saying yes

Everyone knows that a two-year-old child's favourite word is "no." Later in life, we seem to find that word more difficult. At least I do.
Yesterday in church, our priest said, half joking I think, that he's "wired to say yes."  Me too.
In the past couple of weeks, I've been asked to take on three jobs, and I've said "yes" to all three. They seem to me to be related. First, I was asked to let my name stand for "Church Committee" as it's called at St. Saviour's. At St. Thomas, it was called "Parish Council" and at St. James, I was a warden. This job will take just a few hours once a month, so not terribly onerous.
The second job request/offer came from Brother Willy, TSSF. He and some other Third Order Franciscans are starting a programme called "Emmaus Travelers"--a method for TSSF members to connect with one another. Actually, we each have directories with addresses and phone numbers, etc., and are encouraged to find a pen-pal, or someone to connect with. I guess that's not happening, so we have this new method. I've been asked to be the Canadian contact, to match people up in some prayerful way. I'm hoping to get some direction with this.
The third job request/offer is similar, but on a diocesan level--to be on a Spiritual Direction team or committee--I'm not sure what it's called. The woman who was asking me to do it was interrupted and promised to get back to me with more details. I'm waiting for that. Meanwhile, I'm sure I heard myself telling her "yes" I would do that.

Category #1 Faith & Franciscans

The third part of my Rule of Life is "Penitence".  Anglicans generally say about "Confession" that all may, some should but none must.  It has been said in the Third Order of the Society of St. Francis in the Province of the Americas, that all must, at least once a year.  More recent examination of the Rule is that once a year is recommended.  A bit different from MUST.  Anyway, I equate Confession (or Reconciliation, as some prefer to call it these days) with peace.  This is a time when a penitent (someone who recognizes the "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves") can go to see a priest, or other trustworthy person, and tell all. With a Rule of Life, it's not such a general topic as "all" because the Franciscan life is in the 9 categories of one's Rule.  So, with my little iPhone in hand, with my Rule headings on the "Messages" page, with notations beside the ones needing attention, I went to confession at Christ Church Cathedral on Wednesday afternoon.  I missed having the beautiful little confessionals of St. James, but the priest (just ordained last Sunday) and I sat opposite each other in the children's room.  We said the opening prayers of the short reconciliation service in the Book of Alternative Services, and I went through my list, complete with rants where they cropped up.  The priest listened and nodded, and finally made his observations.  Then he pronounced absolution and we said the closing prayers.  And I erased the page of messages from my iPhone.  Whew!  It feels so good!  If you have never tried it, I recommend it.  You don't have to (none must) but maybe you'll find it comforting if you have grudges or pebbles in your shoes regarding your religious life or other issues.  Peace!

new era

I'm entering a new era in my life.  Since 1971, our family's spiritual home has been St. James Anglican Church, at the corner of Cordova and Gore, in Vancouver.  This morning, my husband and I went to Christ Church Cathedral (Anglican) for the first time.  Changing churches is an emotional jolt, especially after almost forty years in the same place.  It's personal and very painful, but briefly the reason for our departure from St. James is financial.  We can't afford the parking charges!  Can you imagine?  We can't afford to go to our home church.  I never thought I'd ever have to say that!  Our children went to Sunday School, married and had their children baptized at St. James.  My husband and I reaffirmed our wedding vows there on our silver anniversary.  Our eldest son and his wife reaffirmed their vows on their twentieth anniversary, because they doubted he would live to his twenty-fifth.  He did, but a couple of months before their 25th, their son drowned and three months after the anniversary, my son died (of cancer).  Their funerals were at St. James.  We always expected that our funerals would be there, too.  But I guess not, now.  This is the saddest and most personal note I've published here.  I hope I never have another like it.
I've added the cathedral's link on this site.

writing the play

Since "Script Frenzy" time last April, I've been working on a play--I may have mentioned this before--probably. Anyway, I keep thinking it's finished. Silly me! It's too long. I just need to cut a page or two here or there, and that's not easy. With a novel, I can just kill off a character. With an article, I can delete a paragraph (usually). But with this play, there's so much I want to tell. I could easily add another Act, but I already have four Acts. I can't kill off any characters because I N E E D them! So, I keep going over the scenes and looking for words that can be chopped out without killing the tone of the play. I've already done as much "death to all adjectives" as I can, but I'm still finding the little ones that snuck in while I wasn't looking. Last Saturday, at the Franciscan Convocation, I had some wonderful help from my TSSF brothers and sisters. They performed the first and fourth acts, and I was able to see that there were still many places that needed tweeking. It was an enormous help! What was especially wonderful was that they seemed to like the play! (Very important that TSSF should like the play, as it is "The Wolf and The Saint: The Life of St. Francis of Assisi as Told by the Wolf of Gubbio". And if anyone knows the life of that saint and his relationship with that wolf, it's TSSF members.) So, I'm still tweeking. Gotta have it done this week because we're having a rehearsal at the church on Thursday morning, and our Vacation Bible School starts on Monday, August 23rd. The play is a major part of the VBS programme. Nose back to grindstone! Butt in chair, and fingers on computer keys! Quite a picture, eh! hehehehe!

