Verso L'alto at the YMCA

Believe it or not the desert does have a few advantages, notice I said a few, that is few.   OK, now that is stated clearly I can get on with the post.  We found out that the Cooper YMCA in Lincoln has a climbing wall, which is used for top roping only, but hey in the desert you take what you can get.  They make you take a class to show you the basics, then turn you lose.  I went with Our Daughter, who in the blog world goes by "Perpetua" as in St. Perpetua.  We paid The Man, who taught us how to tie a rope, put on a harness, and hold onto a hand hold and pull up.  No, it wasn't that bad, actually a pretty good little class.  I learned how to belay with a ATC, until now I have just used a rescue 8, so this is a good thing.  Her first couple climbs were with the instructor as her Belay, then I took over.  She was taught the proper terminology to speak prior to getting on the wall:  On Belay, Belay On, Climbing, Climb On, Ready to be lowered, Lowering, On the Ground, Off Belay  

All good stuff every 6 year old should know.  She made it almost the whole way up, about 3/4 - I think in the next 2-3 times she'll complete the ascent.  She did a great job, I am quite proud of her.  Anyhow here are some pics.

Her first figure 8, can I get a tissue?

Figure 8 Follow through

And now.......Verso L'alto!!!!!!

  

Parents Outraged at Planned Parenthood Class Teaching Sexual Positions‏

Dear Friends,
I only send this shameful and disturbing information so that parents and grandparents can be informed of the evils of Planned Parenthood and how schools are forcing this on our children. We all need to be vigilant! Please pass this to others.
Thank you and please continue to pray for strong families!
Colleen
Catholic Parents OnLine
http://www.catholicparents.org/
___________________________________________________________________________
Parents Outraged at Planned Parenthood Class Teaching Sexual Positions

The group's teen page, meanwhile, teaches visitors "all about the anus" and lauds the health benefits of masturbation.
By Kathleen Gilbert
SHENANDOAH, Iowa, June 24, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Parents in Southwest Iowa have reacted in horror after learning that Planned Parenthood's co-ed sex education course not only used pornographic teaching materials but also taught children sexual positions.
Colleen Dostal told Fox News Radio, after discovering that her 14-year-old son had been taught sexual positions using stuffed animals meant to represent STDs, that the class was "horribly inappropriate."

“I do not understand why any adult with a classroom of children would show them sexual positions,” she told Fox.  (She forgets these are not adults, human yes, but not adults - they have not attained the maturity level to be considered adults.)

Dostal said the class also included directions on performing female exams and used an anatomically correct model of a male sex organ to explain how to use a condom.
The parents said the school's principal was "mortified" when told the content of the class and apologized.  (It is nice to see that the Principal stepped up to his position.)  Several other parents complained to school superintendent Dick Profit. Profit, however, claimed he had received equal numbers of calls supporting and opposing the explicit sex-ed, according to the World Herald.

Speaking for Planned Parenthood, Jennifer Horner defended the curriculum as giving children "accurate" information.

"We are not trying to keep any of this a secret. All information we use is medically accurate and science based," she said.  (Because as we know our current slant of "science" always has the best interest of the culture and family in mind.)

Planned Parenthood's extremely explicit take on teen sex-ed is evident from the "Teen Talk" section of their website, a series of pages decorated with images of heterosexual and homosexual intimacy, which leads youngsters to a wealth of information on deviant sexual practices.

One page entitled "All about the anus: how much do you really know about your anus?" gives explicit details on anal penetration as a source of sexual pleasure and "as a way to preserve the woman's virginity." (And a way to preserve her dignity, I'm sure.)  While noting that anal penetration "is, of course, high risk for HIV," PP advocates using condoms or "Sheer Glyde dams" to protect against the fatal virus.  (Oh, well its still OK then.)

Elsewhere, Planned Parenthood dedicates a web page to advocating masturbation as "safe and healthy, and it's here to stay." The article hails the painkilling and stress-relieving qualities of masturbation, and assures that it's "fine" to do so several times a day.

Here we go again Planned Parenthood stuffing their views on the culture and families, thank goodness parents had the guts to call the school over this. 

