Candle Mass

It's candle mass day!

When the light of the world enters the world, how is it that I'm cranky? The wind is blowing irritation and we'll be seeing anger with a high of fierce tempers. Oh, the weather pattern of the spiritual life ain't easy. On the upside, I have more blessed candles which is a good thing.

Merry Flogging Christmas!!!!

Ahhhh. It's here. It's Christmas. It's finally the Christmas season! Boy what a wait it's been.

Did you know... the Christmas season extends until January 9th? That's right bring on the festivities. That being said, the Christmas season can be quite sobering because the first day after Christmas we celebrate the Feast of Saint Stephen who was stoned to death under the witnessing of St. Paul, at the time known as Saul.

Right in the middle of our celebrations is the sobering reminder of what it means to be a disciple of little baby Jesus. You can never separate the cross from His mission.

Did you know...the mid-point of the Christmas season is the Solemnity of Mary on January 1st. That's right the mid-point is New Years' Day. It's not the end. It's the middle.

Did you know...the placing of wreaths on doors was symbolic of martyrdom, a martyrdom for the faith. The name Stephen itself means 'wreath'.

Our Lady is a mother

This photo is of Juan Diego's tilma or apron upon which our Lady miraculously appeared. It is framed and hangs above the altar at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. What strikes me as just hilarious of the miraculous story which you can read from iBrievary (from the report of Don Antonio) is that after Juan Diego had met with our Lady a few times, he found himself in a hurry on his next occasion because he was on an errand to find a priest for his ailing uncle. The story continues with: "Juan Diego set out on Tuesday, but he went around the hill and passed on the other side, toward the east, so as to arrive quickly in Mexico City and to avoid being detained by the Heavenly Lady."

Wow, me too buddy. Haven't we all tried to avoid our mothers at one time or another or those women who act like mothers in our life? Don't we dread being detained too or being taken care of when we can do it on our own? I know I do. Women have this henlike characteristic to take care of things for those they love. I despise it, but sometimes I can't avoid doing it. So it's reassuring to me that Our Lady is a nagging mother who won't stop looking out for her children even when her children don't want to have anything to do with her.

The Immaculate Conception

I was musing over today's first reading from Genesis and I found God's response to Eve striking, 'Why did you do such a thing?'.
Isn't that something? Why? First God goes to Adam, then to Eve and then to the serpent. In that whole exchange in the book of Genesis, I'm just profoundly affected by how gently he handles Eve. Juxtapose that against the address to the serpent.

Angels and Archangels' Job Description

Today we celebrate the feast day of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. An angel isn't a job title. It's a job description. It means proclaim a message. Messages that are of supreme importance say like the message announcing the birth of Christ are administered by archangels. Whereas messages of lesser importance are delivered by angels. We also have guardian angels. I love my guardian angel. I wish I could hear/understand him better but I'm guessing that takes practice, commitment and a whole lot more holiness that I don't have. I hear him dimly.

My best friend is traveling. He's on a pilgrimage and I was worried that he'd miss his connecting flight in Europe  unless they delayed it because of delays on his outbound side. I have no ordinary way to communicate with him so in the middle of morning prayers I got this overwhelming sense that his plane was in the air and he was on it. It was accompanied by a sense of peace. So after prayer I checked the flight status on my handy dandy phone (Is that a confession-able offense? I mean I also use my phone to pray. Ibrievary is awesome! Although the outage earlier this week was inconvenient.) and found out that his flight did indeed take off.

Angels, Guardian angels, Arcchangels are real. You can't see them. You can't feel them. They are like love. Love is a verb. It is an action. Angel is proclaim a message. So you will only know them in the do-ing. Love can't be weighed. It can't be touched. It can't be held. It can be given, received or experienced. So it is with angels.

Today we celebrate the archangels whose job description is to proclaim messages of God's wonderous power: Michael, God's strength: Gabriel and God's healing powers: Raphael.

The exaltation of the cross: It's not easy but it's simple

Today we celebrate the Cross. Yes!!!! Suffering! Woohoo! Yeah, not so much, but ...today's readings (can be found here) speak to me the following:

When we exalt something we can take one of two approaches. One way is passive where we allow our emotions and affections to take control like we do with football players, coaches and teams after fabulous plays. In this case the exaltation is simple. We are emotionally disposed to lift up in this case a coach or player. The other is active where one attaches high value and worth to something that may be difficult to attain. Thus it will take more than mere emotion or affection to achieve that goal. It doesn't de-value the worth of the item, in fact it makes it all the more precious. That's how I understand the exaltation of the cross. We exalt it not because we WANT the suffering but because it is the mode of transportation for our salvation. Through it we attain our salvation. It makes absolutely no sense to secular society and it's not easy but it sure is simple.

I struggle with willing to take on the cross. Oh, I have good intentions but I don't suppose many people get into heaven based on good intention. It takes the will and thus the cross, choosing the better part. It's not easy but it's simple. When I mess it all up (when not if), I have the sacrament of reconciliation. My husband always wonders why it takes me no less than an hour when I meet with my confessor (because he thinks I'm a saint - Ha! Love IS blind.) and truth be told more often than not it takes longer than that. We discuss all sorts of things and by the time I'm absolved I always get the impression that my confessor gets more out of my confession than I get grace and that is MORE than fair.