Who by this time may have delivered her second child! Yesterday her water broke so by this point she may have a new addition to the family. Wherever she is in the process, please pray for her and for her new child.
Or, a brief excursion into omphaloskepsis. . .
At dinner this evening I was relishing the irony of a scientist whose primary interest and avocation was and is taxonomy writing at length about the necessity of not labeling. God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.
I really don't know what to make of this, but it is very, very cool:
Ezekiel 1: 3-28
: the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chalde'ans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.
4: As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness round about it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming bronze.
5: And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the form of men,
6: but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings.
7: Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like burnished bronze.
8: Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus:
9: their wings touched one another; they went every one straight forward, without turning as they went.
10: As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man in front; the four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle at the back.
11: Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above; each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies.
12: And each went straight forward; wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went.
13: In the midst of the living creatures there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
14: And the living creatures darted to and fro, like a flash of lightning.
15: Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them.
16: As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of a chrysolite; and the four had the same likeness, their construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel.
17: When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went.
18: The four wheels had rims and they had spokes; and their rims were full of eyes round about.
19: And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose.
20: Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
21: When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
22: Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of a firmament, shining like crystal, spread out above their heads.
23: And under the firmament their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another; and each creature had two wings covering its body.
24: And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the thunder of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of a host; when they stood still, they let down their wings.
25: And there came a voice from above the firmament over their heads; when they stood still, they let down their wings.
26: And above the firmament over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness as it were of a human form.
27: And upward from what had the appearance of his loins I saw as it were gleaming bronze, like the appearance of fire enclosed round about; and downward from what had the appearance of his loins I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness round about him.
28: Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
I may be spending some time with this passage, not so much to make sense of it as to revel in the incredible beauty and complexity of the images. I know that one goal of Bible Study is understanding God's word to us with the resultant increase in love of God. But another way to this end goal is reveling in the beauty of the word (even if its meaning is obscure). Through the appreciation of the beauty, splendor, and goodness of the word, the love of God made manifest our love is also increased beyond bounds.
Reading last night in the book of Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 2:9-3:2
9: And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and, lo, a written scroll was in it;
10: and he spread it before me; and it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.3
1: And he said to me, "Son of man, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel."
2: So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.
3: And he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it." Then I ate it; and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.
Which is then echoed in Revelation:
Revelation 10:8-10
8: Then the voice which I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, "Go, take the scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."
9: So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, "Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth."
10: And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.
And you say to me, "So what?"
Well it occurred to me as I read the passage from Ezekiel that this was a foretaste of the Eucharist itself. He takes the scroll of the Word of God and consumes it. It is as honey to the tongue and it gives Ezekiel the strength to prophesy, it bestows upon him an office that must come from God Himself.
Then in Revelation, the same words, or nearly the same words come to John for whom the taste is as honey, but it settles bitterly because of the strife and difficulty of living its reality in troubling times. (Or perhaps for other reasons that I do not truly understand.) Nevertheless, I find it interesting that God's power is bestowed through his Word consumed.
I'm sure there are a great many resonant images in the Old Testament that set before us the truth of Jesus Christ coexistant and coextensive with God because He is God. In the Old Testament, Jesus comes to his people veiled. In the glory of the New Testament, as testified by the tearing of the temple veil upon Jesus's death, He comes as glorious revelation of what people should always have known and seen. But He is the new Holy of Holies and the ancient of days--ever present, ever new.
That ever-popular Epistle of St. James--one of several New Testament books our good friend Martin Luther would have felt just as comfortable without it being in the text. Here's what James says of the tongue:
James 3: 8-12
8But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.
10Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
11Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?
12Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
Heading straight back to my theme--when we use a label to demean a person--to, in a sense, curse the person with the label itself, are we not cursing ourselves with the judgment we have wrought?
Some argue that we can know that a person lies. He can even know that the person lies habitually. What of it? Are we so pure that we can point to someone and with impugnity call him a liar? What do we do when we commit this act? In a sense we violate the spirit of the person so that we can lord it over them. Most labels serve a single function--to exalt ourselves at the expense of another.
James goes on to say this:
James 4:11-12
11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
To my mind that suggests false and easy labels. Someone tells you a lie. Does that make a person a liar? Absolutely. It does not make that person an habitual liar, but it certainly merits the label by definition. What do we get from labeling the person a liar other than a judgment stamped against us that labels us a hypocrite or worse yet, a judge of others? Have we some harvest of truth in labelling the person a liar? Has the cause of charity and the redemption of the transgressor been advanced?
