Seven Quick Takes

1. Thanks for all the prayers! I passed my examination and am now a Certified Lactation Counselor! I will still have to make the 80 mile trip to Madison next month to complete the afternoon hours that I missed at the training, but I know that my son's beautifully repaired teeth are worth it!

2. Last Saturday, I was asked to bring lunch to my sons, John and Justin and several other boys who were touring the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist as part of the Seminary's Vocation Office efforts to bring about interest in the priesthood. Little did I know that Archbishop Listecki would be there, and I would have the opportunity to meet him and listen to him talk with the boys for a while. It was a blessing! He is a kind and interesting man with a wonderful sense of humor! In the future, when I'm asked to help, I will always say "Yes"! After all, wasn't Mary greatly blessed in her positive response to the Angel Gabriel? She sets the standards that I know I must follow!

3. Basketball season is over! No more running to 5 practices a week and 3-10 games on the weekends! No more admissions and concessions draining my wallet dry! I don't know what in the world my family will do with all of our spare time and spare money! :)

4. During Lent, we have a tradition in our family of watching a weekly movie about Jesus. No matter which movie we have watched this year (although Paul and I have watched the Passion, we have not shared that one with the kids), our eleven year old, Jack, ends up in tears at the cruxifixion. I am glad that he is so sensitive and has such a deep love for Jesus, but I worry that maybe it is all too intense for him. He cries quite a bit at Eucharistic Adoration as well. We also pray the Stations of the Cross at home as a family quite a bit during Lent, and I remember that when my two oldest sons were younger, they were in tears by the end as well. Is this a normal process of growing up? Anybody else experience this with their kids and/or have an opinion about it?

5. The weather here has been gorgeous this week! We've enjoyed temps in the 50's with blue skies! On Monday, just before my appointment with my spiritual director, I had the joy of spending thirty blessed minutes alone on the shores of Lake Michigan engaging in my favorite activity-searching for sea glass! Winter feels so long when the sands are snow covered and I am so grateful that I can partake in the peaceful pleasure of beach combing once again!

6. More Archbishop Listecki...he came to my parish for a Reconciliation Service this past Wednesday. The church was packed! In spite of the crowd, my family and I were able to be in the Archbishop's line for confession. I just have to say ditto to my comment in number two! He really is kind and loving. He gives great advice and reminded me of God's love for me. I love confession and the peace it brings and receiving the sacrament from the Archbishop was icing on the Lenten cake!

7. Speaking of cake, today is the feast day of St. Joseph. It was this great saint who helped my husband find a job all those years ago when I was pregnant with my third son in three years, so of course we named him Joseph! Today we celebrate my son's feast day with great joy and a little cake! Happy Feast Day of St. Joseph!

"O St. Joseph whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires. O St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, our Lord; so that having engaged here below your Heavenly power I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most Loving of Fathers. O St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me, and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls, pray for us. Amen."

Thanks to Jennifer at Conversion Diary for this MEME.

Spring Air

the air is warm
full of Spring
and the sky is blue
full of sunshine
and my heart is light
full of joy

and my hands pin clothes on the line
and trim ends of vine in the hope of new growth

and God is here
my God
who fills the Spring air with His
warm breath
and draws the fragrance of freshness
across my face
and encourages the birds to sing
and slows my day down
to the rhythm of my prayers
that beat within my heart
as I silently, slowly work

relishing the chores of yesterdays
at home
at peace in the yard
at peace with the life with which He has blessed me
this beautiful, glorious, new life of Spring

The Incredible Shrinking Girl

I'm growing smaller. Standing in church between two of my teenage sons, I now only reach their shoulders and must bend my head backwards to look them in the eyes. I am shrinking, losing height. I am a tower that is falling.

I am smaller in other ways, too. My mind is smaller. I look at the surface of people and things and fail to notice the depth that lies underneath. I listen to hurtful comments and I immediately become defensive instead of accepting the full scope of the words that hurt and acknowledging that those words might have been lashed out in response to their own hurt, the hurt that I might have unknowingly caused.

