Monthly Archives: March 2014

God Gives So Much More Than We Do

Lent, Sacraments

This will also be a fairly short entry. Mostly because I didn’t really do much on my Sunday.

I had made plans to try to get together with my friend, Terry. However, this didn’t go as I planned, as I slept most of the day. Seriously. I woke up at 4:49 pm and debated whether I should try and jump out of bed and rush to the 5 pm Mass at St. Anastasia. Ultimately, I decided that God deserved better than that and resolved to go to the Last Chance Mass (TM) at Ss. Cyril and Methodius at 8:30 pm.

There was one very short intermission in my sleep-a-thon. I woke up sometime around noon, made delicious asparagus risotto for lunch and promptly fell back asleep. Food coma or something. 🙂

Between 5 pm and 8 pm, I read more of “Will Grayson, Will Grayson” by John Green, who — if you haven’t read any of his books — is awesome.

I got to church just at 8:30 pm and took a seat in a pew near-ish to the front. The altar was decorated beautifully for Lent. Cyril’s has this statue of Jesus, showing all of his wounds from the scourging, and they had put a purple cloak and crown of thorns on the statue. It was right next to the altar. Behind it, was their giant crucifix, backlit with purple lighting. Very moving. One day, I’ll try to get a photo of it. I remember staring at the statue for a bit, saying to Jesus, “I want You.”

At Intercessions, I was praying for Fr. Anonymous, my goddaughter and her parents. Then, just before the Sign of Peace, who should pop into my pew but her Mom/my best friend! How awesome is that! I was so glad to see her!

I see this as part of the over-abundance that God gives us. I was (very minorly) faithful in making sure that I attended Mass, and that I was dressed properly and in a right frame of mind to worship Him, and in return He brings me something that gives me joy. 🙂 He also gave me the grace to really pay attention and participate in Mass, for which I was grateful.

He is so good!

A Blessed Day

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Sacred Heart Major Seminary

Today was a good day. It also happens to be the 9th anniversary of my child’s birth (stillbirth). I managed to only cry twice today and prayed in a special way for my baby.

I started my day by going to see Divergent at the movie theater at 10:50 am. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie on the big screen. No one was able to go with me that early in the morning (and I didn’t want to pay more $$$ for a later time). They changed it a little from the book, but it was still a very good movie and I still identified strongly with the character of Tris. Formation is pretty powerful stuff, and her training for Dauntless reminded me quite a bit of my formation in Navy boot camp.

After the movie, I made a quick lunch and called a friend I hadn’t spoken to in a while. We said we’d try to get together tomorrow.

Next up, late lunch/early dinner in Mexicantown! I picked up April, her sister Mary, and her friend Michelle, and we met up with Joe and Katie at Xochimilco. Food was delicious and we had a great time learning about each other’s professions, wedding details, and current events.

Katie and Joe at Xochimilco
Katie and Joe

Mary, April and Michelle at Xochimilco
Mary, April, Michelle

In the only picture of me, I had my eyes closed, so I’ll leave that one out. 🙂

With full tummies, we headed to Sacred Heart Major Seminary to see a play — 1776 — put on by the seminarians, including Gabby’s godfather, Jim.

1776 Play
Jim played Caesar Rodney (Delaware)

We arrived early — so as to get good seats — and spent our pre-play time taking a tour of SHMS. Highlights were definitely the chapel and the tabernacle. We stopped and prayed for a bit. It was lovely. So calm and peaceful, praying before Jesus.

SHMS Tabernacle
The beautiful tabernacle at Sacred Heart

SHMS Chapel from the Choir Loft
The chapel, as seen from the choir loft

I got to see a lot of my friends, both seminarians and others attending the play. It was nice to see everyone, albeit quickly and get some hugs in.

We ended our lovely day with a trip to Sonic for ice cream! Perfect ending! 🙂

Around the Internet…

Links, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Every so often, I have to make a post like this, where I share some of the cool things that I have found while surfing the internet. Usually, there isn’t much to say about them, so they don’t get their own post, and half of the time, they are in a post just so I have a reference (and to get them off my to-do list!).

Activities

One day, I’d like to take part in the Adult Learn-to-Row program at the Detroit Yacht Club.

Books/Reading

Brandon Vogt shows us how to build a Catholic e-book library.

Scribd is a site that allows you to read as many books as you want for a small fee per month, kinda like Netflix for books.

Oyster – another site like Scribd; however, it appears to be available only

It’s a great year for the book-to-movie genre. Here is a list of 16 that are coming up!

