A conversion story worth reading

It's Jimmy Akin's. Read it here. Bring tissues.

Renee (Jimmy's wife )

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The Word of the Day....

.....is ECO-holic. An eco-holic is one who is so concerned about saving every tree and whale that when this is accomplished nobody will be around, due to contraception and abortion, to enjoy Creation.

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For Rose

“Justice and mercy are so united that they mutually temper each other. Justice without mercy is cruelty. Mercy without justice is disintegration.”

St. Thomas Aquinas

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Why Catholics should never do yoga

Read about it here.

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Assumption and my mama

Mama and me

1942 - 1997

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My mom died Aug. 15, 1997.

My constant prayer is that she made it to heaven.

Tonight hubby came in from the garden - with a rose.

He doesn't really understand the whole shower of roses/Therese thing.

He just said something told me I needed to give this to you.

Thank you, St. Therese. You read my mind.

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Thank you for the prayers

I am feeling a little more at peace and thinking rationally about how to deal with my problem. (That's a first!)

Thanks again for taking time out of your day to do this.

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prayer request

I am REALLY crabby today. If I tell you why certain bloggers are going to come here and tear a strip off me. So suffice it to say I would just appreciate it if you would pray for me, that I can let go of old hurts and I can move on.

That's all.

Thanks.

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Real Men....

REAL men love Our Lady

(click on the red link for the story)

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Devotions Meme - thanks Char!

I've been tagged by Char to do the Five Favorite Devotions Meme.

1. Eucharistic Adoration - aka the University of the Eucharist. I've received many insights at Adoration and at times it was the only thing that kept me hanging on while I waited for my decree of nullity.

2. Rosary - aka Call Your Mother and send her a bouquet of 53 roses! It's the go-to prayer for any and every situation, happy or sad.

3. Divine Mercy Chaplet - I resisted this one for ages but once I "got it" I was hooked. For a long time I could not seem to memorize the prayers until we got EWTN and I heard it being sung. Being a scrupulous and by-the-book type of person the concept of mercy was often lost on me. I am slowly starting to understand it now. It has really helped me teach RCIA!

4. Aspirations - it can (and should) be simple. Like - Jesus, I trust in You. Or when you are waiting in traffic for a red light the red light reminds you of the Sacred Heart of Jesus burning with love for us so you say....'Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.' Keep it simple.

5. Just thanking God for the gift of faith and the ability to explain to others (sometimes I don't do that well but occasionally I let myself be the 'little pencil in God's hands' and He gets results.

I am tagging the first five people in the blog roll (which changes as you update so sooner or later you will ALL be tagged!)

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Taliban bastards execute pregnant woman

Taliban execute pregnant woman after giving her 200 lashes.

It takes a lot to make me cry but this did. If I write anymore I will need to go to confession but I won't be sorry for what I wrote so I better just pray for her soul and the soul of her unborn child.

Once our military presence leaves Afghanistan will the Taliban resume power? Will those that lost their lives and those that sacrificed their physical and mental health have died or suffered/continue to suffer in vain? I really hope not.

My mother always spoke of man's inhumanity to man. I wonder what she would think of this if she was alive today?

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When surrendering to His will is almost impossible to understand.

I was reading an article today titled "Why Doesn't the Chaplet Always 'Work?'" It helped me understand why I keep repeating the same phrase ("at least he will never remember this") to a family member who is fretting about the pain another family member is enduring due to medical procedures. The other family member then responds with - "but it still hurts." Of course it hurts! I am fully cognizant of that fact! However it's a necessary evil at this time and in the end these procedures will serve to make the patient better. (Some of you know who I am referring to - please do not reference his name in any comments you may make - thanks!)

Knowing that I was not making myself clear with my oft repeated response of "but he will never remember" I decided I needed to dig deeper into the Catholic counsel to "offer it up." So I read the article mentioned above and a few paragraphs really twigged with me. Such as:

"The other form of evil that the Chaplet does not always seem to "work" to eliminate is physical suffering. That is, suffering that does not arise directly from human sin, but from sickness, disease and accident, from misfortunes and natural disasters, and even from the inevitable process of growing old.

God has not given us a full and complete answer as to why He often permits these physical evils to run their course, often in spite of our prayers and Chaplets. Sometimes, in response to our prayers, He intervenes with miraculous healing and relief. Sometimes He asks us to bear our sufferings, and offers us the grace to cooperate with Him in bringing about a greater good than if He had not permitted them (for example, because He wants us to grow in patience, or courage, or trustful surrender to Him, or because He wants us to grow in love by "offering up" our sufferings, in union with the sufferings of Christ on the Cross, for the good of souls). "

Now of course the small patient in question cannot offer up anything -but his parents can. They have no idea what "offering up" means though. I admit that this is one of the most difficult concepts I have ever encountered and even after intensive study of all things Catholic for over seven solid years I am barely scratching the surface of any sort of understanding in regard to this. I cannot expect the parents to know anything about it either as they left the Church long ago never having grasped the true depths of Catholic teaching in the first place (not really any fault of theirs - their catechesis was poor, the examples of their family members was dismal and they have surely never heard a homily dedicated to offering it up.)

