Novena of the Divine Mercy

The Novena of the Divine mercy begins today. Thank you Dorry for reminding me as I wanted to start it. Here is the link to it. I will post the daily readings throughout the next eight days, but for today I simply provide the link as I have been ill all day with the flu.

There is an indulgence now associated with this novena. (The following is from this site.)

On 29 June 2002, the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See promulgated a decree creating new indulgences that may be gained by the faithful in connection with the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday. This decree grants a plenary indulgence to those who comply with all the conditions established, and a partial indulgence to those who incompletely fulfill the conditions.

Three conditions for the plenary indulgence

And so the Supreme Pontiff, motivated by an ardent desire to foster in Christians this devotion to Divine Mercy as much as possible in the hope of offering great spiritual fruit to the faithful, in the Audience granted on 13 June 2002, to those Responsible for the Apostolic Penitentiary, granted the following Indulgences:

a plenary indulgence, granted under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer for the intentions of Supreme Pontiff) to the faithful who, on the Second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday, in any church or chapel, in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin, take part in the prayers and devotions held in honour of Divine Mercy, or who, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, recite the Our Father and the Creed, adding a devout prayer to the merciful Lord Jesus (e.g. Merciful Jesus, I trust in you!");

A partial indulgence, granted to the faithful who, at least with a contrite heart, pray to the merciful Lord Jesus a legitimately approved invocation.

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Where did Jesus pass Holy Thursday night ...

... after he was dragged from the garden to before the high priest? According to one priest, whom I heard speaking on EWTN, we should read psalm 88 to find this answer as Jesus was apparently dumped into a cistern to be kept under guard until morning:

Psalm 88

1 O LORD, the God who saves me,
day and night I cry out before you.

² May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.

³ For my soul is full of trouble
and my life draws near the grave.

⁴ I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am like a man without strength.

⁵ I am set apart with the dead,
like the slain who lie in the grave,
whom you remember no more,
who are cut off from your care.

⁶ You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths.

⁷ Your wrath lies heavily upon me;
you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.
Selah

⁸ You have taken from me my closest friends
and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape;

⁹ my eyes are dim with grief.
I call to you, O LORD, every day;
I spread out my hands to you.

¹⁰ Do you show your wonders to the dead?
Do those who are dead rise up and praise you?
Selah

¹¹ Is your love declared in the grave,
your faithfulness in Destruction ?

¹² Are your wonders known in the place of darkness,
or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

¹³ But I cry to you for help, O LORD;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.

¹⁴ Why, O LORD, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?

¹⁵ From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death;
I have suffered your terrors and am in despair.

¹⁶ Your wrath has swept over me;
your terrors have destroyed me.

¹⁷ All day long they surround me like a flood;
they have completely engulfed me.

¹⁸ You have taken my companions and loved ones from me;
the darkness is my closest friend.

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URGENT PRAYER REQUEST FROM A FRIEND

This is an email I received today from a friend. I can not imagine the emotional pain her family is in. (I have removed the children's names and left only the first initial:

her request:

I am soliciting prayers for our foster son J.
He has been with us since he was 9 days old, and now he is 17
months old. We already have adopted his blood sibling
M. , and we have already adopted J in our hearts, if
not in the law. J is in danger of being repossessed. The
birth mother is out of the picture, but the judge seems
determined to give custody of the baby to the birth father. The
birth father is a single 58 year old man who has never raised a
child and who claims to be on call 24/7 for his job.

J has had 3 weeks of 8.15am to 4.15 pm visits twice per week with the
birth father. Beginning Wednesday, April 8, the baby will go to
the birth father on Wednesday morning and return to us on
Thursday evening. These overnight visits will continue through
May when the court will review the case again. If nothing
terrible has happened, we believe the visits will be extended
further.

