A few updates...and tyrannicide

Mrs. Curley is out of town visiting number 1 daughter, so I have a little extra time to do some housekeeping here at Bethune Catholic. I added a couple links: Southern Appeal because they have been right there the Supreme Court nominations and recent court decisions, and Dappled Things because of entries like this:

"One of my own practices, and one that I recommend to others, is to consider what particular temptations and sins we commit in life. Whether our own particular recurring sin is judgmentalism, or wrath, or pride, or this or that sin of the flesh, there are souls in Purgatory even now undergoing their purification for precisely those sins. I like to pray for those particular souls, doing my part to help them through, in the hopes that they will return the favor for me once they bask in the light of God's perfect charity. We're all in this together, and Christ has knit us together in a way that not even death can break. Our compassion for the poor souls in Purgatory is mirrored by the hope we see in the victory of the vast multitudes of all the Saints -- among whose number are those who underwent every kind of trial imaginable, every sort of temptation conceivable, and in the end, by the grace of God, conquered."

Fr. Tucker also recently posted a link about tyrannicide, here . This is of interest (to me) because something I read some time ago in Dr. Warren Carroll's book on French Revolution (The Guillotine and the Cross, Christendom Press) about the 'age-old Catholic Doctrine' of justified tyrannicide :

"If it is clear that one man rules outside the law; that he rules by terror and killing which will continue indefinitely if he is not removed; that there is no peaceful or political or judicial way of removing him; and that there is good reason to believe that his removal will bring the regime of tyranny and oppression to an end, then it is moral to kill that man by any means available." (Klaus von Stauffenberg's attempt at killing Hitler is given as an example of justifiable tyrannicide.)

The 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia, (here) tends to take the view that that tyrannicide (for a tyrant by oppression) is contrary to natural law.

The Stars

Most people in South Carolina have not heard of Bethune. One of the comments we get asked when our friends have visited Bethany for the first time is "How did you ever find this place?"

So it is not with a little surprise I came across an article in the county newspaper which says that amatuer and semi-pro astronomers come to Bethune from hundreds of miles away because, "Bethune is blessed with the state's most reliable dark skies."

There you have it folks. Just one more reason to come visit us at Bethany....

And yes, one of the first amazements we had here was looking up at the night skies....

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune....Oremus pro invicem!

More All Saints, All Souls, and other notes...

I have a couple of pictures for you today. The first is my gang of "saints". It is amazing that none of these showed up with a black eye this year. Note the tonsures which were requested (now removed) by 3 of the boys.

The second picture is the family gravesite in Massachusetts, taken on our last visit to MA in August. We make it a point to say the rosary at my Dad's gravesite at least once during every visit, (now rare) to Massachusetts. My father and his mother are buried here. My brother John has been keeping the site up very nicely.

Other notes of interest ....

I think I jumped the gun the other day when I said the chickens were back to laying their quota of six a day. What happened is that the person responsible for egg-gathering has missed a day here and there, making the numbers seem larger that reality. Thus, I believe our hens will start heading for the pot this coming week.

Mrs. Curley is taking a rare trip this weekend to see number 1 daughter in the convent. Please pray for her safe trip and return.

Finally, we had a serious dog-fight here at Bethany yesterday morning. We have 4 dogs. Sheba, a black lab-husky mix who is about nine months old and Lady, a lab-basset hound mix, who is about 1.5 years old. Lady was getting the worst of it. We had to physically tear Sheba off Lady. It was not easy. Lady had some wounds and was slow moving all day. All four dogs share a very large pen (used to be a goat pen). Fortunately there are a few small kennels in the back of the pen where we have isolated Sheba. We really don't know what to do about the situation. Sheba generally is a friendly dog. She is selfish with food and does aggravate the other dogs because she still acts much like a puppy while the others are calmer and older. Sheba also is not very trainable. (She is a dog with ADD). But she has never caused trouble before. Lady has always been a good dog in every way. We don't know if we put Lady and Sheba back together what will happen if anything. Will there always be bully relaitonship? Will they fight again? Will they forget about it? Any advice or experience from others on this would be welcome.

