Friday, December 28, 2012

He Is Alive in Me

Be born in me today Jesus please. There is no place in my heart and life for you to be born if I am filled with self or anger. Two things can't occupy the same space.  Am I going to send you elsewhere like the innkeeper?
Don't go away, please.  I'll make room! 

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Spiritually Pregnant Always

A new day and a new life which introduces a new world. Life is forever different .  He has come. Jesus is here.  He is in my world eating and drinking like I do, struggling to keep warm or cool.  Sometimes angry and sometimes crying. Jesus became Iike me.
I pray to become more like him and spiritually pregnant everyday.
Happy birthday Jesus! 

Monday, December 24, 2012

Last Day of The Pregnancy

When the Angel Gabriel left Mary she must have wondered if it really happened. She was stunned. But by today she knew not only was it real but the birth was imminent .  Today is the last day of that pregnancy.  Mary couldn't wait to see the person she'd been carrying inside herself for 9 months.  What will Jesus look like? Who will he look like?  Will I be able to take care of the baby Messiah?

Expectancy.

Do people look at me and expect to meet Jesus?

Friday, December 21, 2012

Spiritually Pregnant and the Word Becoming Flesh

It doesn't just happen on 12/25 you know.  The Word became flesh when a woman returned a wrapped package under the parish giving tree despite the fact that her hours at work were cut.   And when....
  • my sister took my mom into her home to live with her even tho mom has Alz and my sister is on disability
  • my friend, her husband and their 4 kids drove 2 1/2 hours to get to Staten Island with supplies for victims of Superstorm Sandy
  • someone I know intervened in a domestic violence situation in order to help the victim
  • our parish decided to visit the 300+ individual senior citizens in our community who are 80 or more years old
  • my neighbor filled my deflated tire with air and mows the lawn and helps to shovel the snow
  • a co-worker gracefully endures complaints coming from a client or another co-worker
add your own examples

Monday, December 17, 2012

suffering while spiritually pregnant




People wonder where God is in their pain.  One of my favorite books addresses that question really well but for now just one quote from The Shack.  "Your pain was blinding your vision of Me." Mary was about 14 and unmarried, a horror in those days to an innocent girl and her parents.  Her fiance threatens to leave her but changes his mind in the end.  They have to travel on a donkey to Bethlehem while she is 9 months pregnant and she leaves her mom and everyone she knows behind.  Could she be thinking: 
Where are you God?
Why aren't you helping me? 
Is this the way you want it to be?
This is how the Savior is to be born?
Is this the way you want your Son's life to begin?

After travelling like that her labor begins and Joseph knows he needs to find a home for them.  Defeated, all he ends up with is an animal stable.  How emasculated he must feel!  What kind of a provider is that?  He knows from an angel's message that his wife is about to give birth to the Son of God and all he can provide for them is a stable.   Joseph could complain:
Where is God?
Couldn't he have found something better for us?
If this baby is the Son of God why didn't he help me find a decent home?
Why does God allow this?

Jesus is born and he sleeps in a manger.  No throne.  No home.  Just a poor, innocent infant who is heir to a kingdom.  This is what God chose for our sakes.  Jesus doesn't deserve this or anything that follows in The Story.  God chose this so that we could identify with him and he with us.   Jesus' was a life of struggle like many of our lives.  Staying close to the Father helped Mary, Joseph and Jesus thru it all. 
God, help us please.  Show us how to trust when things are tough.  Your own precious earthly family endured trials and challenges too.  If they had to, then why wouldn't we?  Teach us how to endure trials and remain faithful.



Friday, December 14, 2012

SPIRITUALLY pregnant and 10 days left

  God, I just realized I'm putting too much thought into the being pregnant part and not the being spiritual part.   I have NO idea what it's like to carry another life inside me so that was becoming a challenge that wasn't working well.  I'd love to be able to do that tho - to physically feel that connected to your Son, my Lord.  WOW. 
But I don't want Advent to be over without getting to the real exercise.  That is to bring Jesus to others simply because he is so much a part of me (your grace, not my doing).  Like a pregnant woman carries her baby everywhere she goes and could never even for a moment forget that, so shall I bring Jesus to others (humph. easy for you to say). 




