You are the hands with which He is to bless men now.

I just found this quote attributed to St. Teresa of Avila in this book:

Christ has no body on earth but yours,
no hands but yours, no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which is to look out
Christ's compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about
doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.

Thoughts as we approach All Hallows Eve, All Saints, and All Souls

Counting our blessings: we lived in such a good neighborhood for 15 years and enjoyed such lovely, wholesome Halloween celebrations with a hay ride and chili cookoff before the trick or treating began. I wish I could find the photo the year the girls and I dressed up as a medieval queen and princesses. Every year, my husband carves the pumpkins and roasts the seeds with lots of seasoning salt. Usually, his parents have come down to enjoy the children and help hand out candy and watch an old classic movie.

Still counting our blessings: we are in a new, much smaller neighborhood with many kind people and families, and the annual, fall festival atmostphere of our Roswell celebrations accompany us here. The memories of good people and good times help us to bring forth new celebrations and new friends. We have our Faith and have always had many good family prayers around this time to the holy souls and to the saints. One year we even made a little saints museum in one of the children's rooms as the big days (read good link on All Hallows Eve, All Saints and All Souls) approached. At our parish (which has not changed, even though we moved farther north), there is that lovely feeling of expectation for Advent, just a few weeks away! Fall blazes in and out so quickly; it is such a lovely time of year!

Each year, in August, I pick a saint to pray to for our homeschooling. Education means to nurture; and, many parents see the family as a garden, a place where we work, play and pray to bring forth good produce. I have asked St. Gemma Galgani to be our special, educational protectress this year. It is not an easy culture within which to raise children and young people.

I regret letting my children read and watch all the Harry Potter stories, but I have to move forward continuing to humbly pray for the Blessed Mother's intercession and the fathomless Mercy of Christ our King, our Lord and Savior of all who call upon Him in faith, hope and love. Of these, the greatest is LOVE.

Here is my Halloween post from last year.

I just found this thought provoking article.

St. Gemma Galgani, pray for us and for all families striving to bring up their young in the best possible garden.

When the going gets tough, the tough (husbands) do laundry...

...so, I took a nosedive this weekend, probably with a touch of flu. My husband's response was to wash everything in the house - I thought he was going to throw me in the washing machine. Come to think of it, that might iron out my kinks!

This book looks so good. Books do to me what gourmet food does to some. Over the years, dealing with lupus-like rheumatism, I really dislike intensely the demand of a clunky body to lay low. I was telling a dear friend that I think I get a little comfort from Heaven when I "hear" in my prayers and thoughts that "giving in is not giving up." I know it must be harder than hard to live with me. The flakiness of it all is enough to drive you mad.

My husband and I both have a good percentage choleric in our God-given temperaments, and the lack of control that chronic illness hoists upon us is difficult to manage.

Well, enough... and, may I be more grateful for the husband God has given me. He would not like for me to call him a saint, so I'll just tell him that I am his path to Heaven.

America the Beautiful

Years ago, when I was very sick, I had the time and the inclination to read a good amount of Catholic prophecy. Many of the Church's canonized saints have, through various forms of private revelation, communicated directly with God as to His Will for themselves as "saints in the making," for the Church and the world. Recently, I am back reading and praying prophecy. I am marvelling at the stories I know-- like those blessed little children in Fatima, Portugal; and also I am discovering saints and events that I had never heard of before this summer. It is important to note that the principle meaning of prophecy is not to foretell the future, rather it is knowing God's Will.

As fallen humanity, we struggle mightily against the three enemies of the soul: the world, the flesh and the devil. Discerning God's will for our lives --much less for our country or our world-- demands heroic virtue. Some might posit that this virtue is unobtainable. Well, it is not something we get on our own, that is for sure. Only by God's grace may we obtain the grace and strength that we need to discern His Holy Will. Frustration, anxiety, bouts of ill temper -- these really should be part and parcel of the life of a saint. As a stay-at-home mom, it certainly is part of life in my family. We pray alot, we play alot, but we sure do struggle alot with our various human weaknesses and the external temptations that assail us from the world and the bad angels. I think I've gotten off the point. I wanted to post a link to the true story of Our Lady of America. Read it and pray. Read it and be amazed. Read it and live redeemed and help redeem this poor country of ours.

Would that we had no guile!

I had a few quiet moments to read the Gospel and to take a quick virtual tour of St. Bartholomew's church in Rome (via the Catholic Culture webpage). Our faith is so heartening! Which is a good thing because we are slam-0-rama over here with academics hitting us like the ocean waves. All the movement is fun and we are, overall, enjoying working hard. Our Catholic hybrid school is just what the doctor ordered for a good balance for our family.

