This upcoming Sunday, the 5th Sunday in Lent, is also the Sunday where the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops trumpet their baby, Development and Peace, and entice the ignorant pew-sitter into supporting the cause.

According to Canadian Charity Intelligence, D&P will raise in excess of 16 million dollars this year, and our taxpayer dollars will give another 16 million to them as well. Of this money, only 74% of it will be spent on helping others. The rest of the money will be spent on such things as salaries. D&P has 71 full time staff member with an average salary of $71,595. Perhaps it is a good thing that they are so pathetic at financial prudence, for, as we all know, they've been caught funding pro-abortion groups in the past.

This year, on their 50th birthday, D&P has adopted the theme: Women at the Heart of Change.

They state: "This Lent, act in solidarity with and walk alongside the women and men who advocate for an equal and inclusive society, one in which women can participate hand-in-hand with men in building the world of tomorrow."

and

"Together, let us take full advantage of the sacred moment that is Lent to create a space for dialogue that will allow us to contemplate a future of justice and dignity for all."

They've also included a women's way of the cross, whereby you get to meditate on the injustice against women at every station. For instance, here's the meditation from the 9th station:

"The women feel great sorrow at the exhaustion of Jesus. Has God forsaken him? When he gets up, their hearts are illuminated by a conviction: Jesus is sacrificed for the salvation of humanity. Let us open our hearts to the resilience of women who for generations have been working to have their rights recognized. We can only imagine their inner strength, and also the exhaustion they must sometimes feel from confronting injustice."

So once again, I urge you to give a sizable donation this year. Give until it hurts. Here's the link:

DONATE TO LIFESITE

Music Monday: The Pirate Song

The terrible twos are over! John Paul has turned three! He came out of his room just after 6am beaming from ear to ear. What a guy.

Lately John Paul has been very involved when I play guitar or organ. He jumps around, plays along with his ukulele, and sings loudly. He's slowly beginning to hold a tune too. There is no replacing the enthusiasm of a little voice. One song he loves to sing is The Pirate Song.

I wrote The Pirate Song years ago. I seem to remember my little sister Lynda, when she was five years old, wanted me to write a song, and this is what came out. Well she just turned twenty, but the song still remains. Here's an original recording done many years ago. It's recorded in one of our rooms, with an old guitar, a key that is too high for my poor voice, and a few added instruments for good measure. In honour of John Paul and one of his favourite songs to sing, here is The Pirate Song:

He'll be working for SaskPower in no time.

The waters of strife

Equilibrium. Symmetry. Balance of the universe, and all that jazz. It's a big thing to some. I'm sure it's why mosquitoes haven't been poisoned to oblivion yet. "Think of the harmony of nature!!!" I can't even go out in nature in the summer because of them. Where's my harmony?

So there's a certain balance to everything. Because God made it so. And we have to work within this Logos-ical framework. The struggle is real.

This Lent, as always, we've given up sweets. I've tried to do a little extra with that this year. The result is that I should be feeling great! I'm eating well. Exercising. Sugar is at an all time low. Aaaand, I've had absolutely no energy. I could just blame it on having three little kids. However, I decided I needed to increase my water intake. Simple. What could go wrong? All that I'm messing with is the balance of the universe here.

You see, for the past number of years while teaching I've had everything down to a science. I drink the exact same amount of water and coffee while at school, at the exact same time, every single day. Subsequently, I use the facilities at the exact same time every day. They say people used to set their clocks to philosopher Immanuel Kant. He would go for a walk at the exact same time each day, and pass by people's houses with temporal precision that would make NASA blush. Well Kant is but a raw bumbling rookie in comparison to what I've developed. There is a harmony and precision to my day. It is science. When I stop and think about it, my bathroom break exactitude is a beautiful thing.

And then I decided to double my water consumption throughout the day.

