>Feast Day: Feast of our Guardian Angels

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Guardian Angel Icon by Ikonart.com

It’s another Feast day! I love Autumn!

Today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels.
For good solid stuff on the Guardian Angels, go here and here.

I hesitated to blog about this today, because this is one of those Catholic beliefs that can be misconstrued, and has. There has been a fad in the popular culture about angels and it has devolved too often into the kitschy ‘Hallmark’ cherub kind of angel, complete with squishy feelings and trite sentiment (not to sound too much like a curmudgeon, but I think you know what I mean). Or angels are shown as the kind of nauseating gauzy filmy pastel drawing of a blond angel in billowing robes and flowers. On the flip side however, if you do a google search on angels, specifically, Guardian Angels…well, it can get kind of creepy! I mean, like, you are walking the edge of the dark side. No kidding. When folks start talking about ‘channeling’ angels and having conversations with them and learning their names and so on…I say, run, run fast! That is just too borderline for me.

Permit me a short rant on this: I do believe a tiny handful of us have actually known and/or spoken with angels, (specifically: Mary, Abraham, Tobit (though, unaware)). However, I think that most of those who say they do, or have, might well be either psychotic or actually have spoken with angels, or spirits, but the wrong kind. Now you are probably writing me off as a nut case. But, stay with me.

We are taught that angels are true and real. We are also taught that there are angels of God and angels who chose against God. God’s angels can and do work in this world, but usually in the background and/or through our own conscience and the people around us. I think only those who have elevated to pretty lofty heights of holiness ever are given the grace of meeting an angel and knowing it. Mary was sinless, for Pete’s sake! Deigned to be chosen as Mother of God! She was holy enough to have an angel greet her with “Hail, Mary, full of grace.” Even then, she must have been frightened and flipped out. But, I know, that I hope to never meet with an angel in a concrete, physically discernible way. I am simply not holy enough and thus it would be maybe a temptation from the wrong team, so to type; not to mention it would scare me into a gibbering idiot. {I know, you’re thinking “already there.”} Rant over.

So, after all that, what’s up with Guardian Angels?
And do I believe in those?
You betcha!

Guardian Angels are such a fantastic gift from God himself. Talk about a Creator who thought of everything! Even someone to be with us our entire lives, who knows us better than anyone else, and is there for the express purpose of our best good. Not, and this is important, our greatest want/desire, but for our greatest good. Not to mention, who are smarter than us by leaps and bounds. Whew. What a relief! We need this so much. I do. And they are so polite about it too, nudging here, pestering there, saving when needed. I can point to a few times when I am absolutely sure that but for the intervention of my Guardian Angel, I would be dead or in dire straights. Most recently, on 65S, saved from a collision beside me before I even knew it and my adrenaline shot sky high. Thank you.

[So, now I have surely lost any reader I might have had left. But well, the little boys and myself are all sick with a muzzy thick head cold. So maybe I’m ranting a bit. But still, the thoughts are there and mine on this day and this subject.]

Thank you Guardian Angels! For watching over me and saving me from harm of all stripes, most usually myself. For watching over my children when they are near and especially when they are far from me. It’s a comfort. The best friends a gal can have, in so many ways…and ones so very taken for granted. So today, phone a friend, in honor of our best friends, the Guardian Angels.

Painting by Roxanne

>Feast Day: St. Theresa of the Child Jesus aka St. Therese of Lisieux

>So, today is the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux!

The novena finishes today and it’s been a nice quiet start, often early in the morning, to my days. Thinking about her and her ‘little way’ is a nice reminder to me as I prep to start the typically hectic days around here. The Deacon’s Bench speaks well about her and the constant call to conversion, here. And that is one of the important things for me about this saint: her constant reminder to struggle against our own self-ish selves. Mine. Me. That really, it’s NOT about me at all. It’s about everyone else.

From Deacon:
“Conversion isn’t a one-time event. It isn’t a moment. It is thousands of moments. It is a lifetime of moments.”
snip.
“Loving, and growing in love, is part of our lives as Catholic Christians – part of our own ongoing conversion in each. The effort is unceasing. “

Happily, I’ve been pestering her for prayers for another (ok a few) in this novena and I am sure she is praying for them too. And that is such a comfort to me and hopefully to those others who know they are specifically in this novena too.

Years ago at the National Shrine of St. Therese, near ChicagoSo today is her feast day, and I will remember her with her flower: roses. Happy Feast Day!

>Feast Day: The Archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael

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It’s another Feast Day!
It’s the Feast of the Archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael.

Now, yeah, this is yet another Catholic Feast. Brace yourself, we are coming into the calendar season just chock full of Feasts. No wonder I love this time of year, full of special days, feasts, memorials, birthdays…all running right up to the very special season of Advent. (But that is for another post, in the future). Today, this Feast of the Archangels: I love this feast and I love the archangels as well. How can you not? They are always involved in the best of the stories and events from the bible. They are God’s own top notch messengers, the A-team, if you will.

