Financial Independence

Img credit: James M, wikimedia commons

I grew up in a financially aware environment. My mother taught me about frugality, savings, and long-term goals. My father taught me about low-cost investments, buying the whole market, and avoiding emotion-based decisions. I also believed that credit cards were inherently disastrous and that all debt was evil. I no longer believe the last two, because I've fallen in with the FI/RE crowd, who aren't as anti-debt and who feel free to use credit cards, especially for travel hacking.

Briefly, FI/RE (financial independence/retire early) is a combination of two choices involving discipline for freedom. People who want to be financially independent invest enough capital to live off of non-earned income. This allows them to retire early, "coast" with a job they enjoy, pursue more risky endeavors with security (e.g. start a business or non-profit), travel the world, or just continue to build wealth. 

I've already applied some good habits to my student loan debts. I went to a state medical school, where I lived frugally and only took out the maximum loans my senior year. The other years, I took only what I budgeted and I returned any extra principal, rather than take it on and pay it back with interest. By this June, I will have paid off--during residency--all of my college loans. (As Dave Ramsey advises, I paid the smallest one first. There really is a psychological benefit to that method when you're new to paying back debt.) By next June, I will have paid off $12,000 of private medical school debt. I'll have $125,000 of federal student loan debt left, which I'll hopefully pay off in 5 or 10 years. I'm saving enough to avoid change in my retirement savings as I approach a $7,000 interview season and a $2,000 board exam cost and (maybe) relocation cost. As soon as I pay off my senior year of TAC, I'm going to max out a Roth IRA. I plan to balance investing with slow repayment of these federal loans.

Img credit: James Petts, wikimedia commons

You can rapidly acquire a bunch of knowledge with a day or two in the FI/RE community, especially if you have an elemental financial vocabulary, like my parents gave me. I learned a lot about tax sheltering by maxing out 403b/401k accounts, traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, and HSAs. I learned the names of the funds that my dad taught me to look for. And as I approach interview season, I want to travel hack! (This requires the use of credit cards but does not include plans for credit card debt. Sorry not sorry, Dave.)

Unfortunately I think FI/RE has a lot of advantages for intentionally single people and childfree couples. Having children is a big challenge that this community discusses, although it's positive (see Mr. 1500, Go Curry Cracker, ChooseFI). I am reminded of St. Gianna Molla's quote, "we were too happy," and I'm aware of the dignity of work. Although a lot of financially independent people start businesses, write, and give back, others really use their funds selfishly.

I would like to use the principles of FI although I might not retire early. A high savings rate comes naturally to me as a consecrated person, and my income will be relatively significant. I can see using the principles of FI two ways: one, I can spend a lot of money in the first ten years of my career (starting a practice offering a lot of in-office gynecology) and start at 40 with a 90% savings rate to catch up to a modest retirement. Alternatively (and I like this better), I can max out savings early and become financially independent by 50, then ask very little in earned income, allowing me to subsidize low-income patient populations. I love the ideas of tax sheltering to avoid paying for chimeric research, abortion, and contraception. I love the idea of freedom to avoid traditional healthcare insurance and subsidizing contraception, participating instead in healthcare sharing ministries (and perhaps putting in a little more than I take out, since I'm not having babies) and paying ACA fees.

More to come. My finances have not been very exciting during the lifetime of this blog. Basically, college was "Acquire Debt and Work a Few Nominal Jobs for Med School Resume." Medical school was "Exclusively Acquire Debt." Now I'm repaying debt aggressively and I'm going to start investing more formally. I'm in a very important period for my future financial life: I'm beginning to acquire enough capital to start investing, I'm moving my net worth to zero, and I'm preparing to (possibly) start a practice. Expect to see more financial posts in the future!

Consecrated Virginity FAQ

On June 20, 2015, I became a consecrated virgin living in the world, according to canon 604 of canon law (the body of legal principles governing the Catholic Church). This vocation is ancient and new, and it's viewed positively by traditional Catholics. There is already an excellent FAQ on consecrated virginity in general, but because of previous posts and the very worldly nature of my schedule, I wrote this post.

