This is too funny!

I could not resist posting this video. Hilarious and, sadly for the progressivists, true.

Vocation gift

Our friend Rose recently discerned her vocation to religious life, having always dreamed of getting married and having kids. Her story is amazing. God clearly has chosen her and called her to serve Him in vows. She was named after Rose of Lima (read about the saint here), and entered into her budding order (not yet fully approved) on the Feast of St. Rose of Lima. Again, her story is just too amazing and powerful to not take note of here. We chose to give her a gorgeous hand-painted image of St. Rose of Lima that I purchased when in Peru this past spring. She should have this in the convent. Thanks be to God for His love and making Himself known to us through prayer and fidelity. He has been good to Rose by clearly revealing Himself and His plan to her, and now it is her turn to serve His Church.

DEO GRATIAS MAXIMAS!
Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us.

Grandma Elaine...

Faustina Elaine was named after not only the famous St. Faustina, but also after my mother, Elaine, who passed away June 22nd, 2003.

Today would have been her 55th birthday...
I remembered her today in prayer and I brought her to the altar at mass.

I think I have dealt with (or tried to deal with) her death as well as one can (certainly there are moments), but the hardest thing for me, I think, is the fact that she cannot share joyous moments with Cynthia and I (and the little ones too, of course). I mean, selfishly, I cannot experience events and times in life where I know her joy would have augmented the sheer pleasure of my own life. Yes, I know that her being here, as all that she was - full of life -, would make those precious moments even more so. Yet I must confess, I appreciate and love my mother better now than I ever did when she was alive, but I suppose we all do that- not appreciate what we have until it's gone.

Yet I trust and have hope in the Lord's mercy. I have always thought that my mother was a good woman, and that her suffering was redemptive not only for the sake of her own salvation but for mine and our family in general. (But back to me again - because this reflection on her is really all about me!)

A friend and colleague of mine at Trinity offered a profoundly wise week of morning prayer reflections at school: he pointed out that the life of our Lord, Jesus Christ can be likened to a Greek tragedy. Now of course, tragedy has to be defined carefully; a tragedy is different from catastrophe. Both are hard and cause pain, but a tragedy has a redemptive element to it, whereas catastrophe is simply destructive. And so if Christ's life is the 'perfect' tragedy, and we are called to imitate Him, then we must not only follow Him as admirers but also carry our cross of suffering. We must embrace both the triumph and the tragedy of our Lord - we must be transfigured by His magnificence and His liberating, beatific love while simultaneously offering ourselves to be crucified in a world that St. Paul says is fundamentally passing away.

I wish I had the text of what he wrote... it was one of the most profound yet clear explanations of human suffering and our challenging call to beatitude I have ever heard. Kudos to Scott.

I bring this in because I firmly believe in God's providence, and I see my Mom's suffering coincide with my 'transfiguration', my true conversion. Only through this could I embrace the cross too.

As my wife, brother, and sister-in-law know best, I am a completely different man than I was even 5 or 6 years ago; I still am a great sinner, but my life is no longer oriented toward me, myself, and I (I know... I still need work); it is oriented toward the Lord; I possess faith, that great grace from God. So, because of this, I long for her to see me as I am now, a son of hers who deeply appreciates her and wants to actually share life with her (rather than shut her out and be unappreciative) and tell her about my day and my passion to share the good news. I want to see her call Granny and talk about nothing for an hour and laugh to myself. I want to see her pick up Faustina and grin at her and tickle her and care for her. I want to see her talk with Cynthia and share her life, and look through old photo albums, and cook Thanksgiving dinner together. I want her to look at me and be proud of who I am and what I've done... well, she always did that... but I want her to actually have something to be proud of rather than just loving me so much for being her son (yeah, she loved us all that much- she was a jealous Mom, kind of like how Yahweh was a jealous God in the Old Testament- we were all everthing to her: Dad, Kim, Jason, Granny, and me).

So, with that babbling, I praise the Holy Trinity for my Mother who remained faithful to the Lord and the Church (as much as she knew how in such a troubled era), and I thank God; and I offer my intercession for the repose of her soul, and I know I can also, through Christ, beseech her to look after us and intercede for us as we struggle on the journey to be saints, knowing that if she could she would - and would have already.

Amen.

= = = = = = = =

My lovely sister-in-law, Annamarie, offered this reflection today as well:

It would have been my mother-in-law’s 55th birthday today. Dear Husband and the boys marked the occasion by going to Mass together and praying for her (while I was bedridden).

As Booger gets older, I am more determined for him to know and remember that he does have another grandmother — one that he has never met, unfortunately.

About a week ago, the boys and I were driving around between errands when I realized how close we were to the cemetery where Elaine is buried, and how long it had been since I’ve gone there.

I also realized that this would be the first time our coherent eldest would be visiting her grave, though he’s gone plenty of times as a baby and toddler.

How interesting it was to have a discussion with Boo Boo about where we were and what we were doing. When we got to the mausoleum and I showed him her grave (which is conveniently located on the lowest level, so the boys can see it easily), he put his eyes up to the marble stone and said, “Why can’t I see her in there?” His curiosity and innocence helped lighten the mood a little, at least.