Computers/Electronics

Adafruit – they have projects/supplies for a bunch of different things, including Raspberry Pi and Arduino

Looking to make your own circuit boards? 123D Circuits offers a place online to design and test them, and will even print out boards for you with the necessary connections. 🙂

Food

U of M’s MHealthy Program offers lots of healthy recipes online.

Budget Bytes has delicious recipes that won’t break the bank! Food is getting so expensive!

Crockpot Freezer Meals — one day, I will either do this, or do a freezer meal workshop with Wildtree products by my friend, Stacy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie – somebody make this for my birthday. Please.

Products/Shopping

My Social Book offers a yearbook-style product that accumulates your Facebook posts, comments and photos. It’s pretty cool. I had a small one made. I like looking at the things I was interested in and the conversations that I had years ago. It’s probably a better replacement than a yearbook for high-school kids, at this point. 🙂 (There are also Instagram books, Twitter books, etc. out there.)

My wallet officially died today. Meaning, it’s been dead for a while, but today I finally tossed it in the trash. I demonstrated my need to a co-worker and expressed my dissatisfaction with many of the options out there, and he pulled out his wallet from Big Skinny. I spent much of the morning on their site, and think I have found a suitable replacement.

Religion/Spirituality

Meg gives us 50 ways to talk to God.

Saints in the Making University has a Lenten program that I subscribed to. Every day, they send me a different set of challenges that work to help me grow closer to Christ.

Travel

The Delicious Day gives us 16 reasons to visit Detroit. Nothing like a staycation!

Need WiFi? U of M is now part of a program that allows traveling students, faculty and staff access to WiFi at other academic institutions.

A Special Trip

Art

I heard that Kylie had painted a watercolor that was chosen to be displayed at the local library and decided that I’d make a special trip out to see it. It’s a great honor to be chosen, and I’m very proud of her.

I got a chance to drive out after work. The workers at the main desk did not know that children’s artwork was being displayed, but pointed me to one of the circulation desks in the youth section of the library. Art from the elementary and middle schools were displayed just beyond this desk.

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This shot couldn’t fit all of the art. I love how colorful it is.

Here is Kylie’s watercolor:
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Very beautiful. I hope her Mom or Dad frames it.

Congrats, Ky! You did a great job! I love you!

O God Beyond All Praising

Music

I had a hymn running through my head for over 12 hours. And, sadly, it wasn’t one that I particularly enjoyed. So I texted Fr. Anonymous and asked him to recommend a better song, STAT! 🙂 This was the one that he suggested:

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O God beyond all praising,
we worship you today
and sing the love amazing
that songs cannot repay;
for we can only wonder
at every gift you send,
at blessings without number
and mercies without end:
we lift our hearts before you
and wait upon your word,
we honor and adore you,
our great and mighty Lord.

The flower of earthly splendor
in time must surely die,
its fragile bloom surrender
to you, the Lord most high;
but hidden from all nature
th’eternal seed is sown–
though small in mortal stature,
to heaven’s garden grown:
for Christ the man from heaven
from death has set us free,
and we through him are given
the final victory!

Then hear, O gracious Savior,
accept the love we bring,
that we who know your favor
may serve you as our king;
and whether our tomorrows
be filled with good or ill,
we’II triumph through our sorrows
and rise to bless you still:
to marvel at your beauty
and glory in your ways,
and make a joyful duty
our sacrifice of praise.

I found an acceptable rendition on YouTube, and downloaded a better version from Amazon Music.

What’s even better is that I think this hymn is one that is commonly sung at Chrism Mass! One of my favorite Masses! So, points and double-points for Fr. Anonymous, as this is perfect! 🙂

[On a side note, a co-worker IM’ed me to say that the people one the phone were driving him crazy. I replied with the YouTube link and said, “This will help.”]

Destroy All the Wicked

Bible Study

I’m reading through the Psalms for Lent, and there are passages here that call for the utter destruction of one’s enemies. Some people have had a hard time reconciling this kind of destruction with an all-good God. Theories have been suggested that he was responding in this way due to the culture of the times.

But perhaps there’s another way to look at it…

Break the arms of the wicked and depraved; make them account for their crimes; let none of them survive. –Ps 10:15

Suppose God changes their hearts such that they aren’t wicked and depraved any longer. Wouldn’t that also be “destroying the wicked”? The “wicked and depraved” would no longer survive (although the reformed and repentant person/people would).

One, Two, Skip a Few…

Lent

This seems to describe my best intentions when it comes to my spiritual life. Okay. Really, my life in general. I find it so hard to hold to something that I will do every single day. I suppose if I had a habit of checking my calendar and to-do list every night before I went to bed, I might plan my time better throughout the day. I’ll make that my Lenten Challenge of the Day.

