Room Blessings!

I just stumbled across this blog by the Chaplin of the Newman Center at George Washington University. GWU is blessed to have this priest. I hope he's there for a long time. I'm going to start follwing his blog (swell, add another to the list of 100+ blogs I already follow) because my daughter will be heading off to college next year and I'd like to get good ideas for bringing her back to the Faith.

Anyways, here's Father Greg's idea, room blessings...

One of the things that that means is that no matter what happened in your room before you began living there, grace now dwells there as a result of a room blessing. It's certainly scary to think of what might have happened in your room in the past several years before you got there - blasphemy against God or the Church, things of the occult (witchcraft, wicca, ouija boards, tarot cards, etc.), alcohol or drug abuse, impure sexual activity, pornography, contraception, self-injury (cutting), inappropriate language or jokes, pirating of materials (videos, music, software), gossip, etc. These sins aren't exclusive to college dorm rooms, of course; Catholics everywhere should have their homes and apartments blessed. But, everyone here knows that sin is all around us...and, serious sin at that. So, the prudent and practical GW Catholic student approaches his or her room as being a place where serious sin might have happened, and so he or she wants to eradicate all of that with a blessing by a priest.

My Life Would S*** Without You

I can't embed the video but it's at this link...

Enjoy!

Guess this means you're sorry
You're standing at my door
Guess this means you take back
All you said before
Like how much you wanted
Anyone but me
Said you'd never come back
But here you are again

Cuz we belong together, yeah
Forever united here somehow, yeah
You got a piece of me
And honestly,
My life would suck without you

Maybe I was stupid for telling you goodbye
Maybe I was wrong for tryin' to pick a fight
I know that I've got issues
But you're pretty messed up too
Either way, I found out I'm nothing without you

Cuz we belong together, yeah
Forever united here somehow, yeah
You got a piece of me
And honestly,
My life would suck without you

Being with you is so disfunctional
I really shouldn't miss you
But I can’t let you go
Oh yeah

Cuz we belong together, yeah
Forever united here somehow, yeah
You got a piece of me
And honestly,
My life would suck without you

Cuz we belong together, yeah
Forever united here somehow, yeah
You got a piece of me
And honestly,
My life (my life) would suck (would suck) without you

Crush

I hung up the phone tonight
Something happened for the first time deep inside
It was a rush, what a rush

'Cause the possibility
That you would ever feel the same way about me
It's just too much, just too much

Why do I keep running from the truth?
All I ever think about is you
You got me hypnotized, so mesmerized
And I've just got to know

Do you ever think when you're all alone
All that we can be, where this thing can go?
Am I crazy or falling in love?
Is it real or just another crush?

Do you catch a breath when I look at you?
Are you holding back like the way I do?
'Cause I'm trying and trying to walk away
But I know this crush ain't goin' away-ay-ay-ay-ayy
Goin' away-ay-ay-ay-ayy

Has it ever crossed your mind
When we're hanging, spending time girl, are we just friends?
Is there more, is there more?

See it's a chance we've gotta take
'Cause I believe that we can make this into something that will last
Last forever, forever

Do you ever think when you're all alone
All that we can be, where this thing can go?
Am I crazy or falling in love?
Is it real or just another crush?

Do you catch a breath when I look at you?
Are you holding back like the way I do?
'Cause I'm trying and trying to walk away
But I know this crush ain't goin' away

Why do I keep running from the truth?
All I ever think about is you
You got me hypnotized, so mesmerized
And I've just got to know

Do you ever think when you're all alone
All that we can be, where this thing can go?
Am I crazy or falling in love?
Is it real or just another crush?

Do you catch a breath when I look at you?
Are you holding back like the way I do?
'Cause I'm trying and trying to walk away
But I know this crush ain't goin' away
This crush ain't goin' away

Fall For You

"Fall For You"

The best thing about tonight's that we're not fighting
Could it be that we have been this way before
I know you don't think that I am trying
I know you're wearing thin down to the core

But hold your breathe
Because tonight will be the night that I will fall for you
Over again
Don't make me change my mind
Or I won't live to see another day
I swear it's true
Because a girl like you is impossible to find
You're impossible to find

This is not what I intended
I always swore to you I'd never fall apart
You always thought that I was stronger
I may have failed
But I have loved you from the start
Oh

But hold your breathe
Because tonight will be the night that I will fall for you
Over again
Don't make me change my mind
Or I won't live to see another day
I swear it's true
Because a girl like you is impossible to find
It's impossible

So breathe in so deep
Breathe me in
I'm yours to keep
And hold onto your words
Cause talk is cheap
And remember me tonight
When your asleep

Because tonight will be the night that I will fall for you
Over again
Don't make me change my mind
Or I won't live to see another day
I swear it's true
Because a girl like you is impossible to find
Tonight will be the night that I will fall for you
Over again
Don't make me change my mind
Or I wont live to see another day
I swear it's true
Because a girl like you is impossible to find
You're impossible to find

Added the link to the Youtube video so you can hear the song...

