Tomorrow could be a different list, but right now, I love:
1. fluffy socks! it’s cold in the meat locker!
2. peanut butter cookies made by my honey!
3. a cool novel available on Kindle for free for a couple more days…check it out, The Tower’s Alchemist by Alesha L. Escobar
4. my iPad cuz it’s full of my favorite music
5. this guy
6. my baby brother
On September 8th Cubans everywhere celebrated the 400th anniversary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, patroness of Cuba and, in a special way, advocate for all who feel displaced, far from home, or living in exile.
Caridad, as she is affectionately known, wants nothing more than to gather her children together and bring them to her son, Jesus. It seems such a simple desire—corrupted now in popular culture with the ironic “Can’t we all just get along.”
But Charity’s message is clear. It is first a message of Love. She holds the Child Jesus in her arms, close to her heart, and we are reminded that she is mother to us all because she is mother to the One.
Hey there! I’m over at Patheos today! How fun is that? I hope you follow the link to read the rest, and then stick around to see the other insightful, interesting, and yes, even funny stuff that’s over there. There’s a little something for everyone.
When the spiritual person cannot meditate, let him learn to be still in God, fixing loving attention on God in the calm of his understanding, although he may think himself to be doing nothing. Little by little, divine calm and peace will be infused into his soul.
~ St. John of the Cross
Yesterday, my grandmother, Emilia, would have been 100 years old. I remember when she passed away. The news came from Cuba to the eldest child, my Tia Libe, who couldn’t get a hold of my mother and called me to deliver the news.It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
This morning my dad forwarded an email from my Tio Emilio, a bishop in the diocese where the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity is situated. No doubt he has been very busy this past week in preparation for the celebrations surrounding this Jubilee year, the 400th anniversary of Our Lady’s appearance to the Cuban people.
No doubt he has been reflecting on the story of our Blessed Mother. No doubt the memory of his own beloved mother, my grandmother, was tugging at his heartstrings.
He sent a message to his sisters, my mother and aunts in the U.S., and by extension to his nieces and nephews — a message I’ll relate here, in abbreviated form because of its intimacy and beauty.
Tio Emi celebrated a private Mass last night for all of us on the centenary celebration of Emilia’s birth, noting that this makes it a jubilee year for the family as well. He noted some similarities in our family history to Mary’s experience, a story of two mothers, our spiritual mother and our family matriarch…
They both came across the ocean with a child in arms, and established a home to stay with us on our journeys.
One was from Nazareth, the other from Mutiloa.
One with Joseph, the other with Daniel.
One in exile because of Herod, the other in exile because of Franco.
Because of that, they called one Child the Nazarene, and the others they called Gallegos.
Then he lit two candles for Daniel and Emilia, because through them, love also unites us as a family, a beautiful allusion to the theme of this year’s Jubilee, Charity unites us. I was moved by the gesture and his relating of that story… this piece of my story… a story to pass on to my children, because it speaks to the greatest gift within our family, not in a literal comparison to the story of salvation, but to the human condition of it.
It’s kind of a conundrum, this cycle of love, but our family story seems to be wrapped around this mantle of love, even as generations have moved from exile to exile. We are never alone, have never been alone, even in our deepest loneliness and separation. And we can look forward to the glorious happy day when we are all reunited before the Author of this story.
Is this a Cooper’s Hawk. In my backyard?
John and I were enjoying coffee in our living room this morning. It’s a beautiful day to be outside, but we weren’t quite ready to go out there yet, instead just enjoying the sunshine streaming into the room. A slight breeze was moving the trees and casting an occasional shadow, so we did a double-take when something swooped by the window.
John shot up and went to the window and called me over. There was a hawk in the roses. It must have been hunting the rabbits that have recently over-populated our backyard. The hawk then flew up and perched on the roof of our deck, and then took off to a dead tree just beyond our property.
He was still there when I came back with the camera, and then he flew right back into our yard.
Holy smokes! He hid in one of our trees, watching, dare I say it, like a hawk.
Ha ha. I crack myself up.
So, what is it? Anybody know if we’re right? John says it’s a Cooper’s Hawk. Google images says maybe.
I say, ask the internet 🙂
On September 8th Cubans everywhere will celebrate the 400th anniversary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, patroness of Cuba and, in a special way, advocate for all who feel displaced, far from home, or living in exile.
Caridad, as she is affectionately known, wants nothing more than to gather her children together and bring them to her son, Jesus. It seems such a simple desire – corrupted now in popular culture with the ironic “Can’t we all just get along?”
But Charity’s message is clear. It is first a message of Love. She holds the Child Jesus in her arms, close to her heart, and we are reminded that she is mother to us all because she is mother to the One.
Her appearance 400 years ago to three young men adrift in a stormy sea by the Bay of Nipe, off the coast of Cuba, inspires hope. Charity’s presence in our lives today is just as relevant as we navigate the stormy seas of the 21st century.
