The Legend of Bolt

Dear Kids,

It all started with a movie. In case you don't remember it, Bolt is a dog in a movie that is about a dog in a movie. Bolt is the faithful hero dog of a little girl named Penny who is an actress. He really believes that all the special effects are his own gifts and talents used to stop the bad guys from hurting Penny. 

When A first saw this movie she was so excited about this amazing dog that she ran out to play right in the middle of the movie…before we find out that Bolt is just an actor. You could not tell her that Bolt couldn't do all those amazing things in "real" life. 

She wanted a Bolt all her own. She hinted, cajoled, begged. But was finally convinced that no where would we find a stuffed Bolt that looked just like the one in the movie (she knew better than to ask for a real dog--at least not more than once or twice). 

In true A-form, she took matters into her own hands and created a Bolt out of a towel (for the body), a sock ( for the head) and some leggings (for the legs). A little tape and a black marker and Bolt Classic was born:

You can't really see the great detail in his face. She did a really good job...all by herself!

He was her constant companion and declared by her Papa to be the "best dog ever" (no food, no messes, no barking). Of course, he still got dirty and it wasn't long before Mama (at the urging of Aunt Margie who refused to let Bolt sit on her furniture, and almost kicked him out of the house for being filthy) decided an intervention was needed. 

I began to talk about how Bolt needed a bath but couldn't take one because he was held together by tape. I suggested we sew him together and remove the tape. A was open to the idea. 

It is important to note here that at this point in time we had had our California house on the market for a couple of months (keeping it staged and in perfect condition for buyers on a daily basis) and were looking at the distinct possibility of moving to Texas. So, I had a long list of "to do's"…and thus the perfect excuse to take on a big sewing project (any sewing project is big for me because I don't know how to sew--I just happen to own a machine). 

Needless to say, given that "to do" list, sewing Bolt Classic together turned into sewing an entirely new Bolt. A drew the pattern and I spent lots of time re-learning how to thread the needle. Then I sewed.

And Bolt 2.0 was born. 

Pictured here with Desperaux and Snowy. The red band around Bolt his his leash.

This Bolt has been all over the country. He has a fiancé in California (M's speech teacher's dog). He's had his eyes, nose, and bolt re-drawn. And he has been through the washing machine several times as well. Bolt is truly the BEST DOG EVER. 

Of course there is always talk of a Bolt 3.0 who will do amazing things. But he hasn't quite materialized. In the meantime, Bolt's grand parents have shown up--just like Bolt Classic, they are made of old hand towels and socks. Aren't they sweet? 

From the left: Grandma Bolt, Grandpa Bolt and Bolt 2.0

My Other Lung

Dear Kids,

It is possible that, in your lifetime, the Church will again breathe with two lungs. 

God speaks in figures, He teaches with realities. His lessons are Incarnational. Rather than have us grapple to reach him in His Invisibility, He came and walked among us. Then when He went back to His Father, He left us a physical representation of Himself. He left many priests, united in one, the Holy Father. Two hundred and sixty six times over the past two thousand years He has replaced that person with the physical representation of Himself on earth. The one that He will use to touch the world. Many of  those men have been saints. Some have been anything but. However each one was used by God to touch us, to teach us. To teach us something specific. 

What does God want to teach us this time?

 Picture from Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano

We live in unprecedented times. We have photographs and videos of two Popes. Pope Francis, Christ's Vicar on Earth and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Christ's previous Vicar on Earth. 

We need to look, to watch, to listen and to see. 

Benedict XVI had a goal during his papacy that many have said he failed at: bringing the Eastern and Western Church back into communion. The Church has been "breathing with one lung" since 1054. Pope John Paul II was the first Pope to visit the Eastern Orthodox countries and Benedict continued that outreach making even greater strides in communion. 