I teach mainly phys ed. To leave the students in the gym alone unsupervised is like wearing a large sign around my neck saying: "Please sue me." I can't leave them. And yet... what's going on? I, I,... I need to go! Bahh! "Yes students, I'm just here dancing. I love teaching gym so much." As with phys ed, I hear this seemingly 43 million times a day, or maybe it just seems like that lately: "Mr. Millette, can I get some water?" "I need a drink Mr. Millette." "Mr. Millette, have you ever seen Niagara Falls? There's so much water there! Just gallons and gallons of water. Water like you've never seen. Have you ever seen Niagara Falls? With all its water?"

The balance of nature. Mess with it and nature will always win. Victory is as certain as the waters of Niagara Falls are wet.

Now if you excuse me. I gotta go.

Music Mondays: There Will Be Time

Happy Solemnity to one and all! St. Joseph is indeed our mighty patron. I would have a hymn to him for my Music Mondays, but finding one on Youtube is not so easy. The songs to him are all the typical touchy feely, cheap keyboard accompaniment, songs of great emotion and little substance or beauty.

So instead I turn to one of my son's (Joseph) favourite songs. It's a collaboration of Mumford and Sons and the African musician Baaba Maal. Yes, my first Mumford and Sons featured, and I'm not choosing a song from when they were grass-roots good. It's not that their latest album is 100% awful, it just isn't them. There are a couple of decent songs on it (Only Love, Hot Gates). Yet, here I go with the more unconventionally conventional approach the band takes. They joined together with Baaba Maal and his band. Think African drumming, high energy, great stage presence, and all things that Mumford and Sons are not. And the combination, though some might call odd, I think works out beautifully. Baaba Maal gives Mumford a shot in the arm. And there is one thing I especially love: they all are enjoying themselves. The lyrics, when Baaba Maal launches into his "There is a time..." Ecclesiastes bit, are well done.

Here is: There Will Be Time

A Conservative Helping of Spam: 2.0

I went and opened one of my spam emails from Maxime Bernier. It was titled Kevin O'Leary is desperate. Too bad it's Lent. I could use some popcorn as I read such emails. I especially liked the line: "Kevin O'Leary is a loser." Now, back to my job of trying to teach youngsters how to grow up, learn new things, and be articulate and kind with others...

Daniel,

Kevin O’Leary is losing.

He knows my campaign has raised more money, signed up more members, has more supporters, and more volunteers.

He’s a bad candidate.

Instead of trying to win people over by putting out a platform, he’s throwing mud to try to save his campaign.

While I’ve been building an army of supporters, he’s been vacationing in Florida, filming in LA, and shilling on a home shopping channel trying to sell his line of O’Leary wine to American buyers. It’s not even available in Canada.

This is a guy who won’t move to Canada full-time.

In February a report came out saying he’d spent half of his time in the US since entering the race.

He won’t commit to leave his TV show or business interests behind if he’s elected as leader of our party.

He said it would be a waste of time for him to become an MP.

Kevin O’Leary is a loser.

I’m a winner.

Donate $5 to my campaign right now, and we’ll keep building this army to defeat Trudeau in 2019.

Sincerely,

Maxime Bernier

UPDATE:

CTVNews must've been reading this blog. They've picked up on this email. The headline:

Bernier calls rival O'Leary a loser as Tories investigate vote-rigging claims

UPDATE 2:

O'Leary responds! The gloves are off! Actually, he gave a very boring emailed response...

"My campaign has been informed by the Party that a pattern of suspicious memberships has been identified.

This is the kind of unscrupulous activity that turns people off politics.  This type of deceit is extremely damaging to the Party [...]

Today, I am asking the 13 other Candidates to put politics aside. I am calling on you to join together with me to fight back against this scam..."

*Yawn*

UPDATE 3:

Andrew Scheer responds with a 'grow up guys or else we all are the losers, in the next election.'

"We’ve seen candidates attack whole sections of the conservative family, saying it was their way or the highway when it comes to issues of conscience.

We’ve seen candidates accused of engaging in dirty tricks,buying memberships for people without their knowledge.

