Discerning God's Call: Part 2

Blessed Sacrament Church in Seattle

In July 2014, I went on a work trip to a conference in Seattle. After praying that the Lord would give me grace to see Him present at the conference, my mind was filled with interesting thoughts regarding a theology of science. It reminded me of a small group of Dominican Friars formed to address the relationship between faith and science. I recognized the freedom that these friars have to pursue God in all things, a freedom I do not feel like I have in my present position, and began to imagine my life as a Dominican Sister. To my surprise, the more I thought about it the more I felt drawn to the Religious life and it seemed to fulfill my deepest yearnings, including:

1.) a public vow of celibacy

For quite a while I have felt called to celibacy for the sake of the kingdom, recognizing that living the single life leaves a person free for the matters of God, as St. Paul pointed out (1 Cor 7:32).

 2.) a spiritual family

One of the obvious downsides of lifelong celibacy is not being able to start a family of my own, but I saw that living in community provides a spiritual family where a spouse and biological offspring are lacking.

3.) community support of my faith

Nowadays it can be difficult to stand up for the faith because so often it feels like I'm standing alone. In community, we can bolster each other's faith and be more courageous in our witness.

4.) radical modesty and physical witness through the Religious habit

Nowadays, simply wearing a religious habit makes a strong statement of faith.

5.) living with Jesus in the Eucharist or within a few minutes walk

After having spent time in retreat houses with tabernacles, I desperately wanted to have such easy access to Eucharistic Adoration on a regular basis.

6.) prayer as a priority and greater discipline

In the Religious life, one has access to Mass and the Divine Office and the rosary every day and regulated penances, and plenty of opportunities to share the fruits of contemplation.

My previous complaints started to seem silly. I had complained that modern-day religious orders are not penitential enough; however, the consecrated life demands many difficult sacrifices that my current life does not. And certainly God is capable of sending whatever suffering necessary to make me grow in holiness! But my biggest concern was that my family needs my financial and emotional support. However, surely when a woman enters Religious life her relationship with family grows deeper and the Lord provides for them in the ways that she no longer can. My final argument had been that the vow of obedience would not leave me fully apostolically available to the Holy Spirit. Essentially I was afraid that my superior may not be guided by the Holy Spirit and that God would not be free to lead me directly if I were under a vow of obedience. But nothing can stand in the way of God's will. The Religious life started to seem a little bit less scary and a little bit more possible.

A couple of times before, I had wondered about Religious life but brushed it aside by rationalizing that I couldn't even consider such a thing while my grandmother was alive. At the time I had thought that she had many years left, but the Lord knew differently. Now just one month after her death I was already thinking about it again. This week, each morning before the conference, I woke up with this idea in my mind. One morning I planned to go to Mass at Blessed Sacrament Church, which had adoration then Divine Office then Mass then rosary. That morning in the shower, as I was again pondering potential Religious vocations, I picked up my foot to step out of the tub. My other foot flew out from under me and I fell into the bottom of the shower after smashing my head on the wall. I didn't seem to have a concussion, but I wondered if maybe the devil either didn't want me considering a vocation or he didn't want me getting to this church (or both). Feeling tempted to skip Mass, I pushed myself to go anyway.

The first day I attended Blessed Sacrament was the Feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist. Father talked about how John the Baptist went to the desert and grew and became strong before beginning his ministry to the Israelites. Father said that sometimes we will go years or even decades simply growing and becoming strong in our faith before God calls us to a mission. But we should pray for the mission to be revealed to us when the time comes and work at growing stronger in the meantime.

During the week of the conference, I went to this parish for three days and every day I was surprised anew at the beauty of the Divine Office chanted by the priest and some parishioners. I felt like I was experiencing some of Heaven on Earth and yearned to be able to have such an experience every day. It renewed my love for the liturgy and gave me a deeper sense of longing for the consecrated life.

