Awareness of God

Sabbath Moments is the weekly Saturday meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace. Visit her to read more Sabbath Moments.

Sabbath moments seem to evolve, for me, into gratitude for being able to recognize God’s work and blessings in daily life.  Among the ordinary whirling of our existence everything seems to stop and we are given the grace to see Him and somehow know Him a little better.  Sabbath moments are also times of joy, even in the midst of pain and adverse circumstances because He reveals Himself there, too.

Francie’s friends

My little piano students are quite taken with Francie, so after lessons I give them a handful of her dry food so they can reward her for obedience to their commands.  They go outside on sunny days to do the tricks I’ve taught them and it is such a joy to see them all having such good fun.  No doubt God loves to see His children playing together well, too, and honoring all the saints in heaven who are special to Him as Francie is to me.

Rule of St. Benedict

This week’s meditations on the Holy Rule by Father Placidus Kempf, O.S.B. (RIP) have been a fountain of Sabbath moments.  While many available meditations are set up to complete the reading of the Rule three times a year, the ones I use from St. Meinrad’s for oblates take a full year to finish reading once. Today from the Prologue we read:

Behold, in His loving Kindness the Lord points out to us the way to life.

Father Placidus’ first paragraph stopped me short:

Along our modern improved highways signs help the tourists to reach their destination.  Christ was way ahead of our modern, so-called progress.  Nineteen hundred years ago [this was written in 1978] He erected a huge sign to guide all men to their true destination — the Cross on Calvary.  The only road that leads to heaven passes over Mt. Calvary.  The only true sign to that happy home is the Cross.

People can become very twisted mentally and emotionally if they try to avoid the Cross or rebel against it.  It seems paradoxical to say that running towards the Cross and embracing it is a joy, yet in embracing the Cross we embrace God’s will for us and receive that yoke of Christ with the light burden that He carries with us.

I am now coming to understand that in making the sign of the Cross we not only signify that we belong to Christ and confess the triune Godhead, we are also saying that we accept following Him through suffering and death into perfect union with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

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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.

The Collect for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost evokes such beautiful images of a right relationship with God I find myself rejoicing every time I repeat it at the end of each hour of the Divine Office most days this week.

O almighty and merciful God, of whose gift it cometh that Thy faithful do unto Thee worthy and laudable service: grant us, we beseech Thee, that we may run without stumbling towards the attainment of Thy promises.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end.  Amen.

I cannot help but read this prayer as a little child speaking with her loving Father in total trust. It takes me to Matt. 18:3-4:

Amen I say to you, unless you turn and become like little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

We begin with the vocative case: O almighty and merciful God. This places me in the position of lowliness, of one who lacks power of my own but who has great needs only Someone of great power can provide out of a loving benevolence and mercy. These great needs above all are the forgiveness of sins and the building of virtue.  My heavenly Father listens for my voice.  He waits for my call.

He holds out to me a richly wrapped present I open in delight.  Inside is the bright light of grace as shining from a globe.  This grace/gift is the power to do worthy and laudable deeds that give my Father pleasure.  He has given me a treasure that will never fade or be used up – a treasure I must safeguard if I am to follow His commands.

I see, as in Psalm 23 v.5-6: You spread the table before me…my cup overflows a beautifully decorated banquet table set with every good a child of God could desire.  My Father has prepared it for me – these promises of eternal life and joy are within reach.  As I see it, I run toward it as a young child runs with a somewhat wobbly step. My Father heeds my call to guide my feet without stumbling.

The prayers of the sacred liturgy belong to the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, which offers them to the Father on behalf of all men. I am comforted every time I pray them, knowing they are inspired by the Holy Spirit and infused with the charity of Christ.  This week I will hold on to the image of  me as a child running without stumbling toward the beauty and perfection of heaven.

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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 this meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace where we recount moments when we rested in the Lord or found Him in the ordinary.  Visit her to read other bloggers’ Sabbath Moments.

