It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

So today I decided that being a Catholic is wicked. 

Not that kind of wicked, actually. THIS kind of wiiiiiiiicked

Being a part of the Catholic church makes me want to put on a cape and go jump off of something tall. Because I can fly. Maybe the top bunk in my dorm. Because then if for some reason I can't fly, I won't have a very long fall. But I'm a Catholic. I'm not afraid to fall. And we go hard or we go home. So I'm thinking  the taller the better right now. 

I mean really, the blood of Superman runs through my veins. No really, I ate him at mass yesterday. And I have Wonderwoman, Batman, and the whole freaking Justice League for brothers and sisters. (It's pretty legit, I know.) Why wouldn't I be able to fly? 

And if you think about it, flying requires lifting both feet off of the ground. I can imagine the first time would be a wee bit uncomfortable/scary, but how else do ya expect to do it?! 

Superman actually wrote me a long series of letters....he called it something weird. Holy Scripture. Huh. Anyways, he made it very clear that he has a mission for me, he wants me to fly, and I can fly if I keep my eyes on him and off of the ground. 

So I guess if Superman says I should fly, I should fly with reckless abandon....

Kind of like this fella

Over and Out. 

All We Are

For the glory of God, and just because it's sweet, enjoy:

Pray for Christian Unity. 

Ladies & Gents

"The only ones who are truly beautiful are the ones who look beautiful when they come in out of the rain. That kind of beauty comes from the inside-out, not the outside-in. It is the product of virtue, not rouge; it is not skin-deep, but soul-deep."

~Archbishop Fulton Sheen

What happened? What happened to the true and authentically beautiful, not judged by the worldly standards of pleasure and goodness? If I may be so bold, I will ask this; did beauty change, or did we change? Have our standards been warped? Since beauty is truth and truth remains a constant, one explanation remains, our hearts have been hardened against beauty.

In this age of feminism vs. femininity in which men are emasculated every day in the name of "strong womanhood", it is no wonder our men don't know what it means to be a man in the truest sense. Nor our women, for that matter.

There was a time when a man was a man and stood up for women. Not just when his mother criticized her cooking or when his buddies made inappropriate remarks, but in his every action and thought. He held doors for her, stood when she entered the room, he even refrained from putting the two of them in situations that could lead the two of them to impurity. He upheld her dignity and protected her, even if that meant protecting her from himself.

Now, I'm not writing this to complain about our men today, nor to turn my nose up at them. I don't intend  to write a long and abrasive attack on men.  On the contrary actually! Besides, men aren't the only problem. What on the good earth happened to us, ladies? There was a time when we knew our worth. We knew the power we have over men and didn't seek to use it to manipulate or tempt. We used to inspire men to be men of God.

Most importantly, we knew that Jesus Christ suffered and died for us, giving all of himself so that we may live, men and women alike! The creator of the universe thought/thinks we are worth dying for but some mere "men" think women are to be used as an object of pleasure, not worth committing their entire lives to, and *GASP* certainly not guarding her virtue!

I will suggest though, that our hearts are not completely turned off to this authentic beauty and gracefulness. Not yet. If they were, we wouldn't look at women like Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly and sigh in reverence.

Notice the successful modern romance films, (as silly as they may be.) They wouldn't possess recurring themes of sacrificial love and patient waiting for the beloved if we didn't know it to be true in our heart of hearts what beauty and love really is. Gasps wouldn't be released at the sight of a pure blushing bride behind her veil. Smiles wouldn't be worn by those who turn to look at the giant grin of awe on the face of the proud groom. No, we cannot have lost our sense of the truth.

I leave you with the word of Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth Bennett, "You have bewitched me body and soul and I love, I love, I love you."

Ladies, know the effect you have on men. Men, know our worth and honor it.

Bridget Ann

Your love is a symphony

Now that I'm settling in back at school after a nice long winter holiday, I've finally found time to do some writing! Hi all, hope everything is well =] Tonight I have melodies on the mind, and I'm just going to go with it....

Music. It is often called the universal language, and rightly so! It is quietly hummed or loudly howled in the shower, rocked out to on road trips, passively enjoyed during the greatest of films, and echoed through symphony halls, auditoriums, churches, and cathedrals worldwide.

This my friends, is a very beautiful and epic piece of music:

We have Dvorak to thank for this. NEW WORLD SYMPHONY!!! Oh, how I wish this was played in mass! (I truly think God has this on his ipod. Ha. Haha.) Or how about THIS when we act like naughty/bad/sinful human beings? Ha! 