As I mentioned before, our local priest had encouraged me to look into some active communities, so one night I decided to watch some vocational discernment videos on YouTube. It actually threw me into turmoil! For example, the video showed Sisters joyfully playing volleyball and I had repeated flashbacks to volleyballs smashing the glasses off of my face. I also saw a wonderful Sister doing an amazing job of teaching an elementary school class. But teaching elementary school is one thing I feel almost certain I am not called to do. After watching the video, I felt sure that if I were to become a Sister I would be forced to be a kindergarten teacher who plays basketball every day and that I would never be happy. This threw me into a sort of depression. At this point I had heard of active communities and fully-cloistered contemplative communities and I didn't feel called to either. I didn't realize that there were other options in between.

On Wednesday, having obsessed for over a day about vocational discernment, I realized that the Lord doesn't want me to lose my peace and that I don't have to determine my entire future in the period of a few days. And so, again, I set aside any discernment and left the matter in God's hands.

Discerning God's Call: Part 1

Me and gramma at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore

My mom recently became friends with a young lady from Africa who asked how I came to consider the possibility of religious life. Below is Part 1 of I'm not sure how many posts on the topic.

---

"It's good that Sarah has faith. I just hope she doesn't go overboard and become a nun!" Later on, my grandmother decided she shouldn't have said that because "I guess it's suppose to be a good thing when somebody becomes a nun." But the idea of becoming a nun seemed so impossible to me that I couldn't imagine why my grandmother was worrying about it.

Of course, I have noticed the big push to get teenagers and undergraduates to visit religious communities and for the guys to learn about the priesthood. The idea is to encourage young Catholics to consider these vocations which they might otherwise think of as 'too hard' or 'great for someone else but not for me'. And in fact, many young people are surprised to find that they are inexplicably attracted to religious consecration. However, I became Catholic at age 29 with a career in research science. Making a bunch of visits 'just in case' really wasn't feasible for me.

And so, discerning religious life is not something that was really on my radar. I often prayed for direction in my life and for God's will to be made known. I even prayed that God would give me a specific vocation; you know, maybe I would open a halfway house somewhere. However, every time I asked God, I seemed to get the same non-answer: "Now is not the time to ask this question. Keep doing what you're doing and come back later."

It's not that I felt certain that God would not call me to religious life, but I didn't see much point in exploring the option before feeling called to it. It's not a vocation that one can choose. The call has to come from God. And God wasn't answering with what I might be called to do.

At the end of 2013, instead of meeting with my primary spiritual director, I started meeting with a local priest for several months. We got talking about vocations. When I told him about the amazing way that Divine Providence had led me to a career in research science, he figured this meant I was called to the secular life and not religious life. I wrote a letter explaining this to my grandmother who was pretty sick with cancer, knowing she would be comforted.

It was kind of nice to have that door closed. But after a few months of getting to know me, Father was singing a different tune. He was beginning to think that maybe I actually am called to a religious vocation. He started recommending that I visit some active communities. Unfortunately, this was the worst time for me to visit anyone. My grandmother's situation had gotten considerably worse and now she was in the process of dying. I used all of my vacation time to see her as much as possible and I was so stressed out! Cutting out any unnecessary activities was the only way for me to stay sane. Not only did I not visit any religious communities, but I stopped spiritual direction altogether. However, I did respect Father's advice and left the door open to the possibility of visiting some communities in the future.

The door was back open, but I still didn't have any sense of God calling me. So I continued to hold off on any kind of vocational discernment pending further direction from the Holy Spirit.

Women do deserve better!

No one can deny that at conception a sort of big bang occurs (pardon my French) at which point a new life is put into motion. A life is conceived that will develop from that moment. The perpetual discussion of when a fetus becomes a baby or when a baby develops personhood distracts from the obvious fact that the story of a new life has begun at conception. Each of us can trace our personal story back to the moment of our conception. It was our conception that was the decisive moment before which I did not exist and after which my personal existence had begun. It makes no sense to trace my development back to some arbitrary point four weeks or three months or however long after I had been conceived.

If my mother had an abortion one week after conceiving me then I wouldn't be here. My life would have been quenched out of existence. Sperm and eggs and fetuses are not interchangeable, we know that because of our unique DNA footprints. Many women decide to have an abortion because they don't feel ready to raise a child now. They often have planned pregnancies later. The language of 'choice' and 'family planning' makes it sound like the planned baby I am having now is the same baby that would have been born three years ago had I not had an abortion. But they are not the same baby. I chose that this baby would live. I chose that the first baby would never live. Two babies. Only one allowed to live.

