Saint Gianna Beretta Molla

Today's feast day is the feast of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla. St. Gianna has great meaning to me, because she is my Conformation Saint.
                                 
Saint Gianna's story is not a great adventure of being a missionary, or fighting a heresy. Saint Gianna's story is a simple and loving story. She came from a big family of 13, but only 9 survived infancy. She became a doctor in 1949, and she specialized in pediatrics.  She wanted to be a missionary with her brother, but had bad health and could not leave Italy. Her husband worked as an engineer at her office, and in 1955 they were married. they had five children, 3 surviving infancy. In 1961 Gianna became pregnant again, and a problem arouse as she had cancer. The doctors told her that an abortion could be done and she would live, or she could try and remove the cancer and the baby would die, or she could have the baby and then start treatment, but it would put her own life at risk. Saint Gianna refused to kill her child, and stated that she would have the baby, and then proceed with treatment. Saint Gianna had the baby, Gianna Emanuela, and passed away 7 days later.
Saint Gianna is an inspiration to me because of how she fought for life, even if it cost her own. When I first full read her story, I was in chapel, and I knew that this is who I wanted for my Confirmation saint, and role model. I look at Saint Gianna's life, and she was just like any other mother.
                           
She would do anything to save her children's lives. If God calls me to be a wife and mother, the mothers I most desire to be like, are The Blessed Mother, Saint Gianna, my mother, and my grandmother.

Whistle while you work,
                              Emma
                                       

Salvation Sunday: What is love?

Today we are going to ask the question, what is love? For most people, love looks like this,
                              
A bride and groom happily in love right? Well, yes that is a great example of love. But there is more than just romantic love, so let's explore the types of love.

1) Eros, romantic love. Eros is the love between a man and woman. Eros calls a husband to sacrifice all for his wife, and a wife to sacrifice all for her husband.
                            
                       ( Eros is a love that  will grow strong through time and troubles) 
2) The next love is Phileo, the love of friends. Friends can tell each other everything, and are complete weirdos with each other, friends aren't afraid tell you the truth, because they love you.
                            
                     ( Friends know how crazy we are, but still choose to be seen with us in public!)
3) Storge, the love of family. Family are the friends that we have for life, the worst of enemies, but the best of friends. Fights with families should never last to long.
                           
        ( I remember when I was little, and I would fight with my sis, and say " I am never going to talk to you again!" You want to know how long that would last? Like 5 seconds!) 

4) Agape love, the strongest and most important of loves. Agape calls one to lay down his life for his friend, it is unconditional love that never fails to give. Agape is not only loving your friends and family, but loving your enemies. Agape is the love that Jesus died for us on the Cross.
                                    
                                      ( Agape is the perfect love we should all strive for)
Love comes in many different forms, but no matter how you love, love strong and love long.

Whistle while you work,
                                  Emma

Saturday night musings

So, I am sitting here munching away at some nachos and watching a movie on Clearplay! Which is when I thought " Hey, I will tell you all about Clearplay!"
                             
Clearplay is a dvd player that filters out bad content, with a filter stick, that looks like this.....
                                   
Which is great, because I get to watch a bunch of movies and tv shows that I would never normally watch because of inappropriate scenes, or bad language. Some of the movies/tv shows I get to watch are........

                            
                                    ( I love me some Downton abbey!)
Also........
                                 
                              ( Any Marvel movie, any one that you can think of!)
And.......
                                
                               ( Yeah..... Sherlock needs clearplay, like A LOT!) 
And pretty much about everything that you can think of. I love Clearplay because how often are movies mad with a good story line and just a little junk?
(Or a lot of junk!)  Movies like that are made all the time! So I can enjoy good movies, without trash in them!( BTW this post and blog is NOT sponsored by Clearplay!) If you have a problem with bad movies, I suggest that you take a look at buying a Clearplay player here,
                           https://www.clearplay.com/default.aspx
Clearplay is fun, but so are nachos, so eat those too,
                               
                                           ( Mmmmmmm.... nachos!) 
Whistle while you work,
                               Emma

Salvation Sunday: Catholic girl problems

Soooooo, I sat for a while and thought about what I should write for this Salvation Sunday, and I decided on a funny little topic, Catholic girl problems.


