Tuesday, December 28, 2010

A New Kind of Comic...

I found a new Comic Strip worth watching! It's done by a priest and it's very funny. check out this link and you'll find his work...  http://offbyamile.com/2010/12/21/rather-fishy/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog

Monday, December 13, 2010

Quote of the Day: "A little modesty goes a long way..."

Courtney Kampa had an interesting comment on her blog on Catholic Womanhood the other day and she referred to something she had written in column for Seventeen Magazine's Style Council. 

We each love the freedom of making our own choices, but there is one rule that we all adhere to. One detail that threads through our triple ensembles: a little modesty goes a long way. We don’t mean prudish or frumpy. Let the record stand that we in no way condone 18th century garb as a closet go-to. Modesty just means getting dressed in a way that brings attention to your eyes. Not to mention, covering up a little bit is often a vastly more flattering option to something scanty. We want to stress the importance of a dress that doesn’t tell-all. We want girls to understand the impact their eyes can make, instead of just their … assets. And to never underestimate simple beauties, like your collarbone or your neck. Instead of opting for a plunging neckline, consider something a little less revealing. Getting dressed requires an important balancing act: if you have a short hemline, try countering it by making sure you’ve got a less-open neckline. Or if your jeans are form fitting, consider wearing a blouse that doesn’t cling.


It’s these small things that will set you apart from the crowd. A little bit of modesty also attracts the right kind of boys— boys who want to respect you, protect you, and keep your best interests at heart.

to read the rest of her comments click here: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/cw/post.php?id=59

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Wow, Finally A Movie About A Good Priest!



This story is intriguing and I totally suggest you follow this link to read about this plain ordinary priest who lived a good life, died young and influenced numerous people to be good people!


http://www.thelastsummit.com/us/downloads/SPREAD%20THE%20WORD%20-%20The%20Last%20Summit%20-%20A4.pdf

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Advent 15 - Prayer Time

It's time for Advent 15 - where you take 15 minutes a day during advent to turn off the cell phone, pager, television, and other distractions and pray and listen to God for 15 minutes.
You will be so much more peaceful this season and excited too about Christ's birth! The REAL reason for the season.
You know, when Mary was pregnant and waiting, she was probably spinning yarn to make his blanket, fixing meals for Joseph. Then Joseph sprung the bad news on her - they had to travel to Bethlehem for the census. She would have to make the trip on the back of a donkey, nine months pregnant.
Why couldn't she have just stayed home with her parents?
I've never heard this explained, unless for the census they didn't trust your word about having a pregnant wife at home and she had to come along. How callous can tax collectors get?
So while you are spending your 15 minutes in prayer think about Mary. She was trying to prepare for her son's coming too, but she had to prepare for the journey, fix some food to take along, (no fast food places then) take along baby stuff cause she would have had a woman's intuition that she would deliver while they were in Bethlehem!
Riding on the back of a donkey may have given her plenty of time to think about everything and pray, but it still wasn't easy balancing on that stubborn animal's backbone, nine months pregnant.
Think about Mary as you pray and thank God for all He has given you!
Peace!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Congratulations to Archbishop Timothy Dolan!

The United States Conference of Cathoilic Bishops met this week to elect a new President of the Conference.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York won the election. Originally from the St. Louis, MO area, Archbishop Dolan is a gregarious, dynamic, orthodox and beloved Archbishop. He was born and raised in St. Louis, MO, the oldest of five children. He studied at the St. Louis Preparatory Seminary South, received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cardinal Glennon College and his Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical North American College and Angelicum in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1976.

According to Deacon Keith Fournier of Catholic Online, he has an infectious enthusiasm borne of a sincere, living faith.. He is filled with the joy of the Lord.  "Wherever he serves, he is dearly loved by his priests and deacons. That is because he has a pastor's heart and knows the importance of a Bishop's relationship with his clergy. He is also a dynamic and inspiring communicator and solid teacher of the truths as taught by the Magisterium of the church."   http://www.catholic.org/hf/faith/story.php?id=39202

 The president of the conference is the "voice" for all bishops in the United States. The purpose of the Conference is to promote the greater good which the Church offers humankind, especially through forms and programs of the apostolate fittingly adapted to the circumstances of time and place. This purpose is drawn from the universal law of the Church and applies to the episcopal conferences which are established all over the world for the same purpose. http://www.usccb.org/whoweare.shtml

Monday, October 18, 2010

Do We Compromise Too Much?

