Tag Archives: experiences

You Call This A Blog Post??

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Mary| 3 Comments
Business-y Items:
  1. I know the email subscription system is no longer working.  To say that I’m working on fixing it would be somewhat misleading…but I can tell you that I am working on working on getting things set up correctly.In the meantime, you can get the post updates sent to your phone via twitter (and I only use it for post updates, so you won’t be getting spammed all day with me telling you what I just ordered at Starbucks—but if you’re curious, it was probably a White Chocolate Mocha).  OR just remember that I post on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7am Pacific Standard Time.
  2.  Just because I’m excited: As of two days ago, the church and the reception venue are officially booked for the wedding on December 22nd of THIS YEAR!  331 days, people.  331 days. :)

Back on topic…only to tell you that I really have no topic.  It has just been one of those weeks that leaves me needing a break from the world of comment boxes and the Internet—despite the list of post topics staring at me from the sticky note on my desktop.

So, to make up for my lack of words today, a quote from Saint Thomas Aquinas, on words, and The Word, Jesus Christ:

…since we cannot express all our conceptions in one word, we must form many imperfect words through which we separately express all that is in our knowledge. But it is not that way with God. For since he understands both himself and everything else through his essence, by one act, the single divine Word is expressive of all that is in God, not only of the Persons but also of creatures; otherwise it would be imperfect. So Augustine says: “If there were less in the Word than is contained in the knowledge of the One speaking it, the Word would be imperfect; but it is obvious that it is most perfect; therefore, it is only one.” “God speaks once” (Jb 33:14).

So… I guess God’s not a blogger.  ;)

Just for fun: pray a rosary today!  Come on. You know you’ve got 15 free minutes somewhere in your day.

Posted in Other Rants

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Young, Catholic, and Engaged

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Mary| 8 Comments

Okay, first of all…I must apologize for my missing the past two posting deadlines.  Between Christmas and travel and family visiting, things just got busy—not to mention I was graced with a cold that made it difficult to string together complete sentences, let alone blog posts.  But enough excuses.  I’ve been really excited to tell all of you that, as of December 30th, I’M ENGAGED!!!

Tyler proposed last Friday at the beach, and we are planning to get married at the end of this year.  We’re both (obviously) really excited, and though we of course want this year to go by super fast, we’re also looking forward to what God is going to do in our lives over these next several months to prepare us, not just for the wedding, but for the sacrament of marriage.

Anyway, I start winter quarter today—pray for me!  I’m taking Johannine Literature and Christology & Soteriology.

Also, two friends of mine recently started a pretty awesome Catholic blog.  You can check it out here: AllYouCanEatCatholics.blogspot.com.  (They’re both insanely smart converts to Catholicism—one is earning his MA in Theology and the other is a design/graphics genius).

Happy Thursday!

Posted in Dating & Relationships

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Littlest Lane is now “Young & Catholic”

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Mary| Leave a comment

Notice something different?  I’m excited to announce that I’m taking the blog in a slightly different direction, and it will now be written under the name of “Young and Catholic”.  (youngandcatholic.net) Read on and be sure to check the new About page for more info.

Why the Name Change?

Let’s face it.  It’s who I have been all along, and the only person trying to pretend otherwise was me.  Of course I still welcome and encourage my non-Catholic readers to stick around (no baptism required), I just thought I’d finally wake up and face the target market.

Will the content change?

Not really.  I have always written my posts from a Catholic perspective (because I always write from my perspective, and I am Catholic).  I’m just going to be more up front about it now.  So it’ll be dating advice from the perspective of a young Catholic; reflections on life from a young Catholic; etc.  Same content; different tagline.

Does this mean I can pretty much assume everything you say is official Catholic Church teaching?

Let me say this loud and clear: NO!

Let me clarify: I believe everything the Catholic Church teaches.