Supernatural Prudence

This week I’ve spent time pondering meditations from Divine Intimacy. It makes me feel grounded.  Today’s reading covered supernatural prudence vs. human prudence.  The first is the virtue which suggests to us what we should do and what we should avoid to reach eternal union with God.  Human prudence is oriented towards earthly happiness, helping us choose those actions which lead to earthly power or wealth with no orientation towards God.  St. Paul calls it the “wisdom of the flesh” in Romans 8:7 and calls it the “enemy of God.”

It seems to me that supernatural prudence leads to a certain amount of happiness on earth even when we choose to do difficult or repugnant things out of a love of God and our neighbor.  Doing the will of God even in the hard things of life brings peace and happiness.  That’s what suffering with joy is all about.

Zinnias

This year I planted zinnia seeds in the east flower bed.  I’ve wanted to grow these tall, colorful flowers for years and finally decided on the best location.  They love the heat and dry conditions of this summer and so are doing very well.  Butterflies flock to them.

Each week I send a few over to my piano students’ mom after their lessons and cut a few to enjoy in the house.  They have no scent so they don’t make me sneeze or get a headache.  My husband loves them, too.  I enjoy their beauty and the continuing surprise of so many different colors.  The zinnia patch is a little bit of heaven.

Pope St. Pius X

Today is the feast of Pope St. Pius X whose motto was “restore all things in Christ.”  He recognized that Christianity was under attack from the Modernists and issued new rules on receiving First Holy Communion and daily Communion to strengthen Catholics’ relationship with God. We enjoy today the fruits of his leadership.  Pope Pius XII canonized him on May 29, 1954.

A few years ago I read the story of his life and learned that he performed some healing miracles during his life.  My Sabbath Moment for today is reflecting on how blessed we are to have had such great 20^th century popes to lead the Church in such troubled times.

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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 the Sabbath Moments meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace.  Visit her to read other Catholic bloggers’ moments this week when they rested in the Lord or when they recognized God in the ordinary.

This week we pulled up the zucchini because it wasn’t producing and, in spite of my spraying, was infested with squash bugs.  The southwest Missouri heat this year has been carrying on much higher and much longer than any year since we moved here in 1993, so the plants had a lot against them.  It reminds me that Jesus said the bad fig tree would have to be cut down and thrown into the fire.  If we associate with people who are giving themselves over to sin (the squash beetles), go to places that lead us to sin (the excessive and enduring heat), we are going to be torn up and thrown into the fire (hell).  Even my veggie garden has the lessons about how to live.

Yesterday, just as Roger and I started to gather veggies, rain started pouring down.  We stayed outside and got soaking wet, enjoying ourselves to the utmost while we picked the fruit of our labors.  I was thanking God for the rain and enjoying myself immensely, knowing that all those negative ions in the rain were doing something good for us and the plants.  Plus, getting wet in the rain is just plain fun.  I guess I’ve never grown up.  The kids across the street were playing outside in the rain, too.  We do have to release our inner child sometimes, don’t we?

Every day I read a life of the saint of the day from the Lives of the Saints by Father Alban Butler, from TAN books.  This week we celebrated the feast of St. Vincent de Paul.  He is a great example of a manly man. He grew up in a family of pig farmers, guarding his father’s pigs.  Shortly after his ordination to the priesthood, he was captured by pirates and carried off to the Barbary coast as a slave where he converted his master and fled with him to France.  Not long after that, he was appointed the chaplain-general of the galleys where he spread hope and joy among the prisoners.  On one occasion he took on a prisoner’s chains so that he could be released to his mother, serving out the sentence for him.

Like our modern day Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, he saw the face of Christ in the poor and suffering.  St. Vincent went into the streets of Paris to gather the children left there to die like Mother Teresa went into the streets of Calcutta to gather the dying. He taught the rich to do works of mercy and founded the daughters of Charity.

I’ve thought a lot about St. Vincent this week.  He is one of the incorruptibles.  God’s favor on his life is a body that didn’t decay in death and is a lesson that purity in a man is saintly, not wimpy. He died in 1660, which is a long time not to have been turned into dust. 

