This past Saturday morning, Kevin, my mom, and I participated in the Walk for Life. I’m really excited that because of the prayers, generosity, and support of family and friends, the three of us raised over $2,300 to benefit the Pregnancy Resource Center of Metro Richmond.
The first year my family and I participated in the walk, my youngest sister Theresa was still in a stroller. This year she’s graduating from high school.
One of my favorite years at the Walk for Life was May 2006 when my dad and one of the boys I was a nanny for, joined us on the walk. The young man was just under two years old at the time and made the experience a lot of fun for our family. He was excited about everything: the balloons, being outside, seeing other kids, taking a walk, hanging out with my family…all of it!
The book starts out with an amusing anecdote which illustrates the emphasis of so many couples on the preparation for the wedding and reception which last several hours rather than on the marriage intended to last a lifetime. Early on my then fiancé, now husband, and I decided that we were going to be different in that respect. We were going to devote a significant amount of time preparing for our marriage and take a more simple approach when it came to the rehearsal dinner, wedding, and reception. We’ve never regretted that decision.
As a counselor and married man, the author of What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About the First Five Years of Marriage has a great background from which to speak about the vocation. He goes through the major aspects of marriage, identifies what can either strengthen or weaken it, and does so by using examples from couples with whom he’s worked as well as some pointers he’s learned from his own marriage and family life.
Oftentimes he makes references to popular culture, characters from different movies, and/or the subjects treated in TV series, which make some of the scenarios he describes easier to imagine. His sense of humor makes the sound advice seem more palatable and practical.
I figured since my husband and I are in our fifth year of marriage now would be an interesting time to read this book. Petitfils has gleaned wisdom from a number of sources to put together a relatively short, but easy-to-read guide to creating and maintaining a strong marriage. There are few books I reread, but I decided I would read this one all the way through and then go through it a second time, reading it aloud and answering the questions with my husband.
It can become far too easy to take marriage and spouse for granted. Having reminders like the ones in this book about the marriage relationship needing ongoing work to make it strong and keep giving it new energy are important to have, especially when the stresses of daily life begin to bog each of you down. I believe we can always improve our communication skills. The guidelines provided for effective, healthy relating are clearly set out in this book and match exactly what I’ve heard and read elsewhere.
The questions at the end of each chapter really get to the heart of what the relationship is built upon and are geared to help couples discover their strengths and identify their weaknesses.
This book is a good one for couples preparing for marriage, newlyweds, as well as couples who would like to revitalize their marriage.
What inspires you to pray for people during the day? For what or whom does God regularly put on your heart to pray? How can social networking be used as a tool for evangelization?
Yesterday I went to daily Mass at the Pastoral Center as I often like to do during the week, and I saw a man enter the Chapel who looked familiar, but whose name I couldn’t recall. Afterwards this man came up to me to introduce himself and asked if I am Trisha. As soon as he said his name, I knew he was one of the men who had made his Cursillo weekend when Kevin was on team March 2009.
I told him I remembered praying for him. He told me he’d seen a prayer request go out for Kevin and me, and that he was keeping us in prayer. I was really touched. I always love being reminded that many people are praying for me and my family. Some I see on a weekly basis. Others I may run into once a month, once a year, or only correspond with online or over the phone.
For many years, I’ve been in the habit of praying for people throughout the day.
How appropriate that after months of wanting to read this book I found a copy of it at my mother's house amidst the many classics of the Catholic faith she's read over the years. Again, God led me to read The Interior Castle at just the right time. After spending more time in silent prayer, especially during Holy Week and the Triduum, I was drawn closer to Christ.
I love how Teresa of Avila talks about the vast possibilities for greater intimacy with God. Her humble and endearingly candid style combined with her profound devotion to Our Lord give the reader a sense of the sublime.
The underlying message throughout is let go, and let God do amazing things in your soul. The more you submit to His Will in every detail, at every moment, the more He will glorify Himself in and through you.
So often we seek God outside of ourselves. This book is a wonderful reminder that the Lord wants to meet us and commune with us in the inner sanctuary of our souls. He has indeed made His home within us as Psalm 87 suggests. God wants us to recognize and rejoice that He is present in the very core of who we are, and that He is now, was then, and ever shall be with us.
St. Teresa's descriptions of the spiritual journey aren't perfectly organized or neatly polished, but that seems to be fitting when expounding upon the ways in which the Lord, Our God, reveals Himself to us how, when, and for what purpose He chooses.
Perhaps one of the most significant messages in this masterpiece is that we can't reach the later of the seven mansions on our own. There's only so much we can do to put ourselves in the best place spiritually--the rest is completely up to God.