If this keeps up, it will spill over after the leadership race and the liberals will be laughing all the way to re-election."

In the words of Seti:

"No doubt."

A Conservative Helping of Spam

I'm going to make a confession here. Becca and I have Conservative Party of Canada memberships. Please don't tell my teacher's union. That is the equivalent of a protestant sneaking off to Mass, a Canadian watching soccer on TV, or a dietitian pounding back a tin of spam. Yes, we are members specifically so that we can vote in the upcoming leadership race. Or is it upcoming? Because it sure feels like this race will never end.

It's the emails. My inbox is full of emails. Mainly from Scheer, Lemieux, O'Leary (just for the amusement) and Trost. Then there's my spam inbox. It is bursting, more than bursting, with emails from the likes of all the rest, such as Bernier, Blaney, and Saxton. The emails are never ending. I'm told that each candidate has to pay lots of $$ to have an email sent to members. Whatever the price is, it's not enough. I have not been emailed this much since back in the days when Becca and I were dating and she, out of pure obsession, emailed me non-stop. And as if that wasn't enough, they've started calling. I mean, we were invited last night to join in on a live phone chat with candidate Erin O'toole at 8pm local time. Who wouldn't want to spend their evening doing this? "Thanks for the invite!" we replied. Just kidding. We didn't pick up the phone. But they left a long voice message. My facebook account is loaded with Conservative Party leadership postings. As well there's the never ending debate over Is Andrew Scheer pro-life? Short answer: Yes. Long Answer: Yeeeeeeeees. Someone kick CLC in the rear-end please and tell them to smarten up or quit. If we're judged by our fruits then it's not looking good for them.

So when is this leadership race over? The answer is clear: Not soon enough.

Music Mondays: Favourite Lent Hymns

We were singing some lenten hymns yesterday at home. You see, to hear such hymns in these parts we have to sing them ourselves on our own time. Well, our priest here does pick one traditional hymn for Mass on Saturday night, usually Lord Who Throughout These Forty Days, and that's as good as it gets. Forty minutes north of here in Nipawin they're still getting Though the Mountains May Fall mingled in with the latest hip Dan Schutte songs. Whatever the case, we usually have to make our own music.

So Becca asked me: "What's your favourite lent hymn?" Hmm. You see, there's some touching Palestrina and Byrd compositions that send chills straight through my soul. But I can't say I've ever heard them at Mass. O Sacred Head Surrounded is maybe as good as it gets for Mass, especially when sung solemnly and with multiple parts. The Stabat Mater is always nice, as is the Pange Lingua (though good luck finding a place that sings it properly on Holy Thursday). I really like Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?, especially when sung at double time with an 80+ year old choir (lol).

No, I think my favourite might be a specific Good Friday selection: The Reproaches by Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548-1611). I can say I've heard them sung because, well, my sisters and I have done this for the Good Friday liturgy before. "Popule meus quid fecit tibi?" (O my people, what have I done to you?).

I would've preferred to have a copy of this in a liturgical setting, but the sound quality wasn't great. Nevertheless, here is a selection of the Good Friday Reproaches:

What's your favourite lenten song?

Homeschool in Pictures

We are more than half-way through our homeschool year. It has been 99% just wonderful and about 1% not as great. Honestly, we are all loving it so much.

Joseph is a keen learner. He loves school (for the most part)! It really makes my job sort of easy.

John Paul loves getting involved too. The only trouble we have is when his "involved" means climbing onto my lap and wanting all my attention while Joseph is doing reading lessons.

Emilie loves it too... or trying her best to make scheduling a bit crazy. Just when I think she has her naps sorted out and we have a groove, she changes things up. We do school best on those days she sleeps for 2+ hrs... of course, that's not every day.

Now that you have a clear (not quite accurate picture) that our days are all rainbows and sunshine, here's the action, pieces from our schools days the last few months:

Joseph just started reading his first "real" books. He was reluctant to begin, but then didn't want to stop. We read the Dr. Seuss One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish together.



