No, actually it was because Tuesdays are the "light" work days at Allstate and they decided they didn't want to pay me $8.50 an hour to sit and do nothing but read the company website and twirl around in my chair. Now, I would have appreciated hearing about this last night, or perhaps this morning, when I could have gone back to bed. But alas, I had gotten up at 6:45 and sat, reading and twirling, for an hour before they let me know. Oh well, it's good to get the day started!
Betsy has gone back to Washington. I am sure she will enjoy her volunteering/work; I think she's hoping to get placed in a school, teaching. On the last day of her nanny job I went with my dad to pick her up, and then we stopped by our grandparents' house to say hello. Oma - that's what we call grandma - had this delicious zucchini with some kind of meat in it. Mmmm, good! I miss Betsy already, though :(
Before she left, my sister got her monthly newsletter from EWTN. She gets their newsletter because she donated once, so now she's in their database! Ooo, sinister! Just kidding. They also send along a program schedule, so it's quite useful. The one she recieved last week (the October issue) included this great quote from Pope John Paul I, who reigned for only 33 days in 1978 before he died and Pope John Paul II was elected. He wrote during a time when many people despised the "old ways" of devotion, including the Rosary; self-appointed spokesmen for the laity claimed that the faithful were grown-ups and had in spite of this been treated like children by the Church. In a reaction to this, and in a sad attempt to demonstrate the "maturity" of the laity, many traditions that were deemed "childish" (like the Rosary) were jettisoned. This is also where the phenomenon of receiving Communion in the hand came from. Previously, this was unthinkable! The idea was that people were grown and should feed themselves; they didn't need to be "fed" Communion by the priest. Incidentally, John Paul always strongly disapproved of this, and forbade the practice in the churches of Rome.
Anyway, that was the atmosphere John Paul I was living in. I'm rambling. Here's the beautiful quote:
"When they speak of 'adult Christians' in prayer, sometimes they exaggerate. Personally, when I speak alone with God and Our Lady, I prefer to feel myself a child, rather than a grownup. The mitre, the zucchetto, the ring disappear. I send the grownup on vacation, and the bishop along with him, and abandon myself to the spontaneous tenderness that a child has for its papa and mamma. To be for a while before God as I am in reality, with the worst of myself and with the best of myself; to let rise to the surface from the depths of my being, the child I once was, who wants to laugh, to chatter, to love the Lord, and who sometimes feels the need to cry so that he may be shown mercy, helsp me to pray. The Rosary, a simple and easy prayer, helps me to be a child, and I am not ashamed at all."
What a beautiful description of what a joy praying the Rosary can be! Note: In case you're in the dark, a mitre and zuchetto are two kinds of head-gear for bishops; bishops also wear a ring as a sign of their office.
Wow, you get paid $8.50 an hour to twirl in a chair? So not fair. I'm getting paid $6.15 an hour to start to do something more closely resembling "work" at Panera's starting tomorrow, lol.
ReplyDeleteShame you had to get up! I feel your pain. ;)
...And I loooooooooooooove swivel chairs! Perhaps I will go "borrow" my brother's while he is at the store now, lol.
Can't tell I'm down a pint of blood at all, can you? :P