Sleigh Bells?

               The Corner Bakery was unusually quiet as Noon approached last Friday.  It was Veteran’s Day, a legal US holiday.  Many of the buildings around this restaurant are government buildings, so it was a great day to meet my sister for lunch.  Although we live only 20 miles from each other, it had been a while since we were able to catch up on our lives.

                I ordered food and found a booth to sit.  As I slid into the booth, I shook my head.  Are they really playing Sleigh Bells?  It’s November 11, nearly two weeks before Thanksgiving and 45 days until Christmas begins.  They are not the only food emporium pushing the holidays.  The red coffee cups at Starbucks came out around Halloween, not Thanksgiving this year. 

                Maybe it is the economy and the news in general.  Perhaps the thinking is that Christmas music (if Sleigh Bells even qualifies) and red coffee cups create festive and cheerful surroundings.  If people are cheerful, will they buy more?

                This early exposure to Christmas celebration seems to bother me more and more each year.  In our house, we celebrate Advent.  We light the Advent wreath each night and read from an Advent book after dinner.  This tradition helps us stay focused on the Advent journey.  My fourteen-year-old son still enjoys lighting the candles.  At a time of year, when darkness arrives at five in the evening, the light and warmth on the table will be welcome.

                I’m not a purest.  Our Christmas tree goes up about 10 days before Christmas.  Much of my shopping done, (as I like to get gifts for family members from places where I’ve travelled) and I do enjoy listening to Christmas music before December 25^th. (I also have two CD’s with Advent music!)  When the radio stations stop playing Christmas music, (or maybe they call it holiday music) at midnight on December 25^th, I have my own CD’s in my car and at home.

                We also celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas.  The readings for the masses between Christmas and Epiphany are beautiful.  Our new family tradition is to have a celebration on Epiphany – the REAL Epiphany – January 6^th, not the day celebrated by our church.

                This week, I’ll buy my Advent candles, plan the family Thanksgiving visit to Michigan, (my home state), look for my Advent CD’s  and enjoy the beautiful fall weather that is forecast . This is the week to enjoy the final days of trees decorated with beautiful color and to walk along Sligo Creek, hearing the crunch of leaves under my feet. 

I’ll spend my time during the season of hope, walking with Mary. When the music begins for mass at Midnight on December 25^th, I’ll be ready to celebrate the birth of our Savior, and thank God for the gift of His Son to us. 

Colorful Leaves and Simple Pleasures

                Last Thursday, I sat in the warm afternoon sun, watching my son’s final high school football game of the season.  It was a beautiful afternoon and I noticed how colorful the leaves were turning on the trees in the background. 

The moment gave me a chance to reflect on the weeks that had passed since the summer time.  I thought back to those mid-August practices with so much heat and humidity.  The days and weeks have flown by so quickly.  My son is now acclimated to the challenges of high school.  We are used to the transportation schedule.  My new clients now are friends. My family has adjusted to the loss of our father-in-law, Jim to complications of diabetes in early August.

How is it that the season has changed, and I am just noticing it?  I know if I don’t take the time to enjoy it, the trees will be barren. The activities of the days blend into each other as the years barrels toward the holidays and the end of the year. 

As I felt the warm sun on my back and looked again at the trees, it dawned on me that was the perfect moment to thank God for these simple pleasures.  They are many! Only God made the trees that turn these beautiful colors.  We truly believe as a family that my son is at his current high school only because of prayer and God's will. My clients have wonderful missions and are making a difference for tens of thousands of children and adults - and I get to be a part of that! My father –in-law is peaceful and not in pain anymore and is enjoying his Eternal reward! My son survived his first year of high school football physically unscathed, and mentally and emotionally stronger.

To God I give thanks and praise for all of these things.  For He “gives us all these gifts. He fills them with life and goodness, blesses them and makes them holy.”[i]  In this crazy-busy world, it I often forget to take time to enjoy simple pleasures.  For today, that simple pleasure is watching 100 fourteen-year-old boys play football, in the warm afternoon autumn sun, while gazing at the beautiful leaves on the trees.  Thank you Lord for these simple pleasures, and for nudging me to enjoy them!

