Sunday Snippets- A Catholic Carnival

Here is a way to share some other Catholic bloggers.  If you click on RAnn's link This, That and the Other Thing, you will see other Catholic bloggers who may be interested in reading. As a part of Catholic Carnival, I choose two of my posts from this week and list them here so that other readers can get a sample of my posts too.
Here are my contributions:

1. Why I Am Beginning to Like Christeasters (I've gotten a lot of good feedback about that one--even my family members told me it was a good one!)
2. What about MY Holy Week? (I know it's not from this week, but I thought it gave a good look into my life)

Divine Mercy Sunday

Divine Mercy Sunday is a day dedicated to spread the message of God's infinite Mercy told especially through the visions of Jesus to St. Faustina. If you have never read the Diary of St. Faustina, I highly suggest it. Here is a link to the book on Amazon.com. It's includes all the messages that Jesus gave directly to St. Faustina, a polish nun.  Here are two excerpts from her diary:

March 15, 1937. Today, I entered into the bitterness of the Passion of the Lord Jesus. I suffered in a purely spiritual way. I learned how horrible sin was. God gave me to know the whole hideousness of sin. I learned in the depths of my soul how horrible sin was, even the smallest sin, and how much it tormented the soul of Jesus. I would rather suffer a thousand hells than commit even the smallest venial sin.

The Lord said to me, "I want to give myself to souls and to fill them with My love, but few there are who want to accept all the graces My love has intended for them. My grace is not lost; if the soul for whom it was intended does not accept it, another soul takes it." 


This one speaks directly about Divine Mercy Sunday:
Our Lord also said, "I desire that priests proclaim this great mercy of Mine towards souls of sinners. Tell My priests that hardened sinners will repent on hearing their words when they speak about My unfathomable mercy, about the compassion I have for them in My Heart. To priests who proclaim and extol My mercy, I will give wondrous power; I will anoint their words and touch the hearts of those to whom they will speak." (Diary, 50, 1521)  Easter Sunday is the best time to proclaim God’s mercy. 

Here is a link about how to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, from which I took the last quote.

The chaplet of Divine Mercy can be said using any rosary. Here is a link that shows how to pray it. 

There is so much more to be said about St. Faustina and Divine Mercy. Someday I will reread the Diary of St. Faustina and write some more posts on it.  If you are not familiar with this devotion, I highly encourage you to learn more about it since there is a treasure trove of graces that come from this devotion. 

Much Needed

While in Maryland for my rosary workshop at St. Joseph Academy in Dallas Town, PA (pictures will come soon!), Eric and I decided to stay an extra night with the grandparents so we could get in a date night. These 3D glasses were too hip to resist a photo opp and public attention.

Our first date night in 6 months!!! MUCH needed adult fun time was had :D

Would you buy this?

My baby girl is walking! She's not very good yet and falls a lot- mostly on her butt.  But the other day, she fell smack on her forehead. OUCH! Soon after the incident, I was reading Parent magazine (in which I am finding more and more reasons to not renew my subscription).  Reading Parent Magazine, tends to make feel guilty about the little things I don't have for my children; or the things I sometimes shrug off as unimportant that they make seem like a life or death matter.  Here's an funny example.  An advertisement for a helmet just for babies who are learning to walk. Check it out:

Here is the description from Parent Mag: "Fall on a hard surface while learning to walk can be traumatic for both toddler and parent.  Thudguard protective helmet helps to protect your child by reducing the impact of falls or collisions and lessening the chance of head injury."

babysfirstheadgear.com

I thought, are you serious?? Why don't you just wrap your little one in bubble wrap, or even better, put them in a bubble? I thought it was pretty funny. Can you imagine a kid walking around in one of these at the park. Does your child have special needs? Onlookers would ask. Oh, no, I'm just afraid they might fall and hit their head...

Sorry, Parent Magazine, you're not going to make feel guilty this time :) Would you buy this?

Saved, But Not Safe

Have you ever been shocked by someone who you believed to be impermeable to temptations, fall away from their faith? I think this experience has happened to most of us.  When I was at Franciscan, the Friars always warned us that when we get into the 'real world' there would be many and great temptations.  We heard that there are always those students who fall away from their Faith after they leave the coddled Catholic environment of Franciscan Univerisity.  Maybe it's because I'm a cradle Catholic, but it was hard to believe then, and it still hard to believe now. Especially when I see it happen to someone I knew or a friend I've had.

