It's Lent Season, It's Friday, that means......

It's gonna be a fish meal in there somewhere. Because i'm catholic, every Friday during lent season we do not eat meat. I read somewhere that this is not a die hard rule anymore (shows you how much i know about my faith, sad) but its what we've always done so we keep on doing it. Funny how when you are "prohibited" something, you just want/crave it that much more. I mean even when its not Lent there are days that we do not eat meat and its no big deal. I've tried to cut back on beef mostly because its not that good for you and of course as cost savings. So we usually have mostly chicken and fish. There are days we have neither, say when we do a pasta dish at the end of the week and we are out of most things to cook something.

Anyway so yesterday was Friday (sorry should have posted this yesterday but time got away) and instead of cooking we went to one of our favorite little hole in the walls nearby - The Seafood Shack! I had gotten off work a little early and it was just the Husband and i - the younger two were working and the oldest had gone to the mall with her boyfriend. We hadn't gone out solo in quite a long, long time.

I had my favorite - Coctel de Camaron. This is a mexican shrimp cocktail, very different and flavorful than your average shrimp cocktail that you might get a Red Lobster or something. This is large (or somtimes small) shrimp served in a large glass, with a spicy tomatoey sauce, bits of garlic, onion, jalapeño and chunks of avocado. Yum, Yummy.

I also had a margarita. Hubby had agua de horchata. A rice water type drink, no alcohol and refreshing. We also had fried mushrooms and calamari. It tasted delicious. The calamari was perfect.

It was a nice ending to a stressful week.

Of Church and Priests and such.

An old school mate of my husband’s came to visit the other day. They/we hadn’t seen each other in at least 20 years. He lives in Mexico and as he “graduated” from their school he is a priest and has been moved a couple of times. So he no longer has his parish close to my husband’s home town. Yes my husband also attended the seminary for many years until one day he decided to try and cross the border to earn some money for books and tuition to continue going to school. He was about 20 years old and once he got over here, he enjoyed the freedom and ease with which one could earn money, how easily he found a job earning minimum wage but living a good life with that small amount. As we have been married over 27 years needless to say he did not return to the Seminary. One other schoolmate (among others I’m sure) also did not finish and is now married with a family and living in Houston. They did not have the commitment and desire of a priestly life and it was well they realized early on. I wonder though if my husband’s family had been able to pay for all his schooling, he wouldn’t have left to earn money, would have he continued and eventually become a priest? And thus have ended up like Father Cutie?
As all the escandalo unfolds with Padre Alberto Cutie [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOcsa9XzcSU] – I wonder again why there is not a better system in place in regards to the education and formation of priests. The Catholic Church can be so strict and has so many guidelines, yet just because someone goes through the studies and agrees to all the rules, it seems these are the main things encouraged for them. I do not necessarily agree that they must be celibate but can certainly see how hard it would be to be married and have a family when you want/agreed to dedicate your life to the church and God’s teachings so for that reason alone it makes sense. Would a wife be able to handle her husband spending all his time at church, visiting hospitals, sick people, etc. I mean they have no other life but the church. Of the priests I’ve known, that is what they do – and out of those very few seem to have that speaking ability that I think is also very essential. And the couple I have ended up finding and loved to listening to - end up leaving the church because they are not able to be celibate anymore. And it is so unfortunate because these are the priests that were encouraging and motivating people to come to church and would use everyday happenings and teach how they relate to God and the bible and how we in turn can become better people. Mass was always super packed when these priests were around.
Just this Sunday I became so frustrated with all the crying and whining of all the children (and so sorry to say it was our raza who once again do not make their kids behave and are rude). The priest did not appear to be in a good mood as he was very somber and did not like how the little altar server girl was helping him (poor thing probably won’t be doing that service anymore). Plus he rushed through the prayers and spoke very monotone and his accent was hard to understand at times. With all the distractions going on the Mass might as well have been in Latin for all the good I got out of it. Surely speech classes are given in the Seminary, this one must have skipped out on a few. I think a passion for the Lord’s work and gospel should definitely be a requirement, plus a love of people and desire to help humanity. I know I’m not the only one whose opinion is to get rid of the celibacy rule and let’s get some priests who love what they do and can inspire our young people (all of us really) to go to church and learn about the bible. I get so sad when my desire to learn and hear God’s word ends up taking me to another church and events because I’m not getting what I need from my own religion/church.

Ash Wednesday

Not having had a very good Catholic upbringing I’m not sure what we should be doing on this day other than going to Mass, getting ashes on our forehead and not eating beef or chicken. The reason I say I didn’t have a good Catholic upbringing was because yes we went through all the obligatory motions of going to Mass every Sunday, participating in the various events at Church and attending CCD (Sunday school) but I never knew the why of a lot of our rituals and traditions and I never asked. This is what my parents said we did and we obeyed without question – didn’t question anything back in those days. I didn’t pay attention to what the priests said because frankly they were boring and I couldn’t relate to anything that they said to my life and how to apply it. As I followed the same pattern with my family, the cycle continues of this is what we do because it’s always been done, end of story. I think it’s sad that most of us do not have the knowledge that we should about our Catholic faith. And I find more fulfillment and knowledge when I attend other faith sponsored events instead of at ours. Don’t get me wrong ours leave you feeling good and can restore the spirit but I don’t always feel that I know the why behind things and how can I do this on a regular basis at home, must everything always take place at church only to “count.” I have found some great resources at Women of Faith (not for catholic) and the Magnificat Breakfast and Dr. Italy’s Web site. Now I just need to discipline myself and get back into regularly practicing my faith. I haven’t even decided what I’ll give up/sacrifice this year. And if we should not go about with sad faces demonstrating our “suffering” of having to give up chocolate or whatever and meat on Fridays why is it ok to go around with the ashes on our forehead all day long for the world to notice. I know that’s the ritual but it seems contradicting. So it is we shall get Ashes on our forehead and another season of lent begins.