Faith

1200 Relics

Today I visited an incredible shrine that held over 1200 relics, including first and second class relics of saints and even some pieces of the True Cross. I arrived in time for the tour and was the only one there, so it was a private tour. We went to the relic chapel first and the […]

Cousin Connection

When my dad was 18 years old, he entered a beautiful silhouette black and white photo of his sister into a photo competition. It won an “Honorable Mention”. The framed  photo along with the ribbon has been traveling with our family ever since. It was also displayed at different photo competitions and exhibits as shown […]

The Serenity Prayer

Recently, a friend’s mother passed away and I have been praying with her prayer card. It has the serenity prayer on it. Many people know the first part by memory: “God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference.” […]

I Made It

Listening to music today, I heard the song, “I Made It” by CAIN. Here are some of the lyrics: ‘Been a long yearCried some hard tearsOn some dark nights;Tried to pray throughNothing seemed toMake the wrongs right;Oh, I can’t believe the pain I’ve seenBut looking backThrough every stepYou never leftAnd I’m so thankful that;I’m coming […]

Talk or Listen

Today I met with my group from church and we read the scripture from the Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 – Pentecost. We talked about what it must have been like for the Apostles to have so much courage to go out and talk about the “mighty Acts of God” after being so afraid […]

At Peace

Today I went to a friend’s mom’s funeral. I met her several years ago after both our dad’s died. We were both attending the grief support group at the church. Her mom was going as well. During the session, the mom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, which she vehemently denied in her strong New York accent. […]

Don’t Panic

When I arrived to help at my friend’s house today, the wife was in her room watching TV. She likes to watch YouTube. I went in and sat with her. She was watching a video about how Yellowstone will be exploding sometime in the near future. Unfortunately, she does get caught in the click bait […]

Service

When I got the job at the church that I worked for, I was introduced to the maintenance man. I quickly learned that he was much more than that. He and his crew took care of everything needed on the property – inside and out, scheduled all the facilities, and made sure everything was ready […]

Hoping For Pilgrimage

Some friends and I have talked about doing a pilgrimage of the Camino Portuguese. The Camino de Santiago is the most popular Christian pilgrimage in the world today. We have been considering the route that goes through Portugal. St. James travelled the route as he preached Christ’s lessons of unconditional love and forgiveness. It is […]

Peace

I visited the cemetery today and placed some flowers on my mom’s headstone to honor her birthday. It was so peaceful there. As I looked around at all the neatly aligned identical gravestones I thought about how each of them represented one person in the US Military. Each person at this cemetery did their part […]