Category Archives: Prayers

Buckle up, Lent has arrived

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Lent. 40 days (6 weeks, not including Sundays + 4 days) if you’re wondering exactly how Lent is 40 days #CatholicMath

Anyway. A time of penitence (prayer, fasting and alms giving) in preparation for Easter. I appreciate the Lenten season in that it is a more simplistic time, to be quiet and rest. Contemplative, cozy. Perfect during this wintry season as we also look forward to Spring and I’m sure that is no coincidence. (at least, here. I am well-aware of the opposing weather cycle on the other side of the globe). And many years I struggle mentally and spiritually heading into Lent.

What do I give up? Who/What will we consider our “charity”? What extra prayer time will I add? So many decisions. What are my motives? Many years, I’m in a good headspace and these are easy choices but other years, like this one, it’s not so cut and clear. Enter the Holy Spirit to grab my attention—and this has happened more than once. You’d think I’d learn. Apparently I am stubborn.

This year, we started Fat Tuesday with “food poisoning” that actually was a belly bug I so charitably shared with the hubby, so basically—the gift that keeps on giving. Talk about your redemptive suffering. Attention granted.

I now have a few of those Lenten questions answered and feel quite confident the remainder will reveal themselves. Moral of the story: Matthew 7:7: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Spoiler alert: I/we will be praying for YOU this Lent!

May your own Lenten journey involve less bleach and more quiet and rest in the Spirit.

Peace

School situations and changes..

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Homeschool? Private? Suck it up at sucky public school?  All options we will be likely weighing over the next few weeks or months.  I know, “Do not worry about tomorrow….”.  Got it.  BUT…..what’s the difference between worry and pre-planning?  There is a good chance that due to a house sale our kids will lose the address that keeps them all in schools we have been happy and lucky with.  Except for our rising 9th grader who will keep his school due to the academy  he is in next year.

So our choices are:

  • suck it up for the schools we will be zoned for.  even though the middle school is NUMBERO UNO on the “Top 25 Incidents” in our area and the ONLY one with gang related activity (reported anyway).
  • find the funds for private.  right.  let me run out and check the garden to see if that lettuce is growing some Benjamins.
  • homeschool.  at this level.  I don’t even know if I’m capable.

So.  Just pray.  Chime in if you got some ideas.  I’m allllllllllll ears!

We all need a little help

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As much as we ALL want to be supermom, superdad, super everything, we really can’t do it all.  Not on our own.  In fact we are the most productive and successful when we receive a helping hand, thought, word.  Today’s video reflection on the USSCB site was dead on.  The Hubs was up before me and told me about it (I generally just do the Daily Readings and occasionally the podcast reflection), so I watched for myself.  On the mark.  Completely.

USCCB Daily Reflection 5/7/14

Happy Humpday y’all!!!

Divine Mercy and Pope Saints

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Today we are blessed with 2 new saints to our army of intercessors, friends to pray with us, friends to pray for us and friends who were once Pope.  Jenny is hosting a little gathering of memories of Saint Pope John Paull II and there are a ton of great stories, photos and pictures,  a great way to remember the man and to celebrate the saint!

My contribution contains no personal photos of up close and in person with JPII and no earth-shattering and profound moments except that when I came back to my faith in the late 90s, early 2000s, John Paul II was Pope, when my world fell apart in 2003, John Paul II was Pope, when we entered our season of separation and survival, John Paul II was Pope, as we ended our first school year in that season, John Paul II passed away.  The foundation had been poured and the example of his own mercy, forgiveness and love for humanity penetrated deep into my own heart and has since been lived out in ways that can only be accredited to “By the Grace of God” through the living example of Pope John Paul II.  Not only did he pray for mercy for the whole world (see a portion of the Divine Mercy Chaplet below),  he sought to bring his whole flock to the faith and love of Christ and he fought hard for the youth, knowing that the  young are our future.  Perhaps that is the message that sticks with me the greatest.  And so today, Divine Mercy Sunday, we welcome 2 new Saints and rejoice in the example of faith in their lives and hopefully go forward sharing our own faith with all we come in contact with, that we may all come to love and trust in the saving power of Christ in His endless Mercy, Compassion and Grace.

Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

I’ve tried to find out a bit more about Saint John XXIII as well and just loved his quotes I found this morning on the Catholic News Service…because we should all find some humor in life (which I often struggle with among the daily “must-dos”)!


1. Visiting a hospital he asked a boy what he wanted to be when he grew up. The boy said either a policeman or a pope. “I would go in for the police if I were you,” the Holy Father said. “Anyone can become a pope, look at me!”

2. “It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about the serious problems afflicting the world and I tell myself, I must talk to the pope about it. Then the next day when I wake up I remember that I am the pope.”