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[i]  From the Eucharistic payer I (Roman canon).

Being Open

                While talking to a friend this morning about a family issue, he said, “It is good to be open (to God’s will).”  Maybe it is good, but it can also be daunting, intimidating and even terrifying, especially for me, who is most comfortable having a plan to execute, not a blank canvas of opportunities.

 

That is where my husband and I are on a current issue.  We haven’t been getting the results in a matter where we were so sure that we were in the place that God wanted us.  So sure, that the potential of looking at other alternatives didn’t even cross our mind.

                So sure, that even when other possibilities were mentioned that we didn’t consider them.  Then a series of encounters, over a short period of time caused me to pray about the possibility.  By not opening that door, and being so sure that we are in the “right” place, are we following God’s plan for us?  The question was unnerving and life changing.  When I discussed it with my husband, opening that door seemed like the right thing to consider.

                Nevertheless, isn’t that always the case with being willing to follow God’s plan for us?  As a child of the 70’s, the goal was to get a good education, find a well paying job, marry a good man, buy a house in a good neighborhood. ... Well, you get the idea.

Here my husband and I are in mid-life with all of those things that we thought were important in life.  Evaluating our future and asking if God has something else for us, something very different, is unnerving.  Will He take us to a place that will completely change our lives?  If we choose not to “be open”, will we miss out on the opportunity for something not only good for us, but also for others?   

We have become “open”.  Open to more than having good jobs to pay the bills.  Open to wanting to do His will.  While neither of us is like Peter, enthusiastically jumping out of the boat to walk on water, we have taken the tentative first steps of trusting in God for the next step in our lives. It has been two weeks since we “became open” and the possibility is still daunting, but not terrifying or even intimidating.  It has brought us closer to each other and to our Lord.

That blank canvas that could be our future doesn’t look empty at all.  It looks filled with opportunities.

Freely choosing what is truly good

               Today (Oct 22, 2011), 33 years ago, an obscure bishop from Poland, Karol Wojtyla, became the Bishop of Rome. The election of Pope John Paul II was a surprise.  I remember following the entire election process as a political science major and a senior in college.  (I’m glad that there wasn’t anything such as CNN at the time.  My grades may have dipped for October 1978!)

                I was not Catholic back then and remember the election of Blessed John Paul II as my first encounter with the Catholic Church as an adult.  Today is the first official feast day for him.   And today I finished George Weigel’s The End and Beginning, the biography about this great man of God.  I didn’t plan to finish it today, but I had 70 pages to go and reading it seemed like an appropriate way to celebrate his first feast day.

                Weigel says, “Freedom, John Paul II taught for decades, is not a matter of doing what we like, but of freely choosing what is truly good.”  Also on this day, I watched a news show about the demonstrations that began in New York and are now present in major cities throughout the country.

                I’m all for demonstrations.  Free speech is a hallmark of the United States and peaceful, respectful demonstrations are a unique American experience.  However, these demonstrations are not respectful and it appears that these people are truly lost.  They don’t have something solid on which to base their life.  “We want, we demand” seems to be their mantra.  Moreover, they all don’t even want the same thing!  They don’t understand that no matter how much they have, if they don’t allow God to fill that hole in their hearts, they will live unfulfilling lives.  A college degree is not a guarantee of success or happiness, or a job or even free healthcare.

                Our current American culture sets us up to focus on material things and on ego gratifying goals.  Yet, each day, we deal with situations in which we can “freely choose what is truly good”.  Much of these decisions are contrary with the norm.  How do we choose to treat others when we are in a hurry to rush to our next event of the day?  Is there time to call that elderly friend or relative today, or is the choice to watch TV or update Facebook.  And as we approach the Christmas holidays, how much of the money I spend will I allocate to those who truly are in need?