Later today, I hope to get some photos off Facebook of the family party we hosted last Thurs as a belated bday celebration for my hubby.

Born into Heaven in 1024

I'd like to read more about this holy King of Germany who is, among other things, the patron of the physically challenged.

Faith's great adventure -- Becket!

Today is the 5th Day of Christmas and a most interesting saint's feast day. Here is a quote from Catholic Culture about Becket: "Given the tempo of the liturgical season with its feasts it is easy to overlook that one saint who for many centuries was, after Mary and Joseph, the most venerated person in European Christendom." Read the rest here. I want to see this film about the venerated man. Looking back to the 4th Day of Christmas: Yesterday was one of my favorite feasts of the whole year, the Feast of the Holy Family. For years now, I have dedicated the most intimate part of my life to the Holy Family. I love them and everything for which they stand. So, Mass yesterday was particularly moving for me. We went for our regular Sunday drive up to Cumming to snap some pics of the house. We ate at Cici's Pizza and looked at leather couches, came home, had some hot tea and watched loads of t.v. M made us pasta with red sauce for dinner. We talk alot while we watch t.v. Much playing with our grateful pets. Our evening family prayer was almost midnight. We are really staying up late and sleeping late.

Story of St. Wenceslaus

Go here to read about good King Wenceslaus. This is one of my favorite Christmas carols. Enjoy the carol here. Wow! I just found a picture book jackpot. Go here for a blog post chock full of books and info on this inspiring saint. Yesterday, the 1st Day of Christmas: While it was a good thing to get up to Kentucky from last Saturday to Tuesday, we were all a bit sluggish yesterday. The 10:30 Christmas Day Mass was so quiet and lovely. We went for a little drive, ate a late lunch at one of the few places open in the metro area, had some hot cider and visited with friends and came home to settle in to watch movies and eat frozen lasagna from COSTCO, which I did heat in the oven! Oops; rewind to Christmas morn -- we always make a home movie of the children coming down the stairs to see what ole St. Nick brought (his presents are unwrapped or in the stockings) and then they tore into a few wrapped gifts, most of which the girls bought for their little brother. The tree is beautifully lit as I write this on a cloudy, and not so cold -- around 53 degrees -- morning. I love winter and have loved it all my life. The short days take the pressure off my extroverted temperament. I get outside, but the quiet and low light soothes my easily agitated self. Growing up in Kentucky, I never remember the ice or snow keeping me inside too much. As a younger person, I spent hours taking long walks. I love being able to see the shape and contours of the land. Now I see it largely from my van, yet, the views here in our North Georgia suburban neighborhoods are breathtakingly beautiful, surrounded by winter's spartan landscape. Instead of 5 mile hikes, now I putter around my little plot of the American pie like a good rheumatic. Part of the reason I keep this little diary is to remind myself of things I want to do, places and books to explore...well, again, I'll write that I want very much to get back to taking pictures and learn how to put them on this blog. So far, I am dependent on my hubby and my firstborn to help me with the photos. While I'm at it, I want to learn to paint. Our new house has a room on the terrace level to use as a playroom/art studio. Art and architecture have become quite the passion around here, for years, as all the children love to color, draw, paint and build. Being a stay-at-home mom has been for me the greatest ongoing Christmas gift a woman could ever hope to have.

Smile. Be happy. Play.

Since we have a DVR now, I was able to record three saint movies on All Saint's Day; and, I watched two during November. The movie about Don Bosco was just great. He was so grateful to be alive, to serve, to love, to shoot that winning smile at everyone, even if he were tired or not feeling well. I just love him and what he did. As the first weekday of the Advent season, I choose him to inspire our homeschool for the upcoming weeks. We had such fun with all the dogs (5!) at Mimi and Grandaddy's house over the Thanksgiving weekend. We got out for a nature walk everyday. How many grandparents would let you shoot basketball for hours -- inside! That is it! St. John Bosco, pray for us!

The Day You Have Just Lived

"You will be judged on the day you have just lived," came as an exhortation from a good and active priest one morning this past spring. A group of mothers had gathered to pray and reflect. I wrote this in my notes, and, since then, it has become a simple, yet powerful, prayer.