Judgment is reserved to God alone. We have no right. When we assume the right, we usurp God's own power and become blasphemers. Many of our labels are a short-cut to judgment.
A person tells you a lie. You have several choices about how to respond to the matter. Let's assume that you decide to call them on it. Among your choices of repsonse are: "You are a liar." (Just the tone suggests both anger and judgment--at best an unhealthy combination.) Or, perhaps, "That is a lie." (Said in some degree of directneess.) Now the person can turn back to us with the second statement as say, "Are you calling me a liar?" And the absolutely truthful answer is, "No, I am saying that the statement you made was a lie." There is a difference, and the difference is enormous. In one case we are judging and discerning an isolated action--not the whole person. In the first case we have judged and condemned the person by applying the label.
Some will argue that there is no condemnation in calling someone a liar. But I would ask, if not, why do so? How is the action any different than saying, "What you said is a lie." The fact of the matter is that we know the difference to the core of our being. Calling someone a liar allows us to express our "righteous indignation" against such a profound transgression of God's peace and love. Not that we would ever consider so violent an act against the kingdom. Saying that a given statement is a lie is an objective verifiable or falsifiable statement regarding an action. It condemns the transgression without condemning the transgressor.
At what point does one who tells lies become a liar? I would suggest that it most often occurs when we get angry enough to apply the label. Is anger ever a good reason to do anything? Is calling a person a liar an act of love? I would submit that it is not. I would suggest that saying, "You tell a great many lies," summarizes the truth without the sting. That said, I will open the door a very small amount to say that it is conceivable that in order to be shocked out of behavior the stronger language may be used, but never as it is commonly used and only in the hope of correcting the fault. Hence, the frequent labeling (though almost never of individuals) in the New Testament Epistles. The point here is to use violent language that shocks the person out of his or her habitual slumber. So it is conceivable that you may call a person a liar and not be sitting in judgment, but only if this is done in charity to the person himself. Too often we apply our labels to persons "behind their backs." Rarely are we brave enough to say face to face, "So and so is a liar." More often we say to another , "He's such a liar." In which case we commit the grave injustice of gossip and rumormongering. This person is not present to defend their statements or their integrity. We are condemned by our own backbiting.
So I would say that the most general case calls us never to label, never to judge a person. It calls us equally to challenge those we see going astray by pointing out the actions that transgress, being always mindful about how we do so. Our goal is always charity and must always be the reformation of the sinner. (This label has a certain biblical and Traditional authority for all of us.) I think we should strive to correct the erroneous behavior--a goal that is rarely accomplished by verbally assaulting the person committing it.
Love is sufficient of itself, it gives pleasure by itself and because of itself. It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in its practice. I love because I love, I love that I may love. Love is a great thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it. Of all the movements, sensations, and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him. From a sermon by St. Bernard.
Praise
Word from Dylan's mother suggests that Dylan may soon be rejoining us. Pray that it is so and please continue to pray for his health and well-being.
Prayer Requests
Pour out prayers on the people of Florida who have lost their homes, their livelinhoods, and their lives in this storm.
For Fiona as she recovers from pleurisy (which, I'm given to understand is singularly painful)For all those in the process of discerning vocations to the religious life, for guidance, prudence and good counsel
For Johnny and Layla and family who recently lost a fourteen month-old child, that the family be mended and able to continue in the face of this terrible loss.
Please continue to pray for Dylan
For a deeper understanding of and commitment to the strengthening grace of the sacrament of marriage, especially for those who are presently undergoing trials.
Please storm heaven for my friends in Louisiana, they've had a long string of misfortune and could do with some good news.
Please pray for Mr. Nixon's continued and comfortable recovery.
For a dear friend who is undergoing a troubling period in her life, besent with a number of problems, physical, financial, emotional. May God hold her close to His heart.
For the people of the Sudan that they may know peace and security and that they might learn to live together.
A correspondent writes and asks for prayers for healing--for an end to the ringing in his head
For a special intention for Linda and me.
For a St. Blog's parishioner in need of work to forestall financial catastrophe, that the Lord provide all that is needed in both material and spiritual blessings.
