Blanket process, EWTN, and Saints Alive!

It's Wednesday, and of course that means dragging myself out of bed to go to morning mass. I've considered going more frequently, but gas prices always make me nauseous. I didn't really feel like getting up and going this morning, but when I commit something to my routine I like keep it, and mass always makes me feel better anyway.

Is it mass, or Mass? Help a clueless convert out, please.

Anyway, I was incredibly tired and cold! Autumn is fast approaching, as evidenced by the fact that I'm waking up cold even if it isn't all that cold when I leave the house to go to mass. This is why, though I love Autumn and love the appearance  of winter, I'm not overly fond of these season. Drives me nuts.

I'm investing in leggings and petticoats!

I wonder if women realize just how brilliant petticoats can be! They add two-to-three layers (tulle or cotton, but none-the-less) of material! You can't do that nearly as well with pants! Broomstick skirts, petticoats, and leggings! Layers make cold weather, not only tolerable, but even enjoyable!

I actually have a few things in mind that will look really lovely and keep me nice and warm at the same time, especially if I get the chance to visit my dad, which I'd like to do if the opportunity arises.

Anyway! The baby blanket. I've got the first seven blocks stitched together and have started on the eighth block. I'm both confident that I can finish in time and also terrified that I won't be able to because I'm estimating that I only need eight more blocks, but each block gets progressively larger as I go, and it doesn't include the lacy edge I'd like to add to the edge. I have three days left. Well, four if we count the main portion of Saturday because the baby shower isn't until that evening, but still! That means I have to crank out three block a day!

So I'm a little panicked, especially since I need to get this off the needles and get my other projects on the needles.

I'm thinking about putting the blanket aside and making the pumpkin hat, and then finishing the blanket over the next week. We'll see were I am tomorrow evening.

In other news, I've been enjoying EWTN a lot lately. Well, certain programs of EWTN, that is. I love Mother Angelica, and I found a new program that I really love called Saints Alive! tonight. I love programs like this! I was a history nerd in school.

Which is why history classes suck, because you grow up and realize that they lied to you! They ignored an entire side of the argument, forgot (how convenient *rolls eyes*) important events, and minimized (those bastards!) the contributions of people to suit their own view and it's so irritating!

*sighs* It's enough to make a body spit nails!

Anyway, back to knitting with me. Night all!

Yours always,
Tara

Saturdays with the Saints: St. John of God

Today's randomly generated saint is St. John of God. He's the patron of alcoholics, booksellers, the dying, firefighters, heart patients, hospitals, nurses, publishers, printers and the sick.

So wow, this guy has a crazy story. Apparently St. John was an incredibly impulsive person who threw himself head long into everything he did, hence the long list of patronages. At the age of 8 he left home to follow a priest who he travel with for several years before becoming ill. He was taken in by a man who managed a large estate and nursed back to health and basically adopted by the man. He stayed there for many years taking care of the sheep before running off to war to escape the pressures to marry the man's daughter, who he thought of like a sister. As a soldier he was hardly a model of holiness and was well known for drinking, fighting, and gambling. After being thrown off a stolen horse in enemy territory, he made a promise to clean up his act, and upon returning to his camp, he did. He made every one there angry by pushing them to give up their carousing as well, and narrowly escaped being hanged. He then returned to the estate and worked for many years until the next war. After that war, he decided to try to find his birth parents and was heartbroken to learn that they had died in his absence. 

He then decided to go to Africa to free captive Christians, only on the way there he met a noble family who were being exiled and  pledged to be their servant. The family fell sick after they arrived, and he nursed them back to health while working to build fortifications. The experience shook his faith, due to the cruel treatment he received from people who called themselves Catholics, and after the family was well and pardoned, he went to Spain to study.

He found so much joy in reading that he decided to sell books, first becoming a peddler, and then opening a store in Grananda. After hearing a sermon from John of Avila  he was over come with grief at his own sins that he destroyed all the secular books he had in his store, gave away the Christian books and all of his money. Because of his apparent madness, he was taken to the Royal Hospital and interred as a lunatic. He was there for 40 days before John of Avila came to visit him, and had him moved to a better part of the hospital. 

Now able to move around, he worked as an unpaid nurse in the hospital before leaving to start his own. He had no money, and so he sold wood in the square to take care of people right out on the streets. After a while he found a building that he rented, before begging for anything that people would be willing to give to furnish it. The he carried his patients there himself. Eventually he was able to move his hospital into an old Carmelite monastery. When Royal Hospital caught on fire, he rushed to the rescue, carrying the patients out before running back in to remove valuable bedding and mattress, before cutting the burning portion of the building away with an ax. He fell through the roof but emerged unharmed.

When he heard that flooding was bringing valuable driftwood towards them, he went out, with no regards to his poor health, to collect it. One of his companions fell into the river and St. John attempted to save him, but was unable to. He caught pneumonia and died on March 8th, his 55th birthday.

