I meant to write sooner, but this past week has been so busy. Have some music: Franz Liszt. I love his Consolation 3 and Hungarian Rapsody. I hadn’t heard his St. Francois d’Assise before. Beautiful! Consolation 3 is called Lento Placido, so I guess it’s appropriate for the liturgical season?

Called and Gifted Workshop

The workshop was wonderful and I’m so glad that I did it. I was feeling so worried that I didn’t know enough about being Catholic and would waste everyone’s time or that by going I was being prideful- saying that I was gifted above others in some way. But it wasn’t like that at all. God gifts every baptized person with at least one charism (that’s the Gifted part) and then calls them to use those gifts to help others in the world (that’s the Called part).

There were people of all ages and backgrounds at the workshop. I was fortunate to sit at a table with lovely people and the discussion alone would have been worth the drive. But the best part is that we will participate in online discussion groups for some time after. I hope that some of the people from the table I sat at will be in my group, but we all had predilections to pretty different charisms, so I am not sure this will be so.

Elisabeth’s Diary

The workshop ended a bit early and I was able to make it to the Saturday Vigil Mass. On the way down and back, I listened to The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest, the book I mentioned in the Unequally Yoked post. I was wrong in the post, that book was exactly the book I needed.

I’m going to write a whole post on it once I’ve finished reading/listening to it, but for now, here are a few quotes:

“It is not in arguing or lecturing that I can make them know what God is to the human soul. But in struggling with myself, in becoming, with His help, more Christian and more valiant, I will bear witness to Him whose humble disciple I am.

The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest – Kindle Location 570

And I, who am of so little worth, yet believe in the power of the prayers that I never cease to say for these dear souls. I believe in them because God exists, and because He is the Father. I believe in them because I believe in this divine and mysterious law that we call the Communion of Saints. I know that no cry, no desire, no appeal proceeding from the depths of our soul is lost, but all go to God and through Him to those who moved us to pray. I know that only God performs the intimate transformation of the human soul and that we can but point out to Him those we love saying, “Lord, make them live.”

The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest – Kindle Location 616

Turning a Profit for God

So going to the workshop was a difficult thing. Why did I go? It seems like becoming and being Christian has been a series of doing difficult things: going to meet Father Mike, going to Mass for the first time, going to RCIA, to events, talking to people, giving a witness in front of two parishes, sharing my writing, being baptized, confirmed, and receiving first communion in front of so many people, going to the silent retreat, writing this blog… it’s a long list! Why?

Love, Reader, Love! As St. Paul says:

“I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.”

Phillipians 4:13

I think as I learn to trust God more, these difficult things will not be so difficult.

Also, I think about the Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14 – 30, and I don’t want to be the servant who buried her talents in the ground and returned no profit to the Master. But to return a profit, first, you must know what those talents are.

Ash Wednesday

This was the first Ash Wednesday I attended where I could receive both Communion and ashes. I love that all the palms from all the Parishes in the Pastorate are burned together to make the ashes. Palms that sat next to statues on home altars or tucked behind crucifixes in homes across the pastorate. Palms that people saw as they prayed or walked by because they didn’t have time to pray but still in their hearts, a prayer beating out and God calling them to stop and turn their face to Him. All of those palms together in one fire, burned to ashes, and now on the foreheads of all the people. I read that some people only go to church a few times a year, the big holidays like Easter, Christmas, Palm Sunday, and Ash Wednesday… so I pray that if there were people like this who attended Ash Wednesday services, they will come to Mass again this Sunday.

St. Valentine’s Day Gifts

Ash Wednesday occurred on St. Valentine’s Day this year. We planned to go out to eat the day before, on Fat Tuesday, but the weather for prescribed burns looked favorable so we thought to go over the weekend instead. Sure enough, Stuart was busy making ashes of his own, burning at Kankakee Sands on Fat Tuesday.

On Ash Wednesday, he was also busy with field work so I decided to do something nice for him when I got home. I have been so busy lately that I haven’t done anything special for him in a while. I haven’t made feasts for Saint Days in months. But today is a fasting day, so feasting… no. So I cleaned and organized instead.

But, looking ahead at Saint’s Feast Days- Saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto‘s feast is Feb 20 and according to Google, they lived in Portugal so I’ll make something Portuguese that day. Maybe these Salted Cod Fritters. Evans Market sells salted cod. Portuguese Caldo Verde soup also looks good. This mussel dish, Moules à la Portugaise, looks good too. Costco has fresh mussels. Well, as fresh as you can get in Indiana. For Stuart, I will brave Costco.