For a young lady of e-mail acquaintance who requests our prayers as she continues on the path of healing and attends a retreat in the near future. She needs all of our support and love.
A special request from two gentleman battling particularly troublesome and besetting sins for grace and help as they continue forward.
For those struggling against self to attain holiness, that the Good Lord will raise up new Saints for our times, visible beacons that draw all people toward Christ.
For all those in the process of discerning vocations to the religious life, for guidance, prudence and good counsel
For our children, that they grow up in security, comfort, and the certain knowledge that they are loved and that they be released from any bonds of darkness, fear, anger, or sadness that bind and threaten them
For all those living under the curse of generational sins, that they may have protection and the inheritance of the past may be made void in their lives.
For all who are suffering from marital problems, most particularly those in our own families or communities, that the Lord may intervene and remind them that a marriage is of three persons.
For mothers and families that struggle with autism and autistic-related disabilities: particularly for M'Lynn, Melissa, Christine, and Betty.
For families that desire more children
For the conversion or return of spouses and loved ones to the Catholic Church, most particularly for Amanda's husband
For the men and women of the American Armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and for their families, may the Good Lord provide sustenance, support, compassion, and love that these separated families might continue to grow in strength and love.
Special Prayer Projects:
(1) For Katherine and Franklin, Peter Kucera, and for all who are seeking employment and suffering through difficult times as they wait.
(2)Healthy Pregnancies and good and safe deliveries: From Davey's Mom: I am with child once again and could use prayers for a healthy pregnancy. For Suki, for a healthy pregancy and a safe delivery. For JCecil3 and Wife. For Pansy Moss. For Mts. White and child. For Katherine and her friend Corren. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, pray for us. Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
A very important request from a St. Blogs parishioner--"I found out recently that my friend's sister is pregnant for the fourth time. Her other three children have autism, and I know it would make her very, very happy to have a normal child." Please pray for this poor woman that she might have the joy of a healthy pregnancy and a happy, healthy delivery and new infant. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, Pray for Us.
Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
Crescent and Iron Cross--an unusual work by Benson, neither Lucia nor the splendid Ghost Stories (including "Room for One More" and "The Room in the Tower"). I've not read it--but for afficianados of this brother of the illustrious R.H. Benson--a Chesterton-age convert who became a priest.
Last night I was reading Divine Intimacy (Probably the wrong week, as I use the modern calendar and don't know how it relates to the "weeks after Pentecost" calendar) when I stumbled across the passage below. I suppose it little matters if I were in the right week or not as the reading had a great deal of meaning for me.
"Judge not, that you may not be judged" (Mt 7, 1). Charity to our neighbor begins with our thoughts, as many of our failings in charity are basically caused by our judgments. We do not think highly enough of others, we do not sufficiently consider their manifest good qualities, we are not benevolent in interpreting their way of acting. Why? Because in judging others we almost always base our opinion on their faults, especially in those which wound our feelings or which conflict with our own way of thinking and acting, while we give little or no consideration to their good points.
It is a serious mistake to judge persons or things from a negative point of view and it is not even reasonable, because the extisence of a negative side proves the presence of a positive quality, of something good, just as a tear in a garment has no existence apart from the garment. . . .
I have said before, and will continue to say--we should not judge people qua people ever. We should have no hesitation in judging their actions, words, or expressed thoughts. For example, it is not only justifiable, but positively charitable to identify a given piece of writing as scandal-mongering and rumor-spreading. Perhaps the individual is unaware of this stream in the writing. However, to call a person a scandal-monger is to reduce the person to a mere label. So too with all of the labels we too-willilngly attach to individuals--fool, anarchist, liberal, conservative, bigot, homophobe, etc. Judgment is reserved to God, and when judge another it is nearly always ugly.
The more I think about this, the clearer it becomes that our judgments should be narrowly confined and reduced to those absolutely necessary for our integrity and the integrity of our neighbors. We are too willing to leap to judgment as to motives and motivations and seeming undercurrents in thought.
Jesus warned us that it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but rather what comes out of him (Matt 15:11) because what comes out of him comes from the fullness of his heart. If our mouths speak this judgment, our hearts are full of it and this judgment weighs heavily against us.
I love the Egyptian sign of the judgement of the dead. In the presence of Anubis, the God of the Dead, the heart of the dead person is weighed in the scales against a feather to determine the path of the afterlife. A heart thickened in, subdued by, crust over with judgment is likely to rapidly tip those scales.
