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Praying the Rosary can be a challenge. The 15 minutes required to complete the meditation (for some reason) appear as 15 hours, longer than a session of heavy cleaning…or working out. Should you manage to overcome the “time constraint” and actually pick up some beads, you are faced with new obstacles. You must sit idle and focus – kind of like when you binge watch Netflix, only not. What’s more? You are expected to meditate, not only upon the words of the various prayers, but upon the Mysteries of the Rosary depicting key events in Christ’s life. Needless to say, the Rosary is not for the faint of heart.

European officials seem to think that planning about what to do when an asteroid heads their way is a good idea. I think they're right. A SpaceX cargo run to the International Space Station arrived on time, but the flight's experimental reusable booster didn't land properly. Actually, it crashed.... I started writing about asteroid impacts, which reminded me of ice ages, dodos, and responsibility. This isn't the most tightly-organized post I've ever done. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

A few weeks ago, while entering our church I saw a stack of prayer cards on a table.  I found out through one of my Facebook followers that  Saint Expedite  is the patron saint of procrastination. You can read the rest at Being Catholic ... Really .

I write for Catholic 365. Most writers already attract a lot of exposure on this new site. The editors are looking for new writers, as well as for people to sign up for their newsletter. Sign up to Catholic 365 newsletter for your chance to win “The Gospel According to Morty”. Just go to their site at  http://www.catholic365.com/contests/giveaways/Jan2015/Morty/ “The Gospel According to Morty” is a collection of faith essays by humor writer and recovering atheist Bill Dunn. The title essay is the story of Mordecai “Morty” Thunder, the unofficial 13th apostle and cousin of James and John. Morty was an eye-witness of Jesus’ ministry, and he refutes the claim that Jesus never laughed, and explains that joy and laughter are crucial aspects of the Christian life. Also included in the book are these essays: “A Connecticut Yankee in King Jesus’ Court,” “Is the Real Presence Really Real?” and “The Unauthorized Homily.” read more

A whisper. A touch. A strong attraction or desire. A fork in the road. A turning point. God draws near and we want to follow. Sometimes his call is subtle. Other times it is confusing. Often we are led in a whole new direction. John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God." The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.  Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, "What are you looking for?"  John 1:35-37 He walks by, without saying a word, yet he has your full attention. What are you looking for?  You don't know. You don't answer... Full Post:   http://www.restfulwaters.net/what-are-you-looking-for/

What is your prayer routine?  I have to admit, mine is not very impressive when compared to  Brandon Vogt's !  The fact that he engages his small children is award-winning parenting. You can read the rest at Being Catholic ... Really .

I asked myself today, "Do I understand the Holy Spirit?" No, I don't, but here's what I have learned in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity, equal to the Father and Son. He is called:: Paraclete, Advocate, Counselor. He is also called:: Spirit of Truth, Spirit of Promise, Spirit of adoption,  Spirit of Christ, Spirit of the Lord,  Spirit of God. He is Holy. He anoints. He Heals. He Transforms. He writes on the human heart. He teaches. He lives. He gives strength in our weakness. He brings us into communion with God. Read more at:: His Unending Love

A friend, who is an Oblate Brother from Portugal, has always detested Canadian winters. Usually, he simply wants to hide from winter with its icy, raw coldness and grey skies. This year, he decided to tackle his grumbling attitude head-on looking for winter’s beauty and blessings. He inspired me to praise God for winter. It is time to welcome winter. Beautiful snowflakes absorb sound waves, Over a pure, white earth. It is time to discover beauty in winter and thank God. read more

According to the Church calendar, this is the first week in Ordinary Time. The weeks are referred to by ordinal numbers, which is why they are called ordinary. There are 34 of them. In the usual sense of the word ordinary , these weeks are not special seasons like Advent or Easter. But is any week actually “ordinary”? Considering that out of the zillion or so planets and other things floating in the limitless universe, our little planet daily sustains our lives, I’d say that any week is extraordinary. The fact we human beings can think, create, imagine, choose, and love, unlike other creatures such as the billions of insect species, I’d call that extraordinary. click to continue

Living an  unequally yoked marriage  is not easy, especially when one person is an atheist and the other decided six years into their marriage to convert to Catholicism. Whatever your faith denomination, or not, as the case may be, here are some quick Do's and Dont's that I've collected that may help you get through some of those tougher moments. Do ask your children to pray for your spouse.  I don't know where I heard this, but  children's prayer's are powerful . Maybe it's that scripture verse  Matthew 19:14 . Simply praying as a family for them to have a good day, or a safe flight is perfect. Don't tell your children to pray for the conversion of their parent's soul.  Don't create a divide in your marriage this way. In essence what you're doing is pitting your spouse against the rest of the family and if what you want is peace in your marriage, do your best to eliminate unnecessary us vs them scenarios. Do participate in church