I will carry his spirit when I talk on the phone or on the computer to others.  He's with me in the car when I deal with other drivers and they will in some way be affected.  I might pray for everyone on the road with me right now or for everyone i my line to pay the Parkway tolls.  Maybe I'll pray for the construction workers doing road repairs.  I could let an over anxious driver pass me and smile (!) as s/he drives by.  When a complaining person begins to approach me I may stifle my inward groan and remind myself I'm a Jesus-carrier.  When that person walks away from me will s/he be better in some unknown way?  Will my face exude gentleness, my words offer kindness, my body language be patience?  
With your help Father God, I will try.  We're 13 days into Advent with 10 days left. 

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

No One Knows I'm (Spiritually) Pregnant

Almost no one in my real life knows I'm spiritually pregnant.  It's like I'm carrying around this most marvelous secret.  Mary did, too, after Gabriel's visit.  Pregnant and unmarried, expecting Joseph to divorce her because how could even he believe this story?  "Conceived by the Holy Spirit".  My mind, my soul, my heart, even my body is smiling at my special secret.  Life is so different when you know you really carry Jesus with you everywhere you go. 

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Spiritually Pregnant week 1

December 8th ,2012
It's amazing how I find the kindness when I want to retaliate and the patience when I 'd like to be the opposite just because I remember I'm carrying Jesus.  I feel like I want to give him good example and I want only goodness to surround him as he ( spiritually ) grows within me.
It strikes me, of course, because I carryJesus in my heart and soul every day but without constant awareness of it.  I've been happy and peaceful these past few days because I know Jesus is within me.  But the joke is on me because he is always within me! So I can overcome my daily bad habits!  As long as i'm aware  of Christ's presence within me I can behave differently for him. I'm no longer doing the right thing because I believe it's the right thing to do and I should be doing it. I'm doing it for Jesus who is within me. It's a gift for him because I love him. 

Thursday, December 06, 2012

Spiritually Pregnant in Advent 2012

I'm Pregnant!!!! No, not really.  Mary's pregnancy with the infant Jesus is my focus this year.  
{see blog date 12/2/11}    But I've never been pregnant.  I have to imagine what it's like not only to be pregnant, but pregnant by the Holy Spirit after an angel appears to me.  Way out of my comfort zone!  I'll put a rubber band on my wrist and keep it there until 12/25 as a physical reminder that I'm  spiritually pregnant.   Advent this year is a time of expectancy which is a step beyond just waiting.  Something IS going to happen at the end of this Advent. 

While imagining that I'm pregnant with Jesus I realize that everywhere I go he goes.  Sure, he's just a tiny fetus (I know it's a boy!) but he is with me every single moment.  What I eat, he gets.  When I speak he feels the vibrations of my vocal cords.    He feels movements when I reach for something. 

I imagine the same kind of experience when I receive Holy Communion but this feels different and, sadly, more real.  Maybe because being pregnant is all day every day and my rubber band reminder that I'm spiritually pregnant never leaves my wrist.  After receiving the Body of Christ in Holy Communion and accepting his Presence within me, I somehow lose the experience by the time I get to the parking lot. 

The Baby is present when I'm impatient with someone.  If someone shows me a kindness he sees it too. We are a team, He and I.  We're are a pair-  two for one.  Inseparable every moment of every day.

Friday, November 30, 2012

I was a pain in the neck...maybe i still am

Author Robert Wicks wrote:
On the way to taking God and their mission seriously, some people do a detour and take themselves too seriously.  They become a pain in the neck to be with too.

