My son, the "adult"

Or at least in the Catholic Church. He was confirmed March 31. I can't believe I turend down my Mother-in-law's offer to take a picture of he and I. (Dad had to go out of town).

Ash Wednesday

As a practicing Catholic, Ash Wednesday is an important day. It is a day of Fast and abstenance. We abstain from meat and we are called to fast. My parents - practicing Catholics themselves, had us eat three meals, no snacking in between. Funny, I'm in my early 40's and just recently have I really looked at the blurb in the church Bulletin about what it means to fast per the Church. We are supposed to have 2 snacks and one full meal. The tow snacks are not supposed to equal the amount of the full meal.



I don't fast well. The last 5 to 7 years I find that when I go for more than 5 hours without eating that I get a headache and my emotions start to go out of wack. I start to worry about stupid things. I get agitated and I start snapping at people. I don't like this.



So this morning I decided I was going to try. My stomach was protesting, so I decided to eat 2 South Beach Cereal bars. Not bad. I also had a cup of coffee with some milk. This is about 7:30-8:00. About 11:45 I started to get a headache. My stomach is starting to whine also. So I drank the 6 oz can of V-8 I packed. Then I warmed the piece of Brie I brought and ate it with some crackers. Then I decided to get a small salad from the cafe here in my building.

Ok, So now it's Thursday morning. I still have a headache, must be sinus. But I went home, Had dinner - Some Onion rings, hush puppies and crab cakes. So I am pretty pleased that I managed well.

New Church

I went and registered with our new Parish on Wednesday. They asked for a fmaily picture. I could not find one. (I'm sure my Mom took one at Christmas, but I don't have a copy). So Hubby went and found the tripod and we went out on the deck and took these.

It is interesting, the last two parishes I have been members of are the two largest parishes in the entire Archdiocese. One was the one I grew up in, went to school at and was married at. We still attend occasional Masses there as my brother and his family go there. Then the one just ot the North we were members of for 13 years. I had been an Extraordinary Eucharistic minister for 9 or 10 years, both the boys were baptized there. As a matter of fact, My grandfather had been a member of that parish and his funeral was there.

I had a nice chat with the Director of Adult faith formation at St. Michael's, the new parish. She said this new one is average sized for the Archdiocese. This is a new experience for me. We did have someone stop us after Mass and comment about Hubby's license plates. There are from his alma mater, the Catholic University 50 miles to the North where we just moved from.

Catholic parishes, they are the same, yet they are all different. I am looking forward to this new experience.

Drivers 10 Commandments

So the Vatican issued a list of 10 Commandment for drivers.

Excepts from CNN

'Drivers' Ten Commandments'

The "Drivers' Ten Commandments," as listed by the document, are:
1. You shall not kill.
2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.
3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.
4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.
5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.
7. Support the families of accident victims.
8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.
9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.
10. Feel responsible toward others.


And it suggested prayer might come in handy -- performing the sign of the cross before starting off and saying the Rosary along the way. The Rosary was particularly well suited to recitation by all in the car since its "rhythm and gentle repetition does not distract the driver's attention."

Wow! I may be a bit ahead of things. The post describes my attempt to combat road rage and those self-defeating negative thoughts by praying the Rosary.

Is the world becoming a bit sad the the Vatican feels the need to develop this list?