Peace On Earth - Can it be?

Bing Crosby & David Bowie -
The Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth

Angels We Have Heard on High

The Piano Guys, Peter Hollens, David Archuleta, and
 The Mormon Tabernacle Choir get together to sing
"Angels We Have Heard On High"

Student Christmas Card

Winner of Holy Name of Mary Christmas Card Contest - by Beilun Wu

 

Today's Blessing

Kiki and her smile.

The smile on my face doesn't mean my life is perfect.  It means I appreciate what I have and what I have been blessed with.  ~ Unknown

Words of wisdom from a Grade 5 Christmas card I just received.  Thanks Kiki I needed that encouragement!

Let it Snow!

Rochelle Hanson: The Smile Song.

You can't help but smile with this song
based on this poem Sr. Agnes memorized and shared with us.

Smile!

Smiling is infectious, You catch it like the flu,
When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling, too.

I passed around the corner, and someone saw my grin.
When he smiled I realized, I’d passed it on to him.

I thought about that smile, then I realized its worth,
A single smile, just like mine, could travel round the earth.

So, if you feel a smile begin, don’t leave it undetected
Let’s start an epidemic quick, and get the world infected!

© by Karen McLendon-Laumann

Crazy for Cookies in Toronto

Most know my passion for cookies.  Haven't tried this place, but how bad could it be?

http://www.moomilkbar.ca/#the-bakery

Freedom or Predestination

The greatest gift that God gives us is freedom.  Without true freedom, and I mean true freedom as God defines it, there is no love.  The greater the freedom the greater the opportunity for love.  God is not moving all the pieces so that it turns out a certain way.  He is entering into our lives, with our free choices and in that freedom His plan for our Salvation is unfolding.  Yes He has a plan, but we are pawns but collaborators.  Some even go so far as to say co-creators.  His plan will come about through us, with our cooperation.  He sets us free, and then uses the attraction of love to draw us to Him.  He has a plan, and we all have an irreplaceable role in that plan, but we are free to cooperate with Him or not.  Not only that but nothing is impossible for God.  That includes working through our freedom.  Predestination removes freedom, love and relationship with God from the equation.  He has adopted us as His children.

Remembering Cpl. Nathan Cirillo

Synod on the Family

For help in understanding the press surrounding the Synod on the Family that is taking place in Rome, view Fr. Robert Barron's commentary about the movement of the Holy Spirit and the process the bishops undertake to review and potentially revise Church teachings.

What Happens When You Die

Recently I was talking with a friend and she asked me, what happens when you die? What’s it like? I said, no one really knows for sure, but I think when we die a certain blindness is lifted from us and we see more clearly than we ever thought possible.

Falling Plates

God's love for us is amazing.

Butterfly Conservatory

Fun Butterfly facts.

BREATHING - Butterflies do not have a lung system like humans do, but instead take in oxygen through tiny openings along their abdomens called spiracles.

Relationships are a Treasure

One of the greatest gifts that has come me in religious life is the realization that relationships are the treasure of life.  Meeting good friends at the manor enriched my life far more than the time I thought I was giving.  For me my treasure is encountering people and finding life in the living.  Finding God in the giving.  Then no matter what I'm doing, I find Him in the eyes of others.

Catholic Photo Challenge #6

Is Reverence Relevant?

Reverence is a form of worship. 

Heb 12:28-29 says "Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire."

Reverence is treating someone or something with deep respect. We show deep respect for God because there is nothing greater than God. 

When we reverence God He gives us so much in return, because it creates in us an openness for the Holy Spirit to help us.

Creative Proposal

Made me cry - so well done.

Become like a child...

Kids are so much better at joy in a carefree moment,
not fettered by worries or needing to be in total control.
Here my niece is filled with joy to have her stuffed fish.

Here I am unfettered by the cares and worries of life

on the day after my first Christmas. 

I pray for the grace to live in the moment like a child. 

Catholic Photo Challenge #5



Carefree Moments

My friends at L'arche taught me joy in a carefree moment, not fettered by worries or needing to be in total control.  There were struggles, but not a day went by without finding joy somewhere.  My heart was healed just by their simple acceptance of others, and the way they opened their home to me for six short months.

 

Catholic Photo Challenge #5

Dreams are Made of Joy


Joy over flows in South Sudan.  Joy is forever young.  Thanks for posting Cait!

Rainbow Fidelity



God's fidelity is multicolored, sometimes crisp and jaw dropping, sometimes a gentle reminder painted across the sky.  His fidelity always shines more brightly after a storm.  Catholic Photo Challenge #4.

Positively Powerful

Shawn Achor, a happiness expert and positive psychology researcher, says, "It's not necessarily reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world, that is what shapes your reality.  If we can change the lens, not only can we change your happiness, but we can change every single business and educational outcome at the same time.

 

"90% of your long term happiness is predicted, not by the external world, but by the way your brain processes the world.  75% of job successes are predicted by your optimism level, your social support and your ability to see stress as a challenge rather than a threat."

 

"We need to reverse the formula for happiness and success... If you can raise somebody's level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage."

King of the Care Center

Sammy on the walker.  He's a therapy dog in our Care Center.  I think he's trying to identify with those who use a walker. 

