Monica Update

Please increase your prayers for Monica, who's website is listed here, "Sol and Monica". The chemo doesn't seem to be working; the tumors are larger and there are some new growths in her bones. PLease pray for clarity, for peace of mind and of course, for healing.

Good Advice

You know you are receiving good advice when it stings as it penetrates. Fr Chad said to me, "you know, it's not our health or our job or any of those things that is ultimately the hardest thing to let go of, but our own plans. And often one of the greatest gifts God can give us is to free us from those. There are no dead ends; when you hit a wall and can no longer move forward, just look to the left and the right and keep moving wherever you see an opening."

Hope

i spent this weekend with 100 high school students on a confirmation retreat. It was a great group of kids and very encouraging to see their positive responses to this experience of their faith. At the end of the retreat there was open mike time; the students were asked to share what was their favorite part of the experience, and about 1/3 said that the best part of the experience was going to confession. Can you believe it? Several students said their favorite part was Eucharistic adoration. Some shared tearful testimonies about feeling that after confession they had laid down burdens that they'd been carrying for years, or how for the first time they had really felt that God was there with them, that they were not alone in this world anymore.

It was an honor to be a part of it, even just as a spectator.

My apologies...

Oh, my friends, I have been such a faithless blogger these last few months. On again, aff again. Oh, for the constancy of WIndshield Rosary, who blogs so faithfully every day. BUt not me. Life is settling into it's new normalcy, and I am reminded of how fortunate I am to have a job that means so much to me. The kids are wonderful, and I feel like the adult aides I work with were picked by God, thy are such warm, loving people. The get paid so little, but do it because they love the kids.

I am still struggling with all my usual things; like frustration at not knowing where my life is going, fear that I'm not doing enough, doubt about my cloudy future. BUt you can all understand all those things, right? I'm certainly not alone in that. I read a book "Thy WIl Be Done" and one of the letters was written just for me..."eagerness then, is a fault in you. THere is something in you which is constantly not satisfied, this is your struggle with resignation. You resign yourself well, but it's with a "but", for you would very much like to have this or that, and you agitate yourself to get it". Yup, that's me.

I trust all of you are well.
Love, Faith

Advice

I went to confession this weekend while on retreat. I gave my usual order of the same old sins, fears and anxieties. And he gave me his usual advice- "Faith, keep it simple." And then he repeated it again- "Simple".
Simplicity does not come easy to a neurotic like me, I suspect.

Retreat

I just came back from a 3 day silent retreat. Well, not really 3 days, because it started Friday evening and ended Sunday at noon. And not really silent, because I was choking back the giggles the whole weekend, for no apparent reason; I didn't even have any friends with me; it's probably just as well as I would've dragged them down with me to the pit of levity I was wallowing in. Oh, what's to be done with me? And I LIKE silent retreats! Do you think it's all the medication? Is irrational laughter a side- effect of Tamoxifen?

Man's Best Friend...

A former client of my mom's (who was an in- home nurse for the elderly) died and left $200,000 to each of his four huge German Shepherd dogs.
"I wish I'd been nicer to those dogs..." sighed my mom.