The graces and spiritual blessings St. Teresa refers to are only ones God grants to certain souls, generally those who are most acutely aware of how little they deserve such consolations from the Father.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who is serious about spiritual growth.
Lord, I am not worthy to have You under my roof, yet You have made Your home at the center of my heart. Help me to make Your dwelling place into a more fitting sanctuary. Amen.
You can purchase this book here. I wrote this review of The Interior Castle for the Tiber River Blogger Review program. Tiber River is the first Catholic book review site, started in 2000 to help you make informed decisions about Catholic book purchases. I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.
The National Catholic Register is truly a Godsend in this day and age. If you haven’t been discouraged or disillusioned by the way the mainstream media has treated the Catholic Church, our pope, the tenants of Christianity, and the people who have the audacity to fight for a culture of life in a society that espouses a culture of death, then it’s likely you’ve been completely cut off from all TV, radio, and secular print media for quite some time.
I have found the National Catholic Register to be a very refreshing change from the average newspaper and media outlet. Not only are the articles informative, well-written, and journalistically sound, but they are clear on the Catholic perspective on the subject matter. World news, politics, conflict, scandal, and intrigue all covered with a focus on getting the facts, promoting a culture of life, and upholding the truths held sacred by the Catholic faith make for a much better read than many of the articles I’ve come across elsewhere.
Now more than ever, I’ve seen how slanted and skewed things appear when attention to detail and an interest in knowing the truth are tossed aside in exchange for a more soap opera-like story that lacks most of the facts and research required to give it even the smallest bit of journalistic integrity.
A prime example of this is the coverage for the March for Life in mainstream media. Two approaches were generally taken by the secular journalists and newscasters: 1. they completely ignored the fact that hundreds of thousands of pro-life people came out in the cold to pray and protest for an end to abortion or 2. they wrote such skewed coverage of the event that the articles became comical to read for anyone who actually attended this year’s March for Life.
The responses were great to an article in which the journalist said that the one group of people missing from the March this year were young women. Cinematographers, photographers, March participants, and even those who just happened to be in D.C. that day and saw the crowds responded that the woman writing the article was grossly mistaken.
If you’d like to be up on current events, know all the facts about what’s happening in the Church, including the controversy and scandals as well as the liturgical changes and propagation of the Catholic Christian faith, then I’d recommend you get a subscription to National Catholic Register. You can purchase a subscription here.
I wrote this review of National Catholic Register for the Tiber River Blogger Review program. Tiber River is the first Catholic book review site, started in 2000 to help you make informed decisions about Catholic book purchases. I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.
This wonderful guide includes morning, evening, and nighttime hymns and prayers as well as Mass, daily meditations, and information about the saints. There's even a section included with the Order of the Mass in addition to prayers for Eucharistic Adoration.
Magnificat is a monthly publication which comes in a light, truly pocket-sized booklet, making it very easy to keep with you wherever you go. At home, I have three different books I regularly consult for daily readings, information on the lives of the saints, and for Scripture reflections. It wouldn’t be practical to carry all of these with me to Mass, Adoration, to work, while running errands, or when I travel. Much of what is in the heavy books I refer to when at home is contained in the Magnificat in monthly increments.
This is the perfect prayer guide for the person on the go. I’ve gotten in the habit of keeping the current issue in my purse and reading or rereading parts of it throughout the day—during a break at work, while waiting at the doctor’s office, etc. A year's subscription includes 14 issues—one for each month as well as a special issue for Holy Week and one for Christmas.
I found the Magnificat to be an indispensable worship aid when I was studying abroad in Paris, France during my junior year of college. I had memorized and come to a better understanding of the prayers prayed at Mass as a child, and knowing that Mass is the same all over the world helped somewhat when I attended my first Mass in French. However, the prayers, responses, and even Bible readings don’t translate exactly, so I was rather out of sorts without any written order of worship or Order of the Mass in the French language I’d studied for years but never in a religious setting.
I felt much more comfortable and confident participating in Mass when I had all of the prayers in French at my fingertips. I'm certain it improved my French to hear and read along with the Order of the Mass, the Scripture Readings, and prayers in the French edition of the Magnificat. Even eight years later, after saying the response to the Eucharistic prayer in English aloud at Mass, I still say it to myself silently in French.
I've found it helpful to see in print many of the prayers said aloud at Mass though I memorized them years ago. Sometimes we may tend to glaze over the richness of these words, because they have become so familiar. Seeing them there in black and white makes the Truths the Catholic Church upholds all the more real and present today.
Whether you’re a convert, revert, or a devout cradle Catholic, this is an amazing faith resource that will feed your spirit, give you a deeper appreciation for the liturgical aspects of our faith, and encourage you to pray throughout each day.
