Catholic Carnival for December 6th, 2005

It’s Carnival time again. Eleven Catholic bloggers have sent postings so that we can visit their carnival “booths”, reflect, pray and learn. As we walk through the carnival we will see:
1. Critical evaluations of our secular and church culture;
2. Suggestions on prayerful celebration of our daily lives and of Christmas;
3. Teachings on indulgences and on the Trinity; and
4. Reflections on the readings for the Second Sunday of Advent.

Lets get started.

Our first visit is to Mary O'Hayes, a new contributor to the Carnival. Mary is a writer for Modesty Zone, a new blog. Its purpose of is to promote modesty and chastity, and to support young women who choose that route (not an easy thing for anyone to do these days!). In Keep the Tummies Out of Church, Mary comments on the low standards of dress seen in churches. She wonders why the Catholic Church has forgotten about modesty. She offers a sign displayed at the entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica as a way of setting standards.

Next we visit Alicia the midwife who started with a mention at another blog and ended up reflecting on life issues and the utilitarian nature of our culture.

Funky Dung has a guest blogger calling for a re-evaluation of the Church’s practice on annulments. His guest writes about a scandal in the Church involving a 20+ year marriage that produced 9 children being annulled. "If they can get an annulment, anyone can!". (You will need to scroll down to post #2084 to find this one.)

Moving on to suggestions for prayerful living, Erin Arlinghaus offers us a reflection on the liturgy of the hours and how it helps her through busy days.

We live in a culture that makes it easy to forget why we celebrate Christmas. A visit to Jay at Deo Omnis Gloria will give us some useful suggestions on keeping the spirit alive.

Next, we find two short doctrinal postings.

Patrick O’Hannigan, The Paragraph Farmer explains why the doctrine of the Trinity is monotheistic in Late to Alexandria's Trinitarian party.

Christine, that Rambling GOP Soccer Mom writes Indulgences referenceing the Holy Father’s granting of indulgences for celebrating the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, gives links that help the reader better understand indulgences, Mary and her place in the Church, and the veneration of the saints.

We end our tour of this week’s Carnival with some reflections on the readings for the second Sunday of Advent.

If you are Feeling Beaten Down visit A Penitent Blogger and scroll down to his entry for December 5th, to find some encouraging words from Isaiah.

Visit Kevin Miller at Heart, Mind and Strength for The Gospel of Repentance, A reflection on the Mass readings for the second Sunday of Advent, focusing on the importance of repentance and on the message that through Christ, God aids us in repentance.

Lastly, please pause on your way out and look at my mother’s poetic tribute to John the Baptist. This poem by Marie Schmitt Ely(1914-1946) was one of twelve twelve poetic reflections on paintings done by Franciscan missionaries to the New Mexico territory in the 18th century.

Comments

[Funky Dung]

"You will need to scroll down to post #2084 to find this one."

In both Firefox and Internet Exploder, the link opens right up to the post for me. *shrug*

[ELC]

The Ales Rarus link works fine for me, too, in Firefox.