St. Michael is a fantastic comfort, he is the protector and guardian for us and prince of the messengers. He is the ultimate warrior for Christ. It he who I call on for extra protection when we are frightened, waking from dreams that disturb, or to comfort one of my kids, or heck, even me when I get scared or nervous. St. Raphael, he is a the one to call on for safe travel, he who traveled with Tobias, both as companion and messenger there too. And of course, St. Gabriel. Obviously, we have a special spot in our hearts for this messenger of God’s will. He was the most special chosen messenger to our Blessed Mother of the divine news of her son, Christ: the Annunciation, the one who got to hear her “fiat.” He was the patron of our own message of God’s will: our own Gabriel Tariku, who now brings the message of God’s love to us, every day.

St. Gabriel Monastery, Ethiopia
This is why we love these Archangels. They do God’s work, always. They are faithful caretakers of us and messengers to us and they bring us the most exciting and comforting message of all, always and ever: of God’s love for us. What’s not to like? So today, we will celebrate their feast and our Gabriel’s patron feast day too!Happy Feast Day!

>Feast Day: Saints Cosmas and Damian

>It’s the Feast Day of Saints Cosmas and Damian, patron of physicians.

And so, of course, a Feast day for our own Coffeedoc!

These two twin brothers were physicians, born in Arabia and known for their great faith and healing. They never accepted payment for their services and instead healed because it was their gift and skill and a desire to live a life of charity. This mindset and behavior, even way back then, wouldn’t go unnoticed and they came to the attention of Diocletian. They were martryed under his persecutions of Christians. They had a holy mother who taught them their Christian faith and set them on their paths. Here is another place to read about them as well.

And so, these two twins are great patrons for physicians (and pharmacists), an example of living a life in the pursuit of caritas and comfort of others. Our Coffeedoc counts them as his patrons, and rightly so. They have been faithful intercessors and so today, we celebrate their saintly example to us all.

Happy Feast Day, Coffeedoc!
Saints Cosmas and Damian, pray for us!

>Happy Birthday Mary!

>It’s the feast of the Nativity of Mary! Happy Birthday Mary!

Today is the day we celebrate and remember the nativity of our Blessed Mother, Mary. The birth of the Theotokos, Mother of God. I know some have questions or issues with this whole concept…but I am all about loving our Blessed Mother, and all about celebrating birthdays, so I can run with it! Go to the ever interesting Anchoress for a good read on this feast and why it’s so good to ponder….also here for a quick bit on it as well.

I am so grateful for her and for her birthday that we will celebrate with flowers for her and maybe even a yummy dessert….Because living the liturgical year is fun and cool and gives much needed texture, rhythm, and depth to the warp and woof of our lives.

And here is a lovely prayer for the day: shamelessly nabbed from Deacon’s Bench, but from the Liturgy of the Hours:

Father of Mercy, give your people help and strength from heaven.
The birth of the Virgin Mary’s son
was the dawn of our salvation.
May this celebration of her birthday
bring us closer to lasting peace.
Grant this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

— the Liturgy of the Hours

Lastly, dear sweet holy Father Luckas promised to offer Mass today, on this feast, for a special intention for us. And for that, and for the intercessory prayers, I am so humbly and deeply grateful. And just in case you want to know HOW much that Mass offering is worth to us, this treasure of a book explains it well.
So, this is a bit rambly…but well, think of your Mother today…your Blessed Mother and maybe say a prayer of thanksgiving for her. Because like all of us moms, she loves us even when we don’t love her nearly well enough back….

>Feast Day: Saint Monica

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This one is for the moms, all of us!

This is St. Monica, and today is her feast day!
She is most well known as mother to St. Augustine, one of the doctors of the church.
And she is a patron of all mothers, everywhere, as well as to wives – for good reason. Read more about her here.

As a mom, who is impatient and worries about her kids, at times losing sleep over them and the whole process of raising them….it helps me to remember her and her steadfast course on behalf of her husband and children, Augustine in particular. Monica was from North Africa, a tribal African woman, married to a Roman soldier. She was married to a difficult man, a nonchristian (who only tolerated her faith) and she prayed for him without ceasing. He experienced a deathbed conversion, surely due to her faithful prayers.

Her eldest boy, Augustine, was a wild and wayward kid. The kind of young man that makes mothers lose sleep and fret and fume. He left home, he was a wild party-er. Disregarding his mother’s typical advice, he met a girl (ok, many, he was quite the man about town), lived with her, got her pregant, fell in with a psuedo religious cult, an intellectual snob…all the top of the charts mom stressers. And so she prayed for her son, got tough on him when she had to, didn’t just let him drop out of her life even when he wished for her to….and she never quit on him. She was faithful. It was not fun or rewarding. She just did it with the grace of hope and faith.

And he ended up not only coming back to a good life, but converting to the church and eventually becoming a Doctor of the Church (meaning one of the few people who’s writings are recognized as foundational teachings – a big wig). So, wayward young man makes good, through no small faithful effort of his mom. Hence she is also the patron saint of patience!

In a way, I suppose in modern times she would be considered a helicopter parent, huh? However, then again, not. She was a mom, and she loved her husband even though he was hard to live with and her son despite his poor choices and she believed in them and her faith enough to persevere in prayer. And that, for me, is a role model – one of the best.

Because, really that is what we do, what we are called to do, what we get tired of doing, but what the whole mom gig is all about. So, she is a saint for moms, everywhere, and for me in particular. So, happy feast day!

St. Monica. Painting by John Nava.
Shamelessly stolen from The Deacon’s Bench.
For a nice prayer and bit on St. Monica, go see.

St. Monica, pray for us!

>Feast Day: Saint Maximilian Kolbe

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Today is the feast day of another patron saint in our family, Booboo’s patron: Saint Maximilian Kolbe. Go read about him here and here.

He was an amazing man, but what is the most cool thing about him is his devotion to his Blessed Mother and his willingness to step up to sacrifice.

He started a magazine to spread the word about the devotion to the Immaculata (Immaculate Mother) and his Knights of the Immaculata; using the most modern mass communications of the era. If he was alive today I would betcha he would have a blog and website devoted to Her too! Sadly, he was was killed in Auschwitz, offering himself to die in the place of a young father.
Sacrifice in the most literal manner imaginable.

He wasn’t big, he wasn’t burly, he wasn’t famous or rich or powerful…but he poured himself out, utterly, for his faith, with courage. A small frail Fransiscan, who helped change the world just a little bit more. Another hero, and a great patron.Happy feast day Booboo!

>Feast of the Transfiguration

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Ah, today is the Feast of the Transfiguration!

I love this feast and I love this part of the gospel (Matthew 17:1-9.)
It’s one of my favorite decades of the rosary (luminous mysteries, fourth).
I love living the liturgical year…in our own home and our own goofy way, but being able to live out as the calendar pages by. {can you guess, this is a Catholic post?}

To read a good bit on this Feast go to the always excellent Godzdogz, here.
For a more scholarly piece go to Clerical Whispers, here.

But for me, I just love this feast. It’s a very visual event, and I am a totally visual gal. I can vividly imagine the whole scene and the shivering thrill (ok, and maybe a touch of terror) that went through the apostles as they witnessed the transfiguration and the otherworldly, well, GLORY of it all! I mean, wow!

And for me, especially as I meditate on this mystery in my rosary, I alway smile. Because I love St. Peter and his impulsive passionate nature. He reminds me, every time I think of this feast, this mystery, of my son – my Booboo. He is just like that, if he had been there, my boy would have been the one to think and say “this is SO cool! Hey, we should set up a tent!” I love that, it is so much a reaction that would happen and I love how it brings the gospel from so long ago right smack into today’s, my, world.

And for all the frenzy for special effects nowadays in movies…even in our jaded weary eyes, I’m thinking this one would’ve blown us away…will blow us away. And even Lucas and the wizards at Industrial Light and Magic can’t hold a candle to it. Which is just fun to think about.

So, I do love this feast, this mystery, this special amazing event in the life of Christ and those lucky apostles. And I cling to what this one promises….transfiguration. The changing of our very natures into something unimaginable by our puny little caged human minds.

I cling to the promise of this transfiguration – that even when I cannot see beyond the cloud and the dark, Christ himself is with me and leading the way so I too, can be transformed as I so desperately need to be. It is the promise of this transformation through prayer, and uniting my prayer and will with His, that keeps me putting one foot, one prayer, one action in front of the other.

Because it is a promise of MORE.
More than me.
More than us.
More than our minds or hearts can begin to fathom or guess or dream.

It’s a fireworks burst of transfigured self that will make us surely gasp in trembling and mind blowing glee….and we can hang on to that and cling to that in the dark of now, the mundane of today, because of this feast. It’s a gift. Pure and simple. A lesson. A gift. A promise.

They saw it. It’s real. It happened and there are three, strikingly similar unchanging accounts to document it. We are human and need that proof. Christ asks for faith without seeing (John 20:18) and yet grants us these moments of sight – literal, corneal seeing. How great is that, how merciful, how cool?

But hey, I’ll take it, with greedy hands and heart.
And I’ll think of Peter and hope to join my shout with his: “Lord it is good for us to be here!” Let’s set up a tent!

Painting by Raphael, of course.