At Our House: St. Joseph's Day Feasting

As I drove to the 65,000-square-foot wholesale bakery at the top of a hill, I could smell the bread baking, even behind my van's closed windows. Inside the retail store of Anthony and Sons, there were more smells - and sights - of bread baking. Some of my students work here and I have never visited. Today, being St. Joseph's Day, I decided to. I never tire of discovering the treasure troves of my faith; tonight my parish will celebrate with a special Mass so we might contemplate the man who raised the son of God.

Overcoming Burnout By Counting My Blessings

A loving and loyal husband. Two healthy sons. A working car. WQXR. A job I love.

These are the five things I wrote down today in my gratitude journal. I've had a long, tough winter and, toward its end, realized I was burned out. So I bought an online workshop called The Restore Workshop, developed by a couple of women, including Elizabeth Foss, one of my favorite bloggers. These are women who know all to well about burn out and they have just the right prescription for me.

From A Stage Four Cancer Patient: "Never Have I Felt So Accompanied in My Life"

I have shared by friend Frank Simmonds' journey of pain and faith. He has stage four neuroendocrine cancer. Here is another remarkable video from him, just before he undergoes open-heart surgery at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn tomorrow. Please pray for him, his wife and their two young sons. This Lenten season, Frank is facing the prospect of his own death with a deep gratitude for the life he has been given. We should all do the same.

"We live our life but a minute... like a whisper. Then we come fact to face with an unknown entity called Death..The good thing about me is. I encounter another entity...my faith in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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On the First Sunday of Lent, Contemplating the Beauty of Melting Snow

This afternoon I took a brisk half hour walk in the late winter air to watch our son coach basketball. Along the way to Lucky's final game coaching a team of 9 and 10 year old girls, I heard water dripping. Snow is melting and findings its way to water drains.

How A Butterfly Guides Me: Setting off on My Lenten Journey

Since I posted yesterday about my stalled spirituality  I have come up with a simple, repeatable way to prepare for Easter. I am wary of any Lenten prayer plan that is so complex that I feel like a failure before I begin; my Lenten journey will not be a redux of Benjamin Franklin's Moral Perfection plan, his self-improvement scheme that would work for no more than a day.

Here's what I have been up to. Each night, right before I go to bed, I check out universalis.com and read the nighttime prayer on my iPad. I grab a phrase, and say it to myself as I fall asleep. In the morning, first thing, I read the morning prayer and again pick an image or phrase that I can carry with me during the day.

My Frozen Soul and My Lenten Journey

This whole winter it feels as if I have been stalled. In our small town, there is a seemingly never series of water main breaks, which means we can't use our tap water. A pipe burst under the river, which meant the air was filled with the smell of gas. There have been blackout after blackout in many neighborhoods because of our ailing electrical system. And despite all the efforts of so many, our public schools appear to be breaking and our elected officials indifferent. One of our sons is struggling in school. And the older child is still waiting to hear back from the many colleges to which he has applied. No word from any of them yet. Oh and then there is the snow, inch after inch of snow, day after day, delaying the start of so many school days. It feels as if my family will never unfreeze, never move forward from our permafrosted positions.

Holy Saturday: Back On My Knees

I have blown far too much time today debating fellow Catholics on facebook about Pope Francis washing women's feet and whether a Catholic deacon can support same-sex marriage by the government while upholding the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony between a man and a woman in the Church and whether a Jesuit high school is erring in allowing two openly gay students to go to prom together.

Shame on me for my self-satisfied attitude on this, one of the most solemn, most holy days of our liturgical year.

I am going to continue praying the Divine Mercy Novena and listen to some Palestrina to keep my pride in check and fix my gaze on Christ. A blessed Holy Saturday to all who believe, even when we fall short.

Confession Is Scary: NOT!

I wish friends who are not Catholic or friends and family who left the Church years ago could have been with me tonight at my parish. I wish I could have taken photographs of what I saw, but because it was evening, my cell phone camera would not cooperate. Instead, my words will have to suffice.

My parish hosted a Lenten Penance Service, on this the Tuesday of Holy Week. Five priests, all affiliated with the parish, attended, along with maybe 200 or 300  people of every possible walk of life. The vast majority of folks were under 30, with middle aged people and elderly folks sprinkled in. Our sons were the only teenagers I saw there. We all sang, we listened to the Gospel reading about the Prodigal Son, we listened to an Examination of Conscience, and then all said the Act of Contrition together. Then, one by one, we each went to Confession. The whole process took my family more than two hours and I have never felt so uplifted by this sacrament, nor so well-prepared for Easter.

Baking Bread and Stumbling Through Lent

Today I am making challah. I found a great recipe online for something called Cinnamon-Apple Raisin Challah. On the King Arthur website, it looks like this before it goes in the oven: 

Let me tell you, my challah looks nothing like that.

