7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 42)

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Extra Prayers Please! My husband will be having outpatient foot surgery this morning.  If all goes as it’s supposed to, Kevin and I will be coming home directly after the surgery and recovery, then he will be staying home for the next week with his foot up and me as his attending nurse. 

     Kevin despises being cooped up at home, especially when the weather’s nice, and he’s not too keen on following all of the doctors’ orders, so in addition to prayers that the surgery goes smoothly and his recovery is quick and without complications, please throw a couple intercessions in for his sanity and mine over this next week.  Thank you!!
 

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My Surrogate Sister A  good friend and dear sister in Christ is going out to California to spend a week with the Carmelite Sisters by the Sea as part of her ongoing discernment regarding entering the consecrated religious life.  Please pray for Michele and all who are discerning their lifelong vocations, that the Lord would draw them even closer to Him and that He would open them up to receive the blessings He wishes to bestow upon them at this point in their journeys. 

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It’s a Party! On Thursday evening, a bunch of the regulars who attend daily Mass at St. Benedict’s gathered at Bellacino’s, one of our favorite pizza places in town, to celebrate Michele’s discernment retreat to California.  As per usual, it was a very blessed evening filled with prayers, food, fellowship, laughter, and even some impromptu singing after supper.

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The Lily Trilogy God’s done it again, and this time through a beautiful novel, the first in a trilogy.  I read Until Lily at the perfect time.  Lately I’ve been reminded of how vulnerable it makes us to love others deeply, to let them into our hearts and know we’ll never be the same.  We might resist letting others get too close at first, thinking of the times in the past when our trust has been betrayed and/or our love rejected.  Letting others into our lives and into our hearts can be frightening at times and challenging when we are still mourning a previous loss…Read more here.

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Overheard on the playground. On Wednesday, I got to take one of my favorite cuties, Vivi, to Deep Run Park for a bit.  Vivi had a blast on the swings.  She cracked me up with her repeated public service announcements of: “WEEEeee, I am swinging!”  When I sat down on the swing next to her, she thought it was hilarious.  Each time I got up to give Vivi another push, she’d say, “Sit down, please,” and direct me back to my swing.  Too funny!  Her other favorite was going down the slide.     It’s hard to believe we used to take my little sister Theresa to play there 19+ years ago.  Of course, much of the equipment’s been replaced, but it’s still a stroll down memory lane. 

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Friend of a Wounded Heart This is one of my favorite Christian songs talking about the depth of God’s love and healing.  My mom got the audiotape of The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir singing “Friend of a Wounded Heart” when I was still in high school.  It brought tears to my eyes then, too.  Listen to it here. 

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Candlelight Vigil on the Boulevard Last Sunday we marked the halfway point of this spring’s 40 Days for Life campaign by holding a candlelight vigil on the Boulevard.  The weather was beautiful and the sun was still out.  About 25 people (from those in their teens to those in their 70s) came together to sing, pray, and stand vigil.  It was a bit windy, so some of us had trouble keeping our candles lit (like me), though Christ’s light was clearly visible to all.
Click here to find the closest vigil to you. 


Head over to Conversion Diary, to read Jen Fulwiler's wonderful tradition of 7Quick Takes Friday.