The Supreme Purpose

June 25, 2012Between SundaysCadyLy

This week’s theme is on purpose. Today, they are talking about being called to do something. Perhaps something out of our comfort zone, or that we don’t particularly wish to do. They distinguish between calls. If the call causes us to run away from God, then it surely wasn’t an authentic call *from* God. He would never call us to something which causes us to pull away from Him, since our supreme calling is to be His son or daughter. God’s call is always one which draws us in further to the Divine Life. It’s a good reminder for the discernment we should make about all of our activities.

Is this drawing me closer to the Lord? Is it pulling me away from Him? Am I growing in love? Or is my heart slowly being hardened?

Protect your heart. It’s one of the most human things about you. And one of the most precious. But you can’t protect it by putting it in a glass case on display. A heart can only survive if it is used and shared. It’s a muscle, and like any other muscle in the body, if it is not used, then it will atrophy. In fact, if a muscle is not used – is not stretched and broken – it cannot grow. It is in the healing process that a muscle becomes stronger and more useful to us. So we cannot fear using our hearts. We cannot fear heartbreak. Because heartbreak will definitely come. But if we allow forgiveness and God’s grace to heal our hearts, they will be stronger for it, and have a greater capacity for love than prior to our trials.

A good athlete strengthens all of his muscles. Particularly those he uses most in the exercise of his unique gifts, but he doesn’t forget that all of the muscles in the body need attention. So too is it with our hearts. If we want to be the most loving selves we can be, we should be willing to seek out love in different ways. Certainly, God will put certain things upon our heart and our unique gifts and abilities will draw us to certain ways of expressing love. But it never hurts to try out different expressions of love. You may surprise yourself with the new capacities of your heart.

I suppose my main point is that you should never fear to risk your heart. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Because our Father loves His children. How can we possibly doubt the depth and capacity of His love for us? Certainly no one’s heart has been broken and stretched than His by the constant denials, sins and rejections of His children than God Himself. Nothing can be a bigger heartbreak than to have One’s pure and completely good heart allow for the existence of sin in the world. But He did. And with every sin we commit, with every heartbreak we inflict, He shows us his endless capacity for forgiveness and love.

The Trinity, in whose Divine Life we hope one day to share, is a radical, reckless gift of self in love.

Love deeply.

Quick Takes Friday: Super Early Morning Edition!

June 15, 20127 Quick Takes FridayCadyLy

— 1 —

Yesterday, I got about 3.5 hours of sleep. This means that I was super tired on the drive home after work. So, I went right to bed. At 4 pm. Of course, I woke up just before midnight. After “a full night’s sleep.” There’s no fighting this, so I’m just going to stay up. It will make for a long day today, but with Starbucks God anything is possible, right? 🙂

— 2 —

This section was deleted. By my computer. I don’t know if I accidentally brush the touchpad in the wrong way, but this stupid laptop likes to randomly select text. So, if I’m writing something, it will have inserted text where it doesn’t belong, or randomly have highlighted something so that I’m typing over (and deleting) what I previously worked on. Jerk computer.

— 3 —

I am going to have so many pictures for you to look at! This past weekend, I went on retreat at Marysville Retreat Center, near Holly, MI. That is a gorgeous location. The rooms are huge, too! I could seriously live here. Except maybe for the goose poop everywhere. You really had to watch your step with that. But they had Sandhill cranes that came to visit in the morning! This was probably the best retreat I’ve been on yet!

— 4 —

This week at work was Go Live! Meaning that our implementation was put into production. All of our hard work at preparing must have paid off, because the past couple days have been QUIET. Freaky quiet. I kind of miss the frenzied pace of the last Go Live. It was pretty fun, actually, and our days flew by. Wednesday, the first day of Go Live, we were supposed to be working a 12 hour day. We got to leave 2 hours early and then set up staggered shifts for the rest of the week. So, instead of working 6 am to 6 pm today, I will be working 6 am to 2:30 pm. I must say, I’m liking these hours! It makes my commute AWESOME to not have to deal with rush hour traffic.

