Faith
Being Renewed
Our parish is having a “Stewardship Renewal” in which parishioners are being asked to prayerfully consider how they can share their gifts and talents with the parish. They sent a mailing that included a lovely magazine type publication that briefly explained the different ministries available to participate in. I had no idea there were so […]
Positive Quotes
I saw several positive quotes today as people are clinging to faith, hope, and love and friends are sharing their wisdom. Here are some of them: For Jesus, there are no countries to be conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, no people to be dominated. There are only children, women, and men to be loved. […]
Do Your Best
This morning at church, a woman form the parish spoke about her faith journey. She had a favorite saying that I really liked, “Do your best and let God do the rest.” How often I think of God as being so tiny that He can’t take care of things. Or how often I give myself […]
Defense Against Anxiety
My mom read her reflection from “Jesus Calling” this evening. The first sentence gave us both cause to pause. It is written as if Jesus is talking directly to you. “Anxiety is a result of envisioning the future without Me. So the best defense against worry is staying in communication with Me.” Enough said. I […]
Preparing to Rest
My sister helped my mom to water her orchids and noticed a bare stem still on one of the plants. It had finished blooming a while ago and the flowers had all come off. She told my mom that she was going to cut it off and prepare the plant to rest. When it is […]
Prepared to Look Up
We were excited that today was the annular solar eclipse that we have been preparing for. My brother ordered us some of those special glasses so we could watch the display unfold. My sister did some coloring last night with my mom and we realized that it was a good representation of an eclipse. That […]
Angel Feather
My daughter in law has been understandably struggling with the loss of her mother. She shared a very sweet and moving story the other day about a heavenly sign just for her. Here it is in her words. Today I didn’t really go anywhere. My car only went to drop off and pick up the […]
Eucharist Procession in NY
I learned today that Fr. Mike Schmitz celebrated Mass in NY city on October 10 followed by a Eucharist Procession. Over 5000 people attended the Mass and procession including priests, nuns, and laity. While there is so much violence, turmoil, and protests in this world and in this country, we need God more than ever. […]
Meditation on Death
Yesterday I listened to a chapter from The Imitation of Christ fittingly titled, “Meditation on Death”. The subject was how, in our life, our attention should be on our death. Our life is short and none of us knows when God will take us home. Death is eternal as is our soul. Instead of worrying […]
Self Care
I was talking with my counselor today and reflecting on what it means to take care of myself. I had been attending a caregiver group at the Aging Center for a couple of years, which was helpful to some degree. After my dad died last year, I knew I was a mess. I tried a […]