All posts by CadyLy

Uniting Your Suffering to the Cross

Tales of My Amazing Priests

This is perhaps a timely message for me, and for many others. Especially during this time of Lent when many of us are inflicting “mini-sufferings” upon ourselves, it is good to know that God can use all of this. The things that we take on upon ourselves for reasons of self-discipline and love of God, and those sufferings which God permits. These are never good, to be sure, and we should not be seeking them out, but our prayer in the time of suffering is particularly efficacious.

Fr. John was interviewed by Dr. Ralph Martin of Renewal Ministries on this topic. The video is just under a half hour long and is well worth watching.

They Always Make Me Cry

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Sacraments, , ,

I love going to Confession at St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit. But, they always make me cry. I guess I tend to feel God’s love and mercy a little more when I am there, for some odd reason. I don’t go there very often, but save it, so that when I do go, it feels “special”.

That and I usually buy something from their gift shop. LOL! 🙂

Today, they had something new in the gift shop, a candle that burns in a spiral, filling the bottom portion with wax as it burns. Once the spiral burns out, the “new” candle burns for hours. 🙂 Here’s a little video showing it:

I also picked up some honey that they make, to make my honey dijon chicken for dinner, and a couple other small things.

It was bright and sunny as I exited, and I feel truly blessed. 🙂

Sede Vacante

Sede Vacante
Sede Vacante

I have been wondering lately how the Prayers of the Faithful are going to change during Mass in this time of sede vacante.

You know…

The part where the priest says to pray for “our Pope Benedict, our bishop X, and all the clergy”….

I did a quick search and found this link, giving instructions to the clergy of Raleigh during this period. Kind of an interesting read. 🙂

This is certainly a time in which we should intensify our prayer life. Even more than what we would normally do during Lent. Trust in God, in whose hands we have always been held. Veni Sancte Spiritus and guide the College of Cardinals in these days!

Courage
[Photo Credit to Fr. Barron of Word on Fire]

Thank you Papa

Lent: The Third Day In

Lent
Lenten Cross

Year after year, Lent happens the same way: I make some crazy grandiose plans and thoroughly expect them to be carried out to the letter. And it.never.happens! 😦

Not only that, but then I feel upset and frustrated and just want to throw in the towel because I slipped on my commitments. I feel like I have let God down.

But, this year, I have started a new “cleaning” program that encourages you to *not* beat yourself if you miss a task (or a day…), but to just pick yourself up and continue on (NOT attempting to “catch up” — that will just frustrate things). So, I started off making this fantastic, elaborate plan for Lent, scheduling things into my calendar…. And then immediately started “screwing up”. It’s only FRIDAY, for Pete’s sake, and still I haven’t been able to do my daily Lectio Divina or blog posting, or ….

But I’m not going to obsess about that. I’ll just continue with the plan for Friday as if I did everything I planned on doing on Thursday and be content with that. I give my frustration over having my perfect plans messed up to God. My failure becomes part of my penance — I give up the satisfaction of knowing my perfect little list has been perfectly completed.

And what did I do on Wednesday and Thursday that derailed my Lenten penance plans? I helped a priest finalize his STL thesis. So, I gotta get points for that, right? 🙂

God Bless and have a peaceful Lent!

What Am I Doing for Lent?!!?

Lent
Day 53- Ash Wednesday preparations!

Ash Wednesday is HERE!

So, I guess this means that I finally have to nail down what I will be doing this Lent, right? Nothing like the nth hour, eh? 🙂

After much consideration and after looking at different links and suggestions, I have come up with the things that I am going to give up/take on during these 40 days in which I am attempting to adequately prepare myself for the celebration of Easter and grow in conformity to Christ.

Posting them up here is an attempt to secure the encouragement and accountablility of *you*: the 1 or 2 people who may read my blog. 🙂

In no particular order:

  • Read only spiritual/classic literature  (Good thing I finished reading Twilight last night!  And this will be a little difficult, because I *just* bought 2 YA novels and am about 1/4 of the way through one of them.)
  • Exercise at least 15 minutes, 3 days a week
  • Spend at least 15 minutes each day decluttering my house, and have at least one “package” of donations make it to a charity before Easter
  • Lectio Divina, daily
  • Liturgy of the Hours, daily
  • Examination of Conscience, daily
  • Adoration, weekly
  • Confession, weekly
  • Prayer journal, daily
  • 15 minutes of silence/listening to God, daily
  • Listen to only classical music/spiritual podcasts
  • Post something spiritual/share the faith on the blog at least once a week
  • Leave an encouraging or positive comment on someone else’s blog post, daily (instead of my usual habit of reading them and not commenting)
  • Give up fast food
  • Study the life of a different saint per week
  • Get caught up on my to-do list by Easter (this list is *almost* 2 years behind, and is only going to grow with all these items which I am about to add to it!)

That’s it!  That’s my Lent!  I do these things, not so that I “look good,” but in an honest attempt to provide more structure to my life and grow in holiness and self-mastery.

I’m interested to hear what your plans are for Lent, too!  I think that, as a Body of Christ, it helps so much to know that others have your back.  🙂

God Bless!

Prayer for Forgiveness

Prayer/Prayer Requests
Jesus Over the Earth

My Savior, by Your painful death,
You purchased by unworthy soul,
Deliver me from all my sins,
Teach me kindness and self-control.