I have my Bible on me, so yay! Jenn: 1
I was supposed to start praying the Rosary (at least a decade) yesterday, but didn’t. Jenn: -1
Lenten Boot Camp, I didn’t do the readings/tasks for 3/8, 3/10, 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3/16, 3/17. Jenn: -9 Ouch!
Updating my blog, I’m behind on 3 posts. Jenn: -3

So, by my tally (which is completely arbitrary and meaningless), I have -12 points.
At least God is merciful. And I’m trying to emulate Him. So, I’ll allow myself permission to catch up, and that will be okay. 🙂

Today’s Rosary has been prayed, for the sake of our candidates and catechumens who will be joining us at the Lord’s Banquet on Easter.

My constant Lenten sacrifice — No Starbucks — continues to go well. How is your Lent going so far?

Peaceful Sunday

Lent

The day started with me waking up snug and cozy in bed. I had the space heater running, so for once my bedroom was about 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. Since Sundays are feast days, I celebrated by hitting the snooze button a few times (as opposed to those other days, where I … also hit the snooze button multiple times). I had a morning shift at work today, so I got ready fairly quickly and headed out. Finally, I remembered to take my Bible (and a book I plan on finishing) with me. It’s another one of the things I’m working on for Lent — bringing a Bible with me wherever I go. An actual Bible, not the electronic version(s) that I have on my phone.

I got a quick (not-so-healthy) breakfast on the way to work. I stopped at OLGC because I had to leave a message that I would not be available to help at the 12:00 pm Mass, as I had picked up this shift after the schedule had been made. I went to go back to my car, since I was running short on time, but stopped in the hall and turned around. I went to the Eucharistic chapel behind the altar and spent a few minutes kneeling in front of the Tabernacle, praising and thanking God and asking Him for help to do His will throughout my day. I also prayed for my priests. I had such a sense of peace and joy. I didn’t want to leave. Alas. As I was nearing work, the sky had changed from a dull grey to a cloud speckled blue, with a lovely sunrise. This is the view from the parking lot of my building:

A Sunday Sunrise

As today’s a Sunday, I don’t have any particular Lent-y thing planned, but I did snag a copy of the bulletin from church. Grab a copy here, it’s a good read. 🙂 I’ll share a bit of the articles that grabbed me:

Our lives are not subject to fate or circumstances, they’re not in the hands of sicknesses, they’re not at the beck and call of whatever forces out there continually shake and challenge us. Our lives are in God’s hands. Always. All the time. No matter what. — Fr. John Riccardo

The whole article was good, but this section is something that is great for me to be continually reminded of.

Fr. Steve talked about the benefits of having some discipline in our daily lives. He offers some tips from St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Rule:

  1. When you first wake up, praise God and pray.
  2. Attend daily Mass, every day if possible, but at least once a week, especially during Lent.
  3. Visit the Blessed Sacrament, daily if possible.
  4. Examine your conscience before bed every night.

Fr. Clement is perhaps my favorite bulletin author. (Sorry, Fr. John!) This week’s article speaks about dealing with temptations. Two things in particular spoke to me today:

Engage in battle against spiritual evils, armed with the weapons of self-restraint.

[Know] how important it is for us to know, to love, to be familiar with God’s word. God’s word will not only teach us, but will also guide and defend us against the fiery darts of the evil one.

In addition, he ended with this:
Fr. Clement's Bulletin Article
I love James! So excited for next week’s bulletin!

Finally, I was speaking with a co-worker yesterday, and he mentioned that he and his wife were looking for a school for their kids. I immediately offered, “You should enroll them in our school!” not even knowing if he was Catholic. 🙂 And today, there is an ad for our school in the bulletin! I hadn’t really noticed an ad for the school being in the bulletin before, so this must be some sort of “coincidence”. I cut the ad out of the bulletin and left it on my co-worker’s desk. 🙂 Maybe we’ll have a couple new Crusaders soon!

Ad for OLGC School

All-in-all, it’s been a good day so far. I look forward to Mass after work, and perhaps I’ll stick around for Evening Praise & Worship. 🙂

Have a blessed day!

Simple Saturday

Lent

I had a ten hour day at work, so I didn’t have any elaborate plans.

After work, because a friend of mine doesn’t have an Adoration chapel anywhere close her to, and because I have at least 5 that I can think of on the drive home, I visited Jesus and prayed Evening Prayer.

Adoration at Christ the King

What else does a girl need? 🙂