Sunday Sweet Pics

Happily Sucking His Fingers-Against Mommy's Wishes!

A New Baby Toy Always Gets Everyone Excited

What Does My Deacon Do?

  A few weeks ago I read a great post at Catholic Mothers Online entitled, "What does a Deacon Do Anyway".  I felt it was right on the money with many Catholics.  Before my dad became a deacon a few years ago, I had no idea what deacons did either.  I would see them at Mass, and hear them preach the Gospel and even sometimes do the sermon, but I didn't understand why they were doing these things and not the priest since he was perfectly capable and sitting right there!  I think this is probably the view of most uninformed Catholics, and maybe they even take it to another level where they may think the deacon is taking over the role of the priest.   My dad was victim this kind of ignorance in the parish where they were parishioners for 30 years.  Thankfully, they found another parish that welcomed my father as Deacon and have been very grateful for all the wonderful talents and gifts my dad (and mom) have brought to the parish.

One thing I learned from my dad was why a deacon proclaims the Gospel and not the priest at Mass.  He said one of the main functions of a deacon is to preach the Gospel -both literally and figuratively.  I never was so proud of my dad as I was when I saw him proclaim the Word of God for the first time the day after he was ordained.  What an honor to be called by God to proclaim the living Word of God!

Here are some more things about deacons that you may not know:

*Guest Post by my Dad*
What can you do as a Catholic deacon?  Well, the short answer is that the deacon assists at Mass as “the deacon of the Mass”, administers baptism, officiates at marriages, wake services, funerals, benediction, and prayer services. That is some of his functions but perhaps a more accurate description can be found not in his function but in his being.  Thus a better question  might be; what is a deacon? 

            A deacon is not a “mini priest” nor a glorified alter server, but has a separate and distinct ministry. Just as a mother is not defined by her functions, what she does, but a mother is described best by who she is. So it is also with the Catholic Permanent Deacon.

Permanent Catholic deacons (vastly different from protestant deacons) are ordained men. That makes them part of the church hierarchy subject to obedience to the local bishop. With that said, the deacon is not a man elevated to the ranks of the clergy to be served. Instead he is ordained to serve others in the church and his environment.

            Most permanent deacons have secular jobs; many are married with families. The uniqueness is that they are very ordinary common men, ordained to serve the church in a special way as a deacon, a cleric living as a secular. I think of it as the world of the hierarchy streaming into the secular world. Personally I feel like I have one foot in the clerical world and the other in secular one.

            As a married permanent Catholic deacon I have two vocations. My first and foremost is marriage and family. When I was ordained in 2008, my bishop reminded me that my first vocation is to be a good husband and father.  My second vocation is clerical ministry serving the church as a deacon. Bishop Kinney told me that I cannot be a good deacon unless I place my first vocation (marriage) first in my life.

 Every deacon has different circumstances in their life and it is not always easy to maintain a proper balance. Many times the family life suffers when the clerical life takes over. The result can be a meltdown of both vocations. I firmly believe that prayer and good relationships is the key to proper balance in life. That is why my wife Bonnie and I pray together every night. We need prayer, to keep us grounded in our relationship with each other as well as our relationship with God and others.

In ending, I recall the words of Bishop   John Kinney “it’s not about the deacon, the priest, or the bishop.  It’s all about Jesus Christ and how we bring that presence into this world”.

Deacon Jim Schulzetenberg

New Adventures in Sleep City

It's the first night my 3 month old is sleeping in his own room and the third night my 2 year old daughter is sleeping on the bottom of a bunk bed she is sharing with her four year old brother.  Some days it feels like I'm conducting an orchestra, timing each instrument to come in the song at just the right time to make a beautiful melody.  But most days it feels like I'm the ring leader of three ring circus and the animals have not been tamed! 

Have a three bedroom house has definitely been tricky on the sleeping situations.  It's every parent's dream to get their kids to bed with the least amount of tears as possible.  So far, the baby swing has been my solution to that for every nap by baby takes.  Jude's room was the hallway during the day and my bedroom at night.  He's never slept in a crib or bassinet, so this crib thing had me worried.  So far, it's been almost an hour, and he's still asleep.  I'm very grateful!