                These are simple daily choices that I make that can make the difference between “doing what I like or freely choosing what is truly good”.  Thank you Blessed John Paul II for allowing me to think about freedom in a different way today.

Hello readers.  I wrote the message below to my women's prayer and bible study group at home.  I thought it was worth sharing more broadly.

Hello Women of St. Bernadette from Rome!

Courtney, Karen and I are three of 38 pilgrims being led by Monsignor Smith on a pilgrimage to Italy.  Today (Thursday) was a highlight.  We attended the Deaconate Ordination of Pat Lewis, a man who grew up as a member of St. Bernadette.  Thirty-five young men make their vows as a Deacon today in St. Peter's Basilica. God willing, they will all become Priests in May and June next year.  These young men can now preach, bless things (not people), and baptize.  They have also chosen a lifetime dedicated to Christ and therefore a celibate life.

I can't even begin to describe the joy and love of that Mass.  Monsignor Smith was one of 150 or more co-celebrants.  Sitting just a little left and a story above the tomb of St. Peter was an experience that I would wish for all of you! 

This afternoon, I took a walk across Rome.  My goal was to pray a decade of the Rosary in five different churches.  The focus of my walk was to get to Santa Sabina, a church build in the 4th century.  It was there that St. Dominic built his monastery in 1220 and where St. Thomas Aquinas studied and prayed. 

As I walked along the Tiber River, I realized that Basilica S. Bartholomaei in Insula (the church of St. Bartholonew) was on the island.  I walked over the bridge, resisting the call of the souvenir peddlers and the gelato shop, to the church.  It houses the remains of St.  Bartholomew and has two beautiful paintings - one of the visitation and the other the annunciation. I found the Annunciation unusual in that it has both God the Father and the Holy Spirit in it.
There, I paused to pray a decade of the rosary and then lit a candle and prayed for the Women of St. Bernadette.  Specifically, I prayed that through our work, we would strengthen our relationship with Jesus and that we would bring many women to a better understanding of the Catholic faith.

I wish every woman in our group could have experienced this trip.  We celebrated mass in inexpressibly beautiful and sacred surroundings.  We walked in the places that St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred.  We saw the light go off in the papal apartment at 11 one night and saw him in person.  We prayed in front of the crucifix that St. Catherine of Sienna used.  We walked into the tiny, one room chapel used by St. Francis.  And we ate delicious food, laughed until our sides hurt and toasted our new friendships with smooth Roman wine! Our pastor poured himself out in homilies that touched our souls and challenged us to life faithful Catholic lives.
I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Your sister in Christ,

Mary Ellen

Priorities

The holiday decorating season has begun.  We begin with our spooky, haunted houses that we have collected over the years.  At the beginning of November, I bring out the collection of various pumpkins that I have collected and then sometime in early December, Christmas collections are brought from the storage unit.

To make room for these festive items, I put away many of our family photos that grace our tables and shelves during the balance of the year.  As I was viewing the photos and deciding which ones would remain out, I picked up a photo taken of my family at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Emmetsburg, MD.  It was taken on a warm, sunny July afternoon.  When it was taken, we did not know that it would be the last family photo to include my father-in-law.

The Grotto has long been a favorite of my mother-in-law, especially prior to the birth of another child in the family.  For her 75^th birthday, we promised to take her for a visit.  It had been several years since she had visited this interesting place.

In between her birthday and the day set for the trip, my father-in-law’s health declined dramatically.  He was admitted to the hospital in mid-June and released to a rehab facility.  We fully expected that he would be coming home to us in a few weeks.

Permission was granted by the rehab facility for him to come with us to the Grotto.  He had a great smile on his face as my husband wheeled him out of the facility, to our car.  Transferring him from the chair to the car was more difficult than we expected.  But once he was in, we had a lively discussion on the hour or so drive to Emmetsburg. 