A spiritual master was asked, "If I join this community how long will it take me to get some spiritual depth?"  The master said, "I guess about 10 years."
"Ten years?   What if I try really hard?"
"Then", the master said, "It will be 20 years." 

The above describes me.  And it has taken me more than 20 years to get to the place where I am.  That place is the realization that I don't have to work so hard.  All I have to do is be faithful.  And I don't need to step all over the graces which are in truth, the opportunities in life that allow me to stop and take a breath so that I could really realize what was going on around me.    If you can do that, then you can make a choice about what you want to do with your life because of that graced moment.  You choose a direction in which to move forward with your next step and that is the path to holiness. 

Driven.  Strong.  Determined.  Focused.  Intense.  Those words have been used by others to describe me year after year.  I was actually proud of that!  To me it meant that I worked really hard.  I had no idea there were bodies lying in the wake of my passions.  The turned-off, the intimidated, the fearful, the sincere innocents and simple genuine people.  I plowed my way thru them all, leaving them bruised and burdened.  Tornadoes do that, not Jesus followers.  During the first half of my life I could not have been deterred from my self imposed mission.

Today I look back at that person and smile.  I appreciate the energy and desire to give her all to God.  But on the other side of 50 I'm calmer about it all and more appreciative of simple, quieter moments.  Sorry, too, for the damage I may have done.  I have finally been gentled.  It's been 8 months now I I believe it's a real transformation.   I finally surrendered into God's welcoming and protective arms.  It's so much better there!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Clare's mom has Alzheimer's

 
this post is different from all the others  about catholic spirituality, nonetheless, it comes straight from my heart ..... 


Alzheimer’s normalized my mom her so that her behavior became very similar to many others her age who were suffering from the disease. At 80 years old CAT scans showed that her brain had significantly shrunk and the crumbling bones caused by osteoporosis shrunk her in size a tiny vulnerable woman.  My mother was part of that generation that respected elders and never questioned authority figures. That part of her personality remained, so that whether fractures or big bones broke she rarely complained. Even when the doctor asked she politely smiled in response and said, “Oh it’s not too bad.”
 Alzheimer’s creates another unpredictable person however. When my mother became this person she was lost then bossy. She was compliant then angry. At times, she was reclusive then anxious and agitated. We rode these roller coasters with her daily never knowing which person would wake up that day.
Because her own mother had the same first name, my mother always went by her middle name. When medical bills began to come in the mail however she noticed they were sent to the person with her birth name so she called herself that. She was going by a different name after 80 years of her life. That might have been easier to accept if her first name wasn’t mine also! When she didn’t know who I was and I gave her my name she replied, “That can’t be you, that’s my name.” She was right, of course but the factual accuracy only exacerbated  her self doubt and feelings of confusion. It was upsetting to me because my mother didn’t even know her own name now.
Lost. Unsafe. Vulnerable. Confused. Seeking confirmation and always wanting to go home. Home wasn’t a place of course, it was a feeling of being safe and knowing everyone around you. Home is predictable and routine. Waking up in Mom’s world was not that for her. She was uncomfortable. She was looking at us suspiciously as though she was trying to understand who we were and where she was and why oh why were we doing the things we were doing?

Other things were different now. Her life long dislike of chocolate and her preference for vanilla reversed. Blue was the only color she never liked and suddenly now it’s her favorite. She who walked for hours was confined to a wheelchair. My mother always cut her own hair, but she went with me to have her first professional haircut, mani and pedi at age 81. (The next day she began to peel off the pink color. After that we went with clear nail polish) She still liked to read so she read and re-read the notes on the white wipe-off  board everyday. Those notes helped to ground her and remind her who and where she was.

