For those of you who enjoy the Garden of Holiness Podcast, I won't be able to be on tomorrow. I'm going out of town and will be on the road. Deeper Truth plans to run a prerecorded show, it's just a matter of which one. I have permission from Sister Miriam to run her interview with Bradley Birzer, the author of American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll that originally aired on my local Catholic radio station, KDJW Saint Valentine Radio. Charles Carroll was the only Catholic founding father of America. His life is an interesting story about surviving and flourishing in an anti-Catholic culture. It's a good interview and I hope it can air. Otherwise, we'll be running something just as good so tune in!
1 We are finishing up our second round of colds for the season. This one came barely three weeks after the last one. I am hoping and praying this trend does not continue through the winter. At least this time we were all sick at about the same time, so we didn't have healthy people annoying the malingering people. We all managed to annoy each other while we were all too miserable to do anything about it. Not bad, all in all.
2 I can tell I am on the mend because my first reaction to sitting down to write was, "SEVEN?! Seriously, seven? Why can't it be Two Quick Takes? Why me?!" Crankiness is a sure sign of improvement. Yesterday, I'd have just managed to shoot the computer a dirty look.
"Will work for Legos"
3 My soon to be nine year old son's birthday is at the end of next month. He has taken the Lego catalog and planned out all his surprises. He carefully added up his wish list which prompted a, "We are not spending $652.93 on your birthday, son" speech. Plus tax.
4 This little interaction between my husband and my four year old daughter made my morning, though.
"Daddy, is Jesus dead?"
"No, baby, He is risen!" "Okay!"
5 I'm running out of steam here. I have no idea what to put on for number 5. Maybe it should be an announcement that I'll be out of town next week, so I'll have to write next week's 7 Quick Takes ahead of time. I sure hope 7 interesting (enough) things happen between now and then. Or maybe I shouldn't hope for that. "May you live in interesting times" is a curse, isn't it?
6 We have a Reader's Digest thief in the house. My second youngest squirrels away the little magazines almost as soon as they come in the door. I'm not sure what the fascination is as she is only five and can't read that well yet, but she has quite a horde in her room. I had to borrow from her stash when I ran out of reading materials this week.
7 Bless your heart, you hung out with me to the bitter end! I'm ending on a lame joke because it only hurts when I laugh.
A priest told the little kids they could come Trick-or-Treating at the rectory but they should dress up as one of the Saints.
So the kids arrive - here's a little boy dressed up as St. Anthony, St.
Joseph, a little girl is St. Clare - and then there's this kid in a dog
costume.
Robert Frost's proverb "Good fences make good neighbors"
applies especially to differences of faith.
My sister is Mormon. I'm Catholic. There are important matters of the faith that we do not agree upon. You would think this would cause tense moments and awkward silences. You would think there should be subjects we must avoid at all costs. You would think this difference would cause strife and division between us. It doesn't.
It really doesn't. My sister taught me the skill of holding onto your most precious beliefs while respecting that others disagree. In other words she taught me the skill to tolerate any one's right to be wrong. Because of her, I can look her in the eye, disagreeing with her completely, and still find love. Before I was even a Christian, she showed me how to love in Christian Charity. She showed me that when you hold the Truth in your heart, it is like an armor. Nothing can touch it.
She showed me how to be unshakable.
So, how does that translate in a world where disagreements of the sort that exist between Mormonism and Catholicism lead to harsh words and strong emotions at best? It looks an awful lot like what you will hear on this podcast. We are very matter of fact about our respective faiths. We listen. We find the common ground and point out the differences. We allow space to exist where it exists and we don't insist on agreement. We build a good fence in that particular spot and gaze over it, saying, "Well, that is different."
That doesn't mean the differences aren't fundamental or essential. It simply means that I know her heart is for God. She is in the palm of His hand, and I know He loves her perfectly. I tell her the truth of my faith, she tells me the truths of hers, and then we live those truths the best way we can.
She is no hypocrite, my sister, I can tell you that. So I can trust her to be wrong. She can trust me to be. We both love each other and believe wholeheartedly, "I can trust God with her."
I guess that kind of faith in God and His providence is one of those spots where there is a gate in our fence. It's a place where we find common ground, where we can really open up and see into each other's fields for a short distance. We won't agree on everything, but this little spot is good. We can rest there for a little while.
So what if she prays for me and not so secretly wishes I was Mormon? I pray for her and wish she were Catholic. That's perfectly okay. Conversion is a continual return to God, so if she prays for my conversion I am strengthened by her prayers, and she, the same.
I trust so completely that God meets us where we are. She is there. I am here.
--------
The idea for this show came from a Facebook discussion of the Vice Presidential debate that turned quickly into an anti-Romney, anti-Mormon thread. I countered, with help from a young woman of my acquaintance, and decided it was an opportunity to clear up some falsehoods about Mormonism. The first step to good apologetics is education, so here is an opportunity to learn about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from someone who knows her faith and lives it.
1 It's quick because 7 years ago yesterday I was kissing this baby's face for the first time ever and we took the day off. I have some makeup work to do.
2 We had this for lunch because it is so good. We substituted cornflake crumbs for instant mashed potatoes and they turned out great.
3 Who knew that mayo had soy in it? Why, for Heaven's sake?
"Homemade Mayo is easy," they said. "You'll love it," they said.
4 So we've also redone this humbling mayo recipe and I forgot how humid it was today. I also forgot to warm the eggs, so it didn't turn out fluffy. It was wet. Still worked though.
5 Why care about soy? My youngest, as it turns out, is not allergic to wheat as we suspected, but soy. I'm changing up my entire cooking routine, but this is just proof that you don't fool around with possible food allergies. Test, don't guess.
6 We have discovered that driving is driving us off the roadmap of the family budget. It is pushing $100 to fill up my family van, which we do three times a month. I have to cut that in half. Sadly, that means therapeutic horse lessons have to go, and if that doesn't do it, we'll be cutting the library and Eucharistic Adoration from a weekly visit to twice a month. If gas prices go up much more family trips to town will be on a Sundays only basis.
I am not bothering to complain just yet. It could be worse. My niece in California has a sensible gas sipper of a car. She paid over $100 for 29 gallons the other day. I'm just explaining myself to myself here.
7 Speaking of creative ways to rearrange the budget, we wanted to support our local Catholic radio station but had no extra money in the budget. While reading the newspaper the other morning it occurred to my husband and I that the paper was a luxury that could go.We decided to cancel the subscription and channel that little bit of money into a charity we wanted to support.
When money gets tight, like it is for all of us lately, it's time to set the mind loose. Get a budget so you know where your money is going, then get creative to find ways to make it go further.
