"A person is a person, no matter how small"

A quote from Theodor Seuss Geisel's  (Dr. Suess) book, Horton Hears a Who! (1954)

• 
  "Don't give up! I believe in you all.
  A person's a person, no matter how small!
  And you very small persons will not have to die
  If you make yourselves heard! So come on, now, and TRY!"
  
  I heard this quote this morning, watching mass on EWTN and wanted to share this with anyone who has not heard it. The National Catholic Register wrote an article on this and has a picture of an ultrasound to illustrate the connection to every person's right to life.

"And yet sixty years later, the story perfectly captures the ethos of the modern-day pro-life movement with stunning, childlike simplicity. “I’ve got to protect them,” Horton realizes. “I’m bigger than they.” He pleas, “Please don’t harm all my little folks, who have as much right to live as us bigger folks do!”

(National Catholic Register, July 31, 2015)

Those of us in the "bigger folk" position who are more able and have a voice, need to protect the little ones who do not yet have a voice. 

Jesus' words about his little ones.
Matthew 18:10
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

Matthew 18:14
In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

Horton declares a truth about people; regardless of their size, age, or capacity. All people--especially children--deserve respect.

Please, look after and protect the little ones in your lives: the unborn, the disabled, the elderly, the marginalized, and the persecuted. 
God Bless,
Paula

Snow

Yesterday we were blessed with that beautiful frozen precipitation from above. While not everyone considers a snowy day a blessing, a lot of us do. The snow covered the gray and bare landscape we have been experiencing in yet another snowless winter in NH. I love the quietness of a snow storm, minus the snowplows that shake the house as they go by. I like shoveling the driveway. It’s good exercise and fills my dry sinuses with the moist and clear air that comes with the snow. I canceled a couple of appointments and decided to stay home and enjoy the “snow day”. It was a treat that I hope we have more of this winter season.

What does the bible say about snow?

Job 37:5-7New International Version (NIV)

5 God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways;
    he does great things beyond our understanding.
6 He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’
    and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’
7 So that everyone he has made may know his work,
    he stops all people from their labor.

Notice how snow is a gift from God and one of its purposes is to stop people from their labor.

Isaiah 55:9-11New International Version (NIV)

9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

We need the snow to irrigate our land for the summer growing season and fall harvest. Be thankful for the snow. Just as God’s word feeds our souls, so we can do His will. 

Paula

Advent

Advent

Here we are in the third week of Advent. Here in NH we have snow on the ground and it’s freezing cold. 8 degrees right now and -7 this morning. We love the snow because it’s a Christmas tradition the “White Christmas”.

The other day I was watching an EWTN show “Conversations with Cardinal Dolan” and Elizabeth Ficocelli was a guest author and speaker who talked about the season of Advent. Elizabeth talked about her Six Tips to keep the Advent Season Holy. She uses the word Advent as an acronym for her tips.

A= Adoration, spend time with God in the presence of the Eucharist.

D= Divine Word, spend time with the holy scripture.

V= Virgin Mary, remember who is the model of virtue and Christian discipline and our intercessor with Jesus. 

E= Examination of the conscious, be sure to get to confession before Christmas

N= Neighborly, what can you do for others this Advent season? Give to the poor, charity etc. We are the hands, feet and heart of Jesus.

T=Traditions, celebrate through participating in Advent traditions, Jesse tree, advent wreath, special foods, music, lights on your house or window sills, etc.

Merry Christmas

Paula

Sacraments

After experiencing chest pain again, and progressively worse, I got checked into the emergency room of our local hospital. I went through the standard protocol of EKG, heart monitor, blood work etc. At 59 years of age and having several risk factors, they kept me overnight and I stayed hooked up to a heart monitor. This was actually comforting, knowing that care was only a few steps away. While resting in my hospital room, my blood pressure readings were normal for the rest of the night. They were the lowest numbers I can ever remember. The next day I was scheduled for a stress test. The next morning, Dec. 12^th , the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I was so happy to have a visit from one of my parish priests who also has the hospital ministry. Father Maurice prayed over me and with me. He also presented me with the sacrament of Communion (the Eucharist) and the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. I was so much filled with joy and feeling fearless in the palm of God’s hand. After having that 1:1 time with the priest who is in the role of Jesus and receiving the sacraments at my bedside, I felt I could not have been more ready to let go of this life and meet God. Now the day before, prior to the chest pain and going to the ER, I attended mass, received Communion and went to Confession after mass (total 3 Sacraments). I was ready to meet God, but He was not ready for me, so here I am writing about it, still on the potters wheel. 