Basically this guy was crazy! I mean, seriously, you can't make a story like this up. He just threw himself head first into everything he did and then he managed to survive to 55? Wow. 

Until later, dear readers, I remain,

Yours always,

Tara

Saturdays with the Saints: St. Aloysius Gonzaga

Today's randomly generated saint is St. Aloysius Gonzaga, patron saint of teenagers, plague victims, AIDS patients and their caregivers. His feast day is June 21.

He was born March 9, 1568, and was the oldest of seven children to be born to Ferrante Gonzaga, Marquis of Castiglione, and Marta Tana di Santena, the daughter of a baron. 

As the oldest son, he was expected to inherit his father's title and so received vigorous military training from a young age. Growing up in a violent Renaissance Italy, he witnessed the murders of two of his brothers. At 8, he was sent to Florence for further education and there fell ill with kidney problems that plagued him his whole life. While ill, he devoted much of his time to learning about the saints and praying, and is said to have taken a private vow of chastity at the age of 9.

After returning to Castiglione, he met Cardinal Charles Borromeo and received his First Communion from him on July 22, 1580. He felt strongly called to be a missionary, and practiced teaching catechism classes to young boys in Castiglione. 

His family moved to Spain in 1581 to assist the Holy Roman Empress Marie of Austria. It was here that Aloysius decided to join the Jesuits, but was unable to due to his father.

The family returned to Italy in 1584, and many relatives attempted to convince Aloysius, if not to abandon his desire to be a priest, then instead to become a secular priest, and so maintain his inheritance to no avail. In November 1585, Aloysius gave up his inheritance and joined the Jesuits. 

He continued to have health problems, not only with his kidneys, but also with skin disease, chronic headaches, and insomnia.

In May 1590, he claimed that the Archangel Gabriel had appeared and told him that he would die within a year. In 1591, the plague broke out in Rome, and the Jesuits opened a hospital to care for them. Aloysius volunteered and was placed in a ward without plague victims because they did not want to lose him. None the less, one of the men in the ward had the plague, and within a short time Aloysius began to show signs of it himself. However, to everyones surprise, he recovered, though his health was worse than ever.

While he was ill, he spoke often with his confessor, the cardinal and later saint, Robert Bellarmine, and told him that he had received another vision, that said he would die on the Octave of the feast of Corpus Christi. On that day, he appeared to be quite well in the morning, but gradually got worse through out the day. Bellarmine gave him the last rites, and he recited the prayers for the dying. Aloysius died just before midnight.

He was beatified by Pope Paul V on October 19, 1605 and was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII on December 31, 1726. 

Enjoy the silence

This, I will admit without guilt, is one of the best times of my day.

Almost everybody has left and the building is quiet. The only sounds are my keyboard, the music on low in the background (today's pick, a collection of Gregorian chants), and the occasional squeak of the wheels on the Ms. L's cart. (Ms. L cleans the building that I work at.) Here in a few minutes, I'll trade the chants for EWTN to listen to Catholic Answers Live. I'll listen, and knit, and maybe I'll finish this sock tonight, though I won't hold my breath.

After these socks, I have to get back to baby knitting for a while, at least until I finish the stuff for Shawna. I've already accepted that I won't have Little Bird's blanket done before she arrives, even if it was the only thing I was working on, so I'm shooting to have it finished by her first birthday.

I'd shoot for Easter, but with the dresses I want to make her for Christmas and Easter, plus the rest of my Christmas knitting, I figure it's best if I shoot for her birthday. Especially since I also have plans for a Barbar the Elephant King plush toy on my list of knits. Sara Elizabeth Kellner over on Ravelry has a number of gorgeous patterns, including the afore mentioned Elephant King. It even comes with instructions for his suit, bowler hat, royal cape, and crown! How cool is that?

I was thinking about adding a little fun to my Saturdays, boring as they are, by doing a little research into a random saint each Saturday. I have a site that will randomly generate a saint, and if you click the link it tells you more about them. I've always loved the saints stories, even before I considered the Catholic church, so it should be fun.

I also have an enormous knitting list, and a few things on my crochet list. I'm not as fond of crochet, mainly because I'm not as comfortable with it. Probably because I struggle not to crochet too tightly.

It's also a little intimidating because I'm not as familiar with it as I am with knitting. I get so confused with crochet. Especially the really delicate stuff, like fine lace. Knitted lace I can do. Crochet is a different story.

For all that I love my job, there are a number of things about it that drive me nuts! It's like these people have no idea exactly what information is actually needed for me to do my job! I'm not asking for much, but it'd be nice to know what's going on at any given time! And none of what I'd like to make my job easier is hard! Most of it is common sense!

Which makes it all the more obvious why I love the quiet time of day. None of my usual worries, just how best to kill time until I can go home.

Let me know what you think about my idea for Saturdays.

Yours always,
Tara