Friends
Carrying Our Cross
I prayed a rosary this morning particularly for a friend who is in the hospital. She has been there longer than anticipated and continues to struggle. I came to the 4th sorrowful mystery, which is Jesus carrying the Cross. As I pondered this image, I remembered the scripture from Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all […]
Cookies For Compassion
One of our neighbors and her granddaughters had a lemonade and cookie stand today. The older granddaughter had the idea to raise money for a charity. Her grandmother has been sponsoring a young woman in Haiti through Compassion International since she was 10 years old. She had pictures of her from when she was a […]
Faith Through Struggles
This afternoon I was able to talk with my neighbor to find out how his wife was doing. She has been in the hospital, having had surgery over a week ago. While she is getting better in one way, she is still struggling in others. He doesn’t yet know when she may be able to […]
Joyful Visitor
When my son bought his house a few years back, two of his friends moved in as well and rented rooms. After a couple years, both of them became engaged and moved out. One of the previous roommates moved out of the city, but comes a couple days each month for work purposes. Then he […]
Same But Different
Today a far away friend called who I have known for many years. As we were talking, we decided we met about 20 years ago when my youngest son was about 10. When we would get together at that time, we mostly talked about our kids, our faith and our struggles. Many times we would […]
Successful Surgery
Our neighbor has been struggling for several weeks now with a severe intestinal infection. She was in the hospital for several days, then sent home to try to get in better shape to have surgery. A couple days ago when I opened the garage, I was surprised to see an ambulance. Our friend was on […]
Sunflowers
A very loving friend of the family helped care for my mom and dad for a very long time. She was also caring for an older gentleman who she and her family brought into their home. He lived with them for many years. Several months ago, he started having more struggles, so our friend needed […]
Sharing a New Road
Today I met a friend for lunch. Her husband had Parkinson’s disease and passed away not quite a year ago. For several years, we walked the caregiving road together. While our experiences were different, we understood the struggles of caring for a loved one to the end. Now, I guess we’re traveling the grief journey […]
Worldwide Prayers
My neighbor has been very ill for several weeks. She was home for a while, but her husband took her back to the hospital a couple of days ago. He said they were afraid that she might have a blood infection – sepsis. I knew that would be a very serious diagnosis. I woke very […]
Familiar Words
A few months ago, my mom’s friend’s son-in-law died. I had scheduled a Mass to be offered for his soul. It was today. I met our friend there and we prayed together. I recognized the Gospel reading: Mt 11:28-30Jesus said:“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. […]
Still Finding God 