Links I Love + Ven. Fulton Sheen Quote-y Goodness

Happy Tuesday! I think I'm going to take a cue from The Evangelista, and share some gems that I've come across on the webbernets lately (thank you to Fr. Kyle for that fabulous word. Interwebs, too!). Here we go:

This. This times five hundred and ninety-two! As a youth minister, I share similar frustrations... partially because the sorts of comments that he describes always make me somewhat insecure. But also, because I really, truly do want every baptized Christian to realize that they can be a relevant witness, if they love the Lord, love the people they meet and engage the culture in which those people live. I'm not the only person who can relate to youth, just because I'm 23, as if I'm going to expire someday. Thank you, Edmund, for this!

Jenifer Fulwiler has been rocking my socks lately! Last week, I exhorted you to watch her show; now, here it is, for your YouTube viewing pleasure! I was very excited indeed that it was trending on Twitter! Today, I also ran across this article she wrote about the message that dressing up sends to our lackadaisical culture.

My parish recently got Lighthouse Catholic Media, so I've been listening to their talks to try to spread the word! Today I listened to "True Worship" by Fr. Mike Schmitz, and I am in love with it. If I had listened to it earlier, I would have ordered a whole bunch of copies and handed them out as Christmas presents to the teens in my youth group... I still might do that sometime. It's not a freebie, but it's well worth the $2.50 to get the MP3 version online. Listen and share!! You can also find his homilies (for free) here. Praise the Lord for his gift of preachin' the truth! Seriously, it cuts me to the core.

This picture. Memes are kind of starting to get old for me. But this one makes me smile so much! Imagine Dwight saying it, and I guarantee that there is a 97.2% chance that it will make you feel better on a rainy day.

God's providence plays a definite hand in saving a prematurely born baby's life! I'm less than impressed with the UK's "ethical guidelines," but praise the LORD that this little one is alive and with his parents today!

Last but not least, I've been running across some smashing quotes from the Venerable Fulton Sheen over the last couple of days!

"Love that is only giving, ends in exhaustion; love that is only seeking, perishes in its selfishness. Love that is ever seeking to give and is ever defeated by receiving is the shadow of the Trinity on earth, and therefore a foretaste of heaven." (Three to Get Married)

"Each child that is born begins to be a bead in the great rosary of love, binding the parents together in the rosy chains of a sweet slavery of love." (Three to Get Married)

And my current favorite:

"If at all possible, the priest should make his daily Holy Hour before celebrating his Mass. Now that the Church's regulations on the pre-Eucharistic fast have been modified, he will be well-advised to take a cup of coffee before he starts. The average American is physically, biologically, psychologically and neurologically unable to do anything worthwhile before he has a cup of coffee! And that goes for prayer too. Even sisters in convents whose rules were written well before electric percolators were developed would do well to update their procedures. Let them have coffee before meditation." (The Priest is not his Own)

"...physically, biologically, psychologically and neurologically unable..." Gets me every time! I'm still giggling over it... dude, I really wish I could have coffee with Fulton Sheen. That would be the best! Although apparently, he shows up in my friend's dreams and drinks milkshakes with her. #jealous. (Probably shouldn't complain, though, because Cardinal Dolan crashed my dream once! It was pretty fabulous.)

I will leave you with one of my favorite links, the Mass readings of the day. Hopefully, this site isn't new to you. You might need a refresher on who Manoah from Zorah is, though! I did. But in all seriousness, the readings for tomorrow are beautiful, especially considering all of my friends who are currently pregnant, hoping for pregnancy, or taking care of small children. I also love this line from the Psalm 71, especially as a youth minister:

"For you are my hope, O Lord;

my trust, O God, from my youth.

On you I depend from birth;

from my mother's womb you are my strength."

See, it is possible and beautiful to be young and holy! St. Therese (my fave!) comes to mind here.

That's all for now! I pray for you, you pray for me... good night!

P.S. If anyone knows why my formatting ends up looking funny, especially for quotation marks and apostrophes, please let me know how I can fix that! I'm a grammar/format/editing nerd, so it bugs me. Thank you!

Everyday Deliberations

Just scattered thoughts today... some of which are relevant, some of which probably aren't:

First off, you really need to watch "Minor Revisions" this evening. Tonight is the first of three parts in this reality show following Jennifer Fulwiler, the author of the "Conversion Diary" blog. I'll let Brandon Vogt do all the explaining about why it will be awesome: http://brandonvogt.com/revisions/. You can watch it at 8pm Eastern time tonight at http://netny.net/watch-now/ (How fabulously convenient for those of us who don't have TV!).

Secondly, I've been thinking about the implications of texting on communication. I know, not really unique. But it dawns on me that I probably would talk to people less if I did not have texting. It's a nifty little tool when you don't really have time for a phone call, you know? Anyway. Not a particularly innovative or profound thought, but there it is.

And then we have the practical considerations of life. Things like, should I start parking my car in the front of my house, where there is sunlight? I'm awfully tired of scraping the ice of the windshield, and it's only mid-December. But will the others in my building harbor a grudge against me, just like I have against the SUV that also parks in front and blocks my view and makes me afraid for my safety every time I pull out of the driveway? Hmm. Deliberations.

In other news, can anyone tell me why my wireless internet is constantly cutting in and out? And when I say "in and out," I definitely mean more "out" than "in." It's like my router has decided, "Katie, you get two minutes of internet, and then fifteen of no internet. I'm sorry my dear, we're rationing. Offer it up for the troops! Join the war effort!" Just when I finally stopped being lazy and got around to ordering a new, not-broken charger cord for my laptop... maybe my network forgets what it's like to actually have a computer using it?

I have also resolved that if I one day would like to be married (either to a solely human man, or to Jesus), I need to change some habits, such as how often I clean my house. My smaller goal within this goal is to keep my sink relatively clean. Load the dishes into the dishwasher as I go, instead of letting them stack up in the sink until I run out of spoons. I also need to start mopping my kitchen floor more often - I did it a couple of days ago, and I like my apartment so much better like this! Not that I think marriage depends on clean spoons and kitchen floors, but it's the principle of the matter. Discipline! Good habits! Whip that free will into shape! Wha-bam! If I can't take care of myself and my place when I'm single, how will I ever do it when I'm more busy?? Shudder.

Unfortunately, related to my housecleaning goals, I have recently come to terms with the fact that I work best (or well, at least) under pressure. I've known for quite some time that I'm a procrastinator. Yet, I kept telling myself that I wish I had more time, so that I could try to get things done in advance. I am now just starting to admit that even when I have the time, I don't have the motivation. Extra time, for me, = yay! More extra things that I can do that aren't required! And more time for FUN! I have come to grips with the understanding that when my college work was done during an all-nighter simultaneously with 4 other papers/projects, all at the same time, it was mucho better than when I had plenty of time and only one assignment to get done. (I also did better in Honors class when I didn't do the readings, but that is another story for another time.)

This realization makes me feel like an irresponsible person... so I think I'm going to go back to my office and make myself feel productive now. Besides, I'm in the tiny window where my wireless is working... better publish this thing fast!