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:

Bishop Hanchon:

Bishop Cepeda:

Cardinal Maida:

Msgr. Monforton:

Fr. Steve Pullis:

Fr. Lee Acervo:

Incensing the altar for the Liturgy of the Eucharist!

And the Recessional with the newly ordained Fr. Salvatore Palazzolo, Fr. Paul Snyder and Fr. Steven Mateja!!! YAY!

Petition Aversion

May 26, 2012Civic ResponsibilityCadyLy

I admit it. I really hate to be asked to sign a petition. I think a lot of it comes from a dislike of having my name attached to something on the public record. Like I think The Government will come after me or something. LOL!

The other reason, is that I like to sign ONLY if I can do so with integrity. What this means is that I will ask 1,000 questions of the person administering the petition to make sure that I understand the issue at hand. In my experience, these people either (a) don’t understand the issue that well themselves or (b) get visibly irritated at my questions. So, I tend to not sign.

Just a couple minutes ago, a woman came to my door asking for me to sign a petition to have an issue put on the ballot in November for the people of Troy to consider recalling our mayor.

Now, I don’t really know our mayor, but she made some convincing arguments that led me to think that perhaps there was enough there that the people of Troy might want to revisit the issue and determine if there is sufficient cause to recall the mayor.

As I was signing the petition, I noticed in the wording at the top that some of the reasons that they included for asking for the mayors recall were not issues that I agreed with. However, this petition was to put the issue up for examination on the ballot — not to actually vote her out of office. So, I did sign.

And I took their flyer. So that I can examine their arguments, and as a reminder to take a look at the other side of the story. Because, if this does make it to the ballot, I’d like to be informed so that I can vote with integrity.

7 Quick Takes: Memorial Day Weekend Edition!

May 25, 20127 Quick Takes FridayCadyLy

Good Morning and Happy Friday to all! 🙂 There’s just something about a long weekend that just puts you in a good mood, right? 🙂 Not to mention when you get to start your day with a chat with your priest and a large iced caramel macchiato from Starbucks!

— 1 —

I am at one time annoyed and guilty for turning down vague charities, but really, it’s their fault. For example, I was feeling lazy yesterday and decided to drive through Taco Bell for dinner. After ordering, the woman asked me if I’d like to give a dollar to help a local teen graduate from college. What? Let’s look at what was going through Jenn’s mind at the time:

Which local teen? Is this for someone specific? Like Lisa or Jospeh who lives on 17 mile?

What do they need money for to graduate? Do they mean help in paying for a cap and gown?

Don’t I already support helping kids graduate with my property taxes? Or do they mean like charter school/private school/homeschool? What are the fees involved with graduation for those kids?

If they mean help pay for supplies so that kids could get a quality education and eventually graduate, why don’t they just say that?

Sooo…. Since I had about a billion questions about this that I’d prefer an answer to before I gave my dollar (Sad, I know, but I’m trying to be a good steward of my meager resources), I realized that the Taco Bell employee would have no patience for my questions, so I just said, “No.” I’m pretty sure she thought I was a big jerk, since I didn’t get any sporks, napkins or mints in my bag.

At the drive-thru window, I found out that she was asking for a charity sponsored in part by Mark Wahlberg called Graduate To Go. At least now, I can look on their website and be able to make an informed decision the next time I’m at the drive-thru! 🙂

— 2 —

A friend of mine is pregnant, and I am hoping for a blond, blue-eyed little boy. I am calling him James, Jamie for short. In addition to the usual prayers for a healthy pregnancy and baby, I’m also praying that this baby will be called by God to the ordained priesthood. Don’t ask me why; I’m not really sure, but there you go! 🙂

Watch, my Jamie will end up being a girl, and then you will know that I DO NOT have the gift of foresight… 🙂

— 3 —

I went to an appointment yesterday for a Wellness Screening, sponsored by work. If I go, I get $50 in my paycheck. Sweet! They check a few things there like height & weight, cholesterol, and blood pressure.

As far as weight goes, after a weekend vacation where I got to stuff my face, I was expecting bad news from the scale. Not so! I got to eat out and STILL LOST WEIGHT! I know, I know, I suck. You can hate me now!

What’s even cooler, in my nerdy eyes, is the fact that I had the most even number possible for my weight. It was xx0.00! The digital scale measured down to the hundredths position, and it was all zeros! That never happens!

For my cholesterol, I had low overall cholesterol and low “bad” cholesterol! YAY!

My blood pressure, on the other hand, wasn’t so good. It was strange that the systolic and the diastolic were so close together: 116/92. I wonder what that means. Other than my heart has to work harder at rest. What’s going on in there?

— 4 —

I got to see the movie For Greater Glory with a couple friends on Tuesday. This was an amazing movie. A breathtaking movie. Definitely not one to eat popcorn at. After it let out, I was a little stunned and shocked, and a little queasy. It’s based on real-life events that occurred in Mexico in the mid-20s. I *highly* recommend that everyone see this movie. Religious freedom is SO important. We cannot afford to be complacent in this matter. Particularly when our own government is increasingly passing laws and regulations which are restricting our freedom in religious matters. People died for these freedoms! How can we now say that it doesn’t matter? How easy might it be for a situation similar to what happened in Mexico happen here? Easier than one might think, if everyone claimed the attitude of, “It’s not *my* problem.”

— 5 —

Our team at work has moved into new office space at the NCAC. There is a room at the end of the hallway where the boys live,

a small cubicle where Noel and Rolanda will work, and I have a desk in a room at the opposite end of the hallway that I share with two other women who are part of a different training team.

It’s pretty nice to have actual office space, and not be in a cramped training room, where all the computers are right on top of each other and we have no desk space. 🙂

— 6 —

Speaking of my team at work, I am continually amazed at how close-knit we are. Just this morning, Nick came into my new office to ask if I wanted any breakfast, while he was going out to get some, and offered that I could come down into the “boys’ room” any time. A couple hours later, after finishing a project, I did just that. Because I was feeling lonely. And with Brian and Justin out of the office, maybe Nick was too. See, we are more than co-workers now. We are family. And we siblings do not like being split up! 🙂

— 7 —

Happy Ordination Anniversary to Fr. John! I have certainly been blessed in so many ways by his friendship and his ministry. May God continue to bless him, strengthen him and help him, as he strives to do God’s work in equipping the faithful and seeking after His heart. Please join me in praying for him in a particular way today.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Fruit and Veggie Presents!

May 16, 2012Exciting Adventures of the Everyday, PhotographyCadyLy

I love getting deliveries to my house. I always feel like I’m getting presents, even when I’m the one paying for them! Add this to the fact that I hate to go grocery shopping, and you can see why I’m so excited about getting fresh fruits and veggies delivered to my door by Door to Door Organics! I currently have only selected to get their Bitty [smallest] box once every two weeks to try it out and see how quickly I eat it up.

Today, I got my first shipment!

First, you know it’s going to be quality stuff when they send it bearing works of art [Crayola drawings on the shipping label]. How cute is that! 🙂