Pray for Ireland

Sculpture by Timothy P. Schmalz

Disclaimer: The following views are my own and are my opinions.

Today I  pray for Ireland. This country I've only seen once but that has a piece of my heart. This country that has gone through famine and so many wars now faces destruction through the passing to repeal Amendment 8. My heart aches for Ireland. They have no idea what they have done.

A Visibly Catholic Country

When I visited Ireland last October I loved how "Catholic" it was. I loved seeing the statues of Jesus and Mary all over the country. Just when you least expected it, there they were. There were more Catholic churches than I had ever seen in my life. I felt so much at home there. I don't have an Irish bone in my body, but I fell in love with Ireland.

Statue of the Crucifixion, Dingle Peninsula

The Wrong Idea 

I know better than to read comments on Facebook, but I read some very hurtful words. Comments such as "Now we can let go of the Catholic guilt" and "women now have a choice". The UN categorizes abortion as "human rights", but for whom? Certainly not for those babies who are killed. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is quoted by The Washington Post as saying "...no more stigma as the veil of secrecy is lifted and no more isolation as the burden of shame is gone." Really, Prime Minister??? Even though abortion was legalized in the USA in 1973 people don't speak openly about it. It's still very hush-hush and I would say that those women who abort their babies aren't shouting it from the rooftops. They need counseling and I dare to say most never get over killing their babies. I think he's living in a dream world if he thinks that's going to change.

Destruction of the Family

Norma McCorvey (a.k.a. "Jane Roe" in Roe v Wade) eventually became an advocate for Pro-Life. Dr. Kermit Gosnell gave up his right to appeal when on trial: He chose life when there was a chance he could get the death penalty for murdering babies. What irony! Just this year the pro-life organization in my state had a huge victory: legislation was passed to ensure millions of tax dollars is now redirected from a major "national chain" of abortion clinics and will be funneled instead to state-run health departments to be appropriated for family planning programs.
You may be thinking that Ireland is just catching up with the rest of the world. The USA legalized abortion in 1973, and look at us now. We're becoming a nation that doesn't know God, where "Catholic" children don't even know how to make the sign of the cross.  American family structure is in ruins. I can count on 1 hand the number of my students who live with their moms and dads.

So today I pray for Ireland. I pray that whatever happens next is peaceful; Lord knows that country has seen their share of bloodshed. Today the devil is dancing in hell; he won this battle, but with our prayers, he won't win the war.

Learning the Ins & Outs of Prayer Journaling

I recently read the book Praying with a Pen by Mary Beth Weisenburger (Dynamic Catholic) to learn the ins & outs of prayer journaling. (Pssst! It's free...just pay S&H!!!) I have friends who are into Bible Journaling using artwork but I'm no artist.  What I do love to do is write. I sat down with the book and a highlighter, ready to learn what I could about how to journal. I ended up only highlighting one thing from the book, and that was a statistic. It's not that there isn't great information in the book, but the big idea that Mary Beth wants to get across is that it's yours. You have to find what works for you and make it yours. Not hers, and not mine, but yours.

My Evolution

The Blessed is She journals for Advent & Lent were my introduction to prayer journaling. After my first one for Lent, I decided to branch out on my own. I went through the Mass Readings on USCCB for the liturgical season and printed out the Daily Readings as well as lines to write on.

Daily Readings with space for reflection

I also had a monthly calendar in the front where I would write a word or short phrase as a "word of the day". I wrote names of people around the calendar who were in need of prayers.

Calendar for daily words as well as intentions

I'm not gonna lie: that took a lot of time and paper & ink so I knew there had to be a better way. I decided to buy an inexpensive paper notebook, read the Readings in Magnificat and journal that way. 

My journaling evolving

I used my Blessed is She Planner and continued to write down a word of the day. 

Today, I'm using the Magnificat for the Daily Readings. I purchased the Bible Study Evangelista's Love the Word. While it's not perfect, it's pretty close. There are tutorials available but they don't tell you exactly how to use it, so I'm making it my own.  

This journal is beautiful!

 The only downfall is that some days the space for writing your thoughts isn't enough!

The inside (click on picture for a larger view)

I still have my inexpensive notebook to write down thoughts and conversations. One of the most difficult things for me is to be able to actually talk to our Lord and to be silent. The being silent thing is the most difficult...the talking isn't quite so difficult! I take it into Adoration with me. Some nights there are pages, some nights I may not even get a fully formed paragraph. But it doesn't matter because it's mine. 

