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Life is tough. Nuns are tougher.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Unresolved



Happy New Year!

I have never been a believer in New Year's Resolutions. It has never made much sense to me that if you know you need to make a change in your life, or try harder at something, or change your attitude, you wouldn't just go ahead and do that on say, April 10th, or whenever it came to your mind. The whole idea smells of procrastination.

I'm sure that's because of my nun training. Not just my training as a nun, but my training by nuns as a child.


Any time you didn't do something that you thought you should maybe do, that meant you were lazy. If you hesitated for a second before rising, if you didn't leap to your feet when called upon for any reason, "Lazy!" If you saw something that needed doing, like a full trash can or a sink full of dishes and walked on by, "Lazy!" Sleeping in? "Lazybones!"

St. Augustine seemed to think the very worst sin was dishonesty in any form.
Sister Mary Everynun would argue, "Sloth!"

I have finally learned, from people I used to think of as germaphobes, that I actually should go lie down if I'm sick, if for no other reason, so I don't spread my illness around. But as children, if we didn't have an actual fever, we had to be up and at it, sneezing and coughing on everyone else while trying not to do so. It's a wonder we're all still here.


But here we are, ready for a new year in the secular world.

In the world of the Church the new year started a while back and now we are in Christmastide. Today we have seven swans a swimming which, according to some, is a metaphor for the Seven Sacraments. I have a hard time buying that. It seems to me that would be much harder to remember what everything stood for and is therefore a terrible teaching tool.

Although, if you try to sing what the real words would be, it's hilarious, especially when you start repeating everything backwards, the way the song goes. Leaving you with a valuable new year's resolution: laugh more.

10 comments:

bill7tx said...

Happy New Year, Sister!

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year Sister! Thanks for the laughs and the learning.

sandy said...

Thank you for sharing your wonderful sense of humor with us Sister. Have a happy and blessed new year!

Tienne said...

I completely agree about the song being a terrible teaching tool because it's too difficult to remember what everything stands for. You are wonderfully funny, Sister! Happy New Year!

breadgirl said...

Sister
Thank you for a wonderful Blog! I happily await your offerings for 2010. A very Happy New Year to you. God bless you,

Leigh said...

Happy New Year Sr. MM!

Still going strong with your Facebook fan page. All Facebook folks who subscribe to your fan page receive a link to every updated post in their News Feeds. Your wisdom is streaming all over the place. Your fans on Facebook have left numerous comments on your page. Facebook folks: Simply do a search on Sister Mary Martha and become a fan. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

Imagine my elation to discover that your blog is #40 on the Amazon Kindle blog subscription list (out of over 8,000 blogs). That's amazing Sister!! You're among the ranks of The Huffington Report, the New York Times, Michelle Malkin, and Politico. Way to go!!

Anna B. said...

Happy New Years!

Anonymous said...

Dear Sr,

Shameless plug: I have included you in my blog roll. Will you include me in yours and encourage your readers to follow my posts?
Pax et Bene,
Fr. Gerald J.M. Mendoza, O.P.

Gardenia said...

Love you, Sister. love your blog. Happy New year.

Anonymous said...

Are there any saints who were jinxed misunderstood all their lives?