Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Passion for serving the Lord through the Catholic faith! My husband left me suddenly one day. I was 5 months pregnant with our 5th little boy and in complete shock! I struggled to get up each morning. I struggled to do daily tasks most of us take for granted. I struggled to breath.  To say I struggled with my faith would be an understatement.  I turned to a few Christian churches searching for answers, for fellowship, for welcoming, and maybe just for a fresh start. And, I have to admit, I really LOVED some of what I saw in those churches, and I really understand the draw those churches have, especially for divorced Catholics. One of the things I appreciated the most about visiting those other churches was the passion so many of our Christian brothers and sisters put into their worship. But, as much as I wanted to want to be a church member, I couldn't bring myself to join. I missed too much of my Catholic faith.  As much as those churches offered, they co

Today I realized something about myself.  I don't mind suffering!  Physical distress, poverty, pain:  none of these bother me at all, as long as I'm not inconvenienced or uncomfortable.  I've read gripping works about Christians in horrid circumstances.  St. Therese on her deathbed, Ignatius of Antioch on his way to martyrdom, John of the Cross imprisoned, Immaculee Ilibagiza huddled in a bathroom.  I usually read these things at night, under soft blankets in my cozy house.  From my comfort zone, I am inspired and challenged and ready to endure anything for God. And then I wonder if someone might have misunderstood something I wrote about prayer.  Or if I might be getting a headache.  Or maybe I'm asked to go a teeeeeny bit out of my way to help someone else.  Alas and alack.  Such things can feel like the very martyrdom of me.   back of hand to forehead; long sigh........ (continue at The Breadbox Letters)  

Today’s Gospel:  Mark 10:28-31 Today is Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. In keeping with tradition, some of us will devour pancakes and syrup, a last splurge before Lent. However, the Gospel reading leading up to Lent is much more sober. Peter reminds Jesus that the disciples have given up everything to follow Him. Seems like Peter is worried. He is really asking, “Have we given enough?” Jesus encourages Peter and His disciples, promising them eternal life as a reward and then adds, ” for the last will be first and the first will be last “. Another divine paradox to rattle our brains. Nothing Jesus says really makes sense to our Western sensibilities. In fact, most of the sayings of Jesus did not make sense to a first century Eastern mind, either, and so the gospel of Mark repeats this phrase twice more, just so it sinks in. continue reading>

Yes, dear friends, we’re all about the  Shrove Tuesday  today. Now, when I began to research, I thought Shrove…hmmm Totes not a shrove... Then I thought it could mean this… Classy, but still not shrove. So what exactly is Shrove Tuesday? Quite simply, it’s the day before Ash Wednesday. That’s it. No royalty, no mushrooms, nothing crazy. Or is there more?   Click for more shenanigans and factoids at Filling my Prayer Closet.

St Casimir, Vilnius Cathedral, Lithuania  [ Wikipedia ] St Casimir  (3 October 1458 - 4 March 1484), whose feast day is today, 4 March, is patron saint of Poland, of Lithuania and of the young. He was noted for his great love for the poor and for his chastity. The biographical note in The CTS New Daily Missal  says:  His devotion to Our Lady was great; he was so fond of the twelfth-century hymn 'Daily, daily sing to Mary' that it is often attributed to him . The hymn - its Latin title is  Omni die, dic Mariae  - was written by St Bernard. You can find both the Latin and English lyrics on  CatholicCulture.org . A note there says  A  copy of this hymn by Bernard of Cluny was found beneath the right temple of St Casimir's incorrupt body when his grave was opened . The biographical note in the  CTS New Daily Missal  describes St Casimir as  A shining example of faith, piety, humility, and chastity . A priest I met in Scotland last year kindly gave me a copy of t

In this story Father Ignatius teaches about teeth in a Christian context ... In a poor and desolate town such as where Father Ignatius was stationed it was evident that he would meet a lot of hardship amongst his parishioners, especially in difficult economic conditions where jobs were scarce and business closures rife. One day a young man came to him complaining that he couldn’t get a good job and he felt a bit down because of lack of prospects at the factory where he did menial tasks. Please continue reading HERE

Love thy neighbor as thyself. We've all heard it before.  It's  in the Bible as one of the  greatest commandments. "One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. "- Mark 12:28-31 But dang, it's just not that easy! Read more of Love Thy (fill in the blank) Neighbor

I recently read an article about a young couple whose  young son had been diagnosed with a life threatening, degenerative disease.  As his parents prayed for his healing, a priest advised them not to pray for healing.  He suggested that they pray for acceptance first.  He counseled the young couple that if healing was God’s Will for their son, then the healing would happen.  However, by praying for acceptance, they would find peace. Read more at:  His Unending Love . See you there!

