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Intercession of Archangels

Posted by eph21920 on September 29, 2026 in Angel, Bible, Connected, Friends, Prayer

Today is the Feast of the Archangels, one of my favorite days. I have always been fascinated by angels and have felt strength when praying for their help. When I was at my friend’s house today, we watched a couple of videos that talked about where the Archangels were mentioned in the Bible and their stories. Michael was named in the book of Daniel as he protected the young man and again in Revelation as fighting the devil. Gabriel was the messenger to John the Baptist’s father and to Mary the Mother of God in the book of Luke. Raphael was in the Old Testament book of Tobit. He healed an old man of blindness and a young woman of demons as he travelled along side of a young man who was connected to both of them. The Archangels do the work God has given them, then disappear to allow God’s plan to unfold, always pointing back to Him. This afternoon I heard from some friends and was reminded that one of them is having surgery in a couple of days. I figured it was a great day to ask these mighty beings for their intercession for protection and healing for our friend. Thinking about the Archangels today really lifted my spirits.

I Found God today becoming more aware of the Archangels.

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All Coming Together

Posted by eph21920 on September 28, 2026 in Answer, Family, Grateful, Life, New, Opportunity, Plan

A couple weeks ago, my sister and I talked about her moving in. I was pretty excited as I don’t really like being by myself. We always shared a bedroom when we were growing up and have shared a living space a couple times since then. I feel like we know each other pretty well and that it will be a good situation. She has some furniture that she will be bringing with her. I had been thinking about the furniture here and had already planned on selling much of it. I met with a gentleman who has a consignment shop who put me in touch with an estate dealer. My sister and I spent the weekend sorting things in the house. We have sold most of the items that were valuable and have donated tons of stuff already. A woman who does auctions that we dealt with in the past came over yesterday and picked out the things that caught her eye. Today the estate guy came over and perused what is left. He will sell what he can and deliver furniture to the consignment shop, so we put a date on the calendar. Then, I figured since the basement of the house will be pretty clear, I should replace the carpet. I got in touch with our friend who has a carpet business. He said they would be able to get the job completed in the next couple of weeks. Then my sister will move in and we will be able to start fresh. I am looking forward to that. And I am grateful that my grandiose plan seems to be all coming together.

I Found God today planning a fresh start.

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Sharing the Load

Posted by eph21920 on September 26, 2026 in Connected, Faith, Family, Grateful, Home

My sister and I are together this weekend. She got the Hallow app not too long ago and we have been sharing podcasts that we enjoy with each other. This morning we listened to the daily reflection together. Then we played the trivia game, which we weren’t great at. We played the categories game and the word game as well. It was fun to do them together. We spent the rest of the day sorting things in the house as we will be having people come in to purchase items and haul furniture away. She is planning on moving here in a few weeks, so there is much to be done. It was a lot of work, but we made a lot of progress. We did find time to rest and laugh as we went along. I thought of the Samwise Gamgee quote from Lord of the Rings when he was trying to convince Frodo to “share the load” by carrying the burden of the One Ring for a while. I enjoyed sharing faith with my sister and was grateful that I could share the load as it has become overwhelming for me to try to finish cleaning out the house on my own.

I Found God today sharing it with my sister.

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Eating Well

Posted by eph21920 on September 25, 2026 in Answer, Food, Friends, Grateful, Healing

As I have been helping out my friends, I had been doing some cooking for them and putting containers of food in their freezer. I realized that they weren’t really eating very well and tried to find ways to help with that. After the husband’s hospitalization, they have connected to a caregiving company and have people coming over in the morning and at night. I went over there today and they were excited to let me know that things were going well. The wife told me that they had eggs, toast, and hash browns for breakfast and that her husband ate it all. The meal was prepared by the morning caregiver. I commented on how nice it must be to have a personal chef in their house. They agreed that it was. It has been a week now with this new routine for them, and I could tell that they have been eating more and healthier than before. Their son came over while I was there, and brought over some fresh produce and other things. I was so happy and grateful to see that their eating habits have been changing and that they both seem to be improving.

