Category Archives: Photography

Epiphany Blessing of a Home

Holidays, Photography, Prayer/Prayer Requests

I received these prayers in a gift box of frankincense, gold and myrrh from the local Catholic bookstore, but for expediency, I have copied them down from this website.


three wise men

Originally uploaded by SpacePotato

All: Make the Sign of the Cross.

Head of Household: “Peace be to this house, and to all who dwell here, in the name of the Lord.”

All: “Blessed be God forever.”

Reader: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things come to be through him, and without him nothing came to be….  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. ”  (John 1:1-3.14)

Using chalk, write on the outside of your house, above or next to an entrance:

(write the first half of the current year)
+20
Christus
Mansionem
Benedicat
10+
(write the other half of the year)

These words mean:  “May Christ bless this house.”   (Each word could be written by a different member of the household.)

Or optionally you may use the names of the Magi:

(write the first half of the current year)
+20
Caspar
Melchior
Balthazar
10+
(write the other half of the year)

(Each name could be written by a different member of the household.)

All: Lord God of heaven and earth, you revealed your only begotten Son to every nation by the guidance of a star. Bless this house and all who inhabit it. May we be blessed with health, goodness of heart, gentleness and the keeping of your law. Fill us with the light of Christ, that our love for each other may go out to all. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

O Adonai

Liturgy of the Hours/Christian Prayer, Photography, Prayer/Prayer Requests,

 

The prophet Isaiah
(Is 11:4-5; 33:22)

Latin:
O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,
qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.

English:
O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,
who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush
and gave him the law on Sinai:
Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

New Toy Coming Today!!!

Neat Things I Didn't Author, Photography, ,

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church

I am very excited to get my new book! 🙂 Which, of course, just proves how much of a Catholidork I am. 🙂

Seven Quick Takes Sunday

Health and Medicine, Neat Things I Didn't Author, Of Trials Opportunities and Gifts, Photography, Sacraments, Tales of My Amazing Priests, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The other Jennie does it on Friday. So I’m a little late. What else is new? 🙂

1. Broken McSickyPants
This is my new name. My medical issues have only gotten worse. I still have the continual chest pain (which has now become more pronounced) and dyspnea on exertion. Lately, we have added to the mix dizziness, incredible fatigue, nausea and that awful feeling like you are about to pass out. My doctors still don’t have a good idea of what is wrong with me, since I have been passing all of my medical tests (I guess I’ve always tested pretty well). At least the infected poison ivy spots are finally clearing up a little and healing! 🙂 I do not feel like myself, and I hate that I can’t really do anything. Praise God, He gave me a good sense of humor and a sunny disposition. I am actually pretty happy overall.

2. On Being a Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist
Today, we had the pleasure of having Fr. Stanley celebrate Mass with us. Since I go to daily Mass at Our Lady of Good Counsel, where he currently is at, I have been able to see him upon occasion (although he doesn’t really do the 6:30 a.m. Mass that I typically attend). Having him here at St. Anastasia for Sunday Mass was a real treat. He was my first confessor and he has a very comforting way about him. He joked about the length of his homilies as he began his homily today. I was sitting next to the girl I sponsored into the Church this year, and at one point she commented that the wooden pew was hurting her butt for some reason this week. I laughed, “You probably aren’t used to sitting in one spot for so long!” Again, picking on poor Fr. Stanley’s homily. 🙂 In my defense, he started it! 🙂 God gave me a wonderful gift of joy today, particularly during the Mass. I was happy that Fr. Stanley was there, but this went beyond him. As I went up to the altar and received my paten of consecrated hosts, I remember cradling the paten in my hands. I must have had some big idiotic grin on my face, but I wasn’t really worried about that. I just gazed lovingly at Jesus in my hands and thought to Him, “I love You!” I know, it sounds pretty sappy, right? But that’s okay. I don’t mind being sappy. 🙂 I love Him. 🙂 Sometimes I wonder what people think when they get me in line for Communion. Here I am with a huge smile on my face, handing them our Lord, and nearly petting Him into place in their hands — to make sure He gets there safely. Hopefully, they share in my joy at the presence of our Lord, and aren’t standing there thinking that I’m a little odd or something.

3. The World is Now a Safer Place!
Why? Because I finally got new tires on my car! After 1 year, 7 months, 23 days and nearly 47,000 miles of driving, it was finally time to discard the old and buy some new. Of course, the “red” tire health report card, “Change your tires IMMEDIATELY” postcard, squeaking around off-ramps in dry conditions and, finally, hydroplaning in the rain while driving straight all contributed to this decision. Perhaps that fact that I had racing slicks on my car is the reason why I got that speeding ticket a while back, earning me the name Zoomie Vroom McLawBreaker. I really liked that name, by the way. But I have been good, and have been using my cruise control until I can re-train myself to enjoy lower velocities.