— 5 —

Our team is going to be making breakfast today! We will have eggs with cheddar cheese, pancakes with syrup, turkey bacon and regular bacon. I can’t wait! Since I got up so early, it’s like lunch time for me. But we have to wait until Nick gets here at 9:30 am. The only sad point is that Justin and Carolyn aren’t here to share our meal. The impetus for this breakfast is the discovery of a rangetop in the Board Room here at NCAC… 🙂

— 6 —

This past weekend I got to see the movie October Baby. It’s a really good movie about a girl discovering not only that she’s adopted, but that she’s the survivor of a failed abortion attempt. The main theme of the movie is forgiveness, which is such a great message, especially for today’s society.

— 7 —

Tomorrow! = My Best Friend’s Wedding! Please join me in praying for Erwin and Lindsay as they prepare for this sacrament! 🙂 The day has finally (almost) arrived! Tonight is the wedding rehearsal at church and the rehearsal dinner at Kim’s.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Happy Birthday, Justin!

June 13, 2012Adventures in Cooking, Celebrations, Fun at WorkCadyLy

Today is my friend and co-worker Justin’s birthday. It’s also Go Live day at work, with the implementation of ASAP (for the ED) and EpicCare Ambulatory in a few areas. So, we have been trying to plan on doing something for him, as he has to work a very long day today.

I had asked him last week what flavor cake he wanted and he had said that he would prefer either vanilla or funfetti. So, of course, I had to get the funfetti! 🙂 When I was picking out a frosting, my initial idea was to just get a vanilla; however, they had a new thing at the grocery where you pick up a container of vanilla (or “white”) frosting and can add a flavor pack of your choice. They had a blue one (BOY COLOR!) with a cotton candy flavor, so I picked that one. I also got multi-colored non-pareils and some birthday candles.

Here are some pictures of how the baking process went:

Funfetti mix:

I chose to use only egg whites, instead of the whole egg, so that the funfetti colors might “pop” more. I thought that if I used the yolks, the cake might be more of a yellow color. I don’t bake, but this was my thought. 🙂

Frosting, just after adding the cotton candy flavoring:

Frosting after mixing:

Baked cakes! I made two cakes, so that we could drop one off at UHS — where Justin was deployed — and still be able to have some back at the office.

Frosted cakes:

Cakes with frosting and colored candies:

Finished cake, complete with candles.

Carolyn got him a huge tub of Dubble Bubble, and changed the number on the tub so that it reads ~~380~~ 376 pieces!

The delivery of his cake to the UHS Command Center:

We got him two balloons (Happy Face and Spiderman), a pen with his name on it, and a sign saying Justin Pl.

And, finally, video coverage of our surprising him with his birthday goodies!

Retreat Morning

June 9, 2012Trips/VacationsCadyLy

I’m at the Marysville Retreat Center near Holly, MI. This is to introduce us to the project of discipling within our parishes. Last night, John and I arrived late for general introductions, but in time for the opening prayer and praise. We had a short talk by Fr. Sean and then Marian gave us some ideas for how to tell our story and let us work on that a bit. We broke into small groups and shared a portion of our story. It was the eve of Fr. Sean’s birthday, so we ended the day with some birthday cake. 🙂

Our rooms are really nice here! There are two twin beds, a large bathroom with a tub and even a walk-in closet! Plus, I have a huge window overlooking the lake. 🙂

I didn’t want to miss any of my time here, so I got up early at 4:30 am. Right now, it’s about 5:30 am and I am watching on the balcony watching the world get lighter as dawn comes. It’s so peaceful and lovely here in the stillness by the water. Such a nice place to pray Morning Prayer. 🙂

Praying the Psalms

June 8, 2012UncategorizedCadyLy

I don’t know what it is, but I can never seem to comment at Conversion Diary! Maybe Jen put me in her “Always Delete” category, or her spam filter hates me. How can this be? 🙂 So, I’ll post my response here at my own site. Jen was talking about her experience with praying the psalms and asking for advice on how to approach them.

Psalms are supposed to represent the gamut of human emotion. So, if God let them be put into the Bible, it must be okay to feel this way upon occasion; and, this is the instruction manual for how to pray when we are experiencing these emotions.

