Tuesday, October 31, 2006
The Bane of My Existence ....
My ankles!!! Sigh. I've sprained my ankle for the third time this year. So highly overrated.
Someone asked me this morning how many times I had sprained my ankle and seriously (pausing for deep contemplation) I have NO idea! I can't believe that I have sprained, rolled, crunched, torn, bruised both of my ankles so much over the past 12 years that I can't even remember them all. My most memorable one was when I did it on the very first day I arrived in Toronto for World Youth Day. Now THAT was a drama and a half...wasn't it oh Acolytus!
Well, THIS time I did it in the family room and I triped up over a toy. I am so vertically challenged!
Friday, October 27, 2006
Fishers of Men
I know that most people have already seen this. I first saw it ages ago myself, but I just want to put up a link to it because I LOVE it so much and want to make sure that as many people as possible can see it. It just makes me cry (almost) every time I see it. (And that says something. Trust me I'm not usually the soppy kind) It is one of the best example of the Catholic Church using new technologies/media to impart its message of truth. It also is a beautiful depiction of the Priesthood and what it really is. A priest is Alter Christi for us, in our everyday, and I love them for it!
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1289350721
I'm all Official!
Ok so last time I posted I said that I was going to be graduating. Well that happened yesterday and so now I am officially Miss Monification BA, BComm (Deakin). Woooo!! Mum, Dad and I had to go to Geelong (where one of Deakin's campus' are) yesterday morning. I had to be there by 9.30 (even though the ceremony didn't start til 11) and trying to get to Geelong from the other side of Melbourne in the morning is a bit of a chore. We got there however and I got my buttercup yellow.
Ok so graduations are not exactly the MOST exciting thing you could go to (except that you get to wear the most fantastic clothes. I mean seriously, why can't we go around in capes and hats like that all the time!? So cool.) But I was lucky 'cause I had the midyear one so there wasn't as many as usual. There was 250-300 ish but that's better than 500.
To pass the time way I graded the "doffs" of the trencher that everyone does. (Hey, it's pretty boring otherwise) Some people really have no idea. I'm sorry, but tapping the side of your trencher just doesn't cut it! It just looks like you are keeping it from falling off your head. Those people got a score of 2/10. Why not a 1 you ask? Well because some people miss it all together and "doff" the side of
their head. Now THAT got a 1/10. (I'm too nice of a person to give someone a 0)Well I now have two pieces of paper for which I (for the main part) worked very hard for. We are very well pleased!
Heeelllloooo! Are you in there? Don't hide!
At work I've been looking up pictures of BXVI for some promotional material I've been working on. I came across this one and saved it 'cause it's just great! If you feel so inclined you can leave a caption for me in my combox. If not and you think that mine really just sums it all up ... that's fine too!
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
“You can’t be Silent!”…..
…..or so they thought! I just spent my weekend on a (predominantly) silent retreat and the doubting Thomas’ around these parts just laughed and said I wouldn’t last an hour. WRONG!!!! I didn’t say a word (Talking to the priest doesn’t count). I did laugh…but for me not to laugh would require my voice-box to be removed, so laughing doesn’t count either.
I haven’t been on a retreat for quite a while. I’ve been too busy, which, as Fr Denton pointed out to me, was a reason to go in itself. He was right (as hard as it is for me to admit such things). It was really nice just to stop, refocus, and spend time with God, in the company of other women doing the same thing.
The retreat was run by the Vocations Office here in Melbourne and there was about 17 or so women who took up the opportunity. Although I had no blinding flash from God about my future ( I actually see this as a positive. No falling of horses and being blind for me!!), it was good to just sit and look at God, with Him looking back. I’m so thankful for the gift of adoration. I really don’t know what life would be like without it. Actually I do. It would be a whole lot more confusing!
It’s Finally Over! There is Much Rejoicing.
Yes, after what seems like an eternity, I , Miss Monification, will finally become:
(clears throat)
Miss Monification B.Com, BA (Deakin).
I graduate on the 26th of October.
You can have no idea how much I wanted to cry with relief when I got that news. I finally get to wear my trencher, cape and colours. Well, one colour. I’m wearing my Commerce colour because that’s the degree I really wanted. Arts was like my sidedish. The colour is described as buttercup yellow. What a lovely name for a colour! It will suit my very happy mood perfectly!
Thursday, September 07, 2006
OK ……The Five Things Meme (Damn you Shannon)
Things:
…in my Freezer
1. Mince
2. Almost finished tub of frozen yoghurt (you know when there is too much to throw out but not enough to have a decent serve??)