You can purchase a subscription here. I wrote this review of Magnificat for the Tiber River Blogger Review program. Tiber River is the first Catholic book review site, started in 2000 to help you make informed decisions about Catholic book purchases. I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.
At a daily Mass this week, the priest posed an interesting question I was able to answer immediately. He pointed at Christ hanging on the Cross and asked if our love for God and others was that self-sacrificing. My first thought was: No, but I’d like it to be. Fr. Wayne Ball ventured to guess that no one present gives love that is as self-sacrificing as Christ’s. Admitting he could really only speak for himself, Fr. Ball said that for him the grace he receives from the Eucharist is necessary for him to even try and give such love.
“I’m a bad, bad lady, and I live happily never after,” a cute, well-behaved three-year-old girl at the school where I work informed me matter-of-factly a couple weeks ago. I burst out laughing, then quickly got a pen and sticky note to jot down this revelation. At the time she broke this news to me, she was sitting at a kid-sized snack table eating her applesauce and string cheese. Though the chairs are low to the ground, her feet didn’t even touch the floor. It still cracks me up just thinking back on the incident.
When I was having a rough time of it last week for a myriad of reasons, I could relate to this amusing toddler’s words all too well. “I’m a bad, bad lady, and I live happily never after,” seemed to sum up precisely how I was feeling. After confronting some difficult memories that had surfaced from my past and examining my present more closely, I felt very much like a sinful woman who would never get it right. Whether it was in thoughts, words, or deeds, things I left undone and shouldn’t have or did that should have been left undone, it seemed as if I couldn’t go five years, five days, or even five minutes without thinking, saying, doing, or neglecting to do something that could make me put myself in the adult equivalent of the naughty girl chair—the negative thinking, guilt-tripping, downward spiral feeling that I’ll never be enough.
Truth is, the problem with this line of thinking is that I’ve had it practically ingrained in my brain that there’s no such thing as being enough. There’s always more that a person can learn, grow, do, be…
What helps me get out of the never enough cycle is that God is enough. He knows I’m not perfect—never have been, never will be. God knows that better than anyone, yet He loves me unconditionally and without limit. I can’t quite wrap my mind around that, but I’m interested in learning how to accept that love, if for no other reason, than that it will make me better able to love others as unconditionally as is humanly possible.
Lord, please draw us closer to You in all areas of our lives. Open us up to accept Your love though we aren’t worthy of it, can’t understand it, and could never do anything to merit it. Help us to know in the depths of our being that You are enough. Amen.
I first saw Bella in a theater when a local pro-life group which was responsible for coordinating the first 40 Days for Life vigils in our area invited us to come to a viewing. I found the story to be very believable, deeply moving, and one that I can see many youth and young adults being able to relate to on some level. I was encouraged by how well the film was done. Without being preachy or judgmental about the subject of abortion, the message that life is precious comes across loud and clear.
In an unexpected twist, we see someone experience the pain of killing a child who had no intention of taking another life. It’s in seeing the hurt he feels about what he has done truly by accident that the viewer is given a sense of how devastating the loss of a child can be.
This is a story of hope and redemption, family and friends, healing and renewal. Things aren’t perfect in any one character’s life. No one has it all figured out. What comes across is the deep love the main character shares with his family and extends to the woman who has unexpectedly become pregnant.
The beauty of adoption and the value of every life are evident in this film. The message of respecting the sanctity of human life is displayed through kind, gentle words and actions instead of graphic images, screaming protesters, or people condemning women facing an unplanned pregnancy.
Everyone could benefit from watching this movie. All of us need to be reminded of the love, compassion, and understanding we are called to have for one another—not just the members of our families—but those we encounter at work, at the grocery store, on the street, etc.
We can all benefit from stories of repentance, healing, mercy, and redemption. It’s important that we don’t give up or given in when faced with suffering. We never know how God plans to use the suffering we are going through today to benefit someone we love tomorrow.
You can purchase this DVD here. I wrote this review of Bella for the Tiber River Blogger Review program. Tiber River is the first Catholic book review site, started in 2000 to help you make informed decisions about Catholic book purchases. I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.
The title of Bless Me Father, For I Have Kids and some of the stories in it made me think, yet again, God knew what He was doing when He chose to make kids adorable. It reminded me of a picture I took of one of the boys for whom I used to nanny. He was kneeling on the stack of his dad’s cookbook’s which he’d pulled off the bookshelf and strewn about the floor for the umpteenth time that day. Instead of immediately removing him from the source of temptation and picking up the mess, yet again, I snapped a photo of what resembles a toddler kneeling for confession. The caption underneath it could read something along the lines of: “Forgive me, Father, for I am about to sin. It’s been five minutes since my last confession.”
