Tour of Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse WI

This is the latest site for a Friary of the Franciscans of the Immaculate.

A new blog to enjoy

My friend Julie has a blog DRVC Catholic which highlights some of the beautiful churches on Long Island. Take a look at Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Southampton.

Are you going to receive the Portiuncula Indulgence today?

Here is an image of St. Francis' original Portiuncula, or Little Portion which he restored by hand in response to Our Lord telling him to "rebuild my church".

I am going to visit my favorite church in the world, Our Lady of Guadalupe Friary in Griswold, CT. Since it is a Friary and even has a model of a Portiuncula, we will get the Indulgence.

How wonderfully generous Our Lord is, this was my plan to stop there on the way to Morning Star Camp. I am bringing six young ladies with me to share the experience!

from Mary Vitamin email:

The Portiuncula Indulgence refers to the plenary indulgence originally granted by Pope Honorious III at the request of St. Francis to those who visit the chapel of Our Lady of the Angels in Assisi on August 2nd. This chapel was dear to the heart of Holy Father Saint Francis. (The original small chapel is now enshrined in a large basilica.) The indulgence has been extended to Franciscan churches the world over.
(See the Catholic Encyclopedia for further reading.)

Father Marion Habig, OFM, explains the history of the Portiuncula indulgence:
“A special impulse led St. Francis on a certain night to go to the chapel. There he saw our Lord and His holy Mother surrounded by a great host of angels. Filled with astonishment and reverence, the saint prostrated himself upon the ground and adored the Divine majesty. Then he heard the voice of our Lord urging him with ineffable tenderness to ask some special favor. Nothing was so near to the heart of Francis as the salvation of souls, and so, after a few moments of reflection, he asked for the grace of a full pardon for all who, being contrite and having confessed their sins, would visit this little sanctuary. Mary cast herself upon her knees before her Divine Son, and repeated the petition of her faithful servant.”
The Franciscan Book of Saints (Franciscan Herald Press:1979), 570.

Modest Bridal Gowns: what a concept!

Thank heavens someone is addressing the issue of immodest bridal gowns!!
It seems that, no matter the season, all bridal gowns are strapless affairs which have no place in church. Perhaps it's because fewer couples are marrying in church or synagogue. But, there is a trend, however small for bridal gowns with a sense of mystery. . .and decency.
"'Customers will say, 'I'm having a religious wedding, what can you do to these dresses to fit my standards?' -- usually arms covered, neckline covered, no cleavage, very little skin," Sarra said.
Much of the country has seen an increase in conservative branches of mainstream religions.
The Camille La Vie store at Palisades Center in West Nyack, N.Y., tends to get more Orthodox Jewish brides, while the California stores have many Islamic customers, and an Arizona shop gets requests from Mormon customers.
These brides, Sarra said, don't want plain when they ask for "modest." "They still want the look that's hot. That's why we offer more options to add a sleeve, add a neckline," she said. "

I'm embarrassed that no one mentioned Catholic brides, the only link I could find was for Mormons! What's wrong with Catholic brides? We have Our Lady as a role model, and we are not interested in modest bridal gowns? Just look at how modest Our Lady is and use that as a guide. Here are some more guidelines from EWTN on how a Catholic bride should dress.
Read the entire story here.
HTJewish World Review

High Mass with Bishop Murphy in Uniondale, NY

Today Fr. James Pereda MDiv. received Papal Honors and was elevated to Monsignor. He has been the celebrant of the Indult Mass for years, serves on the Diocesan Marriage Tribunal and as chaplain to the Nursing Home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Queens. So, it was fitting that he celebrate the Solemn High Mass, the Missa XVII Adventus et Quadragesimae, with ten altar boys, the blended voices from St. Anthony's High School Gregorian Schola, and over three hundred attendees, the most prominent being Bishop Murphy himself.

Patrick of Creative Minority Report was there and has posted on it here.The Hymns which the Schola (which included my daughter Gabbi) were:
Attende Domine
Adoramus Te Christe
Jesu Salvator Mundi
Veni Jesu
Veni Creator Spiritus
Adoro Te Devote
Ave Verum Corpus
Ave Maria Caelorum
Lift High the Cross
(Click on the above links to listen to each hymn)
Even though I was chasing Christina through the vestibule, it was Heaven on earth, and I was so proud of the role which homeschoolers had played in all this. The altar boys were homeschooled, so was part of the schola, and most of the young children present. We have been preserving Tradition in our Domestic Churches, quietly, waiting for a day like this to show our bishop our love for the Traditonal Mass and it's Heavenly hymnody. This image of people hiding tradition away in their homes for a time of restoring the Church reminded me of the beautiful children's book, "The Miracle of St. Nicholas" where a Russian village, when the Communists shut down their church of St. Nicholas, hid the treasures of the Church, icon, vestments, altar cloth, candlesticks and the priest himself under floorboards in their simple homes until they were free one Christmas Eve to celebrate their beautiful Mass again, led by a little child too young to remember Mass in a church. Like that Russian village, we too have been waiting 40 years to hear the sweet strains of the High Mass in our village church.

