tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4966973312480269512024-03-14T03:35:16.538-05:00Little Bit of This and ThatA writer's blog: part social commentary (more Limbaugh than Letterman), part religion (more Aquinas than Aquarius), part poetry (more Silverstein than Shakespeare), part wife and mother (more Lucille B. than Martha S.), part daughter, sister, friend.sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-18979824194141766032023-09-01T08:38:00.001-05:002023-09-01T08:38:14.005-05:00The Pearl I have thought about the parables for many years.With the three to six year old child I see that the kingdom grows like a mustard seed or flour leavened with yeast. It is precious like a pearl, valuable like a treasure.With the six to twelve year old child I see it requires we work, like the man who planted and the woman who mixes and kneads. It requires we rest, like the man whosheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-26559393983612641942022-04-22T18:10:00.020-05:002022-04-23T19:33:57.445-05:00The StoryGod wants us to know Him. He wants us to choose Him! It is for this reason that he reveals himself in all of His creation. Through its order and through its beauty, we see Him if we look. But what about in that which He didn’t create?-Listen children. I want to tell you a story. In the beginning God created man. In His image and sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-26893874519733443692022-04-14T08:59:00.000-05:002022-04-14T08:59:10.539-05:00Do this in Memory of MeAs we enter into the most Holy days of the year, perhaps we may ask ourselves, as the youngest child at the Passover meal asks, “How is this night different from all other nights.”Memory, memorial, for the Jews is far more than our modern understanding of simply remembering. Passover is how the Jews of every generation are able to participate in the moment of salvation history when Godsheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-59981202235541239582021-12-07T08:43:00.000-06:002021-12-07T08:43:05.038-06:00The other 99Read today’s gospel, The Parable of the Lost Sheep, last night with my mother. Here are the thoughts our discussion prompted:How do the other 99 feel when the Shepherd leaves them behind to go and find his prodigal sheep?Abandoned?Sad?Are they tempted to stray themselves?Or are they too afraid to wander far from the familiar confines of the fold?And that prodigal sheep? That’s sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-42168282595174244842021-06-28T06:42:00.000-05:002021-06-28T06:42:29.539-05:00The Devoted Friend and Today’s Gospel I use Oscar Wilde’s story The Devoted Friend for a dual purpose when I teach. As a former middle school literature teacher I know one of the hardest skills for kids at this age is to love a book they don’t like. And so I begin:I hate this story: the plot, the characters, especially the ending! But I love Wilde, and so I know if I hate the plot, sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-91957041797254038372021-06-25T14:16:00.000-05:002021-06-25T14:16:01.303-05:00Happy belated Father’s Day!When we think about the family as a living icon of the Trinity, what has always been forefront in my mind is the Love between the Father and Son which begets the Spirit: marital love is so powerful and beautiful it creates not just children, but the proper environment for them to flourish. It is not what we give our children which benefits them most, not even the unconditional love wesheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-13084201970344140682021-02-26T08:30:00.006-06:002021-02-26T09:17:08.406-06:00The Prayer of Children One of the greatest gifts of being in the atrium with
children is to experience how they pray.
To receive this gift, the catechist must make an enormous pedagogical
shift from traditional methodologies of transmitting the faith. We must begin by understanding on the deepest
level: We do not teach prayer.
When we understand that prayer is a means of knowing God (allowing
sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-23450177299714969062021-02-25T08:46:00.000-06:002021-02-25T08:46:28.514-06:00To Know and to LoveThe metaphysical and material reality is one reality. God so desires us to know Him, he has made
himself accessible through both. In my
short life, the knowledge we have of the material world has expanded enormously
in both directions. We are
simultaneously learning the Universe holds secrets which make it both larger
and smaller than we could have ever imagined.
We focus sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-62235937423976719012021-01-02T07:59:00.001-06:002021-01-08T18:24:39.080-06:00Gift and Response: The Parable Method Gift and Response is the essence of reality: Reality of the Trinity, of the universe and
of the nature of what it means to be human.
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd seeks to illuminate this
very heart of reality. With the older
children six to twelve we reflect on the History of the Kingdom of God. We see all of creation as a History of Gifts
given to us by a loving God.&sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-28113002659363350762020-12-24T09:44:00.001-06:002020-12-24T15:50:22.942-06:00I'm BackAs can be seen by a glance to the right, I have posted very little in the past ten years. In the beginning, I would try. Writing had always been my way of connecting with ideas, with my creative side, with others. But I didn't have anything to say worth reading. It wasn't that my life had dried up, only the words. I don't know why, I just know when.Over the past sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-20109499152298999882016-05-27T11:12:00.000-05:002016-05-30T08:12:28.811-05:00The Rules of LoveLately, I have been feeling overwhelmed by the pull of secular culture. From the right, we are told that material wealth will bring freedom. From the left we are told that sex with whomever, whenever, for whatever reason or no reason at all will set us free. The world is trying so hard to redefine reality that it has been blinded to the most obvious of truths.