This morning my husband and I rose before our children and had a little quiet time. I was reading my Magnificat. There is a lengthy quote from Pope Benedict XVI on the souls in Purgatory and here is a good part of it:

With death, our life-choice becomes definitive -- our life stands before the judge. Our choice, which in the course of an entire life takes on a certain shape, can have a variety of forms. There can be people who have totally destroyed their desire for truth and readiness to love, people for whom everything has become a lie, people who have lived for hatred, and have suppressed all love within themselves...In such people all would be beyond remedy and the destruction of good would be irrevocable: this is what we mean by the word Hell. On the other hand there can be people who are utterly pure, completely permeated by God, and thus fully open to their neighbors -- people for whom communion with God even now gives direction to their entire being and whose journey towards God only brings to fulfillment what they already are.

Yet we know from experience that neither case is normal in human life (emphasis mine). For the great majority of people -- we may suppose -- there remains in the depth of their being an ultimate openness to truth, to love, to God. In the concrete choices of life, however, it is covered over by ever new compromises with evil -- much filth covers purity, but the thirst for purity remains and it still constantly re-emerges from all that is base and remains present in the soul. What happens to such individuals when they appear before the Judge? Will all the impurity they have amassed through life suddenly cease to matter? What else might occur?...[Saint] Paul [says] that Christian life is built upon a common foundation: Jesus Christ. This foundation endures. If we have stood firm on this foundation and built our life upon it, we know that it cannot be taken away from us even in death. Then Paul continues: 'Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw -- each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Cor. 3:12-15). In this text, it is in any case evident that our salvation can take different forms, that some of what is built may be burned down, that in order to be saved we personally have to pass through "fire" so as to become fully open to receiving God and able to take our place at the table of the eternal marriage-feast.

Sin is at the bottom of the most profound Mystery of Faith, the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist. So many people do not believe they are in need of salvation. Our Savior is both our hero and our best friend. The doctrines of Mother Church are merciful because they come from the Son of Mercy, our Lord, the Christ. The fires of Purgatory purify us, and we need purification. I think often of the famous quote of St. Catherine of Sienna, "Be who you are and you will set the world ablaze." Our Lord calls us to be grateful for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (Fear of the Lord, Knowledge, Fortitude, Piety, Counsel, Understanding and Wisdom) and to use them all at all times. Yet, we are weak and we fail. Then, we stoke the dying embers by our faith in the Sacraments; and, thanks be to God, He, by the request of Our Lady, fans our flame. Father, thank you for giving us Jesus as real food to enflame the fires of our love. Help us to love others as your Son has Loved us.

My Confirmation saint!

Go over here and see some of her amazing wisdom. St. Teresa of Jesus, pray for us!

Trying to keep my eyes on the prize

Stay with me, Lord, for it is You alone
I look for, Your Love, Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart, Your Spirit, because
I love You and ask no other reward
but to love You more and more.
– St. Pio of Pietrelcina

I found this quote saved in my Microsoft Word documents and it made me sigh and breathe deep and remember that it is all about Him. I am so weak and easily overwhelmed. And, simply put, He is not.

"You can't always get what you want..."

Today is the feast day of one of our family's favorite saints, the "poor man from Assisi". For some reason, or cluster of reasons, I keep hearing the words to one of my favorite songs: "you can't always get what you want, you can't always get what you want, you can't always get what you wa-a-ant, but you just might find, YOU GET WHAT YOU NEED." I saw the Rolling Stones in concert when I lived in Madrid in 1989-90.

We are having a weekend of field trips and retreats. This RS song tends to come in to my head after a period of feeling like I am so far away from God. I do feel very close to Him these last couple of days, and feel very grateful for the consolation. It has been quieter than usual today, and the quiet ministers to my world-weary soul. St. Francis, pray for us!

Matthew 17:20 and Padre Pio

"For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."

Thank you Lord for your Body and Blood! St. Pio of Pietrelcina, pray for us!

Studying Spain

The new academic year is upon us, and I am working on how we might study Spain this year. We are going to start a "Book of Centuries". I want to look at various versions of two of literatures favorite characters, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. I have a mini collection of Don Quixote books. I lived in Madrid for 5 months during my junior year in college. I loved it so much that I returned to Spain with my best friend from my childhood, Molly. We lived again in Madrid for a year after we had both graduated from college in 1989. I love all the versions of paella and the Spanish rice dish arroz con pollo. Tonight we are going to watch a documentary on St. Ignatius of Loyola. St. Ignatius, pray for us!

Praise His Holy Name!

I love to put the Holy Name of Jesus in front of my own, or anyone else to whom I wish to offer to God, in prayer. It has been so hectic around here, with lots going on. I am happy to report that all are happy and well, just lots of activities and parties and meetings. This morning, when JB, J and I read the story of St. Bernardine (I got this picture from the Catholic Culture website.), my heart was filled with gratitude for the smallest things that please our Lord. He is so glad for us to utter His Holy Name in petition of our needs and wants.