Read the following news story and think about this. Have we compromised too much when we are taught to not judge, to "live and let live", and accept each other's differences? In an effort to not shun sinners, have we begun accepting their behavior as ok, or even worse - we have no opinion at all?  How do you know when to speak up and when to forgive?
While we are taught to love the sinner but hate the sin are we really hating the sin and trying to help the sinner turn from his/her ways? We cannot straddle the fence of judgement, if we do, how can we teach our future generation right from wrong? 
Jesus loved the sinner, but He DID remind them to "go and sin no more."  Here is the story from Catholic News Agency:  (http://www.ewtnnews.com/new.php?id=1932)

Addressing a conference in British Columbia, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver asserted that Catholics today have failed to transmit the faith to the next generation, which has resulted in young people losing their “moral vocabulary.” The Denver prelate made his remarks on Oct. 15 at the “Faith in the Public Square” seminar sponsored by the Diocese of Victoria. He opened his speech with a reference to Shirley Jackson’s famed short story “The Lottery.”


Jackson’s story – set in rural 1940s America – features the tale of a small town that gathers every year to implore an unnamed force to grant a good corn harvest the people. Each year, town members draw a piece of paper from a wooden box to see who will be chosen for human sacrifice. A young mother ends up drawing the ominous black slip and is stoned to death by the community as part of the annual ritual.

Reflecting on Jackson’s piece, Archbishop Chaput cited professor Kay Haugaard’s analysis on how young people in academia in decades past would react passionately to the tale with intense classroom debate and discussion.

“She said that in the early 1970s, students who read the story voiced shock and indignation,” Archbishop Chaput noted. “The tale led to vivid conversations on big topics – the meaning of sacrifice and tradition; the dangers of group-think and blind allegiance to leaders; the demands of conscience and the consequences of cowardice.”

“Sometime in the mid-1990s, however, reactions began to change,” he said.

“Haugaard described one classroom discussion that – to me – was more disturbing than the story itself. The students had nothing to say except that the story bored them. So Haugaard asked them what they thought about the villagers ritually sacrificing one of their own for the sake of the harvest.”

“One student, speaking in quite rational tones, argued that many cultures have traditions of human sacrifice,” the archbishop continued. “Another said that the stoning might have been part of ‘a religion of long standing,’ and therefore acceptable and understandable.”

Another student brought up the idea of “multicultural sensitivity,” saying she learned in school that if “it’s a part of a person’s culture, we are taught not to judge.”

“I thought of Haugaard’s experience with 'The Lottery' as I got ready for this brief talk,” the prelate explained.

“Our culture is doing catechesis every day. It works like water dripping on a stone, eroding people’s moral and religious sensibilities, and leaving a hole where their convictions used to be.”

“Haugaard’s experience,” he added, “teaches us that it took less than a generation for this catechesis to produce a group of young adults who were unable to take a moral stand against the ritual murder of a young woman.”

“Not because they were cowards. But because they lost their moral vocabulary.”

“Christians in my country and yours – and throughout the West, generally – have done a terrible job of transmitting our faith to our own children and to the culture at large,” Archbishop Chaput remarked.

“Instead of changing the culture around us, we Christians have allowed ourselves to be changed by the culture. We’ve compromised too cheaply. We’ve hungered after assimilating and fitting in. And in the process, we’ve been bleached out and absorbed by the culture we were sent to make holy.”

“We need to confess that, and we need to fix it,” he asserted. “For too many of us, Christianity is not a filial relationship with the living God, but a habit and an inheritance. We’ve become tepid in our beliefs and naive about the world. We’ve lost our evangelical zeal. And we’ve failed in passing on our faith to the next generation.”

Renewing Catholic catechesis then, Archbishop Chaput added, “has little to do with techniques, or theories, or programs, or resources.”

“The central issue is whether we ourselves really do believe. Catechesis is not a profession. It’s a dimension of discipleship. If we’re Christians, we’re each of us called to be teachers and missionaries.”