Here is some amazingly terrifying music:

And this, my dear pals, is a really great, wonderful, gorgeous, and arguably the best musical tool ever given to man:

Aaaaawwww yeaa. It's a cello. It makes the best music in the world. 

So, to get right to the point, everything I just told you is a giant lie. Yea, that's right. The pictures posted above are simply white pieces of paper with some black ink stamped onto them in a few distinct patterns. Or, if you are the picky argument-seeking type, you could argue that they are black pieces of paper with some white stains. But we won't go there. The only music these above pictures make is a crinkle, or maybe the muffled rub of a page turn. It's simply an instruction manual for music. Wooopdeefreakingdoo. AND! To make matters worse, the cello you see there, it's actually just a poor forsaken tree with some melted horse glue and metal stringies on top. Yesss. 

The point I'm trying to make is that the above objects aren't music. The only way they could possibly make music is with some form of movement (Duh, right?) A bow on the string, a conductor lifting his arms, the movement of air past vocal cords, fingers on strings, music requires movement. 

For Christians this is ridiculously important! We are called to strive for the impossible and to live radically different lives from the rest of the world. Think of it as an incredibly complex and difficult symphony, (and a super epic one at that!) It is ridiculous to say that with simply our instruction manual -the sheet music- we are achieving anything resembling music. Absolutely not! Likewise, while our movements can create beautiful sounds without the aid of written notes, an orchestra without some form music to read cannot possibly create a symphony. 

God has given us his word, the lives of many great saints, and inspiration all around us for our sheet music. He has given us our instruments. (God willing) we have healthy and able bodies with brains to reason and souls to feel and yearn. Put the together and we have...Shaazaaam! Movement! Stuff to do! Work! Verbs!

Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, wash feet, pull in your nets, come follow me, take and eat, heal the sick. These are all commands of Jesus. Notice all of the verbs. You betcha that these all require some movement! So, does this mean that I need to have the busiest of lives, frantically doing Christ's work unceasingly? Not exactly. Huh?

You heard me. Ask any musician what makes music so, well, ... musical, and they'll most likely tell you this; rests. Periods of silence among the noise. This intentional act of silence is really an action, I suppose.  It's a time to retreat so to let the sound in itself have more effect, or perhaps in anticipation of the sound that is to come. 

Nature as well mimics this. For every heart beat there is a rest that follows, every single one. Energy lost is gained from adequate rest and preparedness for the work that is to come.  Nature's way of telling us to Be still and know that I am God? ...

I think so, yes. 

Thin Trodden Ice

So, today I spent nearly 8 hours on top of one-foot-thick lake ice, in a pop up portable ice house with a thermos of coffee, my poppa, a fishing pole, and a little heater. I could go on and on about the majesty of nature and the miles of ice and shoreline. I could tell you about the magnitude of the sound that ice makes when it's windy and you can hear it cracking in it's depths. I could even bore you with yet another sweet little blog post, telling you to "enjoy life's simple moments" or "find quiet in your life" all accomplished through ice fishing with your dad!  ... Needless to say, I won't.

One might even expect me to make a biblical reference to John 21, where 153 fish are miraculously pulled into the boat upon Jesus' command. (Although we did manage a nice number of 62 little fishes. Without a net like Simon Peter would have used, mind you!) Again, this isn't my intention.

What I will tell you is a little story about today. For anybody who has never ice-fished, small holes are drilled into the ice about 10 inches in diameter, in which one fishes through. It's great fun, but I digress! Sometimes, previously used fishing holes freeze over slightly or are covered with fresh snow and can be very hard to see. See, I was walking out on the ice today, having a grand old time when suddenly my leg slipped. I fell into frigid water up past my knee. In 10 degree weather with a negative wind chill, this is bad bad news, very painful, and could be super harmful. Luckily the hole wasn't very big and I caught myself before I actually went down! Phew =]

I got to thinking. Man, I really wish somebody would have warned me about that stinking fish hole, or at least it had not been so concealed! (My thoughts probably didn't actually sound like that, haha.) But in seriousness, I could have saved myself pain and danger! And yea sure, I caught myself with no problem at all and I'm totally fine, but what if the hole had been a little bit bigger or the ice a bit thinner? I would have fallen submerged before I could even have realized I was falling.

