Ask Ellen…And The Winner Is….

Thursdays are Ask Ellen days on AGOG.  I want to thank all of you who have submitted your questions to me.  I also want to encourage you to keep sending them.  If you have submitted questions, you know how easy it is.  If you haven’t, allow me to explain the process to you.  Click on the Ask Ellen tab on the left side of the home page.  That will take you to the most recent question.  On the top of the page, written in blue, is the Submit A Question tab.  Click on it and simply fill out the form.  The question will come directly to me and I will do my best to answer it.  I have a few that I received in the last few months.  But I will need many more in order to explain the things you want to understand.  It is my favorite feature of the site because it allows me to know what you want to know.  So please keep them coming.

But this month on AGOG is about you, our loyal readers.  I cannot thank you enough for your encouragement and support.  But I can offer a token of my appreciation to one lucky reader.  Anyone who submitted an Ask Ellen question this year was entered into a raffle to win AGOG merchandise.  Today, I am so pleased to announce the winner….

Kim Fetter in Pennsylvania has won a super sassy A Gift Of Grace Coffee Mug.  Kim, please send me your address and your mug should be under your tree by Christmas. 

For a chance to win our next Ask Ellen contest, submit your question today.

Ask Ellen: I Need Your Help!

Time for more questions!  I need a new stockpile for 2012.  What have you always wanted to know about Christianity?  Or Catholicism?  Or Gracieland?  Or AGOG?

No question is too silly.  Remember when I answered who I liked better: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John or John, Paul , George or Ringo?  Just send them in.  You may see your answered in 2012 on Ask Ellen.

You can submit a question through the AGOG site.  Simply click on the Ask Ellen tab.  At the top of that page, click the “Submit Your Question” tab.  It is that easy.

I will be drawing a winner from all the questions submitted and answered in 2011 in December.  One lucky person will win some lovely AGOG merchandise.

Submit yours today.  You know you want to know….

Do priests actually plan those inane homilies, or do they just ramble on aimlessly until their throats hurt? Dan, NJ

Ouch!  Dan, I understand your frustration about the message sometimes.  I cannot speak for all priests but the ones I respect often try to make the message relevant.  One of the things that is unique about being Catholic is that the Scriptures are set.  We all follow the same pattern.  Unlike Protestant ministers, our priests can’t choose what passage they would like to preach on any given Sunday.  They get what they get.

This provides them with the challenge of preaching on a wide variety of subjects, not just what they want to focus on.  I think sometimes we hit on an area they are comfortable with and sometimes we don’t.  I wouldn’t want to be asked to speak on a topic I wasn’t very familiar with.  Would you?

I think we should cut the priests a break.  They have a lot on their plates.  And everybody has a bad day now and then.

Can you provide a 'top ten' list of things parents can do with children to bring their faith into their homes on a daily basis? Joanie, ME

This is a great question, Joanie.  But the only way I can answer it authentically is to tell you the things I do with my own kids.  I admit I only came up with five.  But here is a list of what I do with my own children.

1- bless your kids
2- pray with them
3- read Scripture to them
4- pray for them…and let them see
5- make faith relevant


I make the Sign of the Cross on my kids’ foreheads before they leave my presence as often as I remember.  In fact, before leaving for school, they line up to be blessed.  I do this to remind them that God is with them when I am not and to ask God to protect them in my absence.

In our house, we mix formal and informal prayer.  My kids know that we pray before we eat.  They take turn saying the prayer they both learned in preschool, “Thank you God for family, friends and food.”  Simple but sweet.  I also encourage them to actually talk to God before going to bed.  This is less formal and more conversational.  This works well if they are anxious about something.

I try to tell them the story of Scripture.  This only works if you know it yourself.  Learn it so you can teach your kids.  Then talk about the story.  This is natural for kids and they love a good story.  We are part of the Greatest Story Ever Told.  Include them in it.

The best thing you can do for your kids is to let them see you pray.  Kids know when you aren’t being authentic.  They will see through you if it is a show.  It has got to matter to you if it is going to matter to them.

