Lord, Hear Our Prayer

The internet is a formidable force for bringing the comfort and consolation and hope of the Lord to all of us. It can be an incredibily powerful medium for community. There is an unfathomable resource for prayer here. We have on the 'net the privilege of praying for people and of being witness to the miracles brought forth when fervent, faith-fulled people pray for one another.

Let's be that community of hope and faith for one another.

But how about this idea? What if I pop in here every weekend, share Sunday's gospel and talk a wee bit about how we can live it and pray it in our homes? And then you tell me how we can pray for you that week? Deal?

{And please, do return and let us know how prayer is bearing fruit.}

John 15:1-18

Jesus said to his disciples:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you.
Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own
unless it remains on the vine,
so neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me
will be thrown out like a branch and wither;
people will gather them and throw them into a fire
and they will be burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
By this is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."

Think

"My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls ... If only they could understand that 
I am the best of Fathers to them and that it is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fount overflowing with mercy. For them I dwell in the tabernacle as King of Mercy. I desire to bestow My graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them ... Oh, how indifferent are souls to so much goodness, to so many proofs of love! ... They have time for everything, but they have no time to come to Me for graces" (St. Faustina, Diary 367)

Pray

Father, you are the good gardener. I know that with the pruning comes your grace to bear the pain. I know that in confession, I can be washed by the mercy of spring rains. And I know that in the Eucharist, there is abundant grace to grow in your sunshine. Thank you for the gift of faith.

Act

There are actual graces available this weekend in the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist. Make time to go to Him for them.

How can this community of prayer beg graces on your behalf this week?

Morning Walk with Mercy

My morning walks this week have been dedicated to meditations on mercy. From yard and then on to the woods this morning, I share some words for your weekend.

To me [God] has granted His infinite Mercy, and through it I contemplate and adore  the other divine perfections! All of these perfections appear to be resplendent with love; even His Justice (and perhaps this even more so than the others) seems to me clothed in love. What a sweet joy it is to think that God is Just, i.e., that He takes into account our weakness, that He is perfectly aware of our fragile nature. What should I fear then?" (Story of a Soul)

All grace flows from mercy, and the last hour abounds with mercy for us. Let no one doubt concerning the goodness of God; even if a person's sins were as dark as night, God's mercy is stronger than our misery. One thing alone is necessary: that the sinner set ajar the door of his heart, be it ever so little, to let in a ray of God's merciful grace, and then God will do the rest. (Diary of St. Faustina)

Mercy is love when it encounters suffering. More specifically, it's two movements that take place within us when we see someone (or something) suffer. The first is an emotional movement, a movement of compassion that we feel in our hearts or even, when the suffering is particularly intense, deep in our guts. The second is a movement of action. In other words, as we see someone suffering and feel compassion for him, we soon find ourselves reaching out to alleviate his suffering. In sum: mercy is love that feels compassion for those who suffer (heart) and reaches to help them (arm). (Consoling the Heart of Jesus)

A hard heart is the opposite of mercy. How much we must implore God so our hearts do not become hardened like stone! Our hearts must not become insensitive! In fact, insensitivity is the primary sin of man against God and neighbor. Hardness of heart separates us from God, is the loss of our humanity, and causes so much suffering. It is also that which brought Jesus to the Cross and caused his death--it is that which crucified him! Only the love of God that reaches as far as the Cross can open a breach in our hardened hearts. (Christoph Cardinal Schonborn)

with needle & thREAD

Hello, sewing friends!

I welcome you to needle and thREAD. What have you been sewing lately? Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

    Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and theREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and theREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to theneedle & thREAD group at Flickr.

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-).

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I've been reading some Urban Farming-type books this week. I'm reading as fast as I can because my husband--who does not have "the Farmer" as his screen name--is out of town and I want to have lots to make a case for turning our yard into a mini farm share with him when he gets back. But I'm going to save those until next week. Because I got a surprise in the mail yesterday and, well, it just looks so pretty with my sewing;-).

I pre-ordered Joanna Figuera's With Fabric & Thread several months ago and it arrived yesterday. I haven't read the whole book, but I do admit to sitting on the front steps and immediately inhaling the fourth chapter. That's where color theory all finally made sense to me. It was all I could do not to phone a friend who plays with paint chips as much as I do and read the whole chapter to her right then and there. 

There are some really lovely projects in this book and I know I will sew many of them. I've already got my eye on a darling apron to keep up my St. Martha's day tradition. It's a flirty retro style that will still cover my mama figure. And there's a pattern for little girls, too, so we'll be all set.

