Today is the celebration of St. Joseph, which is normally found on March 19. Since yesterday was a Sunday in Lent it moves to today.
This morning, Mike and I began by saying our morning prayers together. I began with a prayer asking for St. Joseph's intercession with his dear son, Jesus.
We really love St. Joseph because it was through his intercession that Mike came to me in the first place. I had been asking Jesus to send me my own St. Joseph to be my protector and spouse as well as the father of my children. My prayers were obviously answered to the affirmative.
St. Joseph is really a great man. Humble, strong, willing to do God's Will, indeed, all those qualities men should strive to possess. Most men today lack certain qualities that make them able to lead their families. A man who is selfish, for instance, will have an incredibly difficult time putting the needs of his family before his own desires. To that man I advise him to begin praying. Most men who are selfish do not pray. Most men who are into sinful past-times are not praying. One doesn't look at porn and pray daily. Nor does one spend enormous amounts of time away from his family while he pursues his hobbies...and still has "time" to pray.
The selfish man puts himself first, work second, his family third and God fourth. This is so because his desires take first place. His work must come second to afford his lifestyle. His family, then, comes third to enhance his sense of well-being...and then God comes as an after-thought.

The way to be living in God's Will is to put God FIRST. What does God want? What does God desire for me? How can I please God? One must strive to know God and be on good terms with Him, in order to find out what God is wanting...Do you tell strangers YOUR innermost thoughts?
God only wants what is best for us and He is happy to show us, when we become His special friends through prayer. St. Joseph put God first at all times. Did we imagine it was easy to take a woman, pregnant by Another, into his home and act as if the child was his own biological child? He did it anyway because he knew God, and therefore was privy to God's Will. Was it pleasant to be uprooted and have to move to a foreign country with a foreign language, in order protect Jesus from King Herod? Was that even a normal circumstance? Imagine the humble carpenter, St. Joseph, telling his friends, "Umm,, yeah, I gotta go to umm Egypt. My son is being hunted down by the King."
"Really? Gee guy, that's tough! Why in the hell would the King be after a carpenter's baby son?!" inquired a skeptical friend.
"It's a long story."
St. Joseph did what God asked of him. I do not think it is very much to ask that today's men do the same. No one is asking that you take on a pregnant woman, marry her, adopt her baby, live with her and for her but never touching her sexually, leave all you have, flee your country and learn a new language on the lam. Then when it is safe to return, build your business back up, raise the boy...and die before He is thirty. If you get part of this cross, consider yourself doubly blessed. Most men are called to marriage. God asks that you support your family, love and cherish your wife, live chastely toegether in congugal love, accept children willingly and raise them Catholic, educate them, lead your family, protect them and be responsible for them that they attain Heaven. To do this requires prayer, a commitment to God's Will, humily, strength and avoidance of all mortal sin. Out goes the selfishness, out goes the inordinate anger, out goes the lust/birth control/porn/some TV shows/fantisizing/self-abuse/bars/internet, out goes the hobbies which interfere with family life, out goes drinking excessively, out goes anything and everything that leads you away from God's Will and destroys your manhood.

I am really blessed to have my husband. He has thrown out all these things...and some of them never were a problem for him, thank God. It is not easy to give up selfishness, but it makes one more satisfied with what and whom he has at home. Following the will of God is the only way to find true peace and contentment and happiness in this life and in the next.

St. Joseph, please be our model of manhood in our home. Help our man and boys to imitate your steadfast desire to please Almighty God. Please interceed on our behalf with your dear Son, Jesus and your beautiful wife Mary, our Heavenly Mother. Please ask the Father to bless us in all our needs and desires, if they be compatible with His Holy Will. Amen.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We began the day with the feast day of St. Patrick celebrated with Holy Mass. Each of us were wearin' green, of course, as all good Irish do.

I really love St. Patrick's Day for some reason. As some may be aware, we are celebrating his death. Not that we are glad he died, but that he was "born" into Heaven on this day, as we all hope to be. I think my pre-occupation with St. Patrick's Day has to do with the in-born desire of the Irish to know about their orgins and roots. Every Irish person I know has this strong sense of "belonging" to Ireland, despite the fact they are so far removed. My great-grandfather was from Ireland and came over...the way I feel, one would think I long to go back home "to the old sod" myself. I've never gotten the pleasure of traveling there. We'll see.

So, all you Germans, go ahead and share in the day. I guess you English can too. Freedom for Ireland. See? I couldn't help myself!

Have a blessed St. Patrick's Day! Oh, yea, it isn't really all that cool to skip the abstinence from meat. Jesus' Sacrifice on the Cross trumps our desire to eat corned beef-which isn't really what Irish people ate anyway. They ate lamb-which I think tastes like beef smeared with blue cheese....

catholictothecore

Bird Flu Pandemic?

Anyone who reads the news can clearly see that the "authorities" seem to concerned about the Bird Flu hitting the human population like an A-Bomb. They seem so certain that this will happen, "not IF, but WHEN", that they are calling for each family to store food and supplies ahead of time. "Under the bed" has been a popular place they ask us to put our cans of tuna and powered milk.
I'm thinking NOT. They probably haven't seen under my bed. There are a lot more sanitary and convenient places to put our supplies. How about on some shelves...like above the laundry machines or in closets. I suggest taking out all those old vitamins and other health bottles long expired and store all your medical preps there. In the kitchen, remove the long ago used bread machine and the huge mixer and food processor that hasn't had any food in them for a year and put those away in the garage or basement. Put your extra bulk food stuffs there. That way if the Bird Flu delays in coming or doesn't come at all, you can use these items. Rotation is a must.