4. iPhone vs. BlackBerry Tour
Ah, just when I thought that I would finally change service providers in order to get the fancy-pants new iPhone (since bundling my home internet, land line, and TV service would save me about $60 a month), I have been given pause to reconsider. On Saturday, after getting my tires changed, I walked into the Sprint store, help up my current BlackBerry and challenged, “Why should I not want to trade this in for an iPhone? Convince me!” Now, mostly, I like the iPhone for all the apps and stuff that you can get with it, and for the larger screen. The touch screen keyboard would be a hindrance to typing as you drive (just for example, not that I do this necessarily . . . . ), but it is fun for scrolling. Being able to sync to my Podcasts and iTunes is also a definite plus. I know that iPhone is compatible with my work e-mail system, so that’s not an issue either. And it can go international, which was the main reason why I picked my BlackBerry 8830 in the first place.

Now, nice things about the BlackBerry Tour include the fact that I can increase the memory by adding a micro SD card, and that they give me a 1 GB out the door. That’s pretty sweet. Then, I found out that the new BlackBerry will also have a similar capacity for apps. As an upgrade to my current phone, this one has all the same capability, but adds on a camera and video feature, which I had been missing. The screen resolution is also pretty sweet. They say it supports AAC encoding, so I shouldn’t have to convert my iTunes library, and that it might soon or already does have an app to help with syncing.

Soo…. What can the iPhone do that the Tour cannot also do? And I can still save my $60 a month, by getting rid of my second cell phone. Please discuss benefits of one over the other in the comment box.

5. This Crazy Bipolar Weather
Today it has been alternating between being sunny with puffy white clouds and torrential downpours. Seriously. We left Mass, went to CostCo, came back and it started raining like crazy, just made it in the church before we got completely soaked. Then, we had our 1.5 hour Faith Café meeting, and by the time we got out, everything had dried up! I even managed to mow the lawn when I got home! It wasn’t wet anymore! Then, just now, the rains came again. I raced out, snapped a couple pics, then . . . it was over. Sun’s peeking out again. 🙂 Gotta love Michigan!
DSCN8866
DSCN8871

6. Reading Material
I am SO excited, because I have finally finished reading the entire Bible! Okay, okay, so I did this a couple weeks back, but I am still excited! I have bought myself a new Ignatius Bible, RSV translation, the leather one. Yay! Isn’t it gorgeous?! (Humor me)
DSCN8705
DSCN8709
My next project is to read the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church! 🙂

7. Blogging and Facebook
Have you guys noticed this phenomenon in your personal life? I have noticed that the more I am on Facebook, the less I blog. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not. I tend to get more feedback from Facebook (I think my “feeds” are more read there), yet I can’t usually go into depth on any topic. I just found out how to link my blog posts to my Notes on Facebook. Let’s see if this helps any, or just confuses the matter. 🙂

Happy Independence Day!

Holidays, Photography, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

There are so many people to thank for this day! First, the men who fought those 233 years ago and won our independence. Then, the men and women who have kept our freedom to the present day.

Here’s a picture of some of the girls in the wardroom of the USS Mount Whitney, CORTRAMID 1997, Norfolk, Virginia (I’m at the far right):
Girls in USS Mount Whitney's Wardroom
For all my fellow military members, police forces, and government agents — thank you for fighting for and upholding our freedom and our laws.

Baptism07
For God, who gives us true freedom and independence.
And for all the clergy and holy men and women who teach us of our amazing inheritance, freedom, love and gifts given to each of us, personally, by the Lord. They teach us not only of the many ways in which God saves us from our slavery, but also of the ways in which we enslave ourselves. With His help, we can be truly free and live with a rightly ordered independence in His love and mercy.

Tennis

Health and Medicine, Photography, Sacraments, Tales of My Amazing Priests, , , , , , , , , , , ,

DSCN7986

After Mass, Lindsay and I went to the Troy Civic Center and played tennis for a little while. It was so much fun! We haven’t played in quite a while. The courts were completely empty, unlike the completely full ones at Athens we had first looked at. Good thing they were, because our game . . . wasn’t all that great. We ended up using all 3 courts and spent probably more time chasing the balls than actually playing. I got so out of breath so quickly, but ignored it, because I was having fun. That, and I’m too stubborn for my own good. I started to get increasingly dizzy, but I ignored this as well. After a little while, Lindsay said that she was getting tired, and that she wanted to stop for the day so that she would still have energy to do some things around her house that she wanted to get done. I was sad to stop playing, but agreed. She said that we should break me in slowly. I think we’ve already been over the fact that I’m not very good with doing things moderately. 🙂

I was really tired driving her back to her car and started to get very sick. I was feeling entirely awful by time I got home. I did just a couple things, then lied down for a nap. It was just before 1 pm. I woke up again sometime after 4 pm, and after doing a few light things in the bedroom to get ready to move back into my own bed — perhaps tonight — I was ready for another nap. And it had only been 30-45 minutes! This is truly getting ridiculous!

