5.18.2006

..::Blessed Be God::..

+JMJ

Praised Be Jesus Christ! Greetings to you and your holy angels. Today I bring a bit of a meditation from awhile ago...

Nature becomes so much more beautiful when we contemplate the Maker of each and everyone of those leaves and twigs, down to the water droplets that clouds are made of. You really feel extremely loved to be blessed with such stunning and heavenly gifts as these! And you can only imagine how much more love and care was put into the creation of mankind, made in His image.

Lord, Thy Will Be Done!

5.13.2006

..::Praised Be Jesus Christ::..

+JMJ
Praised be Jesus Christ! Greetings to you and your holy angels! It seems that pictures have invaded my posts! I guess that does make things interesting at least! I am posting again to share with you some pictures of a friend of mine that entered the PCPA's in Portsmouth, OH at St. Joseph Monastery on Divine Mercy Sunday. They are all beautiful pictures and Sister Denise is absolutly wonderful! You can visit them at www.stjosephmonastery.com, but remember, it doesn't work on firefox for some reason!

Also, these dear Sisters have a 'wish list' still. If you can assist them in anyway, please contact them via the information listed here.
This is what they need as of now:

† We were given 35 solid wood chairs and they need to be

refinished & repaired. Any suggestions on how to accomplished this?

† Help with distributing brochures
† Ornate Chalices, Ciborium's

† Beautiful Vestment in honor of St. Joseph

† Beautiful Vestment in honor of Our Lady

Benefactors - to help with the building of our New

Monastery


As of now, this is all the help they have received! Blessed be God!

Riding Lawn mower

2 sets of Bunk beds

Religious Books

Printer

Phone Cards

Lunette

Extra large Crock Pot

Loaf pans for baking bread

2 Garden Hoes & 1 Shovel

Computer


Please help if you can! They will remember you in their prayers!

Entrance Ceremony of Denise McClain

" Dear daughter, what do you seek?"

- - -

" Dear Rev. Mother, I beg most humbly for

the love of God, to be admitted into this Community,

so that I may more securely work out the salvation

of my soul, by dedicating myself to the

Perpetual Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament

in the order of our Seraphic Father, Saint Francis,

and our holy Mother Saint Clare."







I wish this picture of their cat would show up on my blog, but I am having technical difficulties! Maybe you can see it if you click here. Yay for Nuns and kitties! This may be my favorite combo EVER!

5.09.2006

..::Blessed Be God::..

+JMJ
Praised be Jesus Christ! Greetings to you and your holy angels! Not much to report today. I did want to share the link to the phatmass radio. It has been kind of insider knowledge for some time, but it is some great CATHOLIC hip hop, rock, rap, and you can learn some Greogorian chant! It's great to just have playing when you need something with a beat. I do have much work to do this week before finals week, so I think this may be it for today. If you want something good to read, visit The Curt Jester, Closed Cafeteria, Lumen de Lumine, or ...And If Not... God bless you abundantly and be holy!

Lord, Thy Will Be Done!

5.08.2006

..::Praised Be Jesus Christ::..