Someone said to me, “Who made you God?”   I don’t remember what I had said that prompted this question…but it did make me think.   Was I playing God…coming up with my own conclusions  or was I seeking  the source of all truth…God’s truth about His Church? Read more at  The Catholic Way.

These are store bought, but they're not bad. ;-) Today is Fat Tuesday or, as we like to say in Chicago,  Paczki  (pronounced "poonchki") Day. Today is the last day of indulging in sweets before, Ash Wednesday, which commemorates the beginning of Lent for the Catholic Church as well as most other Christian denominations.  Lent consists of forty days of fasting and prayer (and so much more) that leads to Easter Sunday. You can read the rest of my post here  and find out about free Lenten reflections that you can sign up to receive in your email.

This whole winter it feels as if I have been stalled. In our small town, there is a seemingly never series of water main breaks, which means we can't use our tap water. A pipe burst under the river, which meant the air was filled with the smell of gas. There have been blackout after blackout in many neighborhoods because of our ailing electrical system. And despite all the efforts of so many, our public schools appear to be breaking and our elected officials indifferent. One of our sons is struggling in school. And the older child is still waiting to hear back from the many colleges to which he has applied. No word from any of them yet. Oh and then there is the snow, inch after inch of snow, day after day, delaying the start of so many school days. It feels as if my family will never unfreeze, never move forward from our permafrosted positions. Keep Reading...

This LENT MEME is very easy to follow.  RULES 1   Copy paste this post on your Blog. 2   Contact as many other Bloggers as you like and leave them this comment: "You have been tagged for the LENT MEME on my Blog". 3   And now the difficult bit: Do someone a good deed. Anyone. Relative, friend or stranger. Any good deed. Saying a prayer for someone in need. Helping an old person with shopping, transport, gardening. Visiting a sick person. Giving some money to charity. Just use your imagination and do any good deed. If you are greedy you can do more than one good deed. To more than one person. You can do a good deed every day of Lent if you wish. The minimum is just one good deed. 4   That's it. I can't think of any other rules. 5   Thanx. God bless.

Well, I may not be incredibly creative but I am a good gatherer of information! I have pulled some resources together to share some great Lenten ideas. You can see the post here . Have a blessed Lent and Easter~ Jen

As parents of Large Families, we advocate for our children, we communicate with our children and their teachers and friends but we don't hover over them because we simply can't. There's no time! Have you ever heard of the term Helicopter Parent or Hover parent? I was indeed a Hover parent with our oldest. He would sneeze and I'd be at the ready with a Kleenex and a doctors appointment within seconds. What happened to my hover parenting days was 5 children. Once I had our second, our third and so on there just wasn't the time to hover over each child the way I did with my first. I now see that as a blessing although at first the inability to helicopter parent over each child came with some real guilt. In the past few years, our oldest (I will call him J for privacy reasons) has been diagnosed with severe anxiety and now a new diagnosis of ADHD. We have learnt to advocate for J by encouraging communication with his teachers.  Click here to read more!

I wrote this post last year.  I didn't do so well during Lent.  This year I hope to do much better! What happened?  I don't know.  Bad habits die hard and they die even harder when fighting the forces of evil.  My tights and cape have lost their super powers and all those bracelets I own that begin with  "T"  and  "P"  don't work like Wonder Woman's bracelets!  I've become a mere mortal Catholic.  Who knew? To read last year's post about my failing miserably at Lent, click here .

