The Real Meaning Behind Palm Sunday

How I Spent My Palm Sunday.....

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, the kick-off to Holy Week, and sadly I had to spend it at home. I woke up yesterday morning with a full-blown case of strep throat. I was so frustrated over being sick this time as I knew I was going to miss Palm Sunday Mass (which happens to be a favorite of mine growing up) and I also had planned a fun little dinner for some friends yesterday evening, but I had to cancel that as well.

I must say I have only ever missed Mass on Sunday morning once before, but that was when we were on vacation and I can't remember exactly why we didn't make it that Sunday... maybe the church was way too far. I just can't recall. This time was different as I had just went to confession the day before and so I was just pumped for starting this Holy Week on a great start. It was hard to watch the rest of my family leave while I was laying on the couch and was in so much pain I could only mouth what I wanted to say. So as everyone in my family each went on their way to Mass I stayed home and prayed the Rosary, read the Mass readings, and just prayed more than I usually do when I end up sick. I was still sad that I missed out on Mass I decided I would offer up my really sore throat for the souls in purgatory. I know God allowed me to become sick for some reason yesterday, and I am sure I will understand why eventually even if I don't really at the moment.

"Circle me, Lord..."

Circle me, Lord.
Keep protection near
And danger afar.

Circle me, Lord
Keep hope within.
Keep doubt without.

Circle me, Lord.
Keep light near
And darkness afar.

Circle me, Lord.
Keep peace within.
Keep evil out.

Amen.

The above prayer was shared today during the homily of our pastor's last week-end here. It was a very moving homily and I must admit I did tear up a bit from it. Father Bill brought a whole lot to our parish and he became very important to my family. The most touching part of the Mass with him was how I could see he was crying a little bit while waiting for the gifts to come down the aisle. It was easy to see that as much as he meant to us the parish did mean a whole lot to him as well. What he taught us will be remembered as we welcome our new priest. Change is not easy, but with the right attitude it can be the beginning of a good thing. My family still intends to visit Father often and will be kept close at heart. :)

7 Deadly Sins/ 7 Contrary Virtues

Today during the homily at Mass father focused mainly on how we all have bad habits which we need to work on. He talked about how we can only overcome these bad habits through an active relationship with God. The thing about bad habits is how they show us how we will always need help from God through our whole life. He then talked a bit on the seven deadly sins and how we all battle with these in our own ways. It is a good thing we have the virtues to pray for growth in to help us out with the struggles of our daily lives. Virtues are always a work in progress. It is not something you are born with, or once you think you have it you always will. No, virtues are something that must be practiced, but we can only really practice them to the best of our ability with the grace of God. So here is a little bit more about the deadly sins and some virtues that correspond with them.

Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity. (pray for the virtue of Humility to overcome this sin)

Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation. (Pray for the virtue of kindness to overcome this sin)

Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires. (pray for the virtue of abstinence to overcome this sin)

Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body. (pray for the virtue of chastity to overcome this sin)

Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath. (pray for the virtue of patience to overcome this sin)

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness. (pray for the virtue of liberality to overcome this sin)

Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work. (pray for the virtue of diligence to overcome this sin)

“A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles”

I know I have been M.I.A. for sometime now. I have been incredibly busy with preparing for my March for Life trip and then being away for it that I have not had much free time to blog. In fact, I just got home a little while ago and am very tired, which is why this entry will be pretty short. I am only going to list the highlights from my trip and then later on I will come back and go into more detail because there is a lot to say.

My Favorite Moments From The Trip

The road trip to and from with one of my very best friends, Mike Keucher, and another new friend John Kimwando. We had way too many good laughs and conversations that I cannot go into detail here, but they helped make a great beginning and ending to this pilgrimage. :)

Seeing my good friend Jess and spending time with her and her family. They were kind enough to open their home to twelve energetic and fun people and I am very grateful for that. It is because of this fact I was really able to attend the March at all.

Sightseeing around d.c. Sunday afternoon was great times with the whole group.