I have sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-52398901977042549812013-07-30T20:56:00.000-05:002013-07-30T20:56:05.918-05:00Mary's Easter
The feast of Mary Magdeline is on my parent's wedding anniversary. I don't know if I ever knew that before this week. I also don't remember loving her story so very much. So much it made me write something worth sharing after over a year. So here it goes:
I walk with slow but steady tread
The rising sun’s pink and yellow stains the path
Precious oils held in sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-65229858484660119672012-04-07T17:33:00.003-05:002012-04-07T21:20:40.676-05:00My Muse was Singing. You are my muse.sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-28334428739655545302012-02-29T20:11:00.002-06:002012-02-29T20:49:03.327-06:00RelationshipsThe older I become, the more clear it is, that all of human life is about relationship. A life well lived is one in which the circle of relationship grows. The perfect life expands to encompass the entire of humanity. A poor life is one which is isolated and where the primary relationship one has is with himself. Our life is a series of relationships. Some are more equal than others, but sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-30341966693456993742012-02-18T21:00:00.003-06:002012-02-18T21:29:23.232-06:00Going DeepI am reading a book called Last Child in the Woods. The author's premise is that recent generations' distance from nature is having detrimental effects on everything from attention to creativity. He terms the problem Nature Deficit Disorder. With our technological and smaller world, many have access to untold information about nature and have travelled across the globe, but, he argues, our sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-41270293111335579742012-01-15T12:36:00.002-06:002012-01-15T12:41:21.800-06:00The LettersFor anyone who is interested. Following are my Christmas Letters.Edward, God gives us many gifts all through our lives. It seems the greatest ones are often the those we forget. Christ was the greatest gift to the world. I hope This Christmas, one gift I give to you, is the chance to remember that and feel the great peace and joy that settled over the whole earth the night when He was born. sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-71968500788565491112012-01-15T11:11:00.003-06:002012-01-15T12:25:51.959-06:00Radical Christmas ResultsNow, officially out of the Christmas Season, I am still in a sort of daze at the success of our radical Christmas. I knew that all my efforts to create a new kind of Christmas experience would one day be recognized by my children. But I was certainly not prepared for what happened. We did quite a few things we have never done before, like working a soup kitchen on Christmas Day, but the real sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-66622153287388320772011-12-18T06:44:00.003-06:002011-12-18T07:22:15.529-06:00Radical ChristmasI haven't written in a long time. I haven't had those compelling urges where I need to get an idea down in writing. I am not sure why. Maybe my creative energies have been being used else where, maybe I haven't had a thought in my head, maybe it is hormones. Who knows. The greatest indicator of this is that I did not send out Christmas Cards this year. I know some people dread this sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-85357424226984199402011-11-12T05:37:00.003-06:002011-11-12T06:26:55.998-06:00SERVICEService has been on my mind for awhile now.I volunteered to head up the sixth grade service project for my son's class. It was important to me that the experience be a meaningful one. In preparing for this project, I came up with some things to think about if you are trying to instill in your own children a spirit of service.1. All work can BE service. I think there is a danger in calculatingsheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-39808216552185142732011-11-06T18:55:00.002-06:002011-11-06T19:46:35.209-06:00SatanThe Devil has been a hot topic of conversation of late. I blame Halloween. The girls started by being DE vils. Feminine devils according to them. They do not have horns, but they look enough like devils to lure them in, and then they shock them with the news of Jesus. ? Yea, don't ask me. All I know for sure is they wear red or black.My daughters are much like I was. I hated to say in sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-23771118170002592992011-10-26T20:00:00.004-05:002011-10-26T21:02:08.065-05:00A Love StoryI was told a story recently of love and pain. Love and pain live along a vast and rolling landscape. They are hard to describe, hard to measure and sometimes hard to believe. But sometimes they are very simple. Thomas was having a hard time. Most of the time he didn't mind that he was different. But sometimes he did. He liked chess and imaging himself a knight fighting dragons. He liked sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-62274641731590480202011-06-10T23:47:00.003-05:002011-06-11T00:11:01.050-05:00From the MomOkay, you know you are an official blogger slacker when your computer doesn't finish your address for you when you type it in. Sorry!As a mother of five, I know enough to know one thing. I am not an expert!I have also found that other mothers are the best source of food for thought and tricks of the trade. And so I offer the following tid bits that I tell myself, or my kids, on a regular sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-59487138442338519852011-03-15T20:55:00.002-05:002011-03-15T21:13:33.997-05:00Have you ever asked WHY?Why did my car get a flat tire? Why did I win the lottery? Why is my child sick?Why does this cup of coffee taste so good? Why did I get stuck in traffic behind THAT bumper sticker?Why are you my friend? Why can't I find that stupid key? Why did she call right when I needed her to? Why did I over sleep?Why did the cardinal build her nest outside my window? Why are they fighting now?Why do theysheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-67396984794355867102011-01-31T21:56:00.002-06:002011-01-31T22:33:05.547-06:00How do you answer that?I was filling out a form which asked me to include a brief summary describing my marriage. Hu? How in the world do you answer that question? It reminded me of the question: Tell me about your childhood. What? Do you want to know about the imaginary triplets I had living in my attic? Or did you want to hear about how I used to pretend like I was a paraplegic who had to drag myself to my sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-496697331248026951.post-66562728354982333002011-01-19T13:11:00.008-06:002011-01-19T18:41:02.309-06:00Talking to God, His Omniscience and Lightbulbs.The academic question of ethics has been a passion of mine. I am convinced that there is a right and a wrong and that we as human beings are given the gift of reason to figure it out. I have described in an earlier post (The Beauty of Truth, July 10, 2009) about an assignment I gave my high school student which attempted to force them to approach moral issues from a logical rather than an sheila Gramlinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00608276839302362682noreply@blogger.com0