Catholic Cysters Corner - Page 61

nspear · 12-26-2006, 11:09 PM

Hi all! It looks like I am a topic of discussion LOL.. I just wanted to see if it was ok to join you ladies?.. maybe I won't have to start wars on the mommy boards..

musicteacherfla · 12-27-2006, 12:10 AM

Welcome, Newcomers!

How was everyone's Christmas (well, it's still Christmas to us Catholics, right?)

I'm kind of glad I haven't been on the Mommy Board. I'd rather not deal with all of that nonsense! But of course, we must pray for those people!

I'm also a convert! I was Episcopalian before I converted. I came into the Church at Easter 1994, when I was only 17. I find it a great blessing to be Catholic! Elizabeth, how did you find your way to the Catholic Church? I would LOVE to read your story! BTW, I LOVE your name--it's my middle name!

God Bless,
Carrie

tigir · 12-27-2006, 03:56 AM

A very Blessed Christmas Season to everyone!!!

Welcome all of you newbies!

Elizabeth ~ Welcome and if I remember right you were asking about getting pg, etc. Well, my #1 was completely on my own before my dx, but about 5months after a surgery to remove a dermoid tumor. I think the tumor was causing some hormone problems which is why I wasn't pg before - not that we were trying at the time, but I just should have been pg. lol My #2 was on my own as well within a few days of my dx - complete surprise there as we had been trying for about 7yrs and FINALLY figured out the reason I wasn't pg all those years. #3 we think was on my own, but since I was on Met for about 2weeks prior to getting pg, we aren't entirely certain. It could have also been that my body was ready to go after having #2 (I was not Catholic when I had #1 and used BCP after I wasn't able to BF, so messed myself up there). Who knows what could have been had I not chosen that path. *sigh* I never took progesterone with any of mine, but after having my third I had some issues with spotting and was taking prometrium, so not sure what that will mean with any future pgs.

Kara ~

Was your comment on POAS just for me? LOL You know, it is just crazy...you are not wanting to be alone and right now I am really just wanting to be left alone! lol Are we ever satisfied? I hope things turn out one way or another for you. It sounds like you really like Jim, even if he isnt' cooperating too much. It would be easier if you didn't I am sure.

Stacie/Rachel ~ Exactly why I do not go to the mommy board very often! LOL Haven't read any of the posts, but may have to check it out. Looking for a distraction right now - kind of a low time for me....

Well, a funny thing happened to me last week and I had it written up, but with things moving slow I couldn't get it posted! So anyway, I decided since I hadn't started AF and had been extremely weepy and tired I would POAS just to see what would happen (didn't expect positive result and didn't get one). Well after testing - exactly 1hr after testing, AF showed up! LOL Isn't that great?!?! I am sure most of you can relate, it just really made me laugh because I just KNEW that was going to happen! Haha. Well, the good thing is that I have now had 13 cycles in a row! I haven't been that regular since before DD#1. So, at least that is looking up!

tigir · 12-27-2006, 05:37 AM

Holy Smokes! I just read those threads on Santa, etc. I think actually SANTA is extremely loosely based on St. Nicholas. I had a book on Catholic Traditions that mentioned him. I will have to check it out again and see what it said. He has more to do with an old Norse god or something - will look it up again and see.

Also, a lot of traditions have basis in other religions/cultures. It is very interesting to read up on it.

tigir · 12-27-2006, 05:38 AM

BTW ~ Anyone heard from Jenny? She hasn't posted in quite a long time, getting a bit worried.

juststartn · 12-27-2006, 11:29 AM

A)not heard from Jenny.
B)Tam, well, at least old AF is getting more regular
C) Welcome everyone!
D) I am craving a cheeseburger so badly right now I want to gnaw my own arm off, if it had slab of cheese on it, and some ketchup and onion (I'll pass on the mustard and pickles).

Now, DH is back to work today, tomorrow, and maybe Friday. We are heading to Atlanta either Thursday afternoon/evening or Friday afternoon/evening. It will depend on whether or not he can get out of working on Friday (we can only hope--they are supposed to be working 1/2 days til after the New Year).