What do you do?
As of this writing I'm an intern in obstetrics and gynecology, so I work fifty- to eighty-hour weeks at a hospital in labor and delivery, the emergency room, the operating room, and the women's health clinic. I also pursue research in fertility. But what I do is less important than what I am: a bride of Christ. I will live a life of prayer and penance and remain without marrying a human person (and without physical children) in this life.

You're a consecrated virgin and you spend seventy hours a week with pregnant people and researching fertility?
Yes. God has a sense of humor. (But there's also a long precedent of consecrated women caring for women, mothers, and children, so I'm not that strange.)

So! You're childfree?
I suppose it depends on how you define "childfree." If you mean "without children," then yes. I have made a permanent, irrevocable commitment to preserve my physical virginity, so I will never voluntarily have sex and thus won't have children. (Not only will I not bear my own children, but I cannot act as a surrogate or adoptive mother, since these actions don't dignify children according to their right to be raised by their father and mother. Accepting the moral teachings of the Church is part of being a Catholic, which is a prerequisite to consecration.)

But I thought "without children" was the meaning of the word "childless." I am not an expert, but I thought "childfree" meant at least two things besides "without children." I thought it implied 1) sexual activity and 2) a belief that children aren't desired. Even though childfree men and women often sincerely acknowledge that they love children (and some choose to be childfree to care for children of others), they have decided that for them, or for now, or forever, children are not desireable as a fruit of their sexuality.

Although I'm a sexual being and still live my sexuality, I don't have a "sex life," so I can't make the decision to be childfree (as I understand the word). Of course, if "childfree" only means "without children," I am childfree. (So's the pope, and he has plenty to say about the decision not to have children.)

So, you pretty much just had a wedding ceremony by yourself?
No. Human persons are meant to give themselves completely to the infinite Love that is God. Whether they do this through another human or directly (by God's grace!), they must make a total sacrifice of self so that nothing is left. To "marry oneself" is impossible--one can't give everything away and also be receiving it. The woman in the story I linked to was having a wonderful epiphany about the independence of her strength and happiness from the lives of other persons, but she wasn't marrying herself.

So no, I'm not marrying myself. Am I marrying anyone at all? Yes. "Virgo est qui Deus nubit," St. Ambrose said, "the virgin is she whom God has married."

Oprah covered the final vows of several Dominican sisters and pointed out that their vows are a marriage. However, she said that "the groom is present only in spirit." I remember watching that episode and laughing a little sadly. God the Son is more present and more real than any human person, even far away from the blessed sacrament.

God is not some imaginary thing we think off to. He stands under and continuously creates everything. It's because He has you in mind that you're existing right now. So no, I'm not marrying a vague spiritual idea. I'm marrying He who Is, who is more terrifyingly real than any thing.


Is this because you want to be a priest? Would you be a priest if you could?
No and no. I want to be the saint that Christ has in mind when He loves me. That saint is feminine, and has quite a lot on her plate without trying to be an alter Christus as God shapes only men to be. I love my call. I think it's probably the most fantastic one He's ever created!

I don't think the second question makes sense. It's like "what animal would you be?" It might tell a little about me, but it's bound to misrepresent me if it's taken absolutely. Just as I can't (and don't want to) become an eagle, I can't become a priest, since God gave us a fatherly priesthood. But just as I could (and might) say at a dinner-party "I'd like to be an eagle" because I would love to fly, I can say (like St. Therese) that I would love to be a priest because I want to resemble Him in every way I can imagine.

In reality, I have that flight of priestly glory in my consecrated virginity. Each of us has it in our calls to sainthood--we just have to take it, and bowl between the rails.

Did you choose this for more freedom from obedience? Habits?
No. Consecrated life developed from the second half of the first millennium to the end of the second. The developments were beautiful and helpful for the Church and the world of that time. And, like every development that the Holy Spirit rolls out, there is something perennially helpful about it. It is good that some wear "distinctive dress." It is good to have a structured community. But it is not necessary. Otherwise, how would so many early virgin martyrs and anchoresses have become holy?

In North America, most Catholics in the new evangelization associate orthodox consecrated life with full habits, thriving communities, and a return to the rigors of the evangelical counsels. All these things are fantastic and support orthodox religious life! However, living the counsels to the fullest, as Raniero Cantalamessa and Thomas Dubay point out, does not have to involve obedience to men, or a set degree of exterior poverty.