In sewing news, I thought I'd have so much to show, but I don't. I have traced the pattern for Anna Maria Horner's Painted Portrait Blouse. That whole tracing thing is so tedious and bothersome, isn't it? And I've started laying it out and cutting it. The fabric you see there (which is a Fresh Vintage palette--I learned that in Chapter 4), is some Heather Bailey that I've had since I tried to sew when Karoline was a baby. The blouse will have that fabric for the yoke and some coordinating solid green for the rest. I think. What do you think? I thought the print all over might be a bit much on me. I'm barely 5'2" and don't want to look like a stuffed chair. That striped fabric? It's my tablecloth, an Anna Maria Horner Loulouthi, but I'm not sure it's staying. It's not Fresh Vintage. And I most definitely am.

Speaking of which, I did get some needlework done this week. Mike's been gone. Karoline has been staying up way past her bedtime and stitching with me. This quilt square is part of my big anniversary quilt project. The fabric? California Girl by Joanna Figuera:-). I already have fabric to match my new book, fancy that. All most definitely Fresh Vintage.

Finally, my happiest needle news ever? This is Karoline's needlework. She's five! And she embroiders! And she loves it. It's so fun to sit and stitch with her. Aren't these the loveliest butterflies ever? She chose her current favorite books for the picture. 

What are you needling and reading this week?

All the Buzz About Bees

You saw this one coming, didn't you? 

The last couple of weeks, our storybook-a-day has evolved into a rabbit trail of honeybee books. I dug out all out bee books in anticipation of going to meet Ginny's new bees. We read them all and then Katie and Nicky have spent time drawing diagrams and dictating narrations.

The highlight of all of this research, of course, was seeing those bees! They're rather mesmerizing. I can't stop thinking about them. Ginny has much better pictures than my iPhone pictures here. And, we looked for the queen when we were there but couldn't spot her. It was pretty exciting to see these pictures of the queen sighting.

I'm doing a little reading of my own, mostly websites just now, looking to see if there's any possiblity of bees in my own backyard. In the combox on Monday, someone begged me to read Fruitless Fall. Leslie, you'll be happy to know it has been auto-delivered wirelessly to my Kindle. If I read this book and I have to move because i can't bear to be without bees, it's on you;-)

Here are the books in our Bee Basket:

The Life and Times of the Honeybee

The Honeymakers

Are You a Bee?

The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive

The Bee Tree

Honey In a Hive

For more about our Storybook Year, read here. And, there are Storybook Science books, from A-Z, linked here, scroll down on the lefthand side. 

Now, tell me all about your bees, your neighbor's bees, the bees you used to have, the bees you wish you had, bee books for all ages...

Family Recipes: Banana Pudding

I offer this recipe to you with a bit of trepidation. I haven't personally eaten it all together. I tasted parts of it, but definitely not the whole. I'm not a fan of Nilla Wafers. And bananas? I've never really liked bananas. 

One day, when I was about eight, that changed. I learned to hate bananas. I was on a Girl Scout campout and there was nothing I liked for breakfast. So I ate a banana just because I disliked cereal more than I disliked bananas. Shortly after eating the banana, my face and mouth began to swell.

I was rushed to the hospital, pumped full of epinephrine, chased by Benadryl. 

And sent home. 

No one would let me go back to camp. They never said bananas were the culprit. But I hate them to this day.

All that said, my husband is a huge fan of banana pudding. Loves, loves, loves it. And he told my friend Mindy the other day that he really wished I'd make it for him. Big, brown, pitiful puppy dog eyes.

I did some research and tinkered a bit and came up with the following recipe. Mike declared it the best banana pudding EVER. And he's taste-tested all over the country. He was still talking about it four days later. With that stamp of approval, I offer it to you, even though there's no chance I'm quality-checking it myself.

Banana Pudding

• 3 cups whole milk
• 1 5-ounce package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1 TBS vanilla extract
• 16 ounces heavy whipping cream
• 4 ripe banana
• 1 box of Nilla Wafers

Whip the whipping cream until you have soft peaks and set aside. You can sweeten it a little if you like, but I didn't.

In another bowl, beat the cream cheese until perfectly smooth and fluffy. Beat in the condensed milk. When that is smooth, beat in the whole milk, the extract, and the pudding mix until it is all incorporated and smooth. It will thicken a little more after sitting.

Line the bottom of a 9X13 inch glass pan with a single layer of Nilla Wafers. Add a layer of sliced bananas on top.

Gently fold half the whipped cream into the pudding mixture.

Gently spread the pudding mixture on top of the bananas.

Push Nilla Wafers vertically along the side of the pan.

Top the pudding with the remainder of the whipped cream.

If your children haven't yet polished off the remainder of the Nilla Wafers, make crumbs of them and sprinkle on top.

Refrigerate until serving time.

Serves 12 nicely.

I'm told it's top-notch for breakfast the next day.