+JMJ

Praised be Jesus Christ! Greetings to you and your holy angels! It is a wonderful Monday and the birds are chirping and things are green. It is certainly wonderful to see. Thank you most merciful Lord for this gift! Well, I had a busy weekend! Sometimes I wish I had less to do, but it was all wonderful all the same. Friday evening I was blessed with going to see the Daughters of St. Paul here in Chicago with Lauren, whom I met in person for the first time. It was wonderful to see and talk with her and also meet the Daughters as well! We were there for First Friday Movie Night and saw The Mission. It was a beautiful movie, but very deep and inspiring as well. If you haven't seen it, I would suggest it!
Saturday afternoon (I slept in, I was going to leave in the morning) I left to go home to drop some things off, including the suitcase that my mom needed for today. I also brought home somethings from my dorm so there is less to take home when I leave next week. We went home, my sister and I worked on her project that was due today, and we had some leftovers and watched some TV. The thing that really disturbed me was that the show she was watching on DiscoveryKids was teaching the kids how to make their own ouija board! I think my sister may have fallen asleep by then, thank God, but it is disturbing that they encourage children to play with these things of the occult!
Sunday morning I got up maybe about 7 or 8. I cannot remember currently, but I hopped in the shower and got ready to head back to school. I left about 9:40 and got back about 10:30ish. Then I just had to wait for Mr. Zak to call about picking me up and bringing me to Imago Dei. He called, and about 11:45 picked me up in the St. Pat's school bus. It has been forever since I've ridden in one of those! It was also very cool because of the Catholic stuff in it.
So we got there a-okay and unloaded and helped set up. Then some of us were sent on a McDonald's mission to get lunch for the 20+ kids that had came with Mr. Zak. Sadly, I think they may have forgotten a few of the drinks and fries, but everyone did have something to eat. After that, things kinda got kicked off. There were many Sisters, Brothers and Priests there. It was fun just to walk around and see who was what and from where. Sisters would always be coaxing me over to chat with them. It was nice to hear about them all and they were all wonderful. I did take a few pictures, and I'll share them with you, but I may have to explain some of them.
As for the pictures, I did not get any pictures of Fr. Stan, the (NEW) Auxilary Bishop of Chicago, Gerard, or of the Nashville Dominican that had spoken. I just felt that I shouldn't because no one else was. But I did get some pictures of the set up and the church (Very beautiful church I may add!) along with just some Sisters that were hanging around. Now, there is a picture of a Sister who is dancing like a mad woman. The picture does show the extent of the madness, but oh my goodness. Wow is all I have to say. So that may explain things, so enjoy the pictures!
It was a wonderful event and seeing Sisters and talking to them, and also getting their prayers was great as well! I got to see Joe, a friend of mine who I haven't seen in a loooong time, and that was great itself! (I hope he doesn't see this, it might inflate his ego some more, lol) I think Mr. Zak may have been telling some Sisters about my own discernment and such and the plans to enter the Poor Clare Colettines, but it was wonderful to have so many praying for me. Last night before leaving and after Mass was probably the best part of the evening. I was just filled with so much joy and love. It was a wonderful blessing to be reassured and have courage to do what needs to be done in these coming weeks. I also thought about how many religious I have praying for me! I am sure it may be nearing 50! Another thought to blow one's mind away. Fr. Stan Fortuna also blessed my Franciscan Crown which also made me very happy. I'm extra happy it was a Franciscan that blessed it too.
This afternoon, I was also checking out a few websites of some of the communities there, and one of them in their 'recommended readings' section had recommended a book of Sr. Joan Chittister's. That was a little unnerving. It was also wonderful talking to one of the Sisters who said 'Bingo!' when I had explained to her the joy and the peace from visiting the Poor Clares. She was so sweet and so lovable!
One last things before I am through! The Summit Dominicans have some lovely medals comemorating 800 years of the first foundation of Dominican Nuns! Here is what their site says about it:
This lovely medal, designed by our postulant, Sr. Greta, depicts our founder, St. Dominic de Guzman, accepting the vows of the first nuns at Prouilhe. The inscription (in Latin) encircling the top of the medal is "MONIALES ORDINIS PRAEDICATORUM" ("Nuns of the Order of Preachers") with the foundation year, 1206, and the eighth centenary year, 2006, at the bottom.
The medals themselves are beautiful and only $3 (that includes shipping and handling)! Beautiful Dominican Nuns make beautiful Dominican medals! Buy yours here!

That is all from me today! God bless and be holy!

Lord, Thy Will Be Done!

5.04.2006

..::Blessed Be God::..

+JMJ

Praised be Jesus Christ! Greetings to you and your holy angels! Well, some late night snooping and I have stumbled across the Swiss Guard website. So many cool pictures! Old and new alike! Also, it appears they have a flag! I cannot get a good look at it but I'll share a picture with it in it... It definatly has the Papal crest on it. The one of John Paul the Great to boot! Whoo hoo! There are tons of cool pictures, especially of the different uniforms. Gala, Gran Gala, Drill Uniform and tons of others! There is a link to postcards and you have to use some transliteration to figure out which link you should click to get to the post cards. But it is so awesome! Oh, and incase you were looking for a link, you can try here at:
http://www.schweizergarde.org/
Make sure you click english as the language unless you prefer a foreign language. You also have to admit, they have some super snazzy pants. I'll include some more pictures because they are fun! I also threw in a postcard for your enjoyment! If someone could tell me who that Pontiff is, I'll think about giving you a cookie (or a little spiritual bouquet!)


What is it that really makes the Swiss Guard so fun? The pants? The Uniform as a whole? The requirements? The fact that they scolded one of the shutter bugs who came with us to WYD while they, the shutter bug, attempted to take a photo of them while still in St. Peter's? Who knows, but they protect our beloved Pontiff and they love him as much as we do and that is all that matters to me.

Now for some fun 'facts' from the Swiss Guard's site:

Swiss Guards are practising Catholics. They operate daily in the heart of the Roman Curia, continuously meet people on their pilgrimage to the Tomb of the Prince of the Apostles and participate in the liturgical celebrations inside the Vatican.

It is obvious that by their religious faith and practice, the Swiss Guards are the Holy Father's "visiting card".

Totally awesome. The Holy Father's 'visiting card.' Ha! I kinda like the sound of that...
Some more:

Those in charge of the Pope's security must have irreproachable reputations.

Now you know you can always trust a Swiss Guard ;)
Still more:

Anyone who wants to become a Swiss Guard had better decide early. Our Corps is a young one. Often, older recruits find it more difficult to integrate. We do not accept candidates who are over 30 years of age. However, under certain conditions, former Guards can return to the Corps.

Wow, this sounds a lot like a religious community! A lot like many cloistered communities! Crazy!
He he... still more... This is just fascinating!

The Guards are housed in double or triple rooms. At the beginning they are in dormitories.

The camaraderie between young unmarried men should not be undervalued.

A mixed Corps is not appropriate in our service and community life.

Hmmmm... that last one remind you of something else? This is all so cool! I think I might spend sometime in the future reading more about them. Definatly a very cool and I guess a little quirky (well, at least the uniform) part of our Catholic tradition. God bless you abundantly and be holy!

Lord, Thy Will Be Done!