I have written several times about guided meditations I do with my young boys. Now I am working with my oldest, who is in 7th grade, to help him take the next step in mental prayer. He is a choleric, and I hope to write in more detail about this method in my upcoming book A Spiritual Growth Plan for Your Choleric Child. I plan to make a template for children to fill out as they practice. Here is the method I am planning to use for my eldest now. I will show you an example along with the method. 1. Read a small section of the Gospels. First, choose one of the four Gospels to pray through from beginning to end. Then choose a passage of 10 to 20 verses. For this example, we’re using Mark 1:1-11 , last Sunday’s Gospel. Read it silently and slowly. 2. Use your senses. Record the sights, sounds, smells, etc. you would encounter if you were present when this story took place. Brainstorm as many as you can think of. Here are a few for our example: John’s camel hair

Just over a year ago, Pope Francis gave the world his Apostolic Exhortation  Evangelii Gaudium ,  in which he extends an invitation: I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. So how are we doing? Check in at Praying with Grace to take a little prayer quiz!

I’m not sure if they are still around, but do you remember the “Love Is…” cartoons? They had simple little drawings and a completion to the “Love Is…” sentence starter that almost always made you say “Aww! How sweet!” You know: Love is…sharing your last cookie Love is…going skating when you’d rather be at the movies Love is…holding hands under a starry night sky Lately (okay I say “lately” but what I mean is in the last decade or two) I notice that just about everything I do could be a completion of a “Life is…” sentence starter. read more here

I see the tree cradling Your Body as You are delivered from its wood.  Oh, Blessed Tree to be blessed to hold Our Savior's body!  Shreds of flesh and blood absorbed in its fibers; deep, thunderous stains of heaven in the wood.  Iron nails, hardened and tempered in the fire, by the metal smith who pounded them, not knowing the nails would  be blessed to hold You prisoner on the Cross.  Blood stained, the nails are cast off to the side.  The crown, the crown You wore on the cross, the crown saturated with the storm of blood, hair, and flesh ripped from Your skull lays next to the nails.  King of the Jews!  King of All! Your Mother holds Your body and weeps in silence.   Her tears clean your face.  The storm is silent and past.  Your Mother gently wipes Your Sacred Contenance with her veil.  She carries Your Blood in her heart and on her hands.  Angels surround You both.  They worship and adore their Lord.  They give strength to Your Mother, the first Tabernacle of Yo

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(From Facebook, via SkyNews; and BBC News; used w/o permission.) ( Clarissa Jean-Philippe , and Ahmed Merabet : two of 20 dead so far, apparently in response to Charlie Hebdo's editorial policy.) Some of the 20 known dead are important by my culture's standards, others not so much.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Even though you've sought forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, do you still find yourself burdened with regret? Susan Bailey from beasone.org offers a prayerful way to use your imagination to let it all go. Click here to read ...

Michael Keaton pays tribute to his Catholic family at the Golden Globes. You may view the video at Being Catholic ... Really .

Before Advent, I began looking (here) into our calls to be heroes of the faith in our everyday lives.   Little you and little me: heroes of the faith. Imagine..... (continue)

He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." Why. Why did He desire it, and for how long? He is God, how long can God desire one Passover? I'll tell you how long, since the fall of Adam and Eve. Before there was a Passover, God desired this one. Why this one? Because it is a sacrifice offered that would NEVER be rejected by God... TO READ MORE...CLICK HERE!

My words alone will not convince an atheist. Yes, Catholics need theology and apologetics, but these disciplines will  not convert  anybody, because Christianity is not primarily a moral theology or a philosophy, but a relationship of love. By focusing upon the reality of  our Christian experiences as they truly are, Christ becomes a living Messiah not only to us, but a visible light to others. Photo Credit:  Flickr/angelofsweetbitter2009 The contemplative  learns  about deep trust and complete abandonment to One he knows to be beyond all understanding.  The mystic does not have all the answers; he is not afraid to admit that he does not understand everything and he certainly  does  not berate or belittle those who are searching. The true mystic  experiences  God as unknowable, not an object nor a thing to be studied.  God cannot be boxed in, defined because He is a mystery. Such  experiential faith  reveals itself in the ground of our being.  This is where dialogue with atheis