I had the boys kneel next to me and began to pray out loud. We all were a little surprised when I started crying. It really had been a long time since Elaine had died, and we’ve had to go on without her, but the thought that she would never meet and see our children — and DH’s brother’s children — in this life still overwhelms me with grief from time to time.

“It will be OK, Mama,” Boo Boo said, patting my shoulder. He’s right. I do have to trust that it will be OK, someday, and pray for our reunion in the next life. Then we’ll have all the time in eternity with each other…

St. Augustine 1,700 years later!?

Last night Mike, Faustina and I had a long car ride so I popped in one of the 'Lighthouse Catholic Media' cd's that we get in the mail each month. I have come to look forward to seeing who the speaker is and listening to the talk; often I view the time as a mini little retreat. The speakers are people like Mother Teresa, Father Corapi, Scott Hahn, Jeff Cavins, and other inspiring, bright individuals.

The title of this cd is 'The Power of a Mother's Prayer' by Father Isaac Reylea. This guy was absolutely unbelievable. He was Rocky Balboa from Philly with the deep voice, the slur, the lingo, everything was Sylvester Stallone's character from the Rocky series. Not only did he sound like Rocky, but he also had a similar life. He was a street fighter; he was a 'good' person, but he quickly earned the reputation of someone you did not want to mess with. From the cd he seemed to be a person you just had to like, a regular guy with quite an amazing testimony.

He grew up in a Catholic family with 5 siblings, his father who only converted to Catholicism at the end of his life died when Isaac was 20, and his mother who was the rock of his life was incredibly devoted to the Church and to Mary. Isaac was an altar boy, prayed the rosary every evening with his family, went to daily mass with his mother, and at the age of 5 the Lord planted a seed of desire in him to be a priest.

Well, similar to St. Augustine, Isaac spent the next 17 years saying 'no' to God. He was very successful in the (shady) business world, he was a well-known street fighter, he almost became part of the mafia (the only thing that kept him away was the thought of disgracing his mother), he loved women, he was a very popular man with everything going for him. But above all, he had a deep love for his mom. He took her out to eat, to her to plays, visited her often and was able to conceal his more shameful deeds from her and the rest of the family.

When he was 25 years old his mother had him over for dinner along with an older woman Barbara who was a mystic. At the end of the meal Isaac's mother begged him to let Barbara pray over him. Thoroughly annoyed, Isaac gave in and told the woman to make it quick. Well, this mystic revealed things about Isaac's childhood that absolutely no one but he could possibly know. Barbara's insights had him shaking in his chair but he was able to keep his cool front. At the end Barbara said she had a message from God: God wanted Isaac to be his priest. Isaac's response was "Tell God to forget it. And you are a sick lady."

Five years later, God moved in Isaac's life and he surrendered. A man witnessed to him at work and invited him to a "Life in the Spirit" meeting. It took Isaac awhile, but the Lord slowly wooed him. He gave up his worldly life, instead of holding a supervisor position he was down the ranks (since previously his hands were in dirty business), he started going to prayer meetings, and his life turned around. After his first prayer meeting he went to his Mom's house in the middle of the night. Then he stayed up all night praying and reading the Bible. At one point he went to Fatima and was discerning the vocation of priesthood. He asked for very clear signs. For the next three days, while he was dressed in lay people's clothes the whole time, dozens of people kept coming up to him and assumed he was a priest asking him questions, asking him if he could hear their Confession! He was amazed. Isaac told Mary he would apply to the priesthood; at the same time he was not worried about having to become a priest because he was sure he would not be accepted due to his sinful past. Well, of course, he was accepted. He tracked down the mystic Barbara and she said she had been waiting for his phone call. She didn't know how many years it would take, but she was expecting to hear from him.

The second half of his testimony was about the faithfulness of his mother. When Isaac told his mother, Anne, that he was becoming a priest she told him that she had consecrated him to the Blessed Virgin Mary when he was in her womb. His mother became ill and she suffered terribly for 6 years in and out of the hospital. But she continued to be a witness as she constantly had a rosary in her hand and befriended hospital staff. She continued to pray for her other children and she told Isaac that this was her call: To suffer for the sake of others' souls. She told her son that she prayed everyday to do the Lord's will, not her own. Toward the end, she was unable to pray and was deeply saddened, but Isaac reminded her that she was now on the cross like Christ, and that was the greatest prayer of all. In her suffering, like Christ's, she would witness to her family and she was suffering for their sake.

Father Isaac ended his talk with the message that we all need to pray incessantly and as Christians we need to be willing to suffer for others. He admonished to never give up praying for others who we care about, no matter how they have fallen from grace or faith (he and his mother, like St. Augustine and his mother, Monica, are great witnesses of this); he reminded listeners Mary's message to St. Lucia at Fatima: that people go to hell because there is not one to pray for them. We need to consecrate ourselves to the immaculate heart of Mary and offer ourselves up for others in the imitation of Christ, our Lord and Savior.

It was a wonderful story. You have to hear him for yourself because he tells it very well.

Check it out.

Here's a link to his Lent retreats (audio).