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.

Eternal rest grant to them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune.... Oremus pro invicem!

Feast of All Souls

Yesterday's All Saints Day party was a grand success. Several parishioners joined the homeschooling families for breakfast and the children's saints pageant after Mass-making this more of a parish community celebration. After the pageant and games (Mrs. Curley has come up with a wonderful 'corporeal works of mercy relay race' which is a huge success every year-or did she get it from a book? Regardless it is fun to run and fun to watch.), we all sat together and sang some hyms-a wonderful day.

Today is All Souls Day. The Curley's post an updated list of our departed loved ones in a prominent place every November on this day. This posting does bring a reality to the need of these prayers for the holy souls-because these are the souls of people we knew and loved and who may now be suffering for our lack of prayers.

I have oft repeated to my children that I want prayers and Masses for my soul when I die, (no cancer or humane society donations...). I have also taken the oldest ones aside and asked them to talk to the priest who will be celebrating my funeral Mass, to emphasize with him that I don't want any sermon or eulogy saying how I am now at peace in the bosom of our Lord. Please tell this priest, I plead, to preach on death, judgement, and especially purgatory.

Over at my other blog (Catholic Laity) ,[by the way, it is insane to try to keep current on 2-blogs. Those others who do it well I must admire], I have posted (most) of the introduction to Requiem Press' "Daily Prayers to the Church Suffering".

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.

Eternal rest grant to them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune.... Oremus pro invicem!

Happy All Saints Day! - quick notes

Am taking at least a half-day off today. After 9:00 AM Mass, we have brunch and All Saints Day celebration at St. Catherine's. The Curley's will be contributing a St. Columba, St. Alban, St. Bernadette, Saint Francis of Assisi, and two saints I haven't guessed yet. Three of the Curley "saints" of are monks or friars, and those three boys convinced me last night to give them a temporary tonsure to make their costumes more realistic. (Pictures will follow...)

Interesting that Jeff blogs here about the 'youth culture' and the Church. Amy Welborn comes back from a youth conference in Atlanta and blogs here and here and asks:

"In short, my questions about the current state of youth ministry can be reduced to one: I am not convinced that most current (read, for the past two decades) trends in Catholic youth ministry have the net effect of rooting young people in a faith that will take them through to mature Catholic faith. It is all very much about pandering to the Teen Moment, and frankly, the Teen Moment passes pretty quickly - usually by the end of the first semester of college. And, ironically, some of the most solid teens, faith-wise, are extremely skeptical of the Teen Moment from the get-go, and are turned off by it. This is not about music, activities, etc...it's about something deeper. In fact, it's not about what's there, but about what's missing. Which is, in short, an explicit connection to the bigger, wider deeper Church that is 2000 years old, wise, rich and is the Body of Christ, for them, right now."

Finally, Requiem Press' newest release-"Catholic Laity in the Mission of the Church" by Russell Shaw is available today for order. Chapter 7 is one of the best guides I have read on how to discern a vocation. (And remember our special offer on prayer books for the holy souls in purgatory expires tomorrow. This will be the last plug. We certainly appreciate those who bought some of these. It helped the Curley's through an extremely tight month, and more importantly, I'm sure will help some souls get to Heaven more quickly to celebrate this glorious feast day!)

From Bethany, joyous on this feast day of all the saints in Heaven....Oremus pro invicem!

Saturday's take...

As mentioned in Friday's post, we had scheduled a yard sale for Saturday. This is our first yard sale in Bethune, but we are experienced yard-salers. We have been doing it for years in many different places: small towns, cities, big towns. No matter where we are and what we have to sell, the take is always between $100 and $200. (It gets to the upper end if you have a big item like a working fridge that sells).

We did anticipate that the country may pose some different advertising problems, and that the population density was much thinner, but we tried some new advertising locations and techniques to better the odds. Our expectations weren't great, but we thought it possible to come close to the low end of our experience.

