What are some practices/spiritual practices that will make me a better person or help me to grow closer to the Lord?

Brainstorming:

fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays as Mother Mary requested in her Medjugorje messages** reading scripture more often – more prayerfully – meditating upon it**doing more acts of kindness for others**spending more time in adoration or at daily mass**praying the rosary as a family/reading bible stories together**reading a good spiritual book**eating more simply – trying dishes popular in less affluent countries**pinching pennies at the store, and putting the savings in the poor box**visiting my elderly grandmother more often**working on getting my children (and myself) to pick up after themselves better so that our home may be more serene

I think I’m going to type up a checklist for myself and do at least one of these practices a day.  Then, hopefully & prayerfully, I will be a better servant of God after these 40 days have passed!

What are your plans for lent?  I’d love to hear your ideas!

We started our Sunday morning with the Latin Mass at Old St. Patrick’s Church on Camp Street.  The church is so beautiful.  I remember so many Sundays we spent there years ago – all the prayers offered and candles lit.  It felt like HOME!Then we went to meet our family at the hotel in the downtown business district.   The hotel’s facade/shell is an old brick (historic) business.  The inside is totally modernized – pretty cool.After meeting up with everyone, we went to a locally famous restaurant, “Mulates.”  We had great fun at our table for twelve.  There was good cajun music (harmonica, acordian, washboard…), good food (gumbo, and alligator and shrimp po boy sandwiches), and good company!  Warning:  even the lunch menu is pricey!Next, we saw our family “superstars” off, as they climbed atop horses to ride in the Bacchus parade. (I don’t picture family and friends without their consent).  Then we went back to the hotel to rest and watch other family members get all decked out for the fancy ball they were going to attend.  They looked stunning!

After taking their pictures and seeing them safely off, we went down to the street to meet the big parade.  Here, you see my son all dressed up in Mardi Gras apparel awaiting the action.  You’ll see Will Farrel (who played “Elf”) on the King’s float.  The man on the horse in Roman attire is my father- in- law (I think). These guys lead the parade!

One of our favorite things besides catching beads and stuffed animals from the floats were the confetti trucks that would periodically spray the crowds with purple, green and gold bits of paper!The parade ended around 11:30 p.m.  Exhausted we walked back to the hotel with our bag of treasures.  I slept in a “full”-size bed sandwiched between my two youngest children.    There were lots of elbows and knees!  My husband camped out on the floor. 

Waking up exhausted at 8:30a.m., I needed coffee – strong coffee!  The best place to get that in New Orleans is Cafe’ Dumonde.  We sat outside overlooking the Mighty Mississippi River, partaking in powdered beignets (square fried donut batter) and a coffee and chicory beverage with steamed milk.  Yum!
After breakfast, we packed up and headed home.  We thoroughly enjoyed our 24 hour New Orleans – stuff in as much as you can  – trip.  Now we’re headed home to empty our over night bags and take a nap!

If I didn’t have my faith (and I’m not saying that people suffering from addictions don’t have faith), I’d drink too!  This life is tough – really tough – sometimes nearly unbearable!  I think that one of the reasons why AA and NA work is the faith component to the program – that and the support of others struggling with the same issues.

Did you know that St. Maximillian Kolbe is the patron of those suffering from addictions?  He was a priest who got sent to the Nazi concentration camps.  On one occasion, the Nazi guards rounded up a group of men.  Several were going to be killed as retribution for a prison escapee – to make a statement.  One of the men chosen to die was a young father.  Maximillian Kolbe, stepped forward and asked the guard if he could take the young father’s place.  His request was granted, and the father’s life was spared.

Kolbe was sentenced to solitary confinement and starvation.  After two weeks, perhaps because his body was accustomed to fasting, Kolbe was still not dead, so a prison guard gave him an injection of carbolic acid to “finish him off.”   Clearly, he was a courageous and devout man.  We can ask his prayers for ourselves, or those we love suffering from addictions!  St. Maximillian Kolbe, pray for us!

There was something morally redeeming about the Grammy’s this year, however.  The host, rapper LL Cool J, when speaking about Whitney Houston’s death, said that he couldn’t think of anything more appropriate to the moment than to ask everyone to bow their heads in a moment of silent PRAYER.  He didn’t ask for a moment of silence – but a moment  of silent PRAYER.  It was awesome, as the cameras panned the audience to see most in attendance with their heads bowed.

“My Jesus, fill my heart with so much love that one day it will break just to be with you.  My Jesus, you know I have placed you as a seal on my heart.  Remain there always.”  St.Bernadette

“Intense love does not measure…it just gives.”  Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta

“Real love is demanding.  I would fail in my mission if I did not tell you so.  Love demands a personal commitment to the will of God.”  Pope John Paul II

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”  St. Augustine

“The things that we love tell us what we are.”  St. Thomas Aquinas

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”  Bl. Mother Theresa

“Spread love everywhere you go – first of all in your own home. Give love to your children, to your wife, or husband, to a next door neighbor. Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.”  Mother Theresa

“We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.  If we love things, we become a thing.  If we love nothing, we become nothing.  Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather is means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation.  This means we are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others.”  St. Clare of Assisi

Gospel Mk 1:40-45

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched him, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning the him sternly, he dismissed him at once.

He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

Two things really strike me when I read this account of the man with leprosy being healed by Jesus .  First, “lepers” were considered totally untouchable – unclean.  The facts that they were referred to as lepers instead of people with leprosy infers that distance – that looking down upon.  Jesus did the unthinkable in touching this man.  It was just one of the many demonstrations of Jesus being compassionate and counter cultural.   Today, we are called to be Christ’s light to our world by being compassionate and counter cultural.  Following Christ definitely means being different – going against the grain.  May God grant us the courage to do this in all circumstances.

Secondly, I love how Mark’s gospel emphasizes Jesus’ humanity.  We know that Jesus was fully divine and fully human.  He was tempted, but was completely without sin.  Repeatedly, Mark mentions how Jesus did not want the “stardom” that He was receiving because of the miracles He could perform.  Over the course of a few chapters in this gospel, He tries repeatedly to retreat to a deserted place – perhaps to pray, to rest, to get away from the crowds – but they kept finding Him.  I can so relate to Jesus’ need to be alone – away from the bedlam.  Poor Jesus just couldn’t seem to find any solitude during those three action packed years of His ministry.  I can’t help but wonder where all those people were (who he healed and helped) when it came time for Him to stand before Pontius Pilate.

I don’t know about you, but I personally know so many people in need of physical, emotional and spiritual healing right now.  The prayer list can sometimes be overwhelming.  Today, let us entrust all those we love, in need of healing, to the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes:

Heavenly Father, through the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes,  we entrust to you all those on our prayer lists who are in need of healing.  Grant them the kind of healing most beneficial to their bodies, minds and most importantly, their souls.  We trust your words Lord, when you said, “Ask and you shall receive.”  We believe that You hear and answer all of our prayers according to Your Fatherly wisdom and love. We place our suffering family members and friends in Your hands.  Please grant them strength, healing and peace.  Amen.

Here’s a beautiful picture of Bernadette’s incorrupt body, followed by a childhood picture of her.  Finally, a picture of the grotto where the apparitions took place in Lourdes