I am continually amazed by how similar our life stories are, so I’ll give a few things that (sometimes) help me. 🙂

First, I try to empathize with the narrator. I try to identify what emotion he’s experiencing and place myself in that situation.

Second, I have to do some translating. God dealt with His people differently in OT times than in NT times, where Jesus is trying to soften our hearts. So whereas before the rule for enemies was “an eye for an eye” to try and prevent overabundant retribution, now we are to “love our enemies.” We have to keep that in mind when we read them.

For your psalm, then, I would picture myself as being (unfairly) mocked and scorned by my enemies and be comforted in the fact that while they are troubling me now, in time, God will make things right for me and the truth about me will emerge. Instead of me trying to smite them, I just have to trust that God has my back and the He will take care of the situation. I just have to be faithful and keep doing what is right in His eyes. And not worry about them.

7 Quick Takes: First June Friday

June 1, 20127 Quick Takes FridayCadyLy

— 1 —

Sometimes, I am strongly tempted to dualism. Especially this week. My body is really irritating me. So I find myself frequently distancing myself from it and arguing with it — almost as if it had it’s own sentience. It hasn’t taken the hint and started cooperating yet. 😦

— 2 —

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I’ve found a great book, “Between Sundays,” that I am hoping will help me to deepen my faith life (as well as perhaps instill a routine to my prayer time — I am so BAD about praying at regular intervals, instead of catch-as-catch-can.

— 3 —

Young Adult Bonfire is tonight! And after the week I’ve had, I’m really looking forward to some S’mores!

— 4 —

We received bonuses in our paychecks! Just for being awesome. 🙂 Did I mention that my job rocks? 🙂

— 5 —

Our team at work took a lunch time field trip to Blimpy Burger yesterday.. It was great! I had never been there before, so I was what is known as a Blimpy Virgin. 🙂 As soon as I have a free moment, I will post about the experience. Likely on my other blog, Paroxysms of Giggles.

— 6 —

I will also be going to a water park in Frankenmuth this weekend. So, there’s going to be lots of updates forthcoming! 🙂 I hope everyone has a blessed weekend. So sorry that my Quick Takes are so unusually quick! And devoid of pictures! So unlike me! I will try to do better next week!

— 7 —

June = My Best Friend’s Wedding! Please join me in praying for Erwin and Lindsay as they prepare for this sacrament! 🙂
To tie together some of these thoughts, here’s a picture of the happy couple at one of our annual Young Adult Bonfires from a few years back:

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Pressing On

May 31, 2012Between Sundays, Neat Things I Didn't Author, Of Trials Opportunities and Gifts, Of Vice and VirtueCadyLy

Since today was payday, and since I had to stop by Domino’s Farms to get some money from the bank for our workday field trip to Blimpy Burger, I got the urge to stop by the Our Lady of Grace bookstore. I didn’t want to keep my siblings waiting, so I made a second trip after work, so that I could browse the store.

The store is like a crackhouse for me; meaning that every time I stop in, I am compelled to buy something. 🙂 Today, after careful inspection of wares, I picked up a book called “Between Sundays,” by Shawn Craig. The premise of the book is in the question: How do you maintain your faith Monday through Saturday? It is organized by week of the year (Week 1, etc.) and has entries for each day of the week. Each day has a particular theme, Scripture verse, reflection on the subject and ends with a prayer. On Saturdays, there are Weekend Reflections to read and then a set of questions to reflect upon (and they give you space in the book to write out your answers to the questions). There are no entries for Sundays. (Presumably, you wouldn’t have a problem with knowing how to express your faith on a Sunday. 🙂 Plus, the title of the book is *Between* Sundays….)

No time like the present to start the book, right? 🙂 I had to Google what week of the year we are in (since this is not information that typically concerns me). In case you were curious, we are in week 22.

Today’s theme is: Press On. As I read the reflection, I found that there was more than one way to look at the theme (although, I am not sure that the author intended there to be multiple).

The first image was that of a runner in a race, only having his eyes on the finish line and looking back on their competitors. What struck me most about this image wasn’t the keeping-your-eye-on-the-prize aspect, but more the concern with one’s competitors. Why *do* we get so concerned with how well (or how poorly) others are doing relative to our own performance? I get it about healthy competition and motivation and such, but I think there is a lot of danger when we are constantly concerned with the competition.

