Wild Tangents
Marc talks about life in Nashville, life as a Catholic and life as a geek.

What am I giving up for Lent? Well, technically nothing.

My answer is this senator, nothing.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist that since one of the cable channels was running the first two Godfather movies back to back a week or so ago. While I was channel surfing as I often do, I landed in the middle of that scene. It’s been running through my head as I considered this blog post.

Lent is the time of year that Catholics prepare for Good Friday and Easter. It’s not what you find in you belly button when you’ve been wearing a new white t-shirt all day. It’s also not what I did when I let you borrow my lawn mower. I want my mower back BTW. It’s partially based on Our Lord spending forty days in the desert fasting and praying. It’s also a time for

Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him. This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning.” By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert. CCC #540

There’s also a tradition of “giving something up” for Lent. Some folks give up sweets, others television and yet others beer or coffee. No matter what it is, it’s usually something that people enjoy. They give it up to take a share in the redemptive suffering of Christ, by voluntarily missing out on something they enjoy.

Well, this year I’ve decided to do something a little different. Instead of a “to-don’t” list, I’ve come up with somewhat of a “to-do” list. I’ve picked out ten books that I will work hard to get read during these forty days.

Here’s the list of books I’ve put together for Lent. They’re books I already have in my stack of “to read”, and not necessarily titles that are “Lent related”. There’s no particular order here either.

Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots By Scott Hahn

Prayer Primer : Igniting a Fire Within By Fr. Thomas Dubay

The Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine By Pope Benedict XVI

God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)

Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols By Mike Aquilina and Lea Marie Ravotti

The History of the Church: From Christ to Constantine (Penguin Classics) By Eusebius

Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love By Carl Anderson and Eduardo Chavez

Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church By H. W. Crocker III

The Confessions of Saint Augustine (Image Book) By by St Augustine

City of God By St Augustine

I know this is a bold plan, but I don’t mind being bold for my faith. The last three titles make this especially so. There are forty days in Lent (not including Sundays), so I basically have four days for each book. Some of these will go faster than that. We’re four days in and I’ve already made a huge dent in Signs of Life. I plan to finish it tomorrow and get a long way with Church Fathers, so I am off to a good start. As I finish these, I’ll try to do a writeup on each one here on WT while the book is still fresh on my mind.

So, am I a loser for not picking out a few things to give up for Lent? Well, when you consider that I don’t have exactly the best in reading comprehension skills and some of these books are pretty deep, I do have a tough row to hoe. I won’t be able to keep up with my normal leisurely activities. Less television, no video games and a shortage of time for online actives all constitute a sacrifice to me. Better yet, its all going to better myself in a number of ways as well. Plus I won’t have those lines from all those movies floating through my head, since I won’t be doing any channel surfing.

I am hoping that by the time I get to the real meaty books at the end, I will have gotten into a groove that will push me to the end of the list. With that hopefulness in mind (we should always be full of hope), I also have a few C. S. Lewis books that I’d like to read if I finish early. Like I said, I’m being bold.

Well, I guess I should finish this writing stuff and get to reading!

I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and leave you with a quote from the president that instituted the holiday.

“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” – Abraham Lincoln

This is a message for anyone in the Galatin area with preschool age kids. There are openings in the pre-k class at the school for my church. This pre-k program, while sounding expensive at first, is actually cheaper than daycare when you add it up. Plus the kids there are actually learning something. Give the school a call and check it out. Here’s the link the for the school.

http://www.saintjohnvianney.org/school.html

Something really caught my attention in may pastor’s homily this past weekend. He started off by talking about the storm that recently came through the area. He mentioned how amazing it was how many branches there were on the ground and immediately compared them with the branches our Blessed Lord mentions in the gospel. Here’s the scripture (John 15:1-8):

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you.
Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own
unless it remains on the vine,
so neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me
will be thrown out like a branch and wither;
people will gather them and throw them into a fire
and they will be burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
By this is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

His comparison got me to thinking. We often think that when God touches us in our lives, it is a “touchy feely” comfortable experience. But often times when He gives us a helping of His grace, it’s like we’re branches and there’s a storm trying to shake us loose from the tree. Our own concupiscent natures make us want to resist this infusion of grace. That’s because that change goes against that nature, our nature. Such a change is not something that comes easy. It’s a hard thing to go through, but it’s also a process that takes time. We have to work on it constantly and never let our guard down. One slip and we could undo untold amounts of time hanging on.