I found out this morning that my 81 yr old grandma did a stupid (and yes, I mean STOOPID) and stubbornly refused to listen to my aunt and everyone else, and insisted on sitting outside in the cold and damp the other night around a bonfire--without socks or a jacket. And was put in the hospital last night with pneumonia. My aunt went inside and got her some blankets and a jacket, but grandma refused to use them. She has a history of getting pneumonia/bronchitis--she breaks ribs every time, too, cause she has such bad osteoporosis that she cracks her ribs just coughing a little....

I don't feel sorry for her. She does this sort of stuff all the time, and then makes my aunt's life a living Hell. Not to mention the nurses in the hospital. On top of all of this, my grandma's brother, who has been suffering from some lung ailment for YEARS, finally died yesterday--but my grandma doesn't know it yet. They (my dad and my aunt) aren't telling her til they have to--like, in time for the funeral. Cause she's one of those who will flip out and cry and wail and scream etc. Even though he's been ill for years, they've known for WEEKS now that it was only a matter of weeks/days...she'll still go cuckoo for cocapuffs, iykwim.

AND, the reason we were going to Atlanta was to "do" Christmas with my family--including said grandma and aunt, who now cannot come. Shoot, my DAD may not be there because he has to go help my aunt with my grandma, depending on when the funeral for his uncle will be (maybe this weekend)...he'll have to be there, cause my aunt simply will NOT be able to handle my grandma's hysterics on top of everything else.

SIGH. So, it will likely be a smaller crowd for this weekend. At least my mom has not done all of her food shopping yet. But still. It stinks.

SIGH.

Pray for my grandma, pray for my aunt, pray for my dead great-uncle Jay (I don't even know if he was a Christian, I don't know that side well at all)....pray for my dad....

Please. Pray for them. They need all the help they can get right now.

Rachel

musicteacherfla · 12-27-2006, 05:55 PM

Rachel, I'm so sorry about your grandmother and great-uncle!

I will keep you and your family in my prayers.

Well, AF decided to make an appearance today, so I'm definitely not pg!

I had even taken another test on Sunday, just to make sure, and sure enough---BFN! One of these days...one of these days....

Have a Blessed Evening!

Carrie

ChasingRainbows · 12-27-2006, 06:24 PM

Carrie so sorry to hear about AF!!! She is a nasty witch isn't she? Don't know how I have a right to say it because I haven't seen the likes of her in 3 years! But still....

Rachel - So sorry to hear about your Grandma and Great- Uncle...hugs

What a day it has been here. I am so tired today I can't figure out why...no I am not pregnant....all I want to do it nap. Just checkin in to say hi.

juststartn · 12-27-2006, 09:50 PM

Update on my grandma.

The meds were given her in time, so she's responding well. Apparently, it hadn't gotten really "deep" in there yet. The dr's are optimisitic that she can be released on Friday.

The funeral for her brother is on Sat. My dad is leaving Atlanta Fri evening, and coming home on Sunday some time, so as to actually spend some time with his dc and dgc who are coming in (not just me and mine, but my youngest sister is coming in from SC, too).

We're going to likely be going down tomorrow afternoon/evening, just to have some extra time with him before he has to speed on west to the NC Mississippi area.

Kara, I got my "thing" from AVE MARIA today. Were you in it? It was cool to actually put a potential face with a name! (Btw, you photograph really well!).

Hope ya'll are having a blessed Christmas time (since we all know, Christmas is 12 days of fun! lol).

It's great to be Catholic. I love it. I wish that I wasn't the only one in my bio family (I'm not adopted--it's just different than the family DH and I have started together, iykwim). Dad's family is nominal baptist, mom's is a combo of lapsed "something" and Church of Christ. Including CoC ministers. But hey, prayers are wonderfully powerful. Gotta remember those rosaries for the conversion of the hard of heart...for the lapsed Catholics...for those searching...etc etc, ad infinitum.

Of course, I REALLY wish I had finished those 5 decades I was saying last night (I was ready to pass out and so I went to sleep after the first two Sorrowfuls).

I hope that they may have done SOMETHING for my great-uncle.