Danger #1: We tend to wish for the ill of the other person. To our concupiscent hearts, it is not enough to want to win, we want the other guy to lose.

Danger #2: We can get depressed or despair of our own worth. By constantly looking at the field, we are inclined to underestimate our potential. We can psyche ourselves out, in a way, even to the point of *actually* performing worse.

Danger #3: We can become envious of the gifts that God has given other people and not be as appreciative (or aware) of the gifts that He has given to *us*.

Danger #4: If we aren’t looking where we are going, we can easily stray off course. We cannot judge what is the right path for us by looking at where the competition is going. This goes for our journey in faith as well. Just because your friend does X, Y and Z, doesn’t mean that you need to do the exact same thing in order to be a holy disciple. One person may have a deep devotion to the Rosary and may pray it faithfully every day. You may struggle to say even a decade once a month, if you remember. This is okay. Don’t stress about it. Your path is different than their path. Just listen to the Holy Spirit. I’m sure He will let you know if you should be doing something – and then give you the grace to be able to do just that.

The next image presented was that of Lot’s wife. Especially when we are talking about spiritual conversion, this can always be a temptation: to look back wistfully at the way we used to be. I know for me this is a particular weakness. I grew up as secular as you can get. I was so immersed in secular culture, I even got a degree in it! (No kidding, I have a Bachelor’s in American Culture!) In general, I accepted everything that the world taught without really examining their claims, especially on topics such as relationships, sexuality and morality.

Once I entered the Church, I learned that the way the world views these issues isn’t really healthy for us. (And that’s why God and the Church have rather conflicting views of these things – God wants, above all, for what is truly good for us. If it’s not healthy, then we shouldn’t be involved in it; God doesn’t want us to get hurt.)

But.

Even though I *know* that these things are wrong or unhealthy, sometimes they are still attractive.

Especially flirting. I love flirting. And I used to be good at it. 🙂 But is it really harmless and cute? Or is it sometimes treating the other person as an object for my amusement? Can it be abusing our sexuality? Manipulation? If I flirt, am I really concerned with the other person’s emotions, or am I just trying to elicit the proper response from them so that *I* feel better? Where and how do we draw the line?

Once we grow in holiness, we cannot look longingly back on our sinful lives that we have left behind. There is nothing left for us there. We must, as the theme goes, press on towards God and a new life of grace.

Another image was of the Holy Spirit leading us onward. They emphasized complete trust in Him to be able to guide our lives. Yet another stumbling block we have all too often: inordinate self-reliance. We try so hard to convince ourselves that we don’t need God. That we can handle things on our own. Too frequently, we only turn to Him when we have made a complete mess of things. The challenge is to rely on Him for all things – not so that we don’t have to take responsibility for things in our life – but so that there is no part of our lives into which He is not welcome.

The last image for me was that of being on the path, looking expectantly and joyfully toward our goal. What is the purpose of all this self-mastery and obedience? To be with God forever, sharing in His Divine Life! What could be better than that?

Jesse Greaves

May 29, 2012Sea StoriesCadyLy

I should probably start writing down my Navy stories before I forget them. I’ll start with this one, as it has come to mind this weekend due to recent events.

I met Jesse while I was on summer training for NROTC. This was just after my freshman year of college, and I was assigned to Norfolk, Virginia. We were assigned to the same squad.

Scene 1: Introductions

At some point, I was his squad leader; another week, he was mine. The first clear memory that I have was one day just before PT. We were all gathered in a field and were getting our flight suits for the next week’s training. I was happy to note that I had the smallest flight suit of all the girls. I like being little, what can I say?

Anyways, Jesse was talking to some of the others about how he had been in the Navy as an enlisted prior to being sent to college and ROTC. He had been a Corpsman and had attained the prestigious rank of E-2. I must have thought that he sounded rather arrogant or something, or maybe it’s just that punk streak in me, but I felt that I had to take him down a peg or two. Most of the other midshipmen there were straight from high school; there were very few mustangs like Jesse and I. So, I gleefully told him that not only was I *also* a fellow prior enlisted, but I had made E-4!