The Where, When, and a Routine

Mary Beth stressed the importance of having a designated prayer space...a space that's yours. It needs to be a quiet place, a place away from everyone else. You need to protect that space from little ones who may be curious or older ones who are looking for a pen. My boys are grown and 2 are no longer at home so this was fairly easy for me. During the school year (I'm a Speech/Language Pathologist for a school system) I sit in my chair at my desk in a spare bedroom. The downside to that is that my laptop is on my desktop and very often I get distracted by thinking about that email I need to send or about other things I need to do on the computer. Now that school is out, my favorite place is on the back porch. 

My Summer morning quiet place

I'm getting into a routine of walking the dogs (out of the house around 5:45 so we have the park to ourselves!) and coming back for "God time" on the porch. It's my happy place: the birds are busy chirping and singing and gathering food and the rest of the world is going about their day. In my little corner of the world, it's peaceful and quiet, except when one of our dogs can't decide if she wants inside or outside. 

I pray the Liturgy of the Hours (which I am just learning...it's a bit confusing!) then my morning prayers as well as personal intentions. I made a notebook using the "disc system" (you may own or have seen planners using the discs):

In the zipper pouch, I have prayer cards and a pen.

I have a page for intentions.

I put tabs on the bottom for favorite sayings/scripture. 

I'm big on quotes to give me a pick-me-up when I need it!

One of my Lenten "sacrifices" a few years ago was to wake up 30 minutes early to pray and read the Daily Readings, which started my whole journal journey. In the book, Mary Beth talks about how important it is to find your time. Since I'm an empty-nester, that was a  no-brainer for me. I don't have anyone to get ready for school except myself, and most days my husband is still in bed when I leave for work so it really wasn't a big deal for me to get up earlier. In fact, I liked it so much that I continued to get up 30 minutes early for my God time. When I went through a period following that Lent when I didn't get up early I could tell something was amiss throughout my days. I just force myself to go to bed a little earlier to make up for that extra 30 minutes. Since I started praying the Liturgy of the Hours I thought I would have to wake up even earlier but choosing to pray instead of checking my emails and Facebook takes care of that wasted time. 

So there you have it. That's how my prayer journaling has evolved and is still evolving. It works for me, but it may not work for you. There is no right or wrong way to talk to God. I've always thought that one's faith is a very personal thing and it's not going to look the same for everyone.
Do you pray by using prayer journaling? What works for you?

Graduates and the Fire of the Holy Spirit

There was a lot going on at Mass today. Not only was it Pentecost but my parish had a Mass honoring graduates today. It is always so nice to see the young ones in their graduation gowns sitting in the front pews. What a perfect day to have this Mass! Just as the Holy Spirit breathed on the disciples calling them to go out into the world, so these graduates are being called to do something similar. These young adults are getting ready to go their separate ways and either go into the workforce or go to college. Some will be out of their parents' house for the first time. I wish I could tell each of them to hold onto their faith; that this time in their life is the time to hold onto it and not let it go. One of the few things I regret in my life is that I didn't do that. Brandon Vogt's article on young adults leaving the church (PEW survey) indicates that 79% of adults who left the Church did so before the age of 23. I was a statistic. I left during college, just not thinking it was that important or being too busy with partying other things. Boy, if I had it to do over again! Thankfully I came back to the Church before I had my first child, but it was sporadic. How differently would things have been for me if I had continued to be a Practicing Catholic? I'll never know, but my parents gave me good moral compass so I didn't get into any trouble.

Using your gifts for His glory

Chances are these young people won't have the dramatic experience that the apostles had during Pentecost, but I pray that they will feel the Holy Spirit coming into them and breathing the fire to get out there and use their gifts for His glory. I pray that they will discover their individual gifts to do His work, just as the apostles each had different gifts to offer.

We will be shown our gifts in His time

The 2nd Reading (Corinthians 12:3b-7,12-13) expands the gifts which we are given through the Holy Spirit. Each of us has different gifts that when we all come together melds the Church as one. Any organization requires the different talents of people to be successful. No one person has all of the talents (substitute "gifts" for talents) to successfully run a company or organization. God didn't plan it that way. He wants us to be dependent on each other in order to achieve great things for Him. He shows us these gifts in His time. How many young adults end up in a career that they thought they wanted when they graduated from high school? I changed my major 3 times before I found my niche. My parents breathed a huge sigh of relief when I stumbled upon Communicative Disorders and fell in love with it. I knew I needed to find something or else my 4 years in college were going to be up and I would be floundering without any financial support. God will show us our talents in His time.

Perfect timing

During Mass, the phrase "how does each of us hear them in his native language"  (Acts 2:9) grabbed hold of me. All of a sudden the people were able to understand what was being said in their own language. Just think: if this hadn't happened the Word would have been so slow to get out. It would take 1 person knowing a language, then another one knowing that language, and then another one, and so on. In order to grow the Church, it was necessary for people of different languages to be able to hear and understand what was being said. How incredible that must have been to be there and all of a sudden understand! I've had those "aha moments" when all of a sudden I'll understand something in Scripture. I know that it wasn't my time to understand until that exact moment when it all comes together. All of those people having their "aha moment" at the same exact time! Just unfathomable.  