Fill me with love beyond compare,
The kind of love You bore for me,
That all I do and all I say
May reflect Your sovereignty.

Be with me, everyday, my Lord,
Protect me from each harmful way,
Touch my body, mind, and spirit,
And never let me slip away.

Amen!

Riddle Me This

Bible Study

Okay, so I’m reading through the Old Testament and am in the middle of 1 Kings.

Here’s the issue:

15:1-2 — Here we meet Abijam, he rules Judah for 3 years and his mother’s name is Maacah daughter of Abishalom.

15:9-10 — Here we meet Abijam’s son (according to verse 8), Asa. His mother’s name is Maacah daughter of Abishalom.

Wait. What? The same woman?

Is there something Oedipal going on here?

The Embarrassing Truth

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday

Here is the embarrassing truth:

Master Bedroom: Original State

My master bedroom is a disaster.

My myopathy means that I get tired super quick. Okay, not “tired”, but exhausted to the point that I can only lay supine on some flat surface. I also get short of breath a lot. And have cardiac arrhythmias. And build up lactic acid like a fiend.

So simple household chores are really difficult for me to stay on top of. Especially considering that I still work full-time and have other obligations that take me outside of the house. The general rule is that I don’t get home until about 9:30 pm or so. And then, I’m lucky if I have enough energy left to make dinner.

Forget about doing the dishes.

And laundry? It’s exhausting just to bring the hamper to the laundry room and then move the clothes from the washer to the dryer. Usually the dryer is running while I sleep. Then, in the morning, I grab the clothes onto the bed and find whatever I need to wear for work that day. I don’t have time then to put them away or fold them. When I get home, I’m too tired to deal with them. So, I shove them to one side of the bed and sleep on the other side. Eventually, they fall off onto the far side of the bed and lay there in a heap of clean laundry.

I also don’t have a good organization system for things. And I’m terrible with flat surfaces. It’s just so easy to plop something down on the nearest available surface and forget about it. Things pile up with alarming frequency. I need real help in this area.

I recently took a Project Management course where we had to come up with a project charter and plan. I did mine on a bedroom make-over.

See, for about a year now, I have wanted to replace my dressers (which I don’t really use for clothes) with a shelving system from IKEA that I can use to organize books and pictures and things.

And I also wanted to repaint my bedroom a more exciting color. Like aquamarine. It’ll be like a beach theme.

Eventually, I also want to buy a chair for the one corner so I can read by the window, replace the light with a light/ceiling fan combo, and finish upgrading the outlet to 3-prong receptacles.

My goal is to get all of this done by this fall. (Hopefully, much sooner, but I’m giving myself time.)

I’ll be creating a new tag for this project, so that you can follow along as I go (and find the thread of post among all the other stuff I put up here).

Thanks for your support! 🙂

Waking Up

Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, Health & Medicine
Sick Jennie

Wake up. Arrhythmia. Hard to breathe.

Exhausted.

Check phone which is lying next to me. Read text; pray for friend.

Thirsty, but exhausted. Don’t want to get out of bed, but there’s no one else to grab me something to drink.

Lay there for a few minutes… Finally, get out of bed and get some juice. Starting to think in longer phrases.

Then.

Dizziness. Nausea.

Drink 3 ounces. Go back to bed. Flop down.

Get back up.

After all, this is my life. Usually, I have to go in to work or have something else planned for my day. This morning, I don’t have anything pressing. So, I’ll blog about it. Not to get sympathy, but because this is my experience right now. I don’t feel sorry for myself; it’s true that I have difficult times, but everyone has difficulties, right? It’s important to remember other people, particularly when you are not doing well yourself.

This is usually the time when I pray for others the most. Frequently, I’ll ask my priest for names of people who are in particular need of prayer, whom I’ve never met and probably never will. They say that offering your suffering for others is redemptive for them in some way, and I cling to that. Also, just the fact of focusing on someone else, instead of myself, distracts me from what I’m going through and helps my to learn to love others better.

Later today, I’m going to surprise a friend with a gift. Because she’s not feeling well. 🙂 It involves a bit of shopping, so hopefully I’ll feel just a little bit better and be able to drag myself out of the house.

Until then, do you think it’s okay to wish for minions who can run errands for you? 🙂

[My mom says this photo is the only one she’s ever seen of me in which I don’t look good. And that’s why she kept it. Thanks, Mom!]

Novena to the Thirteen Blessed Souls

Prayer/Prayer Requests

A friend asked me to pray this novena for her for the next 13 days. The 13 blessed souls are Jesus and the 12 apostles (I’m assuming Matthew and not Judas for the 12th apostle).

If you’d also like to pray this novena with me, here it is!

(Please Note – The repeat of the first line is not a mistake it is supposed to be read twice.)

Oh my thirteen Blessed souls so wise and understanding, I ask you for the Love of God that my request be answered. Oh my thirteen Blessed souls so wise and understanding, I ask you for the Love of God that my request be answered. Of you I ask for the sake of the blood that Jesus shed that my request be answered.

My Lord Jesus Christ that your protection wrap me with your arms. Guard me with your eyes.

O God of kindness you have been my defender in life and death. I ask that you free me from the difficulties that torment me. My thirteen blessed souls so wise and understanding having received the grace I seek from you [state request] I will be devoted to you.

Say 13 Our Fathers and 13 Hail Marys for 13 consecutive days and offer a Mass of Thanksgiving.