However, the Denver prelate noted, “we can’t share what we don’t have.”

“If we’re embarrassed about Church teachings, or if we disagree with them, or if we’ve decided that they’re just too hard to live by, or too hard to explain, then we’ve already defeated ourselves.”

“We need to really believe what we claim to believe,” he stressed. “We need to stop calling ourselves ‘Catholic’ if we don’t stand with the Church in her teachings – all of them.”

In his concluding remarks, Archbishop Chaput added that “if we really are Catholic, or at least if we want to be, then we need to act like it with obedience and zeal and a fire for Jesus Christ in our hearts.”

“God gave us the faith in order to share it. This takes courage. It takes a deliberate dismantling of our own vanity. When we do that, the Church is strong. When we don’t, she grows weak. It’s that simple.”

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

God's Will - And The Lesson Is? I Don't Get It!

I honestly laughed out loud when I read this quote from C.S. Lewis, author of such classics as "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" - all the Narnia books,etc,  you get the picture. Anyway, he said:

"We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."

I have found myself taking God to task on this very thing over the last several years as I helped my parents battle through illness after illness, and dealt with my father's eventual death and my mom's widowhood;  helped my brother and his family survive a very premature born child (she was born at 22 weeks and is a beautiful 3 years old now!) own and try to run and try to grow a family business, help my husband survive being let go of the main bread winning job in the household and not crash financially, and finally take on a full time job myself in addition to our business and keeping our own household running and raising my children!

Honestly, God, I'm tired...
So, really, when I tell myself God knows what He is doing....I honestly have to double check with Him sometimes.
 "Are you sure, Lord? I mean, you know how very weak I am...could we just review what this lesson was supposed to be about, cause....I'm just not getting it."

I love to read and have read hundreds of stories about people in situations like mine and they get to the end, look back and realize how much God's hand was guiding them to an certain end or enlightening moment. Then they sit down at their computer and write a story about it or blog or stand up in front of a church group and talk about it.

I'm looking back...I still don't get it. And you know what? I'm really scared that means I'm not finished with it yet...you mean there's still more lesson, Lord?
Just how strong do you think I am?
Because I'm NOT THAT STRONG!!! 
You may know something I don't, but couldn't you just give me a little hint???
 Let me know if I'm on track?

In any case, I'll keep moving forward, I mean,what else are you going to do?
 I do trust the Lord...and I DON"T doubt His intentions....
He's pulled us through some mighty tough times and if I could get the lesson done with I could sit down and write about those times too. But the lesson doesn't seem to be finished...I don't have time to sit down and write about it...or do I?
Is the lesson about moving forward while living the lesson?  ...hmmmm... 
Okay Lord, I still don't get it.
Is that your point?
 That Trusting thing...it's not about seeing the answer ourselves is it?
 Rats, I thought I had Him on this one.
Okay, thanks, Lord! Love ya!

Monday, September 27, 2010

The Dating Scene

I had an awesome conversation the other day with a young woman. She is Catholic and she’s been dating a young man who is not Catholic.

“Should I feel bad not dating a Catholic guy?” She asked me. Considering that I dated and actually married a non Catholic myself, I had to answer, “No, why should you feel badly?”

“Because everyone says you should only date another Catholic. But I’ve seen so many Catholic couples who don’t follow the guidelines of the Church. They say they are Catholic, but they still believe abortion and birth control is okay. They have sex before they get married and other stuff. I wanted to find a guy who shared my morals and values and respects my faith. Not someone who just says he’s a Catholic but he doesn’t believe.”

I think she had a very valid point. What good is saying you are Catholic, if you don’t have The Faith?

What good does dating a Catholic just because they have “the name” but they don’t or you don’t really believe and try to live the faith?

This young woman and man have had serious discussions about raising children in the faith, how important the faith is to her and what it means. And he admires and respects her faith life.

My own marriage began as an inter-faith marriage. My husband had been baptized in a Protestant religion, but wasn’t brought up in a church. In fact, his family had bad feelings about the Catholic church because of issues that had occurred within their family and the Church. So he wasn’t too anxious to join the religion his family had misgivings about. But he had better morals and values and respect for me than any of the Catholic guys I had dated! He respected me as a woman, as an equal and admired the faith I had. He agreed to raise our children Catholic. I felt like God was calling us together and while it was hard to explain that to my family, they finally understood that this was a really great guy.

