Litany for the season of Lent

On the 5^th Sunday of Lent, the closing hymn at our parish was a beautiful 

Litany for the Season of Lent.

Let us pray at this holy season of Lent: 

Lord, have mercy                  

• We have not loved you with our whole heart and mind and strength:
• We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves:
• We have not forgiven others as we have been forgiven:
• We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ has served:
• We confess our unfaithfulness, our pride, hypocrisy, and impatience:
• We confess our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves:
• For our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work:
• For our negligence in prayer and worship:
• For our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty:
• For our lack of charity toward our neighbors, for prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us:
• For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us:
• Restore us, Lord, and let your anger depart from us:
• Accomplish in us the work of your creation:
• By the cross and passion of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord:
• And bring us with your saints to the joy of his resurrection:

[Adapted from The Book of Common Prayer]

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Note: I will be fasting from blogging during Holy Week. I'll remind you again, but please know that you can count on my daily prayers for each of you on this holiest of weeks!

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VIDEO: another Lenten favorite: What Wondrous Love is This

Why I love Catholic Schools #2

Michelle at her first teaching job, 

Lourdes Central Catholic in Nebraska City, 

with her good friend Sally. 

As we celebrate

National Catholic Schools Week 2013

I'm proud to say that this year two of our daughters are teaching Middle School at Catholic schools! 

After two wonderful years at Lourdes Central Catholic in Nebraska City, Michelle is at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School in Oklahoma City, and Anamaría is at Michelle's alma mater, All Saints Catholic School in Norman. 

I have always been surrounded by teachers, all levels, all types of schools -- mother, father, brother, husband, father and mother in-law -- and now daughters and daughter in law! 

Coach Michelle praying with her volleyball team

Lourdes Central Catholic

Seeing first hand the hard work, energy, time-commitment and faithfulness of these family members who are teachers, I've always had a special place in my prayers for all teachers. 

Often underpaid, those who have made teaching their vocation do so because they're answering a special call to serve, and to spread the Gospel through their lives. This goes doubly so for Catholic school teachers, who  work extremely hard, often get paid less, and still go the extra mile for their students.

What does a Catholic School teacher look like? 

well, here's Michelle on "Superhero day"

Catholic Schools Week 2013

I love Catholic schools because of their teachers! 

Two fun videos:

one minute video of a typical day at a Catholic school

Diocese of St. Petersburg

And this one, a 6-minute video on Catholic schools

Diocese of Austin

3 random thoughts: on baptism, being a 100, and tree-climbing oysters

3 RANDOM THOUGHTS:

#1 - From [Sunday 13th's] Feast of the Baptism of the Lord: 

"We proclaim this gospel to acknowledge and remember that we are claimed by God as His own no less than God claimed Jesus Christ. For having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we have been, as it were, grafted into Christ and in communion with Him we are God’s own. Because of that, every time we acknowledge the presence of God and pray, we begin In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. When we do that in public, we are signaling to everyone who sees us that we are Baptized. We are God’s own children. We make that sign to draw brothers and sisters who are baptized into prayer with us as God’s claimed and chosen ones." ~Fr. Thomas Boyer, St. Mark the Evangelist, Norman, OK

"Today we celebrate the most important day in each of our lives, our baptism day... today we are reminded that God looks at each of us and says: 'you are my Beloved daughter/son, in whom I am well pleased'." [my own paraphrase] ~Fr. Brian McMaster at St. Thomas More, Austin, TX

#2  -  Although I still consider myself a newby Blogger, this is my 100th DAY BY DAY blog post. I've learned a lot about the Bloggesphere these past few months, but above all, I've learned just how much I enjoy blogging! Here are FIVE of my favorite posts:

+ Hope Begins in the Dark
+ Following the Shepherd
+ When Pain is Prayer
+ Not Yet
+ God and details

How about you? Do you have a favorite DAY BY DAY post so far?

#3  -  Did you know that in the Caribbean there are oysters that can climb trees?

Well, not exactly. Many Caribbean islands are lined with mangrove, shrub-like trees to which the local oysters cling during high tide. But when the ocean recedes the oysters are left high and dry, clinging for their lives. True story.

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Okay, one more random comment, for lagniappe:

You can still win a copy of Cravings by leaving a comment on this post http://goo.gl/nSbqQ You have until Sunday the 20th!

Blessed are they

Our parish -- St. Markthe Evangelist in Norman -- has a lovely tradition for All Souls Day (today’s feast, November 2).

At a special evening Mass commemorating and remembering all the faithful departed, parishioners are invited to process in carrying a candle in honor of the person(s) they are honoring in a special way. At the conclusion of Mass, the memorial candles are placed at the Font of Baptism, where sacramental life begins, and are kept burning during the coming week. 

The Book of Remembrance (or Book of the Dead), with all the names we have written on it, is brought to the altar as part of the procession. Throughout the month of November, the Book will be placed upon the altar at each Mass, uniting us with those who have gone before us into everlasting life.

As our pastor explained, 

“Believing that death cannot (and therefore does not) separate us from one another, we are reminded by these feasts that all who have gone before us are still with us in spirit… For me, the celebration of All Souls is a  kind of  “Autumn Easter” when we enter into winter’s time of rest, and look forward in faith and hope to an awakening in spring.” 

Perhaps my favorite part of the evening’s tradition, however, is the music. Throughout the Mass, the choir incorporates special musical pieces from the Requiem by contemporary British composer John Rutter.

Here is the 7th and final movement from the Requiem, "Lux Aeterna"

performed by the Orchestra and Choir from the Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Columbia

"I heard of voice from heaven

Saying unto me

Blessed

Blessed

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord

For they rest

For they rest

For they rest from their labors"