Please pray for this baby and for a healing of this situation.
Please pray that J will go (selfishly, I say remain in) to
his true home. Please pray with Christian love for the birth
father, for the judge, and for all those involved in deciding the
fate of this child. Please just pray. This baby needs all the
prayers that people can offer up for him. He is nonverbal and
much too young to have any of this explained to him. Please pray
for our family that we can remain in the love and peace of the
Lord no matter what happens. Please feel free to pass this
request along to anyone who you think would be interested.

Thanks for praying.

Love, Ellen

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Brrrrr

Had to roll the thermostat up a notch or two, pull the down filled comforter back out from its summer's nesting spot, grab a long sleeved pajama top before crawling into bed last night. Winter's having one last stubborn fling before fleeing for the year. Guess I will also need to grab a pair of socks this morning after going barefoot in my sandals all last week.

Still - the dogwood is blooming as are the azaleas, so spring is definitely just around the corner.

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I just have to ask ...

... how is that little babies that are too small to crawl around, play in dirt or otherwise get dirty manage to get dirt under their toenails and fingernails? How is that possible?

... and how is it that I can be so clever, thinking of the most funny posts at 2 am and not remember a word, not a single word of my thoughts in the morning - except for my last thought before sleep; "I just have to remember that one!"

I just had to ask!

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Proud Madre and Padre

Our 22 year old son, Miguel, has joined the military and will start Military Prep School this coming August and then boot camp.

God be with him and I humbly ask that my readers please remember him in your prayers.

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An important Question

One of our sons, Noah, asked an important question on the drive home from Mass yesterday. "Why would Jesus cry out: My God, My God - why have you forsaken me!" from the cross. Surely God did not abandon Jesus, after all, Jesus IS God!"

His father tackled that by responding just about everything that Jesus said reflected the fact that Jesus was fulfilling the old testament and that Jesus' exclamation was from the Psalms but he could not remember exactly which Psalm it was. When we got home from church my husband did a little digging and discovered the quote came from Psalm 22.

Later that night we enjoyed the company of a seminarian for dinner along with our 23 yr old son, Jonathan, and his delightful girl friend, Alicia. The topic was brought up again and Don agreed the why have you forsaken me did indeed come from Psalm 22. However, he also added that while Jesus was quoting Old Testament he was also speaking His own words as God had forsaken Jesus, fully man, to His sufferings. Jesus while fully man was also fully God and always in the beatific Vision. Yet, He was abandoned to his sufferings, as in He completely felt all of the physical and mental anguish a man would feel in those horrific circumstances.

I am including Psalm 22 here so that others might read it and ponder these prophetic words.

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the praise of Israel.

4 In you our fathers put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 They cried to you and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by men and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

8 "He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him."

9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother's breast.

10 From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother's womb you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.

12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions tearing their prey
open their mouths wide against me.

14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted away within me.

15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.

16 Dogs have surrounded me;
a band of evil men has encircled me,
they have pierced my hands and my feet.

17 I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me.

18 They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.

19 But you, O LORD, be not far off;
O my Strength, come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver my life from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.

21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save [d] me from the horns of the wild oxen.

22 I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the congregation I will praise you.

23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

24 For he has not despised or disdained
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.

25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.

26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
they who seek the LORD will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.

29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.

30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
31 They will proclaim his righteousness
to a people yet unborn—
for he has done it.

(Bible quote taken from Bible Gateway. )

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Beautiful...

I love pictures of babies and especially pictures of Mary holding the baby Jesus.

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Instring game!

As our van sped down the highway bringing us closer to our destination where we were to pick up some merchandise I suddenly spied a heron. It was gracefully afloat on a wind draft and gliding across the sky above the highway, heading for a spot of water on the other side of the road.

I called the kids attention to it and all necks craned to catch a glimpse of this beautiful bird before he made his landing in the small pond. This sparked, almost 14 yr old, Noah's imagination.
"Hey guys, let's all play a game. We will watch for things we think are interesting and call it out for everyone else to see. If at least three of us all think it's interesting than that person gets a point. I think Mummy should get the first point for an interesting thing to see!"