Thank you God that I passed the stress test, quite pitifully, but good enough to get released from the hospital. Thank you for the "taste of heaven" in receiving Your sacraments and TLC.

The Bible tells us to always be ready to meet God. Matthew 42-44,

42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

 Whether it is Jesus’s second coming or your death, we will all face God. I certainly want to be ready, just as I felt ready Monday morning. More than anything I want to hang on to that feeling of readiness, that closeness to God and stay fortified though the Eucharist and repentance. How does one keep that feeling of readiness day in and day out, when faced with all kinds of trials? One thing I know is to keep your eyes and mind on God.

God has blessed me so much in this past week with friends who have prayed with me and for and sending Father Maurice to bless me in the hospital. I truly feel like a beloved daughter of the King of the Universe.

I find Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church, a source of strength and wisdom. The church at Corinth was struggling and St. Paul’s words helped to set them on the right track and unify their church.

2 Corinthians 4:7-11 and 16-18

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 

16 Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

God Bless and Merry Christmas

Paula

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a sacrament is “an efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us through the work of the Holy Spirit”. 

Holy Communion

This morning I am reading Saint Faustina’s Diary, page 494 (1395), and I here is what the Lord shared with Saint Faustina about Holy Communion:

“I desire to unite Myself with human souls; My great delight is to unite Myself with souls. Know, My daughter, that when I come to a human heart in Holy Communion, My hands are full of all kinds of graces which I want to give to the soul. But souls do not even pay any attention to Me; they leave Me to Myself and busy themselves with other things. Oh, how sad I am that souls do not recognize Love! They treat me as a dead object. “

One cannot help but feel convicted of the times they receive Holy Communion in a distracted state of mind. Just yesterday I was talking with a fellow parishioner after mass about this, and we both shared our struggles in trying to get into a right state of mind and heart to reverently receive Holy Communion. We both shared that we sit up front in church to minimize the distractions of the other parishioners and how people are such a big distraction. If I sat in the back of the church, I would spend the whole mass looking at people. People captivate my attention and my weak spirit struggles with shutting out the world and focusing on the spirit of God. In addition, I need to close my eyes after receiving Holy Communion, because again, I will be distracted by the people coming up to the front of the church and receiving Holy Communion. It seems, no matter how hard I try to focus on the beauty of the mass and the great gift that we receive (body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus), I am still battling with my flesh and the world. I find I do better at week day masses when it’s much quieter and less people to be distracted by.

I like to get to church early, when I am in a more focused state and have some time for personal prayer. Once the first hymn is sung, it is a struggle. Thank goodness we have the cloistered religious to pray for this world. I am sure that the isolation from the world and frequent moments of prayer throughout the day is the best way to be in a position to receive all of the graces that God wants to give the soul.

I know that beating yourself up about this problem is not the answer. Even the religious (people who belong to faith communities: priests, nuns, monks, etc.), have issues similar to mine and they advise us to just keep pulling yourself back when you recognize that you are getting sidetracked.

Anyone who is reading this and is not a Roman Catholic, may have no idea what I am talking about. Jesus wants ALL people to come to Him and receive this gift of His divinity. Holy Communion is a mystery to all of us, because it is supernatural. So much about being a Catholic relies on our faith and belief in the Word of God (the Bible). Holy Communion is central to being a Catholic. If you read Saint Faustina’s diary, you will begin to understand the relationship of Jesus, Holy Communion and souls (that would us, souls).

God Bless

Paula

Dairy, Divine Mercy in My Soul, Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, original Polish Diary copyright 1981 Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy

Saint Faustina's Poetry

In the Catholic world, we are in the year of Mercy. God’s mercy is evident through the bible, however, in the 1930’s sister Faustina, under the counsel of the Lord, Jesus, wrote the Divine Mercy Chaplet. At that time, Sister Faustina (now Saint Faustina Kowalska) was a young Polish woman with very little formal education. You would never know that from reading her diary, Divine Mercy of My Soul, which is packed with incredible wisdom, discernment and poetry. All things are possible when God is the directing your life.