Anyone who truly respects the dignity of each person and believes that each individual has an equal right to exist (and how can equality exist without an equal right to be alive??) must believe that abortion is wrong since it deprives the person whose DNA has already been 'used' and stamped on a particular zygote the right to exist. Even from a secular perspective this is a gross violation of the right to life. Nobody wins PowerBall twice. No two zygotes are alike. And for the Christian person this is especially obvious. Each person is assigned a soul and the soul is not re-used. Human beings have a body. And only one body.

Two of the greatest hypocrisies of the pro-choice movement are the assertions that 1.) those who are aborted are better off never having lived a life that could be full of suffering and that 2.) their mothers are better off without them. And yet from this perspective, one would expect the movement to be led by people who wish they had never been born and cry out that they were denied the right to non-existence. It should be filled with mothers crying out that their children have ruined their lives and that everything would be so much better "if only I'd had an abortion!". This is not the case. Why? First, because we know that even most pro-choice individuals would 'choose' their own existence over non-existence. And second, because we easily recognize the horror of a mother rejecting her own child. The latter is also evidenced by the fact that many women will justify abortion over adoption because "if I'm not going to raise him then I don't want anybody to raise him." However, these two tragic assertions betray our innate understanding of two aspects of the natural law that is written on our hearts.

First, it is clear that we recognize the duty of each person to endure whatever suffering life brings from birth until natural death, because if suicide is truly the mercy some make it out to be then no one would need to fear another person's suffering to the point of procuring abortion just in case. In most cases, the child could simply grow up to the age of reason and then personally decide whether or not to end his/her own life.

Second, when we hear women saying things like "if I'm not going to raise him then I don't want anybody to raise him", this reveals the natural law written on our hearts that says that it's wrong to reject one's child and that every child deserves to be loved and cared for by his/her biological parents.

Perversions of the natural law, while incapable of completely obscuring God's Truth, result in so many women throughout the world who have been scarred by abortion and are haunted by visions of their lost children, knowing by experience that there is no way to destroy one's child and not suffer for it. It is a difficult situation. Anyone who has committed this offense and recognized the horror of it needs emotion and spiritual healing rather than condemnation. But the lies have to stop. Women certainly do deserve better than abortion.

The right to exist and the right (and duty!) to continue to live until a natural death, whether that natural death comes within the womb or five days after being born or at age 96, is a right more fundamental than any other worldly right and must not be compromised even in an attempt to alleviate the worst suffering, be it physical, mental or emotional. Even our rationalizations bear witness to this truth.

A Spiritual Root Canal.

Below are notes from an examination I made following a regional retreat led by Monsignor Esseff for the Lay Missionaries of Charity. This retreat marked the conclusion of a particularly difficult year during which I was prone to negative introspection. On the positive side, I became aware that my fear of displeasing others often paralyzes me, which is no surprise in our politically correct culture where one of the worst evils is to offend someone. This realization initiated an ongoing struggle toward greater assertiveness and freedom from the dreaded guilt complex. I posted an excerpt a while back but it may be worth posting the longer version.

---

A Spiritual Root Canal
2014 Lay Missionaries of Charity Regional Retreat, Mount Pocono PA

I feel like there are enemy strongholds (at least one) that oppress me and due to the LMC retreat and some other things that have happened (and possibly due to things that will happen soon), the enemy feels threatened and is trying to make my life miserable. By the grace of God, although I have fallen into misery at times, I have been emotionally steady for the most part.

This stronghold inhibits my spiritual life and manifests typically as fear and resistance to performing good works; sometimes I feel that no matter how badly I want to do a good work no amount of coaxing or threatening myself can get me to do it. In fact, the more effort I put into trying to overcome the resistance the worse I seem to fair. Evil thoughts enter my mind saying things like "I've always failed before so this time will be no different." "Even if God were to give me the words to say I would not say them because I'm such a coward." Obsessive guilt and rationalization always follow.

Many people have offered advice and suggested that I am simply weak-willed. They tell me that in every situation I have a choice as to what I will do and I need to more strongly exert my will to make the right choice. But I feel like my will can never be strong enough to overcome an enemy stronghold.

