A Year of Daily Offerings by Fr. James Kubicki, SJ

 

Would you like to grow in your faith but feel that you can't make time for one more activity in your busy day?  Do you want to gain a greater understanding of the church but feel that most of what's available to read is too hard to understand?  Do you want to deepen your prayer life but don't know where to begin?  Well here's the answer to all of those questions!

Fr. James Kubicki, SJ, National Director of the Apostleship of Prayer and author of the bestseller A Heart on Fire, has compiled his daily Relevant Radio Prayer Reflection recordings into a book format called A Year of Daily Offerings. Now those who aren't able to tune in to the radio to hear Fr. Jim share a few words for the day may read them over and pray with them at their leisure.  What a great way to start the New Year and each day!

My preordered copy arrived last month and I have now been praying with and enjoying Fr. Jim's reflections every day.  Fr. Jim's easy-to-understand explanations about the saint or feast of the day bring a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith to my often frazzled mind.  Fr. Jim follows the explanation with a prayer for the day, just a few words to draw me closer to God. The prayer is followed by a "Word for the Day", a thought that I keep in the back of my mind throughout my busy day to help me stay connected to the offering of the day.  He closes the reflection with an "Evening Review", a question to ponder in my daily examen.  A Year of Daily Offerings has been a delight to begin my mornings with before rushing off to work.  I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to grow in my faith with Fr. Jim's words of wisdom and prayer to start each day!  I'm sure that this book will soon be well-worn as it will be  faithfully used each day for many years to come!

From Ave Maria Press: "A Year of Daily Offerings is a prayerful 366-day experience immersed in the lives of the saints, the rhythm of the Church calendar, and the stories of ordinary people who lived the Eucharist in their daily lives. It will help you reorder not just your devotional life, but the entire way of looking at your day.

This thoughtful, yearlong book of morning meditations from Rev. James Kubicki, S.J.—national director of the Apostleship of Prayer and bestselling author of A Heart on Fire—provides a rich array of reflections based on Ignatian spirituality that invite you to begin each day with a sincere offering of your life to God.

Combining a contemporary tone with a strong Biblical understanding, Fr. Kubicki shows you how to live your Eucharistic offering each day. He provides a fresh perspective on the promise of connecting with God through the practice of morning prayer by using prayers of the saints, a word to carry throughout the day, and an evening reflection to reflect on the day you offered to God."

You can order A Year of Daily Offerings, as well as A Heart on Fire, from Ave Maria Press.

Traumatized

I opened an email from my boss that said "Meeting on Friday at 1 PM Sharp!" and then because I already knew about that meeting I closed the email without reading any further. That was a mistake because what I missed was an important detail about a free lunch that would be served at 12:30.

Friday morning arrived and as is typical for a Friday morning it was busy in the WIC Clinic. I listened to client after client complain about their struggles with breastfeeding or about the difficulties of finding a dentist who would take Badgercare state insurance. I encouraged these young mothers about the benefits and the bonding of breastfeeding and assisted them as best I could, and offered referrals and sympathy for the mothers who couldn't find relief for their children's toothaches. "We should all tell our children to grow up to be dentists," I said, "there clearly is a shortage."

I worked past my normal lunch break and wondered why none of my coworkers were leaving for their own lunch breaks. I popped my head into Chue's office and she explained that our boss was treating everyone to lunch at the meeting so nobody was taking a lunch break. I assumed she meant the lunch would be served a one o'clock when the meeting started.  I went back to my office to work on sending out referrals to doctors about the low iron levels of some of my clients.

Around 12:45 I noticed that the office was strangely silent. I walked throughout the clinic and found that everyone was gone. I was alone. I headed down to the meeting room and found my boss and all of my co-workers eating lunch. "I thought the meeting was at 1," I said. They asked me if I had read the email that said lunch would be served at 12:30, before the meeting would begin.  Obviously, I hadn't. I made a mental note to myself to always read the complete emails from my boss and not simply skim the headlines in the future.  I couldn't help but feel a little miffed that nobody missed me at the lunch.

The meeting began with an in-service on how to deal with clients who are suffering from trauma. Trauma, it was explained, can occur from a major life catastrophe or from multiple minor everyday stresses like passing ten people in the hallway and not one of them says hello to you. Or like arriving late for a lunch meeting and nobody even noticing that you weren't there, I thought.


I felt traumatized.

One of the points of the in-service on how to cope with the traumas of daily life was to begin and end each day by being grateful for one good thing in your life. How Ignatian, I thought, but bit my tongue before I offered that piece of unwanted input at the secular office meeting. Instead, I offer it here, along with a list of people and things for which I am grateful.  Linking up with Ann Voskamp's A Holy Experience Blog and her Multitudes on Mondays gratitude list, I thank God for...

~six newly ordained priests in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee!
~warm spring weather
~lilacs in bud
~a free lunch courtesy of my boss
~my husband and his humor-forever making me laugh
~daily holy hours
~friends who welcome my lengthy and frequent emails
~a new refrigerator after 20 years with our reliable Kenmore
~two sons with full-time summer groundskeeping jobs for the church-thanks for keeping them physically close to you, Lord!
~a son off to seminary college in a few short months
~birdsong in the early morning hours
~vegetable and flower gardens planted and ready to grow
~butterflies dancing around me while I work
~a timely thunderstorm just after planting is through
~son who gives me a bouquet of dead flowers a week after Mother's Day having just recovered them from his hiding place (it's the thought that counts-right?)

What are you thankful for?