To me, St. Vincent is a great example of someone who made the most of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.  He inspires me to do my best in my circumstances. I won’t do the great things he did, but I can do quiet, small things greatly by following his example.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

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

Awareness of God

Welcome to Sabbath Moments, a weekly meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace.  Visit her to read other bloggers’ times when they “rested in the Lord” or found Him in their daily living.

This week I have once again taken up Divine Intimacy, that great meditation book by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. In Friday’s first meditation he links the Cross with Pentecost by speaking about the Cross and the work of the Holy Spirit in us. His words remind me to stop fighting the yoke Christ has placed on me and get with God’s program for becoming a saint.  I have spent some Sabbath Moments considering the following:

In order to attain sanctity, it is evident that we need the Cross.  To accept God’s will always and in every circumstance implies the renouncement of one’s own will; it is impossible to be conformed to Jesus in everything, “who in this life had no other pleasure, nor desired any, than to do the will of His Father” (St. John of the Cross, Ascent to Mount Carmel I, 13, 4) without renouncing one’s own selfish pleasures.  And all this means: detachment, crosses, sacrifice, self-denial. It means setting out steadfastly on the way indicated by Jesus Himself: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt. 16:24).

This is the path which the Holy Spirit urges and invites us to follow.  Whenever we find ourselves looking for things that are easier, more commodious, or more honorable; whenever we notice we are satisfying our self-love, our pride, or see that we are attached to our own will, let us remind ourselves that all this is far removed from the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and, what is worse, it is an obstacle to His action in us.

The longer we concentrate on the narrow road to that narrow gate, the more we realize we need detachment from the things of this world and the more we will welcome the scrubbing of the Holy Spirit as he polishes our souls. However, just as it’s hard for a mother to scrub the dirty face of her wiggling, struggling child, so we can make our sanctification a lot harder on ourselves by kicking, bucking, and trying to throw off the yoke.  Who wants physical, mental, or emotional pain, broken relationships, financial hardships, and the many losses we face?  How do we bear them?

Here Father Gabriel continues:

By courageously practicing self-denial, we begin the way of conformity to Jesus Crucified; but here, too, our initiatives are disproportionate to the end to be attained; the acts of mortification and self-denial which we make are wholly insufficient to strip us of the old man and clothe us with Christ, with Christ Crucified.

That is why the Holy Spirit, after setting us on the road of the Cross by His inspirations – which tend to make us accept, for the love of God, all that is hard and painful to nature – takes it upon Himself to complete our purification.  He does this by sending us trials, both exterior and interior….

Suffering is necessary for our purification and flowing from this, our participation in the redemptive work of Jesus. The farther we advance along the road of the Cross, the more we shall be sanctified and the more fruitful the apostolate we shall exercise in the Church….

We must not seek the Cross in extraordinary sufferings, seldom, if ever, encountered; we must look for it in the duties, the life, the difficulties, and the sacrifices of each day and each moment. Here we shall find unfathomable treasures, recognizing them by the light of faith, by the aid of the Holy Spirit who urges us to embrace these daily crosses, not merely to endure them — to accept them and offer them willingly, saying with all our heart: “Yes, I want this, even though it seems to crush me!”

We can never remind ourselves often enough of the truth of these words.  They are what suffering with joy is all about.  Lord, I have a long way to go to say “Yes, I want this, even though it seems to crush me!”  Come Holy Spirit and give me wisdom, understanding, knowledge, fortitude, piety, counsel and fear of the Lord.  Let me have Pentecost in my soul every minute of every day.

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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.)

A flash mob in the Beirut City Mall sings “Jesus is Risen”. Hearing the joy of Easter in Arabic words and music reminds us that we must pray for the Christians in the Middle East – that they remain a strong witness to life and love.

I thought this was really gutsy in the middle of the Islam world in a country largely controlled by Hezbollah.  Makes me want to dance.

Awareness of God

Welcome to Sabbath Moments, a weekly meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace.  Sabbath Moments are times we rest in the Lord, being with God rather than doing.  We also experience them when we find God in the ordinary.