Math time is great: coins, clocks, abacus, boogie board... until the little sister gets a penny in her mouth. She is getting way too fast. We won't let that happen again, right John Paul?!



Joseph also likes to go around doing his own equations and number practice:



This is my favourite piece of Joseph's writing all year! Copied from a Bob Book with his own copied illustrations. This was back in January.

We go through spurts of science experiments and art projects, usually going hard at them for two weeks straight and then taking a break and doing more reading in other areas. Science is Joseph's favourite. Probably John Paul's too. But who doesn't like making goop, slushes, marshmallow towers, and all that fun stuff. I have no idea what they've actually retained from our little chats about what it all means science-wise, but it's loads of fun.

Making slush. Freezing point depression, y'all.


 Consuming it! Don't mind the weird faces.


Picking up things with a straw. They did this on their own from a book. I don't even know what it teaches.


Goop. Corn starch, water. So much fun!


Solids and liquids. That kind of stuff.


Marshmallow and spaghetti structures. What kinds of structures hold the most weight? What is strongest?



Maybe I should add, which is yummiest??


We've done some cool little art projects. The boys always ask to take out paints and I usually say no. We also go to storytime (most) weeks at the library where they do art stuff (often with paints! Win!), but these are our own at-home projects.

Joseph's finger paint hand birds. Funnily enough, John Paul refused to do this one. He didn't like getting his hands all dirty, even though he eats every meal with his fingers.


John Paul's snowman on ice.


Some days we do fun stuff, like have a tea party on a bedroom floor and read fairy tales. We should really do this again, it was so much fun (although you can't tell from John Paul's face).


Finally, Joseph has been planning out projects for the summer vacation. Like this tree house he wants to make with Daddy and John Paul. Down the right hand side is a list of all the supplies they will need.



Little engineer in the making! Not too shabby.

Points to Ponder: "I want to wash my hands and hair in snow"

A random collection of random thoughts.

1) Storm

We got nailed with a storm this week. For three days it snowed, and blew snow. The roads were impassible. Giant 4x4 trucks stuck in the middle of the street. Temperatures with windchill in the 30 and 40 below range. And all this after a beautiful Saturday in which we stomped in puddles of water and even gave our van a wash.






























2) School

But was school cancelled? Of course not. In Ontario my experience was that they'd cancel school far too easily. "Oh no!!! A snow flake!!! Book the week off!" Here they don't ever cancel it. It's down right dangerous. It got so bad that, as I sat teaching a near empty classroom on Tuesday the RCMP showed up to raise a little heck. They were wondering why on earth we were open when it was such a disaster outside. Good question. Eventually some teachers and students left early. Too bad I didn't have an excuse to leave early. "Um... I have to walk a block and a half and, well, the sidewalks are getting bad and..."


3) Hockey

The snow plow came out just in time on Wednesday for us to get out to the rink for one last hockey practice. It was the parent/child game. Joseph and I lined up against each other. Him in his white Canadiens jersey. Me in the red. Roch Carrier would be proud. And what a thrill it was! Joseph and I had a blast! He said it was his favourite game of the year. Me too (it was my only game though). I just love being out on the ice. So too does Joseph.

I was a little disappointed in the other dads out there. Would it kill them to smile a little when out on the ice? Why so serious? In the end most of the kids ignored them. There was me and another dad who hammed it up with the kids. So we had kids trying to score on us, fight us, and do whatever. That's the way it's supposed to be. Afterwards we had a pizza party. Goodbye hockey. We'll miss you. Joseph has already started training for next year.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to finally sleeping in this Saturday, and then spending lots of time outside with the boys. There is skating to do, forts to be made, and hopefully a trip to our favourite little snow mountain in town.


4) There is no H-E-double hockey sticks?