This was a hard pill for me to swallow, because I was wary of "consecrated women" who didn't wear habits, live in convents, have a rigorous rule of life and schedule, and exhibit the forms of obedience and poverty. Slowly, I began to recognize that I this state in life entailed complete submission to the counsels, although in a way I did not understand.

Is this something for ex-nuns?
I know consecrated virgins who left convents. In one case I know of, this was because there was not enough contemplative prayer after the novitiate in the order she joined. Consecrated virginity is not something for people who don't want to love our Lord.

Are consecrated virgins basically nuns?
Consecrated virgins have been called brides of Christ since the years of the early Church. This title that has also been accorded to nuns and religious sisters for centuries as well. But in important ways, we are not like nuns. Important aspects to the religious life include the charism of a founder, community life, and distinctive dress. Consecrated virginity does not have these elements of consecrated life, which developed later in Church history to adorn religious life.

So, you're a layperson (or in a lay movement, or you're a lay consecrated woman)?
The words "lay" and "layperson" have changed in the past century. "Lay" used to refer to anyone who was not in orders (anyone besides priests, deacons, and bishops). It then came to mean anyone who was not in consecrated life or in orders. In either sense, a consecrated virgin is as lay as a cloistered Carmelite.

Is consecrated virginity the same as making private vows?
No. Vows are made by a human soul to God; God consecrates a consecrated virgin. Because consecration is an act of God, it is permanent and irrevocable.

I do make a threefold propositum during the consecration, which beautifully lines up with the three counsels. However, I am not made a bride of Christ by my propositum. I am passively swept up as God deigns to consecrate me at the hands of His bishop.

Why isn't this a sacrament?
There are seven sacrosanct signs producing grace (signum sacrosanctum efficax gratiae). These are primary channels of grace God gave to save us, that will not change until the end of time. At the end of time, their purpose will be complete, and there will be no more baptisms, no more marriages, no more ordinations, and no more Masses. Sacramental realities will give place to non-sacramental realities.

Consecrated virginity is a non-sacramental reality. It belongs to the world to come, which is why it seems like a lack-of-something (e.g. like being childfree) here on earth.

What do consecrated virgins wear?

They wear modest clothing that suits their time, place, and work. They might dress a little more modestly than a faithful Catholic woman in their age group. Practically speaking, I wear scrubs in the hospital, conservative professional clothing under my white coat in clinics, and long skirts and modest shirts to Mass. Some consecrated women do not wear pants so that they can witness more completely to God's love in the gift of femininity. I wear pants because otherwise, I'd put up unnecessary barriers to friendships and evangelization.

Do you have a rule of life? An horarium? Superiors?
I do have a rule of life. My spiritual director approved it before my consecration. I do have an horarium, although prudent direction helps me adjust it as rotations change. I do not have superiors, although I treat my bishop as a loving father, for whom I would do anything that wouldn't jeopardize my moral or fiscal stability.

How do you live the evangelical counsels if you don't make vows?
This deserves a post all on its own! The counsels are meant to change our hearts to Christ's and make us thirst for God the Father. I live poverty by leading a radically simple life; this was rather easy as a medical student (living on loans) and is still easy as a resident (living to pay back loans). There is no money spent that is not spent for Christ and with Him in mind.

I live chastity by working to increase the purity of my intentions, so that I can be chaste in body and mind as I become single-hearted like Christ, wanting only whatever the Father wants. For instance, I often want to ask my upper-level residents for feedback because I want praise. That thirst for confirmation is better quenched by Him, so I choose chastity when I purify my intention and only ask for feedback when I want it.

I live obedience by constantly looking for the will of God. Paying attention to the circumstances and holy desires I find in the present moment, I look for ways to advance God's mission to save souls. For example, perhaps I choose to listen carefully to a patient's slow explanation of what is going on, even though I have so many more to see. Perhaps I accept my ignorance during my training as a way to be with Him during his humbling human childhood.

Pope Francis!

I spent spring break (the past week) studying neuroscience and the drugs affecting the brain, nerves, and psyche. On Wednesday morning I finished some practice questions and answered all the emails, texts, and notifications on my phone before I took a break for lunch. I came back to find a few new emails (a rate of two emails per hour isn't unusual, but I also had about nine texts, which was weird).