1) Having to sneeze or cough during Mass or adoration.
                                          
                                   ( And we hold it in, trying not to be disruptive.) 
2) Getting super tired during early morning Mass
                                 
                            ( I'm not bored, I'm just really, really, ready to take a nap!) 
3) Biggest fear? Not observing the Eucharistic fast.
                               
                    ( I swear that I have had nightmares about not observing the fast!) 
4) Accidentally losing track of Hail Marys on the Rosary beads and trying to look at other's Rosaries to see what everybody else is on.
                               
                                                   ( Am I on 8 or 9? Or could it be 7?) 
5) Taking a small sibling to the bathroom during Mass, and coming back and hearing from another sibling, " I need to go to the bathroom!"
                               
                                  ( I was just there, I just sat down!) 
6) Hearing the tearing of a hymnal coming from your pew.
                               
                                  
                ( Put it back, fast, we can't let anyone see the horrible crime that we have committed!) 
7) Being asked to lead opening or closing prayer at youth group.
                                   
                              ( "Wait... me?" Scrambling to think of something fast.)
8) When you can't decide on what saint to choose for confirmation.
                                   
                                 ( There are too many good saints to use as role models) 
9) Reading a book or watching a movie, and then BOOM bad word, or inappropriate scene!
                                                 
     ( *throws book* Look what you've done! I have books that I've never finished because of this!)

10) Feeling awful in confession.
                                   
( Which believe it or not is a good thing, we should feel bad for our sins! But it doesn't make it any more pleasant!) 

So that was my 10 Catholic girl problems! I hope to do more someday!

Whistle while you work,
                               Emma
                             

The problem with cosplay.

As a nerd, I love dressing up as Jedi knights, Hobbits, and detectives. But what are my thoughts on cosplay? There is nothing wrong with dressing up and showing the world that you love a specific character or movie, but how the world views cosplay is really, really wrong. I would L-O-V-E  to go to a convention, but I have a   HUGE problem, the way that most women dress.

                         
                                                 ( Groan!) 
There are plenty of lovely cosplays out there like,
                      
                       ( Female Captain America,  a perfect example of modest cosplay.)
Or,
                       
                           ( A modest Little Mermaid.)
Also 
                       
                           ( Rosie Riverter is a great choice!)
And
                      
                         ( A cute couple costume!) 
Finally my favorite,
                   
                             
                                       ( A rain cloud!) 
So why does cosplay have to be centered around a woman's body? That's a good question with no answer, it shouldn't be! Ladies, you are worth so much. Don't dress like that to get a guy, because I can guarantee, it will be the wrong kind of guy. I hope that one day in the future, this will not be a problem and that we can cosplay freely. Maybe we should start a modest cosplay convention. That would be awesome! And if anyone wants to know, I would be going as a rain cloud! :)

Whistle while you work,
                               Emma

The Force Awakens

SPOILERS!!
                             
Yup, that's right. Spoilers to those who have not yet seen the new Star Wars, The Force Awakens. For those who have seen it, read on.

Let's meet the characters, we will start with Rey, the heroine of the movie. 

What do we know about her? Not much, she is an orphan. She lost her family, she still has hope that they are coming back.( Even though she knows deep down inside that they aren't.) There is a rumor that she is Luke Skywalkers daughter. Do we know for sure? No, come on Disney! Tell us! Any-who, next we meet Finn, a stormtrooper of the First Order turned good.
                                             
In the beginning we see Finn struggle as he watches innocent people get killed by the First Order. He knows that the killing is wrong, he wants to leave the First Order. But once you join the dark side, it's not so easy to leave. Which brings us to our next character
Poe Dameron
                                                 
Poe is the best pilot in the resistance, who is fighting against the dark side. Poe is only really in the beginning and the end. (which stinks because he is one of my favorite characters!) Poe is captured by the First Order and brought to Kylo-ren ( I'll talk about him later) Finn leaves the First Order and helps Poe escape. Now on to Kylo-ren
                                                
So as you can probably guess, he is the bad guy. But who is he? Where did this strange new Sith lord come from?  When we take off the mask, we get this.
                                                
I am going to come out and say I did want something a little more intimidating. ( So I was kind of  disappointed.) We later find out that Kylo-ren is none other than, Ben Solo, Han and Leia's wayward son. ( I just started singing, Carry on My Wayward Son by the band Kansas. One word can set me off singing.) To me Ben looks scared, like he doesn't really want to do all that he does, like *cough cough* Kill his father! So what do we do? We cry cry cry cry, because Han Solo just died died died died! I really liked Han in this movie though, he was awesome, as usual! ( A little grey, but not bad!)
                                   
