A day in the life of...

Reality blog.

I can't get into Abbey2 again - just when some good comments are waiting in line as well! Gerald and Mitchell have comments that must be posted, otherwise they may think I'm blowing them off. I wouldn't do that. By the way - if you are reading this Mitchell, I'm taking your word for it, and if everything comes to an end, I'm moving in with you and Judith.

For awhile, in an effort to reinvent myself, I'm going to keep a real weblog - you know, like a real journal or diary. That is pretty much what these things started out to be anyway, so these entries will be filed under, "A day in the life of" and will be very Eleanor Rigbeyish at that. (This way, if I rip into anyone else's blog, there will be some context to it all... Like, "I woke up really crabby this morning and wanted to bash someone" - not really.)

A day in the life of...

Woke up, got out of bed... about six times during the night. A sure sign of prostatitus again - such a nuisance. This may sound juvenile, but I have a little dim battery operated candle on my nightstand, and a little wooden Infant Jesus with a small image of the Divine Mercy. So when I wake up during the night, I see him immediately and it is kind of consoling because we are eye to eye as it were. Anyway, I immediately begin to pray this way - uniting myself to his silent loving action in the Eucharist, and the offering of himself in the holy sacrifice of the Mass being celebrated throughout the world. With the image of him next to me, I find consolation in the remembrance that he who loves me is looking at me when I look at him.

Because I'm not feeling well, I slept in and missed daily Mass. I got up and had coffee, and prayed for awhile. I always begin my prayer with homage to the Holy Face of Jesus and the prayers of the confraternity. A few written prayers follow - the morning offering and so on. Today I used an old prayer book with morning prayers. Reading prayers such as the acts of faith, hope, and charity is a good practice. As we pray so we believe, and vice-versa. It is good for us.

Formulated prayers.

Very often a priest in confession may instruct us to pray our penance in our own words, which is also good. Unfortunately, for many years, most people have been taught that praying in our own words is better than using formulas or the words of others, such as the saints. And movements and practices such as Centering Prayer and other techniques teach people that no words is a better way to pray. Other masters of prayer teach that no words, no images, no thoughts, is an even better way to pray. That is not true of course, but it makes people feel good and they imagine themselves to be very spiritual and evolved if they pray that way.

No, composed prayers, approved by the Church, and especially the psalms are always the best - they inform our conversation with God, and help us with the proper dispositions and decorum required for entering the Divine Presence. If one has trouble with meditation or discursive prayer, written prayers or vocal prayers, prayed with recollection suffice - which is why the rosary is so wonderful.

I stand corrected.

So anyway, after prayers, I checked the news online, opened my emails, responded to some of them, checked my blog and a couple of other blogs. It seemed to me Elena was offering some fraternal correction my way on her blog, writing about what a gentleman is, and the evils of detraction and calumny. (Sometimes God uses what we post without our intending it.) This caused me to examine my conscience on these things and repent at my mid-day examine. After some bread and coffee, I laid down for a nap, because I'm not feeling well you know. I was troubled thinking I hurt Gerald's feelings and prayed for him, and then dosed off.

I got up about an hour later intending to go to adoration, but I still didn't feel well. I checked my mail and discovered that I couldn't publish comments to AR2, so I spent too much time trying to fix things with the computer, until I realized it was too late to go to adoration anyway. So now I'll clean up, visit the Blessed Sacrament on my way to the store - I go to the store every day for fresh items, come back home, eat dinner, watch TV for awhile, examine my conscience, pray, and go to bed, gazing at the image of Jesus until I fall asleep.

[After re-reading while performing spell check on this post, I doubt I'll be able to post many "day in the life of" posts without boring everyone away from Abbey1.]