I'm writing this tonight for tomorrow so I can satisfy my OCD need to post every day.
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It was far too hot to work outside much today - err, yesterday - in fact I think I had too much sun, so I had to go in. I moved the birdbath to outside the kitchen window since that is where I pray now days - at the kitchen table - when I glance out the window, I'll see the birds. Isn't that odd? I no longer use the area I set aside for prayer, surrounded by relics and retablos and santos and icons, instead I pray in the kitchen, with one of the cats on a rug at my feet. I don't know what it is, but a little holy card of OL of Mt. Carmel and one of a priest saying Mass are the only images that attract me lately. It is good to become more simple - getting older does that.
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Since I was indoors, I also diddled on the computer, and while online I discovered some new things about a few people I know, quite by accident. On one site I realized a deceased deacon had been the grandfather of a young woman who once worked for me. I came across he and his wife's name on a dissident Catholic website which advocates gay lifestyle and education. I immediately understood the family's estrangement from one another, especially as it concerned her gay uncle. While it is unfortunate that a person's sexuality can cause division within families and social groups - it is particularly understandable in Catholic circumstances. Especially when one side accepts Church teaching on faith and morals, while the other side literally seeks to undermine that teaching. Indeed, it is even a source of scandal when one was an ordained minister in the Church.
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I understand my friend and her family much better now. I think it is a great suffering for families to know their loved ones reject Catholic teaching.
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On the same site I noted that the grandmother shared her husband's title of deacon, it read, "Mr. and Mrs. became deacons at such and such Catholic parish." The husband gets ordained - not the wife, they are not both deacons. That site and its members are actually protestants.
Will you bear with me if this is too long? There's so much food for thought in this post and a good deal of resonance.. except for heat/sun -- the east coast is in day 5 or 6 of what the west coasts needs more.
ReplyDeleteI find birds hilarious and cats, friends (they are all innocents), so it's nice to pray near them. You've presented a picture of great serenity, and getting older (simplifying) is more tolerable than I'd have guessed.
I just established, seemingly accidentally, a little prayer corner. I don't think it was for my sake as much as for the Lord's honour and for greater focusing, but it is somewhere to keep a sudden book of intentions, a DR Bible, and a flickering candle. I found that an old (and for years, useless) padded footstool that I'd planned as a seat is actually better as a kneeler. Above this little table which holds 12 antique books and now, 2 antique elbows, there's a huge wooden crucifix on the wall. It's from a neighbour whose uncle was gay--our neighbour is fallen away, and it is his (dead) uncle's Cross. At some point, a rivet came out of the left Hand of the Corpus, and was repaired with a bent nail. I note the one in the Feet is gone, too, and I will let others replace that as well. I always pray for gay Ray, there --little did his nephew expect that, and I pray for the nephew, too. However, I find I can't focus on the Cross so far above me (small corner--straight up!), so I brought over a small rendition of Christ that a Cardinal painted long ago--you probably know the one--He is in maroon robe and His Heart, which He indicates, is visible through His white robe. Husband's aunt's larger painting is what I want within view when I'm dying.
Mostly, I wanted to mention the Scapular promise about the first Saturday after someone's death..what comfort, both personally and regarding others. That promise may be enough to nudge me back into wearing mine, but since my mom didn't wear one, I've hoped there are spiritual scapulars noted by the Lord--perhaps some are carved straight into a heart. Like my mom's. I hope she left her state of purging on that first Saturday. Thank you for this post, too.