$9.10

Oh yes, we got rid of two kittens also.

Actually, this take wasn't so bad. Our immediate needs were two gallons of milk and a gallon or so of gas in the car we haul the trash to the dump in. So $9.10 covered it..."Give us this day our daily bread".

Saturday turned out to be very productive around Bethany, even if the yard sale wasn't. I have been under the weather for several days, low fever, throat, etc. (The sickness cost me a shrimping trip to Georgetown, SC this weekend with friends). Saturday in the warm sun I felf better, so I fixed up the doors to chicken coops and the dog/goat pen which were starting to droop and become unreliable. I also finished winterizing the rabbit cage area. Basically I put a wind break on two sides of the cages with some lumber we had hanging around. (Now they protected on 3 sides and roof. ) I still have to build a small shelter for the younger chickens as the nights are getting colder and their old house (a former dog house) is too small to house all of them now.

The chicken tractor is going well. We have 6 chickens in it and move it every few days. These chickens are bigger than the ones in the coop area. They get a larger variety of bugs and fresh grass/weeds every few days. I really need to build a second chicken tractor to get more benefit.

By the way, our older chickens are finally back on track. We had been getting only 1-3 eggs a day for two weeks now. (I think the problem started after we ran low on laying pellet feed and tried to sub other things for a couple days til we raised the cash for more feed.) We were getting ready to slaughter the six hens as the feed is too expensive to buy with no production. They must have heard the rumors because they are back on track. (An extra couple loads of table scraps probably didn't hurt either.)

Around here, running up to Halloween, the pumpkins are priced outrageously. (They aren't grown locally because of the soil). But starting tomorrow, they will be at huge discounts. Mrs. Curley will undoubtably come home with a dozen or more pumpkins bought at ridiculously low prices over the next few days. Then we will be delighting in pumpkin muffins and other similar items for breakfast over many of the fall and winter months. (In fact muffins of all varieties have become a particular specialty of Mrs. Curley.)

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune... Oremus pro invicem!

November draws near....

Update: Forgot to mention we are having a yard sale tomorrow to see if we can pay for some of that propone we need to heat Bethany. If you are in the area, stop buy (get it?)... And I have finally updated the Catholic Laity blog with a new post about the book, what's wrong with the world, st. blogs, etc. Check it out...

We had an early cold spell this week. Of course we were again unprepared. The propane tank was empty and I hadn't finished winterizing (replacing broken/missing window panes, putting up new curtain rods for heavier curtains, etc. and providing more shelter to some of the animals) It was worse last year. The cold spell was later, mid-November, but much more severe than this week.

Wednesday night we took a break from our regular CCD format as each child in the whole program (K-HS) met together to make a presentation on a saint in anticipation of the Holy Day next week. The parish will have an All Saints Day celebration on the 1st also; after the 9:00 AM Mass, there will be a breakfast, followed by costumed saint presentations by the homeschooled children of the parish.

There are discussions in various places recently about Catholic Land Use and Community (here and here and here.) I will weigh in simply on practical experience here. Growing up in a suburb of Boston and attending the parish school, the community was real I think. But this was before the trend to migrate around the country set in. The more migration (which I am guilty of) the less community, especially in those big surburban parishes (and larger urban parishes). We lived 10 years in Columbia and were members of St. Joseph's parish (~ 2,000 families). We have been at St. Catherine's (~200 families) for a little more than a year. Yet, in that short time I think we know more people and spend more time at the parish than we did at good St. Joseph's. Since there is only one Mass on Sundays, there is no rush to move people in and out of the parking lot. The kids say, "At St. Catherine's there is always a party going on!". For example, once a month we have a full dinner after Sunday Mass. After First Friday Mass we have a full breakfast. Our pastor is accessible and present at almost all functions. The parents and kids can get to know him very well. Bigger parishes with more money may have more "ministries", larger choirs, better organs, etc. , but I think the small country type parish helps you live your Catholicism better. The downside is that sometimes there is not the critical mass to get some projects done or start some apostolates. (We had a men's prayer group at St. Joseph's for example. 15 or so men meeting once a week 6:30 AM for the Liturgy of the Hours and discussion, the Mass. At St. Catherine's, because of the distance traveled and small number of families, it has been difficult to duplicate this type of group effort.)