  'While not neglecting other duties, these seek above all things to learn to know Jesus... and endeavour to live always in union with Him Who is ever in the chapel of their hearts.... ' (continue) Painting: Edgar Degas, Woman Ironing

I was shocked the first time that I experienced the love of God through an infant. Years ago, I had been struggling to centre myself in the Lord’s presence while I nursed one of my babies. I was tired, actually I was exhausted and felt completely depleted when an unexpected flow of heat, the fire of God’s love flowed into me. Joy bubbled up, I started smiling, felt invigorated, my head cleared and all the tension left my muscles. I heard these words, silently within me.” “I move how I want, when I want. You cannot control my Spirit or manipulate me because I am the Lord of your spirituality, not you. And at this moment, I choose to move through the most open soul here, your infant. She is my daughter, made in my image. Relax. Humble yourself and let me heal you through your baby.   Lost Innocents: Miscarriage Icons continue reading>

Clement Shahbaz Bhatti   شہباز بھٹی (9 September 1968 – 2 March 2011) 'I do not want popularity, I do not want positions of power. I only want a place at the feet of Jesus. I want my life, my character, my actions to speak of me and say that I am following Jesus Christ .' Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)                                   Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa) Gospel  Matthew 6:24-34  ( New Revised Standard Version,Catholic Edition , Canada)  Jesus said to his disciples: “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the bo

Are you aware?...it's "National Eating Disorders Awareness Week" (2/23 − 3/1/2014) -- a week dedicated to raising awareness about the seriousness of eating disorders , as well as to helping foster greater understanding and knowledge amongst us all.  "I Had No Idea" is this year's theme by the National Eating Disorders Association [NEDA], which aims at addressing misconceptions that might be standing in the way of receiving  help [or hope ] for any & all affected and still suffering.   The NEDA website, therefore, notes the following: ► Eating disorders are complex illnesses... CLICK HERE To Read More at The Way to Nourish for Life >>  Renoir [1905]

The tomb of St. Therese in the basilica dedicated to her in Lisieux, France. This week I began bribing my kids to help me finish my book. They each start with $1, and lose 5¢ each time they interrupt me with discipline problems or goofing around during school hours. We’re doing lots of worksheets right now! I wrote my final chapter of Trusting God with St. Therese on Tuesday. Now I’m doing some final rewriting and editing. I hope to send it out to a few Beta readers in about two weeks. Then there will be one more round of editing and final formatting before I make it available to select book reviewers. If you have sent me an email lately and haven’t heard back right away, please know that I am not ignoring you. I am just really  focused on my book until this stage is complete. I will try to reply to as soon as I can. In the meantime, here are some links related to Trusting God with St. Therese that you might have missed. I have 4 Pinterest Boards related t

A Christian will undoubtedly experience moments in their secret or mystical journey, when they will come to know something of the height and depths, and the length and breadth of God's love. They may even come to experience what it means to be lifted up into what St. Paul calls the seventh heaven. It will certainly entail the Cross, for Jesus made it quite clear that unless we take up our daily cross we cannot be his disciples. All who pursue this spiritual journey will come to experience joy and sorrow, the agony as well as the ecstasy. But none of these experiences define the mystic. What does define a Christian mystic is the fundamental and single-minded commitment in faith, to pursue above all and everything else, the hidden journey into the mystery of Christ...and in, with and through him, to participate personally in God's plan to unite everyone with himself. This journey involves consecrating every moment of every day to God, not just for oneself, but for others too, p

I saw an interesting nature programme on TV the other day. A wolf cub had been injured in the wild and abandoned by its mother. He was all alone, frightened, hungry and defenseless. Left there he would soon perish. The TV crew and resident vet tried to capture him and send him to an animal hospital where he could be treated and looked after until he is strong enough to be released in the wild once again. Every time they approached the wolf cub he bared its teeth and attempted to bite his benefactors. Eventually, he was caught and taken to the hospital where, within weeks, he was well again. When things go wrong in our lives we too tend to behave like that wolf. We are angry, we’re concerned, frightened even - about the future and about what's happening to us. And we go on the attack. We believe that God has abandoned us, just like that she-wolf abandoned her cub. We blame Him for what's gone wrong, and we rebel against Him. When we behave like that, we shut off a

Lately I have been keenly aware of how influential my words and actions can be. Everything I say has potential to affect someone else's life. My children have a book written by Madonna called  Mr.Peabody's Apples . This book spoke to me the moment I read it. It is about rumours and how fast they can spread. Similar to the feathers in a pillow that has been torn open, a rumour is like the feathers, one can never get all those feathers back. I realised that my words are like tiny feathers and they are impossible to get back once spread out in the wind.  To Read more Click here.

