St. Raffle, pray for us!?!

My kids have found a new archangel, in fact it is their favorite archangel. This archangel is St. Raffle, and is invoked exclusively at parish functions such as fun night. Fun night, that night of mystery, excitement, junk food and candy. The most exciting thing though has to be raffle tickets. These are small holy cards that are received after making a donations to the Church as a remembrance of your generosity in helping Church fundraiser.

The interesting thing is that as a sign of devotion you can go around to various displays around the community room and insert your St. Raffle holy card into a box and at the end of the night one card will be drawn. If your St. Raffle holy card is drawn, you are the winner of whatever is in the display.

My 3 oldest children went to fun night with Grandma and Grandpa and placed their St. Raffle holy cards in front of the slumber party fun altar, I mean table. This has to be every little girl's dream contained on this table: 2 pink sleeping bags, 2 pedicure kits, bag of makeup, box of makeup (with bath products and gel), 4 DVD's, Microwave popcorn, Jenga (GirlTalk edition), 4 piece purple luggage set (this is actually a really nice set), 2 purple fluffy pillows, memory board, candy, "Not Now" door hanger, Pink Cold Beverage Tub (I bet I will never be able to see if I can fit two cases of fine imported beer in that), a twelve pack of generic grape soda, Pink Embellished Bed Canopy, Purple Fuzzy MP3 speaker cube, and coupons for 12 personal cheese pizzas. I think that is all that was on this table of dreams. Of course my three daughters' cards ended up in this box not at the table with the John Deere collectibles, Hunting/Fishing Supplies, or the coveted Imported Beer collection.

Ok, so every little girl that was at the place did the same thing, I had only 3 chances in what must have been a metric ton of St. Raffle Holy Cards of having to deal with all of this stuff. I wasn't worried in the least. I was already having to deal with St. Raphael, setting up a small tank for the feeder goldfish my 2nd oldest had already won and lovingly named Teresa Avila. I was safe.

Then the call came. They won, I now have all of this stuff sitting in my house. I was just reading from the blog, June Cleaver after a Six Pack, because it plays great music while you listen and is fairly funny and right next to me is a purple speaker with Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield coming out of it. Some people spend money at Fun Night and just come home with a cake from the cake walk. I will have a reminder for years to come of the fun my children had with grandma and grandpa while my wife and I went out to eat.

St. Raffle, pity me!

Under the Mercy,

Matthew S

Tons of fun

Before you ask. . .
Originally uploaded by kc0lex (Matthew)

It was a great blast having friends from out of town take a trip back home. We were able to spend several hours visiting and eating pizza. Oh, and the first of what I am certain will be many, "Catholic-Midwest-I have my homeschool stuff with me-what are you doing this year-what are you thinking about doing next year-can i see your stuff-that is sooo cool" mini-homeschool conferences took place during this visit. I was also ecstatic that it only took 45 photos taken on the digital camera in continuous shoot mode to get 2 good photos of all the kids standing together. Well, that and Dawn holding Clara who wasn't the most happy in the world.

Under the Mercy,

Matthew S

Dawn's crack dealer had a sale. . .

Dawn's crack dealer had a sale. . .
Originally uploaded by kc0lex (Matthew)

. . . and she got all of this for just 8 dollars, a mere $0.20 a book. My wife isn't addicted to drugs, she is addicted to books. I am proud of her, she went through and got all the books she was interested in and thinned it down until she had just 40. The really scary part is that she spent three hours going through just the kids books, she never made it to the adult books that were on sale. The bonus was that it was for a good cause, benefiting our children and the proceeds from the sale go to help our local library system.

The one book that I am really excited she got is Maria by Maria Von Trapp. It is the autobiography and the real story of The Sound of Music. I am looking forward to reading it if I can PRY it out of Dawn's hands.

Speaking of that, I think she used one of Charlton Hesston's lines, "Not but from out of my cold dead hands!" Just kidding, but she does love her books.

And I love her.

Under the Mercy,

Matthew S

You are planning on giving his Holiness what?

That's right, in the long standing tradition of finding things to give the Pope that will either be thrown in a closet (hopefully never to be seen again) or donated to someone in need we have now found out that the Pope will be receiving a skateboard when he comes to the United States.

