lenten retreat

{I have had incalculable frustration attempting to load photos onto my apparently overloaded computer. But tonight--hurrah!--succuss. Please accept a few rather belated posts that had been awaiting the company of photographic illustration.}




During Lent we took the opportunity, once again, to retreat from the distractions of the world with a visit to Our Lady of the Annunciation Monastery (aka, Clear Creek Monastery) in northeastern Oklahoma. The buildings have been very slowly under construction since we started visiting several years ago. This time we were quite amazed by the progress! The monks have moved to their new living quarters and are now praying their offices and offering Mass in the new crypt rather than the converted horse barn they previously used.

All of this is new since our last visit.

Beyond this fence is the monk's enclosure:

women strictly forbidden, men by invitation only.
During this visit, The Professor and Firstborn were

allowed back during special procession and were
once invited for a lunch with the brothers.

Following Mass in the crypt, the monks offer their private thanksgivings.




With the monks moved to new facilities,

the previous building has now become the

family guesthouse. This imposing fireplace

stands in what used to be the refectory and

now serves as the guests' living room.

I just love that chandelier!

lenten reprieve::third sunday of lent

I know really nothing about the novel "Everyone is Beautiful" by Katherine Center, but I found this sentimental excerpt from the book to be so very lovely.




ETA: I just checked out the book and it looks like a fun, light summer read. I am not generally big on light novels, but this looks promising for a post-lent quick read.

forty days::hope

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
{source here}


ten new chicks peeping about at The Suburban Ranch...

forty days::restraint

{words}

fear of silence

into great silence

{food}

papal message

settling into lent

what the world eats


{consumerism}

30 days of nothing (easily adapted to lent)

100 Thing Challenge

forty days::spiritual reading

"The good God gave me a father and mother

more worthy of Heaven than of earth." ~St. Therese

Written by her daughter, Celine Martin, this is the "insider's" story of the recently canonized Zelie Martin-mother of St. Therese the Little Flower. It is a modern tale of a 19th century woman who wed at the age of 27, bore nine children whom she loved "madly", and ran a successful business. It is the story of a woman who suffered poor health, bore the sorrow of losing four of her nine children while they were still very young, and died a painful death at the age of 45 from breast cancer, yet remained happy and steadfast in her Faith. It is the tale of woman much admired by her family, neighbors, and servants for her incredibly generous spirit and pious soul. Celine writes of her (p62):

In everyone's estimation, as I have already said, Mother was
completely unselfish and utterly forgetful of self. As a result, she could
think of others and devote herself entirely to their service.

The book is filled with excerpts from letters written by St. Zelie; it seems she was rather prolific with her pen and for that we can be grateful. In this letter written to her daughters Pauline and Marie on All Saints Day 1873, we are witness to her humility (p43):

I want to become a saint; it will not be easy at all. I have a
lot of wood to chop and it is as hard as stone. I should have started
sooner while it was not so difficult; but, in any case, 'better late than
never'.

A truly lovely and inspiring story that belongs in every mother's library.

forty days::contemplation

Tonight while reading "Abe Lincoln Grows Up" by Carl Sandburg to the children, we briefly paused for thought after reading this rather sobering passage:

And there was the ballad of Wicked Polly, who danced and ran wild and told
the old folks, "I'll turn to God when I get old, and He will then receive my
soul." But when death struck her down while she was young and running
wild, she called for her mother and with rolling eyeballs cried, "When I am
dead, remember well, your wicked Polly screams in hell."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In this beautifully crafted and historically researched story of Abe Lincoln's life for children, Sandburg purports that this was among the ballads that little Abe's mother, Nancy Hanks sang to him. (I'll spare you the ballad in which The Brown Girl puts a little knife through Fair Ellender's throat after he remarks that she is plagued with brown and the Brown Girl's Hero pulls his sword and cuts off her head and then thrusts the sword through his own heart. Might be too gruesome.)

forty days::for life

Yup, that is Flipsyde on Soul of the Home! Give it a listen.

(HT: Emma at Charming the Birds from the Trees)

Another father speaks out (Actor Gary Graham, Star Trek: Enterprise):

I have been on all sides of this issue for most of my life, and I can simply not escape the logic. That fetus a pregnant woman is carrying inside of her, regardless of the gestation stage, is a living, breathing human being. Yes, breathing – the amniotic sac forms 12 days after conception, and in the second trimester the baby is actually breathing the amniotic fluid. It’s not an ‘unviable tissue mass.’ Not a wart, a mole, a skin outcropping, a boil, or a bundle of uncoordinated cells. It’s not just a ‘fetus’.

It’s a baby. Not fully developed, true. Like an infant is not a fully developed and mature adult. But it’s a baby.

And the first time I got a girl pregnant, I would have wrestled you to the ground for saying that. How f*cking dare you? You don’t know what you’re talking about! You piece of crap, you don’t know!

Well I do know. And I stand condemned. I’ve paid for three of them and was responsible for probably several more, I’m not really sure. But it breaks my heart. Because I’ve been convicted in my soul. It took years after the fact, but I was shown the Truth. And not to get mumbo-jumbo, oogly-boogly on you, but it was a spiritual awakening that did it. It happened unexpectedly, and it threw me to my knees in sudden tearful epiphany of what it meant for a man to be with a woman, what sex was really designed for by our Creator and… what abortion is. Go ahead, read the whole post...

(HT: Church of the Masses)

Now what?


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forty days::fasting

Utamur ergo parcius,

/ verbis cibis et potibus,

/ somno, iocis et arctius

/ perstemus in custodia.

Let us use sparingly

words, food and drink,

sleep and amusements.

May we be more alert in the

custody of our senses.

from the Holy Father's message for Lent 2009

image via fisheaters