This was Bishop Murhpy's first pastoral visit to the Latin Mass Community, but he assured us it wouldn't be his last. He will confer the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Extradordinary Form on June 15, 2008 in St. Agnes Cathedral.

The Holiest Holy Hour

The Holiest Holy Hours are when I bring Christina.
Is it because she inspires me by her love of Our Sacramental Lord?
Weeellll . . . sometimes, but, more often, it's because she is busy wreaking havoc, and giving her mother precious opportunities to learn humility. Not that I volunteer for them, I avoid being embarrassed, and disturbing the prayer of others as best as I can. I assume, for example, that since where is a crying room, we are covered. This works, if we are alone, but tonight it filled up with devout elderly people, for whom Christina feels compelled to put on:
The naughty show.
Let me smile angelically into this lady's eyes, so I can sidle close enough to grab her hymnal. (She graciously smiled and struggled to recover it).

Let me run circles around the room, laughing (why didn't she do this when the room was empty?)

Let me get busy in my diaper( oops, Mommy left the diaper bag five blocks down the street!)

Let me play hide-and-seek, ducking under Mommy's long skirt, and keep checking back to see if the crowd is watching!

Let me chew on my mother's rosary beads, breaking them in half, and spitting them out on the carpet, till she recognizes the sound, and takes them away from me.

At the end of this hour of torture, er, prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, I was inspired that a blessing with Padre Pio's glove would provide her with enough grace to help overcome her naughtiness, I asked her sister Gabbi to wheel her in her stroller towards the front of the Church, while I waited on line for confession. I watched lovingly from afar, praying for them both with tears of joy springing to my eyes.
What I didn't notice from that distance was that: Christina pushed the wheelchair of the infirm lady in front of her, tried to kick the priest offering the relic for veneration, and laid hold of the skirt of a hapless passerby. All this while restrained in a stroller, so she couldn't race up onto the altar.
My dear Gabbi was getting a lesson in humility as well!

God is such a loving Father, to teach me that it's not important to look holy at Holy Hour.
It's important to be holy at Holy Hour, offering up these humiliations in the spirit if the Little Flower, as gifts for my precious Jesus hidden in the Blessed Sacrament. Especially when you are on your last thread of patience, hair askew, scapular flying, forehead beaded with perspiration, and in desperate need of that confession you are in line for.
That's when the graces really flow.
That's the secret of special motherhood.

Our Challenged Children at Mass

The editor of my diocesan newspaper, while discussing reverence at Mass in this column, shows an extraordinary amount of understanding that, in some cases, the children who are disruptive, have special needs, and that loving tolerance is called for. Bravo, Rick Hinshaw!
I was on my way home from my parents' home this evening, and had no time to drop the girls at home in time to make it to adoration, so I reluctantly brought Christina inside the Church, leaving her under Bella and Gabbi's care, while I entered the separate adoration chapel.

A few minutes later, remembering her past experiences of recognizing Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and knowing that adoration was about to end, I brought all three girls into the chapel. Within 5 minutes, Christina was becoming disruptive, but the leader of the Holy Hour, a saintly man, let me know that it was OK. The period of silent adoration had been anything but silent, thanks to Christina's pointing our the light, Jesus, and her sisters to those in the chapel. Finally, she decided to run up to the Monstrance, and, unwilling to risk what she might do next, I scooped her up, and sent Gabbi out of the chapel with her.
As we left for the evening, the dear gentleman said smiling tenderly, "is this the little baby you used to bring to adoration in her car seat?"
What a loving way for him to show his appreciation of my attempt to bring my special little daughter to the feet of Jesus!

Our Special Children in Church

Barbara Curtis at Mommy Life has three sons with Down syndrome. She has a post about how special needs sons have fit into various church communities. Here's my comment:

We often end up in the 'crying room' of our church, and never take a seat towards the front, as Christina, (age 5 with Down syndrome) is completely unpredicatable. She'll be sitting quietly, even participating (last Sunday I heard her singing "Alleluia") and suddenly become unmanageable, making us take her out to the vestibule. Gabbi usually volunteers to take her out, leaving me to pray, but I try to call them back to say the Our Father as a family. By and large, however, I must say that our parishoners' reactions have been welcoming. We get smiles and special handshakes at the Sign of Peace. The priest usually gives her a blessing at Communion time.

Perhaps this has something to do with a regular column I started in my parish newspaper, Eagle's Wings. I feature a different special needs parishoner each issue, with the hopes that this will give people something to say to them next time they run into them at Mass. Sometimes people want to reach out to someone with disabilities, but lack the words. I hope that knowing the person's name has helped to ease the process of starting a friendship.

I'll be posting these articles in the future.

First Holy Communions

In May, there are children celebrating their First Holy Communion all around us. During a recent trip to Manhattan, we visted the church, St. Agnes where Gabriela Maria received First Holy Communion in a Tridentine High Mass six years ago. It was heavenly. Here she is in the same pew.

This is the church of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

What your pew says about you

For a few laughs, check out Dave's post at the Cartoon Blog. Then, fess up in the comments about which pew are you. My guess is that the mommies will be back pew dwellers if there's no crying room.

