Veronica's Veil

Today, I was reading a small booklet on "Devotion to the Holy Face".  More on that in a later post. Picking up the book, I wondered if any image of Christ's face was considered "The Holy Face", or what? 

This led me to google "Veronica's Veil Image". This is one of the images that came up.I find it to be fascinating. This account,
(Veronica's Veil Found?)  Part of the article compares the Shroud of Turin image with this one, (it says that the images are, essentially, identical). Part of it is about the fact that the ability of the fine gossamer fabric that the image appears on, is not paintable. So if the image is not paintable, what created it? 
)on the "Catholic Culture" website, goes into some detail about it.

I hope you find the article, and especially the image, to be as fascinating as I did.

Saw "Letters To God"...

Just had to post this-- I saw "Letters to God" last night with Mike and Sonya. It was lovely. No sex, violence or romance even. Just about how powerful an example of one little boy's faith and trust in God can be. A truly nice film-- such a nice change from the usual "stuff" Hollywood puts out. I highly recommend it-- not sure it would be appropriate for small children but it was a lovely film. In a way I wish a movie like that had been out when I was about 6 or so as at that age I became terrified of death when my grandfather died. I think a movie like this would have answered that fear quite well. 


Here's a trailer.

Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen And Have Believed....

I am visiting our son Michael and his lovely wife Sonya in Raleigh NC this week. I went to our old parish, St. Andrew's, for the evening Mass. It was lovely- still decorated for Easter, and as always, everyone there is so nice-- friendly, and very prayerful, and reverent. Most stay for the entire song at the end of Mass, etc. It was really a nice thing to be back, if only for one day.

Anyway.  Father Thomas gave a lovely sermon about St. Thomas. He reminded us of the Gospel we had just heard, where Thomas said that unless he put his fingers into the nail marks in Jesus' hands and his hand into Jesus' side, he would not believe. Then of course, a week later, Jesus gently tells Thomas to put his finger into the nail marks, and his hand into His side. He wants Thomas to not only see, but BELIEVE. Christ says, "Blessed are those who have not seen, but believe!". Maybe we can answer our own unbelief sometimes with that Scripture passage. We haven't seen, but we can believe.

Father mentioned that Blaise Pascal, a famous scientist, mathematician and philosopher, pondered over the fact that there are doubters of Christ's Resurrection.  His answer to them in part, follows (I highly recommend that the entire piece be read as it is very interesting. I have linked the passage to the source I found it on - the passage I am quoting comes about two thirds down the page.)

Fifth and finally, the lives of the disciples were transformed such that they were willing to die for their conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead. After the crucifixion of Jesus, his followers were disheartened and depressed. The one who they had believed to be the Messiah, the promised Savior of the world, had died in the most dishonorable way possible, crucifixion. They scattered and fell away, but within weeks they were leaving their jobs, gathering together and committing themselves to proclaiming the Gospel that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God, who died on a cross to pay the penalty for sin and then was raised to life seen alive by them. From an earthly perspective, they had little to gain in return. They were often hungry, ridiculed, beaten and imprisoned. Ultimately, most of them were brutally executed in torturous ways. Why were they willing to proclaim this Gospel to their death? Because they were absolutely convinced that they had seen the resurrected Christ.

I found this explanation to be absolutely riveting. All the people who deny that the Shroud of Turin is real, who give whatever (false) reason that Christianity is not the Truth, cannot deny that countless people have died for their faith. Among those were many who saw, spoke to and ate with, touched, were healed by JESUS himself!  How can this be denied???

Blessed are they who have not SEEN but have BELIEVED!!!
(The painting at the bottom of this post is called "Stoning Of St. Stephen"  by Adam Elsheimer (1576-1610) )

My Conversion Story

Today I was at a Legion of Mary meeting and spoke to Father about one of my children who is having some difficulties. He mentioned a couple of things which will be food for thought in future postings. The thing that really got me excited in my conversation with him was a book he mentioned "Surprised by Truth". The library at church had a copy of the sequel "Surprised By Truth 2"-- I took it out.

I went to a restaurant and ate my lunch, and then spent the best half hour of intense reading in a long while. The book is about the reasons behind the conversion of several people who have converted to Catholicism, which resonated with me since I am a convert. So I decided to tell my story on my blog. So here it is.

My earliest memory of going to church was probably in a Unitarian Church. I remember it was filled with colored light from stained glass windows-- I was very impressed. I was about 4. That was possibly the first time my parents took me to church. They did not go very often. My dad worked most days- even Sundays- at a gas station. We were pretty hard up and he didn't have a choice about working or not on Sundays- but truthfully, although he was Christian, he was not really a churchgoing guy. My mother couldn't drive in those days. The next time my sister and I went to church was about a year later. We went with our next door neighbors to their church-- it was an Episcopal Church. I don't know about my sister, but I was amazed-- the church was huge. I had to go to the restroom during the service and I remember being terrified that I would never find our friends who had brought us again-- it was just so big. Our neighbors on the other side were Catholic. I remember the girl that was between my sister's and my ages showing us her statues of the Blessed Mother and of Christ, and her rosary. We didn't have anything like those items at our house, and I asked my mother about them. I don't remember her answer-- but it was not encouraging, you can bet.

Then  we moved to the country, and my mother tried to start taking us to church. We went first to a Community Church, and then to a Baptist Church. (I still remember the pastor there's sermons-- I was terrified-- he yelled a lot it seemed to me!

Three years later, we went to my cousin's wedding. He was a Catholic convert. At the wedding, everyone was knelt on the kneelers several times during the service. "When in Rome-- do what the Romans do" -- right?? So when they knelt, I knelt. I remember my mother looking down the pew at me, and the look on her face spoke volumes. She was not happy. I could not understand why - it did not seem like a bad thing to be kneeling. Weren't we supposed to kneel in prayer when we said our prayers next to the bed at night? How could kneeling in church, where it seemed even more appropriate, be wrong?

I'd had exposure at that point to five different churches. In my teens yet another neighbor took my sister and I to church. That was a Presbyterian Church. That made it six different churches. I noticed that each church said it was "the" way to Heaven. I felt confused. How could all these churches be the only way? I started praying every night that God would lead me to the best church. I believe my parents are in Heaven. I have to believe that, but of course, only God knows for sure. BUT- I do believe that the Catholic Church is the One Universal Church that is the Church that Christ spoke about to St. Peter "Upon this rock I will build my church".

So, when I started to date my husband, who had had his fill of non Catholic girlfriends who not only weren't Catholic but hated Catholics, he said (after he asked me to marry him of course lol) that he could not marry a non-Catholic. It seemed that I'd been waiting to be asked to be Catholic since that wedding almost ten years before. In addition to my husband, there were several people along the way whose faith just made me sit up and take notice. It just added up to -- I wanted what they had. I knew no other people at my age that had such a firm faith. Although my faith journey has not been entirely smooth since my baptism, (I did have some rocky sections) when looking back over the course of the years, I thank God for His calling me to become Catholic. It is a joy.