Traditional Catholic Moms Spring/Summer 2011 - Page 2

[Arduinna]

We had the rite of election today. The Cathedral was packed but it was lovely. I can't believe it's just a few more weeks and we will be officially Catholic.

[PatienceAndLove]

Congrats, Arduinna!

I am contemplating joining Transitus Oblates of the Last Martyrdom.  Prayers would be lovely!

OH!! I FINALLY got a job! As a phlebotomist!! Huzzah!!!

I had to withdrawl from the session (the school runs on trimesters, and we started 7 mar) for training, but I will be going back in the fall.

[Trigger]

Originally Posted by mum4boys 

Has anyone been members of multiple parishes? We seem to have find ourselves with this problem. We have been members of the parish closest to our home for 14 years. It has had its share of problems but things have greatly improved but sadly not the youth ministries yet. I do teach 3 year old "sunday" school. I have been told when I call it CCD I am dating myself lol. Anyway, along time ago oh 7 years ago we had a lot of problems with the youth group at our church and it is one of the things that led to our oldest son claiming he is agnostic and our second son only attending Mass on the bigs days like Christmas and Easter. He feels the church is full of hypocrites etc. I have spent a lot of times praying on this issue for our 2 younger boys and daughter. Well we found a parish with an excellent youth group. My kids love it there. We love their Mass they have before youth group. It is not youth orientated but it is just an awesome Mass. I am not sure what are going to do straddle two parishes I guess.

Though I don't actively minister there anymore, I'm still an active/supporting member of the parish I've been with for 21 years.  My younger kids still participate in faith formation there, and my older daughter sings in the choir.

However, over the past year I've also become heavily involved with B's parish - we are ministering together as team leaders for a 3-year diocesan evangelization initiative.  Also, they got a new priest last summer, and I really like him - he is passionate about liturgy, and I love celebrating Mass with him.  B and I have formed a good friendship with this priest, as well.

It's tricky to straddle both, but doable because I want to.  The hard thing for me is that I typically end up worshipping either without my kids (since they are with their dad most weekends), or without B.
 

[lavatea]

Are you ladies still up for a group read through of The How-To Book of the Mass?

I think if you count this week there is about 5 weeks until Easter. Is that right?

What days would we want to begin each section's discussion?

[frugalmama]

Originally Posted by lavatea 

Are you ladies still up for a group read through of The How-To Book of the Mass?

I think if you count this week there is about 5 weeks until Easter. Is that right?

What days would we want to begin each section's discussion?

I'm up for it - I got the book and have been reading a chapter a night or so since Lent Started, so I'm half-way done with it. It's VERY good IMO, explains a lot of things from a regular person viewpoint.

I'd also be up for a discussion of The Story of a Family about St. Therese the Little Flower's family - I found a copy last week at my thrift shop for just $1, and it's my next up to read when I finish The How-to Book of the Mass.

[PatienceAndLove]

I have been too broke to purchase the book :-(

The library doesn't have it, either :-( :-(

[mum4boys]

Have you asked to see if your library will order it? My library is awesome. It is really getting a great selection of Catholic books too.

[PatienceAndLove]

Originally Posted by mum4boys 

Have you asked to see if your library will order it? My library is awesome. It is really getting a great selection of Catholic books too.

I should ask them to order it.

As for their selection of Catholic books- Sr. Joan Chissiter features prominently.  There are a few Scott Hahn books, but most of the other books are highly questionable.

[lavatea]

I just noticed my copy of the book has a study guide in the back. I will try to post the questions from the first section in the next few days if everyone agrees. Sound ok?

I hope your library will order it for you, P&L.

[frugalmama]

Originally Posted by lavatea 

I just noticed my copy of the book has a study guide in the back. I will try to post the questions from the first section in the next few days if everyone agrees. Sound ok?

I hope your library will order it for you, P&L.

Sounds good to me - Mines has the Study guide as well, but I haven't been using it.

[Arduinna]

I'm not sure if anyone else here has a kindle or uses any of the kindle apps but I noticed today that the Catholicism for Dummies kindle book ( bad title good book) is on sale for 99 cents. I have the print copy of the book and it is really good and written by a faithful Catholic priest.

