What day could be better to rejoice in after Gaudete Sunday than the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas? Thanks, Blessed Pope John Paul II.  She is the main patroness of this blog.  If you would like to read the story I wrote about her, go here.

I also wrote: Our Lady of Guadalupe: Feast in Advent which tells how her first appearance relates to Advent and features a gorgeous painting by Norma Salazar.

America has the power to lead the world morally (but she’s not); the foundation of morals is Life (God).  May Our Lady of Guadalupe obtain the grace necessary for our country to set the moral example for all nations to choose life for all their people and stop killing babies in the womb, stop euthanasia, stop organ harvesting from prisoners, and all the other offenses against God that insult the Author of life and destroy His creation.

May many more selfless people in imitation of the selflessness of the Mother of God, rise up to witness to God’s love for every person.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever!

(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.

Welcome to Sunday Snippets, a weekly meme hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing. Won’t you join us over there and see what other Catholic bloggers wrote about this week?

Sensus Fidelium and the Immaculate Conception has a bit about the dogma and my favorite image of the IC by Reubens. I would love to have this painting on a holy card.  The ones most commonly reproduced are by Murillo.

In Sabbath Moments I write about the Mass I attended on the feast of the Immaculate Conception and about St. Benedict’s caution against evil zeal.

I’m ready for winter to be over and it’s hardly begun!  This image from the Marianas makes the cold weather endurable.  I’d love to go swimming in the warm Pacific water.

Sunset over Saipan, (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever!

(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.

Awareness of God

Welcome to Sabbath Moments, a meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace.  Visit her to enjoy other bloggers’ Sabbath Moments – those times when we pause in our daily lives to see God at work.

Mass on the feast of the Immaculate Conception

We naturally think of being at Mass as a Sabbath Moment, but this Extraordinary Form Mass was especially beautiful.  The priest wore a Roman chasuble made of white satin.  On the back was a blue cross extending the width and height of the garment.  In the center was embroidered in gold a very fancy “M”.  In retrospect I wish I would have thought to bring my camera because the altar was also very beautiful, prepared for the Holy Sacrifice.

Six altar boys, all with various responsibilities, dressed in black cassock and surplice, behaved very prayerfully and reverently.  We could tell they were focused on the great mystery at hand.  They didn’t miss a step in fulfilling their somewhat complex role during a High Mass.

The choir is all girls and women.  I could tell they had worked very hard on the sacred music that accompanies a High Mass.  Since the choir loft is elevated above the main floor and the acoustics are good, their blend both in chant and harmony gave the impression of angels.  I’m sure God was very pleased with the honor given Him by all at this Mass, especially by those whose role is integral to the sacred liturgy.

One thing I remember from Father’s sermon: that the hearts of Jesus and Mary are inseparable and that they beat in unison.  Mary was the perfect Christian while she was on earth.  None of us will be that perfect, but the unity of mind and heart between Jesus and Mary is what we are to direct our wills toward in this life.  Mary is our example.  Saint Paul told the Romans, chapter 15: 5-6 what we see clearly in the Immaculate Conception:

Now the God of endurance and of encouragement give to you to be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus; that ye may with one accord, with one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

From the moment of her conception, saved from original sin through the merits of Jesus Christ, Mary, our Mother, is the one to help us become of one heart, mind, and soul with God.  The Immaculate Conception is about unity with God.

The Rule of St. Benedict

Today’s reading on chapter 72, “As there is an evil zeal, which separates from God and leads to hell…”, reminded me of Mary’s writings on the Seven Deadly Sins over at The Beautiful Gate.  The commenter on this passage writes:

Zeal can be twofold.  One is of an evil nature, the other is of God.  One leads to hell, the other leads to heaven…

Zeal, says Abbot Marmion, is “a flame of love, or of hatred, manifested by action” (Christ the Ideal of the Monk, p. 397).  In Holy Scripture, zeal often means an evil tendency of the soul, such as jealousy, envy, greediness, selfishness in searching our own good instead of our neighbors. In the 2nd Book of Kings, Jehu had zeal which was bitter and harsh.