Back to November... this article at CatholicExchange.com today will also help prepare for November, the month of the holy souls. (Note Requiem Press still has it holy souls prayer book on sale...).

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune... Oremus pro invicem!

Miers withdraws...

I am sure I am not the first with this, but haven't seen it elswhere. Funny, Mark Shea had a link yesterday which predicted what the reasons behind a withdrawal from the nominaiton process would be. He hit it right on the noggin. See it here .

Foxnews has the resignation letter but I had trouble linking to it....

Old books, Carthusians, Friends and blogs....

Several years ago, a friend of my parents was looking for a book: Sources of Renewal: The Fulfillment of Vatican II by Karol Wojtyla. This book was first printed in the US in 1980 after he became Pope. It was originally written in Polish, and I think before he became Pope.

Knowing I was accomplished at finding used books on the internet, they contacted me. It took several months. Finally (after several months) I located a copy and purchased it for $11.04 (this included a $5 shipping charge). I just looked today on my favorite used book sources (abe.com, bookfinder.com and alibris.com) and see numerous copies available, priced from $35 to well over $100.

I passed the book on so quickly, I didn't have time to read it. I was talking to Mr. Gallagher (the friend of my parents who requested the book) this summer. He said it was excellent and should be more widely available. I must take a look into getting a hold of another copy...

The headline feature article today at SeattleCatholic.com is about the Carthusian martyrs. These saints are very close to my heart. (I have more books on the Carthusian martyrs in particular and the English martyrs in general than one man should be allowed to own). (Note Requiem Press' very first release: Witnesses to the Holy Mass and other sermons has a chapter on these heroic men.)

Finally, (via Amy Welborn) I have found that a good friend of mine right here in SC is a new contributor to Right Reason. See his first post here. I will have to add this blog to my sidebar when I get the chance.

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune...Oremus pro invicem!

So little time...

For at least a couple weeks now I have wanted to post on my take on old earth/young earth. This is a topic which first came up at Hallowed Ground: here. It will have to wait as things are just too busy to put in the effort required. Related to this, I wanted to post about a book I have just about finished reading: "The Science Before Science" by Anthony Rizzi. (founder of the Institute for Advanced Physics)

There has been an interesting discussion here (Crowhill) about the 'feminizaton' of the church. I wanted to weigh in, but again, time prevents.

And back to Hallowed Ground, there is post on the phenomenon of the "Youth Culture and the Teenager" here. (Surprisingly, Jeff's post has generated no comments. I have a comment to make but have not had the opportunity to formulate it completely.)

Finally, I have been going through my number one daughter's college books which she left behind, (3 copies of Plato's Republic-did she keep losing them and have to buy extras or did she steal other peoples???-Any Christendom College readers, if you are missing your copy, let me know....), and have done profitable reading. The most recent book is "The 4 Temperments" by Rev. Conrad Hock. I want to post substantially on this, but again as time permits..... I will say this: In my time spent in industry I went to countless "leadership" programs-all of which identified the 4 personality types, although usually they were named after animials, (the beaver, the gazelle, the woodchuck, etc.). This particular booklet is only 55 pages, but really gives insight also into the spiritual dimension and problems encountered by each personality type: choleric, melancholic, sanguine, and phlegmatic. (I believe Sophia Institute Press has a more comprehensive treatment of these recently released.) After reading this booklet I learned several things. First, some of my the traits that I attributed to my own hard work and personal virtue I have been humbled to find are simply rooted in my personality type. However, I have also realized why some of my faults are so difficult to overcome (and practical helps to overcome them). More importantly, I have more insight into what makes my kids tick and what I can logically expect of them in different situations. Further, the booklet gives guides on how to train each personality type to fully develop the good traits and correct the bad traits. Of course it is not black and white as most of us have mixed temperments, yet one dominent. I would say this all is useful information (although you can't use it as a crutch - "That's just the way I am"! - or an excuse for lack of virtue) especially for a parent (or religious superior).