I purchased a number of books and had all sorts of other reading materials to choose from on the way back from the Catholic Writers Conference I attended last August, but after meeting Susie Lloyd and one of her daughters at the Expo I was drawn to start reading her book.
Before long, I was laughing and reading passages aloud to my husband during our train ride home. Susie has a wonderful sense of humor and a very strong faith in addition to a houseful of kids ranging in ages, interests, and personalities. This combination makes the anecdotes she shares about their family quite hilarious. Her vivid descriptions, quotes, shifting viewpoints, and ability to see the humor in the midst of family life at its most chaotic is quite admirable.
Susie touches on many of the major topics parents face raising children and addresses the many obstacles that families of faith come up against in the modern world. It’s refreshing to read amusing accounts of sibling rivalry, deplorable chore duty, marriage encounters, cultural clashes, creative discipline, random acts of kindness, and senseless acts of silliness. Her style is candid and genuine. She never presumes to have everything figured out or know the best way to raise a large Catholic family, but she sure has some great stories to tell about the journey she and her husband have had over the years with their large brood.
As someone who can tend to be too serious at times, I appreciated this nonfiction Catholic book which included plenty of faith and humor, family values, honest mistakes, and a dose of strong doctrine. You can purchase this book here. I wrote this review of Bless Me, Father, For I Have Kids for the Tiber River Blogger Review program. Tiber River is the first Catholic book review site, started in 2000 to help you make informed decisions about Catholic book purchases. I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.
Friday morning, I prayed at home, then I went to St. Michael’s at noon for Stations of the Cross. A large crowd had turned out, so they didn’t have enough programs to go around. A woman I didn’t know shared hers with me so I could read along with the prayers and sing the different songs added throughout. It was the first time this year I actually walked the Stations of the Cross. Usually, at St. Benedict’s, we stayed in the pews and just knelt at the appropriate times, and the week before when we came to St. Michael’s for a delicious fish fry put on by the Knights of Columbus, the youth in the parish acted out the Stations and we remained seated.
I knelt down in prayer as they finished singing the processional hymn and an influx of people came in for a few minutes or so to kneel and say a prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. The flow of people slowed down after a time, and the din of whispers and murmurs from the Commons gradually faded into the silence that is supposed to be observed when leaving on Holy Thursday and returning on Good Friday.
I’d read in the church bulletin that their would be Eucharistic Adoration after Holy Thursday Mass until midnight. I decided I would stay there as long as I felt God was calling me to remain with Him, watch and pray. I never checked the clock. For the majority of the time I was there, I just sat and listened.
The three holiest days of the year the Easter Triduum have been a wonderful time of prayer, reflection, solemn worship, praise, adoration, song, and fellowship for me. For the first time I can remember, I had Good Friday off from school and work, so I took the opportunity to do what is suggested to observe the time between Holy Thursday and Easter: use it as a time of spiritual retreat and renewal.
I put aside my things-to-do list, didn’t listen to the radio, kept the TV off, stayed away from the computer (saved and scheduled my Good Friday reflection to post in advance), refrained from shopping or eating out. I added more personal and communal prayer time, spiritual reading, was stricter about fasting, and only looked at the clock to make sure I was on time for scheduled church services.
This Spring, Holy Week has been even more special. On Monday evening, I attended the Chrism Mass where Bishop Frances X. DiLorenzo, hundreds of priests, deacons, seminarians, religious, and lay parishioners from all across the Richmond Diocese came together for the blessing of the holy oils that will be used in administering the sacraments throughout the next year.
I had never been to a Chrism Mass before and found it quite a beautiful way to begin Holy Week. Sacred Heart Cathedral in downtown Richmond was positively packed. I recognized several of the priests and deacons, since I’ve attended different parishes in both Roanoke and Richmond over the years, was involved in Catholic Campus Ministry at Hollins, and have been active in parish life here.
Two very moving parts of this once a year Mass were when all of the priests stood up and did a renewal of their vows of Holy Orders and when every priest, even the one who lives at Little Sisters of the Poor and uses a walker, rose to pray the Consecration when it was time for the Eucharistic prayer.
It was a moving experience I shared with my mom, her/our friends from the Pastoral Center, and thousands of other people. I’d like to take part in the Chrism Mass every year. What a powerful experience to be there with the bishop, priests, clergy, religious and faithful from around the Diocese at the beginning of Holy Week to see, here, and experience the beauty and Truth upheld by the Catholic Church.