With the infant Jesus in one hand, and the cross in the other, we are reminded, literally, of the message she carries. Our salvation is present and accessible through her, always – every time we turn to her for guidance or succor, as those young men did centuries before us.
She is, for me, a symbol of the faith for which my parents sacrificed so much. As a Cuban-born American, much of my cultural identity connects with Our Lady of Charity. She is iconic, a symbol for the Cuban people, but she is so much more.
As a child, my mom often whispered into my ear as she hugged and kissed me goodbye, “Que la virgen te acompañe.” No matter how old I get, and how far away I live, I can count on my mom’s blessing before I travel. Instead of a whispered caress, today I get a text message, “May Our Lady accompany you .”
This gentle reminder that Our Lady would accompany me on my journey, to my child’s mind, was just one of those things moms said. To my adult heart, the knowledge that Mary does indeed accompany me buoys me when I feel adrift in my own Bay of Nipe. Consoling and calm, Caridad stands as a beacon…always calling me to safety, showing me the way home to her Son.
The little icon of Our Lady of Charity has been traveling throughout the island nation of Cuba these past three years in a beautiful pilgrimage awakening a dormant faith, inspiring hope, and spreading love to a nation thirsty for Christ’s message.
Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2012 address at the Shrine of Our Lady Of Charity of El Cobre, called on the Cuban people to look upon the Blessed Mother as a model.
Following the example of the Most Holy Virgin, I encourage all the sons and daughters of this dear country to continue to build their lives on the firm rock which is Jesus Christ, to work for justice, to be servants of charity and to persevere in the midst of trials.
The theme of this pilgrimage, indeed, the theme for the 400th anniversary celebration is “Charity Unites Us/Caridad nos une”. This lovely play on words, in both English and Spanish, speaks a great Truth, that Love unites us in the Body of Christ. All of us.
Que la virgen te acompañe.
Check out the collection of other 7 Quick Takes Friday posts, hosted at Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog, Conversion Diary.
Today is my 27th wedding anniversary. Seems like we’ve been together forever…and that it was only yesterday we said “I do.” I’m blessed beyond measure.
Here’s a close-up. Apparently, we were 12 at the time.
And the blessings continued. 🙂
Did absolutely nothing on Labor Day but hang around the house and read, do a little bit of writing, and, oh yeah, laundry.
Always laundry. Do you think heaven has One-Hour Martinizing? Are you old enough to know what that is?
Classes started, which means I have grading to do. Which means I won’t ever write more than a paragraph for my great American novel. Sigh.
I could just stop Facebook and Twitter and blogging.
Right.
Had an awesome time at the CNMC in Arlington, TX, and as always, reconnected with some dear friends I see rarely…and new ones, like Ashley, who made a little fun of our team courtesy of some photoshop skills. I share my thoughts about the event in yesterday’s post.
A special thank you to Jennifer Fulwiler (and the other great speakers!) who made CNMC 2012 such a great success. Her keynote at the blogging day was inspiring, but it was just as nice to sit around one night and say “hi” in the lobby, chat, and hang around for a little while. That’s always my favorite part of the conference — meeting people and making eye contact, not just combox convos. You can read what other folks took away from the conference here.
Well, maybe not everything, but this silly photoshop, courtesy of Ashley Collins from Peter and Paul Ministries comes pretty darn close. It picks up the spirit of goofiness and making friends. This explains the Charlie’s Steve’s Angels theme we have going on.
You see, the CNMC really is a celebration. Oh sure, we’ve been moving toward a more professional conference, providing as much instruction and best practices sharing as we can pack into limited time with limited resources. We’ve managed to get some of the most amazing people in new media to come and play together under one roof. And what happens when these dynamic, faithful Catholics come together never ceases to amaze me.
What happens is akin to a lightning strike.
Collaborations begin.
Creativity flows.
Friendships are forged.
We connect as the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ is a beautiful thing.
So when we kneel together in Adoration, sit together in Mass, celebrate the Eucharist as a community, send silly Tweets, post crazy Facebook statuses, pass notes send texts during presentations, and invade restaurants with huge parties, it’s because we get the point of the celebration — to get to know each other, not as virtual friends and collaborators, because we are that, but as brothers and sisters in Christ, working together to spread the message, His message, to all the corners of the earth.
Because when we know this Love, it’s impossible to keep it for ourselves.
Read what others have to say about their experiences at the Catholic New Media Conference 2012. Add your Recap to ours!
I’m trying to recover from the CNMC…I’ll post later.
In the meantime, thought I’d pass along a ridiculous cat video for you. Saw it in the FB feed and laughed…mostly because I spent most of my senior year of college smoking terrible cigarettes and pretending to enjoy french wines and foreign films.
And then…I quit smoking, acquired a taste for fine wines, and became a blogger. It’s kinda the same thing.
another cup of coffee 