I find the nicest blogs through my referral log.
Here is another testimony from a nurse who came home through the wilderness.
I remember that I found Tarot cards fascinating for a while when I was wandering, myself. Sam Delany's classic SF Novel Nova refers to them extensively, and I played around with them for a while. It is actually kind of scary how many portals Hell actually has around us.
Given the history of Tarot and the like, I understand why so many Christian sects forbade the playing of card games from Go Fish to Poker. I still have a hard time understanding why some Catholic hospitals foster Reiki and similar Gnostic healing methodologies. Or why the Catholic university I attended for 18 months allowed a recruiter for Trancendental Meditation on campus.
faith in the desert: May 2005 Archives
but welcome news none the less
The Pontificator crosses the Tiber.
As a sometimes homesick former Anglican, I welcome him home and hope and pray that he will be welcomed via the pastoral provision.
I think that if we ever contemplate relocation again (not terribly likely from where I sit) I will want to be near an Anglican use parish. The older I get the more I miss the liturgy of my youth. I think that the church does well to be truly Catholic and welcoming of the various valid rites, be they Eastern rite, Tridentine, Novus ordo and/or Anglican.
Thanks for all who offered prayers and best wishes for the confirmation. It went very well, there were 63 candidates who were all well dressed, well-behaved, and just plain wonderful. It was lovely to see my dd lead the procession carrying the Paschal candle to the front - this also meant that by the quirk of seating she was the first one confirmed. Her sponsor had rehearsed the somewhat unusual confirmation name (Gottschalk) over and over again. Bishop McCormick had a twinkle in his eye as he pronounced her name and administered the sacrament. The whole mass took around 2 hours, and the confirmation itself was 23 minutes of that time. Music was provided by members of the last years class with help from the Parish music co-ordinator playing organ and piano on the traditional hymns. The kids played guitar on the contemporary 'praise and worship' style music, but it was all acoustic guitar and fit right in. There was also a trumpeter who played along with the organ on some of the hymns. I was also glad to hear my dh acknowledged for his two years of spending 2 sundays a month with his group of confirmands. He is planning to do it again for the next 2 year cycle.
I have been reading my comments and my email, but have really been overwhelmed with work and family committments so haven't been making the rounds of the blogs. I know that Scott will probably pop up here to encourage me (yet again) to get and use an RSS feed and I suppose that eventually I will. The one I had for a while was not very friendly to my style. It was kind of like the confusion I encountered in the early days of the internet when I tried to get into various usenet groups - I just couldn't figure out the syntax and the process! That learning disability of mine is also why I don't participate in the forums including the St Blog's Parish Hall. My brain just doesn't wrap around that kind of syntax.
Work has been pretty tough lately. I haven't crunched the numbers yet but I am guessing that my cesarean rate (among midwifery patients who went into labor) is going to be close to 50% for the last few weeks. The hardest labors both on mom and midwife are the ones where you try and try everything to get the baby out the normal way and it just doesn't work. Have had a couple in the last few weeks where the mom and baby would probably not have both survived labor in the absence of modern medical and surgical care - and I don't say that lightly. I just wish that there were a way to predict these cases before putting everyone through this, but there just plain isn't. Only in the most extreme cases can an educated decision be made that this just plain isn't going to work - and it is still an educated guess. I'm a good clinician - and I am usually either right on when estimating the weight of the baby before birth - or I am 2 pounds (1 kilo) off. US has an error ratio of 10% - and we can't know what is going to happen in the course of labor to the mom or baby.
I hear you down there in the comments box who want me to weight in on the vaccination debate. I'm not ready to put the effort into doing the long research to put forth the quality of article that I would write. I am also wondering if I should try to find a paying venue for that kind of content.
On another note, I was passed the baton on the 5 things that others like that I just don't get meme. Have been mulling it over and will try to make that post fairly soon. I spend usually 7 hours/week just commuting, and that gives me some good thinking time but by the time I get destinated I am not usually in a position to do much with the thoughts I have been having!
expect me to be scarce for a few more days. My youngest is being confirmed tomorrow evening! Unless she has changed her mind, her confirmation name will be Gottschalk, after the patron saint of linguists and reverts.
