Goodbye, farewell, I won't forget.
You were my favorite, loving pet.
“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor.” I can prove it. This weekend 5 members of my family came together to paint the house. Not only did we paint the house, but we put three coats of paint on it. It was extremely windy, so by the time we finished the house, the first side was dry. So we painted the house three times.
If I were alone, I would have considered it an accomplishment to have painted it once!
Book Review of Black is the Color of My True Love's Heart by Ellis Peters
Who did it? Not who you think, and does he/she get away with it? Another interesting fact about this mystery is that the setting is really a character. Everything takes place at a music school, Follymead. (ominous title)
Fighting begins with singing ballads. From the songs we learn who are lovers, former lovers, and soon-to-be-lovers. When one of the "star guests" disappears, the reader suspects his ex-girl friend. Later on, the reader is led to suspect the "girlfriend wannabe."
There are many things this pandemic has made me realize. The one I feel the absence of most is my prison ministry. It is making me reflect on what God is doing.
Do you think He is showing me that there are other things I could be doing to draw closer to Him? Ministering to my family is one example. Maybe I should back away from prison ministry. I was getting too involved. I was at the prison five days out of seven.
Maybe I should change Lay Dominican fraternities. I know this sounds funny but all the Lay Dominican Fraternities that I have visited pray too much. I'm not used to it. Because of the time schedule of the prison, we don't have time to do the devotional prayers. We pray the Liturgy of the Hours and that's it. And I'm not that devotional. I pray the daily rosary and Liturgy of the Hours. When time permits I do Lectio Divina. That's it.
I'm not sure that I could only go to my fraternity in the prison and not be talked into participating in anything else. But that's what I'm going to try to do.
I was so blessed at Mass this morning. The Eucharistic Prayer never meant so much to me as it did today. I woke up early and was reading Luke 22: 14-20. I was struck by the coincidence that I had read these very words. It was awesome. Especially resonating were the words "new covenant" and "Do this in memory of me."
Then watching people go to Communion, I notice someone wearing a mask with a Dominican Shield on it. I knew immediately who she was. It was a Facebook friend who lives in Florida. I remembered that her son lives around here, so she was visiting him.
Lastly, I received the sacrament of the sick after Mass. I'm having a medical procedure tomorrow.
Three blessings!
In some images of St. John the Evangelist, he is holding a chalice. There are different stories regarding the symbolism of the chalice.
One could be that John drank from Jesus' cup at the Last Supper. Also, drinking from Jesus' cup meant sharing in Jesus' suffering, which John did, dying in exile.
The most interesting story is that an enemy put poison in John's wine. But before John drank the wine, he blessed it and prayed. When he did this, the poison took the form of a snake and slithered out of the wine and chalice and went away. Think of this next time you drink wine. Pray first.
Since we are made in the image and likeness of God, therefore, since we are sock puppets, it is only right that God is a sock puppet, too. He is all Love, hence the heart on the front. The heart on the back has tears since Adam and Eve did a bad thing to make God cry.
My sister died a month ago. A sibling dying is not an inconsequential event, for anyone. For me, it was deep. You see, she was ten years...
