"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."

All prayers are appreciated at this time. 

Compassionate and merciful Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the shining of your son Jesus, whose Light shines in us and through us, touching every layer of our beings, body, mind and spirit. We thank you for all of the days of peace and love and light that you have given us in the past and we thank you for all of the days of peace and love and light that are to come.

 We thank you for the gifts of the Holy Spirit that you gave us at Baptism: Faith and Hope and Love. Knowlege and Wisdom and Discernment. And Healing. Increase these gifts in us now, Lord. 

 

Heal those who have been hurt and broken, and who are leaky vessels right now.  You love to help all, Lord, so help those most in need now.

Heal victims from the hurt. Restore them to wholeness.  Allow them to see themselves whole and healed, radiant with Your Love, serving You.

I pray this prayer in the Name of Jesus and in the Power of the Holy spirit and I say, amen, it will be so.

My daughter....

My daughter is home, but has been through a terrible ordeal.  Please continue to pray for her as she begins to heal.

Total Rip-off Tuesday

I wasn't going to post anything today, given how burdened my heart is, but this was just too pointed and poignant:


Raising a child with Down syndrome can be demanding. It always involves some degree of suffering. Parents grow up very fast. None of my friends who has a daughter or a son with a serious disability is melodramatic, or self-conscious, or even especially pious about it. They speak about their special child with an unsentimental realism. It’s a realism flowing out of love—real love, the kind that forces its way through fear and suffering to a decision, finally, to surround the child with their heart and trust in the goodness of God. And that decision to trust, of course, demands not just real love, but also real courage.
The real choice in accepting or rejecting a child with special needs is never between some imaginary perfection and imperfection. None of us is perfect. No child is perfect. The real choice in accepting or rejecting a child with special needs is between love and unlove; between courage and cowardice; between trust and fear. That’s the choice we face when it happens in our personal experience. And that’s the choice we face as a society in deciding which human lives we will treat as valuable, and which we will not.

From Archbishop Charles Chaput;  read the whole piece here.

Not much to blog about...my daughter is missing

My daughter, who is bipolar and cognitively impaired, is missing.  She left her school yesterday and we have no idea where she is.  Please pray for her safe return.

Meet Malcolm

I'm sharing this from Pentimento, a fitting post on the day of the March for Life.  Click on the link to read his story.

Mary Cassatt Monday

Children in a Garden

A pain in the neck, offering up a sacrifice and an adoption story

I woke up with a pain in the neck this morning - literally.  I must have turned my head funny, slept weird...whatever.  I woke up with a gigantic muscle knot - you know the kind:  where turning your head is nearly torture.  I took some ibuprofen and headed off to Mass, but it hurt so much I was nearly in tears.

After Communion, I prayed to offer up my pain.  "God, I don't know which one of my friends or family, my co-workers or acquaintances needs help right now, but I'm offering up this pain for that person.  Please use it, in union with that of Christ on the Cross."

Elizabeth Scalia, in an article for First Things, says this:  Far from being a picturesque and nonchalant “there, there” to someone enduring either a minor inconvenience or a larger concern, “offer it up” is powerful theological advice that comes to us directly from scripture. As Paul writes to the Colossians: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church . . .”

Pondering the crucifix, and the immensity of what Christ endured, we wonder what could possibly be ‘lacking’ in his afflictions. But then, gazing upon His outstretched arms, we see an invitation. If we accept that no act in human history can begin to match the power, the healing, the victory and the justice that was achieved in the crucified suffering of Jesus of Nazareth, then attaching our own trials, minor or major though they be, to that still-resonating act of generosity and self-abnegation exposes them to all of the good contained in Christ’s sacrifice, and it assists in the salvation of the world.

When I got home from Mass (we went in "shifts" today), Curly-Haired Daughter told me that her friend C., a fellow high school senior, had gone to the hospital in labor.  C. had decided months ago to make an adoption plan for her baby, and she and the adoptive parents were at the hospital, waiting for a baby boy to make his way into the world.  And I knew that my pain in the neck was assisting, in a very small way, for good.


Today is the sad anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  We remember all the lives lost to abortion, all the women harmed by this desperate procedure and all the men who will never father their child.  We also give great thanks to all the women like C. who made the choice to give the gift of life to their child and adoptive parents.  I'll keep offering up my little pain in the neck;  maybe you have something you can offer up today as well. 

Sleepy Saturday

my own photo

Working on a couple of books, and preparing a talk to my parish high school youth group on the New Roman Missal.  Little nap, curled up with the cat.  All is good.

Thinkin' about Lent

So here we are, about halfway between New Year's Resolutions and Ash Wednesday.  Of course, the goals of these two are not necessarily the same, but they both give us the chance to take stock and move forward on becoming better at what is our most important task:  realizing our fullest potential as God's creation.

It's good to plan for Lent.  It's good to think about what you really need to work on spiritually.  Are you lagging in your prayer life? Has it been a while since you've done any reading for your soul?  Are you spending too much time away from your family due to a hobby or work? 

Remember, Lent isn't about losing weight or simply trying to rid yourself of a bad habit.  Lent is a call to convert (which is never a one time deal, but a lifelong quest for God), and conversion means that we stop in our tracks and assess where we are in relationship to where we want to be, and where God is calling us to be.  Where we want to be (presumably) is in good standing with God, our souls bright, our will in union with His.  Lent offers us the chance to check ourselves:  are we on- or off-track?  Where do we need to adjust?  What needs to change?  What do we need to add, and what do we need to get rid of?

Start thinking about Lent. 