We took our time visiting the sites as we strolled up the hill to the Shrine.   Our lively conversation, become more quiet as we approached the grotto.  The five of us stopped to pray and also to light candles. Before we turned to begin the decent, a stranger was asked to take a photo of us.  At the time, it was just one more photo of the family.

We walked back to the car and drove to Emmetsburg for lunch.  I remember that my father-in-law had cream of crab soup, which he really enjoyed.  I also remember my 14 year-old son sitting next to his grand dad, engaging in conversation.

We drove back to Silver Spring and dropped of my father-in-law at the rehab facility.  As we transferred him to the chair, I realized that it was unlikely that he would ever come home to live again.

Thirteen days later, he went to his heavenly reward.  As I look at this photo, I am thankful that we took time out of our crazy-busy of our lives to spend a day with our in-laws.  The memories of that day will be with our family for many years. 

This is a photo that will stay on display all year!  It is a reminder of the importance of putting relationships before obligations. 

Chapel of St. Catheine

I have just returned from a 10-day pilgrimage to Italy.  I stayed in Sienna, Assisi and Rome.  This journey took me to many places physically and spiritually and I will probably refer to this trip for some time in this blog.  I feel like I have stored up enough spiritual food to think about and ponder for many weeks.

One afternoon in Rome, I walked across the city center to visit Santa Sabina, a church originally built in the 400’s.  St. Dominic built his monastery adjacent to the church in the 1200’s and it is one of the many places where St. Thomas Aquinas studied and wrote.  On a warm, sunny day in Rome, my walk took me through the Pizza Navvona, past the Pantheon – only because I got lost – and then along the Tiber River. 

There was much to see, hear and smell.  On the way to the church, I stopped to visit other churches, take photos and fill my water bottle from the public fountains.  I approached an intersection near the church. Studying my map, I was not sure which way to go.  I decided to go straight and then about ten steps later looked up and remembered that this ancient place of worship was on a hill.  Oh, yes, as I craned my neck upward, I could see it on a very high hill.  I walked back to the intersection and began my journey up the hill.  As I rounded the corner, there was the back of the Roman Forum.  What an unexpected surprise and a fabulous view!

I walked, sometimes slowly and sometimes quickly up the steep hill.   There was a park on my right as and then found the church.  Unlike many Roman churches, the interior is very similar to the way it was when it was built.  I was thrilled to be in the same place that St. Dominic and St. Thomas Aquinas prayed.  After looking around, and lighting a candle for the vocation of a young friend, I knelt down in a chapel to pray a decade of the Rosary.

As I finished, I look up and saw that there were four paintings of a woman that surrounded the painting in the dome. “Who is this?”  I thought.  “No, I don’t think it is the Mary, the Mother of God.”  My mind began to flip though the many paintings and mosaics of saints that I had viewed in the past week.  The woman held up her hands in some of the paintings, and then I recognized the stigmata on her hands.  “Oh yes, she is St. Catherine of Sienna!” I remarked to myself.  (St. Catherine was a Dominican, so it makes sense that she is honored in this church.)

I felt a shiver run up my spine as I gazed at one particular painting.  Saint Catherine is kneeling with her hands held in front of her.  Jesus is on one knee as he offers her the Eucharist.  The painting captures the moment as Jesus offers His sacrifice and she opens her mouth to accept it.  I cannot describe the beauty of the moment and the photo that I took is hard to view as sun was shining on only a portion of the photo.

My mind has often been preoccupied with this painting as I wonder at the beauty of it.  It captures, in a different way what Christ has done for us.  He offered himself on the Cross so that we can have eternal life.  And He feeds us in so many ways: through the Eucharist, in our prayers, in guiding us through our daily life and asking us to be Him to others each day.    

If you want to view an image of the chapel ceiling, you can click on this link http://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/5668830050/ .  The painting I mention is in the upper right corner of the image. 

It was a remarkable afternoon walk.  Good for my soul, and my body.  This is only a slice of the astounding, marvelous discoveries that I experienced on this trip.  My wish for you, the reader, is that you are able to visit holy, historic places in your lifetime.