The Pharisees were zealous.  We call them zealots because they were zealous about their own prerogatives.  They were not zealous about God’s rights.  A monk, enthusiastic about reform, but who does not have Christ first in his endeavors, but only self, could be said to have an evil zeal, which could become “savage, severe, unloving, unsympathizing” (Herbert Van Zeller, The Holy Rule, Notes on St. Benedict’s Legislation for Monks, p. 455)…

St. James in his epistle also warns us that “where zeal and contention is: there is inconstancy and every evil work” (3:16).  W put aside this bitter zeal to concentrate, as does St. Benedict, upon the good zeal that leads to God and everlasting life.

This commentary makes for a good examination of conscience on the virtue of charity.  From a psychological standpoint, it seems to me that if I am full of bitter zeal, I am busy pointing fingers at others to avoid facing my own faults and inadequacies.  Jesus warned against this in Matt. 7:5 and Luke 6:42: Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

In this season of Advent when we are preparing room to receive Jesus into our hearts on His birthday, we can ask His Mother to help us have holy zeal for the kingdom of God.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever!

(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.

Immaculate Conception c.1626, Peter Pauwel Reubens, oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid

Today is the 65th anniversary of my Baptism.  I’ve often thought how very blessed I am to have been received into the Church on this day when the Church celebrates Mary’s Immaculate Conception.

Now, on to the sensus fidelium part of this post. The Latin words mean “sense of the faithful”. It refers to doctrinal truth recognized (sensed) by the whole body of the faithful. This concept can be traced back to the early Fathers of the Church.

In the case of the Immaculate Conception we have the belief that Mary was conceived without original sin existing from the earliest days Church.  Throughout the centuries, this doctrine was commonly held by the faithful (sensus fidelium) without question.  It wasn’t until December 8, 1854, however, that the dogma was officially pronounced.  Blessed Pope Pius IX issued ex cathedra the Apostolic Constitution, Ineffabilis Deus, in which he said:

We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.

As Catholics, we give full assent to this dogma with our will and intellect.  The issuance of the Apostolic Constitution closed the door on any theological debate over this dogma forever, and the Pope only did it after hearing from all the faithful through their bishops.

We can look back to 1854 and see how important the official declaration of this dogma was.  With all the bold, ugly attacks on the Virgin Mary and Jesus by various kinds of people in the 20th and 21st centuries, the Catholic Church holds Mary up as the model to emulate in the face of all this blasphemy.  Moreover she watches over us brothers and sisters of Christ and never fails to encourage us to live the way God created us to live.

We celebrate her feast and honor her because God singled her out to be the immaculate Mother of Jesus, our Savior.  In the midst of secularism, materialism, and all the other “isms” in this world, we can glorify God for His generous love through the gift of Mary and her Immaculate Conception.

Many artists have portrayed the Immaculate Conception with similar themes.  My favorite is the one by Reubens.  You can see the references to Mary in Genesis and Revelation here, along with the symbols of purity and victory held by the cherubs.  What I like best is the gold Reubens used for the rays and the gentle, humble expression on her beautiful face.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever!

(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.

Welcome to Sunday Snippets, a meme hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing. Thanks to RAnn for doing this every week.

This week I wrote a meditation on last Sunday’s Mass prayer: Run Without Stumbling.

The Nativity of Mary is a link to a great reflection on the Blessed Mother at Rorate Caeli blogspot.  I also put a beautiful painting by Ghirlandaio: The Birth of Mary in the post.

Fooling Ourselves is about how to know if we are really doing God’s will or not.

The Catholic Thing is a link to a post over at that blog on The Anti-Catholic Moment along with a comment.

Sabbath Moments is mostly about the virtue of justice.