From the Presentation of the Lord, also called Candlemas. Here the priest is saying the Gloria (or the Collect, not sure when I took this). The Collect is a beautiful one: Almighty ever-living God, we humbly implore your majesty that, just as your Only Begotten Son  was presented on this day in the Temple  in the substance of our flesh,  so, by your grace, we may be presented to you with minds made pure. Thanks again to Melanie for including me here in the Association. I don't manage a blog post every day, but I am doing so this week, going along with Conversion Diary's "7 Posts in 7 Days" effort. All new photo posts, go see! www.formafidei.com .

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We all know that I am married to an atheist. Who gasped? Really, it's something that we work on in our marriage like anything else. Granted it was hard and there was arguing in the beginning. I even  ruined some tongs over it . A lot of it is a delicate balance of respect and a whole lot of  Holy Spirit intervention and trust! What does this have to to with Ash Wednesday ? It's a perfect example of that balance I wrote of earlier. We always try to compromise on the little stuff so it's easier to when the big stuff comes. Usually, when he compromises, I can tell, because he says funny things like "I accept you, and I love you", with a grin, especially when I come downstairs in the morning looking particularly groggy, or scratch my very dry legs while watching a basketball game, and even...burp! That last one doesn't happen often anymore. See, (tangent coming) I thought when you didn't let the burp out, no one could hear it. My husband finally fill

Back in Advent, Dan and I sang The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came as part of our Evening Prayer. It struck me how perfect this hymn was for teaching children about the Annunciation. I conceived the idea (yes, that’s a pun) of teaching children the meaning of the mysteries of the Rosary through song. Here it was I came up with for the Joyful Mysteries. My primary goal in our Contemplative Homeschool is to teach our children how to grow in union with God. Christian meditation is a vital part of that process, teaching all of us to listen to God’s voice in the Scriptures, and to ponder His character in order to love Him better. The Rosary provides a bridge between the vocal prayers we learn as children and more mature mental prayer. Through the Rosary, we meditate on the most important mysteries of our faith. Many people have created ways to share the Rosary with children. In Singing the Rosary, I have the following goals: leading children to see the Rosary as a mea

I’m all about symbolism. So when we decided to give away copies of the newly released, 2 nd revised edition of All Things Girl: Truth for Teens, symbolism was bound to play a role! LOL! My decision on 18 copies is based upon the number representing “life” in Jewish teaching. That just resonates so deeply with me. I pray for great life for the book and for those who will read it. That is why we are giving away 18 copies of All Things Girl: Truth for Teens. The link to the giveaway is on the new Facebook page being administered by one of the amazing new contributors, Heather Renshaw. Heather is a blast. She’s a mother of five youngsters who somehow found the time to write a chapter on vocations in general and motherhood in particular. Because of her honesty and great sense of humor, I am convinced that her chapter will deeply affect the teen girls who read All Things Girl: Truth for Teens. If you’d like to enter the contest, visit the new Facebook page, like it, share it

As my first contribution to ACWB, I thought I would write of a woman who gave me everything in my life, and set me off on my own spiritual journey…my own mother. When my brother announced that he wanted to become a Cistercian priest, it meant that he would never return home again. My mother was proud that her son wanted to be a priest, but why oh why did he want to become a monk as well? She didn't know what to do, but fortunately she did know who to turn to. She turned to Gus, a friend since childhood. He himself had left home to become a priest and a monk and was at that time the Abbot of Belmont. He told her that a Mother only really fulfils and completes her Motherhood when her love is so great that she allows her child to both choose and follow his own chosen vocation in life, whatever that may mean. He told her that this was the sacrifice that Mary had to make when she had to allow her Son to go his own way and respond to the vocation that he had been called to. My M

I discovered a wonderful blog written by a man of prayer who considers it his life’s work to share the joy of true Christian prayer and to teach people how to pray.  He has also published countless books. In his own words David says,” All my writings try to promote the Christian way of prayer, and I consider it my life’s work.” David writes at   David Torkington: Journalist, Author, Speaker   http://www.davidtorkington.com/Home.html . Melanie:  Are you familiar with the Fr. John Main’s use of a Christian mantra, Maranatha, while meditating? . David : Yes I am. But I do not agree with his use of mantras for everyone, at all stages of the Christian prayer journey. To quote from my website:- The Christian mystical tradition continually asserts that any man-made means or techniques cannot attain true contemplation, which is a pure gift of God. The gift of contemplation is only given after years of practising prayer in the context of an ascetical life-style. There is