On Wednesday an hour or so after giving piano lessons to the two little girls from across the street, we heard a soft tapping at the front door.  There was my 7 year-old student with a handful of weed flowers.  She brought violets, dandelions, and some purple flower that invades everyone’s grass to thank me for teaching her.  One reason I love teaching children is that they are marvelously genuine in their simplicity and expressions of love.

Susu’s glad and generous heart saw the flowers and she picked them especially for me.  Her mom gave her permission to cross the street and bring them over.  It reminded me of when I was her age and picked dandelions and clover to bring to my mother.  To me, weed-flowers are just as pretty as the ones I grow on purpose in the flower beds.  Susu’s gift was priceless.  It reminded me that God is delighted with what we freely give Him. It may be a handful of weed flowers, but if we offer it with love and it is the best we have, we can be assured that He will be happy with it.  “Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3).

Sunday I took the little plastic plant holders left over from planting the impatiens and filled them with potting soil.  I had saved some asparagus bean seeds from last year’s harvest and poked twelve of them into the dirt.  By Friday many of them had begun to sprout.  Yippee!  I may not have to buy the starter plants from Walmart this year.

The temperature dropped into the low 40s so we moved the sprouts into the garage and put them under a light to give them an opportunity to take off unhindered by the gray skies and lower temperatures.  With patience and Son-light we can sprout, too. With the warmth of His love we can produce a good crop of virtues as long as we are planted firmly in the good soil of the Faith.

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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 carnival hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing.  Visit her to read what other Catholic bloggers have written about this week.

This week we’ve been shopping and planting flowers and veggies so I haven’t had the time to blog on some of the subjects I wanted to.  My fibromyalgia makes everything physical that I do take longer and it limits how much I do.  Then there is the recovery time from activity that is necessary.  Nonetheless, I got a couple posts done.

I got tagged for the meme, Why I Love Jesus by Mary at The Beautiful Gate.  It was good to read five reasons why others love Jesus – and humbling, too.  Also, I found some new blogs to appreciate.

At Sabbath Moments I wrote about a couple of things that gave me particular joy this week.

NGC5584:

The expansion rate of the universe is the result of dark energy.  Hmmm.  The universe is expanding.  God’s light fills the darkness. He’s got more than the whole world in His hands.  He has the whole universe in His infinite arms. Scientists may study and discover, but in the end, the Great “I Am” is the real mystery behind it all.  Our God is an awesome God.  I love APOD, NASA, and Hubble for showing us His majesty.

From NASA:

Explanation: Big, beautiful NGC 5584 is more that 50,000 light-years across and lies 72 million light-years away toward the constellation Virgo. The winding spiral arms of this gorgeous island universe are loaded with luminous young star clusters and dark dust lanes. Still, for earthbound astronomers NGC 5584 is not just another pretty face-on spiral galaxy. Home to some 250 Cepheid variable stars and a recent Type Ia supernova explosion, key objects for astronomical distance determinations, NGC 5584 is one of 8 galaxies used in a new study that includes additional Hubble Space Telescope observations to improve the measurement of Hubble’s Constant – the expansion rate of the Universe. The results of the study lend weight to the theory that dark energy really is responsible for accelerating the expansion of the Universe, restricting models that try to explain the observed acceleration without the mysterious dark energy. In this sharp Hubble image of NGC 5584, many of the small reddish smudges are distant background galaxies.

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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 weekly meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace.  Visit her to read other bloggers’ treasured moments with the Lord.

You might not think the death of a beloved pet would be a Sabbath Moment, but in the midst of grief is rejoicing.  Our 16+ year-old rescue dog had a massive stroke Monday and we had her put to sleep.  She was a great watch dog, my husband’s shadow, and a source of laughs as she was something of a clown – a very joyful dog. Considering she was around 114 in people years, we are grateful to God for her company all these years.  We always felt protected – she knew her job and did it well. The house seems too quiet now, and our 5+ year-old rescue dog is without her playmate, but she is already stepping into Gretchen’s big paw prints.  We surrendered this wonderful companion to God who gave her to us in the first place.