The desires of our soul are so often His Holy Desires, too. Spring is in full bloom. May we all stay blessed!

Giving Jesus Monday

I have always had trouble with Monday mornings, mainly because we have just gotten used to Dad being home and synched in and then off he goes for nearly 12 hours. So, several months back, I signed us up for 10am Monday Adoration of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. I cannot say I felt much consolation this morning;but, later today, when I looked back at all of our little accomplishments: J and JB helped sick sister M, J and I read about Ancient Rome, JB did her spelling and beautiful cursive, some outdoor/fresh air time, lots of laundry and housework, phone calls, emails, singing, dancing, guitar lesson, play time, dog, cat and guinea pig time, Rosary prayed and three home-cooked meals...well, we were blessed. Our Lord blesses our efforts, no matter the degree of hesitation with which they are offered.
learning notes: we need to post our cool math books for artsy types, get those pics up, plan activities for St. Patrick and, esp., St. Joseph. I want to transplant mini-Christmas tree in kitchen. Do another construction paper body part, like last week's cool tongue. M's 12th bday is around the corner in May. St. Edmund Campion, pray for us!

What a woman!

Today I really needed some inspiritation. I am having one of those "too-many-irons-in-the-fire" moments. What a treasure is our faith! I am working on publishing a blog for our homeschool moms reading group and also for our family's learning/planning journal. I do not like to overschedule my family. We get stressed more easily than some and need lots of time outdoors, time to pray, to talk, to cook, to play with and tend to our animals and to work on projects in the home, garden and community. I want to keep the academics "small but strong," so as to maximize retention and solid communications skills. We have the gifts of music, math, science, religion, history and the arts in this family. I see us learning well when we do not spend too much time seeing these areas as separate subjects. There is clearly a time for this, in particular, with older students and adults.
So, I know this (click for full bio:) beautiful woman will pray for me. Blessed Maria Romero, pray for the Sullivans and pray for all families who strive to live lives of truth, beauty and goodness!

St. Paul to the Corinthians and to us

Yesterday, these two verses from Chapter 10 of St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians lightened my load. They are the famous verses 12 and 13:

12: Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.

13: No trial has come to you but what is human. God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it.

One of my favorite saints is Padre Pio, now known as St. Pio. EWTN's website has the following, and it is so inspiring:

http://www.ewtn.com/padrepio/index.htm

When I was really ill after Jay was born, I fought hard to live. As it ought to be, my prayers and those of some of my family and many of our friends, were weapons. Lent is an opportunity to look at Jesus on His Holy Cross and realize that our God suffers as we suffer. Compassion means "to suffer with". Clearly, there are many ways to go about suffering with someone in need. I have been as needy as they come, and I marvelled at the compassion of my God and my fellow man.

As the first Sunday of Lent quickly approaches, I want to encourage anyone reading this to suffer with someone during this Lent 2007. It is not about "tit for tat," meaning to give for the sake of reward. True compassion gives without counting the cost. Christ demonstrates to us what our interior disposition ought to look like. It, at times, looks like Jesus on His bloody Cross. We must not shy away from the Cross. Read the conversion story of Edith Stein. She was murdered by the Nazis. She embraced her suffering for the salvation of her own soul and the salvation of others. This is an utterly counter-cultural way of approaching life, as things stand today.

Saints Against Totalitarianism

St. Margaret Clitherow and St. Edmund Campion are the perfect intercessors against such potential horrors as outlined in the following link about forced vaccines. My father-in-law has been a member of this physician's association for years and they are a voice of reason and good conscious that is currently lacking in the public sphere. Read and pray; pray hard that we do not go down this path in America:

http://www.aapsonline.org/nod/newsofday392.php

I am trying to put a positive spin on this, and keep my blog as close to G-rated as I can, by drawing a parallel between these times and those times under Queen Elizabeth. She may have won the battle, but Campion and Clitherow won the war. Wondering what I am talking about?
Ignatius Press just put out a new edition of Evelyn Waugh's book on Campion, which is a tale all the more exciting because it is true. The best book on Margaret Clitherow that I have found is a slender tome by TAN publishers.

When I see pictures of Prince Charles embracing Islam, I feel a mixture of sadness and anger. Sad because he is a spiritually poor man, so world-weary and confused. Angry because I am stunned by his ignorance of the history of his country.

Sts. Margaret Clitherow and Edmund Campion, please pray for us! Pray for those ignorant of history. Pray for our media. Pray for our youth!