He has been known to be very empathetic.  He will climb on the bed of sisters who are ill.  He visits every sister who comes home from a stay in the hospital, and he won't leave the deceased until the mortician comes to prepare her body. 

He's part beagle, part lab.  So sweet, but here I think he's waiting for a push. 

Sometimes he acts like a king.

Over 200+ Years of Fidelity

 This beautiful 200+ year old beechnut tree might just testify to the fidelity of God who has nurtured it and sustained it for all these years.  The same tree is pictured below, next to the four car garage (just to the right.)  It's a massively beautiful tree behind the convent.  Catholic Photo Challenge #4.

Fidelity to Prayer



This cross is located in El Santuario de Chimayo, New Mexico.  It's the final destination of the Pilgrimage for Vocations in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.  A 100 mile walk for vocations that was started in 1973. 

God's Fidelity



I've heard that traditionally Swans mate for life.  Often they represent fidelity.  Because of they I think they are a reflection in nature of God's fidelity to us.  Thankfully God's fidelity is purely perfect.  And the beauty of the swan is a living grace.  Catholic Photo Challenge #4.

Lennon and Maisy


Sisterly love at it's most beautiful.

Animated Good Shepherd



Couldn't resist sharing this animated good shepherd having fun for this week's Catholic Photo Challenge.  Many of our own roles in life are something like that of the Good Shepherd.  We have many opportunities to give life, to give love, and to make sacrifices on behalf of those we care for.
Fr. Francis has always reflected God's joy to all those who know him.  He has the heart of the Good Shepherd.

Celebrating the Wedding



Three amazing priests celebrating the bride and groom.  Something extra.  This week's Daily Post photo challenge.  I think it's also appropriate for this week's Good Shepherds Catholic Photo Challenge.  I was a postulant in the former Intercessors of the Lamb.  After the suppression I watched these men give tirelessly of their time to pray with us, help us to heal, and finally to move on.  Setting aside their own pain to help the rest of us.  They are some of the best Shepherds I've been privileged to know.  Happy Father's Day.

Source and Summit of Light

A two story sculpture of the Eucharist in Assisi - From Visual Prayer

Here Your light illumines my mind, enabling it to know You more and more deeply. Here streams of grace flow down upon my heart. Here my soul draws eternal life. O my Lord and Creator, You alone, beyond all these gifts, give Your own self to me and unite Yourself intimately with Your...creature.
Excerpt of a prayer from St. Faustina - Catholic Photo Challenge

The Light of Prayer

This man stopped in an alley in Jerusalem to pray.  Prayer is the greatest nurturer of God's light and maybe the surest way to walk from darkness to light. 

Catholic Photo Challenge

Angel of Light



Another entry for the Catholic Photo Challenge based on Isaiah 9:1 - Darkness and light - How many times have we been visited by angels unaware?  May the angels always guide us from darkness into light. 

For this week’s challenge, show us a photo that represents the tension between light and darkness, or an image of being in a type of darkness or light.

Fear of the Lord

Today we watched part one of a video series by Fr. Ron Rolheiser the "Many Faces of Fear: Exploring the Roots of Religious Fear"  I liked this quote from the end of the video where Fr. Ron explains what we fear most as we approach God:  "Fear that God is not as understanding and compassionate as we are. Fear that God is not a big-hearted as we are."

Poem: Fear to Freedom

I wrote this poem when I was struggling with the frustration of feeling that my life was diminished because of fear.  It's been a long journey that still continues.  Maybe you can relate.

From Fear to Freedom

I’ve lived with fear all my life
Believed him bosom friend
Welcomed him into my heart
Time and time again

He comes with kiss upon my cheek
Like Judas who betrays
I’m blinded by the lies he tells
Caught up in all his ways

“Don’t go against the crowd!” he says
“It’s best to be a pleaser”
“Tell them what they want to hear”
“Life will be much easier”

“Pay precise attention”
“I’ll tell you what to do”
“You have to get it perfect”
“Or the blame is all on you”

May Those Who've Walked in Great Darkness See His Great Light

This is an entry for this week's Catholic Photo Challenge based on Isaiah 9:1 - A people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Upon those who lived in a land of gloom a light has shone.

Split-Second Story - Ice Cream Fest

I've discovered photo challenges.  This one is for The Daily Post.  The challenge is to submit a picture that tells a story.  This says ice cream fest on a hot hot day.  Doesn't it remind you that summer is almost here?

The Great Depends on the Small

Sometimes the closer you look the more you see how we are so interdependent.  The glory of the sunflower depends on the visit of the smallest bee.  Mutual interdependence reminds me of the love of God.

Catholic Photo Challenge.



God Loves the Son



Doesn't it seem hard to doubt the existence of God when you see a field of sunflowers?  Glorious!!!

Another Catholic Photo Challenge.

Webs of Beauty

These webs were covered with dew.  God accenting the delicate beauty.  How many hours of work yet so fragile.  Another entry for the Catholic Photo Challenge.

Gazing Visually - Yellow Brick Way



This is the actual color of the brick on one wall in the Felician Heritage Center here in Enfield, CT.  I think it's glazed over traditional red brick.  I just like this picture.  Something appealing about yellow brick.  Hey... the yellow brick road.  :)  We're off to see the wonderful Son of God.