Consolation in Darkness contains some great stuff from Abbot Gregory Polan, OSB, of Conception Abbey.  Love the Benedictines!

I will remember when I’m at Mass all those who died in the 9/11 attacks and their families.  Also all the rescue workers and those who survived impaired in some way.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Not a great deal is made of this feast in the Catholic calendar.  True, it is celebrated in the Divine Office and in the propers of the Mass, but it is not a Holy Day of Obligation.  Yet the birthday of Our Lady heralded the immanent coming of the Light that shone in the darkness so I don’t want to let this special day pass without honoring the Mother of God at my blog.

Rorate Caeli published a beautiful meditation on the Nativity of Mary that I recommend to all my readers for a deep appreciation of Our Lady’s role in salvation history.  It is far better than anything I could write:

Our Lady in the Month of Her Nativity

The Birth of Mary, 1486-90, Domenico Ghirlandaio ((b. 1449, Firenze, d. 1494, Firenze), Fresco, Cappella Tornabuoni, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

Immaculate Heart of Mary

Today is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to whom devotion has grown over the ages.  The gospels give us hints at the inner life of the Mother of God which many great saints and Fathers of the Church have written of over the years.  One of my favorite passages happens at the presentation of Christ at the temple where Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart (Lk. 2:19)

Mary always has been the model of the contemplative aspect of the soul which invites the heart to open itself to God. The word “pondering” in Greek is sumballó, meaning “I throw together, hence: I ponder, come up with, encounter, with or without hostile intent; I dispute with.”  A scripture scholar once explained it as Mary tossing these ideas around in her heart like one tosses a ball from hand to hand. Luke doesn’t say that Mary discussed these words with others, but rather that she kept them to herself meditating on them, as we would describe it.

Another word in this passage, “heart”, in Greek is kardia, meaning “the heart; mind, character, inner self, will, intention, center.”  The word “heart” is used over 800 times in the Old and New Testaments, and never to mean the physical pump that drives blood through our bodies.  Its meaning is always figurative.

When we consider both of these Greek words we can see that Mary’s pondering Simeon’s words were at the center of her being. Because her heart was free of concupiscence and selfish desires due to her Immaculate Conception, she was completely pure – clean of anything that would prevent her from seeing God’s loving will in Simeon’s words, even though she had to consider their meaning deeply.

We are so fortunate to have God reveal Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ and His teachings.  Today’s feast is one to inspire great joy in us as we can resolve to ponder, as Mary did, these things in our hearts. She is the Queen Mother of the King of Kings who carries nothing but the greatest of love for us; we who are so precious to her Son that He gave His life for us.

No matter how busy we are in our lives, taking a few moments every day to shut out the intrusive racket of the world and ponder the word of God in our hearts makes us more like Mary.  Let us ask the favor of the Queen Mother to help us take the Word into our hearts as she did, so that our wills become strengthened, our intellects become brightened with the light of Christ, and He becomes the center of our being.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Awareness of God

Welcome to Sabbath Moments, a Saturday meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace.  Visit her to read of moments other bloggers had when “being” with God rather than “doing” touched their lives, and when they found Him in the ordinary.

This week Roger and I judged the 4H photography entries for the county.  Although there were less than 20 entries, we found some real talent in those young people.  The top blue ribbon went to a young man who captured a moment of God’s majesty in a lightening storm.  On the left was half a rainbow.  From the right, reaching across a gloomy sky to the rainbow were two bolts of lightening. The young man who captured this moment on film was only 15.

I love to see how God blesses His children with talents and I loved writing suggestions for improvement to each of the kids who worked hard to submit images.  We don’t know what plans God has for these young people, but we do know that they will help others find Him in beauty.