I will still always love the old Han though! I was devastated that J.J. Abrams would kill him! He was my favorite character! ( A little embarrassing, but Han Solo was my first crush, when I was like 5, shortly followed by Qui-gon Jinn when I was like 8) 
                                                               
Back to the Force Awakens, there is a new droid in town! BB-8. 
                                                  
As my best friend, Catherine, called him, " The rolling meatball of sass."
But my favorite new character? General Hux! Why? Because, who doesn't like a crazy ginger General? ( Also he is like Kylo-rens babysitter, so I can sympathize, I've babysat some crazy kids! *cough, cough* My siblings!)
                                          
Okay actually I lied, I have 2 new favorite characters! The other one is Maz.
                                         
She's sassy, she's short, and she looks like a dried apple! What else could we need? This post is not long enough to go into all of the characters, but Chewie, Leia, Luke, C-3P0, R2-D2, are still there! I liked it, but the first three movies are the still the best!

Whistle while you work, and may the force be with you,
                               Emma 

Salvation Sunday: Why we go to confession.

Salvation Sunday

For each Sunday, I am going to try and write a post about a Catholic Church teaching.  So this weeks is confession!

Why do Catholics go to confession? 



Our Protestant brothers don't have confession, and a question that is often asked is, " Why can't Catholics just tell Jesus their sins? Why tell a priest?" The first thing is, the priest sits in the place of Jesus, we are telling Jesus our sins through the priest. Another reason is that we as human beings must hear the words, " I absolve you in the Name of The Father, in the Name of The Son, and in the Name of The Holy Spirit." We as humans must know that we are really and fully forgiven for our sins. We also have penance which lets make amends for our sins. Even though we see this when we go to confession
           
It really is this


A question asked by Catholics about confession is " How often should I go?"
The Catholic Church requires that you go once a year, but it is a good practice to go once a month. You never know when Jesus will call you home, so you should always be ready. Remember, the priest will never tell your sins to anyone. He is under a great promise. Confession humbles us, it shows us that God is greater, we were wrong, we messed up. But God is standing in the confessional with his arms open wide, and He wants us to run to Him. He wants us to ask for His forgiveness. He wants to love us, He wants to give us all He has. I suggest that if you haven't been for a while, go as soon as you can. And as Pope Francis says


Whistle while you work,
                                Emma

Once upon a time.....

Once upon a time........

Hello to all of the readers of this new blog, The Whistling Potato.  I am a 15 year old Roman Catholic girl. I am homeschooled and come from a family of 8 kids. I am number 4. Lucky me! :)

  

                                   

                                  Just kidding! I love being a middle child! ( Most of the time!)

As you may have guessed from the SHERLOCK gif, I am a HUGE nerd! I love SHERLOCK, Lord of the Rings, anything Jane Austin, Marvel, Starwars, Disney, Phantom of the opera, The Hunger games, Narnia, and The Princess Bride! ( Pretty much everything!)  I think that I can attribute most of this Nerdyness to my older sister Mady, ( You can see her blog here.  http://missmadymoo.blogspot.com/ )  Speaking of sisters, here is a pic of my big family!
                                             
 ( That's me in the yellow sweater and blue shirt!)

The name for this crazy blog came from my love of cooking! I was making potato wedges, the whistle while they bake! 

                           

                                               ( Well, not quite like this!)

Jokingly I said " If I ever get a blog, I am going to name it the Whistling Potato!" And so the blog and it's name was born!

I hope that this blog will make you smile, and bring you a little sunshine on a rainy day!

Whistle while you work,

                  Emma Mooradian