Attempting to play "pretend" with some friends while looking at the air and space museum.

Going to the National Basillica in d.c. for the vigil Mass.

While at the National Basillica part of my group ended up with AMAZING seats. We could see everything. It was wonderful. I guess after four times, by the fifth you kinda know exactly how it works.

Being able to take a picture of Newt Gingrich, who sat just a few rows behind us. He even waved at me and posed for the picture. :)

Ending up sitting across from a group of people during the vigil Mass who know my friend Liz. She was supposed to come with our group, but changed her mind. Anyway as I figured out these people knew her she was on the phone with one of them at that exact moment. I got to talk to her on their cell phone. It was really cool how it happened.

Apparently my mom told me I ended up being on E.W.T.N. as I was walking away from receiving communion. I have never been on t.v. or in the newspaper before, so that was kind of cool too.

After Mass we went on the metro and most of the group on our car broke out singing in Latin. Only with a large group of Catholic people would that EVER happen.

The March itself was HUGE!!!! We ended up being towards the very back of the line so we stood there for hours and hours before we actually began to move.

While waiting to march I had a lot of fun with my sister having staring contests and playing 20 questions. It was some fun sister bonding... I had fun with my other group members, but I enjoyed hanging-out with her the most at that time. :)

After the march my "car" group ended up going separate ways and walked and walked and walked and walked to find a less crowded metro station. Got my work-out in. :)

Eating dinner with my friend's family while enjoying a couple of beers. It was good times.

Enjoying spending time with the WHOLE group after dinner laughing in the living room. Some of us played euchre, some of us were messing on our phones, some of us were getting back masages, some of us were doing homework ... but we were all enjoying each other's company. That was my favorite part of the trip.

I would have loved to post pictures of a lot of these things, but sadly and strangely somehow they got deleted. I really am not sure how it happened, but it was kind of sad. It happens though, and I am sure I will find pictures from other members in the group, so all is not lost. :)

And now I am going to go relax a bit. Even though this may seem like a long post, really it is not long at all. I will be posting more, as I said earlier. :)

The title of this post best says how I feel about my trip... "A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles."

Vocations Awareness Week 2011

This week happens to be Vocations Awareness Week.... So I have found this great video about ways to discern your vocation...

"We Are Family!"

Yesterday was the Feast of the Holy Family. Father gave a wonderful homily about families. God planned out who our families would be from the beginning. He gave them to us. They help lay the foundation of who we are.

Families are amazing! They are the ones that know more than anyone else how to bring us back up when we are down. They are there when we need a shoulder to cry on. They are there for the celebrations in our lives. It is the members of our family who we feel most comfortable being our true selves. It is the main reason we take them for granted...We assume our parents, siblings, and relatives will be there for us no matter what. Through thick and thin. That is why it is so easy to feel the worst betrayal when someone in our family does something that hurts us, yet seems to me so much easier to forgive them because they are family. Like the old saying, "blood is thicker than water." In many ways this is true.

Yes, every family is not perfect. Each family is dysfunctional. Each family has their own share of family secrets that no one other than family is supposed to know about. I think with that being said the ones who are not dysfunctional are probably the really strange ones.
I must say that my family truly is special. We are one of a kind. I am so happy I live so close to not only my immediate family, but also my Aunt, Uncle, and a nice amount of my cousins as well.

This Christmas I spent it with the people I just mentioned. We usually come together on Christmas Eve, but due to some changes we celebrated on Christmas day this year. We have a nice pitch-in dinner and then open gifts together. Us cousins tend to spend a lot of time together playing cards, the family favorite tends to always end up being spoons (which is what we are playing in the few pictures below). Spoons happens to be taken very seriously in this family. There have been years when blood has been drawn by someone's fingernails while in the scramble of grabbing a spoon. I remember one year my brother got pulled out of his chair while fighting for the last spoon on the table. Violent, but so much fun!