In a world where younger people aren't given much credit, at a time when there is so much entitlement, it is with hope that I looked at the members of my parish who are going out to make their mark on the world. I pray that they take God with them and not forget it is He who gave them the gifts and tools to be successful. 

Game Day!

I live in a diocese where the Ascension is moved to the Sunday following the actual day, so our Mass Readings today are for the Ascension.

These Readings completely melded for me. In the First Reading (Acts 1:1-11) you have Jesus ascending and the 2 angels telling the apostles to stop standing around. I can’t tell you the countless times my tennis instructor, elementary basketball coach, and even my band director told me to stop standing around. My mom used to tell us to stop sitting around like a bump on a log. Jesus made it perfectly clear what they were supposed to do, what He had prepared them to do. They had rigorously trained for this moment in their lives, yet they just stood there staring at the sky. I’m sure it was in utter disbelief. Can you ever truly be completely prepared for something like that?

The 2^nd Reading (Eph 4: 1-13) urges us to take the gifts God has given us and use them for His glory. The apostles were given different gifts: they didn’t all have the same ones. Think about your family. I know in mine, I was amazed at how each of my 9 siblings had different gifts to use when my father was in the last year of his life and needed us. We all aren’t caregivers; we all aren’t good with financial matters; we all aren’t called to make meals, and we all don’t know about insurance matters yet we all came together and together made a complete team. It was the same for the apostles: they each used their gifts and as a team came together to proclaim the Word & save. St. Paul urges us to take our gift & use it “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity through spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3); basically to use our gifts for His glory. We shouldn’t be boastful or proud of our gifts. (I always think of the Blessed Virgin when I think about this: she didn’t go around saying, “You know Jesus? He’s my son. He performs miracles…what does your kid do?”) We should take our individual gifts, stop standing around, and get busy.

The Gospel (Mark 16:15-20) is a kind of prequel to the First Reading. Jesus tells the apostles to go out and save. He kept His promise to them by staying with them in the Holy Spirit. He gave them individual gifts and sent them to specific places so that we might be saved. He still does that today with each of us. He’s asking us to take our gifts and use them. He became man so that we might realize that we have these gifts. We aren’t supposed to keep them to ourselves; we are to go out into the world and share them for HIM.

Which brings us to full circle with the angels saying “Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” Or in other words: He told you this would happen. He prepared you for this. Now it’s Game Day!

Chosen

During my usual Hour in Adoration as I read Sunday's Gospel (John 15:9-17), the words "I am chosen" hit me like a brick. Are you kidding? ME? I am chosen? I choose to follow Jesus but before that He. Chose. ME.
Most of us know the feeling of being rejected whether it was not being chosen as one of the first ones during a game in our younger years or being jilted by a boyfriend/girlfriend as we grew older. Even as adults we can feel the sting of rejection: not being chosen for a job or for a certain honor in our current job. You know what? None of that matters because He chose us.
He may not have chosen me to be a star in the Catholic world. I'm not on the radio and I don't have a YouTube show or Podcast. Some are called to quietly live their lives and go quite unnoticed. That doesn't make them any less chosen than Jennifer Fulwiler, Audrey Assad, or Father Leo. This little blog goes unnoticed, but I am able to quietly write down my thoughts because I have been chosen.
That was Thursday night. Sunday morning during Mass, my mind went in a different direction.
In the First Reading (Acts10:5-26, 34-35, 44-48) Peter tells Cornelius who fell at his feet to get up because he is a man just as he. What humility he shows in that statement! He goes on to say that it doesn't matter where you are---even in a nation that is not Christian if you "fear him and act uprightly" you will be acceptable. He appears to have just finished those words when the "circumcised believers were astounded" because the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit. To tie it into what I was saying before, the Gentiles were chosen. Were they not listening? After showing such humility Peter witnessed a sense of entitlement that Gentiles couldn't possibly be chosen. (My interpretation.)  Peter makes the statement that "God shows no partiality", (Acts 10:34) as long as you "fear Him and act righteously". (Acts 10:35)
Wow. You would think that since Jesus was a Jew that there might be some favoritism, but no. All God asks is that you fear him and act accordingly. That doesn't seem like it would be too difficult of a task, but there are days when I have to dig deep and ask for help. The words "I am chosen" have been lingering in my head since I read them last Thursday night. Yes, I am chosen, but am I worthy? Apparently, He thinks I am.