A post from sunny California

Realized I never posted this- wrote it back in 2010. I like what I wrote so I thought I'd post it now anyway.

Yesterday, Joel and I attended Mass at St. Lawrence The Martyr Parish near our son's home. The priest who said Mass spoke about the reading for the Gospel which told the familiar story of Mary and Martha. Mary listens to Jesus speak as Martha bustles about preparing a meal. She asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her. Jesus replies that Martha is concerned with many things, and yet has not chosen to do the most important thing- listening to Him. He tells her that Mary has chosen the better part, "and it will not be taken from her."

Oftentimes when our children were growing up and I heard this story, I would think: I think this passage of scripture means I should spend less time worrying about whether the beds are made, or even the brownies baked. Instead, I should think that the time I spent doing whatever it was that was needed that day to ensure my children were happy and well grounded in their faith, was the best possible use of my time. (Not to say that I should forget about the mundane tasks as those are an important part of providing an orderly existence for children too.) Our lives often seemed centered around the mess that five boys create, and how to get it back to "normal". I think I should have listened more to my own sense of what was really needed and less to my concern about what the neighbors would think if they saw my wreck of a house!

Those days are over, unfortunately. But I am still here. So now, my question has to turn to "how can I best serve God with the remainder of my days here on earth?"

I think the answer is the same, in a sense, without small children in the picture. I have to live my life in a way that will provide a home for my husband that is peaceful and full of the joy of being married to him. In addition, I need to listen to God for the lessons he is offering to my life. I find that in some ways, I have been trying to do just exactly that, by being a member of the Legion of Mary and performing my service hours, by writing this blog, by trying to treat every person I meet as I would treat Christ himself, and in a small way, by my art. It is comforting to realize this, but I know that I cannot be too complacent. I know I can do more to serve God. The question only remains-- what more can I do? I think I need to be open to what God will ask of me, and willing to say "yes!".

Defending our Faith against the anti-Catholic media, jokes, etc.

OK, so I'm wondering if the anti-Catholic, anti-priest, anti-Pope jokes are getting to anyone else? I sure have had my fill. I love to watch the late night television shows, but I am sick and tired of the same old jokes. OK, so some bad stuff happened. Move on. The Catholic Church learned from their mistakes -- of course, there can be no guarantees that there will be no more mistakes. But then, the various other faiths who are not constantly on the hot seat like the Catholic Church is, have had problems too in this area. I would virtually guarantee that they haven't learned from the experiences that our church have been through. I would be very surprised to find that there are no incidents of child molestation in other faiths, or other groups that have a lot of contact with children. They just keep it hidden better.

Do you know how I know? Two of my children were molested as boys-- and guess what-- it wasn't the Catholic Church that was responsible but the Boy Scouts. I think that the numbers of incidents of molestation in both groups are comparable. But there has been no public outcry for change in the Scouting program, or in the Presbyterian Church, or the Jewish faith, etc. I am not against the Scouts, but the outcry that has come against the church is out of proportion to what has happened in other cases. I believe most of the people promoting the scandal are from outside the church-- from the heavily anti-Catholic media and Hollywood.I also believe that this constant stabbing at the Catholic Church is responsible for a lot of the loss of membership that has been experienced over the decades. I may be wrong, but I don't think so. Has anyone ever thought about  what an outcry there would be if other faiths were constantly assaulted like the Catholic Church is?

I think it's time we as Catholics did something to defend our faith, our priests and our Pope. Anybody have any better ideas than me? So far, the only thing I've come up with is either to boycott programs that consistently slam our church, or to write massive amounts of letters to sponsors of said programs that we are boycotting THEIR products. That makes the most sense to me. I'd love to hear what any one else thinks.

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) )

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.

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.