9. Novena! Nine days of prayers for a specific intention or within a specific devotion.

Novenas are a long standing devotion in our Church owing its history to the nine days the Blessed Mother and apostles prayed and waiting in the upper room for the descent of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:12-14: When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

There are several choices for your Fatima novena. Head over to Pray More Novenas or America Needs Fatima or a favorite site you already know to make your home into its own Upper Room. Ask the Lord and His Mother to renew in all of us a devotion to the messages she imparted when she first came: Message of Fatima.

 

It is a mere 10 days to the anniversary of Fatima and we’re going to offer you a new link or suggestion for each of the days leading up to the BIG ONE!

10. EWTN

Head over there for their beautiful site that really gives you all you need to learn about the apparition, the children and more.

Be assured of our special prayers over the next 10 days as we get ready to celebrate the Mary’s visit to us through the children, the Miracle of the Sun and more.

“If You Want Me To” by Ginny Owens

If You Want Me To on YouTube

I heard this as I was getting dressed this morning and it really struck home. I’ve not heard of Ginny Owens before but have now found a new favorite –

“The pathway is broken
And The signs are unclear
And I don’t know the reason why You brought me here
But just because You love me the way that You do
I’m gonna walk through the valley
If You want me to”

Read more: Ginny Owens – If You Want Me To Lyrics | MetroLyrics

 

 

I am not thinking of old nursery rhymes telling us we’re made of puppy dog tails or sugar and spice. I am thinking of something more substantial. Am I made of stone or flesh, such as mentioned in Ekeziel?

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

Am I prone to a heart of stone?

Or am I more malleable than that? In Isaiah 64:8, we are reminded, “Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

I began thinking about all of this on the Feast of St. Joseph when I read a good article about him from Dr. Marshall Taylor – St. Joseph, Old Man or Young Man?

I was particularly taken with #3: Saint Joseph is described in Greek as a τέκτων or “tekton,” which is translated as “carpenter,” but it is better translated as “artisan.” A tekton is anyone involved in physical construction and repair. Joseph may have worked with stone, wood, metal, cement, clay, and other substances. The words “technology” and “architecture” are related to the Indo-European root for tekton.

Sure, thinking of St. Joseph as a carpenter is good, but I’ve begun to picture the other materials in St. Joseph’s hands. I’ve thought of him working stone or metal, making more than just furniture. St. Joseph led my thoughts to his foster son, Jesus, to the materials that he and Jesus would have used in their workshop together. I’ve asked myself, if I am resting in the palm of the Lord, resting in the hands of God, what is He holding? Am I stone, wood, metal or clay?

I know I want my table or chair made out of wood or metal but are those the best materials for a soul?

Am I willing to make myself malleable in the hands of the Lord? Am I open to both His will and His correction or have I become a stiff-necked people often mentioned in the readings during Lent? Moses and the Lord talk about this in Exodus 32 and 33 and in Deuteronomy. Being stiff-necked is a common theme both in the Old Testament and today.

As beautiful as wood, stone and metal are, I want to be easy to work with. I don’t want God to have to get out a hammer or saw as with wood or hammer and chisel with stone to get His point across to me. And I really don’t want him to have use fire or the bellows as with metal. Even clay has it issues.

Me? I want to be play-doh in His hand. I want to be so open to what He wants that I offer no resistance at all. I want to be easy to mold and formed into the woman He created me to be. This is not an easy task but it’s a worthy desire.

We have reached the half-way point in Lent and I’m just wondering how goes it for you?

Perhaps your Lent has been pretty calm with your sacrifices met with ease, every prayer commitment done with joy and almsgiving having no impact whatsoever on the family budget. 

Perhaps your Lent has been a bust with the all of your hopes and expectations washed away with your ashes on the Thursday after Ash Wednesday.

Perhaps your Lent has been like mine, with additional sacrifices arriving to surprise you, such as a medical procedure, dental issues and four sick children.

Or perhaps your Lent has been somewhere in the middle. You have kept up with the sacrifices but extra prayer time has been hard to find. The prayers are flowing easily but no thought is made to stretching the budget for an extra donation.

Today is a great day to remember this truth – regardless of how your Lent has looked up to now, you can still make it look better.

Lent is a great opportunity for us to reflect on the Parable of the Two Sons, (Matt 21:28-32) where the two sons take vastly different approaches to obeying the father. One says “Yes” but then doesn’t follow-through while the other says, “No” but regrets their decision and goes anyway.

I’ve always been struck that there is no son who says ‘yes’ and then does it; no readily obedient child is given as an example for us.

We also don’t hear of a child who goes but abandons the work the moment it gets hard and she starts to sweat. We don’t know if there was anyone who gave the father a legitimate, valid reason for why they should be excused from the work. We have only ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

There is just ‘yes, I will’ which was in fact a lie, and a ‘no, I won’t’ which become consent and obedience.

This makes is both a challenge for us and easy. We need to consider Jesus’ command in Matt. 5:37, which follows the Sermon on the Mount and Beatitudes, “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.”

Today is the best day to renew your prayer for grace to become the child who says ‘Yes!’ and goes ahead and does it. What a joy to be that child!

Lent has begun and we are already being challenged through the day’s readings. In today’s first reading, Moses sets forth the challenge to the Israelites:

“I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.” Dt. 30: 15-20

Choose life! Life?! Of course, we choose life, how absurd is it to think otherwise. In my world, choosing life is clearly obvious from the # of children I have, the mound of laundry I do everyday and the fact that my car is a 15 passenger van! We are the ones who march in DC every January and pray for an end to abortion. Some of us have adopted children, accepting children both healthy and those with complications. If anyone doubts our willingness to choose life, we are insulted. Nobody chooses life like we do!!

But, then we breathe deep and realize that Moses just might mean something more than babies. This chapter in Deuteronomy is entitled, “Compassion for the Repentant”. It is calling all of us to look at all the areas – especially beyond the babies – where we might be choosing the world – choosing death – over the life God is calling us to. It is asking us to look at areas of our life where we have let sin creep in; almost undetected.

Where does your life need some attention?

Lent is a time when many of us step away from social media, stop checking FB every few hours. Others do the 40 days and 40 bags challenge whereby you declutter your home with a bag a day; reducing the amount of stuff you own and strive instead to focus on the life you lead. Lent is great time to get some extra spiritual reading done. My parish gave away copies of Matthew Kelly’s Rediscover Jesus, while I read With God in Russia by Walter Ciszek last year.

I will admit my path to Easter than my family does each year, http://www.catholicicing.com/?s=lent isn’t quite filled out but I’m committed to having it done before I go do bed tonight.

So, in Lent 2017, what are you choosing?

 

 

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Blessed 2017 to everyone! We hope everyone has had a beautiful, relaxing and holy Christmas season. We at Behold Publications were working on moving website files to a private server. We do apologize for any inconvenience the downtime that occurred during the migration.

Great news! We have finished mapping the 50+ new Little Flowers Girls’ Clubs that registered this year. If you haven’t registered yet, there is still time. Registration is FREE and quick, too. Register at http://www.beholdpublications.com/RegisteredClubs

We are still working on mapping the Blue Knights Clubs!

God bless you in your work for His work!
Joan Stromberg