Loves of His Life

The other day, I was grabbing a cup of coffee at a local shop when a disabled woman came in and placed an order. She was difficult to understand (I think a speech impediment was part of her disability) and I could see the clerk struggling to get what she was saying. Eventually, it became clear that she wanted a smaller straw than the one she had been provided. Unfortunately, no smaller straws were available and this woman left-- strawless.

I watched as she left the coffee shop and walked over to a waiting taxi cab. The driver got out and came around to open the door for her. He was a strange looking fellow, to say the least, with a large wool hat on his head, and mumbling to himself as he came around the rear of his cab. The two of them made quite a pair!

Anyway, as I watched these two individuals, a thought popped into my head-- "Lost sheep of the House of Israel." And that got me thinking...

In a way, we are all "lost sheep" to a certain degree, wandering around in the wilderness of this world. Yet, lost though we may be, we can take comfort in the fact that we are loved. Not just loved, but loved uniquely.

Yes- you see, God loves each of us uniquely and individually. We are-- each one of us-- the loves of His life. We are, to Him, the pearls of great price. He is the Good Shepherd, and each one of us "sheep" is uniquely precious in His sight.

So, don't be too hard on yourself... and don't be too hard on others. Remember, we are all little lambs in the flock of the Lord.

Praise God!!

The Church Militant

Slowly, slowly marching on-
heads bowed in prayer,
hearts filled with song-
through the dark valley proceeding.

Events quicken, the valley erupts
yet the column continues onward,
led by the Lady in Blue.

Jesus, we trust in you.
Jesus, we trust in you.
Jesus, we trust in you.

All the way to the Cross...
and beyond.

Pick-A-Saint

This year, I was introduced to a Catholic New Year's tradition involving the Saints. Apparently, this is something that even Saint Maria Faustina did with her fellow sisters!

Anyhow, the way it goes is that you take a bunch of Saints' names on little pieces of paper and toss them in a hat or bowl. On New Year's Day, each person in the family says a quick prayer and reaches into the bowl to pick a Saint for the year. Then, the idea is to establish a relationship with your new patron as the year progresses. Some say that, even though we do the physical picking of the name, it is the Saint that chooses us!

I thought it was a neat idea and so on January 1st, my family put together a big bowl of Saints and got to choosing. The four of us came out with a pretty impressive list of patrons and we all look forward to getting to know our newfound patrons throughout 2010.

Our new family Saints are:

1. Saint Anthony of Padua
2. Saint Dominic Savio
3. Saint Joseph
4. Saint Jerome

I encourage anyone who stumbles across this Blog to put this little tradition into practice. We can learn so much from our brothers and sisters in Heaven (the "Church Triumphant") and I think that they are just itching for an opportunity to help us.

Praise God!