But there is even more to the story. As we found out the day he was elected, Pope Francis (the Pope with only one lung) was not only the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, but also the Bishop of the ordinariate for Eastern rite Catholics in Argentina. A few days after his election, for the first time ever, the Patriarchs of the Eastern Orthodox Church attended the installation of a Pope. Pope Francis was able to meet with and welcome his brothers from the East.

 

Now, a week into his pontificate, Pope Francis travels to Castel Gondolfo to meet with his predecessor, Benedict. 

His words to Benedict? "We are brothers."

At this meeting Francis presents Benedict with a gift saying, basically, 'it reminded me of you."   

The gift? a beautiful icon called the Madonna of Humility. The ultimate Servant of God, the Blessed Mother, is one whom they both love. The Blessed Mother is the one whom Francis went to, humbly, on his knees, the day after his election. 

Where did Francis get the Icon? The representatives of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church brought it to him several days ago.

This past Thursday, the Successor of Peter met Patriarch Bartholomew (considered the successor of the apostle Andrew) of the Greek Orthodox Church. 

His words? "My brother Andrew." 

God speaks to us in the Person of His Son (Heb.1-3), and His Son left His representative on Earth (Mt. 16:18). In the age of images, the 24 hour news cycle, God knows we are watching. And so does His Vicar. 

This Seat is Empty

Dear Kids,

For the second time in your lives the Chair of St. Peter is vacant. The first time you were all so little that A was still in utero. When Pope John Paul II died it was the end of an era, not just in the world, but in our family. JPII was the Pope of my youth and your Papa's. We each saw him several times before we knew each other. Then, in October of 2001 we met him. (At that time M was in utero.) When I told him I was pregnant he reached over and traced a cross on my forehead. 

He was frail then and over the next four years we watched his health fail even more until he finally went home. We have been asking John Paul the Great to pray for us each night since then.

 

After watching the funeral on TV, I remember watching Fox News and EWTN as the conclave progressed.(I don't remember the conclave that elected JPII, though I do remember the unexpected passing of his predecessor.) It was a fascinating time to be alive in the information age. 

When the white smoke appeared above the Vatican I called your Papa who came home from work. At the time we lived on Veritas Way…yup, we lived on the "Way of Truth"--that short, neighborhood street in San Ramon (St. Raymond's Town) California, not far from San Francisco (St. Francis' City) and Sacramento (The Blessed Sacrament's City). Sorry, I couldn't resist the Catholic California History lesson. 

Anyway, back to the conclave. The white smoke appeared, your Papa showed up at the door and Cardinal Ratzinger walked out onto the balcony. We learned to call him Benedict XVI and he became a father to us all. 

Though I had never met this Pope, I had received communion from him. It was in 2000 on my pilgrimage to Rome. I was in St. Peter's Basilica attending Mass and there was a large group of German pilgrims occupying the front rows. When the celebrant came down the aisle I realized it was Cardinal Ratzinger celebrating Mass with his fellow countrymen. My impression of him at the time was that he was tough, the press called him a rottweiller, I think they meant it as an insult, but I actually liked it. He was on the right side of things, so I didn't mind the tough reputation. But what I saw was a father. He even smiled (shocker!). 

At communion time I witnessed a hilarious clash of cultures. In Rome, the Italians are not particular about communion lines. In fact, you are likely to get run over by an elderly Italian woman on your way up the aisle if you don't watch out. Well, the German pilgrims seemed intent on order. They wanted to exit the pew in a line and receive Communion in an organized way. The looks on their faces when those little Italian grandmothers, wielding rosaries pushed ahead of them was a sight to behold. 

This is the picture I took at the end of Mass.
See that smile? Actually, I was afraid I was in big trouble,
but no one carted me away. Phew!

Eventually I was able to get past the Italians and Germans and receive communion from the Cardinal himself. I had no idea at the time he would be my next Pope. 

Interestingly, your Papa also received communion from Cardinal Ratzinger the previous year in Rome. Of course we didn't know each other, but we did discover this fact before the Cardinal became the Pope. One of the many reasons we were rooting for him back then.

