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Joy from the Monastery |
Thoughts from Sister Patricia
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Message taken from today's Peace Card
Visit Sr. Patricia's blog
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To send today's card: Saint Basil the Great
Also on today's date Saint Gregory Nazianzen
Quote for the Day:
O sinner, be not discouraged, but have recourse to Mary in all your necessities. Call her to your assistance, for such is the divine Will that she should help in every kind of necessity.
Saint Basil the Great
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I suppose you noticed that I sneaked out from actually sending a card on New Year's Day? I hadn't planned it that way... but as the day wore on and I wore out.. it seemed like a good idea. Besides I had sent a New Year's Greeting for the Eve of New Year.. so I felt I was sort of covered. I can find all sorts of good excuses when I put my mind to it.
Today has been a nice day except that we had to say good-bye to a good friend of our community, Debbie, who had come to stay with for a few days over the Christmas holidays. We tried to be good to her (since she was so good to us) but we ended up sending her home with a cold! What a thing to do for your guest! Of course maybe she got it on the plane or in transit.. hard to know... most of us were over the bug.. but who knows.. them little viruses sneak back and around and are very wily characters!
This evening Sr. Jane seems to have come down with it... is this how the New Year is supposed to begin? Can we rewrite the script?
Guess how I celebrated the first new day of the new year? I cleaned a bit in my room and then just sat on my little rocking chair and enjoyed it! I think I'm starting to get the cleaning bug fever. Maybe there are signs of spring in the air already? Maybe after the hustle and bustle of Christmas days its nice to see something simple and back to normal. O
Of course we are still in full Christmas mode in prayer and liturgy - and I'm still praying the Joyful Mysteries every day so for the most part I'm still in Christmas mode.. but still it was nice to just sit in my quiet room and do nothing at all.. but just sit.
Happy Second Day of the New Year!
Blessings of Peace and Joy,
Sister Patricia and all the Sisters
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Sr. Patricia and Oprah
Saint of the day
Reverend Fun
Motivational
Meditation
from Greatday.com
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Collecting Stories from
September 14 - December 31, 2007
101 Inspirational Stories
of the Power of Prayer
This project is placed under the patronage
of the Blessed Mother.
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The stories need to provide answers to these questions.
1. How did you pray?
What kind of prayer?
The rosary, scripture or just heart to heart conversation with God?
2.. How committed were you to praying?
Maybe you didn't pray all that much... that's okay.. tell us that ...
but if you prayed a lot - spell it out.
Help us to really get into how much heart and soul went into your prayer.
3. What effect did the answer to your prayer
have on your future relationship to God and prayer?
Submit your Story
http://101prayer.com/prayerstory.html
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Rejoice in Me
by Msgr. David E. Rosage
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Birthday
Fun
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Healthy Eating from Barbara George
Elder Care Diet Tips
Your resource for hints on nutrition and health;
a place to learn and a place to share!
Visit Barb's Blog to leave comments and find more great tips.
Hoppin’ John for New Year Good Luck!
Happy New Year! I have been so lax in doing anything this past week! And loving it! Had another bout with the computer being passive aggressive and not letting me get on the internet. Seems like everything is just wearing out at the same time. I guess that makes sense in our disposable world. I think a computer’s harddrive should last 20 years but apparently not everyone thinks the way I do.
So, I hope everyone had a Happy and Safe New Year’s celebration and welcome to 2008. Now it is time to get busy making good things happen for you. Start your year right with something that anyone can make. This simple recipe can be changed any way you like if you don’t have everything handy.
Hoppin’ John is believed to come from Africa and is to be eaten on New Year’s day to bring you good luck. Black eyed peas and rice are the only two ingredients you shouldn’t skip or change because they are the heart of this recipe. It is thought that the slaves brought the black eyed peas from Africa and this tradition started as a way to demonstrate that this year food would be plentiful. Hoppin’ John is delicious and filling and does not take much work to make.
Recipe:
Ingredients
3 cups chicken stock (or 3 c water and 2 chicken boullian cubes)
1 tomato, chopped
10 scallions, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp hot pepper sauce
1 1/2 cups long grain white rice
16 ounce can black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups cooked ham (I use well cooked bacon, only 3-4 slices, chopped)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Put the water, stock, tomatoes, scallions, bay leaf, thyme, and hot pepper sauce in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.
