Present
Loving Relationships
My mom’s friend came over today as usual. She told us about their mutual friend who she has been visiting in a nursing home. She described how their friend has been declining and is in a bad way. Her husband died a few years ago. She is estranged from her daughter and her son who […]
Angels Always
I have been continuing to listen to the podcast of reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church in a year and trying to stay caught up. Today I listened to and read a couple paragraphs about angels. According to scripture, God created Heaven and Earth. Heaven is everything spiritual, including the angels who have will […]
Blessed Meal Time
Many times, I feel like I lose my concentration when I pray. My mind easily wanders – especially when I say the “usual” prayers during the day. Today at lunch we prayed our normal meal time prayer that we have done for my entire life, probably mom’s too. I started drifting almost immediately, but this […]
Enduring Friendships
Tonight I was so happy to go to a birthday party for a friend I met some 30 years ago. We lived in a great neighborhood where all the kids played in each other’s houses and were welcomed to just walk in any time. The families would bowl together, go camping, or just hang out. […]
Turning Around
My mom has enjoyed her home therapists and enjoyed the family time we have had. She has been feeling much better than she has recently. I think she has turned the corner on this latest bout. My son came over for a while this afternoon and we chatted. He is loving his new job. And […]
Reminder to Breathe
Today as I was doing all the things that need to be done, I started getting in my head about all the other things that also need to be done. Luckily, I had on my Christian Pandora channel. The song, “Breathe” by Jonny Diaz came on. The lyrics spoke to me, “Breathe, Just breathe. Come […]
Distant Relatives
For many years, my mom and sister worked on scrapbooking family memories. My mom has probably a dozen beautiful scrapbooks, each with its own theme. They are treasures for sure. Tonight, my grandson came over for a while to keep my mom company while I went to a prayer group. Last time he was here, […]
Reality Check
One of the Mass readings today was from the book of Wisdom. The priest that we listened to said that, “Unless we have the Wisdom of God, we cannot know reality.” All of us can look at any event and have multiple opinions on what is happening or what the meaning is, causing chaos and […]
In The Follow Through
My mom didn’t feel well today, so we participated in Mass with Fr. Mike Schmitz online. The Gospel reading was about the person who questioned Jesus about how to get to Heaven. He basically knew the answer – love God and love your neighbor. But he pushed further asking Jesus who exactly is my neighbor? […]
A Different Pentecost
I have been to some amazingly vibrant and exciting Pentecost celebrations and always look forward to today’s solemnity. However, today’s Mass was quite different. The priest started by saying how nice it was to use a microphone, because when he celebrated Mass earlier at a different church, their sound system wasn’t working. It was more […]