A Clean Heart Create in Me O God is the subject of a post I wrote this week.  Writing thoughts from meditation is always a Sabbath Moment.

One of St. Thomas Aquinas’ meditations for Lent was about the Samaritan woman and her method of preaching to her fellow townspeople.  It is a short lesson on presenting Jesus to newcomers.  I loved the fact that St. Thomas showed how the Christian can evangelize by telling a conversion story.  The personal lessons told to others of “I once was lost and now am found” carry a lot of weight.

So, how is your Lent going?

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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.)

King David Playing the Zither, Andrea Celesti (1637-1712 Venice), oil on canvas, private collection

Welcome to Praying the Psalms, hosted by Jenny at Just a Minute.  Visit her to read others’ thoughts on this psalm.

Sometimes we forget that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as devout Jews prayed the psalms.  In this psalm we hear Christ’s longing for His Father and the clear condemnation of liars and murderers, particularly the deceitful demons who desire our souls. Father Paschal Botz, O.S.B. writes:

…He kept constant vigil for the Father, also during the watches of the night.  His humanity is also the hand that grips us tightly and leads us to the Father.  True God and man, He came to pick up mankind and bring us home.  Therefore, His heavenly longing was for our benefit.

vs. 1-4 O God, You are my God whom I seek; for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.  Thus have I gazed toward You in the sanctuary to see Your power and Your glory, for Your kindness is a greater good than life; my lips shall glorify You. [True thirst is very painful.  Parched, thirsty earth like a parched, thirsty soul cannot bear life. The mad seeking of satisfaction on earth is the sign of a parched soul seeking God, even when she does not realize it - seeking to bear the life of grace and union with the Trinity.

When we are shriveled in sin, if we turn our gaze toward God, we will see His power and glory in His mercy. It is almost impossible, maybe really impossible, for us to comprehend the depth and breadth of God's love for each of us individually.  When we assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we see Him with our spiritual eyes in the sanctuary and glorify Him with the voice of the Church. His kindness is a greater good than earthly life - it is our eternal inheritance for seeking and following Christ.]

vs. 5-9  Thus will I bless You while I live; lifting up my hands, I will call upon Your name.  As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied, and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise You.  I will remember You upon my couch, and through the night watches I will meditate on You: that You are my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I shout for joy.  My soul clings fast to You; Your right hand upholds me. [If we praise God faithfully on earth, meditate on the mystery of His love day and night, we have, through our free will, placed ourselves under His protection.  We have every reason to shout for joy because no one and nothing can separate us from Him.  Our souls are satisfied in the reception of the Holy Eucharist, the richest banquet we have ever been invited to.

In times of temptation, if we retreat evermore into His shadow, the Enemy cannot come close.  We are borne above evil by His powerful wings.

The more attached we are to Christ, the right hand of the Father, the more He upholds us, for surely we have not the power to uphold ourselves.]

vs. 10-12 But they shall be destroyed who seek my life, they shall go into the depths of the earth; they shall be delivered over to the sword, and shall be the prey of jackals.  The king, however, shall rejoice in God; everyone who swears by Him shall glory, but the mouths of those who speak falsely shall be stopped. [Jackals live in dry, open country, hunt at night, and prey upon small creatures.  Like predatory demons, they seek the weak and darkened intellects and wills.  If we kill the life of Christ in ourselves or facilitate the killing and drying up of grace in others, we will be torn apart spiritually - darkened and disintegrated. Christ our King rejoices in our Father.  All who swear by Him ("I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" - Jn. 14:6) will share His glory.  Meanwhile, those who align themselves with Lucifer, who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning (Jn. 8:44), will be in eternal pitch blackness - destroyed with no hope.  Lord, let me seek You and look toward You and swear by Your Truth always.]

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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 a wonderful meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace where we share special moments with and from God this past week.