Now, if you live in a very small apartment in an over-crowded city...don't forget that you would be more suseptible to getting the bird flu in the first place...and make a plan. Do you really want to stay in that apartment in the germy city? Perhaps an escape plan would suffice. Store your things at the pre-arraranged sancuary, in order to be of service to your hosts...if they didn't prepare.

Bird Flu? Nuclear War? Natural Disasters like Massive Earthquakes, Tidal Waves, Comet or Meteor Impact, Regular Flu? Hostile Takeovers, Terrorist attack? We could never predict what could happen with any accuracy...but when the normally placid "move along, move along, nothing to see here" government starts squawking, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!", I'd tend to want to look up, just in case. Have you noticed the increase in shows, commentary and instructions on the news & in the papers about how to prepare?

Besides, these supplies could come in handy for an economic disaster. You get laid off for months and instead of using the credit card for food, you can have a lot of tuna sandwiches and reconstituted powered dry milk. Yumm, yum? Well, okay, maybe not. But it would taste good when you really need it.

I'm sure Terri Shiavo would have loved to have a tuna sandwich and a glass of milk.

Okay, I'm gonna stop there...

Catholictothecore

It's a new day...

The Lord is so good to us. Each day He provides a chance for us to begin again, to start over and to renew our commitments to Him. We can choose to be obedient to His Commands, today.

Yesterday was a good day. We began the day with the 7:00 am Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Troubles seem to melt away during this time. Jesus' One & Only Sacrifice, right there for us, just as He was almost 2,000 years ago. Can't beat that!

Home-school begins at 9:30. The principle insisted we set a time and stick to it. We chose this time because I have time for shopping after Mass, if necessary...and then breakfast can be finished, as well. I have about 10 minutes to write before school begins.

Abortion has been on my mind a lot lately. What a horrifying act! A mother deciding that her precious baby is too inconvenient to allow to live. That tiny baby boy or girl is then dismembered without pain killers. Not only is Mommy saying, "You are only a thing to me-useless and troublesome...", She adds, "I choose to kill you in the most painful way possible."
Sick! Abortion has touched me in a profound way-My mother killed one of my elder siblings. I believe "it" was a "he". When I was a young girl, I fancied myself having an older brother, I called "David". (This was before I learned of my Mother's abortion. I found out a couple of years ago, in my mid-thirties.) In order to help my mother heal, I presented her with the idea of naming her baby. I asked her what she thought the baby was...she assumed it would have been a boy. I said, "Mom, your child exists. There is no "would have been". He IS. He deserves a name." She then said, "Well, we would have named him David."
Okay. Well, it seems my childish imagination was much more than pretend. Why wouldn't I know deep down that my family was not complete...that a loved one was missing? That a death had occurred? It seems I did.

After finding out that my mother had killed her own child, my eyes were finally opened to the pain we all experienced growing up with a senselessly cold and angry Mom. Her rages and fits were inexplicable to her children. We just thought she hated children, in general, and hated us, in particular. Our painful, lonely-for-a-loving-mother-childhood was a direct result of my mother's abortion. She has Post-Abortion Syndrome. Yes, yes, I realize those attached to sin, reject the obvious consequences to sin-but do you think that'll make me change my mind? I lived it. I know the dysfunction exists!

The catalyst to my mother's astounding announcement over breakfast one morning, was precipitated by a recent announcement of my eldest sister, days earlier. She came over and told my younger sister and I, that she killed her own child, whom she had conceived in an illicit affair with a married man. His own wife was sterile, so one might assume he'd be excited in a way...but, alas, he wasn't willing to leave his wife, so my niece or nephew had to die to punish him. This made my mother comfortable in airing her own announcement in this manner, "Well, I can't say much about it since I've done it myself."

Since my parents live with my family, I feel personally responsible for assisting my Mom to heal so that the contagion of sin doesn't spread any further. I refuse to allow this sin to live on affecting the generations. She has finally gone to Confession after 41 years of repressing this grave mortal sin. My children do not know of these sins, and I plan on keeping this private. They would be horrified to learn that Grandma not only "seems to not like kids very much", as they observed, but has killed her own child, nonetheless. Likewise, they would shudder at the thought of their favorite aunt (because she gushes over them) saying, "I want this baby out of me and dead. Make it extra painful, though."

My sister suffers from P.A.S as well, as evidenced by affair,divorce, failed relationships, alcoholism, Left the True Church, church hopping, gambling addiction, geographical moves to "escape", destructive financial decisions...health difficulties...anxiety and depression disorders...

Well, some say that is too harsh...too bad! That is the Truth and it IS ugly. My thought is that all the victims of Abortion-baby, parents, relatives,abortionist aka hired gun and co-horts need to be lifted up in prayer. We need to beg Almighty God to help us stop this scourge upon our lands and save these precious babies He has deemed worthy of being. We need to beg God for His Mercy in our failings to protect them.

This is a really fine way to work out one's feelings... I highly recommend journaling. But first-go to Confession. It is THE way to unburden.

Have a great day!
Catholictothecore

Mass is Awesome

BEING A CATHOLIC IS SUCH A BLESSING!

After two days of not being able attend Holy Mass, I am most happily going again! My van broke down and was in the shop for a week. In that time, I noticed how much I missed being able to make "the Last Supper" everyday...

Where else can one go back through time and become transported into eternity to partake of the Last Supper?

Nowhere, but at Mass!!

Funny thought of the Day- In the Our Father, where we say, "Give us this day our daily bread.."
What are our asking for is not earthly bread. The actual word used meant "abovely bread". Poor St. Jerome didn't know what do about this strange word...he knew what was meant, though. The "daily bread" is the Holy Eucharist, Jesus' Body, that comes down from above to feed us.

Hey! Any Protestants want to say the Our Father with me?

Have a fine day!
Catholictothecore