I should mention that the craziness in my family is not all caused by the people in it, but also our four-legged pets. You see, my family is in fact very much a dog family. There is no telling how many dogs will show-up at a family function. Usually anywhere up to seven... some little and some not so little. The dog in the first picture is the newest addition to our family. Her name is Peyton, named after none other than Peyton Manning. Yes, my family is also a Colt's family.

As crazy as I find my family at times, I would not want them any other way. They each have a spot in my heart, and I love them dearly!!!

Christmas Around The World

This past month it has been Christmas crazy at work. It is the most fun month for us teachers to plan. This year I decided to put some geography into my Christmas lesson plans. We talked about how Catholics/Christians celebrate Christmas around the world. We also talked about how the guy we call Santa Clause here is known by different names in other countries. It was so much fun! I would pull the world globe out and show the kids which country we would talk about that day. Throughout this month I have been really happy to hear them still saying the names of different countries... Venezuela, Ghana, Japan, France, Mexico, England, Russia, so forth and so on. They will still come up to me to hear why St. Nick is called St. Nick. Why Grandfather Frost got his name. The parents would come up to me and tell me how their child talked about Christmas in the different countries sound like fun. I felt like taking a risk with these two themes because they are a little bit more advanced than for 2 and 3 year old kids, but they rose to the challenge! The parents would come up to me and tell me how their child talked about Christmas in the different countries sound like fun.

Since I decided to teach these types of things I had to do my own research because I was curious myself. I found that the most interesting country to learn about was Japan. Apparently in Japan they do not exchange lots of gifts. They may give a few, but not a whole lot. Instead they focus on Jesus and helping out those in need. They spend their Christmas day helping at homeless shelters and food kitchens, things like that. I wonder how America would change if we focused on others instead of "what I want." It was refreshing to learn about that.

In France the Catholics fast all day long on Christmas Eve. Everyone attends Midnight Mass, and after that they go home and have a big dinner and party with close friends and family. It is interesting to me to know how different they welcome Christmas. It almost makes me want to try fasting on Christmas Eve... Keyword there is almost. I have never been that great with fasting....

Mexico sounds like a fun party. After Midnight Mass certain families choose to be "host" homes while others go around a visit each house...Kind of like how we go trick-or-treating here for halloween. As the guests go door to door there are special songs that are sung between those inside the house and those waiting to enter. They do this till early in the morning. It sounds like a huge party to me.

Since it is Summer at this time of year for Ghana they tend to do most of their festivities outside. They focus more on nativity scenes and before Midnight Mass begins there are Christmas pageants. On Christmas day there usually are barbecues and pitch-in meals, like 4th of July for us. During the night they celebrate with fireworks.

In Venezuela it is also Summer on Christmas. There they have lots of church services they attend throughout Christmas Eve. Their day tends to start of with bells ringing and firecrackers being set off. They go to nine different prayer services and they end with Midnight Mass. After Mass they all share a huge dinner feast together as a parish.

These are just a few of the countries I learned about. They all sound like a lot of fun to me!

My favorite Devotions

So a friend of mine tagged me to do this quite awhile ago. I am just now getting to it....

So, here are my personal favorite devotions...

Mass

Eucharistic Adoration

Stations of the Cross (during Lent)

Saint of the Day :)

The Angelus


And now I am supposed to tag three friends to tell about theirs... Enjoy!

Suzanne's Shorelines

The Long Journey Into Light

Just A Small Town Girl...

Striving For Sainthood Through Little Ways

The other night I was hanging out with my friends and we began discussing how we are all called to be saints. We then bounced around different ideas on how we can work on making Catholics have a positive rap here in my liberal college town. So, here is the list we came up with...

