Author: Maria Johnson

what a week for 7 takes!

Check out the collection of other 7 Quick Takes Friday posts, hosted at Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog, Conversion Diary. 

–1–

How about our Holy Father? He’s definitely the headliner this week! I imagine y’all watched his journey through Mexico and Cuba.

I love this Pope! There’s something so sweetly vulnerable in his age and demeanor, and yet, he packs a powerful punch! I love the report that Fidel Castro told him they were both old men, and Pope Benedict responded, “Yes, but I’m still working.”

I hope it’s true 🙂

 

Pope Benedict XVI during general audition
Pope Benedict XVI during general audition (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

–2–

Speaking of the Pope, Pat Gohn invited me to be a guest-poster at her Patheos column, A Word in Season, with my reflections on the Pope’s visit to Cuba. I hope you read the whole article, and pass it along to your friends.

Here’s a little snippet…

Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Cuba, the country of my birth and the country my parents and I fled in 1966, both delights and pulls on the heartstrings of many Cubans and Cuban-Americans like myself; we watched his pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity of Cobre from afar, yearning to be present with the Holy Father in this Jubilee Year.

–3–

In the when it rains it pours category, I’m also featured over on Sarah Reinhard’s blog, Snoring Scholar, as part of her on-going series on the Hail Mary. If you haven’t seen this, she’s deconstructing every word in the prayer with a delightful collection of talented folks stepping in to contribute. Somehow, I got blessed with the word BLESSED! I hope you pop over there and read that little piece, too.

I treat myself to a burrito at a local fast food joint about once a week. I can’t exactly call it a highlight of my week, but the burrito gets the job done.

The early afternoon lunch run through the drive-thru is efficient. Quick. Impersonal. Just the way I like it.

Enter Gloria, the super-fast, super-accurate cashier. She always tells me to “have a blessed day” when she hands me my order. Every single time. I’ve probably heard that about 200 times since I started eating there, and I never gave it a thought until now.

–4–

And, as if it wasn’t enough that my two dear friends, Pat and Sarah, have me playing in their sandboxes, I have a new poem over at Catholic Lane! It’s a pretty little ditty about spring called Light of Day.

You’d think I was busy writing or something 🙂

–5–

A pollen update is probably due although it kinda falls into the whining category, but for those of you who care, it continues to be annoying. So much so, that we’re really not enjoying the wonderful weather in our work-in-progress backyard haven because of it. Attempted to entertain on the porch earlier this week, but I think we need to wait just a little bit more and get a good pressure wash in first.

–6–

I talked about working through a consecration to Jesus through Mary this lent, and I finished this weekend. Thanks for your prayers, friends, it’s been a wonderful experience!

–7–

And finally, had a delightful meet-up with this special person…

another 7 quick takes

Check out the collection of other 7 Quick Takes Friday posts, hosted at Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog, Conversion Diary. 

–1–

So many things have happened this past week that I had to sit down and just breathe deeply and go, “Wow, Momma Mary, you’ve been busy untying some knots. Thank you.” Some of it is deeply personal, and much of it is just about good things coming together for the family…and while I’m not going to go into details, mostly because they aren’t my stories to tell, I can say that my visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament today is going to be a lovely chat full of gratitude. Amen.

–2–

I’m getting excited about the CNMC this year in Dallas/Fort Worth! Are you going? Are you a blogger and want to present? Check this out!

–3–

I am doing a total consecration to Jesus through Mary on the Feast of the Annunciation. Would y’all pray for me? And I will pray for you, though I do that already 🙂

–4–

I’m toying with the idea of joining Pinterest. If I hide that revelation in here, maybe no one will notice I said it.

–5–

The pollen is not my friend. Usually, it affects my eyes and and sinuses, but this year it has messed big time with my lungs and my ears. I feel like a giant vice is crushing my chest when I go outside, and inexplicably, my ears itch — bad enough for me to want to stick a skewer in them. Yeah. How’s that for an image?

–6–

Do you keep a journal? I’ve kept one on and off throughout my life, starting, I think, in the fourth grade. That was a little locked diary…today it’s whatever I happen to like when I need one. Sometimes it means using a discarded composition notebook, and other times it’s pretty journals given as gifts. When I buy one, it’s usually this style on the top, with a rubber band so I can keep prayer cards and mementos stuffed in it. I don’t fill it with Mentos, though.

–7–

I joined the Son Rise Morning Show brackets for March madness. The only bracket that looks like it ought to look. I won’t show you the mess I made of everything else, but I didn’t delete my failed Missouri pick ;-P

this little reminder on my desk right now…

I try to write the books I would love to come upon, that are honest, concerned with real lives, human hearts, spiritual transformation, families, secrets, wonder, craziness—and that can make me laugh. When I am reading a book like this, I feel rich and profoundly relieved to be in the presence of someone who will share the truth with me, and throw the lights on a little, and I try to write these kinds of books. Books, for me, are medicine.

Anne Lamott

“continue praying”

Oh boy. In the entertaining angels department, I just had a delightful little exchange with an elderly blind woman sitting quietly waiting on…I dunno. I don’t know where she came from or who she’s with…she’s just sitting outside my door. Waiting.

I went to pitch a few things into the shredder so I greeted her as I passed. I admit, the greeting was not very enthusiastic or even personal…just something that I tossed out from habit rather than conviction.

Shame on me.

So out the greeting goes, “How are you.” Not a question, just a statement released into the air.

“I’m blessed.”

It jolted me, as I was already 5 steps away from her when I heard it, and 10 when I processed it.

I turned around and went back to the woman, and I spoke again. She put out her hand to hold mine as we spoke, and I apologized for not hearing her. She told me that she hadn’t spoken.

O.o

I told her that I was sure she had spoken to me, and she asked what she said, to which I replied, “I’m blessed.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is when it got interesting. She nodded, as if agreeing with the statement, and then shook her head no, “It must have been the Holy Spirit.” Satisfied with herself, she waved me away, saying, “Continue praying.”

Dude. I don’t even know.

 

 

Laetare Sunday! Everything is pink…except the pollen

Joy!

Everything is pink around here!

The wisteria is blooming…

The cherry blossoms are blooming…

The azaleas are blooming…

and my allergies are blooming…