Tonight, I am the ring leader with Analee and Liam.  Putting them in the same room at night went really well for the first two nights, but tonight they are all wound up.  Last night, Liam fell asleep right away.  Analee snuck up to his bed and lied down next to him.  I thought it was really cute, but at 1:30am, when Liam discovered his sister was in his bed, he was not too thrilled. 

It's quiet now and I'm wondering if my two year old will pop out of the bedroom again (for the 11th time in 20 minutes) with a big grin on her face like this is a really fun game.  This ring leader is ready for some sleep too.

And here she comes...it's going to be a long night!

Taking Comfort in Jesus

I found another very moving vision of St. Bridget's to share.  This is the second time in the past several months that I was uplifted by a vision of St. Bridget of Sweden (the first was the Nativity Vision that I shared at Christmas time), so I decided to go ahead and buy a small book of her visions today from Amazon. Here's the link to the book ($4.95):  Revelations of St. Bridget on the Life and Passion of Our Lord and the Life of His Blessed Mother 

Today's meditation of the day from Magnificat:

I am the Queen of heaven, and my Son loves you with all his heart.  So I advise you to love nothing except him.  For he is so desirable that if you have him, you will not be able to desire anything else.  He  is so beautiful that the beauty of the elements of this world, or the beauty of light, is like a shadow in comparison to him. 

Whence when I was nursing my Son, he was endowed with such great beauty that whoever looked upon him was consoled and relieved of any sorrow he may have had in his heart.  And so, even many Jews said to one another, "Let us go to see Mary's Song, that we may be consoled."  And even though they did not know that he was the Son of God, nevertheless, they received great consolation upon seeing him."

                                                                            --Our Lady to St. Bridge of Sweden


The very sight of the Baby Jesus gave comfort to those around him.  Even though I cannot see the face of Jesus, I too, take comfort when saying his name, thinking about him and talking to him.  It is my delight to share this knowledge with my children- that there is nothing else in the world worth desiring than Jesus.

Our Lady, Clubber of Demons

Here's where the painting is today

Have you seen this picture of Our Lady? A friend sent me an email with this picture in it. It is the funniest pictures of Mary I have ever seen. I looked it up and found this website: LOL Saints. I've seen some of the pictures before, but had forgotten how funny some of them are. They have a good explanation of the picture at the LOL Saints site. (BTW: she is clubs the demon, not the child, but I'm sure you knew that!)

Plan B- Caramel Sauce

For Christmas gifts this year, I made caramels, which I thought were a pretty modest gift.  They went over so well that I thought I'd make them again for St. Valentine's Day.  I used this recipe. It was so easy and quick. So much easier and quicker than making sugar cookies and decorating them, that I wonder why more people don't make caramels.  The thing that took the most time was wrapping them all. That was pretty much a pain in the butt, but it was worth it in the end.

Back to my Valentine's Caramel's.  I was planning on sending them to family and friends, but here's what happened. I put all the ingredients into the pot, boiled it for about 30 minutes until it reached 250 degrees- all the while doing a million other mommy things. I take the pot off the stove, then look over to see the cans above not empty.  I completely forgot to put in the evaporated milk!  In my haste, I opened the cans and emptied both of them in. Then I realized I was supposed to put in 2 CUPS of evaporated milk, not two cans (I doubled the recipe).  Whoops. On to plan B. This stuff was never going to harden, so I decided to make a caramel sauce.  This nice arrangement of nuts below were going to be some amazing caramel turtles and caramel cashews. oh well...

Instead it made some decent caramel ice cream topping. YUM!

A Day For Lovers (yes, that means you)

Written for you from your lover, God himself.


1“How beautiful you are, my darling,
         How beautiful you are!
         Your eyes are like doves behind your veil;
         Your hair is like a flock of goats
         That have descended from Mount Gilead.  Song of Solomon Ch.4

9“You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride;
         You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes,
         With a single strand of your necklace.
10“How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
         How much better is your love than wine,
         And the fragrance of your oils
         Than all kinds of spices! Song ch. 4


6“How beautiful and how delightful you are,
         My love, with all your charms! Song of Solomon ch.7


10“I am my beloved’s,
         And his desire is for me. Song of Solomon ch.7