There was boisterous agreement and soon the air was rent with: "Hey I see a barn!" "I see a boat on a pole" and on and on. There was lots of voting and happily no arguments when some interesting things were rejected as too common.

Emma and Elsa were not quite grasping the concept of the game while they also struggled with the word interesting.

Emma would call out; "Hey I thought of something inter, instress, instring!" And Elsa was right behind her also calling out all kinds of insteressing ideas. Ultimately they settled on 'instring'.
Finally we explained one more time to Emma that we were not looking for instring ideas but rather instring things along the road - that she had to have seen.

There as a momentary pause in her particpation in the game until she called out excitidly: "Hey guys I just saw something instring in my mind!"

This was a very instring game indeed!


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April Fools

Have you ever tried to survive April Fools Day with nine children living at home and EIGHT of them old enough to play jokes.....

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unorignal thoughts

I had a light bulb moment today when I was struck by a very unoriginal thought. I have had this thought before but today it hit me a little harder than normal. The very simplicity of it really touched me and encouraged me. For the first time, I think, the reality that I could actually do this and make a difference in doing so sunk in.

So often I despair of my inability to make prayer more an active part of my life when, this morning, as I contemplated a chore I particularly dislike I realized what an opportunity I was missing. Here, staring in my face, was the perfect opportunity to worship God by cheerfully doing this hated job and doing so for love of Christ. I miss many opportunities through out the day to turn something, whether loved or hated, into a prayer offered up for my children, a friend in need, in reparation for the sin of the world as well as for the unborn.

I am trying to keep this thought in my heart and just finished folding a load of laundry as I pulled it from the dryer - simply offering up my physical action as a prayer for the reparation for the sins of the world while silently praying an Our Father.

I think maybe this time this unoriginal thought will actually stay with me. At least I hope it will.

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Puppy report

...midway through her shift Sargent in Charge of Puppy Boot Camp from 8 am to 9 am paused by my desk to make a progress report:

"Puppy report!" she said. "I am happy to announce that nine times out of ten puppy now goes in den when told to." She then went on to the dining table, happily able to enjoy breakfast while puppy quietly waited in his den for her.

Progress indeed - last week this type of action resulted in unhappy wales, whimpers and down right howling - making meals an ordeal for us all!

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baby joy

Warm fuzzy head heavy on my shoulder.
Soft body pressed against my chest.
Happy cooing in my ear.
Tiny feet planted firmly on my arm.
Perfectly shaped ears tempting nibbles and kisses
Is there anything better than that?


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Intriguing Post...

Okay, Okay - I know I'm cheating by linking to another blog for today's post BUT this is an intriguing post that catches you off guard with its thought provoking ending. To read Scribbit's post CLICK HERE.


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Double take at Bedtime...

I hurried up the stairs to get something from my room and as I passed by the bedroom door of Emma and Elsa , Emma sang out: "Nathaniel wants company, is that ok?"
"Umm, yeah." I mumbled.
But I did a double take as I heard her then call across her room"Hey, looks like you didn't need to hide!"


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Good Morning!

Hello everyone! I hope that those who prayed the Novena to Saint Joseph enjoyed the beautiful pictures for Saint Joseph and the child Jesus. There were a few that I especially love, in particular the one I saved for the last day of the novena.

As you know I was praying for the success of our new business, well here is an update as to where we are currently.

We showed our Internet Seminar to a director of a local non profit organization. The purpose of this nonprofit is to give free computers to people who can not otherwise afford them. Last year they gave 600 away and this year they already have about a thousand applications for more. He was so impressed with our demo that he wants to make the receiving of a free computer contingent on the clients taking our seminar. So he is going to look for grants that would allow his nonprofit to pay us to teach these seminars to his clients. We will also look for some grants ourselves. (I HATE writing grants but...)

We have hooked up with a fellow in Texas through Twitter who is doing the same thing and he has been giving us some advice too. We will show it soon to our priest with hopes of showing it to the Bishop and working through the church a well, as with the nonprofit mentioned up above.