As I'm writing this, 19 folks in France have died because — it's complicated. Assuming that the Kouachi brothers had religious motives for killing folks at the Charlie Hebdo offices is, I think, reasonable: but it's an assumption. Assuming that Charlie Hebdo's distinctly irreverent treatment of Islam led to this week's attack is — that's complicated, too.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

January 10   St. Gregory of Nyssa (330-395) For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.  2 Peter 1: 5-7 A greedy appetite for food is terminated by satiety and the pleasure of drinking ends when our thirst is quenched. And so it is with the other things... But the possession of virtue, once it is solidly achieved, cannot be measured by time nor limited by satiety. Rather, to those who are its disciples it always appears as something ever new and fresh.  St. Gregory of Nyssa St. Gregory of Nyssa shared brotherly affection and love with St. Basil the Great (Jan. 2 ),  his own big brother. Along with St. Gregory, these three bishops from what is modern-day Turkey, formed the great “Cappadocian Fathers” of the Church, all fighting the

God is always speaking to us, His people, but we are not always listening. Or we aren’t quite sure how to listen because we aren’t quite sure what that looks or sounds like in our daily lives. The fact is, we can’t obey Him or follow His lead unless we hear Him—and we can’t hear Him unless we understand how He speaks to us today. Many of us read Scripture and long to hear God speak to us as He spoke to Moses, Noah, or Abraham. We desire the clarity that apparently existed for the prophets and sages and patriarchs. Consequently, we miss out on God’s active participation in our lives because we miss out on all the ways He speaks into our very existence. read more here

Jesus, through this frantic world, could you just hold me still? I don't want to be happy. I do not want comfort, for these things pass. O How I long to be still, still, still with you. I've had enough, and nothing else will satisfy. and there is nothing I won't do to be still with you. Let the world keep spinning, Let it spin until I'm sick, but Jesus, hold me still. continue reading

Epiphany Sunday, 2014: Isaiah 60:1 - 6 Ephesians 3:2 - 3a , 5 - 6 Matthew 2:1 - 12  Epiphany of the Lord, 2014 By Deacon Lawrence N. Kaas January 4, 2015 Epiphany is still Christmas, especially for all of us who are Gentile. The gifts we have received really do not compare to the greatest gift of all--- the babe of Bethlehem, the word made flesh and dwelt,s amongst us, is the precious Son of the Father. Music is a part of this special gift, for music is a gift from God. How many of us are put in a mood of joy and hope through music, especially Christmas music. I listened to the sound of music a week 10 days ago and even after hearing it many times it still seemed like the first time. We can even here in our minds, Bing Crosby's White Christmas and if you are on a little more of the low brow side of music you may hear Elvis singing I'll have a blue blue blue Christmas without you... (Guest post) More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

The Baptism of Christ (detail) , Tintoretto, 1579-81 Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)  http://www.universalis.com/20150111/mass.htm Gospel   Mark 1:7-11  ( New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition , Canada) John the Baptist proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.   I have baptized you with   water; but he will baptize you with   the Holy Spirit.” In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.   And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.   And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” The Ce

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That zipper-faced critter isn't, I think, the weirdest thing that's lived. Not when things that look like lily pads or mushrooms, and may be animals ; and other critters with five eyes ; are in the running. That animal with the weird mouth is one of Sci-News.com's 'top paleontological discoveries' for 2014. The discovery of color vision in a 300,000,000-year-old fish came out in late December: which may be why it didn't make the 'top discoveries' list. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Jesus never argued or debated the faith, so why should we? You can read the rest at Being Catholic ... Really .

Saint Maria Faustina We had two weeks with our kitten. The night before she went missing, my husband and I marveled at just how beautiful she was. She had perfect white mittened feet and beautiful gray and white markings, with a white belly. He saw a picture on National Geographic newsfeed, and thought for a second it was a picture of Aranea, our kitty. We got her our kids for Christmas, and she could not have been more sweet natured.  The kids loved her. They bonded deeply with her in the two weeks she spent with us. We found her through a Craigslist animal adoption agency.  We paid some money for her. Our kids were thrilled when they heard the “MEOW” coming from a Christmas box! She warmed our home and filled it with life. When almost a whole day went without her, I admit I panicked. I searched the streets in the front and back of our house.  I called her name, I put food on the front and back porch, just hoping it would lure her back. Read the rest at Picture a S

Photo borrowed from Melanie Jean Juneau                            She laughs, her God is near, In spite of her broken soul, She laughs,  He embraces her, Pulling her to His Sacred Heart, Saturating her with His healing balm of love, Holding the fragments of her tears and pain in His Bleeding palms, Healing her broken heart. She laughs, her joy is complete. Her Savior holds her near. They dance across the midnight sky, Angels worshiping Him with joy,   He laughs.  She absorbs His joy. His joy pours into the heavenly skies,  Heaven rejoices that a lost one has come home.  She laughs.   Read more at:: His Unending Love  