3. In reply to a reporter who asked, “How many people work in the Vatican?”, he reportedly said: “About half of them.”

4. When a cardinal complained that a rise in Vatican salaries meant a particular usher earned as much as the cardinal, the pope remarked: “That usher has 10 children; I hope the cardinal doesn’t.”

5. When he went to visit a friend at the nearby Hospital of the Holy Spirit in the evening, the nun answering the door said: “Holy Father, I’m the mother superior of the Holy Spirit.” He replied: “Lucky you! What a job! I’m just the ‘servant of the servants of God.'”

6. Not long after he was elected pope, Blessed John was walking in the streets of Rome. A woman passed him and said to her friend, “My God, he’s so fat!” Overhearing what she said, he turned around and replied, “Madame, I trust you understand that the papal conclave is not exactly a beauty contest.”

7. He once wrote: “There are three ways to face ruin: women, gambling and farming. My father chose the most boring one.”

8. When he was cardinal and patriarch of Venice, the future pope was talking with a wealthy city resident and told him, “You and I have one thing in common: money. You have a lot and I have nothing at all. The difference is I don’t care about it.”

9. When a journalist asked the then-patriarch of Venice what he would be if he could live his life all over again, the future pope said, “Journalist.” Then he said with a smile, “Now let us see if you have the courage to tell me that, if you could do it all over again, you’d be the patriarch!”

10. A Vatican official told the pope it would be “absolutely impossible” to open the Second Vatican Council by 1963. “Fine, we’ll open it in 1962,” he answered. And he did.

Today as we welcome these Saints we can pray,

“Saint John Paul II and Saint John XXIII, pray for us and the whole world.”

Choosing blindness. Choosing sight.

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The Gospel at Mass John 9:1-41, was a (long) version of the blind man who was healed by Jesus–with the clay, on the eyes, the washing in Siloam and BOOM.  Eyesight.  Followed by a grilling by the Pharisees and their indignation at Jesus actually having THE NERVE to heal on the Sabbath and therefore could not be of God.  Because, the Sabbath.  Rules.  Regulations.  All that.  The no-longer-blind man’s bottom line:  listen, all I know is I was blind, and now I see; Jesus healed me.  Which had me focusing on the fact that Jesus can heal me.  And you.  and you.  and you.  The only kicker is we have to be present to Him and follow His instructions, even when they are simple.  Which is tricky because we want everything to be so complicated and sometimes, it’s just not.

Fast forward to the seriously STRONG homily by one of our Deacons in which he flipped it onto us, the Church.  When we come to Mass on Sunday, we listen, we go through the motions and then people EN MASSE routinely exit the church after receiving the Precious Body and Blood.  They just keep on truckin’ out the door.  (I don’t know if this occurs regularly in your church but it is a regularly HUGE occurrence in ours, to the tune of a 100 or so people performing this ritual each Mass)  So, why do they come?  Habit?  Ritual?  Obligation?  To receive an eternal “insurance policy”?   Because it doesn’t work that way;  our deacon reminded us in the Scripture, Luke 13-26:27

26 “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

27 “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’

Do we choose blindness in spite of the gifts Christ has for us?  He awaits us every hour of every day, open arms, judgement free, love overflowing and yet……sometimes we are blind.  Blind to the fact that it is not about putting in face time, we have to work at our relationship with Christ.  We work at our marriage.  We work at our friendships.  We work on our parenting skills.  Being Facebook friends with someone and not acknowledging their presence in real life doesn’t cultivate a relationship anymore than warming a pew on Sunday only to bolt after Mass to get the prime table for coffee and donuts afterward.  Jesus wants a relationship with us and it takes effort.  If we but follow His lead, we too, can see.  And live.  Not just trudge through.  Because once upon a time, He led me through the darkness to the light, He held my hand in Mass as I wrangled 4 children to teach them the Faith and show them that even in the darkest of the dark He will never leave you.  And I am living proof of that.

The Deacon invited all who didn’t have  a legitimate reason to leave immediately following Holy Communion to go ahead and leave.  Now.  A woman behind us exited the pew…..but returned shortly (probably needed a tissue)…..aside from that I didn’t see anyone leave and it was a lot more crowded than usual after the final blessing than usual.  It was a long overdue reminder and one I took to apply personally as well.  If we can’t be present, 100% present in our intentions–because let’s be real, we all have distractions during Mass–but if our intentions aren’t 100% genuine, we need to reflect on WHAT we are doing.  WHAT kind of relationship do we expect with Jesus if we treat him so casually? None of us is perfect and I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve had mind wander during Mass for a zillion and one reasons over my lifetime, but my intentions are genuine.  He has held my hand.  He has carried me through a haze of confusion and desperation and He washed clean my eyes and scrubbed my heart.  He has shown me a life so vivid and full of hope that to live in any other way than to cultivate a relationship with Christ would be choosing blindness after seeing the light.

You see, once I was blind and now I see; that has made every difference in my life.