This morning in the Divine Office of the Blessed Virgin on Saturday the lesson from Prime comes from Cant. 2:10-17.  For years I’ve pondered its meaning and today I finally understood at least a little of it.  This passage is the Church, the Bride of Christ speaking of the Savior who “feeds among the lilies” (the pure and chaste) until the day break (the 2^nd coming) and the shadows retire (no more death, suffering, demonic power against His bride).

My Beloved speaks to me: Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come.  For winter is now past, the rains are over and gone.  The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come: the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.  The fig tree has budded her green figs; the vines in flower yield their sweet scent.  Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come.  My dove in the clefts of the rocks, in the hollow place of the wall, show me thy face, let thy  voice sound in my ears; for thy voice is sweet and thy face comely.  My beloved to me and I to him who feeds among the lilies, till the day break and the shadows retire.

I know there is much more symbolism to ponder in this passage, but I’m thrilled to have finally gotten a start in probing the depths.  My takeaway from this sudden burst of understanding is that we must spend time every day looking for scriptural understanding, whether it be in reputable blogs, books, or meditation.  If I had not stumbled upon a convert’s post about the psalms being the prayer of the Church, I would not have thought to look at this passage as the Bride of Christ speaking of Her relationship with our Savior.

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.  I believe the Blessed Mother gave me this sudden gift of understanding today, even though I don’t deserve it.  But isn’t that what a loving mother does – gives her kids signs of affection just because?

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Since Friday, July 1, is the feast of the Sacred Heart, I want to get ready for it by considering what devotion to Jesus’ Sacred Heart means.

In Divine Intimacy Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene writes:

St. Paul, in his beautiful Epistle (Eph. 3: 8-19), urges us to penetrate further into the Heart of Jesus to contemplate His “unsearchable riches” and to enter into “the mystery which hath been hidden from eternity in God.”  This is the mystery of the infinite, divine love which has gone before us from all eternity and was revealed to us by the Word made flesh; it is the mystery of the love which willed to redeem us and sanctify us in Christ “in whom we have…[free] access to God.

Again Jesus presents Himself as the door which leads to salvation.  “I am the door.  By Me if any man enter in he shall be saved” (Jn. 10: 9).  This door is His Heart, which wounded for us, has brought us into life.  By love alone can we penetrate this mystery of infinite love, but not any kind of love will suffice. As St. Paul says, we must be rooted and founded in charity.”  Only thus shall we be able “to know…the charity of Christ which surpasseth all knowledge, that [we] may be filled unto all the fullness of God.”

Putting it simply, devotion to the Sacred Heart is devotion to the love of Christ and thus, to Christ Himself who is perfect charity.

To be devoted to someone means we move ourselves to care deeply about that person.  We are attentive to the wishes, desires, and  needs of the person.  We try to anticipate his needs and to assist him in achieving his desires.  We suffer with this person and share joy with him. We love and honor this person and desire that others come to know and love him, too. No sacrifice is too great to make for this person, even to the point of giving our life to protect him.

When we understand devotion we can see that devotion to the Sacred Heart is inseparable from caring for our neighbor’s welfare and salvation.  That means living the two Great Commandments to the point of giving our life, if necessary, so others will be saved.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is also inseparable from loving the Blessed Mother, too.  She, being devoted to her Son to the extent of sharing His passion and death for man, is the prime example of how we should live – always united to His Heart and always aware of our role in bringing others to love Him as she does.

Our lives are full of distractions and our concupiscence causes us to want things that are not good for us.  We sin because we are not devoted enough to the love of Jesus. But forming good habits that remind us to grow in devotion to the Sacred Heart is easy.

First, we ask Him to help us remember to think of Him throughout the day.  Then, at the times we think of Him we can say a short prayer like:

Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine.  Or:

Heart of Jesus inflamed with love of us, inflame our hearts with love of Thee. Or:

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus I implore that I may love Thee more and more.

If we form this simple habit of short prayers, our lives will begin to change.  In the burning flame of His Sacred Heart our selfishness and faults will be melted away.  We will see Him more clearly because we will have fewer layers of willfulness and desire for worldly things separating us from Him. As we become more purified, we will be more able to help others to become devoted to Him.

