Feast of St. Thomas More

"I die the King's good servant, but God's first."

Prayer for Religious Liberty

O GOD OUR CREATOR,
from your provident hand we have received
our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
You have called us as your people and given us
the right and the duty to worship you, the only true God,
and your Son, Jesus Christ.
Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit,
you call us to live out our faith in the midst of the world,
bringing the light and the saving truth of the Gospel
to every corner of society.

We ask you to bless us
in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty.
Give us the strength of mind and heart
to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened;
give us courage in making our voices heard
on behalf of the rights of your Church
and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.

Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father,
a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters
gathered in your Church
in this decisive hour in the history of our nation,
so that, with every trial withstood
and every danger overcome —
for the sake of our children, our grandchildren,
and all who come after us —
this great land will always be “one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

I would be remiss if I didn't post anything about the 'Fortnight For Freedom.'  Please visit USCCB and learn how you can participate in this effort to maintain our Constitution's first freedom.

  

Feast of the Sacred Heart

In the apparitions to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Jesus gives these twelve promises for those who are devoted to His Sacred Heart.

1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
2. I will establish peace in their families.
3. I will console them in all their troubles.
4. They shall find in My Heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of their death.
5. I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source of an infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.
9. I will bless the homes where an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honored.
10. I will give to priests the power of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be effaced.
12. The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under my displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments; My heart shall be their assured refuge at that last hour.

An Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Most sweet Jesus, humbly kneeling at Thy feet, we renew the consecration of our family to Thy Divine Heart. Be Thou our King forever! In Thee we have full and entire confidence. May Thy spirit penetrate our thoughts, our desires, our words and our deeds. Bless our undertakings, share in our joys, in our trials, and in our labors. Grant us to know Thee better, to love Thee more, to serve Thee without faltering.

For Greater Glory

Just had to say that I'm so very eager to see this movie!  

http://www.forgreaterglory.com/

The Jesus Prayer

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

I first learned about the Jesus Prayer only a couple of years ago.  It’s a very ancient form of prayer, commonly practiced today by the Eastern and Orthodox Christians.  The idea is that you repeat a simple, powerful phrase over and over again, until it becomes a part of you.  It can be as simple as repeating the name of Jesus, or it can be a line of scripture that speaks to you -- say, St. Thomas' "My Lord and my God." The Jesus Prayer as printed above is mentioned in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, so I've stuck with it. 

We don’t think about our breathing, or our heartbeat – they’re just a part of what keeps us going.  In the same way, if a prayer is repeated often enough, at several times a day, it too can become a part of what keeps us going.

Some people like to use knotted prayer ropes called chotkis when praying the Jesus Prayer.  It helps them to keep track of how many times they’re repeating the prayer.  Sound familiar?  Yes, the more Western-style Rosary is a takeoff on this older idea.  Although the Rosary is a beautiful prayer, I have to admit that I sometimes lose track of where I am in it.  I lose focus because I’m busy counting my Hail Marys, or I suddenly blank on which mystery I’m supposed to be meditating on.  It's irrational, but I can't shake the grade-school feeling that if I only say 9 Hail Marys, then I've totally messed up, and my Rosary doesn't 'count.' 

The remarkable simplicity of the Jesus Prayer is very appealing to me because I can lose myself in it.  There’s not a lot to memorize, and keeping track of the numbers is unimportant.   Take your time with it at first, and focus on the meaning of each word.  I’ve heard that there’s even a proper way to “breathe” the prayer:  inhale on ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,’ and exhale on ‘have mercy on me, a sinner.’   Find your own rhythm.  Regardless of  whether you sync up your prayer to the beat of your feet on your morning run, the machinery at your job, or the hum of the dishwasher, it’s possible to bring prayer into every quiet moment of your day.             

You’ve heard that we are to “pray without ceasing.”  You may also have heard the terms “interior prayer” or “breath prayer.”  This is how you do that.  

Yep, I'm alive.  And so is this blog, although I'll admit that it's had a heck of a long nap.  It's about to get more active, though -- and in a slightly different way.  We've decided to make some changes in our lives, and this blog needs to reflect that.  Let me explain.

