Movies I Recently Watched and Enjoyed

A beautiful 3 hour long movie about St. Rita's life, concentrating on her relationship with her abusive and criminal husband and his family. One of the messages of the movie is that God gives each one of us the possibility to achieve holiness, no matter what our life situation is. It also illustrates the power of forgiveness in a moving way.
This movie redefines the notion of "soul mate". Your soul mate is not necessarily the person who would make you happy on earth, but the one who will be most likely to help you achieve salvation and holiness...and sometimes that has to be done through suffering and sacrifice.
Gorgeous movie! Watch it if you get a chance.

The Great Fast

Here are the fasting regulations of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Van Nuys, to which our church belongs:

Strict Fast (no meat, eggs, dairy or condiments made from animal fats and preferably no synthetic substitutes like soy milk) on Pure Monday (first Monday of the Great Fast) and Good Friday.

Simple Fast (no meat or meat products) on every Wednesday and Friday of the Great Lent.

All Byzantine Catholics are to keep the fast. Infants, pregnant women, nursing mothers and those seriously ill are exempt from the strict fast..

Now these regulations don't seem strict at all. The original monastic fast is forbidding all animal products, wine and oil on every day of the Great Fast (Lent) except for Sundays, when some of those products were permitted. Father Joseph told us that we don't have to keep this monastic fast, we should do as much as we can, and he suggested fasting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
I think that each priest would give a different set of rules so in the end we should prayerfully decide what works best for us. St. Theodor Studite said that we should "fast as much as our body can endure".

We should not forget that in addition to the fast and abstinence from certain food, we are supposed to try to abstain from amusements and parties and from serious sin like anger, gossip, lying, swearing and so on. We should also practice virtues and do good works. It is also recommended that we receive Holy Communion as often as possible during the week.

I will not talk about what my fasting rules are, that's pretty personal but I will share my choice of spiritual reading during Lent. The book is called "The Spiritual Life. And How to Be Attuned to It" by St. Theophan the Recluse, a collection of letters written by the Saint to a young woman, in which he gives her great pieces of advice to help her grow spiritually.
Kelly is also sharing the title of the book she is reading, on her blog.

Teddy has made up his own rules for Lent. He told me that he will try to not play on the computer (which he loves doing) or watch TV and he will not eat any sweets during the whole Lent. I told him that this is very strict and he didn't have to do this but he insists. Celsus, his friend and I think their other classmates too, have aparently promised to make similar sacrifices. I don't know how much he will actually be able to follow these rules. We'll see.

I wish you all a great journey through the Great Fast (Lent).

Two Old Books for Teddy

Teddy has been reading more lately. He got to the point where he can read well enough that it doesn't take forever to read a book. Right now he's reading the first "Harry Potter" book, which I'm not very thrilled about. Dominic read all HP books and loved them so he kept telling Teddy about them and Teddy wanted to read them too. I tried to avoid having him read them because I've heard from trusted Catholic sources that they are not recommended for Catholic children. Some Catholics, however say they are OK. Our priest, Father Joseph, said a while ago that he read HP and he liked the books and thought they were OK, so it was mostly because of Father's comment that I finally allowed Teddy to read the first book. I've never seen him so into a book before. He reads every spare moment he has and even wakes up early to read.

When I choose books for him to read, I usually choose the classics of children's literature, especially European literature (no, I'm not into the multicultural stuff). Dominic and I both buy books for him whenever we have a chance, so he always has stacks of books to choose from.

I recently found at Barnes and Noble a book I remember reading as a child, "Emil and the Detectives" by Erich Kastner, a cute story about the adventures of a boy trying to catch the thief who stole his money. I read the original "Emil und die Detektive" in German and wanted to share it with Teddy. Another book I remember enjoying when I was little is "The Paul Street Boys" by Ferenk Molnar ("Baietii din strada Pal" in Romanian), written in 1906 by a Hungarian author, it is one of the classics for children in Hungary and also pretty popular in the rest of Europe. I never hoped I would find that one in English but I finally did and I just ordered it used. Teddy will love it, I'm sure. It's about two "gangs" of boys in a neighborhood in Budapest, where more and more buildings are taking up the play space and the two gangs are fighting over the last available play area/field.

These are both pretty old books but with a timeless appeal. I know Teddy will love them. Unfortunately I will not be able to share my favorite Romanian books with him, because he doesn't read Romanian, although I hope that someday he will.

What were your favorite books when you were a child? I'm interested in any recommendation, especially of older (even out of print) books.

Body For Life

Thea has been telling me about this weight loss / body toning program that she used after having Christopher and that she really believes in. It's called "Body for Life" and it requires that you follow a strict exercise and nutrition program for about 12 weeks, after which you're body is supposed to be leaner and more toned. Thea gained a lot of weight with Christopher and she lost most of it really quickly following this program.

They actually have this challenge/contest where you could win something like $50,000 if your before and after pictures are impressive enough.

Now before everyone starts telling me that I don't need to loose weight, I will assure you all that that's not my intention. I think I can safely gain a few more pounds and still be OK in terms of weight. But weight itself is not everything. My problem is that I don't have a healthy diet at all and I don't exercise at all. In time this will take a toll on my body and energy level. I also lost a lot of muscle tone especially in my abdomen after the last two pregnancies.

This program sounds promising because it is very specific. I intend to get the book soon and give it a try.

Anyone else heard about this and/or recommends it?

Pride and Prejudice Marathon

UPDATE:
I finally found my copy of the movie and checked. Dan was right, it is Mr Bennet who says this to Mr Collins. I was also wrong about the circumstances so I erased some of my comments. Mr Collins is talking about Lady Catherine de Bourg and her daughter, and mentioning how he likes to compliment the daughter (when in fact there's very little to compliment her about)and that's when Mr Bennet says the quote.
The dialogue goes like this:

Mrs Bennet: "And has she been presented in court?"

Mr Collins: "She is unfortunately of a sickly constitution, which unhappily prevents her from being in town and by that means, as I told Lady Catherine myself one day, she has deprived the British Court of its brightest ornament" (to Mr Bennet): "You may imagine sir how happy I am on every occasion to offer those little delicate compliments, which are always acceptable to ladies."

Mr Bennet: That is fortunate for you, Mr. Collins, that you possess such an extraordinary talent for flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment or are the result of previous study."

Mr Collins: " They arise chiefly from what is passing at the time sir. I do sometimes amuse myself by writing down and arranging such little compliments as can be adapted to ordinary occasions, but I try to give them an unstudied an air as possible."



Thea and I are going to watch the first 2 episodes of "Pride and Prejudice" 1995 on Friday, January 26 at 8:00pm at my house.

Anyone who wants to join us is welcome. I've been planning on doing this for a while. I know I've talked to some of you guys and I finally picked a date and time.

I'll serve popcorn and drinks and maybe cookies.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from the movie:

" . . . it is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are the result of previous study?"

Does anyone recognize this? Give it a try.

I just finished watching this movie about John Paul II's life. Thank you Kelly! This was the perfect present for me. You were right it is a very good movie and I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about JP II's early life and how he came to be elected as a Pope.

The movie starts when Karol Wojtyla is a university student. He is athletic, popular and fun and he even has a girlfriend. Not much detail is given about his early spiritual life and formation (something I would have liked to see more of) other than suggesting that he had a great love of reading. In addition to reading a lot, he wrote and acted in a small theatre group.

The political situation in Poland at that time (beginning of WW II up to the 70's) is portrayed in detail. First the Nazi occupation followed immediately by the arrival of the Communists. Karol is portrayed as a courageous and also tactful professor/priest, later bishop who somehow manages to form generations of students and faithful to "have no fear" and not let themselves be subjugated by the evil regimes, yet remains so tactful that he is respected by the "evil ones" themselves. He has this strong belief that "evil devours itself" a quote I will remember for a long time.
If you ask me, the way he is portrayed in this movie makes him look like someone bordering liberalism through a little too much tact. He is sometimes made to look like "the cool guy".

The relationship between himself and the girlfriend he has to give up in order to become a priest, is presented in a very romantic and syrupy way (but I like romantic and syrupy!). There are many little subplots and stories, all very interesting, some that really happened, some partially real and some completely made up by the film producers (it's a movie after all).

I love the fact that it is a long movie (3 hour miniseries made for TV), I like the actor who plays JP II and in fact most actors do a great job.
An interesting detail is that most of the actors are Polish (some are Italian, German etc) yet they all speak in English.

And one more thing. Apparently, John Paul II actually saw this movie before he died and he liked it, as did the new Pope Benedict...Bottom line: Great Catholic movie, highly recommended!

Recommended Catholic Books

Ever since Alex was born 5 months ago, I found myself having more time to read books. How is that possible? Well, whether I want it or not I need to take many short breaks every day to nurse the baby. Since I can't do any housework while breastfeeding, I either say my daily prayers or I read. Here are some of the books I've read this year that I recommend.
For Catholic mothers of many children there are several helpful books on raising large Catholic families written by other mothers (mostly homeschooling moms). One such book is Your Vocation of Love by Agnes M. Penny (author of "Your Labor of Love"). Each chapter of this book is a short essay about a specific aspect of motherhood. Some examples of these "short reflections" as the author calls them are: "Openness to Children", "Keeping Your Home Catholic", "Working Outside the Home" "Self-Pity", "Bad Days", "Holy Poverty", "Attending Sunday Mass" and more. It is a very easy read and even the most experienced of mothers could find some helpful advice in it.
Another interesting little book is Collyyn Hammond's Dressing With Dignity. I don't know if I necessarilly recommend it, but it did make me rethink the way I dress and the way I should teach my daughter to dress.
I recently discovered a great Catholic author, Ann Ball, who mostly writes about contemporary saints, blesseds or holy people who are in the process of being canonized. She also wrote books about other aspects of the Catholic faith, like the sacramentals, the titles of Mary etc. The first book I've read from her modern saints series is called Young Faces of Holiness, a gem of a book featuring the short biographies of modern (from the last 100-150 years) young saints, blessed, venerable or uncanonized holy people. All of the people featured in this book have died before the age of 21. Some of the children have died a heroic death at ages as young as 4! There's an inspiring story in this book for every child or parent. This is my second favorite book I've read this year.
The book I'm reading now is called Faces of Holiness - Modern Saints in Photos and Words also by Ann Ball. This one features saints and other holy people like Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (the young Italian student who died in 1925 at 24 years old and who enjoyed sports and mountain climbing). Pier Giorgio is a favorite of my husband Dominic and my son Teddy. Teddy just finished reading his biography written for children and was very impressed. Other people featured are Saint Clelia Barbieri, Blessed Miguel Pro and two of my favorites: Sister Maria Troncatti, missionary in the Amazon jungle (I'm frantically looking for a longer biography of hers) and Montserrat Grasses (1941-1959) a young girl from Barcelona, Spain, who lived a normal life on the outside but had a profound love of God and accepted with serenity her suffering and her premature death, due to bone cancer. Again, wonderful role models for children and young people and for everyone else who wants to grow closer to God and who thinks that holiness is hard to achieve in our time.
Recently I've started to think more seriously about that thing called "sex education". I realized that my oldest son, now 8 1/2 is going to bee a preteen before I know it and will need to learn "the facts of life". I strongly believe that it is the parents' responsibility to teach their children these things. Public and even Catholic parochial schools offer sex education classes for even young children and I am happy that my kids are able to go to a private Catholic school where they will not be offered such an "education". In order to prepare myself for the fast approaching teenage years of my children I've looked for some good wholesome books on the subject. On EWTN (the National Catholic Radio) someone was recently recommending Parents, Children and the Facts of Life" by Fr. Henry V. Sattler as the book about teaching children about sexuality. I have to say that I did find it useful. Some of the ideas presented are: teaching the facts gradually over years, teaching children about modesty from the early years, guarding their purity and stoping them from developing bad habits, the importance of frequent Communion and Confession, teaching about the three vocations (married life, unmarried life in the world and unmarried life as a priest or religious). This book is a must for every parent who wants to raise children who will use their sexuality as God intended it, only inside the marriage.
There's many more great catholic books on the subjects I've mentioned. The best way to find them is for each of the above books to look at the other recommended books on Amazon.

Random Acts of Kindness

It says in our local newspaper that November 13th is the day of "random acts of kindness". Wouldn't it be nice if each person would try to do one every day and not only on November 13th. I'm always surprised of how good I feel when I do a little something for another person. At the same time, when someone is kind to me, it puts a smile on my face.
Yesterday I was making Ebay packages and I noticed that one of the buyers was a lady from my town, who has bought shoes from me in the past. She has added $5 for shipping for the shoes and I emailed her saying that I can deliver the shoes myself to her house (it only takes me like 5 minutes to get there and it's on my way to the post office) and I can refund her $5. She emailed back and told me to keep the $5 that those are "for the delivery service", "after all", she said, "those shoes are worth more than their price anyway". She obviously didn't have to do that, but she wanted to be nice. Now, $5 might not make much of a difference in my wallet, but her kindness and generosity did make a difference.
Food for thought...
And since I'm talking about kindness, I would recommend a book called "The Hidden Power of Kindness" by Fr. Lawrence Lovasik. It is a book written by a Catholic priest from a Catholic perspective. I'm reading it now and it is great so far.
Father Lovasik has written many books (especially for children), mostly in the 60's. The Lovasik book I'm now reading to my boys is called "The Works of Mercy", another book I warmly recomend for Catholic children; in fact I was thinking of buying it for each of my godchildren this Christmas. It describes each of the 7 corporal and 7 spiritual acts of mercy that we as Christians are called to do. Some examples are: "to feed the hungry", "to visit the sick", "to admonish the sinner", "to counsel the doubtful" etc. Jesus himself has tought us to practice these works.
I will gradually introduce my children to the works of mercy and encourage them to practice them as often as they can, starting with maybe one a day.
More food for thought...