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     Our Blessed Mother valiantly remained with Jesus through every hardship and persecution. A suffering Mother, she never interfered with the Divine Plan of Our Eternal Father. Abandoning all that is of this world, she surrendered to His Perfect Will. The perfect Mother, she chose to spend her life obediently following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, never wavering in perserverence, regardless of the magnitude of joy or sorrow. As Catholics, we traditionally contemplate the Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary during the month of September.  "May the power of Your Love, my Lord Jesus, fiery and sweet as honey, absorb our hearts so completely that we withdraw from all things of this world so that we may die for love of Your Love just as You died for the love of our love." The authorship of this ancient prayer,  known as  The Absorbeat ,  is attributed to  Saint Francis of Assisi En los corazones de Jesús y María ©2013Lora Goulet  mommynovenas

A warm mug rests in my hands while fairies, gossamer skirts and wings floating, chase their little monster through the house. I watch them run past empty and full laundry baskets, over the clean, unfolded towels and sheets. The breakfast dishes wait on the table while I stare at holiness in bare feet, Christ in comforting disguise.

                    I cannot get away from  the holy, it greets me with large-gentle hands and arms around   the morning  like buttery light over our waking: it comes with the sound of small feet over the floor boards carrying questions and the tousled realms of dream  tangling our stepping over  the sills of dawn; it comes in what needs to be done and what won't get done; it comes in our loving  and our turning away  from loving-- in our forgiving and our being forgiven all the same; it comes and does not have other places to be like the love of our Lord, the loveliest guest,  here and everywhere and nowhere; it remains like our very breath in the rooms of our hours and becomes the rich  and beautiful song  we are singing through each other while just opening  our eyes.

Let me write from my core self, intuitively,creatively and most of all authentically in unity with His Spirit.

  UBI CARITAS ET AMOR. DEUS IBI EST.                      Father Ignatius breaks a leg. The letter had been on Father Ignatius’ desk for about a week  now. A local firm of Solicitors had asked him to attend a meeting scheduled for this morning. He tried getting through to them on the phone, but was never able to contact the signatory to the letter. The person answering the phone could not help either. Reluctantly, he decided to attend the meeting. There were about a dozen people or so at the reading of the will. Mr Simmons was not particularly wealthy but he left a few small sums of money mainly to local charities, which the people at the meeting represented. He had no relatives or friends to speak of. Father Ignatius knew of him. He visited Mr Simmons at home a few times to see him when he wasn’t well, but usually Father Donald called on him since he never attended Mas

God is a circle whose centre is  everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere Voltaire

In the Inmost Being of the Soul                              'The dwelling of God is very different in different souls:                              in some He dwells alone, in others not;                              in some He dwells contented, in others displeased;                              in some as in His own home, giving His orders and ruling it;                              in others as a stranger in a house not His own,                              where He is not permitted to command or to do anything at all....                              We must remember that the Word, the Son of God,                              together with the Father and the Holy Ghost,                              is hidden in essence and presence                              in the inmost being of the soul.'         (from Sheltering the Divine Outcast, compiled by A Religious,   The Peter Reilly Co, Philadelphia, 1952, pp. 47-48) Anderson painting

When I remember that I am a writer, a born writer, not someone pretending to be a writer by wearing a mask, then work becomes play. God gave me a love of books and an artistic gift of writing and drawing. When I simply relax and enjoy life as a child of God, then I can allow Him to work through my fingers and my imagination. Now we create together. It is a joyful experience. MY FAMILY’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH BOOKS IS A GENERATIONAL BLESSING. My maternal grandfather, uncles and my mother love to read. I in turn love books.In fact, I have always loved books, reading voraciously as a child. I remember walking slowly home from the library with a tall stack of exciting choices, reading my first choice even before I managed to walk through the front door. My mother would cajole me in the summer, “Well, at least read outside in the fresh air.” read more

As anyone who has been married for a while knows, marriage has seasons: the early years, the years with babies and toddlers, and so on. Right now, my husband and I have two teenaged boys and no travel soccer on our family calendar any more. This means our weekends are wide open. Keep Reading...

