A friend of mine gave me a book entitled, The Mass, Four Encounters With Jesus That Will Change Your Life. It's written by Dr. Tom Curran. It is an amazing look into the four ways we encounter Jesus when we go to mass. I am not even finished reading it yet, and I am already changed forever. I will never go to mass the same way again.
Dr. Curran breaks down into biteable pieces the many ways we encounter Christ from the time we walk in the door and reach for the Holy Water, to the time we say, "Thanks be to God", just before we walk out the door.
I highly recommend the book, and when I finish reading it a few hours from now, I will come back and share more of what I have newly discovered about the mass and our union with Christ.
If we could wrap our minds around what really happens at mass, the world would be changed overnight.
God bless you this day and always!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
We can trust Him with our finances
As millions of people have lost their job in the past few years, my husband lost his as well, two years ago now. Thanks be to God for His grace, because with eight kids to feed, the responsibility could become overwhelming when something like this happens. As a result of the job loss, we also lost our house. Many, many people asked us, "What are you going to do?" Our one and only answer was, "I don't know, but God does."
We had received a notice telling us that we had to be out of the house in five days or we would be charged a very high rent from the bank. We had no where to go. Our hope was in the Lord, and we sought Our Lady's intercession.
As we were packing boxes, I looked around and for a moment had a feeling of just being overwhelmed. A friend had offered to let us stay in their vacant home just a few miles away, praise be to God. We were only going to be able to stay there for eight weeks though, about enough time to find a more permanent location. My overwhelming moment came at the thought of the fact that in eight weeks, we were going to have to pack all over again. I just whispered a little prayer, "Lord, I trust in you. Thy will be done."
Those words no more than left my mind when the phone rang. I said, "Hello, this is Anita, how may I help you?" The voice on the other end said, "The question is, "How may we help you." I did not understand. "What do you mean?", I asked.
It was my pastor, Fr. Dan, from St. Mary's. He said "An anonymous donor has come forth and has told me that wherever the Usher's move to, he wants to pay their rent." "An anonymous donor has offered to help us?" "Yes." Who?, I wondered, why I wondered, and, thanks be to God for his generosity, my heart sang out as I pondered what I had just been told.
This benefactor has been helping us for over two years now. He recently passed away, but his legacy will live on throughout eternity. I could have never guessed how God was going to solve our dilemma. I could have never guessed how He was going to provide, but our job is not to ask why or how, our job is to trust.
We had received a notice telling us that we had to be out of the house in five days or we would be charged a very high rent from the bank. We had no where to go. Our hope was in the Lord, and we sought Our Lady's intercession.
As we were packing boxes, I looked around and for a moment had a feeling of just being overwhelmed. A friend had offered to let us stay in their vacant home just a few miles away, praise be to God. We were only going to be able to stay there for eight weeks though, about enough time to find a more permanent location. My overwhelming moment came at the thought of the fact that in eight weeks, we were going to have to pack all over again. I just whispered a little prayer, "Lord, I trust in you. Thy will be done."
Those words no more than left my mind when the phone rang. I said, "Hello, this is Anita, how may I help you?" The voice on the other end said, "The question is, "How may we help you." I did not understand. "What do you mean?", I asked.
It was my pastor, Fr. Dan, from St. Mary's. He said "An anonymous donor has come forth and has told me that wherever the Usher's move to, he wants to pay their rent." "An anonymous donor has offered to help us?" "Yes." Who?, I wondered, why I wondered, and, thanks be to God for his generosity, my heart sang out as I pondered what I had just been told.
This benefactor has been helping us for over two years now. He recently passed away, but his legacy will live on throughout eternity. I could have never guessed how God was going to solve our dilemma. I could have never guessed how He was going to provide, but our job is not to ask why or how, our job is to trust.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
WE CAN TRUST HIM IN THE EVERY DAY DETAILS OF OUR LIFE
We need never worry about anything. God has every detail of our life in His hands. His loving eye is on every moment. It is He who gives us our every breath. He knows what we need and He knows when we need it and He is more than happy to provide for us.
