Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Just recently, I read  Ali Baba and the Forty thieves  for my children .  In this story, the wife of Ali Baba’s (unfortunate) brother and her servant girls lament and cry by his corpse, retrieved by Ali Baba from the thieves’ cave. Their lament announces to everyone the death of Ali Baba’s brother. This is just one of many examples of weeping done not only because of a spontaneous desire but with a specific and sometimes direct ritual meaning. And whenever there is a ritual, behind it lies the desire to express a deeper human reality. The ritual, the task, vocation or place, is there to encompass the entire human being when she (the soul) comes in contact with a reality beyond ordinary expression. Or in the words of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Gandalf, “not all tears are an evil…” The task of lamenting is one forgotten in the Western world, along with most meaningful rituals. .... In sharp contrast to this “liberated human” stands the Mother, weeping beneath the Cross... [Read more

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

The Best Part of Waking Up is… JOY in Your Cup! I’ve been letting the following words [provided by a priest, as well as the Pope!] steep well within my heart today, and hope you’ll find them well worth tasting, too:  Joys are hidden in sorrows! I know this from my own times of depression.  I know it from living with people with mental handicaps.  I know it from looking into the eyes of patients, and from being with the poorest of the poor.  We keep forgetting this truth and become overwhelmed by our own darkness.  We easily lose sight of our joys and speak of our sorrows as the only reality there is.   We need to remind each other that the cup of sorrow is also the cup of joy, that precisely what causes us sadness can become the fertile ground for gladness.  Indeed, we need to be angels for each other, to give each other strength and consolation.  Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only a cup of sorrow — but also a cup of joy

It's already a year since my grandmother passed away...  I remember how she used to tell me that her favorite devotion was to Our Lady of Sorrows.   She felt that her life had been filled with sufferings and that only her own death can spare her from it.   Our Lady of Sorrows I wish I can tell her now that her sufferings are nothing compared to the love that Jesus can give - if only she will open her heart to accept it.  Read more:  In The Midst of Sorrow: To Grandma on her 1st Death Anniversary   by Samantha Catabas Manuel on  Coffee Moments with Sam