I look at others whose appearance or actions are different than mine, and I immediately judge them and write them off as someone I wouldn't want to know. That beam that is stuck in my eye blinds me to so much goodness and beauty in the world around me.

Stretch me, Lord. Tug on my heart and my mind and my soul so that I will become an expansive vessel of your love to others. Take this shrinking girl by the hand and help me to grow in Your Love. Amen.

Praying the Stations of the Cross

“We adore You Oh Christ, and we praise You, because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.”





















As Christians, we have the ability to walk that dark path of agony that Jesus trod on the way to crucifixion over and over again, recalling his pain and suffering and praying in atonement for our sins. This special walk is called “The Stations of the Cross” but it is also known as “The Way of the Cross”, “The Via Dolorosa” or the “Via Crucis.” It is a tradition that is treasured during Lent, but can be prayed individually any time of the year.

Praying the Stations of the Cross is a traditional devotion that began in medieval Europe when Christian pilgrims were prevented from visiting the Holy Land due to the many wars of that time. Scenes depicting the walk Jesus made on His way to Calvary with the cross on his shoulders were installed along a procession, either indoors or outdoors. These stations draw those who pray the devotion into deeper meditation upon the Lord’s suffering as they stop to pray at each station along the way.

All Catholic churches have the Stations of the Cross depicted along the inside of the church walls for community devotion during Lent. Some are quite elaborate and can even be carved in life-sized depictions while others are very simple with a small wooden cross and the number of the station displayed beneath it.

The fourteen stations upon which we meditate are:
1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus is given his cross
3. Jesus falls the first time
4. Jesus meets His Mother
5. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross
6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
7. Jesus falls the second time
8. Jesus meets the daughters of Jerusalem
9. Jesus falls the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of His garments
11. The Crucifixion- Jesus is nailed to the cross
12. Jesus dies on the cross
13. Jesus' body is removed from the cross
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb.
Of these fourteen stations, only eight of them are based on scripture. The others (3,4,6,7,9 and 13) are formed from legends. Nevertheless, they are all beautiful reflections on the pain and suffering of our Lord and are each able to draw us into the mystery of His passion in a deeply meaningful way.

The Stabat Mater is often sung between stations. This ancient hymn recalls the pain that Mary suffered in watching the sorrow and agony of her beloved son. Just the first stanza alone is haunting in its ability to draw the person in prayer into deeper communion with the pain of the Blessed Mother…At the Cross her station keeping,stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last.

St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote one of the most beautiful versions of the Stations of the Cross. His preparatory prayer is an example of his deep love for Jesus and the beautiful, poetic wording of his entire version: My Lord Jesus Christ, you have made this journey to die for me with love unutterable, and I have so many times unworthily abandoned you; but now I love you with my whole heart, and because I love you, I repent sincerely for ever having offended you. Pardon me, my God, and permit me to accompany you on this journey. You go to die for love of me, I wish also, my beloved Redeemer, to die for love of you. My Jesus, I will live and die always united to you.

When the weather is nice, walking outdoor stations can be a lovely way to immerse yourself in meditation upon Christ’s passion and death. When the weather is unpleasant, the grace of walking in a little discomfort adds to the feeling of suffering along with Jesus in His most painful moments.

If you have never partaken in this devotion, please consider this year to be the beginning of your walk with Jesus, to offer Him your comfort and love along the painful journey to His death.

crystalline raindrops

barely awake
breath still coming slow and deep
I listen to the rhythm of rain
tapping on the window
hard, insistent

opening my eyes
just a sliver
reveals beauty so wondrous
that the slivers
soon become saucers

shimmering drops
on the window screen
are illuminated
by the streetlight
that glows down the street

the rain
takes on the look
of a million crystals
dancing on the window
to the urgings of the spring breeze

I am delighted
by the presentation
of natural beauty that glistens
before my eyes
as I awaken to the day

for God loves me and
He gives me visual presents
to draw me into the morning
into His love
and into joy

what a blessing it is
to live my life
knowing that God,
the giver of all good gifts
sends His crystalline raindrops

raindrops that entertain
and delight my soul with riches
I would never have known
from any other source
but God alone

Can You Spare Some Change?

