Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Always be joyful.  Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 (NLT) This concept of "praying without ceasing" that St. Paul speaks of has always fascinated me. How can I have a life - read, work, be with friends and family, shower, etc. and yet still be praying? After nearly 10 years of trying to stay connected to Christ throughout my day - here are 5 ways I have learned to never stop praying. Pray Your Newsfeed. How often we encounter requests for prayers when perusing Facebook or Twitter? How about the many situations and persons we read about that could surely use our prayers. I don't stop at every post to pray - unless something is so dire that I feel it truly warrants such attention. Usually, I merely keep God at the forefront of my thoughts as I read through my social media outlets - and offer a passing, "Lord, hear my prayer" or "Lord, h...

Friends are gifts from God. Think about your life-long best friend for a moment. Why have you been friends for so long? What keeps your relationship so strong? Certain people come into our lives for a time, and then major life changes, like a job change, or a move across country separates you and the friendship wanes. Yet, with your life-long best friend, neither time and/or space seem to matter. Why do you think that is? Certain relationships can weather any… Read more...

Candlemas, a nearly forgotten holiday which happens 40 days after Christmas, began this morning when our sons took the Christmas tree out to the curb and put the tree stand in the basement.  Later, I had two girlfriends over and we made beeswax candles. None of us had made candles from scratch before, so we all learned together. I had bought the beeswax pellets this fall to dip autumn leaves and I had a whole lot left over.  Keep on Reading...

Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who had been slapped was hurt but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: Today my best friend slapped me in the face. They kept on walking until they found an oasis where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning. The friend saved her. After she recovered from the near drowning, she wrote on a stone: Today my best friend saved my life. The friend who had slapped and saved her best friend asked: After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on stone. Why? The other friend replied: When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness and waters of love can easily wash it away. When someone does something good for us we should engrave it in stone where it can remain for years to come. From this wonderful tale of two friends w...

Recently God brought into my life a woman who I now call “friend.” I spent some time with her recently where we enjoyed a cup of tea and chatting. As I left I was buoyed by our visit. It got me to thinking how perfectly she fit into my life and reflect on the question: What sort of friends does a woman “need” in her life? I know lots of women: the mothers of all the friends of my sons; women with whom I’ve worked and those with whom I’ve worshipped. There are women neighbors and there are women relatives. I’ve been blessed by meeting women at speaking engagements who have touched my heart. But friends? I have but a few. I remember once being told that at the end of your life, if you can count on one hand your true friends, you will have been very lucky. I guess that was the secular way of saying you have been very blessed. At 54 years old, I see that I have been very blessed. If we’ve got one hand to work off of, I believe these are the five friends each woman needs: ...