Remember to smile. Everyone enjoys seeing a happy friendly face.
Listen patiently when someone needs to talk... after listening, instead of forcing advice on a person offer to pray together about what the other person needed to talk about. Bring problems to God.
No matter where we go to eat remember to always pray... and when we make the sign of the cross before and after make sure it is not a quick gesture, but a proud one.
Volunteer helping out at the local community kitchen or homeless shelter
whenever we meet someone to always think in our heads "you are worthy of being loved." By thinking this hopefully it will help us remember the other person is also loved by God.
Invite a friend to Mass
Always strive to learn more about our faith so that when people do come to us with a question we can be prepared. At the same time there is no way we can know everything there is to our faith. Part of being Catholic is knowing that we don't know everything, but we want to learn as well. It is a lifelong learning process.
Try not to gossip. this is a hard one, but the more we avoid talking about people behind their backs the more people will begin to respect us.
Dress modestly, but in a confident manner.
Be polite and courteous.
Be proud to do things like the Eucharistic Procession...
Enjoy wearing catholic t-shirts, or retreat t-shirts.
When in a group of friends who want to do things that are anti-catholic try to suggest to them in a friendly manner something else to do. If they don't want to go along with you, that's fine. Just politely say you are not interested in that and excuse yourself from their plans.
Remember to be a role model for those who you never know are looking up to you. Do not do something that you would regret seeing a younger person, or peer do.

These are just a few of the points we thought up. I wish I could tell you I remember them all, but I don't. We talked about a LOT of different ways.

I'm A Fighter, Well Atleast This Past Week-end I Was

I fail with blogging lately. Not that I do not enjoy it, I just have not had much time for it. I got hit pretty hard with strep throat this past Friday, so I spent my day at the doctor and then sleeping... no blogging or anything much else got done that day.

Saturday was our confirmation I retreat (the photo is of our retreat group). I think it went over very well. The kids seemed to enjoy it, which is the most important thing. There was adoration, morning prayer, ice breakers, community building activities. Discussion about why being catholic is the right way to go, prayer life, chastity, and modesty. There was time for watching a quick vocations video. We had confession, and ended it with Mass. That is just a quick recap of the day. If you are interested in reading more about our retreat you can visit my friend, Mike's, blog. He put a lot more detail into his entry on it. I guess I will let him win this time since he was our fearless retreat leader.

Sunday was spent still recovering from being sick, because I pushed myself probably a little harder than I should have. Saturday I came home and felt spent. I hardly spent time on the computer at all. I let myself sleep in a little bit before going to Bible study.

Today I am happy to say I am completely back to my old self. I even did some tae-bo because I felt so lazy after being sick this week-end... not that I was being lazy. I just felt like I was.

My Life is Crazy

I have just realized I have not really blogged once this whole week. I have been one busy girl with hardly any free-time.... So what am I up too?!?!?

Monday

9:00 - 5:30: work
6:00 - 7:30: class
7:30 - 8:15: quick dinner with a friend
8:30 - 11:30: colt's game (I know... some may say sad excuse, but those people are not colt's fans...)

Tuesday

8:30 - 8:45: Vote!
9:00 - 5:30: work
5:30 - 6:15: Mass
6:30 - 7:15: Youth group Eucharistic Adoration planning meeting
7:30 - 8:00: work-out
8:00 - ?: Reading Homework

Wednesday

9:00 - 5:30: Work
6:00 - 7:00: Confirmation Facilitator's Meeting
7:30 - 8:00: Dinner with friends
8:00 - 9:00: Eucharistic Adoration (Holy Hour)
9:00 - 10:30: Drop-in/catching up with friends

Thursday

9:00 - 5:30: Work
5:30 - morning next day: Baby-sitting my four nephews/ catching up on homework after they are asleep

Friday

9:00 - 5:30: Work
6:00 - 7:00: Dinner with a Friend
7:15 - ?: Cleaning up my room (must be done)/hanging out with my sister

Saturday

8:30 - 6:00: Confirmation I retreat
6:00 - ?: NOTHING PLANNED!!! (possibly catch my breath)

So as you can see I will not have too much free time at all the rest of the week. I just wanted to put this up as a reminder to myself of what I have to do. I have a lot! There is just not enough time in the day....