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune...Oremus pro invicem!

Monday morning

It is amazing how many weekends can get off the planned track with just one 'little' event. I was just going to make a quick trip to town to buy some nails, check the PO Box, and dump some trash. Since the youngest children were playing somewhere behind me, I decided to get to the road 'cross country'. I have done this many times, but always avoided the stump. This time I did not. (I recall many years ago my friend got his car stuck on a stump, but there were 5 or 6 of us around to lift him off.) My oldest son and I finally lifted it off with a lever (old telephone pole), with Mrs. Curley driving the car, but the whole effort side-tracked some of the other plans.

Under the 'call me a sucker' category.... I think I mentioned somewhere that we had inherited some cats with the property. Mother cat (Sandstone) had a litter of six recently (Oh yes, I posted about the death of one). We have a sign on the road adversting "Free Kittens". There have been no takers yet. But apparently someone thought we were seeking free kittens. While eating our Sunday dinner and older couple pulled into Bethany. I went out to greet them. They live less than a mile down the road. Apparently a cat and her kittens showed up on their porch that day. Later, the cat and most of the kittens were gone, but one. As they passed our house and saw the sign, they naturally wondered if their found stray could be one of ours. Of course it wasn't. They left reluctantly after a nice chat. I had told them their kitten was older than ours and probably Sandstone would not take to it trying to nurse off her. During dinner we discussed the stray and the fact that this older couple were probably ill-equipped and disinclined to take care of the kitten. (They certainly appeared sort of desparate. I could tell they were almost pleading with me to take the kitten.) So after dinner I took Matthew and we drove down to their house. Sure enough, they were very grateful for us to take the kitten off their hands. I don't know why I do such things.

Please offer a quick prayer today for our neighbor. It is the one year anniversary of losing his wife, (and pray for the soul of his deceased wife). I know for many people the one year period is difficult. In the weeks approaching the one year anniversary of my Dad's death, memories of that day intensified increasingly and painfully (in some ways more painfully than the actual event). But as the milestone passed, peace returned.

I announced Friday that my advance copies of Requiem Press' latest release would arrive. I was wrong. Some mix-up at the printer. They should arrive today.

Last Sunday I mentioned without detail Fr. Ladkou's homily on "Give to Ceasar...". Fr. Ladkou's main thrust was to re-examine Christ's last line, "Give to God what is God's". He asked "What is due to God?" Of course the answer is: Everything we have and are, our whole being. This Sunday our pastor Fr. John O'Holohan, SJ commented on yesterday's gospel: "you shall love God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and with your whole mind." Both gospels deliver the same message...

Finally, check out this picture at Chesterton and Friends. I agree whole-heartedly with the caption on the picture. (How do you think we lifted that car off the stump....)

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune.... Oremus pro invicem!

Here is an interesting article in this month's crisis Magazine on the "separation of church and state". I have read a handful of good articles on this subject over the past few years. I recall at least one on CatholicExchange.com. I looked for it this morning in the archives, but was unable to locate the one I was looking for. I did find this one however, which gives yet another take on 'separation'. Personally, I have always been amazed (maybe amazed is not the right word...) how the idea of separaton of church and state, as understood by the ACLU and many others can be gleemed from reading the Constitution - and even less if you research the thought of the founding fathers.

In a related vein, the idea of a Christian Liberty Party advances. Here is the preliminary discussion forum. So far there is 1 post and 230 people registered to the form. This forum may be one to watch.

Today we start winterizing the house. Last year winter swooped down on us unexpectedly. This year we had a touch of cold weather last week, so I won't delay. I have a few window panes to replace and some overall inspection to see where we can tighten the ship. Our only source of heat this year is propane. (Last year we used the wood stove also until we had a chimney fire. We had had the chimney inspected before ever using it and got the green light. Unfortunately as we found out, the sweep we had contracted either didn't inspect carefully or was incompetant. After the fire we got a different chimney sweep to inspect. He told us the chimney should have never been used. We were lucky because we had been using the wood stove heavily at night. But the long and the short of it is that we can't afford to get chimney fixed until Requiem Press have a bestseller or some other windfall.)

Today we are expecting to receive the advance copies of "Catholic Laity in the Mission of the Church", by Russell Shaw. You can read about the book here or buy it here.

Speaking of Requiem Press, a reminder that you all have a little more than a week to take advantage of the discounts on quantity purchases of the Daily Prayers for the Church Suffering booklets. My family thanks those who have purchased some of these in the last month. You don't know how much this has helped us bridge the gap in October so far.....

We unexpectedly ran out of chicken feed (laying pellets) last week. (The unnamed boy responsible for feeding and warning us of shortages, fell down on the job.) The hens went a day an half on corn and table scraps, and basically stopped laying eggs. (Recall this happened earlier in the year when we changed their diet.) It has almost been a week and the six hens are only back to 3 eggs a day (down from 6). Mrs. Curley and I are in agreement that they better get back to production or they will see the pot sooner than planned.

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune...Oremus pro invicem!

Peace, Parties, Gas, Fiction and more...

Good news here about my bishop taking a stand (via Mark Shea). (I wish the diocese would be this courageous now and dump the "VIRTUS/Protecting God's Children" program.

Proposal from the Synod (via Amy Welborn): Proposition 23 suggests moving the Sign of Peace in the Mass to immediately after the Prayers of the Faithful, hence before the Eucharistic Prayer, and also affirms existing rules that the priest is not to leave the sanctuary during the Sign of Peace.” [If we must have it (sign of peace) at all, by all means get it out of the Eucharistic Prayer.]

Jeff at Hallowed Ground cites this proposal from Steve Kellmeyer (Bridegroom Press) as a possible starting point to form a Christian Liberty Party and asks your thoughts.

I have a question: In my (many) years of experience I have seen gas prices fluctuate quite a bit. But rarely have I seen $0.20 jumps and declines overnight. Further, I never have seen gas prices within a local area (sometimes within a block or two) differ by $0.20-0.25 per gallon week after week. What is going on?

At People of the Book there is a discussion on why Catholic publishers shy away from "Catholic fiction". I made an intial comment, at least partially agreeing with the blog-host, (fiction takes different editing skills than non-fiction for one. I disagreed that publishers, at least myself, view fiction as simply entertainment. I realize fiction can have a great impact on one's spiritual life and search for God.), but I have more comments if I can find the time. I think part of the problem has to do with the specific mission of various Catholic publishers and how that relates to the specific fiction presented. Some Catholic publishers market more to Catholics who want to deepen their spiritual lives and knowledge. Some Catholic publishers do more of the apologetic type books-reaching out to fallen-away Catholics or non-Catholics. Fiction coming from these two different types of publishers would have a different look.

Finally, it is the feast of the North American Martyrs. As detailed last year, this is a more favored/celebrated feast of ours at Bethany. While we did not get to go to the Shrine in Auriesville this year, it turns out daughter Krystle did go with the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate earlier this month.

Sts. Isaac Jogues and John de Brebeuf and Companions - ora pro nobis!

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune... Oremus pro invicem!

A few notes...

I finally got around to putting a hit counter on Bethune Catholic. Before I got to see the totals for the first week, I happened along to visit this post at Hallowed Ground. When I looked at my numbers, they paled very considerably.... But I've only been at this a year. (Tomorrow is the birthday of Bethune Catholic.) And the good thing is, I don't have enough hits to have that pride problem....

We inherited 3 cats (they were really just kittens when we got here) with Bethany. The two males ran away. The remaining cat, hangs around and we do feed her. About 5 months ago she had a litter of 2 cats, (I was concerned, but figured we had some time). Well these kittens weren't even weaned when she had another litter of 6 kittens, this was about 5 weeks ago, but they are still tiny. We have "FREE KITTENS" sign out front-maybe if we charged money they would go faster. This morning one of the young kittens lay dead very near the nest. It was cold last night, so may be that was it. There were no other injuries. I am getting used to burying dead animals....