People tell me that I need stronger faith, greater trust in God, more respect for self and love of my neighbor, greater contrition, etc. etc. All of this is true, and I pray for it. The primary battleground happens to be at my job. This is where I fail the most in performing the good works that I feel called to. This makes me unhappy, which is perhaps reasonable. However, for a while, I felt bitter toward God for not leading me somewhere that I could be more spiritually competent. I have a strong desire to feel 'useful' to God, when I need to be satisfied with His love alone. After the last few years of praying about it, I feel that this job is where God wills me to be right now.

People offer me knowledge and advice. They tell me that I'm unhappy because I'm doing things wrong or because I'm seeing the situation in the wrong way. They remind me that I'm there to save souls and that my mere presence is an important witness. I am bringing Jesus to the people who would never go to him. My suffering is a gift that I can offer for their conversions and that will more closely unite me with our suffering Lord.

I've read Practicing the Presence of God and He Leadeth Me and Abandonment to Divine Providence and feel that I have enough knowledge to prepare me one hundred times over for what needs to happen and where I lack. But somehow my heart doesn't listen or understand. I feel like I should continue to struggle in this way until God provides transformational grace. But I see my pride in everything I have related so far. I see it everywhere. Often I can no longer distinguish between what comes from God and what comes from my pride. Everything seems to be pride. I feel lost and like I can no longer trust my ability to discern God's will.

I long for interior silence to stop the constant reasoning in my mind. I need to listen to the voice of God, but I don't know how. Maybe God will teach me if I would just sit in silence for a while. Probably what I do need is more silent adoration. Eucharistic Adoration is my refuge where I find peace. I think that perhaps God wants me to rest in His peace and grow stronger. I am a doer and something inside makes me feel guilty for resting. I think God wants to cure me of that. Allowing me to rest in Him is a way that God shows me his love. I need to learn to rest in order to experience God's love. Maybe I can let Him do the 'doing' for a while. Maybe listening to His voice is not always like receiving orders. Maybe I can listen to His breathing. Maybe I can listen to the voice of God singing a lullaby. Maybe His voice is simply telling me that He loves me. And I ignore that voice. I don't believe that voice comes from God. Because I expect the voice of God to be giving orders. I am accomplishment driven. I tend to show love through loyalty and effort. Maybe God just wants me to love, like I did at the beginning. I wasn't trying to accomplish anything. I just wanted to know God. I wanted to be His friend. Can I hear the brokenhearted voice of God as it cries: "you have lost the love you had at first." Revelation 2:4

I feel like things are being shifted around in my soul and I'm being purged of some things that are not suppose to be there. This is uncomfortable. Something like growing pains. Not a radical change like when God healed me of social anxiety but small, almost unnoticeable changes which are perhaps even more important because they come from deep within. The social anxiety was superficial. It bound me and kept me from freedom in Christ but I always recognized it as something foreign that was not part of my being. I realized that I needed to be set free. However, deep down there are disorders which are firmly rooted and seem to be a fundamental part of my identity. These need to be rooted out and purified. Our Father in Heaven continues to prune me and remove anything that is not of God but this is never a comfortable process. God is performing another spiritual root canal.

Monsignor Esseff says that I am Jesus. A meditation comes to mind. The baby Jesus has been born in my heart. The angels gather round and sing praises saying "Glory to God in the Highest!" Shepherds come and the wise men bringing gold and frankincense and myrrh. The source of this joyful celebration is within me. I will rein with Jesus. I will worship with Jesus. I will die with Jesus. I am Jesus.

Sarah's jubilee year of FAITH.

starting my YOF just a few years late

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!!

Since my entrance into the Church on Easter Vigil 2011, I have felt called to dedicate some liturgical years to a particular theme--kind of like a personal jubilee year inspired by the Holy Spirit. Since last year was the Jubilee Year of Mercy, it made sense to stick with Mercy, but in the past I've dedicated years to Joy and Love. This year I feel called unmistakably to a year of FAITH. This ties in nicely with my New Year's resolution.