[LessTraveledBy]

Dear Catholic Mamas, please pray for me. I can't really discuss this with my friends in real life or ask for their prayers, so I am asking here: Trying to live morally and faithfully is costing me so much. It feels like everything I have ever dreamed of. To explain it just a bit, I am not willing to do "fertility treatments" due to (for those here) obvious reasons, and adoption is not really possible, unless we were willing to lie. This situation leaves us with a child who desperately wants to become a big sister, and empty arms, as we try to figure out what it is God wants of us. It is clear that the large family I have always hoped for, is never going to happen.

I believe in miracles and thank God for his continuous goodness to us, but meanwhile I grieve and wonder if "this" will ever end.

[Arduinna]

I will add you and your family to my prayers. DH and I have faced similar situation throughout our marriage and it is very hard.

[sbaer]

Hello All - Trying to find a good Catholic Moms group to join.   It would be nice to chat with some like minded ladies.  Does everyone "know" each other on here?  

Cradle Catholic and Wife since '09

Momma to P '10

[LessTraveledBy]

sbaer... Welcome!

Do we all know each other? Not really... But we are learning. :)

[mt_gooseberry]

I'd also like to get it on the fun!  I love MDC but it can get a little too liberal sometimes...I need support with being conservative and AP at the same time!

[LessTraveledBy]

Originally Posted by mt_gooseberry 

I'd also like to get it on the fun!  I love MDC but it can get a little too liberal sometimes...I need support with being conservative and AP at the same time!

You know, I really think and hope things are about to change... Catholicism, to me, very much equals AP. We have had books for years promoting breastfeeding whenever (and even as long as) the child wants to nurse (Sheila Kippley). The Sears are Catholics.... I do think that it will take another generation or something, but it just has to be coming. I think that a rather large procentage of the Catholics who try to follow the Church's teachings also end up being ap, at least to some extent. I could be totally wrong.... Just has seems that way. There would seem to be a good flow from knowing how the body works (nfp), to breastfeeding, to the rest of ap. However, Catholicism in the US seems to be effected by some forms of Protestantism, at least to some extent. Some of the harsher ideas about upbringing, to me, just aren't compatible with Catholicism, and yet some people do practice them.

We had a priest here (Northern Europe) who had once said something terrible about corporal punishment. I wish I had been there... I would have given him an earfull. It is one thing to have messed up ideas, but to promote them... Grrrrr!  We have immigrants from so many countries here and some of the families really struggle. The kids need more time with stable, loving adults, not corporal punishment. To me, a priest just does not get to be clueless about something this important. Thankfully, this was the only time I have ever heard of it happening.
 

[mt_gooseberry]

Originally Posted by LessTraveledBy 

You know, I really think and hope things are about to change... Catholicism, to me, very much equals AP. We have had books for years promoting breastfeeding whenever (and even as long as) the child wants to nurse (Sheila Kippley). The Sears are Catholics.... I do think that it will take another generation or something, but it just has to be coming. I think that a rather large procentage of the Catholics who try to follow the Church's teachings also end up being ap, at least to some extent. I could be totally wrong.... Just has seems that way. There would seem to be a good flow from knowing how the body works (nfp), to breastfeeding, to the rest of ap. However, Catholicism in the US seems to be effected by some forms of Protestantism, at least to some extent. Some of the harsher ideas about upbringing, to me, just aren't compatible with Catholicism, and yet some people do practice them.

We had a priest here (Northern Europe) who had once said something terrible about corporal punishment. I wish I had been there... I would have given him an earfull. It is one thing to have messed up ideas, but to promote them... Grrrrr!  We have immigrants from so many countries here and some of the families really struggle. The kids need more time with stable, loving adults, not corporal punishment. To me, a priest just does not get to be clueless about something this important. Thankfully, this was the only time I have ever heard of it happening.
 

Catholicism and AP seem to me to be connected more than AP and other denominations as well.  That is one of the things that drew me to Catholicism.  That being said, most nonCatholics think of harsh parochial school punishments and oppressive parents when they think of Catholics.  I wish more Catholics were exposed to the teaching of the Kippleys et al.  I wish more nonCatholics were exposed to them too, to be honest!

On another tangent, my other AP friends also embrace things that make me uncomfortable as a Catholic, which is one of the reasons I'm reaching out to you guys.  Birth control, sterilization, promiscuity...none of them seem to have a problem with those things.  That is what I meant by saying I hope I can find some more conservative AP friends here!  I'm also looking for support on my journey through Catholicism, as I was raised in a Protestant family and I am encountering serious opposition from them.

[JMJ]

The La Leche League was also founded by Catholic women, and Maria Montessori was Catholic.  Now, the Catholic Church is doing more to encourage home education of children and has always supported SAHM's.  We have a long history of Catholics driving AP movements.