3. A heck of a lot of ice around the edges (Hey girls, we should really defrost this thing)
4. Packet of Frozen Vegetables
5. A bag of frozen chips that have been there since before I moved into this house ten months ago.
…in my Closet
1. A bag of green material for my bridesmaids dress
2. A lot of shoes
3. Well, my clothes
4. OH!!! THERE’S my walkman!!!
5. I’m a hoarder (much to my Mum’s chagrin) so there are boxes of stuff that I have saved from various events in my life from my Deb to my last day of school and piles of World Youth Day stuff.
…in my Car (which is sitting miserably in the driveway because it has not worked for AGES)
1. A broken Radiator
2. A potential blow head gasket
3. A sun-stained note book
4. Dust
5. More dust
…in my Backpack (I’m just going to say handbag here)
1. Lots of pens
2. Lipstick
3. Lip gloss
4. Phone
5. My Pope Benedict Rosary beads
DONE!!!! Hopefully I'll post something more meaningful later!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
My First Meme!
Shannon gave me my first meme. It's this bookish type one. Well...here I go!
1. One book that changed your life: Introduction to the Devout Life St Francis de Sales - See post I wrote on it for reasons. Keys of the Kingdom by A.J. Cronin had a huge impact on me as a kid as well. I think that it was this book that began my understand about what Priesthood really was.
2. One book that you've read more than once: One?! Um The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe CS Lewis -Also the first book I ever read.
3. One book you'd want on a desert island: Desert Islands for Dummies
4. One book that made you laugh: My Family and Other Animals Gerald Durrell - Who knew that natural science could be this good?
5. One book that made you cry: Seven Little Australians Ethel Turner - How DARE Ethel kill off Judy. I've never been able to get over it.
6. One book that you wish had been written: Hard one. Have been thinking about this one for ages. Will get back to you 'cause I want to post this before I leave work!
7. One book that you wish had never been written: Any Jane Austin sequels. Why set yourself up for failure?
8. One book you're currently reading: Return to Modesty Wendy Shalit - Very good read!
9. One book you've been meaning to read: Well I've been meaning to read Return to Modesty but I'm actually reading that now, so .... CS Lewis' Sci-fi Trilogy. Have been meaning to read them for AGES.
10. Seriously, all the people I know have been tagged so if you haven't been tagged by this one ... consider it done! Also if Meg ever gets herself organised into the blogsphere she's tagged too.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Busy Busy Busy
Things have been so busy today and I haven't had time to post anything too substantial. Two pieces of exciting news though:
1. My oldest, and one of my most dearest friends, is coming down to Melbourne tonight for a week or so. I'm so damn excited. I haven't seen her for two years and both of us are really ordinary at keeping in touch and so therefore we have a multitude of topics to catch up on. I credit myself with helping her to find her brilliance in the world of Science (She is 23 and doing her Doctorate in some kind of Biological Chemistry thingy) by doing all sorts of experiments with her has we were growing up. One being some kind of celery, water, food colouring thing which we kind of forgot about, only to find it in a most disgusting decaying state. I blame this rotting celery experience for my complete and utter rejection of both this vegetable and science. I do digress.
2. I have a computer! I know. Primitive. But for the last nine months I have been computerless at home and it has been a sad existence. True, I don't have internet connection, but at least I can write things for this blog at home and bring it in to upload, instead of cramming it into my lunch hour or some other break. How joyous.
Well, I have broken my record for posts in a week, it's Friday, nearly the end of the working day, so I think I'll celebrate with a pint or two tonight! :)
Things have been so busy today and I haven't had time to post anything too substantial. Two pieces of exciting news though:
1. My oldest, and one of my most dearest friends, is coming down to Melbourne tonight for a week or so. I'm so damn excited. I haven't seen her for two years and both of us are really ordinary at keeping in touch and so therefore we have a multitude of topics to catch up on. I credit myself with helping her to find her brilliance in the world of Science (She is 23 and doing her Doctorate in some kind of Biological Chemistry thingy) by doing all sorts of experiments with her has we were growing up. One being some kind of celery, water, food colouring thing which we kind of forgot about, only to find it in a most disgusting decaying state. I blame this rotting celery experience for my complete and utter rejection of both this vegetable and science. I do digress.
2. I have a computer! I know. Primitive. But for the last nine months I have been computerless at home and it has been a sad existence. True, I don't have internet connection, but at least I can write things for this blog at home and bring it in to upload, instead of cramming it into my lunch hour or some other break. How joyous.
