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 the stretcher getting loaded into the ambulance. She reached out, so I held her hand and prayed with her briefly before they took her. Yesterday they decided to do the emergency surgery. I heard from her husband today who reported that the surgery was a success and that she is doing amazingly well. There have been probably hundreds of people from all over the world praying for her. I was so grateful to hear of this huge blessing.
I Found God today in a successful surgery for my friend.
Quite a while ago, my son was able to purchase tickets for the Olympics. He and his fiancee left for their big trip a couple days ago. They decided to spend some time in Rome before heading over to Paris for their ticketed events. I knew they were planning on going to Mass at the Vatican. Shortly after I woke up this morning, I received photos from them. I was shocked to see a picture of my son at the lectern in an incredibly beautiful church. Here is his story.
“It was Santo Spirito in Sassia. They do English Mass every Sunday at 9:30 am. They were the only one with English Mass close to the Vatican. About 3 blocks away. A nun (sister of mercy…of course) just came over and asked if we were readers because she needed readers and I said I have been before so she asked if I’d be willing to. I did today’s second reading!”
I did a little research and found that the church had been appointed by St. Pope John Paul II to be the Divine Mercy Spirituality Center and was served by the sisters from the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy. This is the scripture verse my son read:
Eph 4:1-6 “Brothers and sisters: I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
I cried as I thanked God for the incredible blessing He gave to my son and his fiancee.
I Found God today in His gift of allowing my son to be part of a beautiful Mass in an extraordinary place.
Today I watched a video of the talk given by Bishop Baron at the recent Eucharistic Congress held in Indianapolis. His challenge was for the laity – Catholics who are not religious. He spoke of the responsibility of the ordinary every day Catholics. The first thing he said was,”Your Christianity is not for you – it is for the world.” We are meant to be the light of the world. To do so, we are also meant to live in poverty, chastity, and obedience. In a nutshell, poverty means to be detached from the worldly goods that we think will make us happy. Unfortunately, if we chase after wealth, pleasure, honor or power, it leads to anxiety and we never get enough. Our focus needs to be on God first who promises everlasting wealth. To live in chastity means living your sexuality in a morally and spiritually upright way. To love means to will the good of the other. Lastly, obedience means to put God’s words first. When there are so many voices steering us in so many different directions, we get confused, anxious, and even fearful. Giving space to listen to God and following Him will lead to an amazing and love-filled life. These were all challenging words and ideas, but worth personal examination.
I Found God today in a challenge to live and love closer with God.
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 to spend her time with him. She even helped him pare down his “bucket list” and took him and his friends on adventures. He took a turn for the worse shortly after my mom’s funeral and we learned that he passed away a few days ago. My sister and I wanted to send some flowers to our friend, so I perused the endless possibilities. I kept coming back to the sunflowers, so that’s what I ordered to be delivered to their house. Our friend received them today and thanked us for them. She asked how we knew that sunflowers were the gentleman’s favorite. I responded that I didn’t know, but that’s what touched my heart. Now we know why.
I Found God today led to send a personal gift to a loving friend.
The other day I sent messages to a couple of my mom’s doctors to let them know she had passed away. Yesterday her most recent primary care doctor called me to offer her condolences and check to see how I was doing. Today we received a hand written note from the cardiologist who cared for both my mom and dad for many years. He also offered his sympathy and said he was honored to care for them. I was very surprised to hear from these doctors. I know they are very busy and have such time constraints. It was so thoughtful and meant so much to me that they took the time to reach out.
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 at the same time. Our conversation shifted somewhat, but the understanding, support, and friendship carried on. We talked about unexpected and similar emotions. We laughed, cried, prayed, and hugged. At one point my friend said she doesn’t know how people can deal with the death of a loved one without having faith. I agreed and can’t imagine how difficult that would be. I feel so blessed to have this special woman and relationship in my life.
I Found God today in a supportive, loving relationship.
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 early this morning and was worried about her. So I prayed a Divine Mercy chaplet. This afternoon, I was outside when my neighbor’s daughter and husband came home. He reported that so far she does not have a blood infection, but the infection in her intestines remains very serious. The doctors are recommending surgery. It was kind of a good news, bad news scenario. The couple have done mission trips for years. When she became so ill, he spread the word and asked for prayers. He received responses from around the world. He told me how blessed and encouraged they felt to have so many people in so many places praying for them. What a blessing indeed.
I Found God today in a worldwide prayer community.
I was so grateful for this day. As usual, my Sunday morning started with Mass. I planned on meeting my son and his wife there. I spotted them when I arrived and was surprised to see my other son and fiancee there as well. It was a blessing to pray with them all together and to hear my son’s singing voice. During the celebration, the responsorial was Psalm 23 – the same as was at my mom’s funeral. Another song was “Be Still and Know That I am God.” This particular scripture has always spoken to my heart. The closing song was, “Christ in me Arise”, which always makes a friend of mine cry. So, being a good friend, I shared it with her. I felt God gave me so much acknowledgement during that Mass. Yesterday was my grandson’s birthday, so after Mass I picked up my brother and sister and we all met at the indoor go-kart track and raced. What made it more fun was that the 4 younger guys were very competitive with one another and my sister, brother, and I added a little extra challenge for them as they had to navigate passing us. We all left laughing. Then we headed over to a restaurant chosen by my grandson for his birthday meal. After that we went to his house for cake. It felt strange for me and my siblings to be gone for such a long time all together. Every now and again I would think about needing to make sure Mom was taken care of. At the same time, it was joyful to spend an afternoon of fun with my family. And I can rest in faith that my mom is now cared for in a much greater way than I can ever imagine.
There have been many people in and out of the house for many months. They have helped in so many ways. Several helped clean and do laundry and the dishes. It was very much appreciated, but also led to a pretty unorganized kitchen as people put things in places they thought they should be. This morning my sister and I got at it and started pulling things out of the kitchen cabinets. As we worked, we took a trip down memory lane. We found appliances and cookbooks from the 1970’s and my mom’s old tin recipe card box. We came across some items that belonged to my grandmother. Some things were kept, some were thrown away, and some were donated. This reminded me of an antique mall that is here in the city. Once we completed the majority of the kitchen project, we headed over to the mall. There we found many of the same treasures we have here for sale, like our mom’s little aluminum cookie cutters and glass lemon juicer. And there were plenty of other gems that brought us back to our youth, such as 8-track tapes. The mall was in a part of town that we used to go to when we were in our teens. But it was all very different now. Once back at home, I found an article that described the area as it was with the old ice cream shop, the pizza place, and the arcade. My sister and brother and I had quite a good time remembering all the shops and restaurants we would visit with the family. I found it to be very joyful taking a trip down memory lane.
As I was out today, I stopped at the park to take a quick walk. I wasn’t sure how far I would get as the skies looked threatening. But, I managed to make it all the way around which was about a mile. I got back in the car and started it. The radio was set on the Contemporary Christian station as usual. I heard the words, “Remember that God loves you,” and looked up. There was a hole in the clouds and the sunlight was streaming down. To me, it was beautiful and timely.
Still Finding God 