On the feast of the Sacred Heart we can renew our commitment to imitate Him in all things, no matter what our state in life is.  In company with the Blessed Virgin who showed the most perfect devotion to Jesus, we will be ambassadors of His Sacred Heart to the world.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Awareness of God

Welcome to Sabbath Moments, those times we are being rather than doing, or when we experience God acting in a special way in our lives. Colleen at Thoughts on Grace is our hostess for this meme, so be sure to visit her and join the rest of us, even if only to comment.

I find reading others’ Sabbath Moments to be uplifting and encouraging in this world where so many have painted over their windows and locked their doors against God.

I had several Sabbath Moments this week researching and writing about the Rogation Days.  No matter what afflictions we face, the Catholic Church has a sacred liturgy to build mankind up in the Lord. Looking at the liturgy always makes me think of the whole Body of Christ.

clematis "Niobe"

Last week at Sabbath Moments I mentioned ordering my new clematis, “Belle of Woking”.  It arrived on Friday and I planted both.  The heat and humidity will give them a good start.  It’s been my experience that after their first year these plants might put out only one or two blooms and then they really take off.  My “Niobe” has several blooms on it and is building up a lot of foliage – it’s in the second year – and will bloom again later.  Eventually a large area of the fence will be covered with red blooms.

Flowers always remind me of Our Lady.  What little kid doesn’t want to bring flowers to his mother?

We gave more iris and day lilies to our neighbor this week to make room for veggies and additional varieties of iris I want to plant.  It is a joy to share beauty with a good neighbor.  She has the day lilies planted in the corner area of her front yard where they will be showing off for everyone who drives by, and we can see them from our windows. God’s blessing is a good neighbor!

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V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Welcome to Sunday Snippets, a meme hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing.  Visit her to read what other Catholic bloggers have posted this week.

This week I posted about a New Blog Ring you may want to consider joining.  Mary at The Beautiful Gate has started a “Blogging for Jesus” ring.

Our Lady of the Sign is a gorgeous icon I’d love to have.

Sabbath Moments is the meme Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts.  I mentioned a couple of things about being rather than doing this week.

Cat's Eye Nebula

The great Hubble does it again.  Are these colors not gorgeous? Credit: NASA , ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Explanation: Staring across interstellar space, the alluring Cat’s Eye nebula lies three thousand light-years from Earth. A classic planetary nebula, the Cat’s Eye (NGC 6543) represents a final, brief yet glorious phase in the life of a sun-like star. This nebula‘s dying central star may have produced the simple, outer pattern of dusty concentric shells by shrugging off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions. But the formation of the beautiful, more complex inner structures is not well understood. Seen so clearly in this sharp Hubble Space Telescope image, the truly cosmic eye is over half a light-year across. Of course, gazing into the Cat’s Eye, astronomers may well be seeing the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution … in about 5 billion years.

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V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Our Lady of the Sign - The Star of Evangelization

May is Mary’s month and today I bring you an exquisite icon all of us Catholic bloggers can adopt as an image reflecting what we do in spreading the love of Christ to all.

In recent years I’ve really begun to appreciate icons.  Growing up I wasn’t exposed to them except for Our Lady of Perpetual Help.  Every Tuesday evening people would gather at the side altar of our parish church where her picture hung to pray a novena.  We children were taught to have a devotion to her in all our needs.

No one explained what an icon was and I thought they were strange images – so different from the beautiful Renaissance images of Our Lady and the lovely statue of Our Lady of Grace my parents gave me for First Communion.

At first I didn’t like icons at all.  But over the years I felt I was missing something about them and had no idea of their deep and ancient  symbolism.  So I set out to learn more, and doors to understanding our Eastern liturgies and the blessings of icons flew open.