Road Trip Down to St. Meinrad

Yesterday was a very eventful day. Two friends and I went on a road trip down to St. Meinrad's Monastery where we visited some of our seminarian friends. We made there in a record time of two hours, which I must say I am still proud of myself for. The first activity scheduled for our day was Mass. After that we spent some time catching up with a few of the seminarians over lunch. We enjoyed looking around the main church while our "tour guide," Mike, practiced for a concert he participated in today. He then took us through the Monastery and drove us around the few shrines that around the St. Meinrad. We prayed a rosary together at one of them; the Monte Cassino (the top two photos). After all of that we ended our day there praying evening prayer with the monks. It was a great balance of prayer and fun.

Days Like This Are My Favorites :)

Today was a wonderful day at work for me. The weather was pretty nice (especially the temperature), the kids were pretty good listeners for the most part, and it was filled with some fun. This morning we took a small field trip to the fire station that is right across the street from where I work. The kids had a blast! They thought they were pretty special when the firemen came out to stop the traffic for us so we could safely cross the street. They sat nicely and were well-behaved as the firemen each took a turn to talk about the importance of fire safety. The children watched as one of the men suited up for them. Their very favorite part was being able to crawl around inside the fire engine. It was an enjoyable time.

Immediately after that we let the kids play in the leaves that have fallen in the ground. They took great joy in burying me and a few of the other teachers in a pile of leaves. We had a leaf fight as well. Let's just say it took awhile for me to pick the leaves from off of my hair. I let the "inner kid" come out of me while chasing the kids around. It is days like these that I enjoy my job the most.

After work I went to Mass as usual, and one of the families from my daycare attended Mass as well. It was so cute because after the two children went to communion with their dad they came over and sat by me till the end of Mass. I was all flattered that they both wanted to spend even more time with me. It was kind of cute.

"Jesus, I Trust In You"

This evening after Mass I knelt down to say a few prayers, as I usually do. I noticed today however that went through these as though I were in a rush. I really had no particular place I needed to be, so I decided to stop and slow down. Whenever I close my prayers after Mass I tend to repeat a few of the same prayers.... "O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament Divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine." along with repeating "Jesus I trust in You" a few times as well. Half the time, I admit, I will say those words and not really contemplate on what I am actually saying. It has become a habit for me because that is how my mother taught me to pray at the end of Mass. Growing up I did not understand the magnitude of those five words, "Jesus I trust in You." Oh, it is easy to claim that I trust in Jesus and God, but really it is extremely hard to do.

I am sure I have gone on about this before in one of my previous posts, the difficulty of truly placing all of my trust in God. I tend to fight that. There are a number of things going on in my life right now that I do not fully understand, and the selfish part of me does not want to hand everything over to God and Jesus because I am afraid that what I want is not what God wants. It is silly really to think of it in those terms, because God wants us to be happy in the end. Why fight so hard against what, in the back of my mind I know, will end up being the best for me? I suppose it is human nature. I need to pray even more for the strength to be alright with giving over everything to God. It is scary, but even though it does terrify me, what do I really have to lose?

"There's No Place Like Home..."

Just a quick post to re-cap what I have been up to all this past week-end.

I went down to Tennessee for a cousin's wedding. It was not a Catholic one because my cousin is not Catholic, but it was still very beautiful. I am somewhat sad because I left my camera at home, so I was not able to take any pictures of the ceremony. It was an out door wedding, and the view was spectacular I must say. The bridesmaids dresses were so pretty and the bride was beautiful. I think that my favorite part of this wedding was the moment right before the father gave the bride away... My cousin looked at his bride with the sweetest expression on his face as he whispered to her how beautiful she was. It was an intimate moment and it was sweet. The reception after was a lot of fun, and although I did not catch the bouquet, my little brother did indeed catch the garter.

Sunday morning the part of the family that is Catholic all went to Mass in this little tiny church. It was kind of quaint, I must say. I really enjoyed the priest that was there. He was pretty old, but as he gave his homily I kind of forgot about that because his mind is obviously still pretty young.

The rest of the week-end was spent hanging-out with family. We spent one evening at a park playing endless rounds of horse shoes and corn hole. I started off a bit rusty, but by the end of the night I was not so bad, I must say. It was a fun and relaxing week-end without much of an agenda so we just enjoyed spending time together.