God wants all of us to experience the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, no matter where we are or what the situation. I have said in the past, "No factory worker has zeal for his work." However, that assertion is not only condescending but also untrue. In the spiritual life as well, we can all have zeal and the Fruits of the Spirit no matter what the circumstances, but Woundedness and Sinfulness prevent us from fully receiving this grace. God will move us readily along the path of healing and conversion if we allow it. I must know the promises of God, believe them, and expect to receive what He has promised. No matter what.

I will no longer say, Because You have allowed me to end up in this situation, it is impossible that…

…I can have peace.
…I can have joy.

I will no longer say, So long as I remain in this place, it is impossible that…

…I can have patience.
…I can have joy.
…I can be healed.

I will no longer be the petulant child of God, because nothing is impossible for Him.

I will be assured that God's hands are not tied by my weakness or even my doubts. God's hands are tied by my stubbornness and hardness of heart and my unwillingness to act in faith at all times, even when I don't feel like I believe.

By His grace…

…I will be joyful always.
…I will pray continually.
…I will give thanks in all circumstances.

Faith is as simple as saying, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief."

7QT: Lessons learned in 2016

I pray that everyone has had a peaceful conclusion to the 2016 calendar year and that God blesses you and your families throughout the year to come. Happy New Year!

Below I share some lessons learned throughout 2016.

--- 1 ---

In January of 2016, I took an assertiveness training at work during which I learned that assertiveness is not synonymous with aggression but rather consists of communicating in a way that is honest, direct and effective so that others know what I think (ideally) without feeling threatened or manipulated. I also learned the importance of 1.) apologizing when warranted and 2.) not apologizing when unwarranted. I've tended toward over-apologizing which, in addition to making me come across as weak and overly submissive, can make a genuine apology seem insincere. Since this training, I have noticed that communicating assertively is far less stressful than my usual non-assertiveness.

--- 2 ---

Some of us have an unrealistically negative view of ourselves. Any unrealistic view is unhealthy and a sort of pride that is disguised by false humility. Assertiveness training also showed me the importance of nurturing our self-confidence by spending enough time in company and in situations where our positive qualities will be recognized and affirmed. This is different from fishing for compliments and patting ourselves on the backs, and also means that we need to accept genuine compliments when they come our way. Sometimes we discourage others from providing this support, because we reject their appreciation. Not only is this no help to me, but it can even be harmful to the self-esteem of the one offering the compliment.

--- 3 ---

In order to support others in this way, we must notice and frequently communicate our appreciation of their positive qualities in a way that is genuine and not at all manipulative, in other words, in a way that is disinterested. When we notice something good about another person or his/her behavior it is ok, even commendable, to tell them. Here is a tip: Don't give flowery but meaningless compliments like "You are every lovely word I could possibly think of." The more specific the better. For example, last month I gave an oral presentation and a friend said, "I like how you incorporated humor into your presentation by adding that joke." This was a compliment that I could understand and internalize.

--- 4 ---

Franciscan Postulants with fully professed Sisters

During 2016, I also made discernment visits to four different religious communities. (Wow, that's WAY more than I realized!) I learned more about the progression into religious life: After a period of discernment, if a woman is invited to apply for entrance into the community and is accepted, she will often move in with the community for a period called Aspirancy, which typically lasts on the order of months. During this time the woman has not officially entered the community and typically wears her street clothes. (At the end of each period, both her and the community decide if she will continue.) Assuming she continues, she will enter into Postulancy, during which she is given a frumpy outfit to wear and will conform to the lifestyle of the community for at least one year. Upon passing into the Novitiate, she will begin wearing the full habit and will begin formation in earnest. This typically lasts two years. For a woman to continue after Novitiate, she will make temporary vows with the community. She will live as a temporarily professed member of the community for several years before making her final, perpetual vows. The whole process generally takes about eight years, which provides plenty of time for further discernment.

--- 5 ---

A happy stomach is a stomach filled with acid.

