Mrs Brady, Catholic Old Lady is one of Standing on My Head\u2019s guest bloggers<\/em><\/p>\n<\/em>Why look who it is! Michael and Janie! You know I was down here on my knees doing the weeding and just wishing someone would drop by and give me a good reason to quit, and how here the two of you are, and I\u2019ll bet you want some milk and cookies don\u2019t you? That\u2019s little Charlie in the wagon isn\u2019t it? Bring him in and he can play on the porch swing.<\/p>\nNow Michael, you play with Charlie and make sure he doesn\u2019t tumble off that swing while Janie and I go in and get some nice chocolate cake and milk.<\/p>\n
Here we are. Oh dear, let me take these silly knee pads off. I know you\u2019re probably wondering why I still weed the flowerbeds on my knees. It\u2019s because Father O\u2019Driscoll once told me that pulling weeds was like going to confession. First you get down on your knees, then you have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty a bit. You have to be smart enough to know the weeds from the flowers, and then when you start pulling them up you realize some of the weeds come out easily enough, but others have very deep roots. If you just break off the tops they\u2019ll grow right back. Getting down deep to the roots\u2013my that\u2019s a difficult job. Sweaty work! Then when you\u2019re done and the flowerbed is all neat and tidy the next week the weeds grow back and you\u2019ve got to do it again. Confession\u2019s like that isn\u2019t it dears?<\/p>\n
No Michael you and Janie and Charlie can have the milk and chocolate cake. I don\u2019t need any more sweets and this iced tea is all I need, here let me sit down for a moment. I\u2019m so hot!<\/p>\n
Now Janie, have things been going badly at school again? Has Bridget been pulling your hair? You don\u2019t say! I hope Michael sticks up for you when he can. You do Michael? That\u2019s a good brother. Charlie and Janie are very lucky to have you. Oh dear. Sidney punched you when you pushed Bridget and made her fall down?<\/p>\n
And Janie, you mustn\u2019t pull Bridget\u2019s hair back. That doesn\u2019t really solve any problems at all now does it? It only makes things worse. It is hard not to fight back though isn\u2019t it? I remember when I was at school a horrible girl named Loretta who had pigtails would stick out her tongue at me when teacher wasn\u2019t looking. I hated her for ten years all through school. It\u2019s true! I used to plan all sorts of ways of getting even with Loretta.<\/p>\n
Let me tell you what my husband Frank used to say to our boys when they had a spot of trouble. He\u2019d say, \u201cBoys, if you fight back you lower yourself to their level. Rise above it. You\u2019re better than that! Life\u2019s too short to make enemies! If they want to fight with you and call you names you just let them because being negative has it\u2019s own reward. It\u2019s just empty and doesn\u2019t lead anywhere. Always walk away from a fight. Even if you win a fight you lose a friend. That\u2019s what I say!\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, they didn\u2019t always obey him, and when they didn\u2019t guess what happened? Both boys ended up with a black eye, and they weren\u2019t friends in the end anyway. So everybody was the loser. It\u2019s very sad.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t you see how it goes when you return evil for evil? Everybody ends up getting a black eye and they\u2019re still madder than a hornet at the other person. I suspect that\u2019s how wars start don\u2019t you Michael? First one fellow calls another fellow a name, and before you know it they\u2019re taking sides and their friends are joining in and then it all blows up and gets very nasty.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m for being like little Charlie over there. See how happy he is just to swing on that swing with chocolate cake all over his sweet little face? Not a care in the world and life is good!<\/p>\n
There now Janie, of course you can have another piece of cake, and do you know I thought the two of you might be coming over so I bought a couple of candy bars and hid them in the living room and we\u2019ll go inside in just a minute and you can hunt for them, and when you find them here\u2019s what I want you to do.<\/p>\n
Instead of eating them yourselves, why not take them to school tomorrow and Janie you give one to Bridget and Michael, you give yours to Sidney and you know what? By the end of the day I expect you\u2019ll all be friends again.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0Mrs Brady, Catholic Old Lady is one of Standing on My Head\u2019s guest bloggers Why look who it is! Michael and Janie! You know I was down here on my knees doing the weeding and just wishing someone would drop by and give me a good reason to quit, and how here the two of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Mrs Brady on Catholic In-Fighting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u00a0Mrs Brady, Catholic Old Lady is one of Standing on My Head's guest bloggers Why look who it is! Michael and Janie! You know I was down here on my knees\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mrs Brady on Catholic In-Fighting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0Mrs Brady, Catholic Old Lady is one of Standing on My Head's guest bloggers Why look who it is! Michael and Janie! You know I was down here on my knees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-03T00:01:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/files\/2014\/06\/Little-Old-lady-234x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html\",\"name\":\"Mrs Brady on Catholic In-Fighting\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-03T00:01:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-03T00:01:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\"},\"description\":\"\u00a0Mrs Brady, Catholic Old Lady is one of Standing on My Head's guest bloggers Why look who it is! Michael and Janie! You know I was down here on my knees\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mrs Brady on Catholic In-Fighting\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mrs Brady on Catholic In-Fighting","description":"\u00a0Mrs Brady, Catholic Old Lady is one of Standing on My Head's guest bloggers Why look who it is! Michael and Janie! You know I was down here on my knees","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mrs Brady on Catholic In-Fighting","og_description":"\u00a0Mrs Brady, Catholic Old Lady is one of Standing on My Head's guest bloggers Why look who it is! Michael and Janie! You know I was down here on my knees","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html","og_site_name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","article_published_time":"2014-06-03T00:01:13+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/files\/2014\/06\/Little-Old-lady-234x300.jpg"}],"author":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html","name":"Mrs Brady on Catholic In-Fighting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-03T00:01:13+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-03T00:01:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad"},"description":"\u00a0Mrs Brady, Catholic Old Lady is one of Standing on My Head's guest bloggers Why look who it is! Michael and Janie! You know I was down here on my knees","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2014\/06\/mrs-brady-on-catholic-in-fighting.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mrs Brady on Catholic In-Fighting"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","caption":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2014\/06\/Little-Old-lady.jpg\" "\\"Little")
<\/a>\u00a0Mrs Brady, Catholic Old Lady is one of Standing on My Head\u2019s guest bloggers<\/em><\/p>\n