Reading Week 1

Monday: 20 minutes Catholic Q&A

Tuesday: 10 minutes Catholic Q&A

Wednesday : 15 minutes Anne of the Island

Thursday: 10 minutes Blog

Friday : 10 minutes blog

Saturday: 10 minutes news

Sunday: none

One of the books that I have been working on in the last few weeks is a book called Catholic Q&A.  About a year and a half ago I met the man who will ultimately be my husband.  Soon after we met we began dating.  At this point in time I soon learned that he was catholic.  I was raised protestant Baptist and came from a very conservative family.  It stands to reason that the news of my dating a catholic boy would not thrill my family, or my protestant friends.  Throughout the process of our dating I soon learned that I had a lot of misconceptions about the Catholic Church and faith as I had listened to a lot of what my parents had told me.  My fiancé and I had several conversations about our beliefs and what we were taught and what we ultimately believed and soon came to find out that though we were raised with two different religions, our beliefs were very very similar.  He proposed in July and I of course said yes.  We both knew that we wanted to be married in the Catholic Church together and be able to take communion together so we signed up to take RCIA classes.  As a sort of supplement I decided to begin reading the Catholic Q&A book and it has thus far been very informative.  I read maybe the first twenty pages or so, it can be pretty heavy reading.  The first chapter in the book seems to be about the Bible and why the Bible is what it is today, and why the Catholic Bible differs from the protestant Bible.  This was a very good place to start for me as I was a protestant for most of my life and had almost always heard, and been told that  Catholic’s take away and add to the Bible as they please.  This however, as I am learning through my readings and through my classes is not the truth.  It has been very eye opening meaningful to help back up and expound upon what I have been learning in class.

One of my most favorite series of books in the whole wide world is the Anne of Green Gables books by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  I have read, re-read, and read again, and again each one of the books in that series, as well as several other books of hers.  They are hands down my favorite book series even above Nancy Drew!  I am currently leisurely reading through Anne of the Island.  This book finds Anne at the University in Prince Edward Island called Redmond.  She along with some of her friends are going for their bachelor’s degrees.  In my readings this week Anne and one of her Island friends get acquainted with another Freshet named Philippa Gordon, a fun, popular girl who never can seem to make up her mind.  Anne is also able to get over some of her homesickness. 

One of the blogs that I almost always read on a daily basis is called “Today’s Letter’s.”  The couple that writes the blog live in Dallas Texas and have such a refreshing view on life and love.  Every time they write an entry (almost) they always write letters to each other, just a little sentence or two telling each other how much they love each other and why, or expressing gratitude for something that the other did for them.  It is always an encouraging part of my day to see a good Christian example form a married couple who, after seven years, are still pursuing each other, and still just as much in love if not all the more so!  It really helps put the important things in perspective for me and reminds me that we can find happiness anywhere we look, especially in the little things in life.