There were many aspects of my faith journey during Lent that led me into the Easter season feeling different. During the 40 days of Lent, I took part in the 40 Days for Life vigil my mom headed up in Richmond. Because Fr. Kauffman, the pastor at St. Benedict’s which happens to be the closest and most supportive local Catholic parish of 40 Days for Life, led a group down to the 40 Days for Life vigil after Friday evening Mass and Stations of the Cross followed by a Lenten supper, it became a new tradition for Kevin and I to participate in all four traditions the Fridays during Lent. (Fortunately, I have an amazing work supervisor who willingly agreed to let me use my accumulated comp time to leave a half hour or more early so I could make it to Mass each Friday.)
"Stay with me. Remain here with me. Watch and pray. Watch and pray."
Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane. He has said, "My soul is sorrowful even to death." Mt 26:38 When reflecting on this portion of the Gospel and this first of the Sorrowful Mysteries, I imagine Christ in such anguish. He prays, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will" Mt 26: 39 that He is being shown the most horrifying sins committed past, present, and future, and knows what incredible suffering He must endure to bring about our salvation.
"Oh Father, I know You can hear me. Is there any other way? Another prayer to pray? Father, if Your love permits, let this cup pass me by. Still let it be as You would have it, not as I."
-Danielle Rose lyrics
It is because of His fervent love for us that God has limited Himself by entering human form. He feels loneliness, sorrow, distress, and pain just as we do. Seeing the torture He was about to undergo physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually, He feels overwhelmed, yet even then He is completely obedient to His Father's will and plan for the salvation of the world.
I am always humbled and amazed by His willingness to undergo so much suffering for us. One morning while I was still in my freshmen or sophomore year of college, I had a very vivid dream. The minute details I wrote down in a prayer journal I haven't located, yet, but they aren't as important as the effect the dream had on me. I woke up feeling completely unworthy of God's love and at the same time acutely aware of His incredible mercy washing over me. At that moment, I had an epiphany that I wasn't anywhere near strong enough in my faith that I would willingly agree to suffer physical pain in order to atone for the sins of others.
As this realization came over me, I thought of the torture Christ said yes to for us, and I felt so humbled that I got down on the floor and laid flat on my stomach with my face touching the hardwood and praised God. This position was the only physical way I could express the way my soul was bowing down to God for such deep love and unparalleled sacrifice.
The Scourging at the Pillar
Christ is brutally whipped by men who are trained in torture. He knows He is innocent, yet He accepts each blow because of our sinfulness.
Crowning with Thorns
He is given a reed as a scepter and royal looking cloak to wear over His bleeding body. They force a crown of thorns upon His head, piercing His scalp as our iniquities pierce His mind and soul. He endures their mocking, spitting, and humiliation for our sakes.
Carrying of the Cross
After He has been brutally beaten, viciously mocked, then He is forced to carry the Cross He will be nailed to in between two criminals. He falls three times carrying such a heavy burden. He is stripped of His clothes.
The Crucifixion
"Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?"
It was actually the bones of Christ's wrists and ankles (not His hands and feet) that were pierced with nails to hold Him on the Cross. In the end, He became too weak to pull Himself up enough to take a breath, so He suffocated and died.
I invite you to reflect on all Christ suffered for your sins and mine, allow the sacrifice to sink in and become a growing awareness of God's mercy and unconditional love for each and every one of us. This posture of prayer and of the heart prepares us for the joy of Christ's Resurrection come Easter.
"Crucify Him...every child torn from the womb...Crucify Him...every judgment I presume...Crucify Him...every prisoner on death row...Crucify Him...Will you cast the first stone?...Lord, have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord, have mercy on us." -Danielle Rose
This was originally written and appeared on my former blog April 10, 2009.
The following is the prayer I wrote for the Good Friday reflection for the Young Adult Ministry workday Lenten e-mail.
Is 52:13—53:12; Heb 4:14-16, 5:7-9; Jn 18:1—19:42 Thirst
Forty days ago, we received an invitation to share the world’s hunger through fasting. Today we fast again. This time, we are reminded of the thirst for justice Jesus knew, as he uttered these words from the cross: “I thirst.” - Catholic Update: Lessons of the Heart
Let Us Pray:
Lord Jesus Christ,
You cry out to us each day,
hungering for our love,
our attention, our willingness
to accept Your mercy, forgiveness,
compassion, and healing.
Help us to answer Your call
and quench Your thirst
to be loved, adored,
praised, and worshiped by us.
Make us more aware of the deep thirst
in us for You alone.
Pierce our hearts with the power
of the thirst, the unfathomable yearning
to have Your unconditional love
acknowledged, accepted, and reciprocated
by each and every one of Your children. Amen.
