Wednesday, May 06, 2009

National Day of Prayer


Tomorrow it National Day of Prayer. It is most important that we take time out to pray for this country of ours. If your church is offering a prayer service please plan to attend. If there is an opportunity for you to pray with others wherever it may be please avail yourself of this opportunity.

My parish of St. John the Baptist here in Newburgh is having a small meal and then we adjourn to the church for our prayer service and for a homily by our guest, Father Alex Zenthoefer. It's a real opportunity as a community to offer our petitions for this nation to the God who watches over us.

God has been so good to us! We have been blessed in so many ways. Though we certainly are not perfect and we have our faults this nation is built on a foundation of prayer. Though some would like to think otherwise, I truly believe that we are obliged by our giftedness to offer thanksgiving for what we have and ask for the Creator's intervention in all our needs. We have an obligation to serve this country in many ways. One of those ways is through communal prayer.

~~~^j^~~~

For the the freedom to
participate in communal prayer,
Thanks be to God!

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Today a Prayer

Picture by Lawrence, OP

Mary, Mother of Christ, teach us to pray your rosary as it should be prayed, for these ordinary beads, strung on threads, hold within themselves all the mysteries of our holy faith and all the main ways of prayer. Mary, Queen of the Rosary, open to us its holy secrets. Let is be our door to the heart of your Son, his Father, and the Holy Spirit.

Catherine de Hueck Doherty

~~~^j^~~~

Thanks be to God.

Monday, May 04, 2009


Glory and Praise To Our God is a song that comes to mind every time I do this. The tune runs in the back of my mind as I process the word Praise and the act of praising God. So I will praise Him.

~1 For the Sacrament of Matrimony. The covenant between God and man in the cooperation of creation.

~2 For the love between a man and a woman and families that support, lift up and nurture.

~3 For the opportunity to serve.

~4 For this week of prayer as we prepare to celebrate The National Day of Prayer on May 7.

~5 For the gift of worship and the opportunity to do so.

~6 For his Providence, the hand that guides.



If you have reason to praise God, join us at Jennifer's house, My Chocolate Heart to add to the joy, wonder and glory of God.

~~~^j^~~~

Thanks Be To GOD!!


Sunday, May 03, 2009

A New Religion



I found this morning, during my reflection, that this is a question I had never asked. Strangely, for whatever reason, the question was not asked because this was the lesson taught. Let me share this with you.


~~~~~

The question of whether Jesus intended to found a Church is a false question because it is unhistorical. The only proper way to phrase the question would be to ask whether Jesus intended to abolish the People of God or to renew it. The answer...is plain: Jesus made the old People of God into a new people by adopting those who believe in him into the community of his own self (of his "body"). ~Pope Benedict XVI in his book, Behold the Pierced One~


A New Religion

The earliest disciples were Jewish and they practiced the Jewish religion. It was only after they had fully observed the Sabbath and the Sabbath was over, that these Christians would gather to celebrate their special belief that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God.

Late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, they came together to celebrate what Jesus did on the night before he died--the Eucharist.

That is ow it came to be that Christians have celebrated the Eucharist on Sunday

It wasn't until about 70 AD (some 40 years after the death of Jesus) that there fully emerged from Judaism a religion that was separate--Christianity (though its roots still flowed from the Jewish religion.

This separation happened because by then, those who believed that Jesus was the Messiah and Son of God, were no longer allowed in the synagogues.

Thus, they began to develop as a separate group that would try to live the message Jesus preached.
~~~~~~~

So it is that we live this Life in Christ
An identity truly Catholic, universal.
Thanks be to God!



Friday, May 01, 2009

I'ts May...




Yes, the month of Mary, Mother's Day and at least four glorious birthdays. Not only are they glorious, they were apparently all well planned by the creator, for they are all 6 days apart. And on the 7th we all rested.

My mother is 84 on May ll, Kellie turns 15 on the 17th, Laura is [umhum] 40 on the 23rd and Neil will be 9 on the 29th. That is my month of May in a nutshell...Isn't it GRAND!?! Mother, daughter and grandchildren. I am so blessed!

~~^j^~~

And with that is say a Hearty.
Thanks be to God!