If you asked a typical Catholic, “ Are you stealing God’s job?” , they would laugh out loud at such a ridiculous question and emphatically deny it.  I know I did.  Granted, the wording of this question is designed to shock. Yet the question is also meant to provoke self- examination.  After someone asked me this question, I examined my life and was surprised at what I discovered. I realized like almost everyone else, I was trying to fulfill the role of God in my day-to-day life. It is an easy trap for most modern people since we are pressured by obligations. In an attempt to cope, we resort to rushing around independently without God. We seize control as we  try to be ever more efficient with little time to relax, pray or socialize. The result is we end up living in isolated, man-made prisons that shut out other humans, never mind other living creatures and God.  Instead of seeking communion, each of us exists at the absolute centre of our little artificial universe.  The conse

"Two grown children? You are very blessed..." Yes, we are. Sitting across the table from a visiting Haitian priest, we were sharing the story of our family.  We  are  blessed, but after speaking with him some more, we began to realize just how much. We cannot share the story of our family without sharing the story of her fight with cancer as a young child. The road to adulthood has been a tenuous one for her and the fact that she has navigated the path so well is a testament to both her strength and her will. But as soon as we mentioned  cancer  to him, the conversation veered. "What is this  cancer ?" he asked... Read more:  http://www.restfulwaters.net/what-is-this-cancer/

"And wherever He went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed." Mark 6:56  Day before yesterday, I was convinced that I would be enduring another month of sharp pain coming from my thumb and any movements of my palm and hand. 3 doctors told me I had tendonitis of the thumb.  We had tried everything.  I had done everything.   No relief. The last doc wanted me to see the orthopedic docs in our town.  I was willing.  The next appointment with  the orthopedic doc  was on February 11.  I cried.  I was pretty sure I would not make it that far, so yesterday, after the clinic opened, I called to see if I could be put on a cancellation list. "Let me check," she said.  "How about January 23rd?  That would help, wouldn't it?"  I'll take it.  The night was difficult. Today, a  friend who works in another

There is no accomplishment of any worth that you can attain merely by desiring to have it. Learning to master the greatest human accomplishment of all then, – learning to love is no exception. There may well be such a thing as love at first sight, but if this is not followed up by a lifetime of trying to love more fully, and more deeply in sickness and in health, then disaster will follow. The love at first sight that begins in flames will soon end in ashes. From rapture to routine, from routine to rupture. Learning to love God may end in flames, but it never begins there, that’s why far fewer begin the journey. It begins with a faith-filled conviction that there is no more important journey, not just because it leads a person to experience the love of God, but because it enables his love to surcharge and suffuse our weak human love.  This enables us to love others as Christ loved others, especially that special other to whom we have dedicated our lives on earth, and the family that

...from dear Father Wade Menezes... now with his "6 General Principles" to consider when discerning our ideas, whether spiritual or temporal... [added today]: 1. Idea is in accord with Sacred Scripture as upheld by both Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church; 2... >> TheWayToNourishForLife >>

During my meditation time, I light a candle. One day the wick wouldn’t light. When the match burned my finger, I dropped it into the candle where it burned up, black and crisp. However, the tip flamed for the entire half hour. For about two weeks now, whenever I’ve lit that match, it burns, but the match isn’t consumed! Is this my personal burning bush or menorah that burned without oil in the Temple? Click to continue

Maybe you’ve heard it was coming. Maybe in your heart of hearts you knew you were going to be part of it. Personally, I didn’t need much encouragement to join. Join what, you ask? The Digital Detox of 2015. In fact, I only happened to come across the naming of this phenomenon in passing so I’m already pretty much Internet detoxing. Have been for a while. read more here

Reading Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila, we might find ourselves surprised. The Church has proclaimed Teresa a Doctor of Prayer, but the first part of her master work on the subject barely mentions prayer! If prayer is so vital to the spiritual life, why hasn’t she said more about it? How can we grow into the later stages if she doesn’t tell us what to do in the early ones? The first thing we need to get clear is that for Teresa prayer and virtue grow together, no matter where we are in the seven mansions. Some people think that everyone can be contemplatives, regardless of their lifestyle. This is one of the basic problems with Centering Prayer , as we discussed a few months ago. Real growth in virtue takes commitment to prayer Others have the opposite problem. They think that if they are living a moral life, that’s all they need. Not committed to prayer, they think they are nonetheless spiritually advanced, so they see no reason to start praying more faithfully. Th