Turquoised and Theologied Out

Joining Moxie Wife for Five Favorites. Thank you, Hallie for hosting.

1.  Seashell Box

Wish I could brag that I made it or tell you where to get it, but I found this one of a kind turquoise box embellished with shell art at an arts an craft fair. Even the reluctant shopper in me knew it was the perfect box to hold my shell rosary.

2.  Candles

Bottomless. So I can't tell if it's made by Ming in China, Vicky

At the same fair, I bought a votive candle-holder crafted out of beads and cut wine glass.  We use it during the rosary since lighting candles highlights a visual aspect of sending petitions up to heaven. Just love that  heavenly smell, reminding me of Church candles where the kids and I splurge all our quarters. Reluctant shopper no more!

3.  Skirt

Since turquoise/aqua seems to be a running theme here, I got some fabric and sewed my first skirt, using another skirt as pattern (cause I’m just foolishly ambitious like that).  I can’t decide what was worse:  the fact that I couldn’t get it up past my hips or when my husband said, “Honey, where were you planning on hanging those curtains?” Nevertheless, THIS will go down in my wardrobe history as my favorite skirt of all time:

Sooo not a window treatment.

4.  May Crowning

Uhh yes it has an element of turquoise. Just look at her sash.

Our favorite May tradition is the crowning of Our Lady.  We sing a Marian song and renew our consecration.  This year, our domestic Church was thrilled as a bungee jumping bean because school ended (yay!) and our big event coincided with the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima, when Pope Francis consecrated his papacy to Our Lady.  (P.S. Did anyone see that FB/Pinterest Meme about favorite Madonna songs?  Tee hee.)

5. Tablet aqua cover +Bloglovin App + Catholic Spirituality Blog network

Forget about those tablet covers that cost an arm and a leg at the retail stores. Amazon sold mine for $7.99.  And you know what’s so great about the tablet? It's the Bloglovin’ app to read my newest favorite blog.  Connie had a streak of genius there when she gathered together like-minded writers who help me in my prayer life and walk along on the difficult journey of sanctification.   If you are theologied out like me (way way way too many required Theology classes with academic focus on faith is never a good idea for a non-intellectual), or avoid posts that reduce Catholicism to political and rubric rants, you’ll love the assorted articles and writers of www.catholicspiritualityblogs.blogspot.com

Did I turquoise you out yet? I'll try pink next time around, Mary.

How we survived the F4 Tonrado (Revisited)

As I pray for people of Moore especially the heartbroken parents, I remember our own F4 tornado two years ago, and repost my article on how we survived THIS...

Baptist Church made of brick downtown.

Two storey cement home.

One of the few structures left.  Everything else was leveled.

The view from our backyard...

If you’ve ever seen a tornado make the inevitable approach to your backyard, you’ll know what a deer facing headlights must feel like.  But of course, you won’t be thinking about deer or headlights at that moment. You will think: “Lord, have mercy on us! Our Lady protect us!”

At 3:00 PM on April 12, 2011, the hour of Divine Mercy, when my girls and I stepped inside our storm shelter, the only prayer that was on our lips was the Divine Mercy Chaplet. The lights fizzed and blacked out, interrupting our prayers, and letting us know without inky words, that the tornado was on us.  I expected to hear a train rambling through the walls or the crashing wreck of a roof, but all was quiet –not even the children stirred.

In the darkness, we resumed pleading: “For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world” and closed with the Memorare to Our Lady.  When we finished, we cracked the door open and peeked out.

No furniture out of place, no shard of broken glass, no shingle unhinged.  Outside, a sturdy tree hung over our neighbor’s electric pole; several other trees trashed a handful of other houses; and more downed trees demolished barns and chicken coops.   Behind us, a neighbor’s fence had been blown off  into who knows where.   Later, we learned two people died down the street.

We lost fifteen trees to the storm, the most prominent one being our beloved thirty-foot picnic tree.  The high-tail winds had uprooted it’s thick, gnarled roots and toppled it over.  But the two-foot statue of Our Lady of Lourdes that stood next to it remained untouched, unfazed, as peaceful as ever with her hands folded in prayer and eyes still fixed on heaven.  (I took my camera out and posted a photo on FB to tell my friends and family  we were alright and exactly who looked out for us that day.)

Our Lady of Tornado Alley

There were many stories exchanged about D-day on Cullman Alabama but my favorite was one told by our brick-layer, who witnessed that storm when it passed over our neighborhood. “There were three fingers poking out of that black cloud,”  he said. “Then the three fingers lifted off the ground and disappeared into the cloud overhead.  It moved forward and suddenly, one huge funnel dropped on the ground.”

  When I surveyed that F-4’s wake, I could tell where the funnel crash-landed… a wooded area five houses down from us where twisted trees and a metal bridge were knocked out like broken teeth in the aftermath.

Our Catholic Church downtown  stands as a miraculous testimony to divine protection as it is the only church among the sea of Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist Churches that did not suffer from any damage whatsoever.  Nearby, the monks in the Abby said they saw the tornado headed their way but at the last minute, it turned.  I have two words for my theory why both Catholic Churches were spared:  the Blessed Sacrament.

Gratitude, amazement, awe… all these emotions sweep you up when you are thisclose to losing everyone you love and everything you have. And when you encounter others who lost all they had and those they love, your heart can’t help but be moved to share, to comfort, to help, to pray and to wonder: why them and not me?

Then you realize it's never about them or me.  It's all about her.

When we consecrate ourselves to Our Lord through Our Lady, we become hers and she guards us with her mantle as her people, her property and possession.  But far more valuable than bodily and earthly protection, consecration also comes with the promise that when we walk through the valley of death we will fear no evil for Our Lady will guide our souls safely on the path to heaven to her Son’s kingdom.   Even past tornado alleys.

