by Thomas à Kempis, published by Vintage Spiritual Classics:
“…the union he desires with God is sacramentally achieved on earth whenever he partakes of Christ’s gift of His Body and Blood in the Eucharist.” — Introduction, page xxxvii
“No one undergoes a stronger struggle than the man who tries to subdue himself.” — Book 1, Chapter 3, page 6
I have TONS of pictures for your viewing pleasure!
But for now, I will leave you with just one:
I’m probably going to end up repeating myself a lot on this blog, but praying the Liturgy of the Hours/Christian Prayer really gets me sometimes — and I just have to share! 🙂
To you, Lord, we lift up our souls; rescue us, do not let us be put to shame for calling out to you. Do not remember the sins of our youth and stupidity, but remember us with your love.
This one seems particularly fitting for Reconciliation.
On the drive in this morning, it was raining and I was driving perhaps a little more carefully, because I was thinking over the bills I needed to pay during lunchtime, and realized that my car insurance was a little overdue. (Hey, it was Holy Week! I had other things to think about!)
On I-275, near the 7 mile exit, traffic slowed to a crawl, and then I heard the sirens. Stopping on the highway, two fire trucks passed right in front of me coming from the on-ramp, crossing all lanes of traffic and going across the median to the northbound lanes. Already there were a couple of police cars and ambulances. As I passed, I saw a pretty smashed up looking car, and what looked like the body of a person lying on the road, covered in what appeared to be plastic.
I hope that was not actually what I saw.
I pray for all those involved in that accident. 😦
Update:
Six cars crash on I-275 after man leaps from taxi
Tom Greenwood / The Detroit News
Livonia — Authorities aren’t sure why a passenger jumped from a moving taxi cab this morning, causing a multi-vehicle crash that closed down northbound Interstate 275 at Seven Mile.According to the Michigan Intelligent Transportation System, the incident happened at about 7 a.m., and by the time it ended, six cars ended up crashing together.
Two persons reportedly received minor injuries, including one woman who was injured when her airbag deployed.
A spokesman at the Metro South Post of the Michigan State Police said the unidentified passenger also received minor injuries and was transported to Botsford Hospital, where his injuries were treated before he was admitted to the psychiatric unit for observation.
The MSP said it was unknown at this point if the taxi jumper would be charged.
Man jumps from moving taxi, causes I-275 snarl
BY TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
April 15, 2009 08:07 AMTraffic backed up this morning on I-275 at 7 Mile in Livonia after a passenger jumped out of a moving taxi and into highway traffic.
No one hit the man at 7:01 a.m., but two cars crashed into each other trying to avoid him in the northbound lanes, according to the Michigan State Police.
One of the drivers suffered a facial injury after her airbag deployed, but no one else was seriously hurt, a spokeswoman at MSP’s south post said.
The man who jumped was taken to a local hospital for treatment, and police were interviewing the taxi driver to see what led up to the accident.
By 7:45 a.m., only one lane of traffic was blocked, she added.
I thought this was hilarious! Biggby coffee already has as their largest size a 24 oz, which is 4 oz larger than a Starbucks Venti (my usual size). But then, I was randomly looking at Biggby Bob’s blog and found THIS!
Check it out, you will laugh too! Happy Wednesday!
Says something about us, doesn’t it?
Co-worker Kathy gets off the phone and her face is bright red. We ask why. “I said ‘Amen!’ instead of ‘Goodbye!’,” she says. Then, she looks at me, “This is all your influence!!! You need to tell your priests what you are doing to me!”
I will take the credit/blame.
H/T to Jennie C.
This is a rather disturbing image. Jennie (the other Jennie 🙂 is right, it looks like religious icon art. You know, I do hope that President Obama becomes a saint one day. I hope that everyone makes it home. However, with his public actions, especially regarding life issues, I feel that there is much to pray for. I pray for a conviction of heart, a determination to do God’s will and an understanding of the intrinsic dignity of every human life.
I pray for all those in leadership and who have wide influence, but also for all of us. Each of us can be an example for better or for worse to those around us. May all of God’s people recognise each other as such.
God bless you!
This weekend I got my official GRE scores in the mail.
Verbal – 660, 94th percentile
Quantitative – 590, 46th percentile (Okay, so I can’t multiply my way out of a paper bag — at least I can write about the experience!)
Analytical Writing — the only one that is graded by a human and based on essays we write instead of radio buttons we click:
5.5 (out of 6)
What they say about that:
Scores 6 and 5.5: Sustains insightful, in-depth analysis of complex ideas; develops and supports main points with logically compelling reasons and/or highly persuasive examples; is well focused and well organized; skillfully uses sentence variety and precise vocabulary to convey meaning effectively; demonstrates superior facility with sentence structure and language usage but may have minor errors that do not interfere with meaning.
🙂
That and yesterday I was told that they held an admissions meeting in the morning and I’ve been accepted to the Master’s degree program at Sacred Heart Major Seminary for Theology.
YAYYYY!!!
I had been intending to turn my third bedroom — the baby’s room — into a prayer room for quite a while now. However, it had accumulated so much junk that it was a daunting thought to clear it out and make something out of it. I had managed to put a chair in there, and clear a little path so I could exercise on the elliptical trainer, but that was about it. This is what the room looked like:
I left it like this for a long, long time.
I won’t get into my Confession, but yesterday, Father gave as my penance that I would ask Mary to be my designer, and in particular that she would help me to do something with my house. I went to Michael’s and Office Max after Confession and randomly walked up and down the aisles, picking up things. I had some candles from some recent PartyLite gatherings recently.
This is what I came up with after some hard work yesterday evening:
My little desk:
My candles:
And the other side of the room with my comfy chair and white board:
Now, it will be much more functional as a prayer room! I just need to find a way to hang my picture….
This struck me as I was reading the Scriptures this morning. I love the picture which came to mind.
This we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, which reaches into the interior behind the veil, where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner, becoming high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. — Hebrews 6:19-20.
I found this passage to be very Eucharistic. The Eucharist — the very real Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord — is the anchor of our soul. Without Him, we can achieve nothing. Our souls find no rest. Our toil is fruitless. Our hope is in vain. In feeding on Him, we take Jesus into the very core of our being, whether we are aware of it in that moment or not. Within us, God-made-flesh goes behind the facade we erect — our public persona — to the heart of who we are, where we cannot hide from Him. With the power of He who created all that is, He dwells within us; changing us from our core, and giving us the grace and incredible power that He has to offer which can dramatically change our lives — if only we cooperate with that.
Jesus became human for us, so as to become the ultimate sacrifice for our redemption. The saving power of that sacrifice, the love that prompted that unimaginable humbling of our God to come down to our level so as to save us — this is what we take inside of ourselves every time we partake of the Eucharist. How humbling for us this should be. How incredible that we are able to take this for granted. He not only humbled Himself so as to save us, but He further hid Himself under the appearance of unleavened bread and wine so that we might take Him into ourselves — to further unite ourselves to Him, which has been His intention from before the Fall.
I love going to Mass. Not because I particularly want to be able to tell you all that I go to daily Mass and have you think that I am somehow more holy or more devout or something like that. I certainly know that I am nowhere near being a holy person! I just mention this so that you may perhaps come to find the peace and strength and grace of the Lord which I have found. Perhaps it is more telling of my inner sinful nature that I do go to Mass nearly every day. I need Him to make it through my day! And even then I fail much of the time!
I find myself adrift on a sea of my own wretchedness, unable to navigate my way home. I thank God the Father for providing us such a Son — who is the anchor of my soul, who can penetrate all my defenses and reach the core of my being to get my attention and lead me home.
