Family and Marriage Conference

Eric and I went to a Family and Marriage Conference Saturday at Notre Dame.  It was hosted by the Office of Family Life of our diocese and we are so glad we went!  We always said that we should do something like this, but hadn't actually signed up for one.  It also helps that the kids are old enough to be home on their own (Sarah was in charge) and we don't have to worry about them too much.  

Dr. Ray Guarendi was the keynote speaker...he is awesome!!  How can you not be inspired by the stories of a father of 10 adopted children?!  He and his wife are very faith-filled, down-to-earth people and have raised these children after adopting them under some pretty difficult circumstances.  We laughed saying that his books should be required reading for 
anyone having children!  

We attended two workshops and heard two talks by Dr. Ray.  There were plenty of breaks in between and lots of food for the whole day :)

What we took away from it, is that families in general are under attack in our current culture (which we already knew) and what we can do to stand strong.  As Dr. Ray said, "Love without discipline is abuse."  Not only being reminded of our parenting responsibilities but also being reminded of the goals and purpose of our marriage was so uplifting and reassuring.  
If you've never heard of Dr. Ray, you should definitely read about him here...

Or, watch this to see what a great speaker he is - he brought me to tears a couple of times laughing so hard!

Notre Dame Culture

As the Notre Dame football team prepares to get beat by play Arizona State tonight, I can't help but be reluctant to watch or listen or even care.  Growing up, Notre Dame football was an important part of Saturday afternoons in the fall.  I have fond memories of hearing my family discuss all the ins and outs of the team and then analyze each game.  My dad would listen on the radio a lot because he didn't care for the TV announcers.  When Lou Holtz was coach, in my adolescent mind, he was the BEST.  Most everyone loved him and he was successful - everything a coach and their fans dream of.  He even took the team to a National Championship in 1988. 

When my husband reads this, he will probably be disappointed.  He no doubt knows how I feel, but I try to keep it fairly quiet because of his longstanding emotional admiration for this team.  He grew up heavily invested in Notre Dame sports, especially football.  He and his mom will still talk after the games to share their analysis, opinions and recommendations. 

In the past few years, Notre Dame has expanded their efforts to market themselves.  The year that Obama was nominated, they were the first university to invite him to be the commencement speaker which caused a huge uproar the likes I had not seen in this city before. 

In the years following that event, Notre Dame has been questioned regarding their true standing in terms of the Catholic faith in many ways - too many to list here.  Thankfully, there are those working tirelessly to make sure the Catholic tradition remains true on their campus.

Back to football - since Lou Holtz, there have been some tumultuous years with coaches and players, and it seems the whole program is on a slippery slope. 

At the end of the Michigan State game, the coach was talking to the news reporter on the field after the game and when the students and team started singing the Alma Mater (a tradition which was started in 2006), the coach didn't bother to stop his interview to be with his team...he just kept talking. 

The Notre Dame athletic director decided to change the 'policy' regarding the singing of the Alma Mater in 2011 to determine that it would only be sung after a win.  Even though they have experienced a few losses this year already, the students were still singing at the end of those games.  The students have recently spoken about their disappointment in the above policy change.  I think the administration is missing the point completely.  The song honors Our Lady and since she is the patron saint of the university, the student body and football team should come together to honor Our Lady at the end of every game no matter the outcome. 

We found out yesterday on campus that last week the coach cancelled a longstanding tradition of the team going to Mass before a game.  Turning away from their origins in the Catholic faith is at the root of some current Notre Dame issues (in my humble opinion) and the slope continues to get more slippery.

I'll get off my soapbox now.....

It's been a while...

It's been almost three weeks since the last post!  I think that's a record here.  I have thought of quite a few things I would like to have posted, but...no time.  More on that later.

I attended a talk tonight, after an Altar Rosary Society meeting, at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.  Every fall they have a Catholic literature series with talks given weekly.  This year the topic is Children's Literature and tonight's talk was about the Harry Potter series.  The speaker is a philosophy professor at Notre Dame and a homeschool dad.  It was in a good-sized lecture hall and was very well attended. 

I'll not write too much about it because it wouldn't be nearly as meaningful as how it was spoken.  Mr. O'Callaghan started out discussing some of the most well known philosophers (Socrates, Aristotle, Nietzsche, and Descartes to name a few) and their individual philosophies of life.  Then he eased into how this all relates to the Harry Potter novels.  Whether it was intentional by the author or not the story from beginning to end is a Christian allegory.  No matter what your religion is, no matter what Dumbledore's background story is, no matter what your philosophy of life is, no matter what Rowling's faith life is, if you have eyes to see (as O'Callaghan says), there is an incredible amount of Christian meaning. 

On a side note, one of the daughters of the speaker recited an excerpt from one of the novels at a Catholic Homeschool Talent Show a couple of years ago and was booed by some in the mostly Catholic audience. 

Mr. O'Callaghan stated that when he started reading the novels after their children received them as gifts, it was to make sure they were appropriate for them to be reading.  He had heard from other parents already that the books were about evil, witchcraft and sorcery.  After reading them, he decided that he wasn't just going to let the children read the novels, he was going to make them!   They are full of powerful philosophical and religious messages!

I could go on and on.  I want to end by mentioning that I talked with a couple of other mothers afterwards in the parking lot and one of them made the correlation of the message of the books to being a stay at home mom.  We are not of the will-to-power philosophy, but we believe that sacrificial love is what leads to true happiness.  Love is everything.

I will try to post the talk here when I receive it...

Family motto

On to G.K. Chesterton...I saw this quote on Pinterest, but I wanted to verify it before I made a published post about!  He is such a great author and so difficult for me to understand... I usually have to read each sentence a minimum of three times before I can begin to comprehend it. 
 
                “To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.” –  A Short History of England, Ch.10

After a few minutes of making sure I understood it, I realized this was a much more interesting and intelligent way of saying our new family motto: Just because you can...doesn't mean you should!  I could write too much about all the things this applies to in this culture, but I won't.  I could probably continue this blog strictly commenting on Chesterton quotes.  I envy his wisdom. 

On a side note, I get to see 'Les Miserables' tonight with Erin - really looking forward to that! 

We had a successful art day at the Everett's as usual.  It's double the excitement when you get to make art out of food and then eat it!