The first email was from an intercessory prayer address connected to the Ordo Virginum. There were two new requests. The chronologically prior email was "Please pray in thanksgiving for such-and-such and so-and-so," and I started to say a dutiful prayer. Before I finished, my eyes wandered down to the second request (mea culpa). And I stopped mid-Hail Mary because the second email said, in big bold letters: "Habemus Papam!"

And then I seized my phone and read the texts, all of which were friends, facebook, or FOCUS telling me that I was no longer a sedevacantist.

I was alone in the apartment, but I wanted to share day this with someone! Who was still in town?? I texted a friend who lives in the next apartment complex. It was a long shot (she works), but it turned out she was home. I quickly got ready and drove over, fearing that I would be too late if I walked the (very walkable) distance.

She works in media, so I was unsurprised to walk in and find that she was using two laptops and a TV to virtually transport us to St. Peter's Square. Youtube, radio, and various apps helped, too. At several points she took out a phone to text friends the details, and this made me laugh (four screens in one room for one event!), so I took a picture.

We had plenty of time to feel anticipation with the rest of the crowd in faraway Italy (and in the rest of the waking Catholic world). Finally, the protodeacon came out and announced something, and all I could understand was "and...Francis." My heart soared. Francis? Pope Francis? Did I translate that correctly?

My desktop image the week of Pope
Francis' election. Source

I love St. Francis of Assisi, although not as well as I should and not in the way I'm sure he would like. He is poor, he was asked to rebuilt the Church, he is chaste, he is Christ-centered, he loved reverence, he loved the Gospel, he was radical, he loved the sick....

Usually my desktop image is the week's schedule of classes. Since I had no classes last week, I downloaded one of Zurbaran's St. Francis paintings.

People love to talk about whether this pope will be liberal or conservative or this or that. Everyone's spilling so much ink (pixels?) over it. Why can't we just allow God in him to shape us? Why search his words and actions for things we might not agree with? Why form an idea of Catholicism and try everything on it to see if it fits our style? It feels more fun, but it's laborious and seems militant, repulsive, and divisive to non-Catholics or not-so-involved Catholics. Besides, the humble "fiat" of being shaped by God through his Church resembles reality much better. </preaching>

I am amazed by the humility and simplicity of this Pope, before and after his election. My favorite work of literature opens with the description of a fictional bishop much like him. The first time I read Les Miserables, I fell in love with Bishop Myriel and wished that all Catholics were like him. Then, I thought, we would really win the world for Christ! He lived with minimal expense, he gave his allowances to the poor, and he walked so that the poor could also use his transportation stipends.

Courtesy of HuffPo.

I was lit up with desire to do the same thing! I got the same passion when I watched a documentary on Mother Teresa and saw how poor her sisters were. Opening a convent in New York, they uninstalled the water heater saying simply, "we will not need it." When the sisters moved in, each carried a cardboard shoebox tied with string instead of a suitcase. That's poverty! Pope Francis' example renews my hope that this is possible, and that it's also important. Poverty coheres with the rest of the Christian life and it's attractive to others. St. Francis and Pope Francis evidently know it! Maybe poverty is an important part of the new evangelization.

Final observation on the papal election: if I prayed as hard and as much for my local bishops as I did that day for the new Pope, I think it would help my diocese. So, one resolution born out of the conclave is to pray and offer sacrifices for my diocese and bishops. I should've been doing this already!

Let's pray for each other, our local bishops, and our Pope. Viva Christo rey!

Living with the Poor

At a recent Christian Medical Association meeting, the speaker spoke about how to help the poor who are close to us, which is a very very very important topic to me.

Speaking as a "mainstream" Christian (i.e. non-Catholic or Protestant), he noticed that most Christian doctors don't live in poor neighborhoods. He related results of informal poll he'd done: he'd asked his Christian colleagues why they lived like typical doctors, when Christ lived among the poor and preached poverty. His colleagues told him that they'd been encouraged by pastors to use their gifts and acquire wealth to glorify God.