Still, I am ever amazed at God's gentleness and generosity. Yesterday when I looked at our bank account, it told me that I would not be able to put gas in the van nor would I be able to buy milk for breakfast. There was enough gas to drive to mass (1.5 miles), and then to the station on Friday morning (pay day) to fill up, that was it. Milk could wait. No worries, all was well.
I loaded up the kids and went to mass. When I returned to the van after mass, I found a twenty dollar bill that had been scrunched into my door handle. I felt like a little girl in the loving embrace of her Father, and indeed I was. My heavenly daddy is always taking care of me, and here He was at it again. He often uses other people to bring blessings to us, and I thank God for the person who so lovingly placed that sacrifice of generosity in my door. May God return the blessings to you a thousand times over.
God's generosity never ends. Not long after receiving this blessing I heard my doorbell ring. It was a friend from church who had come to deliver a gift card for the local grocery store. Someone had anonymously given it to her to give to us. Milk was again on the menu.
My daddy was embracing me again. I am so in love with Him, I am so confident in Him and I trust Him with every molecule of my being. He loves me more than anyone on this earth will ever love me. That's who He is! A loving Father who desires to tenderly take care of His children.
I pray that every person on the face of the planet would realize that God is the Father of all of His children. He is intensely in love with each and every one of us. We are made in His image, and He wants us to be with Him so much, that He died on a cruel an inhumane cross so that He could open the door to bring even the ones who crucified Him to be in heaven with Him.
The only thing that keeps us from heaven, is our refusal of God's love, His mercy and His grace. He is always calling out to us. It is up to us to answer.
May God's peace fill you today. May you know His loving embrace. May you come to understand the depth of love that God has for you and for each and every one of His children.
Have a blessed day! I will be praying for you!
Still, I am ever amazed at God's gentleness and generosity. Yesterday when I looked at our bank account, it told me that I would not be able to put gas in the van nor would I be able to buy milk for breakfast. There was enough gas to drive to mass (1.5 miles), and then to the station on Friday morning (pay day) to fill up, that was it. Milk could wait. No worries, all was well.
I loaded up the kids and went to mass. When I returned to the van after mass, I found a twenty dollar bill that had been scrunched into my door handle. I felt like a little girl in the loving embrace of her Father, and indeed I was. My heavenly daddy is always taking care of me, and here He was at it again. He often uses other people to bring blessings to us, and I thank God for the person who so lovingly placed that sacrifice of generosity in my door. May God return the blessings to you a thousand times over.
God's generosity never ends. Not long after receiving this blessing I heard my doorbell ring. It was a friend from church who had come to deliver a gift card for the local grocery store. Someone had anonymously given it to her to give to us. Milk was again on the menu.
My daddy was embracing me again. I am so in love with Him, I am so confident in Him and I trust Him with every molecule of my being. He loves me more than anyone on this earth will ever love me. That's who He is! A loving Father who desires to tenderly take care of His children.
I pray that every person on the face of the planet would realize that God is the Father of all of His children. He is intensely in love with each and every one of us. We are made in His image, and He wants us to be with Him so much, that He died on a cruel an inhumane cross so that He could open the door to bring even the ones who crucified Him to be in heaven with Him.
The only thing that keeps us from heaven, is our refusal of God's love, His mercy and His grace. He is always calling out to us. It is up to us to answer.
May God's peace fill you today. May you know His loving embrace. May you come to understand the depth of love that God has for you and for each and every one of His children.
Have a blessed day! I will be praying for you!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
We do not value the unborn in our society, so is it any wonder why we can't say the word baby without receiving contempt and irritation from those who would rather hug a tree than a child?
I found this article and thought it appropriate to post, as it is a bit of an explanation as to why we have a hard time saying "baby" and why so many think we have nothing to grieve about when that "baby" dies before it is born.
