Donations

I actually now have the means with the Laboure Society to start collecting donations toward my student loans.

If you would like to donate, and it's (a) tax-deductible, and (b) anonymous; please e-mail me at: lvngembrs@gmail.com

Spiritually Feverish

I feel like a quilt: my memories, my speech, my skills, and so much more. Information gleaned from Protestant & Catholic Bible studies, friends leaving their indelible marks behind, time leaves stray gray strands in my hair, my mind cluttered with psychology, theology, pop culture, and Godly longings.

All of me made up of different fabrics, stitched together over time; time fraying the edges of the quilt, as its not yet complete. Some are faded, others still brilliant, some tattered, others wholeheartedly replaced.

And like the actual quilts sitting in my room awaiting their last stitches, I’m not pleasing to others. Problem being that God’s my batting, my oomph.

I attended a Charismatic Catholic conference for the Labor Day weekend, and Monday I spent hanging out with friends watching a film about Karol (aka JPII), and Tuesday will have Bible Study and Wednesday spiritual direction.

Yesterday morning someone asked “Don’t you O.D. on it? Don’t you think that someone like you would know when to stop?” Calling on my degrees in social work, psychology, and sociology a family member was implying that having God as my all in all, my true alpha and omega as an illness. Illness vs. Fool for Christ; both could appear spiritual feverish.

Where would you like to be?

Ann Arbor sisters can't build fast enough to house new members

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=16940

Check my Sisters out!!

Oh, to be Heard by my Lord!

I am aching to put my thoughts and feelings into words for you, yet the task lingers before me. Words and sentences fail me – nothing sounds quite right. Perhaps that is fitting?

Love is blind, especially when it comes to us loving Our Lord. We hear our Souls saying stark, simple prayers, then mutter in our beings that surely the Lord will not take our Soul’s groans seriously. Perhaps He thought us just thinking and not praying and requesting that He make us broken, or impoverished, or a Fool for Him.

I knew that I was going to suffer, and that the heartbreak would be beyond anything I could imagine or prepare. I could arm myself with His Armour (Eph. 6), but as I couldn’t imagine, I couldn’t prepare myself further, except through prayer. Thus I chose a prayer:

Holy Mother, pierce me through, In my heart each wound renew Of my
Saviour crucified. Amen.

This prayer to the Five Wounds of Christ had one repeating phrase pleading Momma Mary to take my heart into her holy hands, and present it to our Lord. He was then to say it be done to me, as it was done to Him! My heart was to bear each Wound of His Blessed Flesh, from the nail piercing and bruising from the hammer blows, to the gaping tear of the thrust lance.

And I broke. What else was I to do? I could not fathom praising Him. Why would I want to praise Him for pain? Two months later, I understand that is what I should be doing because I now know with every fiber of my Being that He hears me. What am I that He should listen to me? Listen, He does. It is more than many dare ponder.

present to the Present

At this evening's bible study session, the organizer, Jonathan, was able to get a local Franciscan priest to come and talk with us. We've always enjoyed the nights that Fr. Kevin comes over because he's funny, but also it's essentially "open mike night." It's our questions, rather than the theological verse-by-verse breakdown of Acts 8; although this is equally fruitful.

There was a good discussion going on homilies, what to expect, how to kindly and politely address issues with priests, pastors, etc. But there was one thing that stuck out to me this evening: "being present to the Present (Presence) in the present." It's being contemplative in action. It's being aware that when you and I speak face to face, Christ is right there with us. Can we shut down Facebook, Blogger, Xanga, LiveJournal, MySpace, LinkedIn, BrightFuse, CareerBuilder, Indeed, Monster, &c for just once to notice that these things are rewarding us for being distracted and distant from the Only One who should matter to us? No wonder our chapels are empty, the Blessed Sacrament is abandoned. No one knows how to just sit with Jesus anymore!