I couldn’t help but look at her sometimes and wonder who this other woman was! But I also feared that if I didn’t know who she was , neither did she. She didn’t know who she was, where she was and on bad days why she even existed. “ I can’t do anything for anybody and I don’t have money to give them” That was her frequent response to the revelation that she had 14 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren Pre and post Alxheirmer’s however my mother repeatedly said she didn’t have any favorites among her 6 daughters no matter how many times we jokingly tried to catch her up in this competitive sibling’s  web.   Mom worried about being evicted from her apartment because she never paid the rent (It was my sister’s place).  On long drives she feared she was being kidnapped and asked me to show her my drivers license. That still didn’t comfort her because she said I didn’t look like the person in the picture.

But this fearful sometimes sad, worrisome person was my mother. I was the first born of six and Mom and I always were close. Alzheimer’s disease not only confuses the patient but the family. She doesn’t know us and we don’t recognize her anymore. She looked like Mom but usually that was where the resemblance ended.   I went thru the grieving process when I lost my mother to Alzheimer’s. I guess that’s why I refer to her in the past tense. She is physically still alive, but many days she doesn’t even want to be. I hold on to this opportunity tho, with both hands and my whole heart. I love this woman for who she was and for who she is and I will hold her for as long as I can.

The new Mom I’ve gotten to know enjoys affection and even thanks me for hugging her. Our real Mom never liked being kissed, even by her children. She always used to close her eyes and tighten up her whole face if I kissed her on the cheek. That woman is gone now thank God. New Mom loves having her hand held and her forehead stroked when she lies in bed. One day during the summer, we went to church together and I forgot to bring a sweater to protect her very thin skin from the air conditioning. She didn’t complain of being cold, of course, but I reached around her with my left arm to rub her left arm and increase the circulation. To my complete surprise she stayed in that position, her head on my left shoulder allowing my left arm to wrap around her for the entire Mass. It was like a 45 minute hug and I was dumb-founded, thrilled and confused all at once. It will always be a precious, vivid memory for me.

I can barely imagine what it must feel like to live in a state of constant fear and worry. She doesn’t remember who she is even after being shown her ID or old pictures. She has to trust that we will return to the car if we run into a store for a minute. She is always afraid we’re going to run out of gas or that we don’t know the direction to wherever it is that we are taking her. Some days she refuses to take her medication and I believe she may be suspicious of what we may be giving her and of course, there is then the issue of time and death. Mom doesn’t know the day of the year, she doesn’t know her own age or whether the people she once loved are still alive. She must feel abandoned in a very stange world. When told repeatedly that her husband of 59 years died, she alternately thinks we didn’t let her go to his funeral or that we’re referring to her Father. Mom also refers to her Mother frequently, “Have I seen Mother recently?” I used to explain that this is the year 2012 and her Mother died in 1986 but I don’t do that anymore. A simple answer –not this week Mom – suffices. But with every short little answer I die a little. It’s like I’ve given up and I guess I have. My Mom is gone like all those other people from years past, except that she is still here.

The fear in her has one benefit – she allows us to protect her. She permits hugs and the tousling of her hair. She appreciates her feet being massaged and other kinds of affection. Old Mom wouldn’t allow that sort of thing! She has days when she trusts being in our care and goes compliantly wherever she is led. She’s appreciative and doesn’t want to be a burden because we “All work so hard”, She smiles and laughs and I just eat it up. I work harder at making her happy times even happier and re-living all the good old days with her. Her smile and sense of being comfortable is all I need now. Really – its all I need.

Sometimes Alzheimer is kind and permits laughter. There are days when you can accept it all as the new normal, like when the first place you look for your missing checkbook is the fridge. Doesn’t everyone store their important papers there? Or when you see Mom fingering the multi colored beaded necklace from a casino because she thinks its her rosary beads. We can somedays appreciate the sad/funny, too. In a hotel one night Mom was left in the bathroom to brush her teeth. When she emerged we realized that she used the tiny mascara brush and black mascara to brush her teeth……but she didn’t understand why my sister and I were laughing. Her new love for ice cream, chocolate of course, is a great help when trying to give her meds. At 83 years old, 4’7” tall and 88 lbs, Mom still worries about getting fat. She reminds us that she doesn’t want another baby. Everytime she got fat, she tells us, she had another baby! No more!

