Eucharist

Communions

A friend of mine who happens to be a priest always shares his homilies and I love reading them now that I live far away. When I read his words, it reminds me why and how much my faith grew when I was able to hear him in person. Tomorrow we celebrate the SOLEMNITY OF THE […]

Powerful Symbolism

Good Friday at church tonight was beautiful and moving. I love the symbolism in every detail. The silence broken by chanting, darkness changed by two lit candles, carrying and venerating a cross, an empty altar draped plainly for the Eucharist that was consecrated the day before and then escorted out, and finally exiting the church again […]

Loving Faith

Last night I received a note from a young woman who was in the youth group many years ago. She included her “testimony” of sorts that was very moving and encouraging to me. I am sharing it here. “I’ve been somewhat off and on Catholic for the last seven or eight years, always praying and […]

Too Long in the Hospital

To be honest, it has been an incredibly stressful week. My mom has been in the hospital for 8 days now going on 9. She was admitted for dangerously low sodium and has been struggling. She is very weak and doesn’t have an appetite. While there are moments of clarity, her responses are typically slow […]

Young Theologian

As I drove from the wedding to the reception the other day, a young woman who I hadn’t seen for a couple of years rode with me. She couldn’t wait to get into the car and give me the update on all that had happened. As I saw her grow, somewhere along the way she […]

Powerful Reminder

I have been participating in a “retreat” held in one of classrooms in the church for the past few weeks. It is a 10-week session called “Consoling the Heart of Jesus” by Fr. Michael Gaitley. It is pretty deep theology, but I love it. Tonight we finished a few minutes early so we could go […]

Blessings in the Day

I was feeling so blessed today. Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Of course, I feel blessed because of my encounter at Lourdes when I was a child. I wrote about the specifics of that experience last year. So, her feast day is always on my calendar. There was a special Mass […]

Aware of Awesomeness

Last night I slept a few hours straight, then woke often thinking about my mother. I made myself stay in bed until close to sunrise. Then I was up and back to hospital. She was actually speaking even better than she was when we left last night. The nurses completed neurological tests every hour all […]

Better to be in Heaven

Tonight at dinner, the conversation with my sister and mom reminded me of a video clip I had seen from the HUMAN movie. This is a collection of videos of people telling stories of their lives. We found it on YouTube and watched a clip that started with the man saying, “The magic moment that […]

Holy Communion Delivered

My dad had been struggling to make it to church, so when my mom’s friend comes over, she has been bringing Holy Communion. She brought Communion to people who are home bound and in the hospital, so she has permission to get the consecrated hosts from her church. She came over this morning too and […]