It is not judgment to discern that staying away from certain people is more conducive to our spiritual betterment, but it is judgment to say that those people are evil. How can they be evil if everything God has made is good? They cannot BE evil, but they can constantly and habitually do evil. They must be led from their evil ways by one who knows better, but they cannot be led by one who sits in judgment on them.
Hence we must not judge people with a word or a label. We must learn to separate the person (always beloved of God) from the action (often detestable to God) and love the person unconditionally without judgment even as we condemn the action.
Blessed surely in seed and blessed in the shoot, blessed in the flower, blessed in the gift, finally blessed in thanksgiving and praise, Christ the seed of Abraham, was brought forth from the seed of David into the flesh. from a Treatise on the Haily Mary--St. Baldwin of Cantebury
Praise
Word from Dylan's mother suggests that Dylan may soon be rejoining us. Pray that it is so and please continue to pray for his health and well-being.
Prayer Requests
Pour out prayers on the people of Florida who have lost their homes, their livelinhoods, and their lives in this storm.
For Johnny and Layla and family who recently lost a fourteen month-old child, that the family be mended and able to continue in the face of this terrible loss.
Please continue to pray for Dylan
For a deeper understanding of and commitment to the strengthening grace of the sacrament of marriage, especially for those who are presently undergoing trials.
Please storm heaven for my friends in Louisiana, they've had a long string of misfortune and could do with some good news.
Please pray for Mr. Nixon's continued and comfortable recovery.
For a dear friend who is undergoing a troubling period in her life, besent with a number of problems, physical, financial, emotional. May God hold her close to His heart.
For the people of the Sudan that they may know peace and security and that they might learn to live together.
A correspondent writes and asks for prayers for healing--for an end to the ringing in his head
For a special intention for Linda and me.
For a St. Blog's parishioner in need of work to forestall financial catastrophe, that the Lord provide all that is needed in both material and spiritual blessings.
For a young lady of e-mail acquaintance who requests our prayers as she continues on the path of healing and attends a retreat in the near future. She needs all of our support and love.
A special request from two gentleman battling particularly troublesome and besetting sins for grace and help as they continue forward.
For those struggling against self to attain holiness, that the Good Lord will raise up new Saints for our times, visible beacons that draw all people toward Christ.
For all those in the process of discerning vocations to the religious life, for guidance, prudence and good counsel
For our children, that they grow up in security, comfort, and the certain knowledge that they are loved and that they be released from any bonds of darkness, fear, anger, or sadness that bind and threaten them
For all those living under the curse of generational sins, that they may have protection and the inheritance of the past may be made void in their lives.
For all who are suffering from marital problems, most particularly those in our own families or communities, that the Lord may intervene and remind them that a marriage is of three persons.
For mothers and families that struggle with autism and autistic-related disabilities: particularly for M'Lynn, Melissa, Christine, and Betty.
For families that desire more children
For the conversion or return of spouses and loved ones to the Catholic Church, most particularly for Amanda's husband
For the men and women of the American Armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and for their families, may the Good Lord provide sustenance, support, compassion, and love that these separated families might continue to grow in strength and love.
Special Prayer Projects:
(1) For Katherine and Franklin, Peter Kucera, and for all who are seeking employment and suffering through difficult times as they wait.
(2)Healthy Pregnancies and good and safe deliveries: From Davey's Mom: I am with child once again and could use prayers for a healthy pregnancy. For Suki, for a healthy pregancy and a safe delivery. For JCecil3 and Wife. For Pansy Moss. For Mts. White and child. For Katherine and her friend Corren. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, pray for us. Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
A very important request from a St. Blogs parishioner--"I found out recently that my friend's sister is pregnant for the fourth time. Her other three children have autism, and I know it would make her very, very happy to have a normal child." Please pray for this poor woman that she might have the joy of a healthy pregnancy and a happy, healthy delivery and new infant. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, Pray for Us.
Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
But I come with oh, so tasty a treat. A morsel, a soupçon, a tantilizing taste of a most remarkable book. To wit:
from The Supper of the Lamb
Robert Farrar CaponBut second, he will, by his fasting, be delivered from the hopelessness of mere gourmandaise. The secular, for all its goodness, does not defend itself very well against mindless and perpetual consumption. It cries out to be offered by abstinence as well as use; to be appreciated, not simply absorbed: Hunger remains the best sauce. Beyond that, though, it cries out to be lifted into a higher offering still. The real secret of fasting is not that it is a simple way to keep one's weight down, but that it is a mysterious way of lifting creation into the Supper of the Lamb. It is not a little excursion into fashionable shape, but a major entrance into the fasting, the agony, the passion by which the Incarnate Word restores all things to the goodness God finds in them. It is as much an act of prayer as prayer itself, and, in an affluent society, it may well be the most meaningful of all the practices of religion--the most likely point at which the salt can find its savor once again. Let Harry fast in earnest, therefore. One way or another--here or hereafter--it will give him back his feasts.
Chebyshev and Fourier Spectrum Models
Problem Course in Mathematical Logic
A Plethora of Books from the AMS (I'm assuming that is the American Mathematical Society.)
Dynamical Systems and Ergodic Theory
Jacobi Operators and Completely Integrable Nonlinear Lattices
Poetry In Translation - A.S. Kline's Free Archive--provides translations of Catullus (not for the easily offended), Ovid (ditto), as well as prominent modern or recent European poets--Goethe, Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Eluard, etc. (Includes a complete Dunio Elegies, a complete Divine Comedy with notes, a complete Canti of Leopardi, a complete Canzoniere of Petrarch, and a complete Faust with notes.
Very nice.
For a long while after Andrew, it was difficult to be insured in Florida. The state more or less forced insurance companies to insure new homeowners. However, the state continued to make concessions to the insurance company to the tune of the present calamity. While it is estimated that there was something on the order of $15 billion in damages caused by the hurricane, $10 billion will have to be paid by the individual homeowners.
It is right a poper for the insured to bear some part of the burden of so great a disaster. What strikes me as a bit unfair is that the state has a disaster fund into which insurance companies may dip if their pay-out goes over a certain amount, but to which homeowners have no access. Thus the average homeowner has anywhere from a 2% to a 5% of the cost of the house deductible. For many, this is insupportable.
But there doesn't really seem to be any other way to deal with the enormous costs that occur in the wake of such a disaster.
Traveling through Orlando, I found myself occasionally gasping at the extent of damage possible from what amounted to a Category 1 storm. I saw brick fences that had been "blown out" (not fallen on by trees). Signal lights that had been torn from their moorings. (And boy are those lights big. You don't realize how large a signal lamp is as it hangs up above, but down on the ground, I was shocked at how large it seems.
I may try to go and photograph some of the local damage during the day today and will post a picture or two. In the meantime, you might want to look at this report (see the section titled "Picturing Charley's Wake) as you continue your prayers.
Prayer Requests
Pour out prayers on the people of Florida who have lost their homes, their livelinhoods, and their lives in this storm.
For Johnny and Layla and family who recently lost a fourteen month-old child, that the family be mended and able to continue in the face of this terrible loss.
Please continue to pray for Dylan
For a deeper understanding of and commitment to the strengthening grace of the sacrament of marriage, especially for those who are presently undergoing trials.
Please storm heaven for my friends in Louisiana, they've had a long string of misfortune and could do with some good news.
Please pray for Mr. Nixon's continued and comfortable recovery.
For a dear friend who is undergoing a troubling period in her life, besent with a number of problems, physical, financial, emotional. May God hold her close to His heart.
For the people of the Sudan that they may know peace and security and that they might learn to live together.
A correspondent writes and asks for prayers for healing--for an end to the ringing in his head
For a special intention for Linda and me.
For a St. Blog's parishioner in need of work to forestall financial catastrophe, that the Lord provide all that is needed in both material and spiritual blessings.
For a young lady of e-mail acquaintance who requests our prayers as she continues on the path of healing and attends a retreat in the near future. She needs all of our support and love.
A special request from two gentleman battling particularly troublesome and besetting sins for grace and help as they continue forward.
For those struggling against self to attain holiness, that the Good Lord will raise up new Saints for our times, visible beacons that draw all people toward Christ.
For all those in the process of discerning vocations to the religious life, for guidance, prudence and good counsel
For our children, that they grow up in security, comfort, and the certain knowledge that they are loved and that they be released from any bonds of darkness, fear, anger, or sadness that bind and threaten them
For all those living under the curse of generational sins, that they may have protection and the inheritance of the past may be made void in their lives.
