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Life is tough. Nuns are tougher.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

All Questions Great and Small


I really thought we were going to get into our annual garden clean-up this week. It is its usually spring time disaster area. Maybe tomorrow. I'm thinking we'll finally find Amelia Earhart.

Remind me to write someday about my thoughts on Amelia Earhart. She is a lesson in taking the bad with the good.

At any rate, we are much closer to finding Amelia and her navigator George this year because--and this is how pathetically bad the garden looks--one of the eighth grade girls has taken it upon herself to try and sort the whole mess out. I think she started out dropping by because she has a crush on one of the eighth grade boys who fixes any computer glitches we have and sticks parts of old computers into our computer so that we have more computer bling.


Yes, I said bling. I'm sure it's not an appropriate word for computer upgrades. It seems to have more to do with teeth and hub cabs.

Anyhow, Sister St. Aloysius gave them some iced tea out on the little deck. Heaven knows why she thought that was a good idea. It's such a mess, you can't sit down. You can't tell which thing is a chair covered in morning glory and which thing is just a pile of morning glory. Pathetic.

So this girl seems to think we don't know the first thing about gardening. The truth is, I am quite a good gardener. I can actually do landscaping and keep things alive in pots for years and years. You just can't tell from my garden. She took pity sake on us and our neglected plants and dug in.

It's funny--funny ironic--that nuns spend all their time telling every one else to "mind your own garden" (which is excellent advice) and nuns really don't to that. We have to spend all our time fussing around about the souls of others. Not that we mind. It's just ironic.

Now this girl has come over several times and actually has the about half the garden squared away. The boy she has a crush on must like her, too, because he has dropped by in her absence to water for us (as though if they don't do it, no one will.....could be true.....).


I thought today I'd do a little blog clean up and get to some lingering questions:

Sister, is it alright to take Communion at a Lutheran Church? And is it really the Body and Blood of Christ?

The Lutherans are already not so happy with me. This isn't going to help.

No and no. Only a priest can transform the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ and since the Lutheran minister is not a priest, Transubstantiation (which is what this miracle is called) does not take place. We don't want any one to get confused, so we ask that you separate yourself from the separated brethren at the 'communion' rail....or line or whatever they do over there.





My question is about having a baby pool. We are being labeled as materialistic for having a baby pool so people can guess on the details of our baby's arrival. We are donating some of the proceeds, using some for items we need, and of course, awarding this winners. I merely thought of it as something fun and way to raise money for baby items and the local pregnancy resource center. But now our cafeteria catholic family members make it out to sound like we're immoral by doing this. Is there some reason to think it is wrong or is there a good response to give our family?

I don't see a problem. Gambling is not a sin in the Catholic Church. If you were a Baptist, there would be a problem.

I will say that I have never heard of someone having a baby pool for themselves. Every baby pool I've ever seen is everybody else putting in their chips for a prize, the end. The baby and the parents get nada. All nada, no bling. Maybe they're just mad because, since the prizes are spread out between you, the charity and them, they feel it's a chintzy pool.

I also detect a glimmer of 'we're more Catholic then them in the first place' here, as you go out of your way to mention they are 'cafeteria' Catholics. Just because someone picks and chooses which laws of the Church they will and will not follow, doesn't mean they are wrong about everything. George Bush wasn't Catholic at all and the whole nation followed him.

I'm sorry everyone has made you feel bad about the baby pool. I think it sounds like fun, too. A good response for your family? "Okay, you don't want to join the pool."



Sister, I'm originally from Chicago. May I vote more than once? Oh and is the log for that Blogger's CHoice awards the sames as my Blogger account?

If you are from Chicago you may, of course, vote more than once. You may also vote again after you are dead.

I think for the Blogger's Choice Awards you have to set up an account or whatever it's called, to log in and vote for people.

Thanks for your vote!

Votes....



Sister, Is it possible to be Catholic and still believe in karma? Or even be Christian and believe in karma?

It's possible that you could be a Catholic and still believe in karma. Your children, for example, believe in Santa Claus, and they are still Catholic, right?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that what you mean by karma and what karma actually entails are not the same thing at all. Most people think that karma simply means 'what goes around, comes around' in some sort of cosmic justice. You should already have a problem with this because it leaves God out of the picture. But I understand that we'd all like to believe that bad people have bad things happen to them and good people get rewarded. I'd like to believe in Santa Claus, too. The one that lives on the North Pole with his lovely wife and all those industrious elves. He's so sweet. And he has a flying sled!

