Well this is my last post on this blog – to be replaced by another exciting blogger next week I’m told! I have been writing on this blog for over three years now. Funny how time flies when you’re having fun. I am told by our tech people that the majority of people who read this don’t comment so it’s hard to know exactly who you are! But I hope that I have in some way aided your thinking about life and all its issues.

I have changed a fair bit over the last three years. To be very honest with you, I started off being more than a little sceptical about the Catholic Church. I had a staunchly Protestant boyfriend when I started writing on this blog and dating him was the first time in my life that I was really forced to think about what being Catholic means or for that matter why I even believe in God at all. Breaking up with him catapoulted me into a state where I wanted to know exactly what I believed before I went out with anyone else. So I investigated the Catholic Church a lot and have since learned a lot! However, finally being sure was more through God leading me (in ways that are a bit hard to explain here) than all the reasoning in the world that I could ever have done on my own – although believe me I tried!

To be very very honest (and risk ridicule!), I had this funny idea at the time that deciding to be Catholic meant that I might never be able to get married because it would be too hard to meet a Catholic boy that I liked. So in a way that was part of the hardness of deciding to be Catholic, rather than just Christian (call me shallow or short sighted but it seemed very concerning at the time!). The Catholic Church also seemed a lot less ‘fun’ to me as many of my friends were Protestant and I could go to Church with them but I had no-one to go to a Catholic Church with; something which also seemed hard at that time. As it turned out, I couldn’t run away from what I found to be truth. But it seems from my experience that once you decide to do something for God He will do so much more for you. My boyfriend now converted to being Catholic (but for his genuine belief in the Church, not me – and he obviously talked and learnt from people much more knowledgable than me before deciding!). So, in my humble opinion, that shows what God can do. Our minds are so limited and His possibilities are so endless because He knows us much better than we know ourselves.

Anyway, I’m sure life has also tested your faith in different ways too and will continue to do so. Hopefully the weekend’s sport isn’t one of them if you happen to be German or Welsh or Italian by birth or fan club… I wish you all the very best.

There was an interesting spread on Catholic education in this month’s New Zealand Catholic. I think Br Anthony Walker got it right with his quote “If you have taught them to pray you have taught them everything, if you have not you have taught them nothing”. He believes development of a child’s faith is at the heart of what a Catholic school exists for.

From what I hear, Catholic schools are getting better at having a strong Catholic and religious education focus with good teachers. I don’t know about other schools, but there was sort of a Catholic feeling when I was at school but no real solid teaching or anything I could grasp onto. In any case I don’t remember anything at school ever leading me closer to God and I can’t say my faith was very strong at that time. I guess it is always hard to teach teenagers because no other group is so affected by peer pressure! Perhaps all you can do is plant seeds for the future with some kids and have faith that the Holy Spirit will work with those.

We are lucky it is so easy for us to have Catholics schools which are supported by the government and to teach faith. It is awesome to hear that a new Catholic school is being built in Iraq, amid all the persecution there. As I think I have mentioned before, I know a lot of Iraqi Catholics in New Zealand and they definitely have more of a sense that to practice your faith isn’t something you can take for granted. The Archbishop plans to offer education to people of all faiths and remain Catholic in its identity. He said “Education has been a charism of our Church since its founding… In 350 AD in the city is Nisibis, our direct ancestors founded the worlds first university“.

It is interesting then that De La Salle has just appointed a Muslim head boy. He sounds like a lovely boy and a truly exemplary student, but can you be a Catholic student leader if you are not Catholic if that truly is the whole reason for the existence of the school? I remember thinking that when I was at school it was unusual that it was not part of the criteria to be a head girl that you live the Catholic faith because the headboy or headgirl are such an example to the younger students, and should also be in faith. I don’t know that school’s situation, but having strong spiritual leaders perhaps should be something schools also think about.

I have been on a retreat this weekend so I’m sorry this post is late. I always get so much from retreats – it’s so easy to feel close to God as opposed to in my ordinary daily life. Yet, the struggle is to feel close to God always and every minute of the day – Rome wasn’t built in a day and that requires perserverance I think!

