Something's Coming....

So it's late (well late for me)....

Way past my bed time (2 hours).......

And as any good woman would do, this weekend is my 'parish debut' (I'm introducing myself and inviting people to get involved with our Faith Formation programs at all 6 of our Masses), and I'm trying on dresses...

Dresses, as in plural, dresses.

Because I launch the weekend off with our New Parishioner social tomorrownight, and sister's gotta look her best...

And as I'm trying on dresses, looking at my reflection, I'm transported to this.....


No, I'm not wearing white...

It will wash me out. And most likely there won't be a dance off...

Which I'm bummed about, because I'm sure we have a lot of good dancers...

But who knows...


Something could be coming...
(and thank goodness I don't have a brother to kill the 'love of my life' that I just may meet at the social, because that would just be plain tragic).

It's going to be a long weekend...

And my mind goes crazy after 11pm...

So I'm going to bed now.

Goodnight.

Celebrating the Sabbath:The Sunday Southern Seven

(Hi Friends! Hope y'all had a great weekend!)

Good Sabbath Everyone!

It's been awhile since I've posted one of these. It's hard to believe January is half-way through, hold on to the seat of your pants!!!! The year's just getting started!

This week, I wanted to share with you 7 life changing moments that occurred within the past 7 days: (and no for your curious little minds, I did not meet anyone).

1. I am truly blessed to have some very wonderful coworkers. In fact, one of which is always passing on information he and his wife come upon, shared with me the 8 questions for Making A New Year's Resolution that Lasts. It's written by Jeff Cavins and is flippin' wonderful. Seriously.

2. In diligently following my New Year's resolutions, I lay in bed the other night and came to this conclusion, "From this moment on, my life can never look the same." I have that weird intense athletic mind at times, where it's all or nothing (don't get me wrong, if I mess up, I'm not going to quit) BUT as my dear Spiritual Director has said, if we want to follow Christ, we have to be serious about taking up our crosses and following Him. So that's what I'm doing. And if you could say some prayers for some extra grace I would be most appreciative.

(Photo Courtesy of ME a St. Peter's Basilica in Roma)

3. Through my radical perspective of DO or DIE, I have also been reminded that I cannot do any of this without begging God for the grace to guide me in accomplishing my goals. It's humbling and refreshing to have to turn to HIM for basically everything. And yet funny and annoying at times, because it seems one moment I'm turning to Him for everything and the next I'm freaking out to then be reminded if I ask for grace, He'll give it to me... He's a good Papa and I'm so grateful for that.

(Photo from ME at Basilica of St. Catherine & Dominic in Sienna, Italy)

4. I just finished reading this book. It was recommended to me by a dear friend about a year ago, when he actually gave me the book to read within the near future.... Finally after a conversation with another friend this morning (ironically his sister), I read it front to back in a matter of hours. It's written by a Protestant who talks about fasting and how important it is in the Christian life (as well as references other religions who uphold fasts and how God works in their lives). Anyways, I found it to be a great read that will hopefully transform your heart and mind and see the importance and awesomeness of fasting. (NOTE: if you are Catholic and reading it, take a large Catholic grain of salt to some of the things he says.)

(Photo from here)

5. This week I received 2 packages from sweet friends. Have I ever told you how lucky I am to have the friends I do? Seriously. They are truly remarkable people, and I praise the LORD for the opportunity to know and love them! They are simple reminders of love, peace and all the good stuff God has always intended us to share in and know. To K & A; I love you gals and will be calling you soon to verbally thank you for the treasures you have sent to me!

(Some friends from my SPRI YAM Bible Study)

6. What would a post be without talking about my family whom I love and miss dearly??? First Praise be to God for the internet and phones that send & receive pictures!! As I have said before, I am blessed to have 2 sweetly beautiful nieces and 2 dashingly handsome nephews. These 4 little people are constant reminders of the love God has for each of us, as well as the precious gift life is. My Sister and B.I.L. have done such a great job with raising such good little people with hearts of gold who call their Auntie to sing her the newest song they've learned, talk to her about the weather (as all good Mid-Westerner's do), and just overflow their little hearts of love through their giggles, smiles, and funny little jokes....(insert 2 minutes conversation with my 4 year old nephew in which we went back and forth saying.."what did you say before that"). Life is so stinkin' precious, and I am honored to witness to the graces their little hearts pour forth in the world. What a privilege!

7. Rich Mullins. My college Newman Center chaplain, boss, and friend, loved this Christian music artist, who tragically died in a car accident in 1997. I never really understood why my Chaplain thought he was so great. I mean he wrote 'Awesome God' and had some other good tunes, but it just never clicked until this weekend. I was speaking with another coworker about evangelization and he shared with me how much he LOVED Rich Mullins. 'Hold the Phone' I thought! And then proceeded to ask him, 'why did Catholic men his age love Rich Mullins?' I mean I knew he went through RCIA right before he died and had a great devotion to St. Francis of Assisi (HOLLA--St. Frankie-A!!!) and was a genuinely neat guy, but I just didn't get it. His response 2 DVD's. My response now: Rich Mullins was far ahead of his time in evangelizing Christians and calling them to a life of Holiness and just frankly blows my mind. It's so weird when questions you've never really voiced find an answer and all starts to become clear and the pieces fall together. AHH!!! Rock On'! But don't you worry, I'll be writing about my findings another time.



