Catholicism, holiness and spirituality

Phew! ... and a meme

Well yes I am still here, just very busy and pulled in many other directions by life and special projects. We went on vacation, then I caught up from vacation, then some special projects come along, spring has sprung and drawn me outdoors away from my computer.... all good things :)

Crystal tagged me for a meme - my life in six words(!) How can that be? My life in six words.... well, here's what I came up with:

Unexpected changes drove challenging, fruitful growth

That's the story of my life - I've had some really unexpected things happen in my life over the years, and they drove me to change; and that change has been both challenging and fruitful/rewarding. Oh, and a picture to go with the six words - I'll have to look for a suitable one; but gotta run now :)

Well how about that?!

Someone(s) nominated my blog for a Catholic Blog Award! I'm flattered - whoever did that, thanks! It's in the category of 'Most Spiritual' - which is even more flattering. Thanks to Susan for pointing this out - I would have never known. Her blog was also nominated in the 'Best Blog by Clergy/Religious/Seminarian' and 'Best Individual Blog' categories.

So if you want to go vote - register and do so at www.catholicblogawards.com. It's a simple process, and a good way to find some new blogs!

Now I have to get back to actually writing here... have had many other things pulling on my time; and I miss it here.

Happy New Year

Just a quick post to wish everyone a happy new year 2008!

Every new year's day I look back on the previous year and think 'wow, what a year!'. And then I wonder, what will this next one bring me? Surely, amid the predictable it will bring things I don't expect.

Catching Up

The past month as been quite a busy one in the Bogner household, and my lack of posting here is a reflection of that. There was the startup of school, out-of-town guests who visited for a while, and the start of soccer season (one boy plays, both are referees). Then my consulting workload increased - which is a good thing but it does cause some rebalancing in other areas of my life.

And maybe one of the biggest things is that my wonderful wife is now an actress in a local production of The Diary of Anne Frank. Rehearsals, and now performances, have taken a lot of time - but it is time well worth it to tell this story. There's nothing like live theater.

A quick update

I haven't posted much lately, and that is starting to bug me. But, life has just been very busy, and good! I have something of a post brewing right now, and maybe it will get posted before I leave Sunday for a week-long mission trip.

On Sunday I'm going with 20-some other adults and teens to Harlan county, Kentucky. We're participating in the COAP program - Christian Outreach with Appalachian People. We'll go down there for a week and fix-up peoples' houses. This is my first time doing this, and my older son Nicholas is going with us too. I'm looking forward to it! I've setup a blog for the trip - though I got it started, through the week I plan to get the kids writing about their experiences. So, feel free to check-in on us if you have the time or interest: Bellarmine Youth Group COAP Trip.

Misc Stuff

Wow, it's been crazy-busy lately. And the weather has been crazy too - we mowed the lawn last weekend and now it's snowing! Spring break is next week for the kids, and we're getting ready for a family vacation, and that always takes a lot of time to prepare for (who's going to take care of the pets? Let's stop the mail... Let's get everything we need and get it packed... and so on). My wife is in the middle of writing/editing and directing four plays at the boys' school. Nicholas (older son) has had almost-daily lacrosse practices & games. Matthew (younger son) is catching up on homework from being out with the flu/pneumonia for two weeks. And Holy Week/Easter is here...

But I wouldn't trade it for anything. Life is good, and any complaints simply pale against the goodness and grace that fill each day. Happy Easter and/or Happy Passover to all until I get back to having some time to get some intelligent thoughts posted here.

I didn't win...

... any of the categories in the Catholic Blog Awards. Maybe if I was campaigning for votes instead of enjoying a vacation with my wife *and no kids* for the past *five* days then I would have ranked higher in the voting. Oh well.... maybe next year.

Catholic Weblog Awards

Nominations for the 2007 Catholic Weblog Awards are open this week - I believe it ends Friday. Just go to www.catholicblogawards.com/2007, register as a user (it's not tedious and I haven't received junk email from it!), and make your nominations. You can nominate one blog per category.

I was nominated last year for the Most Devotional Catholic blog and came in third. It's a fun sort of thing they do with these awards, and a good way to find new blogs.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I'm terrible at sending out those nifty email greetings, so in honor of all my bloggie-friends and everyone who visits my blog, I've made a donation to Jesuit Refugee Services. Let's consider it our present to those who have a real, physical need for the joy, peace and comfort of Christ.

Halloween

This morning I was reading about the origins of Halloween. From what I gathered, it originated a long time ago in Ireland as a result of merging some Celtic and Christian practices – Samhain, a ‘day of the dead’ long practiced in Celtic tradition, and All Saints day, a Catholic feast day instituted by the pope in the seventh century. There are different variations on that, but that’s the high-level view of things. In our family, we carve pumpkins (below) and the boys dress-up and trick-or-treat on Halloween night. And then the next day we celebrate All Saints day at Mass and in school.

As I was reading various things about Halloween posted on the web, I came across some negative opinions on the holiday. Jews and Muslims don’t like the holiday, and it appears that a growing number of evangelical Christians don’t either. That’s fine, to each his own, it’s a free/pluralistic society, and etc. Halloween definitely has been hijacked by consumerism – as has Easter and Christmas. And, Halloween has strayed quite a bit from its original association with All Saints Day, just as Christmas and Easter have strayed from their core meaning.

But, I still like getting together with the other dads and following our pack of boys through the neighborhood as they race from house to house collecting candy. When we finish, they all dump their candy out on the floor and start making trades – I’ll give you my snickers for your licorice – while the adults talk over coffee. It’s not evil, it’s just fun. The most threatening thing of the evening is the cavities that may develop from all that candy.