Making faith relevant is difficult.  Many kids feel that faith is what you do on Sunday or when you actually go to Church.  They aren’t interested in that.  It has to be a natural part of your conversations.  This can be done while you watch the news.  I have had conversations with my kids about what they have seen others doing.  I try to explain that we do things differently in our house because we have faith.  I would love to see more resources for parents on making faith relevant.  In fact, I’ve made it my life’s work.  Stayed tuned for Gracieland.  My prayer is that it helps in this area.

Ask Ellen: What’s the deal with relics? Is there any Biblical basis to it? Pat, MD

I saved this question for this week as we celebrated All Saints Day .  Thanks for asking, Pat.  Relics are items that are associated with a person declared a saint by the Church.  There are different classes of relics depending on how close the object came to the person.  For instance, you may have something that touched the body of a saint or you might have a piece of cloth actually worn by the person.

I’d like to focus on the Biblical basis for the practice because I think many people will be shocked to know that it is in fact in the Bible.  Catholics get a bad rap for saints in general and this relic stuff specifically.  You can imagine my joy when I discovered the practice of keeping relics within the very pages of Scripture.  I know I am outing myself as a true geek right now.  But I really was legitimately excited when I found it.

I’ve kept you waiting long enough.  The practice is described in Acts 19:11-12.  Allow me to quote it to you:  “And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and evil spirits came out of them.”

Bingo!  There it is.  Right in the Bible that some claim to follow literally.  Please promise me something, faithful Ask Ellen reader. Don’t automatically assume that everything Catholics do is extra-Biblical.  In fact, if reading Ask Ellen has done nothing else for you, I hope it causes you to pause and question.  Dig deeper to find out why we do things as Catholics.  I think you will be surprised is most cases that the answers are both logical and Biblical.

Ask Ellen- What is the apocrypha? -Cindy, NC

Great question, Cindy.  Thanks.  The Apocrypha is a name given by some to the seven books that have been removed from Protestant Bibles.  Catholics do not call these books the Apocrypha because they are part of our Bible.  The books are: Sirach, Tobit, Wisdom, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, and Baruch, as well as longer versions of Daniel and Esther

To put it in the simplest terms I can, Luther and many after him rejected these books based on the fact that they were not part of the Hebrew Canon at the time of the Reformation.  Most Protestant Bibles do not contain these seven books or have them in section in the back known to them as The Apocrypha.

The Catholic Bible accepts the books for two reasons.  Firstly, the Jewish Canon was not fixed in Jesus’ time.  Therefore, we cannot be completely sure which books were included.  But more importantly, the first Christians, including Paul, used the Septuagint to preach to the Greek-speaking world.  This contained these seven books.  Jesus Himself actually quoted Scripture from the Septuagint.  When the Catholic Church developed its canon it used the Greek translation of the Septuagint that the Apostles and early Church Fathers used which included these books.

If you’d like to learn more about this, I recommend the following article:  http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0120.html

Oh and one more thing that bugs Ask Ellen….If you throw out Maccabees, how do you explain Hanukkah?  It seriously perplexes me.

Ask Ellen: What is your favorite Christian song currently? Hope, ME

This is very difficult for me to answer.  I love music and try to surround myself with it.  I go through phases where I listen to one song over and over and then other times when I don’t listen to the song for months.

At this moment, I would say my favorite is “How Beautiful” by Twila Paris.

Cut and paste this link to hear the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJfSp_rceFs

The song came to my attention last year at a presentation at my daughter’s school.  A family friend who is a Sister Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary came to school to do a presentation on vocations and in particular her order.  She shared a video with this song in the background.  The video was of Sisters taking care of fellow nuns who were old and infirm.  The song showed how beautiful this was.  They were taking care of their own.  What made it more powerful for me is that these were the Sisters who educated me.  I couldn’t help but think that some of those nuns that required care were Sisters who taught me.  It comforted me to know that they were being cared for with such love and compassion.

That is what we are called to as the Body of Christ.  We must be willing to pay the price.  We need to have humble hearts that give.