Well, I have broken my record for posts in a week, it's Friday, nearly the end of the working day, so I think I'll celebrate with a pint or two tonight! :)
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Our Lady of Fatima
In Melbourne at the moment the "traveling" Our Lady of Fatima statue is visiting various parishes. I went along to the first of these parishes last night in St Fidelis,Moorland . It was a blockbuster! Car parking was difficult to say the least and then you really had to look hard for a spare inch or two or pew to squeeze yourself into! I don't know when I last heard a packed parish church say a Rosary. It's really quite an amazing sound, try it yourself! See if you can fill a church one day, just for fun. The confession line was busy and people kept on coming and coming! All the while there, at the front, was the really lovely statue solemnly gazing over proceedings. (Just a note to random visitors...no I don't believe that the statue is actually Mary.)
I have a personal devotion to this particular, "version" I suppose, of Our Lady. It captured my imagination when I was very young and it stuck. Perhaps this was helped along by my very devoted grandmother, who would tell us the story of when she was carried the statue when she was in her 20s, around the age I am now.
When I heard this was going to be on I decided to make sure I could get along to one of the nights. As wonderful as it was, it really was quite an old crowd that was there which really quite saddened me. Does this mean that in say ten years the Fatima message will pretty much be forgotten? In our climate of war and violence, is this a time to forget that in order for peace to be even a blip on the horizon, prayer and even sacrifice (oooo extreem concept I know) perhaps might be a way to go. Just a thought.
In Melbourne at the moment the "traveling" Our Lady of Fatima statue is visiting various parishes. I went along to the first of these parishes last night in St Fidelis,Moorland . It was a blockbuster! Car parking was difficult to say the least and then you really had to look hard for a spare inch or two or pew to squeeze yourself into! I don't know when I last heard a packed parish church say a Rosary. It's really quite an amazing sound, try it yourself! See if you can fill a church one day, just for fun. The confession line was busy and people kept on coming and coming! All the while there, at the front, was the really lovely statue solemnly gazing over proceedings. (Just a note to random visitors...no I don't believe that the statue is actually Mary.)
I have a personal devotion to this particular, "version" I suppose, of Our Lady. It captured my imagination when I was very young and it stuck. Perhaps this was helped along by my very devoted grandmother, who would tell us the story of when she was carried the statue when she was in her 20s, around the age I am now.
When I heard this was going to be on I decided to make sure I could get along to one of the nights. As wonderful as it was, it really was quite an old crowd that was there which really quite saddened me. Does this mean that in say ten years the Fatima message will pretty much be forgotten? In our climate of war and violence, is this a time to forget that in order for peace to be even a blip on the horizon, prayer and even sacrifice (oooo extreem concept I know) perhaps might be a way to go. Just a thought.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Mea Culpa ect...
Shannon has chastised me for not writing properly. For writing the way I talk and for general “word vomit” (a phrase he is very proud of coining). I know he is right. You can do a lot more in this world if you write out your ideas, premises and whatnot, with a certain finesse – read here “literary structure”.
For my lack of style at present, I blame the years and years I have had to write ordered and coherent essays. Sometimes I just want to vent…without the confines of structure and without having marks deducted from me because of the lack there of. This is what I have been doing here, on the odd occasion when I do actually DO blog. Childish, I know.
I really should practice my writing. I actually need to work on explaining what I think. Therefore, I will, for the main part, make sure that I write properly and avoid my stream of conscience (word vomit) style. As long as I can be forgiven for every now and again, having a rantish type post in which I let my inner Miss Monification think straight onto the blogpage and in which I can make up as many words as I like.
Shannon has chastised me for not writing properly. For writing the way I talk and for general “word vomit” (a phrase he is very proud of coining). I know he is right. You can do a lot more in this world if you write out your ideas, premises and whatnot, with a certain finesse – read here “literary structure”.
For my lack of style at present, I blame the years and years I have had to write ordered and coherent essays. Sometimes I just want to vent…without the confines of structure and without having marks deducted from me because of the lack there of. This is what I have been doing here, on the odd occasion when I do actually DO blog. Childish, I know.
I really should practice my writing. I actually need to work on explaining what I think. Therefore, I will, for the main part, make sure that I write properly and avoid my stream of conscience (word vomit) style. As long as I can be forgiven for every now and again, having a rantish type post in which I let my inner Miss Monification think straight onto the blogpage and in which I can make up as many words as I like.
Mass Preferences
Something that has become an increasingly asked question around the Catholic traps is “What is your Mass Preference?”, "What kind of Mass do you go to?" or some other varient.
I have a problem with this. It really doesn’t sit all that comfortably with me. Why? I’m not overly sure. However, I’ll try and give some kind of reason.
Firstly you are talking about MASS here. You know, Christ, transubstantiating Himself into the form of bread and wine, the most incredible and wondrous mystery that we have been given by God. So when asking what is your Mass preference it can seem a little like they are saying, “So how do YOU like YOUR Jesus?” Whether they mean to or not.