So, I need to get past the blame game and figure out how I can communicate this concept to them in a way they can understand. They are mired in the thought that God only wants us to be happy. Not quite. (For a better explanation of that you can read this.) All the parents can see is that their child is hurting physically which naturally hurts them emotionally. Having a tiny bit of understanding of how God's mercy works I see this is as an opportunity for them, indeed for all of us, "to grow in patience, or courage, or trustful surrender to Him...in union with the sufferings of Christ on the Cross, for the good of souls." It's a tall order, I will admit that.

All of this makes me think of the verse from Scripture that reads "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Colossians 1:24. I wrote about this some time ago - make sure you read Laura's comment as well.

So, no easy answers but then that's not God's way anyway. All the more reason to keep praying JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU!

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FB update

I decided to take the fake FB update post down. It was vulgar and the only excuse I give in posting it was that it did illustrate the "let it all hang out" philosophy of secular society today.

We now go back to our regularly scheduled programming.

ps...I did enjoy Terry's updates LOL!

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The sermon of the amount

We are planning to replace our broken furnace, aging roof, and make some other much-needed updates to our parish. Of course the cost estimate from the architect was lower than the actual bids received for the work. However, we must continue to ensure the comfort and safety of our parishioners so we will press on.

Like many parishes we are graying and many of our seniors are on fixed incomes. The few young families we have are struggling to stay solvent and feed and clothe their kids, and those in their early 20s are either in school or working minimum wage jobs. Not exactly a hotbed of liquid assests, is it?

We were throwing around some ideas tonight to help the parish contribute generously to the renovation. There has been some criticism in the past of Father and the Council "pressuring" parishioners to pledge a certain amount - an amount that would be more than 10% of their monthly income.

We do not want anyone to feel pressured. We want them to give proportionate to their income. However, we don't want to set the bar so low that we are caught short.

How would you "market" this renovation? (And Catholic guilt won't work around here!)

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Confidence in Christ - do you have it?

"You must believe in the love of Jesus for you. How do you give Jesus love? Before all and above all, by your confidence in Him.

This word, confidence, summarizes the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity."

Think about this before you read on. Really.

"St. Therese understood that it is our state of misery which attracts mercy.

We have been trained in the habit of looking at our dark side, our ugliness...we think about examining ourselves, yet we do not think, before, during and after the examination to plunge ourselves with all our miseries into the consuming and transforming furnace of His Heart which is open to us in a simple act of confidence."

When was the last time you told Jesus that you loved Him?

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With thanks to Fr. Jean J.C. d'Elbee

Do you think you are a....

...joy for Jesus?

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Wedding Dresses - Royalty Edition

I love Autumn Kelly's wedding dress. However, she left the Church to marry Peter Phillips, son of Princess Anne. If someone in the royal family marries a Catholic they have to give up their place in the line of succession. Even though he was like 642nd in line for the throne. (OK, he was actually 11th in line or something like that.) Stupid Autumn.

OK, so the late Mrs. JFK, Jr. isn't royalty but it seemed right to include her as she was considered married into American "royalty." I am sure this "slip dress" trend helped start the strapless trend. Bo-ho-ho-hooooring! I hate her dress. Period. And she got to kiss JFK Jr. Grrr. Hmm....John Jr. is another Catholic who left the Church to wed.

Grace Kelly. Perfection. The veil is exquisite. High necked but not a turtle neck. Love the sash.

Jackie Kennedy's dress. Her mother loved the design, Jackie didn't. I don't either. I keep thinking she had wheels sewn onto the front of her dress. The only redeeming feature of this dress is the bodice - snug without being unseemly. It does seem a teeny bit revealing for a Catholic wedding of 1953.

My ultimate favorite - wedding dress of then-Princess Elizabeth.

The embroidery was symbolic, everything that should be covered is, and she wore it with a real diamond tiara!

And THE Royal wedding dress of all dresses - the Diana DUD. I HATED this dress! It was fussy, precious, unsophisticated. Not to mention it looked dirty and wrinkled! Gee, adjectives that could describe Diana at many turns of her life...

I know she felt like the lamb going to the slaughter at her wedding but I am sure when Charles saw this silly, girly dress she wasn't the only one that felt that way.

May she rest in peace.

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Wedding Dresses of First Daughters

Luci Baines Johnson, 1966

The sexual revolution is gaining momentum yet she's as covered up as an Amish woman.

Truthfully I love this look - the black flip, the gossamer veil,

the sense that she is dressed up to go somewhere special.

(And how many 19 years old do you know today that dress like this?! Yes, she is only 19.)

Princess Anne...er ...Chelsea Clinton in her strapless Vera Wang.

Is everyone else as tired of strapless as I am??

Amy Carter, 1996

She not only swiped the flower arrangement off

the dining room table but the tablecloth as well.

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Holy Hour ideas

Need ideas to structure your Holy Hour at Adoration? Look here.

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August - the month dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

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