The contempt shown to parents of large families
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=35062
The contempt shown to parents of large families
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=35062
Our babies deserve the dignity of a proper burial if at all possible
As I look back on the memories of the three babies we have had to say goodbye to, I thank God for His grace and mercy in giving us the ability to have a funeral for each one.
When Seth died in 1998, there was no question in our mind that we wanted him to be properly buried. We wanted him to have a funeral mass. When we made the request for a death certificate from our doctor though, we were looked at with a sort of strange expression as if we had asked for something that was beyond the realm of possibility.
It was an exhausting process as the doctor would not give us a death certificate until we could "prove" that we had a baby that had died. Hmmmm? That seemed a strange request to us, as we had already had a positive pregnancy test, had heard the heartbeat, and everything in my body was preparing to bring a new life into the world.
Regardless, we still needed proof, so the doctor directed us to the pathology department at the local hospital. We took Seth's remains there and they did tests to determine if they were human in nature. A few days later we got a call and they confirmed that indeed the remains were human. A baby had died in my womb.
When I went back to the hospital to pick up his little body, I told the person at the desk what I was there for. She became very uncomfortable, flitting around the room, shuffling papers and finally calling on another colleague. She said, "Mrs. Usher is here for......(long pause).......she wants to pick up....(long pause).....she is here to get the products of conception.
I could not believe my ears and if I had not been so exhausted from the entire experience, I may have inquired further why she said what she did. I just did not understand why she was not able to simply say, "Mrs. Usher is here to pick up the remains of her baby Seth." It would have been so much easier, and it would have been the truth.
I thought about it for a while and she was indeed correct when she called my baby the product of conception. When a man and a woman conceive, the product of that conception is a baby. It is never anything else. Why do we have such a hard time saying that the little creature inside the womb of a woman who has conceived is a baby? Why does it seem so strange that when they die, we as mothers and fathers need to grieve? It is a strange phenomenon indeed, one which I would love to talk more about.
I will write more later, I need to go take care of my baby!
When Seth died in 1998, there was no question in our mind that we wanted him to be properly buried. We wanted him to have a funeral mass. When we made the request for a death certificate from our doctor though, we were looked at with a sort of strange expression as if we had asked for something that was beyond the realm of possibility.
It was an exhausting process as the doctor would not give us a death certificate until we could "prove" that we had a baby that had died. Hmmmm? That seemed a strange request to us, as we had already had a positive pregnancy test, had heard the heartbeat, and everything in my body was preparing to bring a new life into the world.
Regardless, we still needed proof, so the doctor directed us to the pathology department at the local hospital. We took Seth's remains there and they did tests to determine if they were human in nature. A few days later we got a call and they confirmed that indeed the remains were human. A baby had died in my womb.
When I went back to the hospital to pick up his little body, I told the person at the desk what I was there for. She became very uncomfortable, flitting around the room, shuffling papers and finally calling on another colleague. She said, "Mrs. Usher is here for......(long pause).......she wants to pick up....(long pause).....she is here to get the products of conception.
I could not believe my ears and if I had not been so exhausted from the entire experience, I may have inquired further why she said what she did. I just did not understand why she was not able to simply say, "Mrs. Usher is here to pick up the remains of her baby Seth." It would have been so much easier, and it would have been the truth.
I thought about it for a while and she was indeed correct when she called my baby the product of conception. When a man and a woman conceive, the product of that conception is a baby. It is never anything else. Why do we have such a hard time saying that the little creature inside the womb of a woman who has conceived is a baby? Why does it seem so strange that when they die, we as mothers and fathers need to grieve? It is a strange phenomenon indeed, one which I would love to talk more about.
I will write more later, I need to go take care of my baby!
You Can Trust Him Even in Death!
God is Faithful, Even in Death
We had been married six years, had three beautiful children, all healthy, and were expecting our fourth. We had gone to the doctor the week before and everything was fine. We were just 10 weeks along when I started bleeding. We soon found out our baby Seth, had died. It was a devastating blow that we did not see coming.