Secondly, whether it is meant or not, this kind of question seems to me to breed a kind of snobbery. A “My Mass is better then your Mass” kind of mentality. Now I have been accused myself of being a liturgical snob. In some of my most formative years I was lucky enough to have as a Parish Priest Fr William Fitzgerald, who is an incredible liturgist and who now resides in the States. Because of this kind of formation, I cringe every time I see a glass/wooden/clay/ “insert other obnoxious material here” chalice/pattern/ect. Or when women, who don’t understand their own feminine genius, get up and perform various roles and tasks of a priest. The other day I saw a women exposing the Blessed Sacrament while THE PRIEST WAS ON THE SANCTUARY Ahh!!!! It nearly killed me!
Yes liturgical abuses make me cry. But this is because the liturgy has been fomed in oder to link back to salvation history and to our faith. The Church has guidelines on it because if you do something wrong, then it can be like preaching a heresy in action rather than in words.
The snobbery I can’t stand is where if you say that you like the Novus Ordo, done well, and without a navel gazing focus, there is the danger that some will either see you as a liturgical fool who knows nothing, or as some kind of psycho-conservative who doesn’t understand the “ebb and flow of the spirit of Vatican II”.
Sheesh… I just can’t win!!!! You know what? I am not a “Traditional Catholic” but I don’t mind going to an Old Rite Mass every now and again. I am not a “Charismatic” by any stretch of the imagination, but I have been to “Charismatic Masses” which don’t abuse the liturgy. I am not a “Liberal Catholic”, I am not a “We are Church” Catholic, I am not a conservative Catholic, I am not a Feminist Catholic, or a “Neo-‘insert favourite phrase here’ Catholic”. Do you want to know what I am? I am a Catholic. That it! Just that. I have no Mass preference so long as it is in the truth, beauty, goodness and oneness of the Church.
Hmmm this is starting to sound like a rant. I might post part two of this later… hey!! At least it will mean that I have to post again! That will keep Shannon happy.
Something that has become an increasingly asked question around the Catholic traps is “What is your Mass Preference?”, "What kind of Mass do you go to?" or some other varient.
I have a problem with this. It really doesn’t sit all that comfortably with me. Why? I’m not overly sure. However, I’ll try and give some kind of reason.
Firstly you are talking about MASS here. You know, Christ, transubstantiating Himself into the form of bread and wine, the most incredible and wondrous mystery that we have been given by God. So when asking what is your Mass preference it can seem a little like they are saying, “So how do YOU like YOUR Jesus?” Whether they mean to or not.
Secondly, whether it is meant or not, this kind of question seems to me to breed a kind of snobbery. A “My Mass is better then your Mass” kind of mentality. Now I have been accused myself of being a liturgical snob. In some of my most formative years I was lucky enough to have as a Parish Priest Fr William Fitzgerald, who is an incredible liturgist and who now resides in the States. Because of this kind of formation, I cringe every time I see a glass/wooden/clay/ “insert other obnoxious material here” chalice/pattern/ect. Or when women, who don’t understand their own feminine genius, get up and perform various roles and tasks of a priest. The other day I saw a women exposing the Blessed Sacrament while THE PRIEST WAS ON THE SANCTUARY Ahh!!!! It nearly killed me!
Yes liturgical abuses make me cry. But this is because the liturgy has been fomed in oder to link back to salvation history and to our faith. The Church has guidelines on it because if you do something wrong, then it can be like preaching a heresy in action rather than in words.
The snobbery I can’t stand is where if you say that you like the Novus Ordo, done well, and without a navel gazing focus, there is the danger that some will either see you as a liturgical fool who knows nothing, or as some kind of psycho-conservative who doesn’t understand the “ebb and flow of the spirit of Vatican II”.
Sheesh… I just can’t win!!!! You know what? I am not a “Traditional Catholic” but I don’t mind going to an Old Rite Mass every now and again. I am not a “Charismatic” by any stretch of the imagination, but I have been to “Charismatic Masses” which don’t abuse the liturgy. I am not a “Liberal Catholic”, I am not a “We are Church” Catholic, I am not a conservative Catholic, I am not a Feminist Catholic, or a “Neo-‘insert favourite phrase here’ Catholic”. Do you want to know what I am? I am a Catholic. That it! Just that. I have no Mass preference so long as it is in the truth, beauty, goodness and oneness of the Church.
Hmmm this is starting to sound like a rant. I might post part two of this later… hey!! At least it will mean that I have to post again! That will keep Shannon happy.
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