H/T Catholic Parents Online

Traditional Sermons from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter

Every so often we venture a short distance from the desert to visit friends in Omaha, NE.  When we do I make every to go to Mass at Immaculate Conception Parish in Omaha. 

This is the only Traditional Latin Mass Parish in Nebraska.  There are several other Church's to hear the TLM, however this is the only parish.  Rev. John Brancich, F.S.S.P. is the Pastor and as I understand he is from Winona, MN - I know how does it come to pass that a man from Winona would end up in Nebraska as Traditional Priest?  And in full union with the Magisterium to boot!  WOW, anyway Immaculate Conception has a great website which they post their sermons on weekly - very traditional sermons that pack a great punch.  Good stuff to listen to and reflect on.

                                                                 

This is Father Brancich above with Our Lord. 

So, the sermons are great teaching moments and I highly recommend listening if you have the opportunity.  They have two ways to listen.  First, you can listen off the web page, which has them all listed for approximately one year back.  Second, you can download the sermons in MP3 format for truth and education on the go.  Oh Yeah - good stuff.  Again, you can visit their website for further details on any and all activities in the parish.  Here are some pictures from past blogs.  IC will be the top two pictures.  For more information about the Archdiocese of Omaha please visit their website.

Prayer request

Please keep a friend in prayer - she is having difficulties in her pregnancy.

Pier Giorgio Novena Begins June 25

Dear Friend of Blessed Pier Giorgio,

I can only imagine how many special intentions each of you has for yourselves, friends, loved ones, our country, the Church, the world.  Why not entrust them to our heavenly friend as we approach his Fourth of July feast day?  Join the novena in honor of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati beginning on Friday, June 25th.  The prayers for each day can be found on the FrassatiUSA website. 

If you would like to participate in the worldwide novena, our friends at the Compagnia dei Tipi Loschi have again posted an invitation in several languages on their website.  The English translation is a little rough but I think you can get the message.  They are proposing one extra decade of the rosary each day for the Church and the intentions of our Holy Father.  You can submit your intentions to them via their website and they will include them in a special Mass to be offered on July 4th. 

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the beatification of Pier Giorgio.  If you have not prayed the novena before, this would be a wonderful time to begin.  May Blessed Pier Giorgio intercede for each of you!

Verso l'alto,
Chris

Christine M. Wohar, Executive Director
FrassatiUSA, Inc.
P.O. Box 50571
Nashville, TN  37205
615.844.3777
http://www.frassatiusa.org/
chris@FrassatiUSA.org

"The future is in the hands of God and better than that it could not be."  ~ Pier Giorgio Frassati

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Here is the Novena

Closing Prayer for each day (Litany)

Day 1      Day 2      Day 3      Day 4      Day 5     

Day 6      Day 7      Day 8      Day 9

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Not part of the Novena, nonetheless, a powerful prayer.

"Heavenly Father,
Give me the courage to strive for the highest goals,
to flee every temptation to be mediocre.
Enable me to aspire to greatness, as Pier Giorgio did,
and to open my heart with joy to Your call to holiness.
Free me from the fear of failure.
I want to be, Lord, firmly and forever united to You.
Grant me the graces I ask You through Pier Giorgio's intercession,
by the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen."

Quote on Womanhood

I was hitting the next blog button off the Badger Catholic when I came across this blog - great quotes on womanhood, here is a sample.

"Godly womanhood ... the very phrase sounds strange in our ears. We never hear it now. We hear about every other type of women: beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career women, talented women, divorced women. But so seldom do we hear of a godly woman - or of a godly man either, for that matter.We believe women come nearer to fulfilling their God-given function in the home than anywhere else. It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife, than to be Miss America. It is a greater achievement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second-rate novel filled with filth. It is a far, far better thing in the realms of morals to be old-fashioned, than to be ultra-modern. The world has enough women who know how to be smart. It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct."— Peter Marshall

"If you women continue to demand your choice to work, you will so upset the economy of this country that the time will come when you will not have a choice. You will have to work."— Helen Andelin

H/T - Clothed with Scarlet

Classic Movies for Boys - stir their masculine spirit!