Our church is going to let us use the church, at a very low cost, to teach my ESL classes two nights a week. Just waiting for the dates that a location on the church grounds will be available to put together a flyer for the church bulletin. So we are poised on the edge of things taking off. Can't be soon enough as our savings that we have been living off of for almost two years now are all but depleted. The next few weeks, until we actually see money coming in from these new prospects, are going to be stressful and I humbly ask for your prayers.

One: for the graces to trust in our Lord that all will go well and two: that we can actually get money rolling in so we can catch up with our bills and be able to, once again, pay them on time.

I will be very busy with the writing still left to do both for my classes and the seminar, but will try to keep up with the blog. However, you can also follow me on Twitter the next few weeks for continuous updates - to help fill in with what might be rather sporadic posting.

The puppy boot camp has not been as successful as it needs to be - largely because I have been distracted by work. But we will be refocusing this afternoon and reviewing what is going wrong and what we can do to improve in that area. The puppy has found a few favourite spots for napping that he will sadly outgrow - as in under my glider and on one of the dining room chairs. Before long the little fellow will not fit in either spot and will have to find new places to sleep. He does love the bed we made for him out of an old king sized pillow case and stuffing. We are enjoying him very much!

Cecilia is continuing to grow and loves to converse with us now. She is a doll and when I am feeling particularly stressed about the finances I just look at her and thank Jesus again for the gift of her life in our family and then attempt to put my complete trust in God - once more. It is truly a blessing to be given the privilege of another precious life to raise, as well as to watch the other children enjoy their baby sister. This morning I awoke to hear almost 4 yr old Elsa, who had joined us at about 4 am, talking to her baby sister who was just starting to awaken. "I love you Cecilia!" she crooned to her as she stroked her head. Just too precious and such a privilege to enjoy!

THANK YOU JESUS!

Now I must away to check on the two batches of Janet's Bread that Anna I have started. Many blessings to you all for blessed, peaceful weekend.

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Day Nine of Novena to St Joseph

O Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.

O Saint Joseph, assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord; so that having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

O Saint Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. Amen

O Saint Joseph, hear my prayers and obtain my petitions. O Saint Joseph, pray for me. (Mention your intention)

(My intention: That our business will be very successful and allow us to support ourselves well as well as the intentions of my readers. )

Say this prayer for nine days for anything you may desire. Then let go and let God. Trust that whatever is the outcome of your novena is truly what is best for you in accordance with the will of God.)

Please join my family in our novena, either with your own intention or in support of ours or both!

(Image found here)

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Day eight of the Novena to St Joseph

O Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.

O Saint Joseph, assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord; so that having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

O Saint Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. Amen

O Saint Joseph, hear my prayers and obtain my petitions. O Saint Joseph, pray for me. (Mention your intention)

(My intention: That our business will be very successful and allow us to support ourselves well as well as the intentions of my readers. )


Say this prayer for nine days for anything you may desire. Then let go and let God. Trust that whatever is the outcome of your novena is truly what is best for you in accordance with the will of God.)

Please join my family in our novena, either with your own intention or in support of ours or both!

(There is another novena to St Joseph with different daily readings found here. )

(Image found here)
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Day seven of the Novena to St Joseph

O Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.

O Saint Joseph, assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord; so that having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

O Saint Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. Amen

O Saint Joseph, hear my prayers and obtain my petitions. O Saint Joseph, pray for me. (Mention your intention)

(My intention: That our business will be very successful and allow us to support ourselves well as well as the intentions of my readers. )


Say this prayer for nine days for anything you may desire. Then let go and let God. Trust that whatever is the outcome of your novena is truly what is best for you in accordance with the will of God.)

Please join my family in our novena, either with your own intention or in support of ours or both!

(Another novena to St Joseph with different daily readings can be found here.)

(image was found here)

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love...

Lydia LOVES her auntie....

We're just not so sure what auntie thinks of all the love!

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