“How long should an engagement last?”

Ask me a question, and I will answer accordingly. In social media, Aleteia started its post by raising this question: “How long should an engagement last?” It sounds rhetoric to me. I am more interested in the question rather than … Continue reading →

These Nuns are out of Order #SuperbowlinTheConvent

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Between Layla and I, to keep us entertained, we followed what the nuns were tweeting. Reading their tweets were more exciting than the game itself. Hilarious! Sister Bethany, fsp‏ @SrBethanyFSP Feb 4 Nun 1: Did you see that player? He made the … Continue reading →

Mission on the Hills and Valleys

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The beauty of the space nourished by temperate climate is what makes this place conducive to live permanently or a travel destination to enjoy the many amenities of the Okanagan Valley. From the balcony, I could see the Mission Hill … Continue reading →

“I am only a man, just like you.”

Trait D’espirit / Drawn by the Spirit

“It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures,” said St. André Bessette.

He is just another man, a real person that I would have very much wanted to meet personally.  Unfortunately, he was born way ahead of me and died 20 years before I was born.  If you ask him who he is, the response was “I am only a man, just like you.”

André Bessette is a native of Canada born frail in a poor family in Quebec.  He became an orphan at the age of 12 and had hardly any education at all.  In his early twenties, he entered the Holy Cross congregation in Montreal.  Nobody wanted him.  The main task given to him was menial as a porter, someone who opens the door and greets people who come to visit the Oratory.  Yet he did his duty for 40 years accepting the little he had and turning it into a holy act.

One would not think that he lacks formal education when he is an effective teacher of faith by his action, love, kindness, and example.  He used the simplest means.  It is his complete trust with divine providence is what made him an exceptional person.

His dream was to build a church devoted to St. Joseph.  He trusted that if he is really doing the Lord’s will the Lord would bring it to fruition.  And it did happen.

How I would have wanted to see him open the door for me when I visited the Oratory in Mount Royal.   I felt small as an ant standing at the first rung of the steps looking up at the Oratory.

In a world filled with educated minds and an era of countless celebrity, glitz, and glamour, I am amazed at what a simple man can do.

Brother André is what I call him and has left me a legacy to place my trust in Jesus.

Better than Bacon

Who doesn’t like Bacon?  Can’t say I don’t.  I happen to like bacon and the smell of bacon wafting through the atmosphere.  Imagine me hovering on mid-air following the scent of the bacon.  It’s so enticing.  Ah ….

Bacon is one of the most common discussions at work.  We could talk about bacon all day long except for other belief system that doesn’t eat meat at all.  However, they are intoxicated by the smell of bacon.  Yet, their faith keeps them from eating this sinful delicacy.  They have such deep abiding faith.

Would you care to join me and eat bacon?

When I invite someone, I try all kinds of tricks to join me or join us.  But I suppose dangling bacon is not as good as dangling a carrot.

I am actually talking about Catholics bloggers.  There are many of us: some are really dedicated, some are lapsed.  And there are non-Catholics that are just faithful to their religion.  It really does not matter to me.  Catholic means Universal.  I embrace you all.

For the sake of this post, I am supposed to link two sites that are catholic bloggers.  Let me introduce:

Claudia.  I like her sense of humour and I can relate to her.
“Whoever suffers from mental illness ‘always’ bears God’s image and likeness in himself, as does every human being.” excerpt from statement by Blessed Pope John Paul II at International Conference for Health Care Workers, on Illnesses of the Human Mind, November 30, 1997.

Not The Sword But The Pen.  She wants to join the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows (Beaverton, Oregon).  I happen to follow the footsteps of St. Francis.

Friar Musings.  The title is exactly what it says.  He is a Franciscan Friar.  Again, he is another St. Francis in the making.   This link speaks about mindfulness and I quote:

The weather and its coming and goings make us vigilant. What else in life causes you to be vigilant, attentive, watchful, observant, alert? Is it the literal thief in the night?  Maybe at best I have been attentive – you know… lock the doors and windows, install an motion-sensing flood lights outside, regular things.  Did I stay up all night on watch?  No.  Didn’t install ADT or other home protection systems, either. Maybe a better word for all this is that I was “mindful.”  I was mindful of the possibility of a thief in the night, but it was all just integrated into my life.

I did ask the first two but not Father.  They are good in what they do already to let their faith shine in the whole blogging world.

As for Better Than Bacon, this is what it’s all about: click on Man Alive.

 

Related Links:

• Claudia.
• Not The Sword But The Pen
• Friar Musings
• Sunday Snippets

 

 

Forgiveness in Action – March Monthly Peace

The monthly Peace Challenge for the month of  March 2013 is about Marching Towards Forgiveness. 

Forgiveness is just a not a word for me.  I can only forgive through action.  I can think about it, I can meditate about, I can wish about it; none of these would work for me.  I can only show it.  And here is a great story about forgiveness. 

As John Paul II took the hand of his would-be-assassin, he showed us that a Christian must forgive his enemies, even when they do not want forgiveness. 

One of the bullets that struck John Paul II remains in the crown of the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal. 

 

By Brother Randall J. Meissen, LC

4/27/2011 JohnPaulMoments.com (johnpaulmoments.com) 

ROME, Italy (John Paul Moments) – On December 27, 1983, as John Paul II sat in a bare, whitewashed jail cell of Rome’s Rebibbia prison, he was unprepared for the question voiced by an unshaven prisoner to his side, “So why aren’t you dead?”  

Why aren’t you dead? 

Death had appeared all but certain to bystanders when three bullets fired by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca tore through the pope’s flesh on May 13, 1981, staining the pope’s white cassock with deathly scarlet. 

Ali Agca was a professional assassin, he had aimed at close range, and he had aimed well.  But somehow, the bullets missed lethal targets, one grazing the pope’s right elbow, and another deflecting off his left index finger before passing through his abdomen, a fraction of an inch from a major artery.  

By John Paul II’s assessment, “It was a mother’s hand that guided the bullet’s path,” and permitted that “the dying Pope. stopped on the threshold of death.”  The assassination attempt had taken place on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and the pope had no doubt that his survival was due to the intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  

In gratitude, the Pope gave one of the deadly bullets to the bishop in charge of the shrine at Fatima, Portugal.  To this day, that bullet remains in the crown of the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary housed at that shrine. 

However, as John Paul II sat at the side of his would-be-assassin, Ali Agca expressed fears that this Lady of Fatima might come after him next.  The pope stated the contrary; he himself had come to forgive, not to harm.  But Ali Agca did not ask for forgiveness.  

Thus, as the pope took the hand of the gunman, he showed us that a Christian must forgive his enemies, even when they do not want forgiveness.

 

Source: Catholic.Org