The homeschooling mom who lives across the street asked me to teach her two little girls, 7 and 9, beginning piano.  I love teaching kids music.  Something truly exciting happens in my heart when I see the look of recognition, the “Oh, I get it now” expression on their faces, and see them happy in learning.  Moreover, I love helping children develop skills and overcome obstacles.  It’s a welcome challenge to think of ways to help them learn.  Our weekly lessons are a blessing from God – it is a joy to be trusted to help a child learn, a very high honor.

I am horrified at the earthquake and tsunami Japan has suffered this week.  How sad for the loss of life!  How sad the consequences of this disaster!  We all can see the suffering 24/7, yet cannot comprehend the true awfulness.  It strengthens my resolve to make a good Lent for the salvation of souls.  I just wish that somehow, out of this, we would have many conversions in Japan, which could be such a powerful Christian country.  May God bless the survivors and bring them to Himself.

The sun finally came out on Thursday after days and days of sullen skies and rain.  The birds were singing, too. Will there be singing birds in heaven?  I hope for the new heaven and new earth, the new body and beatific vision.  Maybe one of the reasons we suffer on earth with sin, disease, war, famine, etc. is so that when we have courageously followed Christ through it all we will appreciate heaven all the more.

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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 Sabbath Moments, those times during the week when we are quiet with God or aware of Him acting in our lives.  Please join us with a post of your own by visiting Colleen at Thoughts on Grace and signing up on Mr. Linky.

Every morning when I pray the Divine Office, our part Boxer girl joins me on the bed and snuggles up tight.  She is absolutely quiet.  I thank God for this rescue dog who is ever an example of what my trust in God and devotion to Him should be.  She is a joy, great for laughs, and a wonderful companion.

My relationship with Francie reminds me of Proverbs 8: 30-31: I was with him forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before him at all times; Playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men.

It was Christ’s delight to be with us, the children of men, playing before the Father.  Sometimes I forget that Jesus wishes us to delight in Him the way He delights in us. Francie brings that message home to me.

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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.)

Welcome to another edition of Sunday Snippets hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing. Visit her to catch up on other Catholic bloggers’ posts for the week.

Sometimes God gives us Christmas early in the generosity of others.  I wrote about it at A Triple Good Day.

For quick meditations on the beautiful O Antiphons, I posted links to my short thoughts on each one from last year.  You can access them all from this post.  Also you will find here Zoltan Kodaly’s beautiful Veni, Veni Emmanuel.

Out of the mouths of babes: a little boy was standing in line at the mall to see Santa.  He looked at his mom and asked: “Where’s the line to see Jesus?” Out of this innocent question came a beautiful song in country western style that’s had over 1.2 million hits since it went up November 28.

My Christmas greetings to everyone will be posted in a day or so, so please drop by to see my custom-designed card.

Thank you for visiting and

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.)

Some days are just heaven sent.  Today is one and I’d like to share the joy with you.

The sun is shining after days of cold and windy weather.  It feels sooo good to glance outside and see it.

Duck hunter at work

Last week I met a man at the therapy pool who hunts every chance he gets and never comes home empty-handed. He said he had more Mallard duck breasts than he needed and also too much venison.  He got a couple of doe recently and is going out again with his nephew this weekend.

Today at the fitness center he brought me two duck breasts, a pound of ground venison, a venison steak and some frozen salmon he caught wild in Alaska this year. He also offered me a deer from this coming weekend’s hunting if he and his nephew get their limit.  Processing is only $75.

This is such an enormous blessing because grocery prices are going through the roof and we don’t get a Social Security increase this year to cope with the situation.  I’ve been putting things in the Lord’s hands and He is not disappointing.

The third good thing so far – the day’s only half over – is that the crock pot is full of my home made chili for dinner tonight.  Roger will be so happy to eat one of his favorite foods.  I used the ground venison the good man gave me today and some ground beef, too.  Already it smells great.

How about you?  What blessings can you count for today?

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.)

P.S. Yesterday I posted on how to use the Google Wonder Wheel, the Easiest Idea Generating Tool Writers Can Use over at my editing&proofing.com blog.  Just in case you’re interested.