Office of the Readings

Liturgy of the Hours/Christian Prayer

1 Thessalonians 4:1-18

Finally, brothers, we urge you and appeal to you in the Lord Jesus to make more and more progress in the kind of life that you are meant to live: the life that God wants, as you learnt from us, and as you are already living it. You have not forgotten the instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Jesus.
What God wants is for you all to be holy. He wants you to keep away from fornication, and each one of you to know how to use the body that belongs to him in a way that is holy and honourable, not giving way to selfish lust like the pagans who do not know God. He wants nobody at all ever to sin by taking advantage of a brother in these matters; the Lord always punishes sins of that sort, as we told you before and assured you. We have been called by God to be holy, not to be immoral; in other words, anyone who objects is not objecting to a human authority, but to God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
As for loving our brothers, there is no need for anyone to write to you about that, since you have learnt from God yourselves to love one another, and in fact this is what you are doing with all the brothers throughout the whole of Macedonia. However, we do urge you, brothers, to go on making even greater progress and to make a point of living quietly, attending to your own business and earning your living, just as we told you to, so that you are seen to be respectable by those outside the Church, though you do not have to depend on them.
We want you to be quite certain, brothers, about those who have died, to make sure that you do not grieve about them, like the other people who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus: God will bring them with him. We can tell you this from the Lord’s own teaching, that any of us who are left alive until the Lord’s coming will not have any advantage over those who have died. At the trumpet of God, the voice of the archangel will call out the command and the Lord himself will come down from heaven; those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise, and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds, together with them; to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall stay with the Lord for ever. With such thoughts as these you should comfort one another.

Dancing With God

Neat Things I Didn't Author

Thanks to Caryn for sharing!

ATT00001

When I meditated on the word “guidance,”
I kept seeing “dance” at the end of the word.
I remember reading that doing God’s will is a lot like dancing.
When two people try to lead, nothing feels right.
The movement doesn’t flow with the music,
And everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.

When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead,
Both bodies begin to flow with the music.
One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back
Or by pressing lightly in one direction or another.
It’s as if two become one body, moving beautifully.

The dance takes surrender, willingness,
And attentiveness from one person
And gentle guidance and skill from the other.

My eyes drew back to the word “guidance.”
When I saw “G,” I thought of God, followed by “U” and “I.”
“God,” “U” and “I” dance.
God, you and I dance.

As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust
That I would get guidance about my life.
Once again, I became willing to let God lead.

My prayer for you today if that God’s blessings
And mercies are upon you this day and every day.
May you abide in God, as God abides in you.
Dance together with God, trusting God to lead
And to guide you through each season of your life.

(Kasia, isn’t this remarkably timely, given last night’s conversation? 🙂

Tale of Horror of the Day

Bioethics, Neat Things I Didn't Author

Courtesy of “The Clone Age: Adventures in the New World of Reproductive Technology” by Lori B. Andrews:

After Jonathan Slack cloned headless frogs, other researchers suggested cloning headless humans to serve as organ donors. They argued that, with no brain, such creatures would not be considered persons under the law.

I just had to stop eating my Cheerios after that. I mean, most of the book talks about human life being treated in a horribly callous way, but that…takes the cake right there. Even in the researchers’ argument, they are looking for ways to depersonalize and dehumanize…human people! The question is more like: “How can I make this not a person, so that I can do whatever I want to it and others will not object?” Well, a good start would be to call it a “creature.” Oh, wait. They already did that.

So disgusting.

Icicle Mansion, Part Deux

Photography

We have gotten even more snow and ice and stuff. Yuk. As a Floridian (heehee), I am repelled. However, I am also morbidly fascinated by the large icicles hanging off my house. I did at one point attempt to knock them down, but the evil little buggers just fell into a window. I was happy that the window did not break, but I do have a good size hole in the screen now. That ended (most of) my icicle-knocking-down fun. My pride and joy is the icicle which is only about 8 inches from touching the ground — FROM MY ROOF! That’s gotta win a medal or something! 🙂

And so, for your viewing pleasure, I bring you:
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And, yes, those are my Christmas lights. I was wondering if they might put out enough heat to start melting the icicles in the front of the house, since it looks like there is ice piling up on the roof a bit, and that can’t be good.
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And here is my front door…about 1/4 to 1/3 obscured by the Ice Picks of Doom — obviously, this is not the entrance that I use daily.
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Yeah, yeah, my porch light is still orange — from Halloween 2007. I love how there is a little corridor between the house and the Wall of Ice. And aren’t the Christmas lights all pretty and sparkly? 🙂
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And finally, my pride and joy, the Big Huge Icicle. I like how these ones in back are a little concave, probably from the wind while they were being formed. 🙂
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Because You Want to Know…

Photography

…what I look like waking up in the morning. 🙂

But, even more amusing is what I looked like the morning after Clam and Canuck’s wedding! Because I went to bed with all that hairspray and curls and stuff and slept on it! Then, WENT TO MASS! In PUBLIC! Bwhahahahahah!