Marek Czarnecki, owner of Seraphic Restorations and writer of the icon in today’s post says this about iconography:

Iconography is a fundamental liturgical art originating in the earliest days of the Christian Church. Developed, practiced and preserved primarily by the Eastern Rite, iconography provides authentic, meaningful and dignified images which exemplify the larger consciousness of the Christian Church. Icons carry a patrimony of both theology and art, conveying essential dogmatic and biographical information, embodying the presence of the holy ones depicted.

One who creates icons is called an “icon writer” and he must follow a prescribed set of rules or Canon.  Czarnecki lists these as:

• Proper compositional structure
• Proper development of a “schema” or design illustrating the historical likeness of the person depicted as well as expressing the truths realized by his or her life in symbols, without altering the integrity of the Canon.
• Proper development of the “schema” using traditionally prescribed colors.
• Use of natural and durable materials
• Development of harmonious, artistic immediacy and beauty without compromising symbolic depth.

If you have ever seen a video of icon writers, you will notice that they always make the sign of the cross before beginning and often fast ahead of time.  This is sacred work.

Our Lady of the Sign – the Star of Evangelization is an adaptation of the ancient Byzantine prototype, written to illustrate Pope John Paul II’s praise of Our Lady as the “star of evangelization”. I think it is the most beautiful icon of Our Lady I’ve ever seen and very fitting for our age when the Popes are repeatedly calling the laity to evangelize.  It was commissioned by Holy Spirit Friary, Franciscan University of Stuebenville OH.

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V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Book Review: Susan Boyle – The Woman I Was Born to Be: My Story

In 2009 a short, frumpy-looking, forty-seven year old, single, shy Scottish woman with what appears to be an anxiety disorder took the world by storm in a very good way.  Among pop music lovers, who has not seen Susan Boyle’s first audition for Britain’s Got Talent on YouTube?

After the first few notes you could hear a pin drop as this frizzy-haired lady’s strong, glorious voice mesmerized listeners.  Eyes that rolled when she declared she wanted to be like Elaine Paige widened in wonder only seconds later when she opened her mouth and the first true, beautiful sounds engulfed a sea of hostile listeners.  Susan Boyle became an international celebrity literally overnight as the video of that evening went viral on YouTube.

Susan tells the story of how she was born with oxygen deprivation that doctors said would make her slow at learning.  However, to the delight of her loving family, she was found to have no issues with learning or intelligence level.  She had plenty of trouble in school, though.

From the descriptions in her book, some kind of anxiety disorder affected her ability to do well on exams and shaped her coping behaviors. In any case, her classmates were not kind to her and this exacerbated her extreme shyness.  However, accompanying that shyness is a feisty spirit that has brought Susan to her current celebrity.

“Baby Steps” Are a Key to Success

One thing you can clearly see when reading her story is that her apparent instant success was the result of many “baby steps” - a phrase she uses to describe how she overcame self-doubt and fear on her path to stardom - a path she did not know she was on – many times in her life.

What I was especially glad to learn was that Susan is a devout, practicing Catholic with deep devotion to Our Lady. She mentions trips to Lourdes with her family and visits to Knock in Ireland.  Love of the Faith is in her DNA through the parents God gave her and she often turned to Our Lady for help as she moved forward little by little.

Three Things Worth Noting About Susan Boyle

First, Susan’s journey to musical fame started privately in her bedroom as a child when she found refuge from bullying in song. Later, a neighborhood pub where she started singing for fun in her early twenties became the next “baby step” in her career.  Over the years she was active in local talent groups and competitions, honing her skills while not believing or understanding how good she really was. She was developing her talent from the very beginning without realizing it.  Susan crushes the myth of “overnight success.”

Second, she lived with her family all of her life, and had no sense of purpose although she had a desire to do good for others. Shortly before she died, her mother admonished Susan to “do something with your life.”  Today she is following that admonition with a sense of purpose and determination, aware and awed at how God is using her to bring people together through her voice.

