Twitter

The Holy Father has arrived...on Twitter.

Which means, I'm not ashamed to say, he got there before me.  I've never really gotten the point of Twitter.  If I want to tell a bunch of people what I'm doing, I just update my Facebook status.  Also, I can't see myself "following" any celebrity tweeters.  To me, that seems more than a little voyeuristic.

My good friend Bonnie started up with Twitter, so I made a false start at using it, so I could follow her.  I think I signed up and that was as far as I got.

When I heard Pope Benedict had his own Twitter handle (that's what they're called, right?) I figured it was as good a time as any to give it another go.

I went to work that night and read about the vitriol which has been shot at His Holiness through his Twitter feed.  People who are understandably angry about the recent scandals surrounding church members, people who do not understand the Church and how it works in the world, and people who just hate religion in general have been taking their anger out on the Holy Father's Twitter feed since he opened it.

This gave me pause.  I have stopped reading people's comments on news stories about religion in general and especially the Catholic Church.  Many people seem to find it "safe" in some way to sit behind their computer screens and spout falsehoods about Church teachings, fire angry messages about the scandals, or just bash religion.  These comments have always been difficult to read and are even more so when directed at a figure I hold so dearly as Pope Benedict.

But of course, this is exactly why we should all now create Twitter accounts.  It is upon us to surround the Holy Father virtually with love and support.  For every angry, deprecatory, or hateful comment he receives we should be there with messages of hope, support, grace, and love.  There are over a billion of us, I'm sure if we all work together, we can beat back the tide of anger and malice that surrounds His Holiness online.

So, I went to Twitter again.  I started following Bonnie.  Then I looked for the Pope's pages and realized I had no idea how to operate the site and ended up not leaving a message because I couldn't figure it out.

I'll try again later.

God bless

God bless little James Fulton Engstrom and his family, my good friends.  James was stillborn, then brain damaged.  His healing, which is widely attributed to the intercession of Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, is being submitted as the alleged miracle to the Congregation for Causes of the Saints for the beatification of the good archbishop.  

James is now a perfectly healthy happy 1 1/2 year old little boy.  Click here to read Bonnie's account of how everything happened.

God is great!

News

First of all, a very enthusiastic congratulations to my very good friends Bonnie and Travis on the birth of their son Bennet Mark on the fourth...I can't wait to meet the little guy in October.

Bonnie, I took a suggestion of yours from a while ago the other day and watched the movie "Heartlands." I thought the movie was okay, to me it wasn't really memorable for anything but the music. I LOVED the music. I can't get enough of listening to Kate Rusby these days. Her thick Yorkshire accent reminds me of my friend Pippa, who was one of the girls I lived with in England. It feels like I'm sitting back in flat 18.

I'm starting to discover myself as a cook, which means I'm starting to cook more complicated things. My basic method is to find out what kind of meat we have in the freezer and throw it into a frying pan with whatever else we have on hand and some herbs. Today I made Cheerio chicken, which meant I peeled the skin off some chicken thighs and cut the meat off the bones and tossed it into the frying pan with some olive oil, minced garlic, lemon juice, and crushed Cheerios which had been mixed with poultry seasonings, garlic salt, fresh rosemary and oregano. It was much better than I was expecting. Tomorrow I'm trying salsa pork, which will be baked rather than fried, so we'll see how that goes. I rarely ever use recipes...I'm not sure yet whether or not this is a hindrance.

On Wednesday I had my very first substitute teaching gig, for high school art at my old high school. Ironically enough, the class is taught by my best friend from high school's mom. It was only a half day and the students were all right, but the fact that it was high school had me totally terrified of them before I went in. Next Wednesday...fourth grade.

Nathan has just about finished stripping the paint off our front door. I will be so excited when he's done with that. We've picked out a really pretty deep green color for the door and it will look lovely.

I've saved the biggest news for last. I'm an auntie! My wonderful and lovely sister-in-law Janelle (whom I hope will not mind me posting this on the blog) is going to have a baby in February. I am so excited and so happy for her and her husband.