In February, I was convinced that I had a stomach ulcer. During my work trip to St. Augustine, I started feeling horrible, burning pain after eating. Since I couldn't go to the doctor, I started taking proton pump inhibitors and the pain went away even after I finished the full course. Unfortunately, pain started coming back in the summer so I finally got checked out. The doctor discovered that I had low stomach acid. What I learned is that low stomach acid results in basically the same systems as high stomach acid/ulcer/GERD. Sometimes people treat the symptoms with antacids and actually make the problem worse because their issue is low stomach acid. After taking acid supplements for several weeks the problem seems to have worked itself out.

--- 6 ---

It is possible to live a fairly normal life on a highly restricted diet!! Of course, no two persons' dietary restrictions are exactly alike, but mom has Type 2 Diabetes and has settled on a program that eliminates grains, soy and dairy and allows only one serving of fruit early in the day, among other things (e.g. no white potatoes). She also has to avoid pork and can only eat beef twice per week. And of course, she has been limited to non-glycemic sweeteners, primarily stevia, monk fruit, chicory root and erythritol. So far we've found the following fantastic (and often expensive) products, some with slight cheats (e.g. a bit of rice or potato starch). These are particularly helpful at times when we need to grab a quick meal or will be in a situation when others are snacking on products that mom can't have. I may revisit this list and add to it as we identify new lifesaver products.

SO Delicious No Sugar Added Coconut Milk Ice Cream
Simple Mills Almond Flour Crackers 
Julian Bakery Paleo Wraps (coconut) 
Lisanatti Foods Almond Jalapeno Jack Vegan Cheese--minor cheat, contains milk protein
Follow Your Heart Smoked Gouda Style
Terra Taro Chips
The Chia Co Vanilla Bean Chia Pod
SO Delicious Coconut "Yogurt"
Wellshire Farms Sugar Free Paleo Turkey Bacon
Applegate Natural Smoked Turkey Breast (and other sugar free deli meats)
Applegate The Great Organic Turkey Hot Dog 
EPIC Chicken Bites (jerky)
Polar Seltzer (consistently free of sweeteners)
Dang Foods Onion Chips
Coconut Secret Raw Coconut Aminos (soy sauce substitute) 
Trader Joe's Parsnip Chips

Lilly's Dark Chocolate Stevia Sweetened Baking Chips

--- 7 ---

We've also found lots of fantastic recipes, many of which we used for our yuppified "traditional" Thanksgiving dinner, sometimes with slight modifications. We also decided to brine the turkey, which did make it more juicy.

Coconut Flour Orange Cranberry Bread -- sub coconut oil for ghee and stevia for honey

Almond Flour Blueberry Muffins -- sub stevia for honey

Paleo Pumpkin Muffins -- mixed the pecans into batter, adjusted ingredient ratios, sub stevia for honey

Almond Feta Cheese -- sans herb oil

Kalamata Olive Tapenade

Vegan Paleo Green Bean Casserole -- sans nutritional yeast

Parsnip Turnip Puree -- sub olive oil for ghee

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Squash -- with fruit juice sweetened cranberries, sub olive oil for butter and tapioca flour (in half amount) for all-purpose flour

Grain Free Homestyle Stuffing -- with raisins

Vegan Spinach Artichoke Dip -- see cheese recipe below

Melty Stretchy Vegan Mozzarella --sans nutritional yeast, sub blanched almonds for cashews

Paleo Apple Pie with Grain Free Crust -- sub stevia for honey, either pre-cook filling or bake for much longer than stated in recipe

Apple Pie Filling and Streusel Topping -- next time I'll try this filling with the above crust

Dairy Free Pumpkin Pie Mousse -- with WAY less stevia than called for in recipe

Sugar Free Chocolate Nut Butter Candies -- with almond instead of peanut butter

Lemon Coconut Candy -- subbed more lemon in place of lime, serve at room temperature

We've also made three sauces for our zucchini and squash noodles, which we froze in large ice cube trays.

Spinach Basil Pesto -- sans Parmesan cheese

Nightshade Free Red Sauce -- sans nutritional yeast, sweetened with tiny amount of stevia

Paleo No Peanut Sauce -- sweetened with tiny amount of stevia

And for a New Year's Eve snack I just made:

Dairy Free French Onion Dip -- sans bacon, sub dill for rosemary, see vegan mayonnaise recipe below
Homemade Vegan Mayonnaise -- sans mustard and sweetened with two drops of stevia

For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain't the Lyceum!