The Isolation of Teenagers

Over the past year or so, I've been able to watch several teenagers close-up in social situations. It's pretty ugly. I feel depressed for them although it wouldn't surprise me if they themselves didn't feel depressed but pushed the feeling down, covering it with complaints of tiredness and boredom.

They have hundreds of ways to communicate with one another, cell phones, IM, texting, Facebook, etc but so much of it is superficial. Text messages can only be 160 characters. They are learning to speak in soundbites, expressing incomplete thoughts. So their knowledge of one another is very shallow.

Beneath the surface of their lives is a pool of anger. If someone says something to them and it is perceived as something negative, they strike back in kind. They don't learn to trust one another. Resentment towards the other person builds and another friendship/relationship falls by the wayside. This just reinforces their isolation, that they are not understood, they are not loved.

Even if they have pets, they don't interactive with the pet. They may not even like to acknowledge that the pet has a name.

If they connect with someone long enough to get physically intimate, i.e. hook-ups, they discover another way to enable bad feelings to arise because they haven't gotten to know one another emotionally. The girl learns that her feelings aren't reciprocated so her heart hardens a little bit more. The boy learns either that he can use another person or, like the girl, feelings arise in him that he wasn't expecting and which he doesn't want. He quickly ends the relationship and thus his heart hardens too.

It's worse if the couple goes all the way sexually. They don't have the maturity to know how to discuss their feelings and they are not financially ready to make a commitment to one another, i.e. marriage and so stress arises and because they don't have the skills to resolve it, the relationship ends and their hearts are hardened.

Where did this come from? The family, I'm sad to say...

They weren't taught in the home to respect others, to look for the good in others, to put someone else first. While the hard skills; working hard in school, doing chores around the house, are important, the soft skills are just as critical to leading a happy life.

Please pray for them. If they continue down this path into adulthood, it doesn't bode well for the next generation either.

I'm Pretty Proud of My Daughter

It appears that the first guy that my daughter dated and really cared for has dumped her, via text message (yes, an incredibly tacky way of doing it). She's not what I would call a religious person but she has begun praying, specifically, I thought, that they get back together. So I said to her, "You know, God doesn't always answer our prayers in a way that we would like, if it's not His Will." She said, "I know. [former boyfriend's name] and I may not get back together, he may not be in God's plan for me but I've also been praying that he finds someone good to be with."

Is she nice or what?

Prayer Request

Please pray for a friend of ours, a very nice young man who is going to be in a difficult situation tomorrow night.

It's not life-threatening. I just fear his heart's going to get more broken than it already is.

2Co 11:19 For you gladly suffer the foolish: whereas yourselves are wise.

Insanity Reigns!

Just 11 more hours and this Day of Sweet 16 Party-ness will be over!!! Maybe I'll post a picture or two later (or tomorrow).

Sorry about the lack of posts lately

Between revamping the parish library (more on that later) and organizing my daughter's Sweet 16 birthday party, my evenings are full!

How the Pill Works as an Abortifacient

(H/T Jean from CatholicFire)

They have more info on www.myspace.com/stopabortifacients

True Girl

If you have a daughter, grand daughter, niece or family friend between the ages of 10 and 18, she may be interested in this wonderful (and truly Catholic) girls' magazine called True Girl. Right now it is only published bi-monthly but it is a new publication so I'm hoping it will go monthly some day...

It has lots of great articles, uses 'real' girls as models, typically touches on at least one aspect of the Catholic Faith and is just an uplifting read. I wish this magazine was around when I was that age.

It is a refreshing respite from the other girls' magazines out there (Seventeen and Cosmos Girl). Also, a fellow blogger is a contributor to the magazine, Denise Hunnell aka Catholic Mom.

From their website;

True Girl is dedicated and consecrated to Mary, the ultimate role model for all women, who always directs us to her Son, Jesus. By following her example and living by His will rather than ours, we will find ourselves on the path to truth. Please keep our ministry in your prayers!