For three years he would come to Mass with me each week. We prayed together at home and I prayed for him to receive the grace of faith someday. Finally, right after our first child was born and baptized, it dawned on him what he was missing and he signed up for RCIA classes. We took them together and I found out even more about my own Catholic faith.

Today, 28 years later he is a Eucharistic Minister in our parish, he has done Eucharistic Adoration faithfully for 15 years at 2:00 AM and he is an excellent example of living his Catholic faith to our three children.

I looked at this young woman and said, “When you hear God calling to you this person, you have to trust it’s for a reason. As long as you always put God first, He will steer you in the right direction.”

So, while you are in the dating world, keep this in mind. Pray first, search for someone who matches your values and morals, pray for the grace to find a person who will be open to your Catholic faith, if he/she doesn’t already share it, and pray especially for an increase in faith for both of you so you can spend Eternity together in Heaven.

Friday, September 10, 2010

YOU Are Not An Accident of Genetics!

I was reading the "Word Among Us" monthly magazine the other day. It has wonderful daily meditations by the way if you ever want to subscribe it's worth your while!  But anyway, the one for September 8,which is the birthday of the Virgin Mary really struck me as really great.
   Have you ever sat and wondered what you were doing here on this earth? Kind of like the Christmas movie, "It's A Wonderful Life" sometimes you just ponder on just what is your purpose? What impact are you having on anything?
   This meditation focused on Mary's purpose and how beautifully God had it planned that Jesus could not have been born if not for all his ancestors, Mary included, who God set in place at the right place and time.
  So too have we been placed in our time and place for a purpose. Maybe that purpose is only known to God. Maybe we have an idea of what it is, most times we don't. But whatever our purpose, we should still choose to follow the Lord and watch as His plan unfolds for us. Our lives are woven into a tapestry of God's perfect plan for the world.
   So what is the lesson? It's to not let ourselves get caught up in the little squabbles.  Don't let little concerns become sources of deep anxiety or rifts between us and others. Keep problems in perspective. Pray about them.
   You weren't an accident of genetics! God had a plan for you centuries in the making! He won't leave us here all alone! He's right there with us, guiding our path.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

All Work And No Pray...

Repeat this mantra:
All work and no pray makes for burnout
All work and no pray makes for burnout.

Personal and professional burnout can have devasting effects in our lives, but they don't have to.  Now, how do you achieve enlightenment, Grasshopper? By keeping this list of "to do's" and "to don'ts":
Pay attention to the warning signs
Begin your day with the Creator
Observe the Sabbath day
Be a person of prayer
Restore laughter
Practice meditation
Be grateful
Lighten up

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Calling of Every Man Is The Dignity of Every Woman;
The Vocation of Every Woman Is The Integrity of Every Man
From Zenit- by Genevieve Pollock
From an interview with Edmund Adamus, director of Pastorial Affairs for the Diocese of Westminister, England:
  
 There is a fundamental truth underpinning John Paul II's adequate anthropology -- one might call it
theology of the body in shorthand. It goes something like: the calling of every man is the dignity of every
woman; the vocation of every woman is the integrity of every man.
   In other words -- beset as we have been over many decades but more recently since the global onset of gender theory -- more and more people are beginning to realize that the feminization of masculinity and the laddish culture that haunts the development of young girls and women is not providing the answers to life's deepest questions.
   John Paul II, as we know, in his catechesis invites us to 'go back to the beginning' to seek in the truth of the
order of creation, something of what we dare to say is the "Divine imagination." That dream of God the Father Creator is that his daughters and sons in all relationships, but especially the marital, sexual one, be infused with the serenity and tranquility of our first parents.
   This is not just being open to life in procreation, but respecting the expression of God's life in each other --
seeing one another with the eyes of God himself. The interior gaze, as John Paul II called it, is crucial to male-female relating, especially for men because our DNA means that we are wired to remember the beauty and goodness of what we see and look upon first before we are captivated by what we hear, sense or feel.
So it is incumbent upon men to rejoice in this very masculine charism to see in women their intrinsic worth
and beauty, precisely because they are women and no other reason. Thereby in small actions and greater ones they exhibit countercultural signals against the selfish, hedonistic wasteland that is the objectification of women for sexual gratification.