About 12+ years ago I was introduced to Saint Faustina and the Divine Mercy Chaplet, at a presentation at my church. I felt blessed with this new knowledge of God’s mercy and the way God has reached out to the world through Saint Faustina. I purchased the diary and read about half of the diary. For whatever reason that I don’t remember, I put the book back on my bookshelf. Fast forward to 2016, the Year of Mercy. On several recent occasions, I have found myself focusing on this book which is on my bookshelf in the living room and wondering why I never finished reading the diary. Last week I looked at the book, got up, took it off the shelf and picked up where I left off 12+ years ago. I have been immersed in this reading since and feel that the Holy Spirit has been nudging me in this direction for some time now. It was during my morning prayer time, when apparently I was open minded enough to the let the Holy Spirit in and responded to God’s will. Following God’s will is a gift, as always and reading this diary is a glimpse of the mercy that God has for us, if we only listen and believe.

Below is one of the many poems that are in this diary. I especially enjoyed this poem and could relate to the feeling of being an exile in this world.

J.M.J.

With longing I gaze into the starlit sky.

Into the sapphire of fathomless firmaments.

There the pure heart leaps out into find You, O God,

And yearns to be free of the bonds of the flesh.

With great longing, I gaze upon you, my homeland,

When will this, my exile, come to an end?

O Jesus, such is the call of Your bride.
Who suffers agony in her thirst for You.

With longing, I gaze at the footprints of the saints.

Who crossed this wilderness on their way to the fatherland.

They left me the example of their virtue and their counsels.

And they say to me, “Patience, Sister, soon the fetters will break.”

But my longing soul hears not these words.

Ardently it yearns for its Lord and its God,

And it understands not human language,

Because it is enamored of Him alone.

My longing soul, wounded with love,

Forces its way through all created things

And unites itself with infinite eternity,

With the Lord whom my heart has espoused.

Allow my longing soul, O God,

To be drowned in Your Divine Three-fold Essence.
Fulfill my desires, for which I humbly bet You,

With a heart brimming with love’s fires. 

Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary, Divine Mercy of My Soul, pages 468-469

God Bless

Paula

Boston's Basilica

Recently my husband and I ventured out for a pilgrimage to Boston's Basilica.

In architecture, the term basilica signifies a kingly, and secondarily a beautiful, hall. ( New Advent, Basilica- http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02325a.htm)

I enjoy watching documentaries of the holy lands throughout the world and have felt left out of these experiences because of living in New England. One day I was lamenting that these holy places, particularly Marian shrines were out of my reach due to distance, travel, limited vacation time and money. I went online to look for Catholic shrines in New England and was pleasantly surprised that were many day trip or weekend destinations right here in NE. I started my bucket list and since then we have visited three holy destinations.

 On May 22nd, my husband and I visited Boston's Basilica. We left NH and got on the T outside of Boston and rode the orange line to Roxbury Crossing, and there it was, a short walk from the T station. It certainly was a majestic sight from the outside, but that was nothing compared to the beauty of this basilica on the inside. It was breathtaking, and I had a hard time focusing on the mass because I was so overwhelmed with the beauty of the architecture and artwork of the church. This was a historical moment for me as I had never been in a basilica or any church so large and beautiful. To top that off, we were blessed with a visiting choir from Toronto. At the end of the mass, the Alleluia that was sung was the most heavenly Alleluia I have ever heard.

The Boston Basilica is a shrine to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The church is well known for the healings that have happened there and you will see containers of crutches from people that were healed there. While I was there, I filled out a petition to our Lady of Perpetual Help and prayed for my personal and family needs. An older man approached me while I was in that shrine area and told me it "was all true". I must have looked like a tourist. He told me a story that he witnessed in the 1950's, where a person in a wheelchair was cured and walked out of the church.

I have attached a picture that I took that day. Pay close attention to the picture of the altar with a hanging picture of the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Notice the light coming from the altar and above focus on Mary and Jesus in the artwork above the altar. We did not see that light when the picture was taken. The two side areas of the altar that are beaming with light have statues of angels, which can't be seen because of the bright light. When we were sitting at the front of the church, we didn't see this brilliant light that shows up in the photo. I believe this is the presence of God and the presence of His angels that are present at every mass. What a gift it was to later process this photo and see the light.

Psalm 118:26-28New International Version (NIV)

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
    From the house of the Lord we bless you.
27 The Lord is God,
    and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
    up to the horns of the altar.

28 You are my God, and I will praise you;
    you are my God, and I will exalt you.

God Bless

Paula