I Found God today seeing my friends getting better nourishment.

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Blessed Fulton Sheen

Posted by eph21920 on September 24, 2026 in Answer, Faith, Healing, Saint

This morning I learned that Archbishop Fulton Sheen would be beatified today. I knew of him and had watched an occasional, “Life is Worth Living”, TV show which drew an estimated 30 million viewers each week in the 1950’s. Fulton Sheen was an avid learner, acquiring several degrees. That led him to teaching, which developed into his TV show. He was captivating, evangelical, and humorous, able to connect with people from all walks of life. I watched a little bit of his beatification in which they unveiled a large portrait of him with his witty smile. At one point, a relic of the now Blessed Fulton Sheen was processed into the church. It was a piece of his mandible, signifying his giftedness as a great orator. The young man who carried it was alive due to a miracle. When he was born at home, he wasn’t breathing and his heart wasn’t beating. He was rushed to the ER. While the doctors and nurses worked for an hour to bring the baby to life, his mother kept repeating, “Fulton Sheen” over and over again. The medical team finally stopped to call time of death. Then, miraculously, the baby started breathing and his heart started beating. And even though he had gone an hour without oxygen, there was no damage to his brain or body. That was the miracle that opened the canonization process for Fulton Sheen. It was interesting and humbling learning about him and exciting to have this American personality as a new saint.

I Found God today in the life of Blessed Fulton Sheen.

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Too Heavy

Posted by eph21920 on September 23, 2026 in Eucharist, Faith, Grace, Jesus, Priest

I admit I am somewhat of a sceptic. Particularly with so many scams and AI, to determine what is real and true can be challenging. A friend shared with me a video that has been getting a lot of attention. At first, I wondered how true the story was. On September 14, 2026 (the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross), Father Brent Bowman was celebrating Mass at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in Hopkins, Minnesota. The story was that he was unable to raise the chalice during the consecration of the Precious Blood. I figured maybe someone in the congregation was taking a video or something. But the parish had professional footage from the livestream recording of the Mass with students from the school. My friend and I watched in awe as it showed him struggling and temporarily unable to lift the chalice before placing it back down. This video starts with Fr. Bowman’s homily, in which he got choked up talking about the sacrifice Jesus made for us. It is truly an unbelievable event.

I Found God today in a video of a priest’s intense spiritual experience.

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Grateful for Hands

Posted by eph21920 on September 22, 2026 in Answer, Connected, Grateful, Healing

Just a couple weeks ago I was really struggling with my right hand. It was swollen and painful and I couldn’t use it very much. I tried to be gentle with it as it slowly got better. There will always be residual swelling, pain, and limited capability due to the juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. But, after my experience at Lourdes, I can physically do more than anyone thought I would be able to. Today I realized how grateful I am to be able to use my hands. First thing in the morning I said my prayers including a rosary. As I slid the beads through my fingers, I was aware of how hard that was not too long ago. A friend invited me to a card making event this morning, so I went after breakfast. It was so much fun folding, stamping, and gluing. I could use my hands with no problems. This afternoon I went to my friend’s house to help them out. The gentleman got out of the hospital and was back at home, using a walker to get around. They hired a caregiver company to provide the extra help that they need right now and asked it I could still come to fill in some of the holes. When I was there this afternoon, I made them lunch and did some things around the kitchen. I was glad I was able to help them, especially since I was pretty useless to them a couple of weeks ago. When my body hurts more than usual, I do notice it and can get frustrated that I can’t function the way I want to. I should be more grateful, like today, for the capabilities that I had just for today.

I Found God today grateful to use my hands.