I got up again, and shortly thereafter, maybe about 5:30 pm or so, I got a phone call from Lindsay. She had cut herself with her electric hedger while trimming up some bushes and needed me to take her to the ER. You’ve probably never seen me grab my things and leave my house so quick! 🙂 It was better than I had anticipated — thanks be to God! We went to the ER, where she got 3 stitches. We had some very yummy Chinese food for dinner, and returned to her house. I was exhausted, again. So, when Erwin showed up after karate, I left fairly soon afterward. I hate to say it, but I am probably going to go to bed again very, very shortly. 😦

Looking forward to the fireworks tomorrow!!!! 🙂

Oh, and a quick note about the photo. Yes, it was taken after our tennis game, but no, my hair doesn’t look like that because I’m that sweaty. My hair looks like that because of the COPIOUS amounts of Oil of the Sick which Fr. Mark used on me! 🙂

Have a good night!

Guess Who This Is!!! :)

Neat Things I Didn't Author, Photography, , , ,

Guess Who This Is! -- DSCN7978

I thought this was absolutely perfect!  On so many levels!  🙂  The image is a photo I took of the card.  But go ahead, give me your guess in the comment box as to who this is and why I think it fits so very well!

🙂

I *will* get air conditioning if it kills me!

Jennspeak, Photography, , , ,

I think we all remember the last time I had a struggle getting my A/C up and running…

This year:

I have a temporary roommate. Which means that I have given up my bedroom in favor of sleeping in a chair in my prayer room. The window there is very small. And it does not raise up very high. So the window air conditioner that I have is too tall to fit nicely in the bottom part of the window.

But, you all know how stubborn I am. It is 11 pm, and my thermostat on my house says 82.5 degrees F, and I am itchy from this rash and poison ivy or whatever it is that is plaguing my skin and I am having NONE OF IT! 🙂 I am determined to have air conditioning.

So, I try and move all the window panes to the bottom instead of to the top and putting the air conditioner on the top part of the window. Never mind that I am short of breath and being worked up for a cardiac condition. I am lifting heavy things over my head because I am a) stubborn and b) dumb. Okay, it mostly fits in there. It’s a little tall still, so it is not going to pitch backwards out of the house. The only question is if it going to pitch forward and fall into the house and on my head.

Hmmmm….

How can we fix this?

Holding up my curtains is this flimsy, cheap metal rod.

Maybe…

I can stick something in there, wedge it between the rod and the air conditioner, to hold it in place. But what?

I got it!

A tripod!

Genius!

And now I have air conditioning! 🙂

DSCN7976

Adam Thad Riviera

Photography, Sacraments, St. Anastasia,

Adam Thad Riviera

Adam Thad Riviera, of Troy, died peacefully, May 17, 2009, at William Beaumont Hospital in Troy. He was 21 years old. Adam was born October 1, 1987, in Detroit.

Adam is survived by his parents, Michael and Helen Riviera, sister, Tara (Mark) Moore and brother, Michael Riviera. He is also survived by his grandparents, Paul and Lina Riviera and Margaret Witczak and his aunts and uncles, Gus and Monica Reis and Frank and Theresa Riviera. Adam is preceded in death by his grandfather, Thaddeus Witczak.

Funeral Mass will be at St. Anastasia Roman Catholic Church, 4571 John R., Troy, Friday at 11:30am. Friends may visit at the church beginning at 11am. Visitation at Lynch & Sons Funeral Home, 1368 N. Crooks Road (between 14-15 Mile Rds.) Thursday 3-8pm. Prayer service will be at 7pm.

Memorials appreciated to St. Anastasia Church, 4571 John R., Troy, Michigan 48098.

Name My Duck

Photography, , , , , ,



DSCN7506

Originally uploaded by CadyLy

The water table here is very high, and since I live on a flood plain, and since my neighbors have all built up their backyards, a pond has formed in my yard. I call it Lake Onawanna, because onawanna lake there. Haha! Old humor — thanks, Jeff! 🙂

Anyway, I wasn’t particularly bothered, since I was sure that it was only temporary. Even when the kind neighborhood beavers built me a dam, I was sure that it wouldn’t last very long. But now — I have a resident mallard. Oh boy. I guess Lake Onawanna is here to stay!

Do you think this will increase my property value — being on a lake front like that? 🙂