publishers' information

I'm so glad that I'm a member of SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators). There's so much information that comes my way that I would otherwise miss. For example: today there was a post on the listserv for SCBWI/Western Canada that provided a link to Lorimer's guidelines. Now, I have a link for that on this site, but I don't check it every day--not even every week. You may know that I currently have a manuscript at Lorimer's and have been trying to learn the status of that ms, but with no results. So, in today's post I learned that Lorimer does not let writers know if their ms is not being considered. (Not even a "reply" to an e-mail ms status enquiry.) And, although I thought my historical novel would fit with a series they have, I see that they are not seeking historical fiction at the moment. So, now I can send my novel off to the next publisher on my list. And, I can try my hand at writing something that Lorimer (or another Cdn publisher) would like. Meanwhile, I'm polishing my puppet play, "The Wolf and the Saint", to take it to the Franciscan convocation and then produce it at St. James' Vacation Bible School next month.

Pax

I don't know if I've mentioned it here before, but I am a regular contributor to the parish magazine, Pax. I think that visitors to this blog can access that magazine by clicking on the link to St. James, and then finding the link to the magazine from there. I have articles in all the copies except one. The deadline for that issue occurred while I was traveling in Israel and the UK, and although I had been asked to write an article I knew I couldn't do it under those circumstances. So, I guess I missed the Easter 2010 issue. Because I'm a volunteer contributor, that is, writers for Pax don't get paid, I've never counted it as "real" writing. But I suppose I should count it. Before Pax came along, I was a regular contributor to its predecessor, Cornerstone. That one was a prize-winning publication. I don't know what prizes it won, I only know that the magazine had won something at sometime. It's an honour to write for these publications. By the way, back issues of Cornerstone are also available by clicking on the St. James link, I believe.

Vacation Bible School preparation

Preparations are moving along nicely, I think. The crafts and games are being planned. Promotion is, I guess, coming along--although I'm not involved in it, so I can only hope that the ones working on it are working on it. As for my play, "The Wolf and the Saint", it's moving along at a Franciscan pace. That means, slowly but surely. It will be ready for the Vacation Bible School, August 23rd to 27th, God willing and if the creek don't rise, as they say.

summer

Summer arrived yesterday, I guess. Weather notwithstanding. When the sun is out, it's okay. In the shade, we're back to spring. Or winter.
Today I should have been at kindergarten, but I didn't want to pass along the cold I'm battling. I'll go to the farm tomorrow, though. It's outdoors, and the kids aren't likely to be in close contact with anything I touch. Today was the last day for kindergarten, though. Next week, they'll have only half a day in class on the Tuesday, but I have the okay from the teacher to drop in for a moment to say good-bye to the kids. Tomorrow is the last day for the farm, too. Sunday School is done for the year. As for tutoring, I have only one student now--prepaid for the next several classes.
I'd say things were slowing down, except for the fact that August is almost filled up chock-a-block. July, so far, is not quite so full. I don't doubt that it will fill up in no time.
Of course, I still have to finish writing that play!

Vacation Bible School

Last year, we used a commercially developed programme with the theme of St. Paul in Ancient Rome. This year, most of the people who volunteered last time will not be available. This means that, while we had hoped to repeat the programme this year, we would have to replace almost everyone and all the roles would have to be learned all over again. Also, last year we used almost the entire building at St. James church, and one of the key locations is currently under renovation. So. I've prepared a programme myself, based on--you guessed it--St. Francis of Assisi. Using the play I was writing for Script Frenzy, I'm adapting it for use with children doing a puppet show. It still has lots of work needed, but I know what I want it to look like when it's finished, and I think the research is all done. (Research has a way of demanding attention at the most inconvenient times, so I'm not discounting it just yet.) Some folks have come forward to help with the VBS, so I have high hopes. Well, maybe just hopes. A lot will depend on how many children show up and what their ages and interests are. It's all a work in progress until it's over. That will be at the end of the one week programme: Monday, August 23rd to Friday, August 27th, mornings.

computer woes continued

It has been about two and a half weeks that I've been unable to connect with the internet on my laptop. Something is haywire with the router or something, I guess. What this problem means, though, is that although I can write my blog using my husband's desktop, and read emails, etc., I cannot get to my photos to post them with my messages about my trip to the Holy Land. I was doing it bit by bit, and had not got very far before the internet mess happened. So, I've been avoiding the blog in order to avoid grumbling about the glitch. So here I am, grumbling again.
Besides that, what else is new? I'm tutoring three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday afternoons), volunteering in the kindergarten on Tuesday mornings, at the UBC farm on alternate Wednesday mornings, leading morning prayer at St. James on Thursdays (except this morning) and serving at Thursday morning Mass (except this morning). I've been looking for a new spiritual director, and that's part of the reason I'm not at church this morning--related appointment. Due to all these activities, I haven't done much revision of the play about St. Francis since last weekend. Last weekend, we were at Rivendell Retreat Centre on Bowen Island, and I used some of that quiet time to research more information on St. Francis and St. Clare for use in the play. Because we were on retreat, though, we missed our TSSF fellowship meeting for this month. St. Francis can sure keep us busy!

