by Mary | Jun 19, 2008 | Original NSS, podcasts
You can check out my interview with Tony Rossi on Christopher Closeup by clicking HERE. It will take you to the main page where you will be able to download not only the podcast featuring yours truly, but, among others, podcasts with Passion of the Christ actor Jim Caviezel, CNN Vatican analyst Delia Gallagher, and former American Idol finalist Phil Stacey. Kind of cool company to be hanging with, even if it is only on a Web site. (I have to take my thrills where I can get them.) Thanks to Tony for the radio interview and the podcast.
by Mary | Jun 19, 2008 | Original NSS
Dennis spotted this one on a car yesterday while driving down Delaware Avenue in Albany, and it was too good not to share:
What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it’s all about?
Food for thought…
by Mary | Jun 18, 2008 | Original NSS, prayer, spirituality
OK, yesterday I rambled on and on about balancing the spiritual and secular, and then today, voilà, a blog reader emailed me about a Catholic New Service story where Pope Benedict XVI talks about the same thing — sort of. Turns out the pope and I are on the same wave length, which should be very scary news for B16. A shout out to Father Mike for the heads up on this. Here’s a snippet of the CNS story by Carol Glatz:
Christians must strike a fruitful balance in their lives by including both prayer and action, Pope Benedict XVI said.
People of faith can “run the risk of reducing themselves to being one-dimensional” either by retreating from the world to dedicate themselves to God and prayer or by totally immersing themselves in the world to help others, the pope said during his June 18 general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
Instead, believers must look for “a middle ground” by imitating Christ, whose life was dedicated to contemplation and action, he said.
If you want to read the official text of today’s papal audience, click HEREto go to the Vatican Web site.
by Mary | Jun 17, 2008 | Original NSS, spirituality
Why, you may ask, is someone who writes about Christian spirituality using a Taoist Yin Yang symbol as art? Well, the easy answer is that it’s all part of the Tao of Mary. My years of dabbling in Eastern philosophy still cling — in a very minimal sort of way — to the periphery of my spiritual life. Not because I’m looking for something outside the Christian Way, but because I find so many elements of Eastern spirituality to be a beautiful supplement to our own practices. The whole notion of Yin Yang — that opposing but complementary aspects of our lives can happily co-exist — is something so basic and, well, Christian, to me. We cannot separate our lives into individual and isolated boxes. Spirituality here, work there, exercise here. They have to overlap and exist in a kind of healthy tension. If they don’t, we end up with everything slipping to one side, figuratively speaking, and suddenly our Yin is left without a Yang, and that’s never good.
I first discovered the ability of Eastern practices to further my Western prayer when I learned Hatha yoga many years ago. Hatha is another Yin Yang sort of philosophy, focusing on the opposing energies of hot and cold, sun and moon. Hatha yoga is about preparing the physical body for a spiritual experience. Not necessarily something mystical but something beyond the norm, whether our “norm” is sitting in a chair with a remote control in hand or driving a car down the highway at 65 MPH with the radio blaring. (more…)
by Mary | Jun 16, 2008 | family, Original NSS, parenting
In case anyone is wondering why I haven’t been blogging regularly — as if I’m that important — here’s the deal: It has been the craziest June ever. We seem to have at least two events double-booked for every night of the week and weekends. I cannot wait until Friday when school lets out, even if it means I’ll be working from home with all three children circling around me
Last Thursday, which is right around the time I last posted, we had four, count ‘em, four events on one night: baseball, Scouts, dance recital dress rehearsal, and a core team meeting for my retreat group. Since we are not in a position to hire a small staff to assist us, something had to give. We gave Scouts and the retreat meeting the old heave-ho and kept the other two because, when it came down to it, those were the commitments that most needed to be kept. (more…)
