7-Quick Takes

Join Jen and the other Quicktakers over at the Conversion Diary
1. Sorry for the late blogging this week and I’d like to tell you that next week will be better but…
I don’t know why this keeps happening to me, but a couple of times a year one date or one week will just become unusually – almost unbearably busy. A few months ago I looked at my calendar and it was empty, so I agreed to  be the church coordinator for two weddings on May 10 and 11. Then, the kid’s choir made it into some big competition about an hour from here during that same week. AND the choir Mr. Pete and I perform with scored a performance date. So now the week looks like this:  Concert on Sunday, rehearsal for the kids on Tuesday, wedding rehearsal Wednesday, competition on Thursday, wedding rehearsal and wedding on Friday, soccer on Saturday along with Calvin’s girlfriend’s graduation. Add in homeschooling and yea… I’m stressed!

2. I actually had a young lady write this to me on FB this week (emphasis mine):
 God specifically has said to love thy neighbor as you love thyself. It is directly in the ten commandments. And it does not mean tolerate or hold yourself above them or refuse them anything that you yourself have because they are different that you. It simply means love everyone no matter what. And this issue on refusing marriage goes against that commandment. The way i see it, the ten commandments came directly from God and physical proof that they were from him. Within the other passages, they are only written by the word of man. It does not matter if they are considered holy or not, they are still man. Man has a different perspective than a another man does. Not only can the way things are written be taken multiple ways because of personal perspective, if they are not put into specifics they can also be misinterpreted.

Someone took Raiders of the Lost Ark a bit too literally!

I am unaware of where the “physical proof” of the ten commandment tablets currently reside.

Nonetheless this was my reply:

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself” is from Matthew 7:12. It is also sometimes know as the Golden Rule. It isn’t specifically in the Ten Commandments, but it is in a way a summation of the moral laws in the ten commandments. We know that Jesus said this because the Gospel writers preserved His words and then the leaders of the Church, men, approved the writings and compiled them into what we now know as Holy Scripture. Whenever we read or follow Sacred Scripture we trust that the men in the early church were lead by the Holy Spirit when preserving the inspired written word. This is a trust in the partnership between God and men/ God and his Church. I can understand not having a trust in things of man – but that is why Christ founded the church, so that we would not have to lean on our own understanding but could follow the traditions and the official translations passed on to us through the ages.

Now, if I love myself, I want is what is good for me, and what will lead me to heaven. Sometimes, that means I need another person to tell me things that I may not necessarily not want to hear. Sometimes the answer to, “Does this make me look fat?” is “Yes!!” said in a loving and compassionate voice of course!

And so it is with moral issues. I may have the capacity to love many more men even in a carnal way, but because of the moral laws of the church, I remain bound to the vows These laws, which may be very difficult to follow and sometimes may seem unfair, are actually for my own good and the good of those around me. And so it is with other moral laws such as abortion, contraception, and marriage.

4. At a later point in the discussion, my young FB friend also said:
 yes, older people have seen more and understand a lot of things yet at the same time we have been through our own lives and if you haven’t noticed, things change. multiple things evolve.

Gabe and Noah and I have been reading the Grapes of Wrath and having discussions about how people remain pretty much the same, even though time and circumstances change. I can remember when my mom first went into a retirement center, there were cliques and mean “girls” and crushes and all the rest of it!!  Sometimes listening to my mom talk about the goings on at the home reminded me of high school!  Same sorts of people and problems – just 60 or more years older!!

5. Speaking of reading books together – I can’t bear the thought of missing these types of moments by sending my kids to school.  How many high schoolers get to read the unabridged classics with their parents and siblings, in their sock feet, on a nice couch, with their faithful dog!

6.  Sam went to the prom with his long-time sweetheart. I shot these pics.

7. Lastly, some more first communion pics from last weekend: