Catholic Author Holly Pierlot

I got to meet and hang out with Holly Pierlot, author of A Mother's Rule of Life, at the Michigan conference. All my friends tell me that Holly's talks were absolutely inspirational. (That's one of the bummers of being a speaker yourself, you miss all the great talks!) I'll let you know when the Michigan Catholic Home Educators have the tapes for sale at their website. In the meantime, you can visit Holly's website here. BTW - Both Holly and I will be at the Milwaukee conference in April 2007. I'm looking forward to it!

Polling Point: Gay Marriage

To voice your opinion on gay marriage, go here.

PopeStNick5: Swimming with Scapulars

Addendum. Forewarning: This book contains some off-color language and in the discussion of purity some graphic descriptions of intimate acts.

To read past library recommendations, or to join the email list, visit: Pope Saint Nicholas V.

Check to see if this title is already in your library's catalog. If it is, put a hold on it and check it out. If not, fill out a patron request form right away. This can usually be done online at your library's website.

Title: Swimming with Scapulars: True Confessions of a Young Catholic
Author: Matthew Lickona
Publisher: Loyola Press
Date Published: April 2005
ISBN: 082942072X
Price: 19.95
Comments: Simply put, it's an enjoyable read.

From amazon.com:
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. As personal faith stories go, Lickona's is a breath of fresh air, thoughtfully written and happily absent of platitudes and pious moralizing. A 30-year-old husband, father of four and writer for the San Diego Reader, an alternative weekly, Lickona lives a Catholicism that is orthodox, but also dynamic and relevant to modern culture. He reads Salon and the Onion and gleans life lessons from contemporary film and fiction even as he embraces beliefs and traditions rejected by his parents' generation. He admits to being a virgin when he married, and he and his wife practice natural family planning in keeping with their church's ban on artificial birth control. Lickona also wears a scapular, fasts during Lent and has a statue of St. Joseph in his front yard. In writing about these beliefs and practices, he explains how he came to accept them, often after a period of questioning. As he navigates the realm of Catholic faith in the 21st century, Lickona reflects candidly on his failures, foibles and doubts. He confesses to "parish-hopping" in search of a Mass that will not disturb his peace of soul, to personal struggles with "constant wanting" and anger and to his weakness in communicating his faith. Most readers will disagree with Lickona's assessment that he is a poor communicator and will find themselves captivated by this winsome story of a soul. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description
Dave Eggers meets G. K. Chesterton in this funny, wise, and acutely perceptive memoir by a precocious young Catholic. For a wine connoisseur and fan of Nine Inch Nails, 30-year-old Matthew Lickona lives an unusual inner life. He is a Catholic of a decidedly traditional bent.

About the Author
Matthew Lickona is a staff writer and sometime cartoonist for the San Diego Reader, a weekly newspaper. Born and raised in upstate New York, he attended Thomas Aquinas College in California. He lives in La Mesa, California, with his wife Deirdre and their four children.

Colorado Pics

To view pictures from our Colorado vacation click here. (I hope this works!)

Addendum: Oops, they were uploaded out of order. For the most part, they're backwards - from the end of the trip to the beginning. Sorry I don't have any from the conference.

White Chocolate Raspberry Bread Pudding

Sometimes the best recipes are the ones that you make up on the spur of the moment. After all, they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Yesterday, I found a loaf of French bread that had been forgotten. It was still good, but terribly stale. So, I decided to make bread pudding. I searched the cupboards and found a bag of white chocolate chips. And in the fridge I found raspberries left over from canning, along with milk and butter. It turned out really good. In fact, I had the leftovers for breakfast this morning. Yum! Here is the recipe that I made up:

1 loaf of French bread (16 oz.)
1 cup of white chocolate chips (the whole bag if you're a chocolate lover)
1 pint of fresh raspberries
2 cups of milk
1 cup of sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tblsp. butter

Cut up the bread into bite-size pieces. Best if stale.
In a bowl mix together the eggs, milk, vanilla, and sugar. Pour over the bread. Best if you let it sit for an hour or so to soak in the liquid. You could even do this ahead of time early in the day and put it covered in the fridge.
Fold in the chocolate chips and raspberries.
Spray a 2-qt. casserole dish with Pam and put the bread pudding into it. Put dabs of butter all over the top.
Place into a 350 oven for about an hour.
Be careful, it's very hot when served right away. But also delicious!

Colorado

(I have loads of pictures to share, but Blogger is being touchy this afternoon. I'll try to upload them again later.)

Vacationing in Colorado was awesome. The Rocky Mountains are breathtaking, but also a bit scary. We started at Estes Park, camping at Long's Peak. Rob and the kids hiked up above the tree line where they had a snowball fight. (Yep, in June!) The four-year old and I had to stay behind as we had a touch of altitude sickness.

Then we moved on to Twin Lakes, near Leadville. Leadville is the highest city in North America at 10,430 feet elevation.

We drove up Independent Pass, which is the highest pass in North America (12,095 ft.) and crosses the Continental Divide. You need nerves of steel to drive this road. The 10 mile-per-hour hairpin curves are right on the side of the mountains. If you go off the road just a tad, you're dead. I don't think that they believe in guard rails in Colorado. Adding to the fun are the bicyclists sharing the road with you and the snowboarders hitchhiking to the top (then they snowboard to the bottom).

Pike's Peak is even more scary. They have pulloffs where guys check your brakes to make sure that they're not too hot.

I did pretty well driving in the mountains. (We took two cars and I wasn't about to let teen son drive in the mountains, so there was no getting out of it.) I made sure to use my lower gears and to pump the brakes gently. However, toward the end of the trip I had a bit of the mishap. We were coming down from the Black Canyon, which btw is absolutely breathtaking - I don't know how anyone can doubt the existence of God after seeing such a site. Anyway, I could feel the brakes getting spongy as we came down the mountain and it felt as if the brakes were about to go completely, so I pulled off the road. Black smoke was pouring out from under the front wheels and you could smell burning rubber. After Rob pulled my white knuckles from the steering wheel (I never knew that one's hands could sweat so much), we pulled out a blanket and had a picnic lunch while the brakes cooled. We prayed a family rosary before getting on the road again. I wasn't about to get back into that car until I prayed!

After that we backtracked and found a national forest on the side of Pike's Peak to camp. Everywhere we camped in Colorado there was always the danger of running into a bear. We were cautious and went over the bear precautions with the kids. But at this campsite, the danger was a little higher as they had two bear sightings just days before. And then there were the mountain lions. But we were reassured that the mountain lions would rather eat deer and elk than people. (Oh yeah, that made me feel better.) To make up for the scare, the hiking was the best of any of the other campsites.

I left Rob with five kids and the two bears while I went off to the conference with two of the older girls. We got to stay a night with my friend Kim on the plains. It was nice to be someplace with a shower after two weeks of primitive camping, but even nicer to be able to visit with a dear friend. The girls and I also got to spend a night at the Radisson Hotel, which was truly a treat.

The conference was amazing. They don't get a huge turnout, yet the organizers put on a conference that is just as good as any of the larger conferences. It's a two-day conference with loads of speakers and workshops. They also have a fancy sit-down dinner on Friday night, which was especially lovely. The girls loved all of the great door prizes and won a beautiful piece of stained glass.

About half way home to Michigan, Rob commented that he missed the mountains already. I think he enjoyed the trip more than anyone.

Nursing Mothers and the Early Church Fathers

Mike Aquilina makes the connection between the Early Church Fathers and breastfeeding. I think Mike could tie anything into the Early Church Fathers!

Mad Hatter Design

If you like my website, and you're looking for a web designer, you've got to check out Mad Hatter Design. The designer that I worked with, Kaleb, did a great job. He was so easy to work with and timely too. He even put up a temporary site so that I could check on his progress. In the end he delivered a website beyond my expectations. In fact, he delivered two separate website designs for me to choose from. I just can't say enough nice things about Mad Hatter Design. BTW - they also do logo and business card design.

Back to Blogging

Vacation is over, conferences are done for the year, and I've finished writing the literature book. I should be back to blogging regularly come Monday. Whew!

Catholic Woman's Daily Planner

I had the opportunity to meet and chat with Michele Quigley in Colorado. Some of you may be familiar with Michele through Mater Amabilis. She also publishes a very lovely series of planners for Catholic men and women. In fact, I am now the proud owner of a Catholic Woman's Daily Planner and I must share with you all that it is absolutely beautiful, as well as functional. It goes from August 2006 to September 2007, so it's perfect for the upcoming school year. I love it!

Each day has the day's saint and readings. It is filled with daily prayers and wonderful quotes from the saints, making this a truly Catholic planner. You can even order planners with lesson planning and record keeping for your homeschool. You can also order meal planning pages to help with home management, which I love.

To check it out, visit Michele's website: Family Centered Press.

Hello from Colorado

We've been camping in Colorado for almost two weeks and I have so much to share with you. But alas, no time. I've got to get my beauty rest for the conference tomorrow. I will tell you that it's beautiful here! Also, got to meet Rebecca Dussault today in real life person. Certainly one of the highlights of the trip. She gave a talk on both her Olympic and spiritual journey, which was quite inspirational.

We're Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, actually we're leaving in a van and a car. We're heading to Colorado this weekend for two weeks of camping. I can't wait to see the mountains up close and personal. While there, I'll be doing a speaking gig in Denver. I hope to meet a few Internet friends in real live person while there. If you're anywere near Colorado, you've got to check this conference out. I can't believe all the events they have planned. Awesome!

Upon our return, I'll have the Michigan Catholic homeschooling conference. That'll be an easy job as I'll only have one talk to give. My topic: Bringing History Alive through Literature. The Michigan conference is one of the best organized conferences that I've attended. We get about 900 people from all over Michigan, neighboring states, and even a few from Canada.

An administrative note: Unless the primitive camping sites in the Rocky Mountains offer wireless Internet access, I'll have very little access to the computer. So if you leave a comment at this blog, it may take a week or two for me to approve it.

PS Please pray for our safe travel!

Susie Lloyd Interview Postponed

With all the Da Vinci Code hoopla, Susie Lloyd's interview on EWTN was not aired. It's been postponed to the week of July 2nd. Mark your calendar!

Airing:
Sun 9:30 am ET
Mon 5:00 am ET
Wed 5:30 pm ET
Sat 9:00 pm ET

Catholic VBS

Every summer I teach Vacation Bible School (VBS) at my parish. My job is to catholicize the VBS program bought by the DRE. Now Ascension Press has a VBS program out just for Catholics, based on the wonderful Cat Chat CD's. Check it out here.

Blogging Hiatus

Blogging will be little to nonexistent over the next six weeks. I have a book to finish writing, two conferences to prepare for, and our Colorado vacation. See you all again in late June!

P.S. Blogger's spell check doesn't recognize blogging or blogger as legitimate words. Interesting.

First Holy Communion

Sparky made his First Holy Communion on Sunday. It was a very special day of course, but even more special, in a way, because he has celiac disease. Celiacs cannot digest wheat and so Sparky could not take Jesus in the form of bread. Instead, he took only the Precious Blood.

Our pastor did a lovely job using Sparky's special circumstances as a teaching moment. In his homily he spoke of how Jesus, Body and Blood, is present in both the form of bread and wine.

Below is an article that I wrote five years ago on this topic for OSV. It is interesting for me to reread it now. In it I mention how my heart ached. But on Sunday, my heart lept for joy. I wept joyfully as my son took the chalice into his hands. All that mattered was that Sparky really loves Jesus and was thrilled to be partaking in Holy Communion. The wheat thing didn't matter at all.

“Come into my heart Lord Jesus and stay with me forever.”

As I sit at my computer, my seven-year-old daughter is teaching this prayer to her 32-month-old brother. It is a prayer of spiritual communion; a prayer to be said when one cannot partake in Holy Communion. Although it is very sweet to see my little ones praying together, my heart is aching. It aches because I know that there will be times in my son’s life when he will not be able to take Jesus in the Eucharist.

My son has celiac disease, a lifelong disease with no cure. Fortunately, there is a treatment: a change in diet. Persons with celiac have an intolerance to gluten found in wheat, rye, barley, and oats. As a result they must adhere to a strict gluten-free diet. Rice and corn are safe substitutes.

Recently, a Boston family made national news as they left the Catholic Church when they were told that their 5-year-old daughter, who suffers from celiac, would not be able to use a rice wafer when she received first Communion. The family instead chose to join the Methodist church, leaving the Real Presence behind.

I understand this family’s frustration, but leaving the Catholic Church is not an option for us.

This is not a disease to be taken lightly. Gluten damages the intestinal lining so that it cannot properly absorb nutrients. Even the smallest trace of gluten can lead to future illnesses, such as lymphoma.

At twenty months, my son was malnourished even though he ate a well-balanced diet and took a daily vitamin. He suffered serious weight loss, developmental delays, and cried constantly because of abdominal pain.

After he began the gluten-free diet, my husband and I saw wonderful changes in our son. We were thrilled. Then one day we realized that he would never be able to digest a communion wafer.

We asked our parish priest what we should do when the time came for our child to receive his First Holy Communion. In his forty years as a priest he had never encountered this situation and was unsure of how to proceed. So I sought the advice of Catholic adults with celiac. I had already begun networking through a local support group and the Internet, so I added Holy Communion to my list of questions.

I soon learned that a host made of rice flour was not a legitimate substitute for a wheat host. I am not a theologian, and cannot begin to lay out the theological argument for this, but 2,000 years of tradition appears to insist that the host must contain gluten in order to be a valid consecration.

The pastor of my in-law’s parish uses a low-gluten host, which is valid. This still causes some damage to the celiac priest, but he chooses to take the risk.

One woman told me that her husband receives Communion in the hand and brings it back to the pew, where he breaks off a very small piece to share with her, since even the smallest crumb is still in essence Our Lord. Most people that I talked to take communion under the species of wine and forgo the bread altogether.

Young children need only touch the wine to their lips. Since the particle of host that is dropped into the wine by the priest contaminates the entire chalice with gluten, a separate chalice is provided for the celiac individual.

Life is unfair, especially to little children who suffer from incurable diseases. My son will never share a pizza with his buddies, walk into a McDonalds to order his heart’s desire, eat birthday cake with his schoolmates, or take Communion under the species of bread.

As he will have to do with many other situations in his life, he will make special arrangements in advance in order to take Jesus into his body. When such accommodations cannot be made, he will ask his Lord for a spiritual communion.

Even when he cannot take Jesus into his body, he can take Him into his heart. And he can offer up his sacrifice in love.

2006 Colorado Catholic Home Educators Conference

I'm so excited to have the opportunity to speak in Colorado this year. We're going to make it our family vacation.

If you're anywhere near Colorado, check out the website at: 7th Annual Colorado Catholic Home Educators Conference.

Author Mary Ann Budnik will be there as well as Olympian Rebecca Dussault. I can't wait!

Homeschoolers on the Television

Susie Lloyd will be on EWTN starting Mothers' Day (May 15th). If you don't get EWTN on cable or satellite, you can stream it on the Internet.

Airing (Eastern time):
Sun 9:30 am
Mon 5:00 am
Wed 5:30 pm
Sat 9:00 pm

Go to Bookmark to check it out. Scroll down just past Mother Angelica.

If you're not familiar with Susie Lloyd, she has a column in Latin Mass Magazine's homeschooling section. She also wrote the hilarious Please Don't Drink the Holy Water. It's the kind of book that you give to a friend as soon as you're done reading it, because you enjoyed it so much. That's what I did.

PopeStNick5: The Grail Code

Check to see if this title is already in your library's catalog. If it is, put a hold on it and check it out. If not, fill out a patron request form right away. This can usually be done online at your library's website.

Title: The Grail Code: Quest for the Real Presence
Author: Mike Aquilina and Christopher Bailey
Publisher: Loyola Press
Date Published: May 2006
ISBN: 0829421599
Price: 15.95
Comments: Just in time for the Da Vinci Code movie!

From the publisher:
The Grail Code is a lucid treatment of the Grail legends, based on real history. It satisfies the hunger that people have for knowledge of this mystery. The true Grail bears witness to a divine gift that exceeds even the deepest human longing. This book is unique and a great read.
Scott Hahn, author of The Lamb’s Supper and Hail Holy Queen

In Western literature, the search for the Holy Grail is a recurring and engaging theme. In whatever form it takes the spiritual overtones are compelling. While many authors have addressed the quest, Mike Aquilina and Christopher Bailey bring a fresh approach. The Grail Code: Quest for the Real Presence is both a good read and an invitation to experience a sense of spiritual journey holding the reader’s imagination in the context of faith.
Most Reverend Donald W. Wuerl, S.T.D., Bishop of Pittsburgh

The Grail Code: Quest for the Real Presence is a much-needed book, immersing the reader in the richness of Grail lore through the ages. The book grounds the legends in their historical and theological context, giving a much-needed corrective to some of the more outlandish and unfortunately popular constructs of the legend we find today.
Amy Welborn, author of de-coding DaVinci

There is an accompanying blog: Grail Code

To read past library recommendations, or to join the email list, visit: Pope Saint Nicholas V.

Catholic Magazines in Public Libraries

One of PopeStNicholasV's goals is to get good Catholic magazines into libraries as well as books. For example, my library subscribes to First Things.

I came across an offer from NewsMax magazine that got me thinking. (I'm not familiar with NewsMax, other than Rob says it's a far-right political magazine.) They are offering a free subscription to the library of your choosing should you purchase a subscription for yourself.

Sometimes I come across buy one, get one free offers from my favorite Catholic magazines. I think that next time I'll buy one for myself and send the free one to my library. I hope that you will consider it too.