Here is the thing:  The Catholic Church doesn’t lay out hard and fast rules for every aspect of life (The Church is way smarter than that).  So, when I write a post about, say, marijuana, from a Catholic perspective, it does not mean that I’m copying and pasting the Catechism’s section on weed into a post (no, that section doesn’t actually exist.  Stop Googling it).  It simply means that I am applying basic Catholic principles of morality and ethics to arrive at a conclusion I think is in line with Catholic teaching.  Of course, as a human, I am flawed—so it would be wise, as with anyone, to take what I write with a grain of salt.

But why, oh why, would you do this to us?

I believe in the truth of the Catholic faith and always have.  I believe the Church contains the fullness of the truth, and—as such—applies to all aspects of life.  Somewhere along the line we have stopped taking that seriously, and now integrating faith into all aspects of life is almost a foreign concept to young people.  If you are Catholic, it ought to be more than just a box you check on your Facebook page (if you even have the courage to do that).  It’s time to redefine what it means to be Young and Catholic for today’s world.

For this reason, I repeat: Littlest Lane is now: Young & Catholic. :)

Posted in Other Rants

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Weekend Whirlwind

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Mary| 2 Comments

You know how you thought you would go into work on Monday talking about Kate Middleton’s wedding dress, but instead you ended up wearing Red, White, and Blue in support of our troops and talking about the death of Osama bin Laden?  Well in a similar way, I thought I would be writing you all this post from Rome after attending the beatification of Blessed John Paul II, but instead I am telling you that I had to miss my flight due to a family-wide outbreak of the flu (but don’t worry!  I still prayed for you and I am feeling much better).

As we have all learned this weekend, things happen (a lot of things happen); and life tends to not take into account our plans or expectations.  The cool thing about that?  Sometimes you end up with a weekend of a lot of unexpected good news*.  The bad thing?  Sometimes you end up with the flu.  :)

Have a good day, everyone!

*I know this has been beaten into the ground in the past two days, but I want to speak precisely here and say that I do not consider any man’s death to be “good news”.  The good news is that he is no longer able to bring destruction to the lives of so many in the world.  It has been encouraging seeing so many Americans making this kind of distinction in the past two days.

Posted in Other Rants

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Come with me to ROME!

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Mary| Leave a comment

This coming Sunday, the late Pope John Paul II is being beatified. This means that he will now be given the title of Blessed John Paul II. Beatification is the second-to-last step in the process of being recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church (He won’t be Saint John Paul II unless/until he is canonized).

I’m especially excited for this Sunday, not only because of my own personal devotion to JPII (after all, he is the namesake of my University), but also because this Friday I am getting on a plane in order to be in Rome for the beatification mass on Sunday morning!! I’m writing this post to invite you along with me, if not to follow along as I blog from the experience, to allow me to carry your prayer intentions with me as I make this pilgrimage.

What is a Saint?

A saint isn’t someone with magical powers and a halo floating above their head. “Saint” is simply what the Catholic Church calls the people in Heaven. As Christians, we believe that the people in Heaven are not dead at all—in fact they are more alive than us here living on Earth because they are united with God who is life. This is why we know we can ask the saints in Heaven to pray for us.

Beatification?

The Catholic Church doesn’t make anyone a saint. By beatifying or canonizing people, the Church only acknowledges what God has done through the life of a specific person. In order to be beatified, there has to be shown evidence of one posthumous miracle performed by that person, meaning that it has to be proven that a miracle has happened as a result of that person’s prayers after they passed on from this life. In order to be considered a saint (canonized), there needs to be evidence of a second miracle. The miracle for John Paul II’s beatification was approved earlier this January.

Prayer Requests?

If you have anything you want me to pray for through the intercession of John Paul II, please feel free to use the contact form below and I’ll add your intention to the book of intentions I’m putting together for the trip.

[contact-form 1 "Contact form 1"]

Feel free to leave your name if you want me to know who I am praying for, otherwise anonymous intentions are completely fine. God Bless, and I look forward to praying for you!

Posted in Other Rants, Stuff Catholics Do, You & God

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