I am especially reminded of a close friend who was passionate about her Faith, saving herself for marriage and very pro life. She was so pro life, she joined Cross Roads- a summer long mission where college students literally walk across the entire country for the sake of the unborn, praying the rosary, offering up their suffering, camping in the country along the way, and stopping only to talk in Churches about being pro life.  From my understanding, she no longer believes in any of those things anymore. 

I am praying especially hard for her this week as I do the Divine Mercy Novena.  Her and I went to the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Massachusets many years back.  Every time I look at Divine Mercy Jesus, I think of her.  I am blown away at how it could have happened to someone who knew really knew her faith.  I could not say how it happened to her, or how it happens to anybody.   There must be a million reasons why people fall away from their faith.  But I do know that not I or even you are safe from the same tradgedy if we do not rely on Jesus.  The moment I start to think I can do it on my own-- that is the moment I have made the same mistake Adam and Eve made when they fell to the temptation of pride in the Garden of Eden.

We are all saved by Jesus' death and resurrection, but none of us are safe from temptations from the devil.   The good news is that we can always turn back and His Divine Mercy will always be there to pick us back up where we left off.  Jesus' Mercy is bigger than any sin we could ever commit. God wouldn't have allowed evil, if he were not so powerful to bring good out of it (paraphrasing from St. Augustine).  We only have to lay down our pride and say, "Jesus I Trust in You" over and over again.

Why I Am Beginning to Like Christeasters

Warning: This could be your next Church if you start to like Christeasters as much as I do! 

Christeaster, definition:  A Catholic who goes to Mass twice a year- on Christmas and Easter.

Poor Christeasters have been the butt of many a Catholic joke.  For devout Catholics, it's almost comical to see the church explode only two days of the year.  Where do these people come from??? Imagine if they went to every Sunday Mass- we'd need a church at least five times as big!

Maybe you don't experience Christeasters the way I've experienced Christeasters. Not every church has them in such great numbers that they literally have to turn away parishioners from entering the church on Christmas and Easter because they have reached the maximum capacity and it would be a fire hazard to squeeze in any more (seriously, this happened at my last parish).  Or maybe you've never had to watch the Mass on a television in the Church basement, or have had to stare at a wall (not glass) in the Church Entryway with fifty other people while standing throughout the entire Mass.  These experiences can be frustrating, no doubt, to the Catholic who really looks forward to celebrating these Feast days in the same sacred way they experience every Mass.  I've even heard one slightly bitter Catholic say everyone who goes to weekly Mass should be given a ticket and given higher seating priority than the Christeasters! I have to admit, after sitting through a few Christmas and Easter Masses in gyms, basements,  and in the back of crowded churches with Christeasters on their cell phones, being disrespectful about the Eucharist, playing video games and talking ALL throughout Mass, I have gotten quite frustrated with a few of them myself.

So why I am beginning to like Christeasters? I don't like that they only go to Mass twice a year, but I like them because they show a Church full of hope and possibilities.  They show me what our Catholic Churches could be like if ALL Catholics went to every Sunday Mass. Wouldn't it be a tremendously great thing if we had to build huge churches just to fit everyone in every Sunday?

On Easter Sunday, my family and I went to 10:30 Mass at the Expo Center. The place was packed full.  We got there a little late (the promise of good parking was not kept) and had to sit in the last row where we sat in probably the last three seats available.  Liam took out his spotting scope from his church bag to see the priest which was funny the priest really was that far away! The priest said he estimated about 3,500 people there! Amazing.  He also said that when he looks at all of us, he sees the Resurrection.  I saw it too, although I don't know if we had the same thing in mind.  I saw the possibility of what new life looks like. One study I've read showed that roughly 10% of all Americans are former Catholics.  That's about 30,000,000 people who are former Catholics in the United States alone and that's not even counting those who go to Mass infrequently.

I think it's exciting to think about Catholics returning home- even if it's only two days out of the year.  Who knows what they may experience during one of those Masses that may inspire them to come again.  It's our job to make sure their experience is as welcoming and loving as God's warm embrace.  We mustn't be like the other son in the story of the prodigal son who is annoyed with his brother who came back.  We must be thrilled with the possibility that these 'brothers' may be here to stay.
 Beware-- this kind of thinking just may lead to your Catholic Church becoming the next mega Church!

Happy Easter!

Hope your day if filled with lots of this...

And this....

But NONE of these...scary bunnies...

May the joy of the Resurrection be with you and your family today and always! 

Happy Easter!!!