It was a warm, sunny day. All the business people and college students out walking in the noon sunshine were casting off their coats and enjoying one of the first nice days of early spring. Then I saw her out of the corner of my eye. She was standing in the shadows of a tall building, dressed in a worn winter coat, with a woolen hat on her head. She had several plastic bags around her that I imagined contained her few possessions. She held a cardboard sign asking for work, money or food. Everyone hurried past her, as if she were invisible. I handed her the few quarters that were in my pocket and she nodded her thanks. It was then that I realized that I had something in common with that poor, homeless woman, because I needed some change, too…





















Dear God,

I’m not asking for great riches or major transformation, just a little change every day, a little difference that will draw me closer to You.

I could stand on any old street corner begging for handouts, but that’s not the kind of change that will enrich my life. Material riches won’t give me the kind of gain that will bring about lasting joy in my soul. Instead, it is the spiritual riches that only You can give to me will endure and bring me peace.

I know that it is not within my power to make anyone else change. My husband, my children, my coworkers and friends are all going to be whatever it is that you call them to be, even if it displeases me. But if you would only give me a little change, modify my attitudes and the way I see others, I know that everything in my surroundings will change for me as if I had new eyes and a new heart. Those things that irritate me in others will no longer be bothersome because the change you give to me will increase my tolerance in direct proportion to the increase of Your love in my heart.

So God, it is to you that I reach out my hand. The change that I ask for won’t buy me a warm meal, but it will warm my heart and soul with Your gift of love. This gift would be but a pittance for you to share, but to me, it is worth more than all the gold and silver in the world. For with your love, I can do more than carry on and accept those around me who cause me difficulty or grief. When I am filled with Your love, I will be able to love others with all of my being.

Please hear my prayer, my plea for change, Lord. Change me so that through this metamorphosis, the whole world will be brighter and more beautiful. Amen.


-As seen on CatholicMom.com

Praying the Psalms-Nine/ Praise

"I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will declare all your wondrous deeds. I will delight and rejoice in you; I will sing hymns to your name, Most High. Psalm 9:2-3

















Are you listening Lord? I said with ALL of my heart. I didn't mean just some dusty little corner that wasn't already filled with praise for other things like peanut butter cookies with chocolate on top, spring daffodils, piano music or childrens laughter. The only reason I will praise those other things is because they are all gifts from you, so when I praise the delights of this earth, when I am rejoicing in the pleasures I find here in my life, what I am really doing is declaring Your wondrous deeds.

Sometimes, though, my heart forgets. Isn't that sad? I hope it doesn't make You terribly unhappy that I forget to praise You, and that I take Your gifts for granted. You know I never mean to hurt You. What can I do, my glorious Father, to atone for my all too frequent ingratitude? If I sing hymns to Your name, will that please You? If I sing so that all my words and actions bless You and give You glory,and in doing so, I draw others to notice You and love You, will Your own heart sing for joy?

Then I will sing, just listen to my voice grow louder with a sweet melody for You. For You alone are wondrous, marvelous, fabulous and amazing. You are my maker, my lover, my father and my friend. You are my yesterday, today and tomorrow. You love me like no other ever could and I will love You in return, all my days. I will give You my heart and my soul, all that I am and all that I ever will be, in gratitude for the love You have bestowed upon me...simple, little, next-to-nothing me. In Your eyes, with Your love, I too, am wondrous, marvelous, fabulous and amazing. For You, and to You, I sing praise! Amen and Amen, forever.

Thanks to Jenny at Just a Minute for the Praying the Psalms MEME and to
Jennifer at My Chocolate Heart for the Praise MEME