For more of this article click on this link:   http://www.zenit.org/article-30134?l=english

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Suicide...

   A friend of mine came to me today to ask for prayers for her family. It seems that a wonderful young man, my friend's nephew, had decided to take his own life. My heart cries out for this young man who must have been searching for answers and never found them and gave up hope.
   In the last 15 years I have encountered three young people who were near that giving up hope stage. Thank God they felt like they could talk to me about it and change their minds. Too often a young person doesn't feel like there is anyone they can talk to or who will understand them or judge them. Too often they are left alone, smiles on their faces, faking their way through life, letting people think they are okay. Too often they are NOT okay and desparately need someone to talk to, lean on, listen without interruption.
   God loves every person...EVERY person! He cares about EVERY person.
   You can NOT say that God doesn't care because their is so much evil in the world. God did not create evil. Mankind choose to be evil. God wants them to be good and forgives ANYONE who asks Him for forgiveness.
   If you have ever thought about suicide...please think about this: I love you no matter who you are, I am an ear to your worries, desparation. God is your anchor - hold onto it until you get to shore and talk to someone! Talk to me, talk to someone, pray to the Lord who DOES hear your voice. He sends you people in your life who can help - open your eyes and see them!
   Please, your life is worth everything to God, to me, to other people in your life.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Second Chances

You can start over!
You can decide to be chaste again and regain your virginity spiritually and emotionally. Turn to God for REAL love. Allow Him to love you and be forgiven. Accept His grace and know you are so precious to Him. Be the person God created you to be!
Check out these links for more reading and information:

http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/YU/ay1194.asp

http://www.wrtl.org/sexandpregnancy/abstinence.aspx

Monday, July 5, 2010

To Get Everyone To Heaven

   Remember when every big corporation had to have a Mission Statement? It seemed to trickle down to where even small schools, small businesses and churches began writing a mission statement.
   Many of these "mission statements" were very wordy, involved and far from being simple. As if just stating what it was you were in business for wasn't enough.
   I have my own business statement. It wasn't because I looked around at all these churches and schools, business and stores and thought I was missing something. It was simply in answer to that question everyone asks at some point in their lives. "Why am I here?"

   In the old days, Catholic schools used something called the Baltimore Catechism which listed questions about the Catholic faith and then the answers. In recent years, this way of learning was put down as just memorizing the answers about your faith life, when you were supposed to be living those answers. But the biggest question was always, Why are we here? or, For what purpose do I serve in my life?
The answer in the Baltimore Catechism was, To know, love and serve God.
Now I think that's a great answer, but as I said, during my generation we were pushed to go beyond just mere reciting of those words into doing something about it.
   So, hence came about my own mission statement: My purpose in life is to get to Heaven and get as many people as possible there with me!
   Shortened down that has become - "Get Everyone To Heaven"
   While I don't exactly postulate how I'm trying to do that in my mission statement - do I really have to? Do I have to list all the ways I plan on going about that plan or is it enough that I just do it?
Preach the Gospel to all, if necessary use words says St. Francis. And I hope that's how I'm helping myself, my family and anyone else around me, get to Heaven. My actions no doubt speak louder than words.

   This is hopefully a good thing, except for those times in my car where it seems I always lose my patience and good attitude about the world and my fellow man.

   But I think we could all make this simple statment our OWN mission statement. And not only our mission statement but our MISSION.
   Getting your family to heaven should be more important than making them happy, wealthy or healthy. Honestly, we need to make the journey a good thing, but let's make sure we're on the right ride toward the right destination!

Monday, June 28, 2010

I Hope You Dance!

When I meditated on the word “guidance” I kept seeing the word “dance” at the end. Doing God’s will is a lot like dancing.


When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn’t flow with the music and everything is very uncomfortable and jerky. When one person lets the other one lead both bodies flow with the music. It’s as if two become one body, moving beautifully.

The dance takes surrender, willingness and attentiveness from one person, and gentle guidance and skill from the other. Once again I became willing to let God lead.
Dance together with God, trusting Him to lead you and guide you.
And I hope you dance!