So here we are, you are still quite young and you are on your third Pope.

 

Or you will be in the next week or two. 

We are all praying for him, whoever he is. And we are praying for the conclave. We have adopted three Cardinals so far: Cardinal Vallejo of Spain, Cardinal Carrera of Mexico City, and a Cardinal Manuel Monteiro de Castro, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary--we are still not sure what that is. A prison for bad apostles?

D wondered yesterday how we were going to feed our newly adopted Cardinals, and where would they sleep? (Yes, he was joking. Funny boy!)

I am filled with great hope for the Church at this time. I think we will be highly blessed with our next Spiritual Father. How could we not be with the best Spiritual Grandfather ever, praying in his monastery!  

Star Trek to Starbucks

Dear Kids,

I really never thought that I would have kids that played Star Trek. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing it all. I just never thought. 

Not too long ago, A greeted me first thing in the morning with "Mama, there is a Borg walking around upstairs."

Needless to say, my heart leapt into my throat. 

"You are just pretending, right?" I said with alarm. 

She smiled and assured me with a very subtle nod…she didn't want to break from her role for too long. 

The rest of the day I received updates on the number and location of the Borg drones around the house. I was assured Bolt (yes, we need to tell the story of Bolt here don't we…another day) was taking care of it. Obviously, I was comforted by this. Wouldn't you be?

Recently, a dinner conversation devolved into a rapid fire volley of "Remember the episode when Chakotay was…." and "Remember  when Captian Picard said…" punctuated by laughter and "That was so cool!"

Fortunately for M and I your Papa gently reminded you that dinner conversation was meant to include all. And the two Trekless members of the family were greatly relieved. 

Of course, M and I could have regaled you all with tales of our multiple trips to Starbucks for our menu planning meetings (which is what gives the rest of you the opportunity to watch Star Trek). 

Me: "M, remember that time that you got a cake pop?"

M: "Ya, that was so great! Remember that time you got the Venti Iced Tea, Black, Unsweetened, Light on the Water, Heavy on the Ice?" *

Me: "Yes, very fondly. And remember the time you got the cake pop?"

*Note: the preceding was a not so veiled hint to anyone visiting me on a hot Texas day to feel free to bring me a Venti Iced Tea, Black, Unsweetened, Light on the Water, Heavy on the Ice. 

Let's Make a Deal

Shrewd Businessman?

Dear Kids,

I have to tell you today about the embarrassingly bad business deal I recently made. I want you to learn from my mistakes. Never make a promise to pay for a service when you have no idea what that service will cost you! Though the work I wanted done is completed it will cost me more than two times what it should have. Seriously, be careful when you make a deal with a shrewd businessman. 

So, my story starts a month ago, after our move to Texas. As you know, the moving company likes to mark the items moved with little colored stickers. Well, we have learned from past moves that those stickers are stubborn things. In fact, we still have stickers and marks from stickers dating back to our move to England in 2006. I didn't want that to happen again so I was determined to get every last sticker off of the furniture and other items that had been tagged. My plan was to offer D money for each sticker he could find. I knew with a little incentive he would find many if not all of the stickers that were left. 

The mistake I made was not having a clear idea just how many stickers may be left and how much it could cost me if I gave him a generous amount per sticker. 

I wanted him to be motivated. And I wanted the job done in a timely manner. So I offered him….wait for it….SERIOUSLY! WHAT WAS I THINKING!!….I promised 25¢ per sticker. 

Yep. Your Mama is that naive. In retrospect, a dime a sticker would have been a great amount. But no, I said a QUARTER!!!! 

In order to keep the job under $50 I had to eliminate the garage as a possible location for finding stickers. (To be fair, I never meant to remove stickers from every box and piece of junk in the garage!)

I also had to set a deadline. He had till Sunday evening close of business (i.e.: bedtime) to turn in his stickers.

Shrewd Businessman alright!