When she finally does “Pass on” as they say, “My Mom will have left me twice- the first time being when Alzheimer took her brain and her ability to know her daughters and herself. Even with that, however, Mom will be alive in my heart because whoever she is, she’ll remain my Mother and I will always love her.

Monday, July 23, 2012

prayers needed pls

My friend Barbara has breast cancer, 2 leaky heart valves and just completed stem cell replacement using her own stem cells.  Pls pray for her and her family.  Thank you!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Only By His Grace





Only By His Grace is a beautiful song by Ron and Shelly Hamilton (see link below)
"everything we do is by God's grace alone.
every loving word we say and every tear we wipe away."
It all come to us with strength provided by God.  I want to do good things for you God but I can't do any of them without the strength you give me.  You give me the idea itself to do good.  That is the nature of your life within me.  Your blood flows to my heart softening it and making it vulnerable to the pain of others.  My own nature is self absorbed.  My needs and wants have to be met before I can look outward.  But your grace encourages me to look beyond myself even when my own needs are unmet.  It's you God!  You give me the thought and the ability and opportunity to carry out the thought. 

Here's the funny part.  I get proud of myself when I deny myself and reach out to others.  Silly, isn't it?  Here, again I'm showing how self absorbed I am.   "What a good person you are.  You are generous in giving God this gift of self denial."   The reality is that you are love,  unconditional love for others that cannot hold back.  I just need to stay out of your way and say yes moment by moment...which I will do.....
Only By Your Grace. 
Ron And Shelly Hamilton -- Only By The Grace (Vocal CD)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Building 429 Song: Where I Belong

http://www.lyricshall.com/albums/Building+429/Listen+To+The+Sound/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=he32vwlKQPY


song:    Where I Belong
Sometimes it feels like I'm watching from the outside
Sometimes it feels like I'm breathing but am I alive
I won't keep searching for answers that aren't here to find

All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong


So when the walls come falling down on me
And when I'm lost in the current of a raging sea
I have this blessed assurance holding me.

All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong

When the earth shakes I wanna be found in You
When the lights fade I wanna be found in You

All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong
[x2]

Where I belong, where I belong
Where I belong, where I belong

Thursday, June 07, 2012

How To Love







Directions (long version):

  • Remember that good, warm feelings may or may not be present
  • NOT so "warm" feelings may actually be present but they must be ignored, swallowed, denied the opportunity to influence your actions
  • Act kindly toward the other
    • despite your own lack of time
    •  despite opinions of others, including the person you are trying to love
    •  despite what you've observed the other person say or do because it is all about you learning to love well and not about whether your judgements of the other person are  correct or not
    •  despite whether that person wants you to love them or appears to want to be loved by anyone at all.

short version:

Ignore your feelings and be kind to everyone all the time.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

IF I HAVE MY FATHER’S NOSE, WHAT IS HE USING?


I inherited my mom’s hair and skin coloring and I got my dad’s nose and ears.  The hair color is OK and I can dye it if I don’t like it.   The nose is not OK L but if I really wanted to change it I could have plastic surgery or use make-up to bring the focus to other features. 
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God
 and not from us.”  2Cor 4:7

As his child I also inherited God’s soul and His Spirit lives within me.  I have ‘a divine treasure in a clay jar’ (Lucado’s translation). It is as clear as the nose- or the ski slope- on my face.  Undeniable.  Inescapable.  Permanent.  It doesn’t really matter if I believe it or not.  It’s always there, like the roots that eventually emerge from dyed hair.  It’s not going anywhere.  I have God’s Spirit!  It’s cause for rejoicing and celebration.  I may not like my nose and I may experiment with a different hair color but in my soul is the unchanging image of God.  Amen!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Silence Between a Young Man and His Father