Lent in Catholicland: A Peek at My Day

To mix things up a bit, I took my younger son to a Mass at a parish a few miles away instead of our usual parish home. After Mass, we drove over to our parish for our monthly Family Catechesis.

This three-hour odyssey showed me how rich and varied our faith is, even here in suburbia. I wish those who don't know or who misunderstand the Catholic faith - who think we are a bunch of reactionary weirdos -  could encounter some of the joy and goodness my son and I did today. Here is a glimpse.

"Cravings:" On Human Hunger and Being Wonderfully Made

I'm going to go ahead and review Mary DeTourris Poust's latest book, Cravings: A Catholic Wrestles with Food, Self-Image and God, without having finished it. This is a wonderful book. This is a book on the relationship between spirituality and food and the first, its publishers say, written from a Catholic perspective.

I am a veteran of probably dozens of self-help books, including Body Clutter: Love your Body, Love Yourself;   Fat is a Feminist Issue, and When Food is Love,  . All of these books have helpful insights and tips. But Poust's book is the first I have read that links one's issues with food with a weak relationship with the One who named us first.

Seven Quick Takes for Friday

1. I took a personal day today so my husband and I could participate in a meeting we called at our younger son's middle school. I am grateful for: the wonderful principal, who knows how to facilitate a meeting and problem solve, our son's sweet and effective caseworker and the burned-out algebra teacher with poor communication skills. Yes, he has been put in front of our family so we might learn how to advocate for our son and so that our son might learn how to  advocate for himself.

Lenten Reflection: That Sunday Scone at Starbucks? Meh.

I gave up processed food for Lent. If I want to eat bread before Easter, I have to bake it. Except, of course, on Sundays, which being Sundays, do not count as part of Lent.

After 11 a.m. Mass with my son we headed next door to the Barnes and Noble because he said he needed a new sweatshirt. As I was walking over I thought: Oh! It's Sunday! I can have something sweet with my iced soy latte. The Rutgers B&N has a Starbucks inside. In line at the cafe, I spied blueberry scones. And ordered one. And sat down to sip my latte and eat my Sunday scone. It looked nothing like the scone depicted on the corporate website.

Lenten Talk: St. Rita of Cascia

My friend Melissa drove me to Staten Island tonight so we could attend an inspiring talk about St. Rita of Cascia at a parish called Saint Rita Church.  Call it food for our Lenten journeys.

The speaker was Father Michael Di Gregorio, O.S.A., who grew up in the parish and graduated from its grammar school. He is an Augustinian priest who now serves as vicar general of the Augustinian order in Rome. He also is the author of a biography of Saint Rita called The Precious Pearl: The Story of Saint Rita of Cascia.

 "We think of a saint as someone who is out of this world." he told the audience of about 70 in the church sanctuary. "But a saint is someone who is attuned to the Voice that speaks within and who tries to respond openly and honestly. " Saint Rita, he said. "had her feet on the ground."

Seven Quick Takes for Friday

 (painting by Jason Tako)

1. Spring is coming; I can just feel it. It is so glorious to see more and more of the sun these days. As much as I try, I don't do well in winter.

Celebrating Valentine's Day during Lent? Yikes.

Lent is approaching. Many of us, including yours truly, have food-related Lenten penances, good habits we want to develop and continue after this season of preparation. So one day after Ash Wednesday this year comes the Feast of Saint Valentine but better known as a secular day designed for indulgence in everything sugary.

How can we keep our Lenten promises (mine involve eating only unprocessed food during Lent and seriously limiting my sugar consumption) while enjoying the day after Ash Wednesday? By the way, speaking of Lenten Loopholes, Ironic Catholic wrote a laugh out loud funny post about this here.

Lenten Talk: Padre Pio

Tonight I had the beautiful experience of visiting St. Rita's Parish on Staten Island with two girlfriends to attend a Lenten talk on St. Pio of Pietrelcina, (Padre Pio).  The evening was a remarkable reminder of the reasonableness and the universality of our faith.

This Moment: First Sunday of Lent, with Cardinal Timothy Dolan

this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' at www.soulemama.com

(photo by my friend Dan Finaldi)

Morning Mass and Lenten Lessons with Timothy Cardinal Dolan

On this sunny, blustery February day, we have just returned, our little family of four, from a standing-room-only Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, where the celebrant was the newly minted Timothy Cardinal Dolan. Given the politics of these days, I expected he might preach about the intrusions that politicians are making into Catholics' lives of faith. But he didn't, at least not overtly.

Instead, the joyful man in the red hat preached the Gospel, reminding us that, just as Jesus learned during his 40 days in the desert, during Lent we need to realize that our lives must be lived with God's will, not our will, for God's kingdom, not our kingdom, for God's values and not the passing values of the world we live in. (Thanks to my CL friend Dan Finaldi for sharing the photo he took after Mass)

Lent: Opening My Heart

Sunday's Gospel reading from St. Mark was a story I've heard before. I started thinking of it in a new way, which is offering me a new way to think about Lent.