Does Justin Trudeau have no fear of hell? $650 million of our taxpayers money to fund abortions in other countries? Wait, not even our money, yet, because he's running such a huge deficit. Is it just me or is this type of commitment creeping up to the ranks of some of the actions of the world's well known historical dictators?


5) Sick

It seems like everyone I know is sick. Some are very very sick. Especially young babies. I'm very thankful that Emilie and the boys are doing fine (apart from snotty noses).


6) Lent

Lent continues. I actually missed it a bit. It's good to get a kick in the pants every now and then. But the more I think about it, the more I realize how watered-down Catholicism is. Fr. Z had posted earlier in the week what was the expected fasting discipline back in 1873. For instance:

1. Every day during Lent except Sunday, is a day of fast on one meal, which should no be taken before mid-day, with the allowance of a moderate collation in the evening.

2. The precept of fasting implies also that of abstinence from the use of flesh meat, but by dispensation, the use of flesh meat is allowed in this Diocese at every meal on Sunday, and at the principal meal on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, of Lent except Holy Thursday.

Now the rage is for people to talk about which diocese will be getting an exemption to eat meat on St. Patrick's day. Because nothing makes St. Patrick happier than partying during Lent in his name.


7) St. Joseph

Start your novenas to St. Joseph today. If you don't know what to pray for, you can offer it for me.

Music Mondays: World I Know

I was going to do a Lenten themed song, but there's plenty of time for that. I'll sneak in something else.

My favourite band my whole life has been Collective Soul. They jumped onto the post-grunge rock music scene in 1994 with their hit song Shine. But it was a year later in 1995 that, I think, their best work was created. From their self-titled album, one where every song could've been a number one hit, comes The World I Know. I think it's best probably just to watch the video first. Remember, this is mid-1990 production quality.

I love this song. For years it was my favourite song. The guitar and strings blend so well. Now lead singer Ed Roland once recalled how he once was walking the streets of New York City and was floored by how so many rich businessmen would mingle in the streets next to so many poor homeless people. It was a striking juxtaposition. Yet, Roland wondered just how happy the rich ones were in comparison.

The World I Know spent four weeks on top of the rock music charts.

Historical Clarity from the Pope, Msgr. Pope

I like Msgr. Charles Pope. I've written about him before. He had an interesting article a couple days ago about Catholic parish life in the 1920s. Not everything was perfect. Priests raced through the Mass, and often skipped homilies or even re-proclaiming the readings in English. Sadly, far too often there was no choir for a high Mass which, I think, is necessary for bringing out the beauty of a Latin Mass on a Sunday. Their problems seem quite trivial compared to our modern Novus Ordo woes, but I still understand that they were problems that needed to be dealt with. Msgr. Pope then went on to say that he came across an old letter that was sent to priests by the Archbishop of Baltimore. I loved the simplicity and clarity of the letter! I'm sure many of the bishops back then must've been like sandpaper, but hey, I appreciate their fire. Here's a snippet:

"Some of our younger parish clergy read their sermons. This should not be done except for some very special reason. The priest who is not capable of preparing and delivering a brief, clear instruction on Catholic teaching to his people is not fit to be in parish work. The people as a rule do not want to listen to a sermon reader. The reader is usually a poor one and his matter many times is poorer. We do not expect every priest to be a Lacordaire or a Bossuet. We do expect every priest however to be a teacher of God’s word, an intelligent and intelligible one. We have heard splendid eloquence on the subject of card parties, bazaars, church support, etc. and then mental confusion in many cases when the time came for the sermon. Our work as preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ is of infinite importance. It ought to be done with prayerful preparation. The sermon should be delivered in such a manner that our people can hear, understand, and take away with them a better knowledge of their faith and at the same time feel moved to live that faith and more practical way. If the priests of a parish wish to hold her people’s loyalty to their parish church, they cannot do it by competition in the matter of late hours for masses, unbecoming a hurry in the celebration of divine mysteries, or curtailment of devotional church practices."

Read the whole post here. Once again, thank you Msgr. Pope.