Dr. Linda L. Powell

O God, whose only begotten Son by His life, death, and Resurrection has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life, grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating on these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ, Our Lord.

September is the month of Our Lady of Sorrows. This seems an appropriate prayer given the state of our Nation.

“Hail, Mary, full of sorrows, the Crucified is with thee; tearful are thou amongst women, and tearful is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of the Crucified, give tears to us, cruicifiers of thy Son, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.” — Blessed be God

More from “Blessed be God” for Friday.  Let the old fashioned words of this prayer wash over you with peace and consolation.  Then go have a holy day.
ANT. O all ye who pass by the way, attend and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow.
V. We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee.
R. Because by Thy holy cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

Let us pray

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, Who at the sixth hour didst mount the gibbet of the cross for the Redemption of the world and didst shed Thy Precious Blood that our sins might be washed away, we humbly beseech Thee that after our death Thou wouldst suffer us to pass with joy through the gates of heaven. Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.

Yep.  This blog was getting me down.  First of all, I don’t have a lot of strong opinions about things.  My temperament is one of a teacher.  I want to impart knowledge about our Catholic Faith.  However, the responsibility of writing a blog that is pithy and attractive is escaping me right now.  Then I feel guilty over the fact that I am not writing as much as I should.  Plus it costs me money every year to keep my name.  Now that I am retired, I am looking at everything we spend to be sure that it is necessary.  Anyhow, I am still praying and thinking about it.

Which brings me to today’s prayer.  I have a Catholic prayer book called “Blessed be God” that I use every single day.  It is pre-Vatican 2, so it has some prayers that one doesn’t hear anymore that I pray quite often.  Today’s prayer was to the Holy Angels and it touched me so much, I thought I’d share it with you today.

“O Holy Angels, watch over us at all times during this perilous life; O holy Archangels, be our guides on the way to heaven; O heavenly choir of the Principalities, govern us in soul and body; O mighty Powers, preserve us against the wiles of the demons; O celestial Virtues, give us strength and courage in the battle of life; O powerful Dominations, obtain for us dominion over the rebellion of our flesh; O sacred Thrones, grant us peace with God and man; O brilliant Cherubim, illumine our minds with heavenly knowledge; O burning Seraphim, enkindle in our hearts the fire of charity.  Amen.”

Have a great day!  May your Guardian Angel be at your side today to guide and protect you.  Praise God!

He will be having a CT Scan on his face on Wednesday. Last week his jaw started hurting him and then that whole side of his face swelled. He went to the doctor, had an ultrasound (which the ENT Specialist tells us was a waste of time and money) and now has to get a CT. We are hoping that the worse case scenario (a deep tissue tumor) will be ruled out by the scan and that it will be a simple virus that will go away on its own. Anyhow, if you could pray for him and a good diagnosis, we would appreciate it. We will know for sure Thursday afternoon.

“My brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me! A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the age of Men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight!” (Excerpt from Church Militant Field Manual).

Brilliant!

“The simple fact is, you are not the point of your life. You are not the star of your show. If you live for yourself, your own comfort, your own glory, your own fame, you will miss out on your very…

Source: Missing Out!

Someone said that if they heard that phrase one more time, their head would explode.  Sometimes, it does sound like something someone would say when they don’t know what else to say, especially when the thing that happens is unplanned or unpleasant.  This doesn’t keep it from being true, though.

And, that doesn’t mean that we will know or understand the reason when something unplanned or unpleasant happens.  We might never know on this side of heaven.  God knows, though.  Things happen for a reason, because our God is a God of certainty and order, not a God of unreasonableness or chaos.  Things happen for a reason according to His plan, not ours.  This is where pride can be a stumbling block for us, if we believe that we can control all the outcomes by our behavior and our choices.  Not possible.  We aren’t that good and all-knowing.  Everything we choose to do, we choose with imperfect knowledge of the outcome.  We can pray that we are making the right choices and trust that God will make things turn out for the glory of His will and that is about the extent of our “control.”

To believe that everything happens for a reason, doesn’t negate free-will, either.  We are free to choose and free to make decisions that we hope will impact our lives for good and not harm.  We are especially free to choose those actions which are for the good of our souls and our salvation.  We are not free to think that we are always in control of every outcome in our life.

I remember someone telling me, if I wanted to make God laugh, to make plans.  Do I still plan?  Of course.  Do I still make decisions?  Of course.  Do I get upset when the outcome is not what I expected?  A little.  As I get older, though, I’m getting better at knowing that things happen for a reason.

I have three thoughts that are swirling around my brain this evening.  Don’t know how they might be related.  However, I think they are.

My daughter, my husband and I made the monthly pilgrimage to St. Francis for the Traditional Latin Mass yesterday.  First we drive to our daughter’s house that is 35 minutes away from us.  Then she drives the other 35 minutes to the Church.  (If you have read previous postings, you know that we don’t trust our car to go great distances.)

The Gospel according to St. Luke was about the 10 lepers that were cured and only one came back to thank Jesus; and he was a Samaritan (foreigner.)  Every time I read this passage, I am reminded first that we need to be thankful each and every day to God and then that we should express our thanks to those who serve us in some way.  We need to be grateful.

My daughter serves us in so many ways and I can never thank her enough especially for leaving her family on a Sunday morning when she is only 10 minutes from her own Catholic parish Church and going with us.  She has been doing this for about 3 years, now, and she is so lovely for doing it.

We were taught to be thankful when we were growing up.  If someone gave us a present, we thanked them, and most of the time, in writing.  Phone calls came to replace the handwritten notes although I still try to write the note if I can.  I tried to raise my children the same.  Not so sure that it “took” because their grandma would always complain that they didn’t call her to let her know that they got her birthday cards or her Christmas presents.  I’m not going to judge.  I’m just going to say that it seems that the younger people think they are too busy to say thanks.

Charlie and I get very few thanks nowadays.  When we receive a present, we try to call immediately to say thank you, not only for expressing appreciation,but to let the person know that we got something from them in the mail so they wouldn’t be wondering.  However, we have wondered a lot.  I worried because I would send cash to grandchildren and never know if they received it or not until I asked.  I have stopped sending presents to the grandchildren because I haven’t gotten a thanks from them in years.  I love them, though, so they receive cards with no money or checks in them.

Some will say that one doesn’t give to get thanks, and I guess I can agree.  But, don’t you think that if more people said, “Please?” and “Thank-you.”  it might be a better place out there?  If they picked up the phone and called?  If they let you know that you matter enough to get a “thanks.”  I guess I can relate to Jesus in this story.  How sad He must have felt about the other 9.

My other thoughts are related after all.  When I was getting my Ph.D. 21 years ago, we did very little online.  I used a computer to do my statistics for my experiments and used a word processor to write my dissertation.  I knew what was coming though and actually did a paper on people living in Electronic Caves.  Enter smart phones, i-pads, Facebook, etc. and my predictions came true.

People think a Facebook post can take the place of a phone call.  A text message can take the place of a face to face.  There are very few social niceties because there are very few social interactions.  If one never has to talk, really talk, to someone then that person is nothing to them.  And one can treat a nothing very badly indeed.

One of the reasons that I am off Facebook right now is what passes for discourse on Social Media sites.  If someone is going to tell me to “shut the h— up,” I want them to have the grace and courage to tell me in person.  Or call me.  I’ll thank you for it.

Note:  This blog and my Twitter account are linked with my FB account so some people might think that I am still on there.  I am not.  If something really important happens that you want me to know, call me, please.  Or put it on the family grapevine.  I talk to my daughters and sister at least once a week.