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Blessings of the Present

Posted by eph21920 on September 21, 2026 in Faith, Grateful, Jesus, Prayer

This morning I got into my Hallow app and saw that a new 21 days of prayer was starting. I put on the first podcast and to my surprise, it was Deion Sanders speaking. He talked about his spiritual conversion. Even though he was an athletic superstar, he had inner turmoil that just wouldn’t cease until he finally could go no further and gave his life to God. I enjoyed the way he talked about the duplicity of his life. He said, “I lived in a 15,000-square-foot house, but I never felt at home. I’ve had hundreds and hundreds of suits, but I couldn’t cover up the pain. I bought a duplicity of shoes to match every suit, but I couldn’t take a darn step in the right direction. Had 9 to 10 cars in the driveway, but I wasn’t going nowhere. I was winning on the outside, but I was losing on the inside.” He then went on to describe how he tried to kill himself in a car accident, but he survived, cried out to God, and His life was changed. His prayer for the day was a simple, “Thank You God…” and he went over many ways that he was blessed and grateful to God. Later in the day, I turned on the radio which was tuned to the Christian station. The radio announcer talked about how important it is to not be so concerned about our future that we don’t appreciate or see what is right in front of us. I am quite often guilty of that exact state of mind. I look forward a lot – anticipating good things coming up, or worrying about things that might happen. That is a big reason why I started to write about how I find God every day. I want to acknowledge and thank God for all the blessings in my life and in the world around me each day.

I Found God today reminded to keep my focus on the blessings of the present moment.

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Mater Filius

Posted by eph21920 on September 20, 2026 in Uncategorized

This morning at church, a couple spoke about the Mater Filius home in the city. The name means, “Mother and Child” in Latin. A couple of years ago, the house was built on the campus of another church. The mission of Mater Filius is to defend life with love by helping pregnant women, offering a path forward through support, resources and spiritual guidance to nurture the lives of mothers and their children. One of the speakers shared a story of one of their graduates. When she moved in, she had an almost 1 year old and was pregnant. She gave birth and lived at the house for another couple of years while she got her GED, then her CNA license. She was able to save enough money to pay off her debts, move out of the house and into her own apartment, and purchase a vehicle. One young woman even became Catholic along with her children as she was amazed that the people there would spend their lives caring for her. A quote from their website is, “At Mater Filius, we help you discover the value you have as a human being; you know the greatness that is within you and you have the ability to love and be loved.” I was in awe of the care and commitment the young mothers are given. The home is truly God’s hands at work.

I Found God today learning about the Mater Filius home.

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Beautiful Morning

Posted by eph21920 on September 19, 2026 in Creation, Friends, Joy, Life, Peace, Stranger

I woke up way too early this morning with way too much on my mind. I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I just got up. I said my prayers and asked God to calm my mind. I had an early breakfast and decided to go for a long walk in the cool fall feeling weather. That was such a good idea. There was a lot happening to distract me from my spinning mind. At the corner of the main intersection, there were some people under a couple of pop-up tents. There were some tables set up and a sign that read, “Paws & Pickup”, and most of the people had dogs with them. I had to know what it was all about, so I went across the street and talked to one of the ladies in charge. A group of neighbors got together and wanted to build community. They had organized this morning to meet with other neighbors and their dogs to walk around the perimeter of the neighborhood and pick up trash. I thought that was such a great idea. The woman showed me the website and Facebook group that they had created to let people know of the different events they were organizing. As more people and dogs arrived, I thanked her and said goodbye as I continued on. Not too much further I came across 2 of my neighbors who were on their trikes and stopped to chat with them. They were happy to stop in the shade for a minute as they were travelling uphill. After I said goodbye to them, I came to the park. There was a youth baseball game in progress. I stopped and watched for a while and remembered watching my sons and grandsons play. I wondered if my new granddaughter would be playing sports in the future. Continuing on, I came across a church group of families who were walking together. Some of them were getting ready to mow a large weeded common area next to the sidewalk. When I was almost home, a large bird flew overhead. I stopped and watched the red tailed hawk for a while as he landed on a nearby roof. I got home and thanked God for the beautiful morning and that my stress level was greatly reduced.

I Found God today in a beautiful morning.

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