Sigh, so many things I could say.

Under the Mercy,

Matthew S

Silhouette

At times things we see aren't as they appear. Is this a shadow or a sillhoutte.

It is easy to tell here because the water is rippled and the silhouette is smooth but other times it could be more trouble depending on perspective. Perspective is something that is the basis for the decisions we make, it can make alot of difference in the outcome of a situation. Different lighting in a picture can make a world of difference. Is this a duck or a goose in the picture above?

How tall is little Clara? Makes a difference in how you look at it. We should all remember to be careful in how we look at situations, take the time to evaluate, look at things another way and see if we can plan out our course of action based on our values before we just react. It will make the world a better place.

Under the Mercy,

Matthew S

I am done eating. . . .

I am done eating. . . .
Originally uploaded by kc0lex (Matthew)

At times as a father you just run across a special moment. One of those moments that you never want to forget. What you are seeing is something that is just adorable to me and very memorable.

Under the Mercy,
Matthew S

Catholic Carnival #168 is up.

Well, it's time to head north of the border and visit "The DuctTape Guy" for Catholic Carnival. I haven't had a chance to listen to all of it yet, that's right, listen to it. This week's Carnival is not only a blog post but it is a podcast.

GO CHECK IT OUT!!!

Easter vigil is coming

Just waiting for the Sun to go down and the Son to come up.  

Hope everyone has a Blessed Easter.

Under the Mercy,

Matthew S.

Maundy, Maundy

Tonight we went home to the parish my wife and I attended as a young couple. It is a very traditional/non-traditional parish in that their is a pipe organ, perpetual adoration, chant, more young people than old, it is a non-territorial parish, you can belong to this parish in addition to another and it is also the Catholic student union at Wichita State University here in town. The St. Paul Parish Newman Center is the Church that my wife entered the Church 9 years ago this coming fall. Here are two pictures from this evening, one of the main altar in the big chapel after it has been stripped at the conclusion of the Mass of Lord's Supper and the second is from inside the Adoration Chapel that had Adoration until midnight so we could all spend time with our Lord in the Garden and in His Agony. It was good to go home, it is only a trip across town but it was that I am glad we made tonight and we will make it again two more times in as many days.

(Last night after posting this I lay in bed thinking how lucky I was. Think about it, I was laying in bed and a long time ago Jesus stayed up all night last night getting hauled around Jerusalem, accused of all kinds of bad things. I wonder how the exact time line worked out through the night?)

Under the Mercy,
Matthew S

p.s. for those who appreciate good (well, at times that is debatable) humor, take a look below the pictures.

I hope the Mamas and the Papas will forgive me but I am baptizing their only number 1 hit on Billboard's Hot 100.

Bah-da bah-da-da-da
Bah-da bah-da-da-da
Bah-da bah-da-da-da

Maundy, Maundy, so good to me
Maundy mornin', it was all I hoped it would be
Oh Maundy mornin', Maundy mornin' couldn't guarantee
That Maundy evenin' you would still be here with me

Maundy, Maundy, can't trust that day
Maundy, Maundy, sometimes you just get betrayed
Oh Maundy mornin' you gave me no warnin' of what was to be
Oh Maundy, Maundy, how could you leave and not take me

Every other day, every other day
Every other day of the liturgucal year is fine, yeah
But whenever Maundy comes, but whenever Maundy comes
A-you can find me cryin' all of the time

Maundy, Maundy, so good to me
Maundy mornin', it was all I hoped it would be
Oh Maundy mornin', Maundy mornin' couldn't guarantee
That Maundy evenin' you would still be here with me

Every other day, every other day
Every other day of the liturgucal year is fine, yeah
But whenever Maundy comes, but whenever Maundy comes
A-you can find me cryin' all of the time

Maundy, Maundy, can't trust that day
Maundy, Maundy, sometimes you just get betrayed
Maundy, Maundy, won't go away
Monday, Monday, it's here to stay
Oh Maundy, Maundy
Oh Maundy, Maundy

Catholic Carnival #164: Holy Week Edition

Is up and ready for the browsing, but no time for me to read now as I have to get to bed. Will take a closer look tommorow.

Head over to Aggie Catholics and take a read.

Under the Mercy,
Matthew S