I can totally relate to feeling like my Catholic life and my AP life are split a lot of times.  A lot of my LLL and other AP friends are atheist/agnostic/religion isn't important, but they're great people.  It's really interesting and even inspiring to me to see people finding the natural law without God.  A lot of these natural mothers are very in tune with certain elements of the natural law, the way that God designed things to be, and attempt to follow it with their own lives through breastfeeding (even ecologically), NFP/FAM, discovering authentic motherhood, respect for children, stewardship of the Earth, etc.  I wouldn't guess that I have so much in common with people of such different backgrounds, but when I watch my non-religious friends talk about the value of fasting, the fact that a mother and a father are different, concerns about putting hormones in their body through CAFO meat and birth control, etc, it confirms me in my faith.  I grew up Catholic, and I never strayed far enough to stop going to Mass.  I've always seen Catholicism as a whole and have become more and more amazed at its consistency, but it is affirming that what we believe is a universal truth when I see so many people trying to do what is "natural" and finding that what is "right for them" is what the Church has been saying is right all along.

Most of my Catholic friends aren't parents, so I don't get to spend as much time with them, and most of my Catholic parent friends parent very differently than I do.  It would be lovely to fuse my Catholic friends and my AP friends so I could share some of both.

Edited by JMJ - 4/1/11 at 1:29pm

[LessTraveledBy]

Originally Posted by mt_gooseberry 

On another tangent, my other AP friends also embrace things that make me uncomfortable as a Catholic, which is one of the reasons I'm reaching out to you guys.  Birth control, sterilization, promiscuity...none of them seem to have a problem with those things. 

They have not yet realized that the soul needs to be AP'd, too, their own and their children's. :)
 

Originally Posted by JMJ 

I can totally relate to feeling like my Catholic life and my AP life are split a lot of times.  A lot of my LLL and other AP friends are atheist/agnostic/religion isn't important, but they're great people.

Yes, I have this problem, also, although mainly because there are very few Catholics here. Some of my Catholic friends and I all like the same books. That is wonderful! However, I am not able to go to any of the AP, natural parenting type of meetings, because the people also include things like Reiki, which I find dangerous. It becomes too difficult to try to take the good without the bad.

I must say that it always amazes me sad (and a bit mad, really) when I see Catholics, who have been given so much, make harsh choices. For me it is especially painful to encounter e.g., any sort of CIO, violent discipline, etc., as we have been infertile for years and I so long to hold a little one. To see someone be harsh or neglectful feel likes someone is ripping out my heart. (Actually, it did feel that way already when our child was  young.) We know some people who belong to a group that is very proud about following Church teaching (no contraception). The problem is that they don't mention NFP much and have some sort of a "the more the better" mentality, instead of praying and seeing what the right choice is each time. To me, it seems that they only take openness to life, and forget the part about responsibility for the ones they already have. Because they do not breastfeed at all, some of the mothers have almost a child per year. Now, SOME parents might be able to deal with, let's say, 7 kids in 10 years. (And I think 7 or more kids are more than doable for many, and wonderful, the problem is not the amount but the pace. Many of the large families in the past were large partly because the parents had married young.) So these little ones become big sisters or brothers at 1, there are two younger siblings when they are 2, etc. So they spend their days sitting in strollers, almost never held, wearing dirty diapers. Parenting equals yelling. While I do respect them for how brave they are, it is very sad to see how Church teaching can be twisted, and how the situation then causes big problems. I just see a lot of glorified neglect. You know, what I would normally call neglect becomes the norm, because two parents have only four arms and can only do so much. No one can say anything because any questioning of the teachings of the group is turned against the questioner, you know "You must be against Church teaching." UGH!

I have a friend who became Catholic some years ago and little by little has become more AP. It is very hard, as her culture does not support it at all. Never before had I been to a country where I saw almost no baby carriers, people had never even heard of cloth diapers, etc. (Not that cloth diapering is AP, but the lack of knowledge of them was shocking to me. In my country the majority of moms at least try CD.) Yet, it has been a very beautiful thing to see her make her changes to how she parents and talk about it all. I think most people are not as humble, and tend to not change their parenting (as that would require admitting that there had been something wrong with it in the beginning). So, in her case, learning more about the faith has also made her a different parent. I strongly believe that true Catholic parenting is always AP of some sort. Can anyone imagine Mother Mary having been anything other than gentle with Jesus?