We have been posting pretty regularly at Catholic Laity. Check it out when you have time.

Finally, we have a birthday party here tomorrow (not for Bethune Catholic) for our youngest daughter, who turns 4. I am going to put a few hours of work in, but probably won't blog here.

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune.... Oremus pro invicem!

Sunday...

We assisted at Mass in Columbia yesterday at Good Shepard Catholic Church. This is an Anglican-use parish (and the parish where the monthly Traditionaly Latin Mass takes place). Fr. Ladkou played football at Michigan years ago. He is one of the best homilests in the diocese. Yesterday he spoke of our being made in the image of God and how we are God's and are obliged to give our whole selves to Him. (He also made not so veiled references about the travesty of programs like "VIRTUS/Protecting God's Children" which I posted about here and here ).

After Mass we visited (for breakfast and lunch) our dear friends the Nyikos family. Their two older girls are close to our daughter Krystle. (One of the Nyikos girls did the artwork for Requiem Press' "Witnesses to the Holy Mass"). We missed Krystle as she and the older girls always got us singing around the piano. But we still had a wonderful time. We said the rosary together between lunch and desert. We have been blessed to know several families over the years with whom we occassionally or regularly have said the rosary with on Sundays. It is a wonderful and powerful event-both because the power of the family rosary as a prayer itself and the witness to the children of both families. Catholic community and culture are truly formed by such gatherings.

Saturday I finally separated the oldest doe from the two younger does. (So I still have one more separation to achieve.) In this case, I simply partitioned in the largest cage. We (oldest boys and myself) also made the cage suspension more permanent and robust. We took the coat hangers down and used some chain to suspend the cages. We also tied the four bottem corners of the cages to the corner posts of the shelter.

Before Saturday, the rabbit shelter simply consisted of four corner posts with a simple frame at the top of the posts. The cages were suspended from one beam. A tarp covered the top of the shelter and gave paritial covering to the sides. We added some structure to the sides and and an overhang in front of the shelter (still using only the tarp for the roof. We haven't finished, but we can simply add a few slates now to the side and the rabbits should have decent winter protection as well as providing some protection to the lucky boy feeding the rabbits. (I think a picture is called for to explain this - but don't hold your breath.)

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune... Oremus pro invicem!

Reminiscing...

As the first anniversary of Bethune Catholic approaches, Mrs. Curley and I were up last night (later than we should have been) reading some of the old posts. We both agree some of the early posts were better than what I generally put out now. Perhaps I had more time then....

Mrs. Curley and I had some good laughs too. This excerpt from February especially showed how much we had (and still have) to learn about this grand experiment:

"We got our first eggs today....In hindsight, we now know why the roosters have been grabbing the hens by the neck and jumping on them."

And this line from December:

"We were all wondering when the roosters would start cock-a-doodle-do-ing. I was of the school of thought that they had to be taught - and thus would give them some examples every time I passed by the coop. They are at about 9 weeks old and they have started fledgling efforts. I don't know if my efforts helped get them started, but ........"

(Come to think of it our new batch is over 9 weeks and they are not crowing. We either have all hens or I better get out there teaching them again... )

Here is another post which had us in stitches when we read it last night.

Of course there were also thoughtful posts on economics, martyrs, purgatory, agrarian life, etc.

I know most people don't go searching through the archives when they come across a new blog-(who has the time?)-but in looking back, I can see by the quality of these older posts that I spent more time composing articles for Bethune Catholic than I do now. Sometimes I find myself just trying to post a few things to keep it active instead of really preparing and thinking about my posts. Perhaps this is why you see many bloggers (and some of the best at that) taking short sabbaticals from their blog periodically.

But not to fear now. I have no hiatus in mind. Just some blog thinking going on here at Bethany.

From our small holding...

Oremus pro invicem!

