Finally something to write about

I'm probably the only one happy to have been tagged! It gives me a chance to reactivate my blog.

Here's the tag directions:
1) Open the nearest book to page 123.
2) Post sentences 6, 7, and 8 from that page.
3) Tag five others.

Those who minister to and for young people must make justice and service an integral part of Catholic youth ministry. As a result, youth ministry will not simply be to and for youth, but will be done with and by them as well.
Over the last twenty years, catechetical programs, often those associated with Confirmaiton preparation for young adolescents, have introduced a service component as a mandatory aspect of the sacramental process.

(from "The Vision of Catholic Youth Ministry", edited by Robert J. McCarty)

Hmmm, who should I tag? who else blogs? Everybody does facebook or some other stupid thing that I don't access. Okay, so this will probably kill this whole tag thing. How about Josh, Laura, Allen, Erica S., and Molly. All of these people at one time blogged; so maybe they can reactivate their blogs too!

The Short Happy Life

Kirby died.

And it seems like only yesterday he was happily adjusting to his new home in Jeph's room. Well, actually it was last Friday. He sure didn't hold out very long.

In case you don't know, Kirby was Jephtha's cray fish. I don't really mind the kids bringing these little buggers home because I know they're not going to last. We are just not meant to be pet people. No living creature we've ever had has approached the average life expectancy for its species. We've had fish, hamsters, rabbits, and even a stray cat. That cat seemed pretty hardy too, but we proved to be the kiss of death by claiming (and naming) it.

Maybe we could make some sort of arrangement with the humane society and save them the expense of euthanisizing their animals.

February: Lent and Valentines Day

Well it's February which means "I Love to Read" month at Hamiliton, thus also at the Novaks. 'Cept, I HATE "I Love to Read" month. I like the concept-- extra reading time, less t.v.-- but all this documenting and setting timers while you're reading-- what a drag. Our kids are doing pretty well with it, though. We've been reading a lot more to Josiah (even Juli is helping him out with his reading) and Clara has been reading a lot of chapter books this month. I think she's surprised herself with how well she can read now. She started off 2nd grade with some problems but she's been working very hard all year and has made big improvements. Jephtha, although the best reader of all these kids, doesn't particularly like to read (I suspect it's because he's lazy and prefers the passive activity of t.v.). I've had to hold off on signing some of his reading slips because he keeps putting down the same chapter book and if he'd really been reading it for 500 minutes I think he would be done with it. So I'm not signing his 700-minute slip until he finishes that book. The slip has been sitting here all week...

It's been fun listening to everone's reports of Valentines Day (or even their plans for Valentines Day). We didn't really celebrate. The last couple of years we've gone out to Erte's, a pretty nice restaurant in NE. We just didn't get around to making any plans for that this year. So we may be going out to a local restaurant tonight (like Timberlodge or Olive Garden). It's hard to celebrate Valentines Day during Lent.

Speaking of Lent, how's that going for everyone? I haven't put a lot of effort into it so far. It felt good going to Stations and Mass last night (and it must be a good "penitential" thing to do, 'cause Anna griped about it before, during and after). Sometines, being at a church all the time, it really makes it difficult to differentiate between these seasons. Plus we spend so much time looking ahead and planning that I'm already thinking about spring and summer events.

Same old, same old

Well, I figure if Eric Peterson can blog... time to give this another shot.

So what's new in my world? I don't want to bum everyone out (or the two people who may atually read this), but mostly negative stuff has been going on.

First, there's Melinda. In the last week she's managed to get kicked off student council and get ISS. All of this entails me getting a phone call from my former colleague, Peggy, who's now a counselor at CRMS. Melinda tells her she feels "pressure" to live up to the reputation of her siblings. Really?? Did one of them set some kind of record for detentions that I'm not aware of, because that's the only kind of reputation she's been trying to establish.