It just doesn't work that way. If you think it does, I'm not sure on which planet you are currently residing. Bad people do bad things and skip along their merry way all the time, while good people toil and suffer and get Alzheimer's.

What karma actually means:
Karma is a belief that reincarnated souls work out their ego spirituality to be one with god consciousness--"nirvana." There is no Heaven or Hell.

You can't believe this and be Catholic, now can you.


Patron saint question: In this current economy, it seems like we could use some intercession in helping the unemployed. There is such a saint, Cajetan. Why is he the patron of job seekers, though? I didn't see anything in his bio to explain that. Do you know how that came about?

Yes, good luck with that. By the way, as a Catholic we don't believe in luck either.

Here's my best guess. St. Cajetan worked with the poor and the hopelessly ill (he also founded an order and fought the good fight to bring the Church back together he witnessed the same mess Martin Luther witnessed). He founded a bank (which eventually became the Bank of Naples) so that poor people could have a place to borrow money. Otherwise they would be at the mercy of loan sharks and those payday advance people.


So this is one of those patron saint by extrapolation deals. What did the poor people need to pay back their loans? Jobs.

I am of a mind to ask for the intercession of Pope John Paul II, who is most surely in heaven. There's a guy who found a great job that he loved and kept it for a very, very long time. Longer than anyone else in history with who held the same job.

We have more great questions to answer. More tomorrow.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

sister, i am having a bit of a problem. actually it's a big problem:
the person that i am probably getting engaged to later this year is Lutheran- and has no plans to convert.

Without a shadow of a doubt I know that I want to be with this person for the rest of my life- but I also know that I cannot marry a Lutheran in the eyes of the Catholic church and God.

Do you have any advice for someone in this position?
This is less a question and more of a cry for help!! :(

NCSue said...

Well, Sister, I'm a "straight" married femaile, and presumedly you are too (with a really cool Spouse, I might add), but otherwise I'd be in love with you. I really love your posts. Lots.

Hope you'll visit my site sometime - would be nice to know that my favorite Sister has checked in.

Thanks.

NCSue
http://acts17verse28.blogspot.com/

Scarlett said...

I usually ask for St. Joseph's intercession with all job-related questions.

As for taking Communion at a Protestant Church - my (Catholic) cousin and her (Protestant) boyfriend are getting married this summer at a Protestant Church that neither of them attends - they just like the location; I have no idea whether it even corresponds to her fiance's denomination. I'm afraid it will cause conflict and offense if I don't take Communion (if the ceremony even involves it), even though I don't see why either of them would feel that strongly about reception at this particular church. Do I just have to steel myself for the inevitable family conflict?

Unknown said...

Excellent post. Many pressing questions answered.
My grrrls do not, in fact, believe in Santa Claus. However, because they were so distraught and tearful after they got that newsflash when they sobbed and asked, "But there's an Easter Bunny, isn't there?", I said, "Well, of course there is, silly gooses." Would very much appreciate it if we could keep that under wraps. They're 21 and 16. I think there's still plenty of time for them to learn the ways of the world:>)

Anonymous said...

Hahaha!
Keep up the good work.
Maybe I should try answering questions...or something else....because unlike you, I don't garden that well. I only pick out plants that say VERY hardy...our children want the company to add, ya, even mom can't kill it!
Keep an eye on those kids!

Donna. W said...

All I can say is this: Sister, you ROCK!

Anonymous said...

SMM
You are in error about Lutheran communion. There are times when Catholics may receive Eucharist with Lutherans and Episcopalians because our beliefs are so alike. There have been some official documents and agreements about this.
A catholic seminary grad and theology teacher

Bryant said...

now that you mentioned Karma...i was wondering if it was alright to practice Om meditation because i like the theory behind it and not the religious part about it...I'm Roman Catholic..am I doing something bad?

Anonymous said...

LOL~totally not offended here! I'm not Lutheran, nor am I Catholic. My BFF is Catholic though (she encourages me in the Word and in my faith more than anybody I've ever met!), and I can think of one EXTREMELY difficult time in my life in which her priest was the one who gave me the advice that helped me out of it all. I come here because I know I'm going to glean some wisdom from what you've shared~I ALWAYS DO! (((((HUGS))))) sandi

Mirabilis said...

I don't know about karma and your idea that the baddies go their merry way. It's not just "as ye sow, so shall ye reap" -- but it also has a good dose of "God is not mocked" ...if you can take any Calvinism out.

In my experience, sinners aren't really happy campers.