Rachel

tigir · 12-27-2006, 10:18 PM

Rachel ~ Any prayer is better than nothing! I am sorry about your uncle and your grandmother. It has been a year full of that around here, I am hoping 2007 will be a bit happier. I hope at 80 I am as willful and stubborn! I am just hoping I make 80!!! LOL I love being Catholic too. You know, I have been to many different churches growing up, but I just know I was being led here. Nothing else stuck, iykwim. When I was engaged before DH we were looking at a Grotto in my home town to get married - mind you I was not Catholic and still sort of believed that I could never be one since I wasn't born into the church. I have a picture out of a magazine of a beautiful lady (one of those ads for collectors plates) Thought it was just beautiful so cut it out (still have it to this day) Just read on it a couple of years ago that it was "Our Lady of Lourdes". lol Have always been very drawn to rosaries, etc. I hope you have a good trip despite everything going on. Christmas here was small on both sides, but still pretty nice. I think next year I am going to lobby for going to mass and then just staying home. It is getting tiresome to go somewhere every year - especially going to both sides, it is just a lot of driving back and forth. One of my sisters stayed home with her DH and DD and my eldest sister's boys were with their dad, so it made things pretty quiet. It was also the first Christmas without my grandpa, so things were just different.

Carrie ~ I am so sorry AF showed up!!!

I will be hoping for this cycle! Sending a few prayers your way.

SunnyInSeattle1 · 12-27-2006, 11:42 PM

Hello all.

I came across this thread and I thought I would say Hello.

I went to my 1st Mass, right before Thanksgiving. It was a good experience for me. My fiance is Catholic. His father is Catholic. His Mother wasnt baptisted Catholic to right before her passing. I am protestant.

We are getting married this coming year. In a Catholic church. We are going to attend marriage prep classes starting in January. I found out We are living in Sin. We live together. We have no doubt of our love for eachother. The pastor was worried and gave us literature about sins and how they might effect our future marriage.
Question: Did anyone go thru this?

Thanks
Sunny

Rosebudlife · 12-28-2006, 12:56 PM

Dear Sunny,

I think the best thing for you to do is contact the priest who is going to marry you and your fiance and discuss the issue at hand. God intends the marriage act to be for married couples. I assume you will be attending a Natural Family Planning course over (usually) a 4 month period. My husband and I prescribe to the Couple to Couple League International's Sympto-Thermal Method, in which they connect marital relations to God's plan. It is a very in depth book that also leads you to other sources when you need more information. You can visit their site: www.ccli.org for more information.

I just encourage you to seek out more information. Jesus wants the best for you and your husband. Of course you love each other. However, the sacredness of the act is reduced when you have experiences already. (Hint, hint, I am not a saint, but have sought forgiveness through Penance and Reconciliation. This does not make what I did in my past all right, nevertheless, and I will be working to cleanse the effect of sin for the rest of my life.)

Please seek guidance from a trained theologian, such as your priest.

Sincerely,

Amy

tigir · 12-28-2006, 01:28 PM

Sunny ~ Welcome to you!

My DH and I lived together and had DD #1 before we were ever married. I was married a year before I was baptized, my DH is not Catholic. I will definately be working on making up for those years I was living in sin. The marriage act is just that, for marriage, so I would agree with Amy - go to your priest and he can give you the advice on what to do now. Goodluck with everything, we are here if you need us! Congrats on your upcoming nuptuals as well!!!

juststartn · 12-28-2006, 01:52 PM

Sunny, I am going to agree with Rosebud. You need to get together with the priest, and discuss this privately, the three of you. Make sure to tell him what you wish to speak with him about when you call to set up the apptmt, so he can make sure he is prepared to discuss it in depth...

The priest is right to be concerned. There is a reason that the Church holds that living together before marriage is wrong...regardless of how much you and your fiance love each other...let's face it, if you didn't love each other, you wouldn't be engaged, right? LOL (trying to make you smile, here). Marriage is a sacrament for Catholics. And to engage in what are, really, "for married folks only" activities (be they simply living together, or actually having sex), makes a mockery of the sacredness of the sacrament....Marriage is not simply a piece of paper..it's not just a social contract. It's a covenant...between a man, a woman, and GOD. And to (and I mean no offense here, believe me) "play married" by living together before the ceremony is, really, in effect, thumbing your nose at God, and the most special nature of that covenant that HE instituted between mankind and Himself....

