Happy Feast of St. Anthony

I know it is a bit late in the day for me to be posting this one, but I figure better late than never. Today is the Feast of St. Anthony - one of my favorite saints. He is the patron saint of lost souls and lost items, and honestly, he generally helps me find something (often one of the kids' toys that they have lost and desperately need to find!) on an almost daily basis. I don't know what I would do without him. It's nice to know that the saints are in heaven and are always ready to help us, even with the mundane things like finding lost toys!

Book Review: So Happy Together

So Happy Together


by MaryAnn McFadden

New York: Hyperion Books, 2009




Claire Nobel is a member of the “sandwich” generation. She is in her forties, responsible for caring for her aging parents as well as being the parent of an adult daughter who is not speaking to her. Having taken care of every one else for most of her life, she is planning on (finally!) claiming her life for herself. She is engaged to be married, planning on pursuing her love of photography at a workshop on Cape Cod, and looking forward to moving across the country. When Claire’s daughter Amy shows up and gives birth unexpectedly, a huge wrench is thrown her plans. Thus begins “So Happy Together” by MaryAnn McFadden, a story many women will be able to appreciate and relate to.

McFadden not only deftly tells the story of Claire, but also that of her parents and her daughter. Three generations dealing with life at three different stages are each forced to discover new truths about themselves and about each other. “So Happy Together” is about the ties that truly bind and what it means to be a family. It is also about finding love at unexpected times and places. As the description on the back of the book states, “when you’re a mother, or a daughter, you’re never truly free.” Nor, perhaps, would we want to be.

The only caveat I would offer for Catholic readers is that Claire's mother Fanny was raised Catholic but now dabbles in Buddhism. Nevertheless, “So Happy Together” is a very pleasant read. I highly recommend it.

Words DO Hurt

Dionna Sanchez has a very insightful post on the Inner Fulfillment Blog:

Words DO Hurt talking about how important the words that we use with our children are.

The Holy Spirit Speaks Through the Darkness

It never ceases to amaze me how the Holy Spirit can speak to us if only we are open to it. We might open a book and find just the passage we need to answer a question that has been bothering us or a friend might call at the monent when life is falling apart and offer the encouragement that is desperately needed. Somehow, God provides what we need when we need it. As a former spiritual director of mine was fond of saying, “There are no coincidences, only God-incidences.” I had an experience like that just this past week.

Wednesday morning, I had the strong feeling that I should go to morning Mass. It was 7:50 a.m. My local Church has an 8:15 mass. My children were occupied and my husband was home so I could go; I hadn’t eaten yet so I knew I could go to communion. There was nothing standing in my way, so I decided to heed the call and go. The first reading was from the book of Tobit (Tobit 3:1-11). It told the story of two people begging for death. The first was Tobit who had been blind for four years. He felt like a burden to his family. As Tobit states, “be pleased to take my life from me; so that I may be delivered from earth and become earth again. Better death than life for me, for I have endured groundless insult and am in deepest sorrow.” The second suffering soul was Sarah. She had been married seven times, yet each time her husband died before the marriage could be consummated. For this, she was taunted by her father’s serving girls. She decided that life was no longer worth living. She made the decision to hang herself, but then she thought better of it, knowing that such an action would only bring shame to her father. She decides, “I should do better not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord to let me die and not live to hear any more insults.” Ultimately, the Lord would take pity on both Tobit, who would eventually be healed of his blindness, and Sarah, who would be married to Tobias and live happily with him for many years.

The homily that morning focused on trusting in God even in our darkest hour, trusting that God has a plan that will come to fruition in God’s time, not ours. This was a message I desperately needed to hear. Yes, it is something that I am well aware of, but sometimes one does need a reminder. Both Tobit and Sarah had good reasons for feeling discouraged. As someone who has suffered from depression for over twenty years, discouragement often seems like my constant companion and darkness often prevails. I can be fine for a while, and then I will wake up one morning and feel like I was hit by a two by four during the night. It is like a dark curtain has fallen and life seems meaningless. Anyone who thinks that people choose to be depressed has never truly experienced depression. I have been in that place where I have begged for death more times than I care to admit. As a teenager, I was suicidal. Only my fear of hell kept me alive. As an adult, I have more perspective. I know the curtain will eventually lift, although sometimes it can take months. I have learned how to function in spite of my feelings so that even those closest to me are unaware of what I am going through. Only my faith carries me through until the light eventually comes again. Yes, I know what it is to suffer in the darkness and throw myself on God’s mercy. This message of trusting in God was one that I needed to be reminded of. I need to believe that God has a plan. The Holy Spirit reached out and spoke to me through the darkness. For that, I am incredibly grateful.

Two Pro Life Items

Here are two pro-life items I would like to share with you. The first comes courtesy of the Massachusetts Citizens for Life. There was an article on responding to people who make blatantly anti-life statements in one's presence. It gave the following tip on how to respond: "Babies aren't responsible for the crimes or the mistakes of their parents." That is such an important thing to remember.

The second item is this video by Jamie Thietten of her song "My Chance"

Novena to St. Therese

O Little Therese of the Child Jesus,
Please pick a rose for me
From the heavenly gardens
And send it to me
As a message of love.

O little flower of Jesus,
Ask God today to grant the favors
I now place with confidence
In your hands.

(Mention specific requests)

St. Therese,
help me to always believe,
As you did,
In God’s great love for me,
So that I might imitate your
“Little Way” each day.

Amen

Six Ways to teach your children the faith

Handing on the faith to our children can be a challenge. This article by Catherine O'Connell-Cahill offers really good suggestions on how to do just that:

Six Ways to Teach Your Children the Faith