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.

The Seven Sorrows Of The Blessed Virgin Mary

At a meeting at our parish several weeks ago, we talked about the devotion to the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Mother. I put this devotion into my prayer life that day. When saying the prayers and meditating, I found myself wishing that I had something to guide me in my meditations - to help to make sure I was not missing the point, as I knew I was meditating on each of the seven Sorrows as a mother would, but not necessarily from the viewpoint that the Blessed Mother might have.

For those new to this devotion, Our Lady promises (According to St. Bridget of Sweden)

The Blessed Virgin grants seven graces to the souls who honor her daily by saying seven Hail Marys while meditating on her tears and dolors:

1. "I will grant peace to their families."

2. "They will be enlightened about the Divine Mysteries."

3. "I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work."

4. "I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my Divine Son or the sanctification of their souls."

5. "I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives."

6. "I will visibly help them at the moment of their death--they will see the face of their mother."

7. "I have obtained this grace from my divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness, since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son will be their eternal consolation and joy." 

The Seven Sorrows are: 

The prophecy of Saint Simeon.

The flight into Egypt.

The loss of the Child Jesus in the temple for three days.

The meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross.

The Crucifixion.

The taking down of the Body of Jesus from the Cross.

The burial of Jesus

So I've been searching for a meditation that would work for me. I found some early on, but they were too flowery which I found distracting, and would get so caught up in the language that I had difficulty remembering to say the Hail Marys!  I thought that maybe I would re-write it in language that was not so archaic. So to make sure I found the one that was the best for my purpose, I did some more searching (I found that using different search terms got me some other meditations that worked much better for me.)I thought I would share the meditations I found in case there is someone that has had the same difficulty as me.I am pleased with these so will not do the re-write that I was thinking of.

Tonight I found this meditation -- I think this is my favorite. It is in modern language, and is very much in a story form that works for me. Then I also found this page that is a rosary of the Seven Sorrows. (A very nice fellow commented that there are 15 promises with the Seven Sorrows Rosary by the way.)  I found the pictures of the paintings that go with each of the separate sorrows on the Rosary site to be quite nice and helpful to visualize the situation that Our Lady was in at that time.

This is a lovely site and  this site as well. I hope that the links to these sites help to promote this wonderful devotion.

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.

Thoughts from my retreat..

Recently I went to a retreat at the Washington Retreat House. It was lovely in every way. Father Thomas Collins from Richmond, VA was the presenting priest.

A few things stand out in my mind that I want to write down so I don't forget them. One was:

Father said that there are two ways that you don't get to go to Heaven... One is, that you allow yourself to make excuses The other is that you allow yourself to carry resentment.. The first prevents you from receiving God's Grace. The other prevents you from doing what we are supposed to do, and that is spreading God's Love to others. There is so much that these two thoughts can shed light on.At the time, I was knee deep in  having a huge argument with my sister. It put it in perspective that my resentment wasn't serving God, solving the argument or helping my own state of mind. And making excuses about how it was justified wasn't helping any of the three of us either.

Another thing Father said was that many people invite God to the wedding by having the ceremony in church but forget to invite Him to the marriage. This also can lead us to think of so many ways it is true: How many people do you know that while they get married in church, somehow fail to show up the following Sunday? And how many do not think of asking God to help them in keeping their vows to each other? Or how many pray together? (You know that old sage "The family that prays together STAYS together"?  Even better to remember is that other one that goes "Wherever two or more are gathered in My name, there am I in their midst".

These are the things that all of a sudden popped into my head tonight that I don't want to forget. Thought it might interest someone too.

We are in God's Mind Even When He Isn't In Ours

At Mass this week, Father spoke about how a Monsignor friend of his had made the comment that if God ceased to think of us, we would cease to exist. He then spoke about how this at first seemed weird but after thinking about it, it made sense.

The more I thought about it, the more things that occurred to me. We are always in God's care, and He knows our every thought, our every need. Thus, whatever our need, it is OK to ask God for it. He cares about the most insignificant hair on our heads, so it follows that He cares about whatever we are concerned with at the time. If we ask Him for help on something, He will always answer our prayers. He may answer "No" but He will always answer. Further, the more we speak to God about our needs and our concerns, the closer to Him we grow. If you have a friend that you speak to daily several times a day, you grow closer to that person, not more distant.


One more thing Father said that made me think: He said that we cannot appreciate anything until we have had the lack of it. So, for us to appreciate sunny days, it follows that we must have rainy days, and so on. If this seems elementary to some, I have to say that I write this not for anyone else that may read this but for ME-- that I will not forget that in order to know the joys of life, you must have some sad times.

In order to feel close to God, you MUST have had some times in your life that you feel FAR from Him.

To appreciate being satisfied, you must have been hungry at some time.

And further, in order to keep remembering these things, you have to have them happen more than once for most of us.

God is so very, very good to us. We have only to realize that He loves us so much more than we could ever imagine, and He wants us to be happy!

The 36th Annual March For Life

Today was an amazing day-- January 22, 2009. For the first time, I went to the March For Life in Washington, DC. I've always wanted to go-- but it was always so far away, and/ or I had small children, or a job, or something else to make me think twice about going to the Rally and doing my part to end the Holocaust against our nation's preborn children.

Then last fall, we moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia. Last week when I heard that there was a group going by bus from our Church going to the March, I realized that I COULD go this year-- Fredericksburg is only about an hour away from Washington, DC-- and I do not have small children any more--and I do not have a job currently because of our recent move from Raleigh NC. There was no reason on earth why I could not go. So I did.


The day started with Mass at our church, St. Mary's in Fredericksburg, VA. Then we boarded buses to DC, and arrived at the March about 11:30 am. We went onto the Mall near the Capitol Building, and listened to the great music that was going on at that time. About noon, the actual Rally event started. There were a lot of speakers-- giving words of encouragement, stories of regret at having had an abortion, and concern about the Freedom Of Information Act, now being proposed in Congress. This portion of the program went on for about two hours. Each speaker had incredible things to say. These included words that made me think about the state of our country, and the state of humanity where we can even consider allowing laws that sanction putting to death a tiny baby merely because it's inconvenient-- or we don't want to admit to our parents that we are having sex at that point in our lives.Speakers included members of Congress, ministers, rabbis, and finally, priests. People from all over the country and actually, all over the world spoke about the need to end the killing of these tiny defenseless babies.


About 2 pm, we started the actual March. The weather was gorgeous, the people were so incredibly wonderful-- cheerful, happy, determined, and hopeful. We walked down past the Capitol Building, turned and went down past the Supreme Court, and then down the other side of the Capitol Building. The way was blocked off for a while as a motorcade went by, so I'm not sure we went as far as originally planned. However, the accomplishment was the same-- we had stated our purpose, and our determination to end this horrible culture of death that has infected our nation.


I am so excited to be involved in this effort. If I am called Home tonight-- I want to be able to say to St. Peter that I was part of this movement, that I did not just stand and allow it to happen. I want to be able to say that I tried to help to stem the terrible flow of babies dying and women who have been victimized by the loss of their children.