I almost fell out of my chair when he said that. I cannot imagine a devout Catholic priest saying that to a Catholic physician. To be charitable, I know that many non-Catholic Christians are also shocked at this sentiment (why else could the CMA speaker make us aghast during that meeting?), but the Catholic Church seems particularly immune to it, especially in her saints.

Even the saints who are wealthy, and our contemporaries who are in typically wealthy orders like the Order of Malta or the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, place explicit emphasis on dispensing wealth for the sake of the Church and the poor. (On an unrelated note: I just discovered that there are five knights/dames of the Holy Sepulchre at the parish where I attend daily Mass. They came in all their regalia to a special Mass recently and I was so excited.)

The happy news is, I'm Catholic and there are many non-Catholic Christians who are like me at least in this: they want to imitate the Catholic saints (whether they know it or not) and serve the poor without concern for themselves.

Practical suggestions from that speaker included living among the poor (to find out where to move, visit the Oval Project). Since my third and fourth years will be located in a different and larger city (in fact, my home town), I mapped it out and am looking for places where there are short ovals.

Affordable Care

Obamacare was passed and deemed constitutional as a tax. I do not feel like political commentary today, however, and I just want to talk about healthcare and patients. This post is a lot of lists.

We have a problem in the first world. The problem is: healthcare has gotten very expensive. What would make care affordable? I posit that this is impossible without a change in mindset. The first world must re-learn a few things (I placed negative principles next to the positive counterparts and bolded what I though were the two:

1. Death and suffering are not the greatest evils (not even close).
   Rather, holiness is the greatest good.
2. Simplicity is a great means to the greatest good via the second greatest commandment.
   This means acquisition of wealth is not the greatest good, or the greatest means.

This is, simply stated, justice and righteousness. I'm asking for a lot, and it's not going to happen in every soul in the next twenty years. However, the more we realize these truths, the better off we will be. Just to give some examples of the potential effects:

1. Physicians' (and other providers') motives shift from moneymaking to taking care of patients.
2. Legal professionals' motives make the same shift (albeit to protection of justice) and medical malpractice insurance goes down, lowering fees for service.
3. Patients are less afraid of death and place an appropriately higher value on conservative (cheaper) treatment.
4. Anyone affected protects the sanctity of life (abortion is chosen as an alternative to a kind of death, or suffering).
5. Perspective reigns and people across borders are truly equalized: the phrase "first-world problem" is an embarassing testament to our lack of perspective. Although some medical problems are objectively distressing, some that are currently treated ($) could be tolerated if a mindset change occured.

Practical suggestions are almost futile without this large-scale change of heart, but here are a few:

1. Payment in kind to healthcare providers
2. Increase in charitable involvment in healthcare
3. Subsidiarity in healthcare insurance
4. Movement toward the master-apprentice model of medical education to decrease physician loans

The first steps to affect the change of heart in the medical professionals are probably:

1. Improve ethics training in medical education (improves physician's choices of medical procedures)
2. Improve bedside manner (improves patients' self-value and ability to make good choices for their health)
3. Protect the traditional family (health outcomes are vastly better when families are intact) including elder care as the population ages

I feel like God's calling me to a crusade....

Seeing the Invisible

Dr. D, my preceptor for the IBPCA program, is setting a good example in many ways. One example is her generosity in the groups of patients she sees. There is much brouhaha currently about physicians in private practice seeing Medicare and Medicaid patients. But I have never heard any discussion (from physicians, politicians, or mediamen) about two groups that Dr. D sees: prisoners and institutionalized, mentally retarded adults.

In two days Dr. D saw seven female inmates in between her everyday patients. She also saw two mentally handicapped adults coming from an institution with their caregivers. These patients require more paperwork, take up more waiting room space (for guards and caregivers), and are more medically complex. Moreover, she told me the prison has defrauded her of some thirty-odd thousand dollars, which she is successfully appealing for, bit by bit. Nevertheless, she serves these patients as carefully and attentively as she does her successful, healthy, PPO-insured patients.

I was edified, excited, and inspired by this. I want to do the same! I will add one more invisible group, not usually mentioned: consecrated people, e.g. priests and religious sisters. (I have wanted to be "the nun's doctor" for a long time.) Going forward, I will add inmates and the institutionalized to the convents--I want to be the doctor to the invisible.

