Lord, Hear Our Prayer

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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.

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.}

 

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Gospel

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,
Jesus' disciples said to him,
"Where do you want us to go
and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"
He sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the city and a man will meet you,
carrying a jar of water.
Follow him.
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house,
'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room
where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
Make the preparations for us there."
The disciples then went off, entered the city,
and found it just as he had told them;
and they prepared the Passover.

While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, gave it to them, and said,
"Take it; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Mk 14:12-16, 22-26

Think

If I can give you advice, I beg you to get closer to the Eucharist... We must pray to Jesus to give us that tenderness of the Eucharist.
-~Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Pray

I adore You, Lord and Creator, hidden in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I adore You for all the works of Your hands, that reveal to me so much wisdom, goodness and mercy, O Lord. You have spread so much beauty over the earth and it tells me about Your beauty, even though these beautiful things are but a faint reflection of You, incomprehensible Beauty. And although You have hidden Yourself and concealed Your beauty, my eye, enlightened by faith, reaches You and my soul recognizes its Creator, its Highest Good, and my heart is completely immersed in prayer of adoration.

My Lord and Creator, Your goodness encourages me to converse with You. Your mercy abolishes the chasm which separates the Creator from the creature. To converse with You, O Lord, is the delight of my heart. In You I find everything that my heart could desire. Here, Your light illumines my mind, enabling it to know You more and more deeply. Here streams of graces flow down upon my heart. Here my soul draws eternal life. O my Lord and Creator, You alone, beyond all these gifts, give Your own self to me and unite Yourself intimately with Your miserable creature.

O Christ, let my greatest delight be to see You loved and Your praise and glory proclaimed, especially the honor of Your mercy. O Christ, let me glorify Your goodness and mercy to the last moment of my life, with every drop of my blood and every beat of my heart. Would that I be transformed into a hymn of adoration of You. When I find myself on my deathbed, may the last beat of my heart be a loving hymn glorifying Your unfathomable mercy. Amen. ~St. Faustina

Act

Take good care of yourself this week. Right now, schedule time and find a way to go to Adoration. Give yourself the gift of one hour in silence in the chapel. Just go. You'll be so glad you did.

 

needle and thREAD

 

needle and thREAD

Hello, sewing friends!

I welcome you to needle and thREAD. 

    Ta-dah! I started and finished a dress for Karoline this week. She loves it. I love it. All happy. It's an Oliver + S Seashore Sundress pattern. She chose fabric from Amy Butler's stash (well, my stash of Amy Butler's stash). This one is Gypgsy Caravan Linen Cutting Garden. I made Karoline a Size 5 because that's what size her Oliver + S Easter dress was. This pattern is designed to be a little short. When I tried it on her before hemming, I was concerned it was going to be too short. So, I opted for a ribbon hem instead. It's still a tad short for my liking, but she'll get a couple of months out of it and she's got a little sister. Alas, Katie's and Sarah's dresses are still gleams in my eye. Life intervened and the only pedal I've pressed since Sunday is the gas pedal.
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I downloaded Emma to my Kindle last week and I also began to revisit The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After. I think the big appeal Grace Livingston Hill's books had for me is the civility. The mannerisms are so civil, the language careful. Increasingly, we are a society of careless language and little courtesy. It's really refreshing to read pleasant, thoughful conversation and to see heroines who care about the character of the men they encounter. I can do without the class snobbery in GLH, but the sense of character and careful, thoughtful relationships? Yes, please.

It occurred to me that this attention to character is also a trait in Jane Austen books. Austen isn't quite as quick and light as GLH and not quite so formulaic either. A bit more complex reading, but I think she suits me. In The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After, Elizabeth Kantor teases out all those very rich observations of character. Her guide makes the Austen books ideal for sparking meaningful conversations with the young ladies in my life. 

Old books are treasures not to be overlooked in our fast-paced culture. We have to find ways to help slow children down, and to slow down ourselves. Honestly, I'm so tired of 140 character snippets and a Facebook highlight reel. I really want more for our children! I want every tool I can get to encourage my young ladies and gentlemen to consider deeply those things that are really important. These books do that.

(And, incidentally, so does Joy in the Ordinary. The setting is entirely modern, but the characters rise above superficial techno-communication and faith and character figure prominently.)

What about you? Sewing? Reading? A little of both? What's on your summer reading list? Do you have a summer sewing list?  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 the needle & 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:-).

Giveaway Winner: Catholic Embroidery

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The winner of the blanket at Catholic Embroidery is Stina!
Stina said...

I would love to win this blanket for my grandmother!!! Thank you for hosting this giveaway! I would have never thought to look for them on FB and now I've liked them. I also commented on their beautiful Proverbs 31 pillow on their blog. Such amazing, beautiful things!

Happy Mother's Day, Elizabeth! God bless!

Stina, please email me with your snail mail address and I'll pass it along to Catholic Embroidery.

I hope your grandmother loves it.