Do you have some good news? I need some good news. What’s up these days?
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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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I am at the end of a semi difficult pregnancy, and the doctor was making noises about scheduling a c-section in three weeks because my baby boy is breech.
We added a novena to St. Philomena to our family night prayer/rosary and he has turned head down, confirmed yesterday.
Thanks be to God! And to the intercession of St. Philomena!
Good news is hard to come by lately in my life. But there are a couple of bright spots. I have a husband who loves me dearly. He works in a different state since losing his job here two years ago and we only get to see each other about one weekend a month. But taking that job to support our family was a selfless thing to do (since he’s alone in a town where he knows nobody) and has allowed us to keep our home. He’s my hero. But I miss him.
I also belong to a wonderful little FSSP parish only eight miles from our house and as soon as I walk in the doors for Mass I feel calmed and all my worries wash away. That is a huge bright spot.
Fr. Z, when I saw Your Good News I almost passed it by but you got me thinking about the good things I DO have instead of thinking about my hardships.
So thank you.
My week at the CMAA Colloquium in St. Louis was blessed and very nourishing. Anyone interested in infusing and sharing our Church’s musical heritage, no matter on how modest a scale, should consider attending a CMAA event. Many thanks to their hard-working staff and volunteers.
In Youngstown, Ohio, the Dominicans are re-acquainting their flock with the Dominican Rite. This past Friday I attended the first of three Dominican Rite Masses they’ve scheduled for this Summer, and hope to return on August 19 for the last in the series, a Missa Solemnis. On the way back through Pittsburgh the next day I managed to go to not one but two wrong addresses in totally failing to find the TLM parish, but have since figured out where I messed up and in the meantime did score a rare find of both delicious coffee and non-exploding biscotti at Prestogeorge on Penn Avenue.
At my day job, I begin a new client engagement this week.
God woke me up again this morning to worship Him, serve my neighbor, and give witness to my faith in difficult times.
1) +Sarah!
2) Just celebrated my 6 month anniversary (thanks for all your hard work at the wedding, Father).
3) Picking up a good client this week, which will help me provide for my family!
Lots of changes at work but I seem to still be nimble enough to handle them. There is a lot of very good training going on. I am going to Mass at new parishes and everything is okay, healing from the disaster at the parish of self-righteous people. May they stew by themselves.
We had great events with Bishop Schneider.
The send week of August is our 3nd Annual Altar Boy Camp. Training, food, fun and closing Solemn Mass in the EF.
Second week of August and 2nd Annual. Auto correct kills me
One more good thing. My teenage son is counting the days to leave for Camp St. Isaac Jogues with the FSSP next week. He has talked so often throughout the year of how excellent it was last year, it makes us really happy to know this is available for him.
A kerfuffle between my credit union and credit card company that dinged my already-small bank account for half its balance has been resolved and I’ll be getting my money back. I was seriously in a panic over this yesterday and asking some friends if I could borrow their guardian angels…and the guardian angel of one’s unborn daughter =-p
We had a Missa Cantata at my small, rural mission church! On a First Friday weekday! We had around 20 adults and teens in attendance and nine children (from two Catholic families).
This is the culmination of several years of brick by brick struggle, involving lots and lots of prayer!
Things are looking good for EF Mass at the larger parish church…maybe a monthly First Friday Mass. Or maybe more often if we keep up the prayers.
We have a home, food and clothing and hopefully enough to get by and send Number One Son to Franciscan U. this fall. I have two part-time jobs, one working for the church. I have transportation (I didn’t during Lent). My husband is self-employed, which is hard but also a blessing. My two boys are healthy and happy and have faith. People at church sometimes mention to us how nice our boys are. They are the most important part of my life and all of this work is for them. I have great friends and a strong Catholic homeschooling community in my diocese. It is so easy to list all the negatives. It is good to remember and be thankful for the positives.
Well, I’m still alive, does that count?
Item 1: My younger brother, who struggled with addictions for most of his short life, passed away on the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. I know that doesn’t sound like good news, but stay with me. He was found unconscious on the streets of New Orleans with no pulse and no ID. But he did have his cell phone, and after he was resuscitated and brought to the hospital, a nurse called my mother. A week later, he passed away peacefully with his parents and two of his siblings (my brother and sister) by his side. He never regained consciousness, but he was anointed twice, and the hospital chaplain put a brown scapular on him. Many people prayed the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet for him the week before he died, and of course we are still praying for him. If that cell phone had not been on him, we would never have known what became of him; he would have died without the anointing or the scapular, and we would have lost the opportunity to lay him to rest as a family. I am so thankful for these blessings, and even though I wish he had not been taken from us so soon (he was only 32), I feel very hopeful for his salvation.
Item 2: I gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Pia Therese, on June 16. She is our fifth child, and our archbishop (Archbishop Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas) will baptize her on Sunday. The archbishop has offered to personally baptize children who are at least the third in a family, to show his support of parents who are open to having more children. We rejoice in Pia’s safe arrival, in the growth of our family, and in having a shepherd who publicly proclaims through his actions that life is indeed a gift.
Two friends of mine were ordained priests in the last month, one in the Roman rite and one in the Byzantine Rite. I believe both are “axios” (a word I just learned from the latter friend, a Greek acclamation that they “worthy” of the role of priest).
Had a wonderful confessor last Saturday. He lifted great burdens off me and set me in a new direction. I made it just before the Saturday afternoon confessions were over, too. God bless that priest. Also, we have a new Associate Pastor whose first homily was based on solid teaching. I’m very excited that he has come to our parish. After work yesterday, I was able to make a visit to a perpetual adoration chapel – praise God I live in a city that has a chapel and I was able to go! Cometed a polyphony class to improve sight singing and chant. It was a blessing to meet with other Catholic singers for a few weeks and the teacher was great.
My good news is my Catholic faith – (perhaps Catholic tradition of it’s not in the CCC) teaches me to take any pain and suffering and offer it up for our Pope, the Catholic church, souls in purgatory, anyone and any situation who needs prayer. I will heed St. Francis and “count it all joy”. God bless our priests, especially Father Z.
Thank you Fr Z for all you do!
My Good news? I was on a long wknd to South Boston, MA. I grew up there and was visiting old friends.
On Sun, July 3rd I went to Mass at Gate of Heaven, a magnificent, traditional structure inside and out. A young, visiting priest whose name I did not get, gave a fantastic homily on the true meaning of independence, in light of Independence Day. He quoted the Catechism, defining true freedom as what is good, beautiful, and true. Then he gave contrasting visions of what the secular world thinks is true and what the Church KNOWS to be true (marriage between a man and woman, abortion, fornication, pornography)! I was on the edge of my seat! The best part? While he was greeting parishioners, when my turn, I asked if he had heard of Fr Z’s website. He said he did, approvingly. I told him of your weekly Sunday Sermon Notes, and that I was going to pass along what a great homily he gave on true freedom and independence, and how it can be achieved through the teachings of the Catholic Church. He was humbled and grateful.
I left Gate of Heaven walking on air, much the way I feel after reading your blog daily.
Thanks again, Fr Z, and God bless!
Keep up the good fight!
SSgt Ted Condo
NJ Air Nat’l Guard/USAF
[Thanks. I needed that today.]
In gratitude: my husband found a new job and my son received his IB diploma.
The only ill effect I suffered from last night’s storm was the hit my bank account took at the mall in which I took refuge from the 70 mi/hr winds. Sheets of plywood took off like they were paper! My shopping coup was to buy three nice dresses for less than $100 at a higher end department store. I do sound frivolous but all three dresses were marked down multiple times, fit well and fit holes in my wardrobe. To quote grandma, one of the dresses was so cheap it would’ve been a sin to leave it in the store.
I may be repeating myself from one of the last times Father asked, but particular good news has been the gift of time and the appreciation of it (partly realized by being forced to take it).
My mother’s injury, hospitalization, and rehab this spring/summer has had me relearning lessons from last year when my wife had surgery & recuperation. Deal with the possible and the necessary, take it day by day, cherish the renewed & deepened connections with all those who come through to help, let the frantic news-cycle be (it can be breathless, overwrought, depressing & demeaning without any help from me), etc…
In the middle of all that, we had a wonderful visit with one of my wife’s uncles last week. He’s up there in age, with serious health concerns, and may not live to the end of the year. He’s at home, though, and was in good form for the visit. His children and other family members are taking it in turn to stay with him and nurse him as needed. For two hours on Saturday we put the rest of the world on the back burner and had a wonderful visit with him and two of his children, cousins of my wife who have been close to her as brother & sister (and even closer, as both of them have been guardians & protectors of her in younger days). A gift now and one we will know the value of even more when he is gone – that we had this visit while he could appreciate and share it.
Other good news is the gift my wife’s family has been in my Mom’s ongoing saga. There’s not too many from my side of the family living near my Mom right now, but my in-laws have come through big time. Those same two cousins (and some others) have adopted Mom as their own. My mother-in-law has been greatly supportive in both spiritual and worldly details – visiting, praying, taking Mom’s laundry when I’ve had to be away… even washing and lotioning Mom’s feet when she thought they were too dry.
Also, I met our new parish administrator last Sunday (shared in a multi-parish collaborative). We’ll miss our previous pastor terribly (personally, pastorally & professionally) and it was a very frustrating process from the Archdiocese which deemed he was “needed elsewhere”, but none of that is a reflection on the new man. He’s an earnest priest, he has some familiarity with the parish from seminarian days, and he seems like he has a good sense of balance and landscape with being his own man but not steamrollering others’ expectations in our bumpy little dynamic. He may not have the same “special gifts” his predecessor did (who did not have the same “special gifts” as his predecessors as admin or pastor), but it seems pretty safe to say that we will discover that he does have his own gifts which perhaps those predecessors lacked.
I am finished today with my landlord. The move out inspection I was dreading is over. He was very difficult to love and forgive. My year of aggravating rentership is over. TBTG!
Good news: we harvested a couple rows of radishes and are enjoying them in the simple French style, with butter and herbs on a thin slice of baguette. These days we give thanks to God for the smallest things and pray that His hand leads us out of harm’s way, as soon as possible.
My daughter and 9 year old grandson came for a weeks visit; we spent much time laughing, knitting, crocheting and reminiscing.