We have to weather the storm, no matter how hard it is to hang on.

The other day I was made aware of this conversation that went on between two co-workers. One tells the other what he’s giving up for for Lent.  I’m pretty sure it was something work related.  The other replies that he didn’t know Baptists observed Lent. Well, I guess anyone will observe Lent if it suits their purpose. But it got me to thinking that a lot folks out there might not understand what Lent is, why Catholic don’t eat meat on Fridays in Lent or why we get our foreheads dirty on Ash Wednesday. This idea was reinforced by a private message I got form someone who was curious about abstaining from meat on Fridays. A lot of people just don’t know what it’s all about.

So here I am, wanting to get back in the swing on blogging. I’m thinking that a post on Lent is great idea. I can explain it all! The problem is that I’d still be writing after Lent is over. Besides, why should I take on this task when Jimmy Akin (a man whose job it is to explain the Catholic faith) has already put together a page full of links explaining the observance of Lent. So if you’re curious, check out Jimmy’s page “Welcome to Lent”.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list.  I’m not that smart or good at researching such things.

If you are protestant and greet me with “Merry Christmas” before Advent is over, I won’t be offended.

If you are Jewish and greet me with an Chanukah greeting, I won’t be offended.

If you are Muslim and greet me with an Eid greeting, I won’t be offended.

If you are pagan and greet me with a Yule or winter solstice greeting, I won’t be offended.

If you are atheist and greet me with “Hello”, I won’t be offended.

If you greet me in any way for a holiday in this season based on your religious beliefs, I won’t be offended.

I will also do my best to respect you and your beliefs and not offend you, short of compromising my own beliefs.

All I ask is that you not get offended if I greet you with a greeting based on my religious beliefs and not do anything to offend me.

Simple enough?

A special thanks to my friend Jeff over at the Curt Jester blog for the graphic at the top of the sidebar on the right.  It will go away after Christmas, but until then we should all pray and otherwise prepare for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The graphic is of course an Advent wreath. Advent is the season of the year that Christians wait and prepare for the coming of Jesus leading up to the feast of the Incarnation, otherwise known as Christmas or the feast of the Nativity.

You can learn more about Advent on the article ironically at newadvent.org.

What a great night!

At some point today I was inspired for us to make our own homemade pizzas. I’d seen a few Plurks lately by Migly about his own adventures making homemade pizzas.  He even posted pics, so I decided to follow his lead and do the same.  So since Suzette and I had already planned go grocery shopping today, all I had to do was talk her into getting the pizza makings so we could make our pizzas.  I was smart enough to time it right so the pizzas would be ready sometime around the start of the Titans game.  It worked out pretty well.

Our first stop was Publix.  For the most part, we buy our groceries at Wal-Mart simply because it cheaper.  But Wal-Mart doesn’t have the largest selection of items in the store, so sometimes we have to go elsewhere in order to get all the things we want.  That was the case today as I like Newman’s Own popcorn and Wal-Mart doesn’t carry the brand.  While at Publix we also got dessert, which I’ll talk about later.  Since I knew there may be limited supplies for making a pizza at Wal-Mart, we went ahead and took a look at what Publix had to offer.  We picked up a can of Centos Pizza sauce.  Everything else we got at Wal-Mart including cheese, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and bacon.  I only like my pizza with peperoni.  Suzette like it “Hawaiian” style.  We had pineapple at home, so we were all set, except for one thing.  We had no crust.  Wal-Mart was out fo the only good brand of pizza crust mix they carried (Martha White).  All that was left was their generic brand and “Jiffy” brand. YUK!  So we ended up buying one of the Chef Boy Ardee pizza in a box sets.  We only used the crust from this set.