I have always loved to travel, and often wished I could do more of it.  I love exploring new places, just walking around and getting the feel of a town, a city, a country.  Ron & I have taken some vacations in Europe, but never for longer than a week or so.  When we've traveled, we've often said,"You know, we really should find a way to bring the kids on a long trip somewhere -- for a month, at least! -- to really soak in the culture."  But that's hard to do with a regular 9-to-5 job, and a regular September-to-June school year.

Well, Ron has left the corporate world, and has been doing a lot of consulting work, some speaking engagements, and other projects and investments that don't require him to be in one geographic location.  It's given us both a chance to think about what we want for ourselves and our children.  As much as we love living in Simsbury, there's a great big world out there, and we feel that we need to expose our kids to it.  And so, we've decided to pull them out of school, and travel around the world for a year or so.  We'll stay in one place for a month or so, then make side trips from there.  So, for example, we'll rent an apartment in Vienna for a few months, but take trips (ranging from a day to a week) to Berlin, Prague, Krakow, etc.  We'll plan a route, but not too thoroughly.  Some days, we'll be out & about, visiting museums & sights; some days, we'll be laying low, just studying or relaxing.  We'll do our best to be living among the locals -- visiting local markets & churches, and (hopefully) making some friends.    

To my mild surprise, there are lots of families who do this.  It's known as road-schooling, or world-schooling.  Think of what you know about homeschooling, and multiply it by 30 or 40.  That's how valuable this experience could be.  Honestly, there are so many resources out there for educating your kids on your own, and nowadays, it's all available digitally. 

The over-arching theme of our travel is Searching For the Universal Catholic Church.  In America, we've become very tightly focused on what it means to practice our faith *here.*  We rarely think about what being a Catholic means in a place like China, or Egypt, or Cambodia.  We hope to make contact with as many 'local' Catholics as we can, and get to know them a little.  We want to hear what their faith means to them, and how they live it on a day-to-day basis.  We want to learn what they love about being Catholic, and what they really don't like about it.  From their answers, I hope we'll be able to distill some sense of the Universality of the faith.      

So, that's the brief version.  Right now, the first step is selling our house.  Know of anyone who's in the market for a really nice place?                          

St. Luke - October 18, 2011

Okay, so I'm late.  I meant to post this yesterday, but it was just one of those crazy, can't-seem-to-finish-one-task-before-another-one-pops-up sort of days.  As it turns out, today is a *perfect* day for soup, and what's our recipe for St. Luke's feast day?  A traditional soup from Poland.  God has a plan for everything.  :) 

This soup is based on an old chant that says, "Sw. Lukasz, co w polu szukasz?"  ('On St. Luke's Day, what are you looking for in the fields?')  The idea is that, by October 18th, all work in the fields should have been completed, and all of the harvesting should be finished.  This vegetable-beef soup is a very loose and flexible recipe.  It's intended to use up your remaining summer vegetables (tomatoes, corn), plus incorporate traditional 'autumn' ingredients like cabbage and root vegetables.  In fact, another version of this recipe I stumbled across lists only beef, cabbage, corn, and tomatoes, but suggests adding peas, squash, -- any vegetables you have on hand, really. 

On that note, I think I've just figured out what to do with those turnips that showed up in my farmshare bag...

St. Luke's Day Soup

Makes 6 servings

    1 pound beef chuck roast, cut into bite-sized pieces           
    6 cups beef bouillon    
    1 onion, finely diced

    3 stalks celery, diced      

3 carrots, sliced   

1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes with liquid   

1 bottle beer, preferably amber or darker   

1 large red potato, finely diced
    1/4 cup barley    

1/4 cup lentils    

1/2 cup corn   

1/2 head cabbage, diced  

                                      

Heat small amount of oil in large stockpot, and brown beef.  Add beef stock, onion, celery, and carrots; simmer at least 30minutes, and up to several hours.  Add remaining ingredients, and season with salt & pepper, and parsley.  Continue to cook at least 30minutes until soup thickens slightly. 

Served with crusty bread -- no salad needed.