage, and pro-traditional-morals might be vile, but I didn’t force anyone to read my posts, and I certainly never adopted an “avatar” which deliberately set out to offend other users of the site.

Not so for some people. An online friend recently posted the following images, which I find greatly offensive, as an example of the avatars that some active Ravelry users find amusing:

This person identifies herself in her profile as:

“Raptor Mary, mother of Jesusaurus Rex”

These things ought to offend anyone who professes to be a Christian. They are especially offensive to me, a Catholic, because they mock Christ our Savior, His Sacred Heart, His Blessed Mother the Theotokos, and show incredible disrespect towards the Vicar of Christ Pope Benedict XVI.

I am glad to be gone from Ravelry. If this is the kind of behavior and images that are welcome and encouraged there, then the only reason for me to be there would be for me to vocally and continually protest this blasphemy.

Please join me in praying for the conversion of the Ravelry site owners, and for the conversion of this Ravelry user and those like her.

This made me smile.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/04/relief_is_just_a_doreme_away.html

I’m speechless.

I am unable to think of any possible, rational reason why there would be a screening of the movie “Milk” on the premises of a Catholic parish.  However, I am able to think of several disgusting, irrational reasons – the most obvious of which being that, said parish being the one that serves the local university students, this was a (very) misguided attempt to ‘mentor’ or ‘validate’ a group of students whose struggles with sexual identity are naturally at odds with their Catholic faith.

Lest you think I jest, have a look at the online bulletin for this parish; go to page 2 and check out the box on the right-hand side, it’s the second event listed for Monday, March 29.  Click here for the pdf bulletin.

Charity prevents me from commenting further; although you, dear reader, are welcome to speculate at will in the comments.

The Birds!

I was just outside, and there were two male robins having what I can only assume was a territorial disagreement. It was amusing to watch them chasing each other through the two maples in my back yard…….it got un-amusing very quickly, however. They began chasing each other to the rhododendron beside my back door, back to the trees, back and forth, I happened to be in the flight path so I ducked…….just as the pursuing bird dropped his flight to attempt a takeover from below. SMACK! Ouch. Right into the side of my head.

Why bother?

I stopped in the narthex of my parish Church yesterday morning to pick up a copy of the Order of Baptism (we had a Baptism/Chrismation/First Holy Communion yesterday!) and a bulletin, and on the table with those items was a small stack of brochures advertising the “Sixth Annual Day of Reflection of Women” to be held at our Cathedral, sponsored by the Archeparchial Office of Religious Education.

I opened the brochure to take a look; it’s to be held on a Saturday and I thought perhaps if it looked interesting and solid, I’d try to get child care so I could attend.

There are to be three presenters; the first one mentioned is a Therapist and Spiritual Director……she is also an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church USA….Whoa!  Hold the phone! This is an event put together and officially sanctioned by the archeparchy.  We’re Catholic.  In the Catholic Church, women are unable to be ordained. I am disturbed.

There are two other presenters, one of whom is a member of a Byzantine parish in Butler; the other’s connection (or lack of) is nowhere mentioned.

Other perturbing things about this ‘day of reflection’:  nowhere on the schedule does it mention that there will be an opportunity for spiritual direction or confession; there is only one mention of prayer and that is at the beginning of the day – the final event listed is a benefit auction for local women’s shelters (nothing wrong with that, don’t misunderstand me please).

One word:  ecumania.  This isn’t ecumenism; giving credence to this woman’s invalid ordination by inviting her to speak at a gathering for Catholic women is perpetuating the dissent that is rotting the Church from the inside out.  she may be a very effective counselor; she may also be an effective spiritual director but she cannot be those things to a Catholic woman; her very publicized credentials are an affront to Catholic women.

Needless to say, I won’t be trying to get child care to attend this gathering.  I’m going to speak with my pastor first, but I also might be calling the archeparchy to register my dismay over this.

sigh.

This might make you go “hmmmm….”

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/huston/090320