"May knowledge become clearer in us that we may know the breadth of God's blessings, the length of God's promises, the height of God's majesty, the depth of God's judgments." - attributed to St. Francis of Assisi

Parenting "hard children" and making hard decisions

I've had a few conversations in the past week or so with another adoptive mother who is struggling to raise a teen with several severe emotional and psychological issues.  The mother, in our most recent conversation, was trying to come up with a plan for her child, who was expressing suicidal thoughts.

My suggestion to the mother was that she seek hospitalization for her child, get the child medically stabilized, and then call a mental health professional I know personally who treats traumatized children and teens.  The mother was reluctant, as she said her child had "bad side effects" from medication tried before, and she wasn't sure she could "get her teen" to agree to the plan, and didn't think her child would "like" being hospitalized.

My response:  "I am sure it's hard.  You know, chemotherapy has horrible side effects, but if my child had cancer, and I was trying to save her life, that would be the choice I'd make.  You're in this battle to save your child's life.  You'll have to say, 'This is the plan.  It's going to be hard, and you may not like it. I'll be with you every step of the way, though, and it's the plan we're going to make.' "

Dear Husband and I have had to make many (too many!) hard decisions, parenting special needs kids.  Some of those decisions have been universally disliked, but necessary.  There is no fun, let me tell you, in dragging a kid to weekly psychology sessions where someone is holding them accountable for their actions.  It's not any fun to see your child hand-cuffed and let away by a sheriff's deputy.  Making plans around medication schedules is not pleasant.

We do it anyway.

None of these decisions have been lightly or without prayer and strong spiritual guidance.  We also have always wanted to think long-term:  we are raising adults, after all, not children.  What lessons do we want them to learn?  What is most important for them, spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally, in the "long-haul"?  Sometimes that dose of bitter medicine in the here-and-now will relieve them of dire and deadly consequences down the road. 

We know, as Catholics, that we must discipline ourselves spiritually in order to grow closer to God.  We fast, we pray, we take part in the Sacraments.  We want to sleep in on Sunday:  we go to Mass anyway.  We want to indulge in just "one more drink": we choose a bottle of water instead.  We turn down an invitation to go out with a friend or colleague because we sense it might lead to an improper situation.  We give up the fun, we postpone a gratification, we do the hard, and we make progress.

That is what parenting the "hard" kids is about.  (Oh, for Heaven's sake, it's not all gloom and doom: we laugh and play, too!)  We know there are harsh side effects, but we choose the medication anyway, knowing that our child requires it.  It's a matter of life and death, health and sickness, good and evil.  And we pray to Almighty God for guidance, because more than anyone, He has our child's best interest in His heart.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

on your own intelligence do not rely;

In all your ways be mindful of him,

and he will make straight your paths.

Do not be wise in your own eyes,

fear the LORD and turn away from evil;

This will mean health for your flesh

and vigor for your bones. -Proverbs 3:5-8

3 Good Things Thursday

1.  Just can't figure out how to put together a decent wardrobe that suits your lifestyle and budget?  The answer may just be Betty Beguile's e-book, "Dressing With Intention".  Really, I shared it with a friend struggling with this, and it  helped her figure things out.  Click on the link to see how to get yours!

2.  Be still my geeky heart!  The Vatican Insider offers the "Vatican, A to Z", a glossary of Catholic terms.

3.  Awkward Family Photos...it's nice to know everybody's family is crazy. 

Blurring the lines between humanity and technology

Truly fascinating study from Latitude about  how kids view technology, particularly robots.  Kids tend to see robots in a very human way.  They see robots as helpful, fun, and as having personality.  Take a moment to look at the study;  I think it's very telling about how technology has affected the way we see machines.

Vatican news site: have you visited?

 

Vatican News site - English

Since June of 2011, the Vatican has had a new website for their news agency.  Have you visited?  It's quite good, well-laid out, and thorough.

Biblical Illumination

Donald Jackson, illuminator

From the St. John's Bible - the first days of creation.

Martyrdom and Christianity

Found these cool graphics at Christianity Today's "Imago Fidei" site and thought I'd share:

Total Rip-off Tuesday

Where-in I "rip-off" another blog post, writer, or artist on the web - giving due credit, of course!  Today's choice:  a boxing champion changes his life, based on a dream...from the Vatican Insider:

For once it was him who was knocked out, but this time it was a dream that threw him to the ground. Manny Pacquiao is the first boxer in history to have won ten world titles in eight different boxing weight divisions. Pacman, as his numerous fans call him, has crushed many adversaries, breaking a number of records, including that of best paid sportsman in the world, with an annual income of 32 million dollars.

But what knocked the 33 year old Filipino boxer and politician (who in 2010 was elected as MP for the Province of Sarangani) to the ground was not another man, but a dream. A dream which, as he himself stated on the Philippine website ABS-CBN News, led him to turn his life around. Pacman has stopped gambling, drinking and womanizing and even declared that he has given up his favouring fighting cocks.

His reason for doing this is this: He had a dream about God. “If I had died last year or two years ago – the boxer said in a statement – I am sure I would have gone directly to hell.” The “vision” came to him one night last November, after his final combat with Mexican colleague Juan Manuel Marquez. “I was in a beautiful forest – he said – when a blinding light illuminated me and I heard a voice say: “My child, why are you moving away from me?” I woke up in tears.”

From that day on he started reading the Bible and says he found the answers to the dream he had had, in there: “In the past, God spoke to his people through dreams. So I really became convinced that the time had come for me to change my life. But I did not just change because I wanted to, but because God wanted me to. Being Christian means recognizing Christ as your saviour. Without Christ I would be nothing.”