No one is useless in the Church, Pope Francis tells us

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Pope Francis’ General Audience address is packed with words of wisdom and encouragement (as usual), but there is one line that especially sticks with me. “This tells us that no one is useless in the Church – no on is useless in the Church! – and should anyone chance to say, some one of you, ‘Get home with you, you’re useless!’ that is not true,” he said earlier today at the Vatican.

No one is useless in the Church. I like this because it can (more…)

Gardening and Spirituality

spirituality, spiritual exercises, Catholic, rosaryIt was an accident, actually – one of those things that come upon you when your mind in in a totally different realm, and God takes you by surprise and snatches you up. The “accident” I’m referring to is my new spiritual exercise.

The exercise began with my new “job” this summer, which is to plant and tend the garden boxes in our back and side yards. That’s (more…)

Pope Francis on Unity

Catholic Church, Holy Father, Pope Francis

Today in his Wednesday Audience address, Pope Francis spoke with strength and conviction about unity – unity within the Church as the Body of Christ, unity among denominations, unity among peoples, and unity within the family.

When I think about the word “unity,” I’m immediately drawn to the first and last letters – u and y. I see them as not only letters in a word, but also as symbols of the words that they phonetically represent: you and why. I use this as a mnemonic device to remind myself of our calling as (more…)

Book Basket

In recent months, I’ve been sent some fantastic books to review. The problem is, I have so much on my plate right now that I haven’t had a chance to give these wonderful tomes the attention they deserve! So, I put them in my basket of books awaiting review, hoping that magic will happen and they will review themselves. They didn’t, and so here in my virtual Book Basket, I’ll try to give them at least some well-deserved play. (more…)

Pope Francis asks, “Do you believe that God is stronger?”

God is stronger! Do you believe this?

That’s what Pope Francis said in his Wednesday Audience earlier today. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that the Holy Father was speaking directly to me. But, He wasn’t. I wasn’t at St. Peter’s today; I was here at home tending to the variety of things God is asking of me, and at the moment he was speaking, I had no idea of what he was saying. On the other hand, he was talking directly to me, and to each one of us, since his words always are meant for (more…)

Pope Francis and Jesus as Pure Mercy

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At yesterday’s Angelus, Pope Francis talked about the recently-celebrated feast, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In particular, he spoke of Jesus’ Heart as the ultimate symbol of God’s mercy. This symbol is not imaginary, as many symbols are, but it is a real symbol; it exists now and for always.

Additionally, the Holy Father told the crowd that Jesus is pure mercy. I think it might be difficult for us to (more…)