To totally confuse you now, I will say that while God did not leave me an Ice Fishing Ice Hole Danger  Radar/Detector to protect and guide me, he did leave me his church. How many times have I fallen unknowingly into sin or lifestyles that God knows are not in my best interest, while I don't even realize I'm doing it? Sure, I can sometimes catch myself when I get quick to judge or tell a small lie, but what about when the big stuff comes around in life? The gray area. The big ice holes, the huge cracks in the thin trodden ice. You know, the stuff that the world tells me are sugar coated in a blanket of good  pure white snow like the fishing holes, but in reality are dangerous and harmful. Ex: sex, drugs, rock&roll (ha, I kid. You get the idea.) 

This is where I am grateful to Jesus not only for being my savior, but for humbling himself to come to this earth to establish his kingdom, the church. The church has consistently warned against the dangers and addictions of falling into sin in all of it's modern trends for nearly 2000 years, right from the time of Christ's death. Because of this, I am able to walk with confidence through this earth, knowing that if I stay close to my Ice Fishing Hole Danger Radar/Detector (Catholic Church!) I will walk with the lord.

May God bless & Keep You,

Bridget Ann

What's in a name?

A warm greeting to anybody reading this, and let me welcome you to The Catholic Maiden. It is my hope that anyone and everyone who reads and contributes will be brought closer to Christ, our very source of life, and his mother, his very source of life, in a most literal sense, if you will!

To get right on to the topic of today's post, (and my very first ever!!) let's talk about the woman in Jesus' life. Don't freak out! I'm not trying to be a heretic, and am most certainly NOT pulling a 'Davinci Code' on you and claiming that Jesus had a wife! No, I'm simply speaking of the woman that would have been most near and dear to him, his mother. Mary.

I sometimes imagine what Mary would look like in today's age. Not physically, but in her manner. How she would hold herself, where she would go to school, how she would interact with others, what she would do in her spare time, what team would she be rooting for, would she like sports at all, et cetera. In all honesty I can't even fathom it. Maybe it's the fact that these "biblical characters" we try to identify with in our own lives lived so long ago, in a world so different from our own. Do we tend to forget that those little statues in our nativity scenes, or the people in the stained glass windows were actual living breathing human beings?! They had lives, jobs, tasks, and families, they had responsibilities.

It is for this reason that I will say that I don't know what "Modern Day Blessed Virgin" would be like exactly. Or, maybe it's the fact that there hasn't been anyone quite like her ever since she walked this green earth. I will, however, say that I know from what God has revealed to us about his blessed Mary, that she would posses these qualities:

1. Profoundly humble
2. Enthusiastically faithful
3. Blindly obedient
4. Constantly in mental prayer
5. Mortification/sacrifice in all things
6. Surpassingly Pure
7. Ardently charitable 
8. Heroically patient
9. Angelically sweet
10. Divinely wise

Ooooofda! (That my friends is what we like to say up here in the North woods!) What a list. If Mary is "Blessed among women" (Luke 1:42) and "Full of grace" (Luke 1:28) then that makes Mary the ideal woman by the grace of God. This being said, who better to have for a role model than the very woman that Jesus would have looked up to in his childhood, and honored and respected with his entire life?

 It's almost so simple it's silly; If I do not find the qualities that Mary possessed to be attractive, ideal, and worthy of imitation, then I need to change how I view myself as a woman. The same would apply to men. If you don't look at this list and think of the ideal wife, mother, sister, or friend, then something isn't quite right, and why would it be with the world fooling us into thinking that these 10 virtues are actually some form of weakness! 

Now, as Shakespeare's famous young maiden Juliet once said;
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

To conclude my introductory blog post, I'll ask, what's in the name of this blog, and why?

The Catholic Maiden. It almost sounds barf-worthy doesn't it? Like a horrible little romance novel that your grandmother gave you for a long flight or something! But hear my intention. It is my hope that the name of this blog will remind all of us, (guys, you too! Please read!), of what beauty in it's truest form has looked like on this earth, and continues to when we live like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph did as the holy family.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't strictly a Marian blog, there will be some sickly awesome crazy theology dynamite that won't be centered around Mary. Let's just say that I love Mary my mother, God's very maiden, and loving Jesus' mother helps me to love Jesus more, and I'm not ashamed to say it.

So, without further ado, Mary, mother of God, pray for us and bless this blog!

Bridget Ann