Role Models: Good and Ill

I was relieved that Dr. Bruchalski's talk (see first post on this) didn't devolve into heckling by disagreeing audience members, or a pro-life fan-fest. It was thought-provoking and game-changing, in line with the truly pro-life and medically/ethically rigorous flavor of the Vita Institute and AAPLOG.

Several pro-choice medical students and one pro-choice nursing student stayed to ask questions--good, earnest, and respectful questions.

For example, the nursing student (having more clinical experience than any of the medical students) asked: What about the case of placenta previa in a woman six months along?

Rather than give a pat answer, Dr. Bruchalski first recounted a story of a woman in severe hypotensive crisis (I forget the ins and outs of the case) and said that he and his colleagues "took her straight to termination," but could not save her life. He next observed that, in that case, there were (medically) other things he could have done before abortion which may have saved her life. Finally, Dr. Bruchalski implied in honesty, that pat answers don't belong in the trenches. However, he maintained that there are two patients and his job is to treat both of them and never pit one life against the other.

San Damiano crucifix like mine.
Source: religiousjewelry.com

The pro-choice medical students asked lots of questions--so many that Dr. Bruchalski sort of had to cut them off to finish! Afterwards, they asked to keep in touch with them. One said she was touched by a lot that he had to say; she even called the talk "poignant for me." The other said he was an intellectual, and so much evidence demanded that he reassess the issue.

I hope these future providers can see the truth about women, the unborn, and evidence-based practice!

After the talk I thanked Dr. Bruchalksi. He learned I was from TAC and said he could recognize students from TAC, Steubenville, Christendom, Dallas....

He also noticed that I wear the cross of San Damiano and asked me why I do. I explained that it was an important symbol of poverty, which seems (to me) interwoven with medical practice and real gift of self to Christ in each patient.

As I was speaking, he began fumbling in his pockets. As I finished, he pulled out a small drawstring bag and revealed a relic of St. Francis of Assisi! He handed it gently to me. I kissed it and touched it to my crucifix, now aware that St. Francis was present in a real way (almost standing with us in the lecture hall). Dr. Bruchalski described that he also felt medical practice was a work of wholehearted mercy. I stood there, clasping St. Francis to my heart and having a hard time believing that I was really hearing someone else agree that medicine can be a self-expenditure for others for the sake of Christ. Wow.

Today outside PP, I met another professor who was volunteering. He recognized me and we exchanged a few pleasant words. I left the encounter much less sad than my first brush with a professor across the fence. Over this academic year (partly through experiences like meeting Dr. Bruchalski) I have built up a hope: all is not lost, even in such a dark world. There are saints among us, Christ is near offering Himself radically, and grace is abundant.

Challenge Accepted

I plan to be a pro-life, NFP-only OB/GYN and hope to use naprotechnology. I'm very excited about this, but our culture doesn't feel the same way. For example, the overwhelming majority of opinions on an SDN thread about Catholic OB/GYNs are discouraging:

An OB/GYN who doesn't prescribe contraceptives. That's funny.

...sterilization and contraception is part of the career...

 ...I'm pretty sure the law requires a doctor to refer a pt to someone who offers those services. So, even if you wont do ABs [abortions], you have to refer the pt to someone who does....

...you may have difficulty getting enough continuity patients as many patients in a resident OB/GYN clinic are seeking contraception. At my institution, you have to log continuity patients.

...you have the viewpoint of a student with no real experience.

Our Lady of la Salette, a remarkable apparition
because our Lady appeared seated and crying
with her head in her hands before
standing to speak to the visionaries.
This statue is how I feel when I read these quotes!

...you should not join a field in which the scope of practice is such that they will be placed in a position where they are unwilling to provide care (I'm talking about contraception) or refer for care (abortion) frequently. I just can not get over how selfish this is. How many other specialties could you do where yours and your patient's interest not be constantly opposed. Unless you are planning to do some fellowship like gynecologic oncology or reproductive endocrinology, being an OBGYN who will not prescribe contraception or refer for abortion is unconscionable. You will end up blocking your patient's access to the care they desire. Go into some other specialty!

I am a Catholic OB/GYN resident but I don't have a problem with contraception or sterilization. If you do, then OB/GYN will be a difficult residency for you because that is what you are going to be an expert in. I also happen to think Humanae Vitae was a misguided encyclical. I think that at some point in the future the Church's prohibition on contraception will change.