Something I thought about this weekend is that I think I am starting to understand sin a little more and the weakness of human beings through realising it more in myself. It is funny how something I have heard about for years – like sin – can suddenly be seen in greater clarity as you start to realise more what human nature is. I can be so inclined to my own comfort and so weak even in things I have resolved against. And sometimes that makes me upset and frustrated. Yet (as I can mimic from the priest who told me!) the most important thing is just to grow more in love for God and always get back on the horse when you fall, as you inevitably will (and try to train yourself to be stronger through little sacrifices for your friends or through doing things that going against your want to do whatever you like). I think this is possibly standard advice, but as with all things, it takes on new meaning when you start to learn from your own mistakes, see it in your own life and put it into practice… Luckily, as we remember on this day, God gave us the Holy Spirit to help us!

Which is why, I think, we don’t have to be disheartened when we see that other people in the Church sin – that was the whole point of the cross was it not? That yes, indeed, no revelation, human beings sin – and so do you and I, and even priests and bishops, who are also human. I was listening to something by Scott Hahn and he was talking about how Judas was chosen by Jesus as a ‘first priest’ and he wasn’t that great a leader in the end – I had never thought about that before. It must mean the Church leaders were not even perfect then? Yet the Church has survived a long time since then with many many many good, strong and self sacrificial people guiding it…

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers! The closer I am to the age where it is conceivable that my friends or I would have babies, the more I realise what a life changing experience it must be to suddenly have little souls so dependent on you for everything every minute of the day.

I read an interesting article in Viva this week (I confess that yes this is what I reach for first out of the paper on Wednesdays!) which talked about a ‘back lash’ against the feminism of previous generations that said women want to work and have children and have it all really. Do we really want that?

…there have been studies like the one undertaken by Jacqueline Scott, a professor of empirical sociology at Cambridge University in Britain. In analysing data from international social surveys and public opinion polls in Britain, the US and Germany from the 1980′s, 1990′s and early 2000s, she found that the attitudes towards the idea of women being able to “have it all” were changing. “Opinions are shifting as the shine of the ‘super mum’ syndrome wears off” Scott said when the study was released. “And the idea of women juggling high powered careers while also baking cookies and reading bedtime stories is increasingly seen to be unrealisable by ordinary mortals”.
…
New Zealand author Jodie Hedley-Ward agrees that “In general there appears to be far too many women making choices based on what they think society ‘expects’ of them”

I think all women are happy for the choice to be able to have a career; and not just that of a teacher or nurse. I also think that women often squeeze themselves into what really is a masculine world in big corporations. Sure, it doesn’t have to be a masculine world but the reality is a lot of the time it is. I’m sure that women are naturally more emotional, caring and nurturing than they feel they can be if they are to be on equal terms with men in the office. Or perhaps I see and hear of a more extreme side of this than normal being a lawyer. I certainly see a lot of women either not having kids or rushing around juggling work with them – while admirable, it really does sound exhausting and I’m not sure I want to do it if I don’t have too! I think its sad that more people seem to contemplate child-less marriages than they have in the past also. I know a guy who is currently considering divorce because his wife so enjoys her career and spends such a lot of time travelling for work and working that she doesn’t want to give it up to have children, yet he really wants them. I think that’s really sad for him and not the true meaning of family and marriage.

On the other hand, more and more jobs are child friendly and allow people to work flexible hours or part-time. And some jobs are probably more suited to women – normally those that involve caring for people or empathy I think – like physio or nutrition or counselling or family law or being Martha Stewart and hundreds of other examples I’m sure! As a bit of stimulation would be good I think I would like a mix of work still if I had kids – maybe two days a week (once my children were over two perhaps). Of course all these opinions may change when I find out what is actually like to have kids both time wise and financially!

I guess as Catholics, whatever we are doing we are trying to do it well, dedicate it to God, use our unique gifts as women and have a sense of professionalism about everything – including being a mother and homemaker. It is fitting that Mother’s Day falls within May, the month of Mary. This month we have a special devotion to her – a role model for all women and mothers.