For all who are suffering from marital problems, most particularly those in our own families or communities, that the Lord may intervene and remind them that a marriage is of three persons.
For mothers and families that struggle with autism and autistic-related disabilities: particularly for M'Lynn, Melissa, Christine, and Betty.
For families that desire more children
For the conversion or return of spouses and loved ones to the Catholic Church, most particularly for Amanda's husband
For the men and women of the American Armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and for their families, may the Good Lord provide sustenance, support, compassion, and love that these separated families might continue to grow in strength and love.
Special Prayer Projects:
(1) For Katherine and Franklin, Peter Kucera, and for all who are seeking employment and suffering through difficult times as they wait.
(2)Healthy Pregnancies and good and safe deliveries: From Davey's Mom: I am with child once again and could use prayers for a healthy pregnancy. For Suki, for a healthy pregancy and a safe delivery. For JCecil3 and Wife. For Pansy Moss. For Mts. White and child. For Katherine and her friend Corren. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, pray for us. Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
A very important request from a St. Blogs parishioner--"I found out recently that my friend's sister is pregnant for the fourth time. Her other three children have autism, and I know it would make her very, very happy to have a normal child." Please pray for this poor woman that she might have the joy of a healthy pregnancy and a happy, healthy delivery and new infant. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, Pray for Us.
Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
Prayer Requests
Pour out prayers on the people of Florida who have lost their homes, their livelinhoods, and their lives in this storm.
For Johnny and Layla and family who recently lost a fourteen month-old child, that the family be mended and able to continue in the face of this terrible loss.
Pease continue to pray for Dylan
Please storm heaven for my friends in Louisiana, they've had a long string of misfortune and could do with some good news.
Please pray for Mr. Nixon's continued and comfortable recovery.
For a dear friend who is undergoing a troubling period in her life, besent with a number of problems, physical, financial, emotional. May God hold her close to His heart.
For the people of the Sudan that they may know peace and security and that they might learn to live together.
A correspondent writes and asks for prayers for healing--for an end to the ringing in his head
For a special intention for Linda and me.
For a St. Blog's parishioner in need of work to forestall financial catastrophe, that the Lord provide all that is needed in both material and spiritual blessings.
For a young lady of e-mail acquaintance who requests our prayers as she continues on the path of healing and attends a retreat in the near future. She needs all of our support and love.
A special request from two gentleman battling particularly troublesome and besetting sins for grace and help as they continue forward.
For those struggling against self to attain holiness, that the Good Lord will raise up new Saints for our times, visible beacons that draw all people toward Christ.
For all those in the process of discerning vocations to the religious life, for guidance, prudence and good counsel
For our children, that they grow up in security, comfort, and the certain knowledge that they are loved and that they be released from any bonds of darkness, fear, anger, or sadness that bind and threaten them
For all those living under the curse of generational sins, that they may have protection and the inheritance of the past may be made void in their lives.
For all who are suffering from marital problems, most particularly those in our own families or communities, that the Lord may intervene and remind them that a marriage is of three persons.
For mothers and families that struggle with autism and autistic-related disabilities: particularly for M'Lynn, Melissa, Christine, and Betty.
For families that desire more children
For the conversion or return of spouses and loved ones to the Catholic Church, most particularly for Amanda's husband
For the men and women of the American Armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and for their families, may the Good Lord provide sustenance, support, compassion, and love that these separated families might continue to grow in strength and love.
Special Prayer Projects:
(1) For Katherine and Franklin, Peter Kucera, and for all who are seeking employment and suffering through difficult times as they wait.
(2)Healthy Pregnancies and good and safe deliveries: From Davey's Mom: I am with child once again and could use prayers for a healthy pregnancy. For Suki, for a healthy pregancy and a safe delivery. For JCecil3 and Wife. For Pansy Moss. For Mts. White and child. For Katherine and her friend Corren. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, pray for us. Blessed Gianna, pray for us.
A very important request from a St. Blogs parishioner--"I found out recently that my friend's sister is pregnant for the fourth time. Her other three children have autism, and I know it would make her very, very happy to have a normal child." Please pray for this poor woman that she might have the joy of a healthy pregnancy and a happy, healthy delivery and new infant. Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. St. Gerard Majella, Pray for Us.
Blessed Gianna, pray for us.