My breviary, a symbol of the Faith

Hurray, another cop-out post filled with a humanities assignment! We were each asked to choose an object we would keep in our future office which would stand as a symbol of our spiritual life.

I chose the Divine Office, which all priests, all consecrated people, and some laypeople (like me) pray each day.

My breviary (on top of an old medical text) with our Lady.

The Office reflects the spiritual life very well. It is both regular (prayed according to rules) and personalized (because the psalms the Church chooses often seem hand-picked for my circumstances). Its times and seasons reflect the winding road of human life: it is partly sung and partly recited; it has seasons of fasting and seasons of feasting; it has times for standing and times for sitting. Also like the spiritual life, it is both communal and private—the Office is said by the Church as a whole and in each soul who prays it.

But this particular copy has separate significance and symbolism. In many ways, it symbolizes my Faith. It used to belong to my mother, and she gave it to me, just as my parents gave me the Faith. It has weight, reminding me that my Faith is a charge laid on me, but a light burden and even pleasant and comforting. It is red, a color of complete love; this reflects the love of a beloved wife, or the love of a martyr. This is the love which I have for Christ and which draws me to prayer.

Simplicity Innovations

Why can't we live more simply? Our time here isn't about earthly life! It's about God. I want to become completely transparent and effaced as Christ takes my life for His own. He must increase, I must decrease. There are two parts to this: spiritual (invisible, most of the iceberg) and material (visible, the tip of the iceberg). Materially, I want to take up as little time and space as possible to lead my little life.

Note: I enjoy comforts like tea and thick socks, and I know time can't all be spent in work and contemplation (some recreation is necessary). At the same time, however, I realize there are many ways that I can decrease. Here are some innovations I've found that might help me:

green cone • sinkpositive • folding shower • drawers under stairs •  in-wall bookcases (2) and cabinets • no-till gardening • gardens in stackers • double-stacked drawers • secretary desks and murphy beds, especially from this company • in-room closet (this video at 2:53) • laundry chutes • solar shingles • solatube • waterboxx • clotheslines • no-knead bread 

The Zinn: this house is 16' by 7'.

And finally, tiny houses. (I actually don't know what the cutoff is for "tiny," but the ones I see are between 80 and 900 square feet.) My current future tiny house is the Enesti, by Tumbleweed Tiny Houses. It's actually a little larger than my dream (the Zinn), but if I want a chapel, there are rules about it being accessible to the Church militant, so it might be more hospitable to have a larger home. (Plus, living alone is hard.)

Charisms

St. Augustine says that the Church is a city, with the Blessed performing different functions to produce self-sufficiency. (Aristotle notes that the city is the first tier of social interaction to be self-sufficient and although most of St. Augustine's philosophy training was in Plato, Scripture puts the Aristotelian position across.) Without each citizen, no citizen can attain his good (because the whole does not achieve the common good).

One example of this self-dependence within in the church militant is charisms. The Catherine of Siena Institute gives a good definition:

Charisms, or spiritual gifts, are special abilities given to Christians by the Holy Spirit to enable them to be powerful channels of God's love and redeeming presence in the world. Whether extraordinary or ordinary, charisms are to be used in charity or service to build up the Church (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2003).

The... "seven gifts of the Holy Spirit" and the "fruits" of the Spirit are gifts given to us to keep. They are part of our inner transformation...and provide the inner "Christ-likeness" necessary for the effective use of our charisms (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1830-1832). Charisms, on the other hand, are gifts given to us to give away.

[All Christians have charisms] according to both the New Testament (Ephesians 4) and the teaching of the Catholic Church (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 951).

Here's a list of the charisms a Siena Institute workshop covers. (They came to TAC two or three years ago to help the students discern their charisms. It was so cool!)

• administration
• celibacy
• craftsmanship
• discernment of spirits
• encouragement
• missionary
• music
• pastoring

• evangelism
• faith
• giving
• healing
• helps
• prophecy
• service
• teaching

• hospitality
• intercessory prayer
• knowledge
• leadership
• mercy
• voluntary poverty
• wisdom
• writing

Exciting stuff! What're your charisms?