Sunday School lesson

Today I was teaching a Sunday School lesson about what one of my seminary profs called "The Picnic on the Beach". It's John 21:1-19, where the disciples have been fishing all night without success, and Jesus appears and sends them back to try again. This time they come back with a net full of fish (153 fish; apparently there's some significance to the number but I don't know what it is). And the result is the disciples and Jesus have a nice breakfast together. They didn't recognize Jesus at first, which is also remarkable since this is his third appearance to them since his crucifixion. The children were most impressed with the photos of the location of this beach picnic, the Sea of Galilee (aka Lake Tiberius or Lake Gennereset). The red on the left side of the picture is my jacket. We were at a restaurant at the Sea of Galilee having lunch (fish, of course) on February 8, 2010, my son's birthday. We phoned him from there, and he was appropriately impressed!

Epiphany

Epiphany was actually a couple of days ago. We went to the evening Mass and then to the potluck supper afterwards at St. James Church. The dates of Easter and other feasts were announced during the service, and and chalk was blessed. So, a day or two later we said the prayer at the front door as we wrote on the lintel: 20+G+M+B+10, for 2010, Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar who were called upon to protect our home in the name of Christ. We hadn't done that before. A new experience.
We will celebrate Epiphany tomorrow with the family, with our annual family Epiphany Brunch. I've made the trifles, and now I have to wrap the bucket gifts and circle gift. We have the catalogues handy for the families to select gifts to purchase from World Vision .

parish visitations

I'm a little better than half-way through this job that was supposed to have been completed by the end of October. But apparently, I'm doing better than some others who are doing the visitations! I'll try to get to it again tomorrow. Haven't had much time to do anything for the past week or two.

a quick note

This month is as hectic as all the others, but it seems more so somehow. First, there's my tutoring schedule. It's only 8 hours a week, but it involves a lot of time on the road. An hour here, an hour there--or two hours. Then there's my volunteering, which isn't so much really. Just alternate Wednesday mornings at the UBC Farm, and one Sunday morning a month with the Sunday School. Kindergarten hasn't started for me yet, and I don't know if I'll be able to do much when it does, due to travel plans. (More on travel plans later.) But there's also the very sad duty of making daily visits to a friend who is in palliative care and not expected to live very long. We don't stay long with her, so we don't tire her out. Just pop in, massage her elbows and feet with lotion, maybe say a prayer with her if she wants us to, then she either dozes off or a meal comes or maybe another visitor. We leave then. Otherwise, besides a wonderful evening with Brother Robert, a First Order Friar from San Francisco the other night, it's been just everything as usual. No, I forgot! I'm also making daily phone calls and arranging visits for our parish visitations that must be completed this month. Oh yes, and there's writing, isn't there? And reading Harry Potter (the last book) and Anne of Green Gables (the first book). Gotta go now. Tutoring, etc.

Pax

Other writing is for the new publication for St. James church: Pax. I've been assigned to write a 600-700 word article on Latino Lunches that take place in the crypt on Thursday mornings. So I've contacted the woman who is in charge of them, interviewed her last Thursday, and enjoyed one of their lunches. Now, the article is almost done. But I have another assignment as well, to write a 250 word piece on one of the ministries in the church--haven't decided which one yet. Oh yes...the deadline is tomorrow. (Good thing I have a secret extension!)

Epiphany

We had our family Epiphany brunch last Saturday. It was well-attended, even though the out-of-town members couldn't get here due to snowy highways. Even so, we were able to include them by telephone during the event. We had our usual brunch, eggs benedict with asparagus, cooked by my dear hubby. We played a gift game, a variation of the "circle game" we usually play. Then, I handed out the WorldVision catalogues and told the family that each of my children's families had $100 to "spend" as their gift from the Magi. They made their choices, the out-of-towners made their choices by phone, and I placed the order online. This is my way of giving gifts with the Magi, instead of by that evil elf who claims to live at the North Pole. That one, Old "Saint" Nick (really, Old Nick, because he is NOT a saint, definitely no connection to St. Nicholas whose feast day is December 6th), Old Nick teaches greed and deceit. The Magi gave gifts to Jesus at Epiphany, celebrated on January 6th. In our house, we totally ignore the commercial Christmas. We send cards to friends and loved ones, and go to Mass (except this year).