Seven Quick Takes Friday, Vol. 10

I
We have gone more than 24 hours with nothing breaking down! Is it sad that I'm excited about that? Yes, yes it is.

II
The other night, Matt was holding Little Bear while I cleaned up after dinner. Little Bear has learned to pull beards. From the living room, I suddenly hear a burst of wild baby giggles as Matt exclaims, "Ow! Not the hair of my chinny chin chin!" Ah, children's literature.

III
The first week of Advent is almost over! Has yours been as fruitful as you hoped? I have really appreciated our efforts to keep things simple this year: I have purple linen and the Advent wreath on the table, the three wise men are slowly journeying across the living room to the nativity scene, and we have been praying the Collect every night. No trappings of Christmas yet; it has been so nice to just focus on Advent!

IV
Little Bear has heard an awful lot of "Veni Veni Emmanuel" and "People Look East" this past week, since I am holding off on Christmas hymns until the Christmas season. It would be nice to have a bit more variation, though; what are some other Advent hymns?

V
Tomorrow, Saturday, December 8, is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day of obligation. (Hint: that means that if you're Catholic, you HAVE to attend mass; willfully missing mass on a Sunday or holy day of obligation is a mortal sin.) Unfortunately, our diocese seems to be having trouble with this concept: there will be one vigil mass tonight at one parish in the area, and ALL of the other masses for the solemnity are being combined with the parishes' Sunday vigils. There are no morning or daytime masses on Saturday within at least an hour and a half's drive of us.

VI
Dr. Ed Peters, a canon lawyer, says that one mass cannot satisfy two obligations.* We cannot make it to the vigil tonight due to Matt's work, so will be attending a Saturday evening mass for the holy day and a Sunday mass for our Sunday obligation. I hate to be suspicious of people, especially those who work for the Church, but I just don't understand how they can believe they are truly doing what is best for souls in their care by making fulfilling our obligations so difficult and confusing!

VII
On a less frustrated note, I want to encourage you to go check out a friend's post about Our Lady, Destroyer of Heresy. That is one of my favorite titles of Our Lady, and I thought it quite apropos that she posted it on the feast of St Nicholas, smiter of heretics!
http://trenchcoatintrospective.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/our-lady-destroyer-of-heresy/


Have a great weekend! For more quick takes, visit ConversionDiary.com.


*http://canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/status-disputationis-satisfying-mass-obligations-iii/