7QT: Learning Scripture Through Song

In which I make some more pilgrimages, do some other Catholic things and finally start learning some Bible verses. Woot!

--- 1 ---

Our Lady of La Leche y Buen Parto (Milk and Happy Delivery)

As mentioned in a previous post, I went to Florida for another work trip in February. This time we met in St. Augustine. I was super excited to find out that this is supposedly America's first parish and the site where the Spaniards landed and celebrated the first Mass. On this site, called Nombre de Dios, is also the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche which houses a statue depicting Mary breast feeding the baby Jesus. A coworker visited the shrine with me and I prayed for some friends who are trying to conceive. Later before my flight I took a walk back to visit the museum where I met a man from Vermont (small world!) who told me all about Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the founder of St. Augustine, and showed me the man's coffin which, admittedly, looked pretty darn cool.

I arrived in St. Augustine on Tuesday night just before Ash Wednesday so I went to Mass at the Cathedral Basilica which was easily within walking distance. The next morning I went to Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and remembered to pass through the Holy Door for the Jubilee Year of Mercy. As usual, I stayed in the pew to pray for a while before leaving. An older gentleman stopped on his way out to ask if he could pray for my intention. Explaining that he is a Carmelite he took out what was the largest brown scapular I've ever seen and had me hold one end in my lap while he held the other end against the back of my shoulder. Then he prayed a wonderfully beautiful prayer and we chatted for a while. I think he said his name is Richard and that he lives on a horse farm. He told me that all of the bones in his ankle are shattered and that doctors tried to put it back together with screws but they pulled out and so the doctor wants to amputate--so pray for Richard's ankle! Also pray for the young street musician named Brandon who spent a coffee break telling me his story.

--- 2 ---

In May, mom and I went with Carl and Jeremy to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in DC. We also attended the Vigil Mass the evening before, celebrated by Cardinal Sarah (nice name!) from Guinea. Mom, who is not Catholic, decided to come through the communion line with arms crossed to receive a blessing from the Cardinal. When she got to the front, the Cardinal stood holding the Eucharist and looking confused until the man holding the Communion-plate whispered into his ear and then he gave her a blessing. I guess it's not a universal sign! But she did finally get the blessing and the next day there was a book singing for God or Nothing and I got to speak with the Cardinal. Actually I just said "Thank you, I'll pray for you!" and he said, "Yes, please pray for me." Still, I was excited.

--- 3 ---

I showed some of the Catholic wonders of Santa Fe, NM in a different post entitled 7QT: A Santa Fe Pilgrimage, but managed to see some new things during a work trip this summer. This time I visited what is suppose to be the oldest church in the country, San Miguel. Unfortunately I did not get to attend a Gregorian Chant Mass with Schola which would have been AWESOME! Instead I attended Church at the Basilica which, I discovered, has Stations of the Cross by Gib Singleton, the man who designed the corpus for St. John Paul II's crosier.

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

--- 4 ---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtubJlxRU2Y

At the end of August, mom and I went with Carl to see a DC Padres game at the Bowie Baysox Stadium. The Padres is a team of priests and seminarians that plays several games each summer against local high schools. The Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara, our local blue nuns, were there to cheer them on. It was a good time even though mom and I were both on special diets--no hot dogs for us!

--- 5 ---

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc9pEb-Ej7U

Mom and I have been memorizing scripture verses through songs and we have three sources that have been so unbelievably helpful that I'll post one from each for the last three Quick Takes. The first is Seeds Family Worship, a band that has a bunch of videos with words on Youtube and has several albums that can be purchased from their website.

"Cast your cares on the Lord, and He will sustain you. He will never let the righteous fall." Psalm 55:22

--- 6 ---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emJd0ZFZz5A

The second is a band called The Rizers (short for Memorizers) that also has a bunch of videos on Youtube and a few albums that can be purchased on their website.

"Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always and pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:15-18

--- 7 ---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A0hdAkybVA

Shannon Linville also has a bunch of videos on Youtube. Her style is targeted toward smaller children, but it's still a great way to learn scripture.

"A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Proverbs 15:1

For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain't the Lyceum!