Bravest Thing (He Ever Did)

It is our first full day on our family vacation. After being imprisoned far too long in our little area due to COVID regulations, we are bursting at the seems to traverse and climb the Rocky Mountains. But first, a night in Drumheller, Alberta. The scenery is stunning, yet we are perhaps too excited to see the mountains to give Drumheller its due respects. Also of note, we are a little rusty at camping. It's been a few years since we went on a major trip. This being the first full day, we are disheveled already, and misplacing items left and right. Never mind. It is morning, and before we pack up the campsite I decide to go for a quick jog. I take out my combat rosary , place it on the picnic table at our site, and head out for some exercise throughout the stunning landscape. What a beautiful place. Alas, I return, and our packing up begins in haste. Soon enough we head into the van, eager to hit the highway. Suddenly I slam on the brakes! "Where's my combat rosary!?!...

 Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. I highly recommend this talk by Fr. Ripperger.

Every month of the liturgical year is dedicated to a different Catholic devotion. Many of these devotions make far more sense when following the traditional calendar. For instance, with the traditional Latin Mass Corpus Christi is not The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ . There is a separate first class feast for the Precious Blood... in July. Hence July is the month of the Precious Blood. Further, the feast of the Immaculate Heart is in August, the culmination of the octave of the Assumption. The Queenship of Mary is in May, hence May crownings (an "aha" moment if you're wondering why the feast and the crownings are separated in the Novus Ordo). Lost yet? Sigh. Blame Annibale Bugnini et al. Long story short, the liturgical year is not something that should've been re-created by a committee. September is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. Fr. Ripperger, the famous exorcist priest, often says that we must pray to Our Lady of Sorrows to reveal our own hearts. What ...

Our Lady of Guadalupe is quite the story. Do you know the pre-1531AD part of the story? An interesting video of the feast is HERE . We took a try at making a mod podge icon. After printing an image of Our Lady in reverse, and cutting and priming a piece of wood, I placed the image face down with the mod podge. The next day it was time to wet the image, and then start peeling.  Murphy's Law, a piece of the image pealed off, right at the head. Grrr. I touched it up with some pencil crayon work (I'm not exactly Michelangelo), and then sealed the icon. I'll give my first attempt at this a 7/10.  Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Picture a quiet and peaceful Sunday evening. It would involve watching the end of the football game, a snack and story with the kids, and then saying our prayers and getting them into bed. Such an evening would inevitably involve me laying down with my four year old and settling him down to sleep. He would snuggle in close, probably chat too much, and drift off with heavy and contented breaths. The reality for that Sunday evening was that he was taken to the hospital once again to deal with an impetigo which, we were convinced, was not actually impetigo. Our suspicions were confirmed, and the young lad was given a large dose of antibiotics. We were told to bring him to the hospital every eight hours for more medicine. However, by 1:30pm the next afternoon his condition had deteriorated, and his sick body was filled with a painful rash. He could hardly move. We were stunned. Now life in small town Saskatchewan can be wonderful, but a drawback is that it is nearly impossible to attra...

This weekend we have what normally would be the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary(Oct. 7), along with Canadian Thanksgiving. Our Lady of the Rosary's feast was once named for Our Lady of Victory, and was instituted in thanksgiving for victory over the Moors. It's a good excuse/occasion to post an excellent video on the history of the rosary. Many points are fascinating in here, such as how the second half of the Hail Mary came about during the Black Plague, or even why the Luminous Mysteries are legitimate adds on by St. John Paul II.