Mommy Life writes:

As the mother of eight sons - the first string of four now grown men in their 20s - I can't emphasize enough how much I needed to learn to raise boys well.
You moms with young sons are in for a very special journey yourself if you allow God to teach you to step outside your own way of viewing the world. It takes a major paradigm shift for a woman to understand boys and to provide for their masculine potential.
There are many moments of surrender. I can remember so many times when my boys were roughhousing and I'd have to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "Be careful! Don't get hurt!" But instinctively, I felt like I wanted to do everything I could to avoid setting unnecessary limits on my boys.
As a former feminist I was used to looking at the word from the perspective that women were the norm and masculine behavior was deviant. Today, the once radical ideas of feminism have crept into our culture, suffocating our schools, which currently follow a learning template which girls can handle well but which is frustrating and stifling to boys. Boys learn best where there is physical activity and fierce competition.
But women, thinking competition "not nice" have seen to it that such opportunities are few and far between. Now every kid on the team gets a trophy so no one has hurt feelings. And all those medals and trophies and certificates have become cheapened and meaningless, leaving boys with nothing to strive for.

Their natural drive to compete gets them in trouble and they are made to feel ashamed about their drives, dreams and desires. Playground games, climbing structures, and in some schools even recess have disappeared.

And of course, the culture - through coarse and corrupt movies and TV - drives down their noblest impulses and replaces them with cheap humor and uncommitted sex.

Me
When I found this blog and read what this woman was writing I began to be filled with hope!  So often I hear and witness Mothers who try with all their might to stop their Sons from being who they are.  Read the above paragraphs very carefully.....several times.....a day.  This is indeed what boys DO.  They climb, fall down, get hurt and guess what....it is NOT the end of the world.  This is what builds boys' character and allows them to grow into Men that will lead, take a stand against wrong, fight for what is right and just, and live as Jesus did.  "As a former feminist I was used to looking at the word from the perspective that women were the norm and masculine behavior was deviant."  Fathers, I urge you to take part in rearing your children
without an example of masculinity our boys will grow weaker, not knowing how to behave as true men.  No, boys should not be rough with girls, be disrespectful, or intentionally hurt others.  This is not what this article is about.  Note that she wrote she is a former feminist- any flags go up?  Most women today do not realize that they have misguided feminist tendencies and transmit those to their children.  Does any thing written above happen in your home, with the attempting to stop boys from exploring and growing into Men?  You will be responsible for what happens in your home.  Obviously we don't want our children to get hurt, but to prevent it at all costs because we are scared they will get injured?  A bubble will not accompany our children throughout life, it is only through small "hurts" as we grow that we build up the strength to handle the "biggies" throughout the teenage and adult years.  If we allow our children to be spared from these rites of passage we severely hinder their ability to handle what happens after they are gone.  Take these little moments to use as building blocks;  think of it as a workout in character building.

Back to Her
Since I homeschooled my oldest sons, we were first of all able to break up the day and they had many more hours to be active, to explore and to find themselves as masculine creatures than they would have had in school.  I know they are grateful for that today.
Tripp and I also took a proactive approach - filling their hearts and minds with things that were noble and honest and true. A major part of that foundation was built on classic books and movies which would speak to their masculine spirit. Though I had a fairly extensive movie background, most of these were movies I'd never seen before having sons. And many I sill haven't seen - but the men in my family love nothing better than to watch them together.

This roundup of Classic Movies for Boys is a spin-off of a request for suggestions on books for boys which my husband Tripp put together. Zach - still recovering from his motorcycle accident/ankle surgery - was kind enough to link each to Amazon so you could read more about each movie. And even order if you like.
Many of these are available at your local library. All are available through Netflix - another good reason to join - as one MommyLife reader suggested, cut the cable and subscribe to Netflix for saving money and better viewing.

Note: a bold border indicates that the film may contain some mature elements not suitable for younger children.

H/T and credit to Mommy Life  The movie list can be seen on her blog