A review from the Gospel of Luke
God the Father put a star in the sky for the wise men to follow and an angel* for the shepherds.                   *(Angels also spoke to Mary about her pregnancy.  They spoke to Joseph and said it was all right to take Mary as his wife.  Angels spoke to Joseph about the escape to Egypt as well as the family’s return to Nazareth.   Much later and angel told Mary and Mary Magdalen, “He is Risen!”)
God spoke at His Son’s Baptism and at the Son’s Transfiguration.  The Son was silent at the River Jordan (although He must have smiled when His dad said, “I LOVE my Son!”).  When His dad proudly burst forth to Jesus’ friends at the Transfiguration, Jesus told his friends to keep quiet about what they saw.
Jesus at the agony said, “My Father, if it’s possible take this cup.”  His Father said and did nothing ( altho Luke says and angel came to strengthen Jesus.  Lk 22:43) He was also silent at the Crucifixion.
After 3 hours on the cross Jesus asked his dad why he abandoned him.
The response from heaven was profound silence.
I believe that God the Father couldn’t have done any more for me than when he remained silent as his son Jesus cried out,  “God, why have you abandoned me?”  Would any parent remain silent and allow his only son to suffer and die as an innocent at the hands of others?
Those watching said, “If he is the Son of God then let God rescue him” and “Lets see what happens.”   This is what happened.  The Father was silent and Jesus died.
It is finished.
                                                                             
For my redemption, that’s when it began. 

Saturday, April 07, 2012

Case Of the Missing Body


                                                     
The Case of the Missing Body                               
Holy Saturday Night

Soldier #1     So the boss wants us to sit here and guard the dead body.  If he wants to waste his money that way it’s fine with me.

Soldier #2    Yeah, well he figures Jesus’ buddies will steal it just to say he rose from the dead.  So I guess we’ll just spend the Sabbath watching this stone to make sure it doesn’t roll away

#1 (laughing)    Yeah that would be something to see! 

#2  Sure would!  Hey, what did you get when we rolled the dice for his clothes?

 Later….

The darkness is over.  The sun is up.  The Son is Out! …and the guards ran away.

                                                                                                      

 Easter is about surprises!
         
   v  Awesome splendor after torture and agony

v  Renewal and rejuvenation

v  Light after darkness

v  Faith turning into fruition

v  The proof after the promise

v  Spring following winter

v  Joy overcoming tears

v  Sunrise after the storm

v  Pure lilies with strong stems over disingenuous palms that float with the wind

v  Hunting for colorful eggs and not for the tomb’s missing body

v  Pastels not primaries

v  Letting go of my preconception about the way things should turn out and celebrating the reality of the way things did turn out

v  A king and not a criminal

v  Defeating the devil
                     add your own.........

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

ONLY READ THIS if u r over 40!

I'm so excited about this!  It all makes so much sense that I had to share it.  It's a great book about the spirituality of the "second half of life".    

 Falling Upward by R. Rohr  

In the second half of life we become (hopefully) a person of wisdom.  Wisdom happily lives with mystery, doubt and unknowing.  In such living, the mystery resolves itself.  In the second half of life
·        We return to simplicity
·        Even painful parts and people belong
·        If we’ve forgiven ourselves for falling we can now forgive others
·        We can hold sadness with less anxiety (St. John of the Cross’ “luminous darkness”)
·        Our superiority complex is seen as ego based and we learn to ignore it
·        Most attacks on evil, we learn, just produce another kind of evil and inflate our self-image
·        In the second half of life we influence events, work for change, quietly persuade, change ourselves, pray and forgive
·        This half of life is more about the 8 Beatitudes than about the 10 Commandments
·        Fewer words are needed
·        Life is more participatory than assertive because God has taken care of things
·        We no longer need to collect goods because it’s time to give back
·        We are now more than ever before in a position to change people but we don’t need to.