So that's my week. I pray you all had a beautiful week and will pray that God will bless you abundantly this week. If you wouldn't mind keeping me and a specific intention of mine in prayer, I would be most appreciative. Don't you just love being part of the Body of Christ and lifting each other up? It feels so early Christian!!!!

Much Much Love!
Rach

Surely His Goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life....

(Photo courtesy of HERE)

Hi Friends.

It's been awhile. Work's been good. Resolutions are going well.

God is indeed Good.

It's funny but for the past couple weeks or so a line from Psalm 23 has been stuck in my head, actually I've been quoting that Psalm a lot at work lately, and the conversation has nothing to do with death.

You see, this Psalm and I haven't always gotten along. It's Psalm 23, the death Psalm. It's on the back of everyone's funeral cards, and so I guess because I've experienced death a lot; I've always connected this Psalm with death. That is until 2 years ago.

Without going into too much detail, because this in itself could be another series of posts a little over 2 years ago, I prayed and made a decision to leave my job after a series of unfortunate events to which I came upon in the operation of the company.

I had no job lined up, but I knew God was asking me to take a leap of Faith, and frankly I mentally and emotionally could not handle working at 'the job' any longer. So I turned in my two-weeks notice and a day later was asked not to complete my notice and pack my things and be on my merry way. Praise be to God that very next day was the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and I basked in the graces of that Solemnity and prayed in a special way for Mary's guidance in trusting God as she so beautifully exemplified.

I like to refer to his time of my life as my quarter-life sabbatical. Because it was during this time I remembered how to live, love, be loved, and most importantly to know who I was in the eyes of God. And that's where Psalm 23 comes into the picture.

I do not know how it happened, and most likely I was playing Bible roulette during prayer time, but I came across this Psalm and started to read it and devour it like I had never done before.

You see my name 'Rachel' is Hebrew and means 'like a lamb' so referring to God as a Shepherd has always been one of my favorite meditations.

In fact the first line of the Psalm proclaims"The LORD is my shepherd there is nothing I shall want" resounded through my heart during that time. NOTHING I SHALL WANT. NOTHING. WHY NOTHING? Because HE has and will provide me with everything I need. I just need to TRUST in Him.

(Waldkirchen-Bavaria)

The next lines go on to say:

² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters,
³ He refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for His name’s sake.

Prior to my leaving, I had been craving rest. Not just like 'ooo yay, an extra hour of sleep' type of rest, but rest in the sense of peace. You know, that underlying peace in living life abundantly? The peace of knowing you are living and being and not just doing. That kind of rest. And as I meditated more it came to me...I was resting. Here in the midst of my 'sabbatical' I was being refreshed by prayer, readings and the abundance of the generosity of my family and friends. And I got there because He led me. He led me out of a bad situation for the sake of HIS name. Truth.

⁴ Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

God also allowed me the time to deal with a lot of stuff that I had experienced throughout my life at this point. And you know what, some of it was frankly painful and scary! But HE never left my side because the shepherd guided His little lamb with His rod and staff to comfort me and to know He was there guiding me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

And from there, HE set a path for me, and continues to prepare me, for...

^{(Tivoli Gardens, Italy)}

⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

And that's where I am today. Don't get me wrong things aren't perfect. But God has led me here, and has blessed me abundantly. My cup is overflowing because of His goodness. Because He is the Good Shepherd who has guided His little lamb along the path and has shown her that if she depends on Him, goodness and love will follow her all the days of her life. So that one day, she will dwell in the house of the LORD forevermore! Amen. AMEN!


PS- A HUGE Congrats to my sweet little 4 mo. old niece who rolled over for the first time under the influence of Florence & The Machines "The Dog Days Are Over"... Baby Princess 'E' you make your Auntie very proud!

In the year of grace 2012: Whipping it into shape!

Merry Christmas!
(Yes it's still Christmas season!)

Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe it's 2012, but it is. A friend and I were discussing the many 'obstacles' of 2011 and he came to the conclusion that 2012 will be the year of grace. Amen. Amen!

In fact, I've made the resolution to get my schtuff together this year. It just feels for the past year I've just been running through life at a pace and stride that just got me by. So this year, through the grace of God I am getting my Spiritual health in balance by devoting more time to prayer and reading, Physical health in balance by exercising and food journaling (I joined my fitness pal, and after 12 hours, I love it), and more disciplined in my spending budget. The beauty of this is that when I'm disciplined in my Spiritual life, I become more disciplined in my Physical life, and all else falls into place, thanks be to God!

As I was sitting drinking my coffee this morning I opened up my Bible for some prayer to nourish my soul and this is what I came upon: (Matthew 6:22-34)

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,[a] your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy,[b] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[c]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Yeah, I know.

God never ceases to blow my mind and flood my heart with love.


So this is what I have decided. In the year of grace 2012, I'm striving to be a wildflower. Totally and actively dependent upon God-who will guide and provide me with the grace and virtue I need to bask in the splendor of the dignity and beauty He has created.