Then, there's my job. It's not totally dismal, but sometimes it's discouraging. For example, I have a Confirmation retreat coming up in about 10 days that's going to involve 120 kids and I only have about 5 leaders for it. I just did one of these retreats this past weekend, and it went pretty well. However, I read some of their "letters to the pastor" and it showed me that most of them have no idea what Confirmation is, what the Catholic faith is, and that most have minimal involvement in church (I asked them to discuss how they would be involved in the Church after being confirmed and most said something to the effect that they would try to come to Mass more often).

I also have a lot of stuff coming up at work that needs attention. Like our youth famine (which we're only doing for 24 hours this year instead of the standard 30). I have to find a bunch more service sites (although who knows, maybe we'll only get a dozen or so kids participating). And we're scheduling a spring break mission trip to Red Lake Indian Reservation for Mar. 27-31. Again, we'll see what kind of a response we get from the youth.

Whew, posting is exhausting. No wonder I don't do it more.

Pacifism, Just-War Theory, and Non-Violence

Our JustFaith group has been focusing on non-violence these past few weeks. We have an interesting book that we're reading, "The Powers That Be" by Walter Wink. It's difficult stuff, and touches some pretty sensitive nerves of some of the people in our group (we have a former career military person in our group). I had never really thought too critically of the Church's teaching on "Just-War" before, but reading this book and considering much of the Scriptural "evidence" it uses, I'm reconsidering how I look at this justification for violence. As this author proposes, just-war would not have been something Jesus would have come up with and, in fact, for the first 300 years, the Church did not accept war as an option. (How things change when the power differential shifts, huh?!) So, our just-war criteria is a bit like a compromise, oh heck, call it what it is, sell-out, of true Christian principles.

On a related note, our most recent horrific massacre at Virginia Tech has me pondering why we're fighting a "war on terrorism" in the Mid-East, against Muslims, when real terrorism occurs regularly enough on our own soil. Why safe-guard me and my fellow citizens from Muslims and Mexicans? I'm in more imminent danger from my fellow co-workers, bus riders, and students than a specific religious or ethnic group. Can someone explain to me again why handguns should be legal? Their sole use is to kill other people. Clearly, law-abiding, sane people purchase them and then can unpredictably turn into crazy, dangerous, homicidal criminals. So why do we want anyone to have them??

Must be time to stop writing. I'm beginning to sound like a ranting, over-zealous liberal nut case too.

Grandma Novak

Yay! Today I am a grandma.

It's a little surreal, but also so wonderful. What a beautiful baby! As I told Gina and Josh, this is a lot easier way to get a baby. Little Coen is so sweet. When we first saw him, he was so alert, looking all around. Eventually, he started fussing, but not whole-heartedly. Kind of like he just wanted to hear his voice. Gina, from all accounts, really excelled at labor and delivery, surpassing even her mom's acheivements. And she was willing to accept visitors 45 min. after giving birth!

So, now that I'm a grandma, I think I can relax a little in many areas of my life, like personal maintenance (yeah, I know, I let down on that one sometime back), keeping up on current trends, being alert and coherent...hmm... this might not greatly change a lot of my life after all!

Waiting... and Guilt

I feel like my life these days is in a kind of holding pattern. I'm waiting for things to happen. I'm waiting for Gina and Josh to have their baby. I'm waiting for Lent to be over. I'm waiting for SOMETHING to happen to spark this ministry. At least I don't have to wait for the baseball season. Thank goodness for baseball. There's a real comfort in its steadiness. It brings to mind the James Earl Jones monologue from "Field of Dreams": "The one constant through it all has been baseball." So true.

I've been reflecting a lot lately on what's going on at Epiphany. For anyone not aware, both youth ministry positions have been posted on the job line. Looks like there will be another casualty of Epiphany Youth Ministry this year. I guess I have guilt. I feel responsible. In truth, I know I share the responsibility for what's going on now but, being ever the good Catholic, I feel guilty. I see my actions as hugely contributing to the present situation at Epiphany. And yet, I had to leave. I don't like to imagine what my life would look like today if I had stayed there. In many ways, life has gotten easier doing harder work at Pax Christi. And it just feels right. God is good.