Wow!

I am amazed by the Holy Church!!  I thought I would start this blog to write about the challenges we have to live the life Christ wants us to!  Then I started reading other Catholic blogs!  They are EVERYWHERE! They are WONDERFUL!  I did not know whether to write better, more thought provoking posts or quit because everyone else said it better!  What inspiration there is out there!!  Keep up the wonderful work and I will keep reading!  I am also going to pray to the Holy Spirit to help me learn to write! 

my two cents!

This morning, as I have read through my favorite blogs I saw everyone's thoughts about September 11, 2001 and the past ten years.  September 11, 2001 was a horrible, tragic day.  My husband and I had been married a little over a month.  I was frightened and stunned as I watched the news.  Over 3,000 people died in one day.  Our country aborts over 3,000 babies everyday!  That is tragic!  Where is the outcry?  The public remembrance?  I wonder what God thinks?

saying Yes!

We always hear about Mary and her choice to say Yes to God.  When the angel came to tell her she was going to have Jesus, she only asked how that was going to happen before she said, Yes! Mary did not say well now is not a good time or I am really scared or my life will be ruined!  God is asking the same thing of us, now, here on Earth.  He says pray with me and we say I don't have the time.  He says come to Confession we say that is when baseball practice is.  He asks us to do uncomfortable things and we are supposed to say Yes.  Do you know He will give us the grace to handle the uncomfortable things?  God is all knowing and all powerful.  He will help us in ways we were never suspecting and show us a new way of thinking.  What are you afraid of? Say yes!

Fridays

This year at Easter I decided that I was going to continue fasting and abstaining on Fridays.  I really felt that something needed to be done to show that I was different than the general population in my love for God.  I also read a little pamphlet on Souls in Purgatory.  No one talks about souls in purgatory or Hell or death anymore.  Our culture has really damaged our souls.  People are trying to be something different than what they are made for.  Women taking the pill, trying to be famous on reality shows, worrying about the environment, trying to be their children's friend are all ways we are being sidetracked from God.  Anywho...I got distracted.  Fridays, I eat 2 small meals and 1 large one without snacks in between, for all the souls in purgatory.  I give up meat for all the babies who have been aborted since 1973.  Is there something the Lord is asking you to consider doing for him?  Can you take up that cross on Fridays?  Remember, all sacrifice given to God yields wonderful fruit.

whose time are we wasting?

I was lucky enough to hear the talented Lisa Hendey speak last weekend.  She was a delight to listen to and had a lot of good thoughts from her book The Handbook for Catholic Moms.  What I really enjoyed from her talk was the part about good time management...for God.  We are on Gods time here.  If we really say we love God and want to do his will what does he want our hands to do?  If Mother Theresa said she is just a pencil in God's hand, what can I do today for God?  Believe me, I have lots of things I want to do, even more things I am supposed to do, but all of those things are secondary because I claim to Love God above all other things.  I believe my job is to get my children and my husband and myself all to Heaven, what am I doing today to get there?  What are you doing today to get there?

Life is pain...

I love movie quotes!  I am always getting one stuck in my head and the best line from the movie The Princess Bride is, "life is pain, Princess, anyone who tells you different is selling you something!"  While that is a downer and certainly, not an outlook to follow I believe it is true.  Life is full of problems.  Little problems, big problems, silly problems and life changeing problems all whirling around at a pace that seems to get faster and faster.  While we all have problems I think the way we handle them will affect our relationship with Jesus!  Give your problems to God but also the suffering that goes with those problems.  The expression used to be offer it up to God and somewhere in our Catholic outlook we have lost the fact that life is pain and that pain can be made into something beautiful when offered to Jesus.