So, Mister D presented me with a bill for 100 stickers. A clean 25 buckaroos! Pretty good for a kid who has never had more than a few bucks of tooth money in his pocket, huh?

He says he is going to buy himself a big belt buckle at the rodeo. 

Ummm…yes…we have become TEXANS!

Now Papa says I have to skip Starbucks for awhile to make up the difference!

Love,

Your Poor Mama

Whisper Catechesis

A, posing with the new family car. Seriously. We sold the mini-van in favor of this ...umm...yellow thing. 

Dear Kids,

We are now in the midst of preparing A for her First Confession and First Holy Communion. I should be clear though. We started all of you on your First Sacramental preparation when you were just babies. We always considered your early catechesis to be a catechumenate of sorts, a preparation for life in the Church. A liturgical life. A sacramental life.

Of course we had to start small, so step one was getting you Baptized. Then, step two was taking you to Mass often. And step three has been the main part of your catechesis so far in your young lives. I call that step "Whisper Catechesis." 

Starting when you were just babies I began whispering in your ears during the Mass. Sometimes it was my own prayers I whispered. But there are also lots of little phrases that have grown over the years. 

For example, at the moment of consecration I usually whisper "It looks like bread, but its Jesus". At the moment, A has her own response to that phrase: "It looks like Jesus to me!" she always says back to me. 

We have also used some of the great moments we were blessed with while living in the UK. For example, when we went to Rome (each of the times, but especially the first) we focused on the tabernacle. We stopped in every church we passed (which is a lot) and we looked for the tabernacle and practiced our genuflecting, bowing, sign of the cross and any other liturgical movement we could think of. That is also when we started our "Tabernacle Prayer". It has had some variations over the years, but it usually goes something like this: 

O Jesus, I know you are truly present in this Tabernacle. Some day I want to receive you in Holy Communion. Please help me to be ready. 

Sometimes Whisper Catechesis has turned into theological discussion. Although I try to be sensitive to those around us, I also try not to miss those moments when questions arise. We have discussed the nature of the Trinity ("Does God have a brother?"), Heaven and Hell ("What is final dalmation?"--no that is not a typo), and many others.  We talk about what is going on at the Mass, why the priest is doing certain things. Of course, sitting in front has facilitated that, but it has also made the "whisper" part really crucial. 

This week A has been doing some narrations from the Faith and Life book, and this has led to discussions about why Jesus was baptized since He is God and doesn't have any sin. A also wanted to know if Jesus took on all of our sins on the cross, does that mean He sinned? What great questions! 

I hope when you are grown and reading this, you are still asking questions like that. 

That is all for today…I must get upstairs and see what mischief y'all are up to now. (See? We are Texans now so we can say "y'all")

Love, 

Mama

Dear Kids...

Dear Kids,

I have been trying to write this blog for a few years now…since I got my first Apple in Aberdeen. I meant to chronicle some of our adventures in the UK. And I did. Some. Then, I meant to just chronicle my life with you, or was it my thoughts?...maybe the funny things you said? Or I said? 

At any rate, it hasn't been a regular thing, or what you might call a roaring success. 

But, today, I had an idea. When I thought about things I wanted to write about, I tried to think about my audience. I mean, who reads this little blog? I have my friend at Reasons For Chocolate (Hi Patty!), and I am sure your Grandma and maybe an Aunt, Uncle or cousin, or two, read it. There may still be a few people out there who have read it in the past. A very few.

So, again, who is my audience? Who motivates me to write? 

Well…you do! You three Kennedy kids. 

So, today (and maybe from this point forward. We will see.), I wrote to my grown-up kids. The wonderful young adults you will be some day. 

My hope is that you will laugh, learn…maybe even cringe a little…and we will have a conversation about all this stuff around the dinner table. 

Today, I end with a quintessential A moment:

From the first reading last Thursday at Mass: 

"This is the commandment we have from him:

Whoever loves God must also love his brother."

From A immediately following the first reading last Thursday at Mass: 

"Does God have a brother!?"

Love,

Mama