Now that we had all the ingredients, it was time to mix it up.  We made the dough from the mix and halved it.  I think I actually ended up with a little more than my half, but Suzette was OK with that.  after putting a decent amount of sauce on top of the dough, it was time to add the cheese and the toppings.  Suzette first put plain mozzarella, then her Canadian bacon, bacon (she had fried this put before we even started mixing the dough), and pineapple. On top of all that, she put another layer of mozzarella/cheddar mix.  For mine I put a healthy layer of plain mozzarella with little of the cheddar mix on top of it and as many pepperonis I could get to fit on it.  We actually bought new cake pans while at Wal-Mart, so that’s what we were using for this.  Now they’re ready for the oven.

We were both pretty excited to see how they tuned out.  Me personally, I was upset to find out that the light inside the oven is broken.  There would be no checking them without opening the oven.  After about 20 minutes, we opened the oven to take a peek.  Even though we were both hungry and eager to try our new creations, we decided they weren’t quite done yet, so we shut the oven and waited about five more minutes.  Again we opened the oven and decided they were ready.

All of the sudden, the whole apartment was filled with the wonderful aroma of homemade pizza.  We couldn’t wait to taste them.  At some point while the pizzas were in the oven, the Titans game started  So I wanted to hurry and get them on a plate and get to the game.

Yes, it tastes as good as it looks.  Without being too prideful, I have to say we did a great job.  Not only did we get to eat some wonderful pizza that we had fun making, it was something we did together.  With Suzette spending so much time on her school work and be dividing my time between work and the Church, it’s always nice to do some activity together like that.  It was fun.

Once all my pizza was gone and Suzette felt she had had enough pizza, it was time for dessert. I mentioned we picked up dessert at Publix.  I’m sure glad we did too.  We each got a slice of bakery cheesecake.

The label the bakery put on this was “Monster Cheesecake”. About half of the slice was covered in a chocolate shell, like you sometimes see on ice cream.  I didn’t really like the shell, so I ate the cake out of it.  Suzette did the same.

We finished super about half time in the game.  I think the Titans were waiting for us to finish eating before playing some football.  They were really full of fail in the first half.  But they came back strong in the second half and win the game.

I was really pleased that Suzette stayed in the living room and watched almost the whole game.  Neither one us has ever really been a football fan until this year.  I was sort of pulled in by the amazing Superbowl game last year.  I think it’s starting to grow on both of us, but maybe a little slower for her.  I have to say tough, for a first year football fan, it’s great year to live in Nashville.

We’ve already made plans for a similar supper next week.  What’s on the menu you ask?  We’re leaning towards homemade sliders and onion rings.  If we can’t think of anything better until then, that’s what it’ll be.

Since the feast day of Saint Raphael was just recently celebrated, I thought I would tell my own little story about my encounter with this saint.

If you know me, you know that my wife Suzette is from the Philippines.  We met online in 2002 and after chating online and on the phone for a few months I decided to go over and meet her in person.  Part of my preparation of the trip was to seek out a blessing form a priest I know for the journey. Now when asked who the patron saint of travelers is, any Catholic is likely to answer with Saint Christopher.  His name is a good answer, so I was a little surprised when father invoked Saint Raphael in the blessing. Saint Raphael is is also a good friendly saint to the traveler who is going on a long journey. While father did not knwo the reason for my trip, he did know where I was going. Since I was traveling so far away, he decided to ask for this Saint’s intercession on my behalf for my long journey to the Philippines.

After wards father and I were casually talking about the Saint as he had to explain to me the why Saint Raphael, instead of the expected Saint Christopher.  He then asked me why I was going to the Phillipines.  I told him it was ot meet a woman I had met on Catholic Singles Online. He looked at me like I was crazy.  When I asked him what was wrong, he simply answered, “Saint Raphael is also the patron of those seeking a spouse”. Of course it would only be a couple of short years later that Suzette and I were married.  So as Paul Harvey would say, “Now you know the rest of the story”.

So like sheep following the gas tanker to the gas station, I am following the “Me Right Now” meme. This is me right now. I just got back from Mass.

Here’s the meme:
1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.

If you’re reading this and haven’t done it, do it now.