Third, Susan Boyle is a source of hope and inspiration to many people because she has overcome many emotional difficulties and is continuing to learn to cope better with life’s demands. She did not come from a wealthy, well-placed family, but from ordinary people.  She did not have a lot of advantages as some great in their fields have had.  She was not drop-dead gorgeous. She did not have any friends as a child and few as an adult.  Moreover, she was made fun of by others throughout the years, yet she stepped forward to share with the world the gift God has given her.  She shows herself as fully human with all her foibles in a way that people of all ages can identify with, but especially those afflicted with mental and emotional issues. Susan’s life is a message: it’s never too late to discover why God put you on this earth.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. It’s a beautiful story of God’s love for a simple person, told with humor and openness. Be sure to have a hanky nearby because parts of it are very touching.

Click on the link at the top to purchase this book new or used.

V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Here we are with another round of Sunday Snippets, hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing. Visit her to read other Catholic/Christian bloggers’ posts for the week.

My favorite source for Advent meditation is the beautiful Rorate Caeli Desuper (Advent Prose), both from a music and prayer standpoint.  I wish I had a superb recording of the Benedictines of Fontgombault to put behind a video I’d like to make of it, if only I knew how!

I put several little inspirational things to meditate on quickly at Something to Chew on for Advent.

Advent with Mary and Joseph is an article in the December Una Voce Arkansas Ozarks Regional Newsletter.

At Hail, Mary I put my favorite painting of the Immaculate Conception, quotes from Mass and the Divine Office for the day, and tied it up with a comment on concupiscence. I like short quotes that run in the back of my mind all day on a feast.

Sabbath Moments are real blessings from God.

Praying the Psalms – Psalm 48 is my meditation from a Christmas perspective.

Our Lady of Guadalupe under the title: Morning Star, Norma Salazar Orozco, oil on canvas

Today just wouldn’t be right without a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a link to my article about her along with a quote from my December 11 post from last year.  I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for over a year now!

The painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe in this post is by Norma Salazar Orozco, a gifted Mexican artist from a family of gifted artists.  Visit her site and see how she has used Our Lady’s image from the tilma to illustrate Mary’s different titles.  Among their many subjects, the Orozco family is obviously devoted to honoring the Blessed Mother in art.  If you love art, you will love the work of this family and their story.

V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Sabbath Moments are special times during the week when we experience a closeness to God.  We are conscious of His presence in what we are doing or not doing, as the case may be.  Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts this meme, so visit her to read other bloggers’ Sabbath Moments.

This week I finally overcame the feeling that getting some mending done was just too much trouble. Our house is very small so my sewing machine is in the garage.  We had a day warm enough I could go out and mend a sheet, pillowcase, and a dress, and by golly, it feels great to have that finished after months of procrastination.  Of course, as soon as I got everything washed and put away, I found another pillowcase that needs mending!  lol

We went to Mass on Wednesday, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, at Immaculate Conception parish.  Before Mass was over I suddenly realized that if we prayed for the pope before we left, we had fulfilled everything necessary for a plenary indulgence. Another

I’m squeezing time out to read Father Lovasik’s wonderful book, The Hidden Power of Kindness: A Practical Handbook for Souls Who Dare to Transform the World, One Deed at a Time and also an interesting book titled Meeting With Japan: A Personal Introduction To Its People, Their Culture And Their History by an Italian professor who was interned in Kyoto during WW II.  It’s helping me understand and appreciate my Japanese classic movies a lot more.  The book first came out in 1959 so I’m getting an excellent picture of immediate postwar Japan, which no longer exists except on the silver screen.

The most important thing happening to me is not suffering depression in these days of waning light.  My Natural Health doctor has been a huge gift to hubby and me this year.  This fall marks the first year since I can remember that I am not going through a major battle with depression. Now that makes for a lot of Sabbath Moments.

V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)