He wasn’t so happy to hear this — taking his thunder or whatever. He asked how I had gotten to E-4 so quickly, as apparently it’s much harder to make rate as a corpsman. I let him know that I was a Nuke, which is way awesome. I think he rolled his eyes in denial of my awesomeness and made some remark saying that I was a “push-button petty officer,” implying that I didn’t earn my rank, I just got it with the job. Sour grapes, my friend…. 🙂

A few minutes later, he takes the cap off one of those 32 oz. Gatorade bottles that he was using as a water bottle, presumably to take a sip. He comes up to me and, on purpose, splashes me with it, making some lame excuse like, “Oops. I tripped.” Right. Sure.

Soon after, we were told that we were going to be playing Ultimate Frisbee, and that we should take our flight suits back to our barracks. Half of us were to change into white shirts (instead of the brown shirts that went with the camo pants we were wearing). Both Jesse and I were on the white shirt team.

I had fun playing Ultimate Frisbee. After it was over, and most people left the field, I saw that Jesse was in the middle of the field doing some more PT. I think he wanted to be a Navy SEAL or something. Me being the sweet thing that I am, walked up to him — water bottle in hand — and promptly dumped the entire contents on him, saying something like, “Oops. I tripped.”

He jumped up and wrestled me to the ground for a bit. We both ended up — in our thin, government-issued white T-shirts — all wet and muddy and thoroughly disreputable-looking. 🙂 Then, we both had to head back to the barracks to change. Because the barracks were built with the doors of the rooms emptying out to a wrap-around balcony, pretty much everyone was outside on a balcony watching the two of us return, and noting our appearance. Ha!

Scene 2: A Marine Outing

It was still Marines week. All week long, they had us pushing fluids so that we wouldn’t become dehydrated. Periodically, we were told to drink half a canteen or a full canteen. Each of us was issued 2 canteens to keep on our belt. Unfortunately, I only got one. So, I only consumed half the water as everyone else.

At the end of the week, we had a field exercise where we simulated taking a beach, doing night rounds, and then the final push in the morning. I think this happened the first morning. I know it was earlier, like 8 am or so and we were getting ready to go out on one of the amphibious vehicles. I started feeling awful. I was dizzy and lightheaded and I think I started crying for no reason. They took me over to the corpsman on duty, where it was found that I was pretty dehydrated.

The corpsman’s name who took care of me was Livesay. I know that I’m a bad stick, and when I’m dehydrated, I’m *really* bad. After many unsuccessful attempts, Livesay told me, “I have never not gotten a stick. If you do not cooperate this next try, I’m going to put this needle in your neck!” He wasn’t joking.

The needle went in.

I got some ridiculous amount of IV fluid pushed into me. Then, I had to go to the bathroom. Like, NOW. Gotta say, when you are in the hospital, you got it good. You have your IV bag hooked up to the little pole on wheels. When you are in the military, you have to do your business with a guy holding your IV bag, while you try to be discrete and pretend he isn’t 3 feet away, hearing everything.

After a while, I was deemed hydrated enough and allowed to return to my squad in the early afternoon. I don’t remember if they were eating lunch, or had just finished eating lunch. I don’t think I ate anything. Next, we took a ride in an amphibious vehicle. We went up and down some sand dunes, then out to sea in the waves, in a circle. There was a turret with some sort of gun on it, and we took turns so that each midshipman would get a chance to sit up there. I was in the back and would be one of the last people to go. The way the vehicle was, there was seating in two rows inside, and the top of the vehicle had an opening lengthwise. Most of us were standing on the seats, so that we could peek our heads out and look. I was too short to see anything, but I did stand up and hang on as we were bouncing around.

Now, I have to mention what we were wearing: camo pants, jungle boots, T-shirt, heavier camo shirt, flak jacket and a helmet. It was warm and humid out. I get seasick. I was just treated for dehydration. We were going up and down, up and down, up and down — in addition to being generally rattled around by trying to hang on while standing on seats in a moving vehicle. Needless to say, I was starting to feel very nauseated.

Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer. I had to get off this vehicle or yak. I told one of the guys (who was part of the vehicle crew), and he started to signal to the driver to stop to let me off. Jesse was standing near me, but didn’t hear what I had said (it was very noisy). He must have thought that I was having issues from the heat or something because he started to take off my clothes. He had unzipped my flak jacket and was in the process of unbuttoning my camo shirt when I said something like, “I’m okay! I’m just nauseated!”

Poor boy turned beet red. And stopped undressing me.

Embarrassing, maybe. But he was only trying to take care of me. 🙂

Come to think of it now, being cooler probably would have helped with the nausea. Getting off the vehicle was still a way better treatment plan.

Scene 3: The Goodbye

It was one of the final days at Norfolk and I was heading back from the Navy Exchange. At one point, I passed by Jesse (I don’t recall who he was standing around with). As I passed, he called out, “What? You’re not going to say goodbye?!” I was a little surprised, as I didn’t think that Jesse had given me very much thought after the Marine week. I think I turned around and gave him a hug goodbye.

Scene 4: The Picture

This is probably out of order with the Goodbye scene, but I don’t remember precisely where it fits in. It was one of the last days and we had a picnic where we played some flag football or something like that. After, as we were resting in the picnic area, I tried to get pictures of everyone. When I got to Jesse, he was smiling, but the moment I went to snap the photo, he made this stoic, Terminator face. I think to show how tough he was. So, this is what I got. Jesse’s the guy on the right:

Homemade Guacamole!

May 27, 2012Adventures in CookingCadyLy

Sometimes, ideas for the things I do come from the oddest places. For example, I was reading a book about the Cure d’Ars and there was mention of lime trees. Somehow, this led me to look up the recipe for making guacamole. I don’t suppose the Ziploc bag of tortilla chips sitting next to me had anything to do with this…. 🙂

So after looking up recipes, I decided that I had enough of the required ingredients (or close enough to it) to attempt this. Now.

I chopped up a tomato, an avocado, 2 cloves of garlic (because I don’t like onions), and added the juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper. I tossed it all into the blender, where I took a moment to admire it’s beauty:

Before giving it an inglorious blender death:

Then, transferring my new guacamole to a small bowl, where it will “set the flavors” while I’m at Mass. 🙂

Can’t wait to try it! 🙂

Presbyteral Ordination 2012

May 26, 2012Sacraments, Tales of My Amazing PriestsCadyLy

I love ordination! I have such a heart for priests that this ranks perhaps as my second-favorite Mass of the year, right after the Chrism Mass. (Who doesn’t love having *hundreds* of priests renewing their vows?!?)

The other thing I love is that I get to go down to the cathedral where, invariably, I meet up with a lot of my friends and get a lot of hugs! 🙂

Okay, okay, back to the men! And my overabundant enthusiasm. 🙂 I can neither confirm nor deny that I said something like, “Muahahahahaha! Your lives are about to be changed FOREVER!!!” prior to the start of the Mass. Or was that *during* the Mass?

No matter. I’m sure you are anxious for me to get to the photos! After all, this is what I do best, right? Take tons of pix? 🙂 Click here if you want to see *all* the pictures.

Here is (transitional) Deacon Salvatore Palazzolo and Deacon Paul Snyder, processing in:

The Altar: what it’s all about!

Dcn. Mateja, with Dcn. Palazzolo and Dcn. Snyder in silhouette in the foreground:

Dcn. Palazzolo:

Dcn. Snyder:

My priest, Fr. John, praying over the new Fr. Steven Mateja, who will be joining us at Our Lady of Good Counsel in July! 🙂

Another of my priests, Fr. Eric Fedewa, praying over Fr. Steve:

And over Fr. Paul:

My apologies to Fr. Sal, I was seated, yes in an aisle seat, but halfway to the back of the cathedral and didn’t have a clear line of sight to you! 😦

Fr. Lee Acervo praying over Fr. Steve:

The mothers of the new priests got to present the gifts to Archbishop Vigneron.

Since this seems to be turning into a Fr. Steve post (as I had the best line of sight to him), I’ll continue with this theme…
Here’s where he gets hugged a lot. I think they call it the Fraternal Kiss. First, with Bishop Byrnes: