Unbelievable. My daughter, who recently came home from 2nd grade with a failing grade in math, has now done FOUR pages of math out of a workbook I got at - get this - the dollar store! And my younger son, age 5, insisted on being given a page from her workbook and had not done too badly.
In other news, today was Election day. Did you vote? Did you vote pro-life?
Some of you may have read about the 'horizontal' worship of the Latin Rite Catholic church as opposed to the 'vertical' worship of the Eastern Rite churches. This was confusing to me until I actually began attending a Byzantine parish (of which I am now a member).
In the Latin Rite (from now on abbreviated as LR) most newer churches are constructed so that the pews, seats, benches, whatever are arranged in a semicircle (or sometimes completely circular) around the altar. This, of course, results in some worshippers facing, not the altar, but EACH OTHER. The priest, also, faces THE PEOPLE from behind the altar. So the atmosphere of the Mass is that of a community gathering, a fellowship, a happy get-together....
In the ER (which in itself is amusing as an abbreviation, since I ran as fast as I could go to the Eastern parish having become spiritually starved in the LR) the pews ALL face forward (and I understand that in some ER churches there aren't many pews, if any). And the priest leads the worshippers with his back to them, but facing the altar - so it is IMMEDIATELY very obvious that when he prays, he ain't talking to you, dear, he's talking to THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.