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En el mes de Junio y especialmente durante los últimos días se llevan a cabo en algunos países las llamadas “marchas del orgullo gay” que buscan hacer conciencia de la dignidad de las personas homosexuales y de la comunidad LGBTT (Lesbico,Gay,Bisexual,Transexual,Transgénero) . Han luchado por años para dejar de ser violentados y discriminados pero, según se ve en las estadísticas, el resultado de la “aceptación” que la cultura liberal les ha ofrecido y les ha garantizado en muchos marcos jurídicos ha desembocado en un mayor abandono y desentendimiento de su salud y su bienestar por parte de la comunidad y de las familias, con un efecto a veces devastador para ellos.

I just want to make it know to all of my readers. I am not perfect. I struggle to do daily tasks; and I was like this long before I got sick or saved. I also want everyone of you to know that I pray that on day we will all day be able to live with out pain. Even if it is for only one day. I pray that we all are able to cherish the good days and remember that its okay that when you are well that you went out with your husband or friends instead of cleaning your house. We all deserve to walk among the living for we too are also living, just differently. I have learned a few things in this study of this verse:

As schools let out, the lazy days of summer are upon us. This is a great time for some reflection and introspection regarding your spiritual life. We’re about half-way through the year. As we embarked on 2017, many of us made New Year’s resolutions. So, how’s that coming along? If you are like me, you don’t even remember what those resolutions might have been! I certainly do not remember what I vowed to do, not do, or overcome. My Own Introspection So, I sit here on the precipice of summer, asking myself what I would like to accomplish with the second half of 2017. Here’s what I came up with: Read more...

DO YOU GO TO CHURCH REGULARLY? WHY? REALLY ... WHY DO YOU GO TO CHURCH? FORCE OF HABIT? TO MEET FRIENDS? TO MAKE SOCIAL CONTACTS? CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

The Amy Adams/Clint Eastwood baseball movie Trouble with the Curve recently came to Netflix. I'd heard of it before, was vaguely aware that I'd heard of it in a positive light, but didn't know too much about it. Not a huge baseball fan myself (at least not since I was about 14...), I wasn't sure if I'd like the movie or not, but I gave it a shot anyway. It's about a 20-something woman (Amy Adams) trying to reconnect with her aging baseball scout dad (Clint Eastwood) on what could be his last scouting trip. And though the premise is baseball-themed, it's not exactly about baseball... Continue Reading

So  after three days of fighting Fibro and CVS I finally managed to completely clean my room and check it off my cleaning schedule! I am so happy. However everything does have it's price. I am was up at 3 am, getting sick because of my CVS (this is a reoccurring theme though), and I was up at 1am for about 45 mins with weird muscle spasms/charlie horse/dead leg thing happening in my calves. It was unpleasant, to say the least. But through all the pain and vacuuming, I learned more than I ever could imagine. You see Proverbs 31:27 talks about the bread of Idleness and what I did not understand was that there is a difference between idleness and rest.

True Radiance: Finding Grace in the Second Half of Life , by Lisa Mladinich, was an enjoyable read! I approached 60 this year. So, I thought this book might offer me some insight in how I might grow old gracefully. As I opened the book and began to read, I quickly learned that Mladinich had other designs. She wants us to know that regardless of our age, The second half of life is a time of building on the past, growing in virtue, and deepening our connection with God, the source and summit of all beauty. Our beauty is not fading; it’s getting more powerful. It’s having more impact. It’s becoming what it was meant to be from the beginning (p. 135).   How reassuring is that! What a powerful statement! Mladinich tells us throughout the book that our beauty comes from... Read more... 

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 From The Cloistered Heart

Wanting respect is reasonable. I think folks who support Gay/LGBT Pride Month for that reason have a point. I don't agree with much of what's said on the gay/LGBT pride issue — and explained why I won't spit venom in today's earlier post. Basically, I should love God, love my neighbor, and see everybody as my neighbor. No exceptions.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Gay/LGBT Pride Month will be over in about two weeks. Wanting respect is reasonable, but I don't agree with much of what's said on this issue. Don't worry, I won't be spitting venom. Even if I felt like it, which I don't, that kind of trouble I don't need. First, I'd better talk about love and respect, and why I think both are important.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

As the Morning Rising: Crooked Under His Arm : With fatherly love we are attended to, placed in the shade away from the noonday sun, crooked under His arm, loved from before we we...

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As the Morning Rising: The Embodiment of the Mystery of Corpus Christi : In the years of their marriage which spanned over fifty years I would hazard a guess that between them, prayer books aside, what my paren...

How Often Do We Think to Turn to God for Wisdom? Lord, There are things in this world that clearly perplex me. Illness, Death, Poverty Just to name a few. There are things to surprise and delight me as well. There I need your guidance on which you have for me and to know my limits. Generous are your ways, it is clear you hold nothing back except for that which is not for my best. For YOU know the plans you have alone for me.

As the Morning Rising: Corpus Christi :  'Take, O take me as I am; Summon out what I shall be; Set your seal upon my heart and live in me.'