I am far from sinless in this aspect myself. We didn't live together, we did everything BUT. However, I've confessed it, repented of it, and most certainly would NOT do any of those things again. EVER. It's important to understand that this is simply not a indictment of YOU and your fiance. It is a "standard" that all Catholics are held to, across the board. And, by living with you without the benefit of marriage, your fiance is engaged in mortal sin. Until confessed, truly repented, and amendment is made (likely by one of you moving out til after the wedding), he remains in that state....and its an ugly place to be, spiritually.

You both need to go speak with the priest asap. This is not some minor issue that can be glossed over, exemptions made, etc. Unconfessed/unrepented mortal sin on a soul at the time of death will send one to Hell. And I KNOW you wouldn't want that for your fiance. None of us want it for ourselves...much less for someone we are to love above and beyond ourselves. Sometimes, love calls us to do that which we would not normally choose to do....shoot, I sure as heck don't want to do some of the things my DH is dead set on doing--and vice versa. Sometimes, life and marriage are like that....unfortunately....lol.

It might SEEM like a small issue on the surface. But if you look at marriage from the Catholic perspective, it is NOT. Being a convert from Protestantism, and a recent one, I am trying to think of a comparison from the Protestant side of things, but I am coming up empty. So much depends on your church's view of things....

From my previous experiences, it would be like a publicly virulent anti-Christian, atheist, or a Muslim coming to your congregation publically, receiving communion (which they would NOT be in communion with--communion is a very serious word) with the congregation, and spitting it out on the floor, stomping on it, and laughing.. loudly. Now, even as a Protestant, that would have been rather horrifying (even more so as a Catholic, but I digress), to me. WOuld this person not be mocking the sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf?

This is, I guess, the best I can do for finding something that would compare to how the Church regards what happens when unmarried couples live together before (or without any intention) of marriage...it's taking a blessing, a wonderful, magnificent, overwhelming gift from God...and spitting on it...stomping on it...and laughing while doing it...making a mockery of the very graces that God grants us thru marriage. The very love that Christ and HIS bride, the Church, have for one another. That a man is to have for his wife--not for his fiancee, not for his girlfriend, for his WIFE....

I hope that this is not coming across as harsh. I mean it as an explanation of the Church's stance from another woman--and not too long ago, Protestant. I hope that you and your fiance will make an apptmt with the priest asap. It is important that the two of you understand what this means spiritually...

God bless...

Rachel

Swingin' Cyster · 12-28-2006, 03:35 PM

Hi all!
Merry Christmas - and what a lovely Christmas present - all these newcomers! Welcome!
Some info: So actually, the early Church declared 12/25 as Jesus' birth decades before the pagans tried to use it for their holiday. So if anyone is stealing - it's them.

Rachel: Do you get the Ave Maria Radio Guild Letter? I am in it but I don't like my picture, I never do. My hair isn't quite so blond now. More coppery with blond highlights.
Christmas was very nice. I did have a bad metformin/brie cheese interaction at 4 a.m. Christmas morning which hasn't happened before. Luckily I got to the bathroom in time. I always have a nice day and then at the end wish I was sharing it with someone.... One cool thing, Christmas Eve I was mentioning that I would really like a digital camera and Santa brought one the next morning! Actually, we get 3 presents each (like Jesus) and they come from Mom and Dad, Santa or Caspar, Belthazar and Melchior. I love that tradition and will continue it whenever I finally have a family.
Elizabeth - I'm dying to hear your story!! Going from Anabaptist to Catholic is AMAZING!
Sunny - I hope you find a priest who will be able to explain to you why Catholics believe living together is wrong before marriage. Not b/c we're prudes and have backward ways of thinking, but b/c (like Rachel mentioned) of the profound reverence we have for the gift of marriage and sex.
Ok, gotta run back to work. Love you all!
blessings, Kara
PS - Remember Christmas liturgically lasts until Feb. 2.