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Yes, these are photos of me taken moments after waking up. I did not touch my hair before taking them. That is total bedhead. I did brush it out a little and clip some back before attending Mass, however. 🙂

Please Pray for Elianna

Photography, Prayer/Prayer Requests, ,

Elianna

Elianna will be undergoing cardiac surgery this Monday, February 2nd, for a patent ductus arteriosus. Please pray for a successful surgery, a rapid recovery and continued good health. For the skill and wisdom of her surgeons and caregivers. And especially for her mom, dad, and siblings during this time of anxiety.

“In the day of distress I will call
and surely you will reply.
Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord;
nor work to compare with yours.” — from Psalm 86

What Happened to My Prayer?!?!

Prayer/Prayer Requests

Okay, I know it’s icy out there and the roads are horrible. My car seems to think it would be a great idea if it were, say, a sled. I seem to slide all the time. Which, at near-highway speeds, is not always a good thing (is it ever?).

So, I do a lot of praying when I drive, too. 🙂 I pray for my safety, and the safety and wisdom of all the drivers on the road. I pray for my friends and family. I pray for people I see in the ditch, or in accidents — for their safety, for quick aid, and for a help with finances in case they need repairs or worse.

Tonight, when I was driving home, the road was pretty much clear…. Except for the viaducts, where patches of ice would lie in wait for me. Sure enough, I’d hit them and my car would go skidding sideways a couple feet — not too much, but enough to make me anxious, especially if there were people in the lane next to me.

My first reaction when this happens (besides correcting the car’s trajectory) is to pray. I thoroughly anticipated praying something like, “Lord, please don’t let me crash!”

Oh no. That’s not the prayer that came to me.

Remember I said that I had someone that God put on my heart? I was to pray for them — kinda like a job? (I love that job, by the way!) Yeah. My prayer was, “Please, Lord, keep him safe!”

Wait a minute! Isn’t this supposed to be about ME??!? *I* am the one slipping over here!!

Nope, nope. Sorry. It’s about him. Seriously, every time I slid (which was a lot).

Since when are prayers for me turning into intercession for him??!! I guess…um…since now.

Interesting. 🙂

Great Weekend!

Photography, Sacraments, St. Anastasia, Tales of My Amazing Priests

Sorry if this post is incoherent.  Not much sleep this weekend, but it was so much fun!  🙂

First, the Priests vs. Seminarians game on Friday.  I arrived early and got to tag along on a tour of the Sacred Heart by Jonathan the Seminarian. 
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The game was good, and although the “official” score was 73-73,
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that was only after a mercy-gift of 30 points at halftime.  Fr. JJ was the impromptu coach for the Priests.  I was thoroughly on the side of the priests, but I was watching for that #13 player, who was our gracious tour guide.  🙂 
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After the game, we hung out at the bar (yes!  Seminary has a bar!  With $1.50 beer!)
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and had some pizza which was provided.  Then, I tried to give Lindsay a tour from what I remembered.  We made it to the chapel and the library and found the hallway with the old photos of our priests when they went to Sacred Heart.  That was so funny.  I took pictures.  🙂

Is this not the best Boy Band hair you have seen? 🙂
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Saturday morning I had my hair done,
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and got ready for the wedding.
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I was really early, perhaps the first one at the church, so I ran between Katie and Joe a little bit before the wedding, as I do.
They had 4 priests, a deacon, and 2 altar servers.
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See, I’m not kidding! 🙂
It was a beautiful wedding, and I was so glad to be able to witness it!
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Here’s a link to the video of the beginning of Fr. John’s homily to Katie and Joe.  Here’s a link to my Flickr page with all the pictures I took at the wedding.

After the wedding and the reception at Picano’s, there was an after party at the hotel. Then, I went home and danced a bit on my own, before collapsing in bed. I did manage to make it to Mass the next day with gorgeous Morning After hair (actually, wasn’t too bad). Then, I spent all day getting stuff uploaded. 🙂 Didn’t get anything else on my list of things-to-do done this weekend, but a great weekend overall! 🙂

Now…. What’s next??? 🙂