7 Quick Takes #5 Snapshots

Thank you Jen for hosting at Conversion Diary

1. Here I will be sharing some photos that represent some recent(ish) happenings. We enjoy taking pictures of things we do, or food we cook, but then we don't do much with the pictures. So here are some entertaining shots.

2. My husband's birthday was early in October, and I made him a birthday pie (we tend to enjoy pie more than cake). Here's his birthday pecan pie with the candles. The blue candles each stand for 10, the pink one 5, and the white ones are one each. (I thought that was pretty clever.)

3. In early October we also decided to go "pescatarian" together.  I have been vegetarian since I was 18, and my husband is not a vegetarian. He suggested this (at first jokingly) as an experiment. So, I am now eating fish (which I grew up eating), and he now eats fish, but no other meat. It has been interesting so far. Here is a dinner that we thought came out pretty nice. I made the sweet potato (covered with rosemary and garlic) and the mushrooms in syrup over polenta, and he made the fish (I think this is a whiting fillet).


4. Remember the science fairs they used to have in elementary school, and there was always a kid who put celery stalks in colored water? Well, I randomly decided to try that myself when I cut off the bottom of a celery bunch and noticed it looked like a flower. So I tried this experiment. I was really surprised to see the little stalks in the center actually start growing. Check this out. It's Bonsai celery!






5. So last week we had hurricane Sandy, and we were pretty lucky only to lose power for one night.  My husband finished grading a couple of papers by candlelight. No joke, he really did. A few days later, the power was turned off for repair work. It was still out by dinner time, but we have a gas stove, so we were able to cook dinner. My husband thought it would be fun to do this:

6. I bought something recently that confuses me. Here is a picture of their packaging. It looks like they are trying to make the product look sexy.  I should probably have something intellectual to say about our culture sexualizing everything.  This is just looks really corny though.

They're socks! Fuzzy socks!
I mean, packaging like this could make sense on, say, hosiery, maybe, but fuzzy socks??
 




7.  I have a very high appreciation for fuzzy socks, though. I have a few different pairs, and would like some more. My feet always get really cold in winter, and it is hard for me to keep them warm. I often need to layer socks, and fuzzy socks definitely help.

Hope you enjoyed the snapshots!

7 Quick Takes #4- Church History edition

These are two days late and posted in a hurry. .

1. I am taking a Church History course at the Seminary that I work at, and I am finding it really interesting to learn about the early Church. Here are some highlights. The downside is that the seminary is Protestant, and even in studying the early Church, there is a very apparent Protestant viewpoint. Blessed John Henry Newman said, "To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant." I hope that throughout the course the students may come to understand the Catholic Church a little bit better than they do.

Here are some interesting highlights of things I've read in the course so far:

2. St. Ignatius of Antioch: If I only hear "St. Ignatius," I automatically think of the one from Loyola. Maybe having gone to a Jesuit college has something to do with this. Ignatius was the Bishop of Antioch during the reign of the emperor Trajan (98-117). Similar to the apostle Paul, he wrote letters to various Churches. He wrote seven of them (at least, seven survive) and they are how we know most of what we know about him.

My favorite line from Ignatius of Antioch to the Romans: "The greatness of Christianity lies in its being hated by the world, not in its being convincing to it." Great line. Fulton Sheen agreed

3. Correspondence of Pliny and Trajan: Pliny was a governor who was writing the emperor Trajan about how he should deal with Christians. What he had been doing was when Christians were reported to him, he asked them three times whether they were Christian, threatening punishment. If they did not give up Christianity, he had them executed for their "obstinacy." Trajan writes back to him saying that he has been doing the right things. A few interesting things Trajan points out is that it was not their intent to seek out Christians. They only accused and punished Christians who were reported to them by others.  Additionally, Trajan was willing for former Christians to be pardoned if they worshipped the Roman Gods.

4. St. Irenaeus of Lyons: Irenaeus lived toward the end of the 2^nd century (d. ca. 200). He wrote an awesome treatise called Against Heresies. The main heresy he was refuting was Gnosticism, which was based on supposed "secret" knowledge from Jesus. He makes some very good points refuting it, and asserting the authority of the Church and the succession of Bishops. One pretty interesting thing is how he defers to the Bishop of Rome as having primacy, and to the Church of Rome as a doctrinal standard. (This was before the Bishop of Rome was officially given primacy as Pope.)

One of my favorite lines (ok, these are the harsher ones): "All who destroy the form of the Gospel are vain, unlearned, and also audacious... Wretched men indeed! Who wish to be pseudo-prophets..."

One more neat thing about Irenaeus: He is cited a few times in Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. That's' how important he is.

5. The Second Treatise of the Great Seth: This is a Gnostic text that shows how crazy Gnosticism was, and why Irenaeus was writing to refute it. The speaker claims to be Jesus Christ, but says all kinds of outlandish things. These particular Gnostics were clearly docetists, since the text tries to assert that Jesus only appeared to suffer as a human being. In numerous places, the speaker mocks the Old Testament God, as well as many of the OT prophets.

Interestingly, there are also a few spots where this text doesn't seem too far off, but the writer just has the general context of God and Jesus muddled. For instance, a marriage/wedding analogy comes up twice in this text. We're familiar with those! There is also a reference to after the Crucifixion that is almost right out of the Gospel narratives: "The veil of his temple he tore with his hands. It was a trembling which seized the chaos of the earth, for the souls which were in the sleep below were released."

6. Hippolytus of Rome: Hippolytus (d. ca. 236) was a presbyter who became for a time a schismatic Bishop of Rome (in opposition to Callistus, the real one). Before the end of his life, he did come back to the Church and was reconciled. He wrote the treatise, Apostolic Tradition, in which he describes early Baptismal liturgies. It is pretty similar to the current practice in some ways, which makes it interesting to read. And guess what is used in the liturgy? "The Lord be with you... and with your Spirit." Yes.

It can be read here

7. The Martyrdom of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity. This was pretty amazing. Perpetua was a young noblewoman who wrote part of her account herself. This is the first first-person account we have of a Christian woman. So, she was upper-class, and Felicity was her slave. They were both mothers. Perpetua had a baby boy, who she gave away to relatives. Felicity was pregnant when they were arrested, and after praying about it, she gave birth a month early so that she would be able to be martyred along with her fellow Christians. Perpetua was given a number of visions while in prison, one assuring her of her arrival in heaven after her martyrdom, and another showing her deceased brother having gone to heaven, out of purgatory after her intercession. (Yay, intercessory prayer!) Perpetua's story can be found here.  I highly recommend reading it!

Oops! I forgot to link to www.conversiondiary.com

7 Quick takes Friday #3- 1st Anniversary edition

Thank you Jen at Conversion Diary for hosting. 

1. We spent the last week of June on vacation with my husband's family. We rented cottages at a lake. It was an enjoyable week. He and I went canoeing on the lake like 4 times! That was really fun. I had never been in a canoe before. I now want us to buy one. We even got up early to watch the sunrise over the lake on the last day. 

2. Unfortunately, the vacation did not really end pleasantly. On the morning of the last day (Saturday), my husband got bitten by a stranger's dog. It was not a bad bite; it is now almost completely healed (it will be a week tomorrow). It was an unpleasant and inconvenient experience, though. When we got home we went to the emergency room to have it checked, and he was given a tetanus booster shot and an antibiotic. And now we know he is (mild-moderately) allergic to penicillin.

3. Anniversary Day! July 2^nd: Romantic morning trip to primary care physician to confirm the above allergy. Later on, movie/dinner date. We saw Snow White and the Huntsman, and it was pretty enjoyable. Then we went to Applebee's, where I was annoyed at how non-vegetarian their menu is. They were nice, though, and let me sub a veggie burger into an interesting chicken dish.

4. July 3^rd: Historic anniversary trip to Valley Forge. We like going to historic places. We spent half of our honeymoon last year in Gettysburg. So this year we took a day-trip to Valley Forge and learned some interesting facts about the experience of the Continental Army during the summer of 1777-78. If I correctly remember what the ranger said, the only other revolutionary encampment that was made into a national historic park is Morristown, NJ.

5. The nice thing about our anniversary being July 2^nd is that we get fireworks close to it. Last year, on our honeymoon, we went to an outdoor concert which ended with fireworks (and included the 1812 Overture!). This year we were able to see a local fireworks show from where we live.

6. We were really glad to hear that Fulton Sheen was declared Venerable. Yay!!

 Article at National Catholic Register 

7. We saved two cupcakes from our wedding in our freezer all year and ate them for our anniversary. They were a bit stale, so maybe we didn't seal them well enough. My husband's family saved a bunch that we sent them home with, and those survived very well. So it can be done.

7 Quick Takes Friday #2

Thank you Jennifer for hosting at Conversion Diary!

1. We are away this weekend, visiting my husband’s family. I just went to ask him whether he had anything he wanted to mention in this post, and found him kneeling with most of his arm behind a radiator. He looked pretty funny. He is helping his dad to clean the wall behind the radiator so that the wall can eventually be painted.

2. This morning my husband and his dad took a walk over to his old Catholic grade school (actually, they both went there). It closed a number of years ago, sadly, is now being demolished. The land was sold. My husband says, “I can see the future of Catholic education in [this city]. It is a Mormon Temple.” That’s who the Diocese sold the land to.

3. He and his dad were also working on fixing one of the front headlights of our car. Why do the lights keep going out? It still seems like the brake light being replaced was recent. Sigh. The light burned out, and the thing was filled with water for some reason. It looked pretty crazy when they took it off and showed me. Then they dried it out in the oven. Pretty funny to put a car part in the oven, I think.

4. The other day when we were on our evening walk through our neighborhood, we saw three deer! I think it is so cool to live in a neighborhood where we can sometimes spot random deer, either in someone’s yard, or a small wooded area. Unfortunately, we didn’t have our camera on us. We missed an awesome shot. We were in the street looking into the woodsy area, at this deer that had it’s head turned and was looking right back at us! And there were two others in the background. It was totally awesome.

5. This summer, we are doing a reading group with some Catholic friends of ours. We are reading The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. I have never read these before, but have seen the movies. I am interested in actually reading these books.  

6. My husband’s family has a metal fire pit in their back yard. Today we made a fire in it. It was pretty nice to look at. I enjoyed poking it and making sparks too. Yes, I was playing with fire. No, I never did as a child.

7. I was tempted to roast marshmallows.  A few of us did, but I don’t eat marshmallows because I’m a vegetarian, and I avoid gelatin. Marshmallow-roasting does tempt me to make an exception, though.

7 Quick Takes Friday #1

First time joining in and doing "7 Quick Takes."  Thank you Jen at Conversion Diary for hosting.

1. So we began this blog while we were engaged and he was away in Italy doing research for his dissertation. We thought a blog would be an interesting outlet for expressing various observations and opinions, and would give us a collaborative activity.

We intended to have a post once a week, and alternate posting. That way, we would each do a post every other week. That was a good intention, but, well, at least it was a good intention.

So, the main "scope" of the blog is to share our viewpoints of various things, and for the most part it is not really about us personally. I will use these quick takes to share some random tidbits about us.

2. I have two betta fish. Well, I guess I need to start someplace, and they are on my mind since I just changed the water in their tanks. Their names are Pontos and Nereus. I have had them for about a year and a half. They have been doing well for the most part. Pontos's fins have been shrinking lately for some reason, though. Taking pictures of them is fun, and using the flash makes them look as if they are glowing. Pretty cool.

Pontos

Nereus

  

3. We try to go on walks around our neighborhood regularly. We like hiking occasionally. Ok, I like hiking occasionally, as long as it's not too difficult. My husband would probably hike almost every day if he could. We are going hiking this Sunday with a few friends. I finally now have a proper pair of hiking shoes. I wore them on our walk today to get used to them.

4. Over the summer we will go on an annual week-long extended-family vacation with my husband's family. We will be staying in rented cottages near a lake. He actually missed it the last three years for various reasons, so he has been looking forward to it.

I have never done this before. To me, going on vacation involves at least a motel. Air conditioning mandatory. Continental breakfast appreciated. So I am nervous about staying in a cottage, especially without air conditioning. Other than that, I think it will be a fun time.

5. This summer we are going to learn to be catechists. We are going to take a catechist training course to be certified by our diocese. We are not yet sure if we will teach kids or adults. Our diocese is beginning to require that parishes do "whole family catechesis," which I think is a great idea. I am looking forward to helping others learn about our faith.

Something we would really like to do at some point is to teach engaged couples the "God's Plan for a Joy-filled Marriage" class. Our diocese requires that for engaged couples, along with the regular pre-cana class. It is based on John Paul II's Theology of the Body, which we are interested in studying more formally at some point.

6. I am going to be taking a graduate-level Church history course this fall. This is a course at the institution that I am a librarian at. I work part-time, and was not eligible for tuition remission until now. It's pretty cool. I hope to eventually pursue an MA in theology. For now, I'll just take courses here one at a time, since I can.

7. My husband is now (for all intents and purposes) ABD. This means he has finished coursework, passed the relevant exams, and has done "all but the dissertation" for his PhD.  Yay for him!