That was my week-end in a few paragraphs. :)

"Nature Is A Revelation Of God."

"Nature is a revelation of God; art is a revelation of man."
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow~

"To pay homage to beauty is to admire nature; to admire nature is to worship God."
~Anonymous~

Today at Mass during the homily Fr. Don talked about how we tend to take God's simple gifts to us for granted. We all often tend to be so focused on the prayers we think God has not answered and do not take enough time to just stop and look around us. There are many ways God tries to reach us. Through sunsets in the evening. Stargazing on a warm Summer night. Trees as they change their colors in the Autumn. The many flowers that bloom in the Spring. How gorgeous the ground looks after the snow falls and covers the grass during the Winter. Father talked about how if we begin to pay attention to these things we may learn something more about the One who created them all. I have to agree with him on this. I know that I can be so lost in my own little world that I do not always stop and take a look at the gifts that God gave to us to enjoy. I think it is about time I sit back and take a look around at my surroundings which God gave me to take in.

The Church Is Most Definitely Universal

Today I was reminded again how universal the Mother Church is. I attended a Mass here in town that was completely in Polish. Even the reading and Gospel were in Polish. There were a few times when the priest spoke English during the homily, but other than that I did not really understand to much, and yet I pretty much understood all the main parts. I knew when the congregation was saying "Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy." I could tell when everyone was responding "Thanks be to God" and "Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ." I knew pretty much what the priest was saying during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. I totally got it, because it was exactly the same, only in a different language. I enjoy attending Mass whenever it is said in other languages, because it really does remind me just how incredibly huge the Catholic Church is. It really is a blessing to know wherever I go I will be able to find a Catholic Church and go to Mass. I may be in a strange country, but during Mass, it will not feel so foreign to me. I will have my church family with me wherever I go. Not everyone is able to say that. It is something I am always thankful for.

"My Soul Is Thirsting..."

Yesterday's psalm for Mass happens to be one that I find so true and so beautiful. Not that the others are not true and beautiful by any means. I just mean that I think this one in particular always hits home with me.

I have to admit, of all the parts of the Mass the psalm tends to be the part I have the hardest time paying attention to. I will pay attention to what I am supposed to sing, but somewhere along the lines I tend to zone out on the verses... When I do pay attention to them I am always surprised at how I let myself zone out during them. I tend to do it even more so during daily Mass... It is pretty bad. So for those of you who may be like me I thought I would put the psalm here so you can read it and pay more attention to it.

Responsorial Psalm June 20, 2010

R. (2b) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

O God, you are my God whom I seek;

for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts

like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.

R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary

to see your power and your glory,

For your kindness is a greater good than life;

my lips shall glorify you.

R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

Thus will I bless you while I live;

lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.

As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,

and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.

R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

You are my help,

and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.

My soul clings fast to you;

your right hand upholds me.

R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

Forgiving Is Part Of Loving

Jesus said to his disciples:

“You have heard that it was said,

You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies

and pray for those who persecute you,

that you may be children of your heavenly Father,

for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,

and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?

Do not the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet your brothers only,

what is unusual about that?

Do not the pagans do the same?

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
~Matthew 5:43-48~

The above happens to be the Gospel for today's readings. It is always a hard one for me to learn from... Love your enemy... Now, I am not one to really have many enemies. I tend to not have any problems with the people I meet, but occasionally there are times when I do have an issue with someone. Usually it is something that is a pretty big deal before I have a problem with someone; talking about me behind my back, saying something very hurtful when it is not warranted, these are just a few examples.

Today in father's homily he also talked about how hard it is to forgive those who hurt us. He asked us two questions. Who are my enemies? How do I show love to my enemy? I suppose the best way to show love to my "enemy" is by really forgiving them. Forgiving them and then moving on. That is easier said than done sometimes, but do it we all must. I sometimes think of myself as a forgiving person, but then I remember a few people who have hurt me in the past and realize that I am not totally that way. I will begin working on that now!