When the cover story of  Time magazine  brags that having it all means not having children, the culture badly needs a reminder that getting married and having kids is actually a good idea. That having children, whether one or five or ten, is not only praiseworthy but worth it. The percentage of childless couples has nearly doubled since 1980, and  the percentage of families with three or more kids has dropped by almost half.  Today's burning question is no longer why would any couple want to remain childless. It's why would anyone want more than one or two. Big Hearted , by Patti Armstrong and Theresa Thomas, answers that question in a collection of moving, true-life stories, each one more inspirational than the last. The stories in  Big Hearted  open up a window into the private thoughts and feelings of parents of large families. Not all of them love babies, although some of them do. Some mothers walk away from corporate jobs without a backwards glance, and others lock the

“If you are humble, nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.  If you are blamed, you won’t be discouraged; if anyone calls you a saint, you won’t put yourself on a pedestal.”   ~ Blessed Teresa of Calcutta My ears adjust, repressurize in response to the forty-fifth high-pitched scream of the day as I scrape uneaten bits of lettuce and broccoli from the dinner plates. “This is holy work,” I tell myself, my face close to the trash can, the odor of old banana peels and used diapers mixing and wafting upward. My husband stops home for a quick dinner and I tell him how I’ve not yet lost my mind; then he heads back to the office and I lose my mind. The little ones pick and poke and pester each other, and I add my screeches to their screeching and everything stops - “I’m sorry,” I tell them, stooping down.  ”I could have said that nicely.” Almost before I ask, they forgive me and we are hugging; they are giving me all of their

Columban Fr Aedan McGrath speaking about his time in solitary confinement in China, 1950-53 Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)                                   Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Gospel  Luke 14:1, 7-14  (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition) One sabbath when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees, they were watching him.   Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he marked how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, "When you are invited by any one to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him; and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, s

I really was blessed by my time speaking with Marcus Grodi on Journey Home. He is a very gracious man and has a very kind, welcoming, and hospitable group of people at the Coming Home Network. Please consider joining Marcus and I and feel free to email me any questions you may have about anything we talked about. I've been so touched by the kind emails I have received since the airing of the show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_IJSeaAcJc Cheryl Dickow www.BezalelBooks.com

I was reduced to tears as I read Sarah’s summation about her impressions of   Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus ,   I was particularly struck by the idea of kerygma, the idea that Jesus is the whole reason for everything we do. Period. We have to have a relationship with Jesus. In fact, I want to break down and weep as I write now. So many people are cold, hungry  and outside the Church but they do not know where to look for the answers. I was one of the lucky ones .. and that thought has me breaking down again. He brought me into His Church in spite of myself God was so merciful and Kind.. I was  anti-Catholic . The teachings seemed almost anti-gospel to me. And then, while i still had a protesting, Protestant mind the Virgin Mary came to live in my heart. I remember the imagery that the Spirit gave me as I became a Catholic. And even more tears well in my heart. I stood outside a Catholic Church

Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. This response at Mass seems to me to sum up the whole spiritual life. It provides wonderful material for meditation. I am not worthy On my own, I cannot please God. I can only vaguely know His character. He had to reveal Himself to me through Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the teaching authority of the Church. He gave me parents who were loving enough to have me baptized and teach me the faith. He continues to show me His design for my life. All this is a pure gift which I could not merit. But I have found the Christian life to be a constant battle. I fall every day. I repent, make resolutions to be good, then sin again. God’s purity is so beyond me. His holiness is a burning fire that I would never dare approach. Except… Read the rest at Contemplative Homeschool.

  Gather your favorite artsy supplies and your creative juices, and let’s make a prayer book or prayer journal. This project can be as simple or as involved as your imagination, creativity and time constraints allow.  If you are a scrapbooker, or painter, or smashbooker,  you may have some supplies or techniques that you want to incorporate into your journal.  The purpose for my little book of prayer is to break down and illustrate the Disciples’ Prayer into bite sized pieces for reflection and meditation.  I’m keeping it simple for now, but may want to embellish down the road as I pray through it in the future.  This would make a fun VBS craft for kids, especially if you had cutouts ready to glue on for quick pages.   I chose to use the tiny composition notebooks (found them 3 for $0.88 at Walmart), but if you like to write out your prayers, you can certainly use a larger one (they are marked down to $0.50 each for back to school sales!!!)  I also have some kiddie

Relax and bask in the peace evoked by strong images of angels as the Light of God light shines  through these rich colours.