As St. Augustine put it in his Confessions,

“You were within, but I was without.  You were with me, but I was not with you.   So you called, you shouted, you broke through my deafness, you flared, blazed and banished my blindness, you lavished your fragrance and I gasped.”

This shining person is the goal of humanity and the delight of God.

Falling Upward by R. Rohr (Ch 10)

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Hallowed Be Thy Name

Even your name is holy.  It's not Emily or Robert.  Your name isn't Lisa or Michael.  They're just names.  You don't have JUST a name.  Your name is God, Jesus Christ, Savior of the World.  You are the very Spirit of unconditional love and mercy for others.  "At the name of Jesus every knee should bow whether on the earth or under the earth and every tongue proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. "  No one says my name and genuflects.  No one bows their head as they say the name of anyone I know.  But you, my Lord and God, are SO full of goodness that even the sound of your name is awesome and deserving of respect.
,,,,oh my gosh!

Monday, February 06, 2012

Exposition of Blessed Sacrament: Is that YOU, God?


As Catholics I think we seem to have lost the sense of awesomeness of Jesus’ presence in the monstrance and perhaps in Eucharist.  Weekly we watch the priest and the Eucharistic Minister evenly distribute the consecrated hosts among all the chalices.  It appears to be a rather mundane task. A host may fall to the altar and the priest puts it into one of the waiting chalices.  The wine is poured, hopefully not too much so that it has to be consumed in a large gulp by one of the attendants later, but enough to be distributed to anyone who wishes to partake of the Precious Blood.   Along with the repetition of a weekly (or more) activity, these ordinary tasks relegate the extra- ordinary to a mundane level as the church body observes.   So during the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament altho what we see in the encasement surrounded by a solid gold design may not be fully appreciated, it IS the Body of Christ.


Centuries ago when saints and heroes died the relics were divided, including body parts.  We may find this practice distasteful in 2012 but it was done.  At the Last Supper Jesus made the bread and wine become his Precious Body and Blood.  But imagine for a moment that he hadn’t used those simple forms.  We’ve seen and heard of 1st, 2nd and 3rd class relics.  They are pieces of the saints’ skin, their clothing or maybe something that was touched to the saints’ clothing that is considered a valued object.  I was recently given (and treasure) earth from Saint Thérèse of Lisieux’s 1st burial exhumation on 9-6-1910.

 So how might we react if the next time we attend Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament there was a lock of Jesus’ actual hair or a piece of bone or skin in the monstrance?  What if the golden monstrance contained a splinter of wood from Jesus’ own cross that had been covered with Our Lord’s blood?   It is the Body of Christ.  Smooth white round wafer or not.

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

We're square pegs in round holes

That's why we don't fit in this world! 

Jesus, you are right!  We don't fit here.  Like square pegs in round holes we never will fit.  I always thought I wanted to fit so I tried hard to do that.  I wanted to feel comfortable on this earth.  I don't and I won't so I give up the struggle.  I surrender.  Empty is a much more peaceful place to be.       Jn 17:6-19

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Be Still

In a world filled with weapons of mass destrAction, silence is a radical response. 

Fullness of joy does not equal fullness of schedule. 

The mute language of prayer is listening to God.

If God is the one chasing, then I want him to catch me.  After all, to whom else should we go?

At Jesus' baptism by John and at the top of the mount of Transfiguration God the Father gave us only one instruction, " Listen to him." 

from a great video called Be Still and Know That I Am God Ps 46:10 by www.foxfaith.com

Sunday, January 01, 2012

Choose YOUR saint for 2012

go to  acatholiclife.blogspot.com

Mine is St. Gertrude Cemensoli, an Italian.  She had tremendous devotion to the Eucharist.  Her favorite saying is 'Jesus, loving you and making others love you."  not TOO tough of an act to follow, right?
                                               Geltrude Comensoli (1847-1903)