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Follow your own advice

Today I had lunch with a couple of ladies from work. One lady, in particular, clearly had some things on her mind that she shared with us. She was pondering her situation in life mostly surrounding her boyfriend and what she should do since he doesn’t seem to be making steps towards marriage though he says he is. We chatted for over an hour (oops!) all about it and I had lots of great advice. I was feeling pretty good about my advice and thought later about what I had said.

I thought about the advice I had freely offered and how I was once in her shoes though at the time, I had no idea what to do about it either. Further thinking led me to other pieces of advice I had so kindly doled out. I like to give advice, you know, because I’m so wise. Kidding. But I do give advice a lot. Usually I like to recommend that people try seeing from someone else’s point of view. I kept thinking about other pieces of advice I had given from the hefty, “Leave him!” advice to the more lowly, “Don’t forget to lock your car.” A resonating theme kept coming back to me: (more…)

Guardians

If you have ever been to my Facebook page and perused through some statuses you’ll know I take public transportation. ‘The bus’ is a fascinating mode of getting to and from work or to and from home, however you see it. I see many things. Interesting things. Boring things. Alarming things. And people. Alarming people.

Today, though, as I was on the bus I looked over and saw a human being. Not just ‘a guy’ or a person over there, but a human being. For a moment, God allowed me to sense the presence of this human being’s spirit and as notable, this human being’s Guardian Angel. I didn’t see anything. No clouds parted or rays of sunshine protruded from anyone’s head, but for a brief moment I sensed the presence of this person’s magnificent Guardian.

A priest once told me a good way to keep close to God as I rush through my day is to greet the Guardian Angel of the people I pass by. Well, this morning I greeting this Guardian. To sense the Angelic was as frightening as it was powerful. I knew this being was there. (more…)

Sanctified Suffering

Each of us has, each day, ample opportunities to ‘offer it up.’ That age old saying that our parents and grandparents echoed over and over throughout our childhood is probably some of the best advice you’ll ever get in life. God gives us enough opportunity for sanctification in this life that there is no need to suffer in any fire (eternal or temporary.) When something bad happens to us, what do we do? We get on our knees and pray, “God! Please take this away!” Not a bad prayer as no discussion with God is, but there may be a better way. First and foremost, thank God. I recently stubbed my toe. It hurt. It really really hurt. (Now I’m complaining. Did you see how quick that was?) Anyway, not only did it hurt but it hurt for several days. I may have smashed the nail but since it was a painted nail, I couldn’t tell and it hurt too much to touch to take the paint off to see what I had done. I couldn’t wear shoes for a few days because socks cut off the circulation causing it to throb and then, because I wasn’t wearing protective shoes, I bumped into everything or someone stepped on it at least a few times a day. My first thought was to pray my mom’s prayer, “My Jesus, pardon and mercy through the merits of your Sacred wounds. Eternal Father I offer thee the wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ to heal the wounds of our souls.” I said it, (more…)

Jesus wept

I was feeding my baby, Hazel, this evening and I was trying to think of something to think about. Funny, to think about what I should be thinking about but nursing a baby takes some time and I’d rather focus my thoughts than let them drift from pointless unmemorable thought to unmemorable thought that will vanish within moments of something actually worth thinking about coming into my head. I had already said my Rosary today and while meditative or contemplative prayer would be great, it would be interrupted soon by either another child or my husband or those unmemorable thoughts that would creep in and I wanted to focus. So I thought I’d meditate on some verses from the Bible. Not having a Bible in arm’s reach I started to think of verses randomly and John 11: 35 popped into my mind.

Now those of you who are Protestant, and maybe some really exceptional Catholics will jump on this verse as being famous for something silly actually, but fun when you’re a child and bragging about all things ‘Bible’ that you know. Yes, John 11: 35 is the shortest verse in the Bible. It is at least, for the King James Version and other versions have a variation, but for my purposes, we’ll go with it being the shortest. The longest verse in the Bible, should you be wondering, is Ester 8: 9 and children will often tout that they know the shortest and longest verse of the Bible and recite the shorter and then hem and haw when you ask them to recite the latter. It is long, and no. I do not know it. (more…)

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. Here I’ll be talking mostly about Faith and Family. These are my number 1 priorities in life. My number 2 priorities are chocolate cake and other cakes. In that order. We’ll talk about cake here too.