Add the rice, cover, and simmer for about 25 minutes until tender.
Stir in the black-eyed peas and ham, cover, and simmer for 8-10 minutes longer.
Serve warm with cornbread.
I also add green pepper because I try to add extra vegetables to anything I can since some members of the family aren’t so good at eating their vegetables. You could also add shredded carrots, red or yellow pepper, mushrooms, etc.
Eat hearty but healthy! Happy New Year!!!
Note: This recipe is gluten free, can be made vegetarian without losing much of the flavor, and is soft and easy to eat for anyone who has difficulty managing textures or chewing.
This recipe has been borrowed from “The Complete Carribean Cookbook, Totally Tropical Recipes from the Paradise Islands”. This cookbook is fun to read as well as using for cooking.
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A Smile from Home - Danielle Bean
Today's Thought
Visit Danielle's blog to see pictures and links to go with this text.
New Year 2008
We're snowed in again. Well, we got to Mass this morning and Dan got out for an emergency pack of diapers, but other than that we've spent the day here. In this house. With a fire glowing and fluffy snowflakes falling outside our windows.
Tonight the kids are playing a game of Life, a Christmas present from their Grandpa. Dan is outside dealing with the plowman and the snowy walkway so that I won't have to. Raphael has collapsed on the couch, but I dare not yet carry him to bed. The baby, who spent the day toddling through rooms and rehearsing his two latest learned words, "MamaINeedYou" and "MamaWhereAreYou," has been bundled into his bed. The kitchen still smells of gingerbread and the Christmas tree lights glimmer softly in the darkness.
And I sit, basking in this season of celebration and this one glowing moment — grateful for the opportunity to welcome a new year in the same way that I spent the last: Here, in this house, with these people, in this blessed life.
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Greetings from Rome with Sister Janet Fearns, FMDM
Pause for Prayer
Visit Janet's Blog to see pictures to go with this text.
On a personal note…
A hug
Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church. What does it mean to be a mother? One of the biggest lessons I ever learned was when I was faced with a dead baby and his grieving parents, when I had not a single word of their language with which I could offer comfort. It was then that I did the only thing I could: I hugged the mother. It was then that I learned that motherhood is knowing when and how to give a hug, whether it is of sympathy in suffering, encouragement in difficulty, of support in weakness, of love in loneliness, of happiness in joy, of pride in achievement.
Mary was at the beginning and the end of Jesus’ life on earth. She was there for his successes and failures, his joys and his degradation on Calvary.
Mary knew when Jesus needed a hug. She also knows when her hug is exactly what we need. After all, she’s our mother, too.
Happy New Year!
God bless,
Sr. Janet
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Spiritual Blessings from Father Rory Pitstick
A Virtual Retreat
Reflections following the Daily Liturgical cycle
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Wednesday
1 Jn 2: 22-28
Ps 97(98): 1. 2-3ab. 3cd-4
Jn 1: 19-28
Daily Readings
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Jan 2 Wed: Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, bps, drs M
From today's readings:
“Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.... All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.... I baptize with water; but there is One among you whom you do not recognize, the One who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”
Lies and deceptions
The moral implications of Christian faith are pretty clear - we can hardly call ourselves Christians if we don’t pursue righteousness of action. But faith is also a call to embrace the fullness of Truth - in our pluralistic society, we forget that we can stray from our faith not just by implicating ourselves in evil actions, but also by embracing false teachings.
St. John is particularly emphatic in warning readers against errors in teaching. In his day, as in ours, many compromise orthodox belief in Jesus in order to harmonize with other popular opinions. For instance, there is the false notion that Jesus is just one of many ways to salvation - those who hold this notion, have little zeal in sharing their faith because they think that an atheist or pagan can be saved without Christ. While Jesus Himself taught that it is possible to attain eternal life without explicit knowledge of Him (cf. Matthew 25), such people are nevertheless still saved through Christ’s merit, so leading atheists and pagans to the awareness of Christ is still the most invaluable assistance to salvation.
That’s just one common error leading people astray - there are many such “antichrists.” How do you and I avoid falling into such errors? The Splendor of the Truth of our faith calls for constant effort on our part - ongoing prayer, meditation, and study, so that our personal understanding of our faith is continually enriched and kept pure from the dross of all error!
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