It was not even a question that we were going to have a funeral mass for our baby. We made the preparations, got a death certificate from our doctor, talked to our priest and made all the necessary arrangements. The funeral service turned out beautifully. Many people came to the funeral, and our baby was buried with the dignity he deserved.
During all of the whirlwind of events that were going on, I slipped away for a few moments to spend time with God. I held my journal as my head spun with a myriad of thoughts about what had just happened. I managed to write just a few sentences. One that read, "This baby will help to bring abortion to an end."
I did not even think about what I had written. I just wrote it down, and closed my journal.
It was two years later that I was sitting in my living room with a dear friend from church. My husband was out in the driveway fixing her car as we sat chatting on the couch. From out of nowhere she began to share a part of her life that I had never known.
She told me of a job she used to have. She used to work for an abortion clinic. She told me of the times that she and the other workers would laugh and make jokes about the tiny body parts that were being sucked from the mother's womb. She told me how she could see the parts as they would travel down the transparent vacuum tube. She herself had had two abortions and had been teaching her daughters that they had the right to do the same. Then she told me that one day, she just could not do it any more, she had to get a different job. She did not know what it was, she just had to get out of there.
Ironically, she got a job taking care of small children, but was still very much in favor of abortion.
I was stunned. I had no idea. I could not believe what I was hearing and did not know what to say. I finally asked her, "What made you change your mind? I know you are very pro-life now, what happened?"
She looked at me and in a very gentle whisper said, "Seth's funeral." She told me that when she attended the funeral for a baby that was just ten weeks in the womb, she knew at that moment, that it was truly a human being, deserving of life from the very moment of conception. She was now teaching her daughters the same.
My heart nearly collapsed at the thought of what our little boy's life had meant to this woman. I had no idea the impact that He would have. God used the devastation of our child's death to bring life to a mother and her children. In his little 10 week life, God had indeed used this baby to help bring abortion to an end.
We had been married six years, had three beautiful children, all healthy, and were expecting our fourth. We had gone to the doctor the week before and everything was fine. We were just 10 weeks along when I started bleeding. We soon found out our baby Seth, had died. It was a devastating blow that we did not see coming.
It was not even a question that we were going to have a funeral mass for our baby. We made the preparations, got a death certificate from our doctor, talked to our priest and made all the necessary arrangements. The funeral service turned out beautifully. Many people came to the funeral, and our baby was buried with the dignity he deserved.
During all of the whirlwind of events that were going on, I slipped away for a few moments to spend time with God. I held my journal as my head spun with a myriad of thoughts about what had just happened. I managed to write just a few sentences. One that read, "This baby will help to bring abortion to an end."
I did not even think about what I had written. I just wrote it down, and closed my journal.
It was two years later that I was sitting in my living room with a dear friend from church. My husband was out in the driveway fixing her car as we sat chatting on the couch. From out of nowhere she began to share a part of her life that I had never known.
She told me of a job she used to have. She used to work for an abortion clinic. She told me of the times that she and the other workers would laugh and make jokes about the tiny body parts that were being sucked from the mother's womb. She told me how she could see the parts as they would travel down the transparent vacuum tube. She herself had had two abortions and had been teaching her daughters that they had the right to do the same. Then she told me that one day, she just could not do it any more, she had to get a different job. She did not know what it was, she just had to get out of there.
Ironically, she got a job taking care of small children, but was still very much in favor of abortion.
I was stunned. I had no idea. I could not believe what I was hearing and did not know what to say. I finally asked her, "What made you change your mind? I know you are very pro-life now, what happened?"
She looked at me and in a very gentle whisper said, "Seth's funeral." She told me that when she attended the funeral for a baby that was just ten weeks in the womb, she knew at that moment, that it was truly a human being, deserving of life from the very moment of conception. She was now teaching her daughters the same.
My heart nearly collapsed at the thought of what our little boy's life had meant to this woman. I had no idea the impact that He would have. God used the devastation of our child's death to bring life to a mother and her children. In his little 10 week life, God had indeed used this baby to help bring abortion to an end.
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