Thursday Night

As I sit here contemplating which of the many things I should post about, my mind wanders to the cup of Instant Postum Mrs. Curley and I shared after dinner tonight. She was telling me how she spent the afternoon with rabbit manure squeezing between her fingers as she prepared the manure for rabbit manure tea (surely a rare delicacy-but not fit for human consumption.)

Which brings me to the Instant Postum. Sometime in my youth there was a coffee "shortage" and my Dad (may his soul rest in peace) refused to buy coffee at inflated prices. He saw on the grocery shelf this "Instant Postum" which he drank as a child. It is an instant coffee-like drink made from grains, but contains no caffeine. He never really went back to coffee. Some weeks ago I saw some Instant Postum in the store and bought it. It is a trifle expensive, so I don't drink it often, but it is the best coffee substitute I have ever had, and it makes you regular.

A couple notes of interest: Mr. Culbreath at Hallowed Ground is quitting the Republican Party and is looking for a true conservative alternative. His comment box seems to concur with him. And The Deliberate Agrarian is back from his short hiatus.

Oh yes, we had planted spinach in the fall garden but none have shown up. The radishes, while long delayed are finally coming up. We also have some cantaloupe or squash coming up and flourishing where we planted spinach!!!! We are wondering if these came from un-broken-down seeds from the compost we put in. We shall see... We also still have tomatoes, egg plant and green peppers coming off a few plants. We are fortunate for these late crops to continue.

Finally, over at that other 'fabulous' blog: Catholic Laity there are some excerpts from the latest session of the Synod of Bishops where some of the auditors, (some of whom are laity), made interventions. Some interesting reading...

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune...

Oremus pro invicem!

Origins...

Last night at CCD I was told by a student that he had learned from a Msgr. X (at a youth "retreat") that the creation story in Genesis was really a story the Israelites learned during the Babylon Captivity from their captors, and that they taught this story to their children with only one change: they inserted the name of their God in place of the Babylonian god.

How do I work against this? I would not doubt that it is possible the Babylonians had a similar creation account (after all we all descended from Adam and Eve and oral tradition was very much alive). In fact a similar creation account would tend to reinforce the veracity of the Genesis account .

As noted below somewhere, I have been in discussion in a couple places about creation and Genesis. (In fact I mean to get back to the discussion of old earth/new earth real soon, either at Hallowed Ground where it originated or here.)

But here is a situation where I am put in the position of having to contradict Msgr. X. This has got to be confusing and frustrating for the student. In the present case I tried to explain long-standing Church teaching and was able to cite passages from both Providentissimus Deus and Humani Generis (especially 38-39) (This is a great resource for papal documents.) Even so, I will have to go back to class next week with a handout explaining it all again with the quotes from the papal documents etc. to reinforce Church teaching.

These kids are very quick to pick up on disagreements and inconsistencies between teachers of the Faith.

A New Blog...

Not that I have enough time as it is for Bethune Catholic... but you may have noticed a new link right under the RequiemPress link on the sidebar. This: Catholic Laity, is my new blog - although technically it is a "Requiem Press" blog and not my personal one.

I will be posting here at Bethune Catholic just as often as I do now, but I will also be posting on the new blog, hopefully just as often. I am hoping that I can persuade some guest bloggers to help fill out the content of Catholic Laity. While the new blog is (truthfully) at least initially a way to publicize Russell Shaw's soon to be released (November 1st) title for Requiem Press (Catholic Laity in the Mission of the Church)- I am hoping that it will grow to something more important, that is an outlet to discuss lay apostolates, ways to sanctify our daily lives and to evangelize the culture.

Bethune Catholic will continue to document our life on the small holding (and how we survive-or don't), as well discuss anything else which comes to mind.

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune... Oremus pro invicem!

A friend sent me the following ..... I could not wait until November to post:

"The souls in Purgatory suffer intensely and are dependent upon us forhelp. We on earth can help them with our prayers, sacrifices and especiallyHoly Mass. And they will not forget us." - Francis Cardinal Arinze