Cry Room Chronicles XXXII

After a wonderful night of dancing at Glen Echo, we were unable to get up in time to get to the 8 a.m. Mass. We wound up at the 9:30 Mass, where the music and singing were provided by the youth group. They did a great job which my wife especially appreciated.

The kids didn't appreciate the music as much as they could have because Jacob decided to go straight to the children's chapel. We managed to get some good seats since we were a minute or two early. The room did eventually fill up with a bunch of familiar faces. All the kids were a bit noisy but not too bad.

Jacob did participate in the music this week--he sang the refrain of the Glory to God and parts of the Lamb of God! He also prayed the Our Father with us. Sans a book, he even shook hands at the sign of peace. Lucy was more reluctant this week. They both gave at the offering, though Jacob and I almost did not make it back from the upstairs bathroom to donate. Jacob went once and asked to go a second time, which we allowed but he did not have success.

After Mass was over, we did go to the playground. Jacob is quite the climber lately, giving gray hairs to his parents by his feats of daring. Hopefully we'll relax about it all soon. Lucy enjoyed it but wasn't as daring. Lots of other kids were there too.

Since we are ten days from Ash Wednesday, the sermon was about preparing for Lent. Classically, three areas of sacrifice are encouraged by the Church to prepare for the Easter Triduum. The first area is prayer. Father recommended the little black books that will be available next week at our parish. The books include daily meditations and reflections for each day of Lent. Each one only takes six minutes, an amount of time that should be easy for everyone. The second area is fasting, forsaking legitimate pleasures for the sake of higher goods. Father's recommendation is to come to the Friday Stations of the Cross at church, where they will have simple meals provided by the Knights of Columbus and one of the ladies' groups. The third area is almsgiving, a perhaps old-fashioned word for giving money to those in need. Here we had an audio presentation from our archbishop telling us about the Lenten appeal and asking us to donate to it. Father also encouraged us to participate in that as well. I guess this message was important for me since I was not distracted by the kids much at all.

Ash Wednesday, a good time to start a blog?

I've decided for Lent 2009 to have a daily blog. Why do that? I suppose it is not so much a penance as a discipline for the season of Lent. Blogging will force me to give up some of the time I waste on frivolous internet wandering. How much time has been spent on reading random posts and sites, watching videos on YouTube and elsewhere (curse you, Apple Store movie previews!!), etc.? Indeed, I am giving up something in order to (hopefully) improve my writing. And also clear out some random thoughts that keep floating through my head and distracting me as well.

I have intended to write more this year and am working on a podcast, but progress is very slow because the topic is research-intensive. The podcast will cover the background myths, history, theology, philosophy, etc., in the Hellboy stories. I've written the main text for an episode on Rasputin but have bogged down in research on Nazi involvement in the occult. It is a much bigger topic than I imagined. Plus, there's all the other stuff involved with making a good podcast--getting equipment, creating intros and outros, setting up a website, finding time to record.

I also have an idea for a Hellboy story set in Hawaii (where we went to a conference back in January), but haven't really set down anything in writing yet. I may be fleshing out or flushing out ideas for that in this blog.

What other content can you expect here? I'll probably write occasionally about my cute-as-can-be 16-month old son and his adventures, learning, etc. (boy, using hyphens sure slows down the typing). And maybe some Catholic stuff too, since this is a Lenten post. Tomorrow, I will write about my other planned Lenten sacrifices.