random thoughts for a Monday off from work

• Yesterday morning I heard a mourning dove singing outside my window. It's the first dove I've heard this year. The ice outside is so think I can stand on it without making a dent but Spring is coming.
  
  
  


• I'd love to see Queen Isabella be cannonized. She and her daughter Queen Catherine are two of my great heroines but the human odds against Isabella are high. The whole weak Western world trembles in fear before Islam and the Muslims would probably object to her Cause. A number of Jewish groups would also protest.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• For Lent I've decided to take up the Holy Face devotion and I'm going to start a curse jar. Every time I say something spicy I'll put 50 cents in the jar. At the end of Lent I'll give whatever the amount is to one of my Catholic charities.
  
  
  
• I want to do something at my parish but I'm not sure what. After visiting North Carolina I was struck once again by unfriendly Virginia suburban parishes are. Rocky and I attended our parish for a year before anyone other than Fr. Theoden and Fr. Aragorn spoke to us even to say hello. I don't want to be a greeter---- I'm shy and the whole concept is lame and better suited to a church where they dance with snakes anyway---- but something needs to be done. Unless you've been attending my parish for 15 years or have kids at the school you will be largely ignored and that's not good. I'd like to bring it up with Fr. Theoden but I don't want him to think that I am one of those wretched church ladies that are obsessed with running their own little fiefdoms. Maybe what we need is a sodality. I think I'll get into the habit of saying hello to people and see what happens. Maybe it will spread.
  
  
  
• The annual Catholic Charities gala was held last week and from the published photos I've noticed something: several of the women partygoers were dressed immodestly. In one pic a priest stands looking (too his credit) somewhat uncomfortable while surrounded women in strapless gowns. Why would you go to a Catholic function half naked? Why would you ask a priest to pose with you and your heaving boobs? What the heck is wrong with people?