Barn down. Chickens on the loose!

She Told Us So...

Hell froze over when I chopped off my hair for the official mom’s haircut. (My husband’s smile froze, too.) Then pigs started flying when I left my career to stay home full time and when my husband decided to forego the L.A. Lakers game in order to say the family rosary each night.  All these combined earth-shattering events on the twelfth of never inevitably led me to one life-defining moment: Mamas know best.

The approximate time I acceded that my mama knew best was about the time I realized that Holy Mother Church’s dogmatic teachings on faith and morals are infallible.   Both were spot on on the importance of Eucharistic devotion, the virtue of chastity and modesty, the sin of contraception, the error of gay marriage, the atrocity of abortion, the lunacy of euthanasia.  “The Church is Mother and talks to the people as a mother talks to her child, with that confidence that the child already knows that everything he is being taught is for his good, because he knows he is loved,” Pope Francis said.

All along, Catholic mother and Catholic Church were right even though I’d been swayed by Hollywood on political opinions, relied on friends and acquaintances for decisions, or mingled with the neither here nor there mass of Cafeteria Catholics. I can almost hear my mom’s sing-song voice inside my head, “I told you so.”

Read the rest on Catholic Stand.

Pope Francis Quotes

If Sue will forgive me, I must mention another book:

"Pope Francis in his own words" contains wise words of Pope Francis himself. If, like me, you are hungry for Pope Francis’ thoughts and advice on a wide range of spiritual and political topics, the book is a great resource.  I’ll quote a few of my favorites here:

1.   “The fact that a woman can’t be a priest doesn’t mean that she is less than a man…it’s more.  In our conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary is above the apostles.”  (The last line was not in the book but was what followed in the full text.)

2.  “God is not like the idols, who have ears but don’t listen.  He’s not like the powerful, who listen only to what they wish.  He listens to everything…and He doesn’t just listen; He loves to listen.”

3.  “My parents first met in 1934 at Mass... they were married the following year.”

4.  “We should commit ourselves to “Eucharistic coherence”; that is, we should be conscious that people cannot receive Holy Communion and at the same time act or speak against the commandments, in particular when abortions, euthanasia, and other serious crimes against life and family are facilitated. This responsibility applies particularly to legislators, governors and health professionals.”

     A WORD OF CAUTION: I think there were brief quotes on certain topics like birth control, Eastern religion and homosexual unions that were taken out of context but since I cannot access the original documents, I’m going to quote the full text of Pope Francis’ letter to contemplative monasteries regarding homosexual unions (which was surprisingly not contained in the book):

5.  “In the coming weeks, the Argentine people will face a situation whose outcome can seriously harm the family…At stake is the identity and survival of the family: father, mother and children. At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance, and deprived of their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God. At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts.  Let us not be naive: this is not simply a political struggle, but it is an attempt to destroy God’s plan. It is not just a bill (a mere instrument) but a ‘move’ of the father of lies who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.”

   If you are looking for more quotable quotes to reflect on and are a discerning reader who is not in danger of being swayed on Church teachings, this book contains gems.  But it barely skimmed the surface of who our new pope really is.  I am craving for more.  Has anyone read his biography “On Heaven and Earth” yet?  Would you recommend it?

Saved By a Hail Mary

During my Lenten retreat, I made a commitment to pray the rosary 3 times a day.  That’s nothing compared to Imaculee Ilibagiza’s 27 rosaries a day, but it isn’t easy nonetheless.

More often than not, I get interrupted with cleaning up unscheduled juice spills or breaking up screaming catfights that I forget where I left off, so I have to start the decade all over again.  Other times, I realize I’ve just mouthed off one “Our Father” and proceeded to several “For the Sake of His sorrowful passion…” from the Chaplet of Divine Mercy Chaplet before I realize what’s going on.  And still, there are those moments when I just prayed a “Hail Mary” to the clock while thinking I had better get to the meatball soup if I am to have it ready for dinner.

These things distress me and I honestly begin to second guess myself about the promise I made.  Do I really want to keep reducing my rosaries to mere lip service?  Maybe I should stop and just focus on a single “Hail Mary” that I can pray with my heart.

Courtesy www.stainedglassinc.com

But then I remember a true story my cousin told me.  Her husband’s Jewish mother was three years old during the Holocaust. Their family had been hiding from the searching Nazi’s but somehow the child had wandered off in full view of the soldiers.  The Nazi’s approached the child and as was normal practice, ferreted out suspected Jews by a simple test.   They demanded that the child say a “Hail Mary.”  Fortunately, the child had been taught by her parents for situations such as these, so she spouted off an entire “Hail Mary” as any Catholic girl would.

            They let her go.  Literally, her life was saved by a “Hail Mary.”

            When I think of this, I know that child of 3 could not have possibly understood each and every word she uttered and yet Our Lady protected her. 

            Fr. Gabriel Amorth, the Chief Exorcist of the Vatican once said that his colleague performing an exorcism heard from the devil, “Every Hail Mary is like a blow to my head. If Christians knew the power of the rosary was, it would be my end.” So, if I put two and two together, then I can guess that the very thing who knows how powerful a rosary is, is the very thing who wants me to stop saying it.

On the heels of that, I tell myself:  “Sister, just keep praying the three rosaries and try to mean every single word. There should be at least one priceless Hail Mary in there somewhere. And as for the prayers that somehow slip your consciousness, may Our Lady accept the love that initially motivated you to make that commitment and in trying to live it out every day.” 

            Now tell me the truth my friends: does that sound reasonable to you?  Would Our Lady still protect a distracted child and her distracting children?  I hope so.

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