The Sorrows behind the Joyful Mysteries: The Presentation of Our Lord

Isabella, Christina, and Gabriela pray at the Book of Life at the Shrine of the Holy Innocents, where their three brothers are memorialized in the Book of Life.You can register your miscarried children's names here.
As we grow older, some of us realize that just because we love God, it doesn't leave us free from pain and suffering in this life, in fact, the closer you get to our Lord, the more He seems to demand we detach from the world and want only Him. Padre Pio said it was like when a baby is weaning(from the breast), you give him a little sugar in the bottle, so we, in our spiritual infancy got a lot of good feelings from prayer. As you get closer to the Lord, He often seems to hide, to remind us that we love Him for His sake, not for the rush we get when we pray.

This period, the dark night of the soul, as St. John of the Cross called it, began for me when, as a new mother to 18 month old Gabby, I found myself pregnant again. I was thrilled. For 3 weeks, I was so happy, I even toured a birthing hospital. That night, I began to spot, and soon Patrick Simeon's 6 week old life was inevitably ebbing from me.

Why do they put miscarrying mothers in the labor and delivery area, where the joyful sounds of birth are everywhere? I saw a 16 year old mother who had just delivered a baby, and I wanted God to tell me, "why me, and not her losing the baby?" I wouldn't let my OB do a D and C until I myself checked the sonogram screen to see that the baby was detached, and gone. Then I let out a wail of the banshee, at the horrible news that my son had died on St. Patrick's Day. My aunt Teresa, a nurse at the Catholic hospital, kept trying to console me, but it was useless.
The next morning, I left the labor and delivery area empty armed and with a broken heart. I attended a wedding, though not the reception, as I was still weak. I saw an old friend, hugged her and just sobbed. My husband was just as devastated, but couldn't express his feelings the way I had. He was just afraid to conceive again and relive the pain.
On the Feast of the Presentation in 1996, I read this testimony at a special Mass of healing from miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion. We read our stories, named our babies on special certificates, and offered them on the altar of the sacrifice of the Holy Mass. It was very healing for me, and for those timid single girls who came alone, sitting in the shadows, mourning their abortions. I believe it was my offering to God of the suffering I endured at the loss of Patrick Simeon, for those post-abortive women which prepared my heart for a new baby.
Our next pregnancy was successful, four years later, Isabella Maria was born. Two miscarriages followed, and I began to feel cursed, like the barren Old Testament women, and never dreamed that, five years after Isabella's birth, that God would bless us with my little Christina, who has Down Syndrome. I refused all tests beside sonograms, fearing that they would cause a miscarriage, and she was healthy at birth, however, only my family and I knew about her Down Syndrome before she was born. How did we know? Let's just say that we had some advance knowledge from Someone who loves us infinitely. Wait until my article comes out in the May/June issue of Faith and Family to find out!!

Welcome those A and P Catholics to Your Parish this Christmas!

Barbara over at SFO mom, has a great post on welcoming our visitors to Mass on Christmas. I felt a bit put out last year, when I came as early as possible to Easter Sunday Mass, and ended up standing in the vestibule anyway. I swallowed my pride, however, because that's what it is, and tried to rejoice in the extra company.
By the end of Mass, my attitude had been transformed by the Eucharist into a truly charitable one. Remember what Our Lord said about there being more rejoicing in Heaven for the return of the 100th lost sheep than for the 99 already in the fold, and don't be the Prodigal Son's cranky older brother, like I was!
A Catholic Matriarch in My Domestic Church AKA Catholic Mom has some worthwhile comments on this topic as well.

Ten Things I am Thankful for This Week

1. I am thankful for anti-biotics. For all their bad press, after all is said and done, they are a miracle drug. Nothing else can take a miserable, feverish pre-schooler and make her bounce back to health in 48 hours.
2. I am thankful to live on the East End of Long Island, near the beach. I get to drive by such beautiful scenery every day, and the traffic's not so bad, now that the tourist season is over.
3. I am thankful that my parents are well, enjoying retirement, and live near enough for weekly visits to enrich the lives of my girls.
4. I am thankful that we own our home, and that I have been able to re-decorate it according to my own sense of style. I truly enjoyed the creative effort it took (and live through the slow renovations!)
5. I am thankful that, so far, our country has been spared a terrorist attack since 9/11. Let us continue to pray for this nation's security.
6. I am thankful for my gorgeous church, St. John the Evangelist, Center Moriches, brand new, but so traditional with all the 100 year old windows, statues, altar, altar rail, etc. from the old church beautifully re-furbished. The Adoration Chapel, adorned with ornately carved walnut paneling is my favorite spot to pray. I feel like a nun in a Rennaisance monastery when I go to adoration there.
7. I am thankful for a husband who asked me to homeschool while we were still on our honeymoon, and hasn't yet taken it back!!
8. My daughter Isabella is thankful for her family that takes care of her.
9. Isabella is thankful for living in a safe home where there are no hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes.
10. Best of all, Isabella is thankful for her Catholic faith which gives her the hope of Heaven.