Learning Something New My road to sitting with Jesus in Adoration began nearly 10 years ago.  Quite, some might say serendipitously but after spending many hours in His presence, I would say this has the Holy Spirit's finger prints all over it!! My husband and I, along with our children, had just made the transition to this new Church.  It was actually where we met and were eventually married,  but we'd not worshiped there since our wedding nearly 20 years earlier.  We had moved out of town, and spent many years at my childhood Church until circumstances changed and it became clear we had to find a new place to call our Spiritual Home

As a mother of a large family, struggling to wash, dry, and fold three or four loads of laundry every day, I secretly wondered if there was an obscure saint, with little to do, who could fill in as my patron saint of missing socks. Little did I know, God was using the dilemma of unpaired socks to purify me because I was trying too hard to be the perfect mother and housekeeper. This earnest striving was a weakness, not a virtue because my diligence was rooted in insecurity, unbelief but most of all in pride. Again and again, as I read spiritual material, God tried to teach me that true Christianity is not focused on personal perfection but founded on the power of the Cross and Resurrection to set us free. "We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures, we are the sum of the Father's love for us." -St. Pope John Paul II "The crucifix does not signify defeat or failure. It reveals to us the Love that overcomes evil and sin." - Pope Francis "Do

As the Morning Rising: Corpus Christi - Holy Cross Parish Belfast :  Holy Cross Church Ardoyne Corpus Christi Sunday 2013 'I shall love You, I shall love You always; when day breaks, when eve...

Once again, still not me but might as well be me. Yesterday, I had a terrible flare up. It was awful; I couldn’t hold my legs up, my throat felt like it was closing and it was so hard for me to swallow! Not to mention MUSCLE SPASMS EVERYWHERE! So, to be quite honest, I did not get anything done. Or so I thought. When looking at the Home Management Binder To-do list, I realized I still had managed to accomplish 5 of my unending list of tasks. I also realized that, well, some tasks are just going to take me a little bit longer. However, despite my flare up, I did manage to fall asleep. All I could think was a prayer: “God when I wake up please let be able to feel better tomorrow.” Look, I have been experiencing a flare up for the last three days. It’s BS! I am going to be completely honest: it sucks! However, because of God I have the ability to get up and try again. If I have realized anything it is that in this adjustment I must accept the following facts: Click here to conti

Humanity's current model may be a whole lot older than we thought. A team of scientists say that remains found in Morocco are human, Homo sapiens. The scientists also say these folks lived about 300,000 years ago. If that's confirmed, they were around 100,000 years earlier and about 2,000 miles away from where we thought Homo sapiens showed up. Other scientists say T. rex may not have been fluffy. It looks like the big dinosaur lost its feathers somewhere along the line. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

ARE YOU A GOOD PARENT? DO YOU REALLY THINK SO? WHAT DO YOUR CHILDREN THINK ABOUT THIS? ARE YOU SURE? CLICK HERE - IF YOU DARE

Most of us are stuck in egocentricity; we see the world as if it is revolving around us because we live as if we are the centre of our tiny universe. Since few of us stand with our fellow believers praising Christ, the only true centre of the entire universe, few of us are living in reality. We are blinded by pride which prevents us from receiving Divine love. After confessing egocentricity, an Augustinian’s solution to my spiritual dilemma was a simple prayer. Rather than allowing me to wallow in negativity bemoaning my weaknesses, he instead gave me an ejaculatory prayer, in the tradition of St. Augustine, who loved the short prayers of the early Christians. It was a prayer which simply raised my spirit to God. “Jesus, I love you; possess me.” It was a brilliant way to bring me into reality, to see again what is most important in life. It opened my heart to love, God's love for me, my love for God and love for God’s people. continue

This is super intimidating for me. I have to admit when I was diagnosed I had already been dealing with the pain for a while. However, the depression that comes with the pain caused me to become apathetic to my whole situation. I ignored everything and everyone I cared about. I wasn't sure how to do deal with the pain and I struggled with accepting that I was always going to be hurting. However when readjusting to life I realized that my house isn't going to clean itself. Not that my husband has not picked up a TON of the slack but still. My husband have a division of chores that worked for us. But when I got sick every time I would get up to clean I would get overwhelmed.

As the Morning Rising: A Simple Photograph : Something as simple as a photo of a church pew can stir memories, can stir conscience, can cause a sleeping soul to rouse itself and ...

In view of Sunday’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), an excerpt from my upcoming book, “I am going . . .” Reflections on the Last Words of the Saints is fitting: A teacher was taking her little ones to chapel to visit Jesus. As they passed classrooms, she warned, “Be quiet, so quiet that even Jesus won’t know we are coming.” As the children filed into the chapel, one girl cried out, “Surprise!” When you think about it, we Catholics believe something incredible: that bread and wine become God. It is difficult enough to take on faith that God became a human baby and that the divine body at one time was a mutilated corpse. But furthermore, we believe that at every Mass inanimate objects become God. That is the depth of God’s love for us. Love does foolish things. Click to continue

”  It is not the beauty of a building you should look at; It is the construction of the foundation that will hold the test of time” – David Allen Coe Now that my husband and I can start laying the foundation for our lives, we have become so overwhelmed we end up slowly but surely making little to no progress. However the Holy Spirit touched my heart and I realized “If I can adjust to being sick then I can go back to my life slowly but surely. I have faith that God will guide me there”. As if a light bulb went off instantly. But how does one just get up and go after being down for so long. The first step is always asking for help. So I prayed “God please guide me through the readjustment process”. I knew that my first step would be to reestablish God as my foundation for my life. Click here to continue 

As the Morning Rising: Light Irreducible : Thank you God for the people I have met, continue to meet, and will meet in the future, for all that is deigned by You in Y...

Today is Flag Day! Happy Flag Day to all my fellow United States citizens. Today in America, we celebrate what the U.S. flag means to us all. With that in mind, I thought I would hone in on some virtues, for which I think the U.S. flag proudly represents. Virtues of the U.S. Flag Courage : The U.S. flag is a symbol of courage. Many men and women have given their lives in defense of our freedom and democracy. It represents all the blood, sweat and tears shed, so that we might enjoy our freedom accorded by our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Acceptance : Read more...

I gave my condolences to a young friend after his great-grandfather passed away by saying "I'm sorry", which sparked a conversation between the 2 of us. We spoke of what part our faith plays in our grieving. Read more here .