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-filled 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.}

Gospel 

Mark 7:31-37

Again Jesus left the district of Tyre
and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
into the district of the Decapolis.
And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd.
He put his finger into the man's ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
"Ephphatha!"-- that is, "Be opened!" --
And immediately the man's ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly.
He ordered them not to tell anyone.
But the more he ordered them not to, 
the more they proclaimed it.
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
"He has done all things well.
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

Think

“Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that have received--only what you have given.” ~St. Francis of Assisi

Pray

“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” 

~St. Francis of Assisi

Act

Have you ever noticed how Christ brought great miracles of healing out of the messiness of life? He used spittle and mud to heal. We spend a lot of time with the messy. Mom bloggers are quick to chronicle all the spit and poop and vomit...This week, don't miss the miracles that are in those messes.

needle & thREAD

Hi, this is Elizabeth's friend Ginny, just saying a quick hello, and introducing my husband Jonny. He is guest posting for needle & thREAD today! I'll mostly keep quiet and let him tell you about our latest project:

I was much too young and fickle the first time I bought a rotary cutter. I only have a slight memory of the excitement that went along with that purchase. But I do remember standing in Joann’s trying to pick just the right cutter for so much and no more money. Simultaneously I procured one of those flexible cutting board things and a handful of fat quarters. You see, I had it in my mind that I was going to make a quilt. Where that idea came from, I am not really sure. I must have been about 21 years old. I was either freshly married or just about to be. Back then, Ginny did a little bit of crocheting. She taught me how to make granny squares. Once I made a couple, I decided I would make enough to put together a blanket. Somehow making those granny squares heightened my craftiness. Just about the time I made enough to actually put something resembling a blanket together, the idea of making a quilt came into my head. So, naturally, the granny square blanket was sidelined, and the trip to Joann’s ensued.

I never made a quilt. I tried to. I must have cut over a hundred squares out of the fabric. It was actually a lot of fun. I definitely had enough to complete a twin size quilt. But, I lack focus. I mean, I have focus, but only for a little while. And back then, I had less of it altogether. I can start a project with all kinds of motivation. Then, during the course, something happens and the motivation fades. Along with it, my interest goes out the window. Then, a new project materializes, and all my focus goes to it. So, by the time the squares were cut, my interest faded. You might be wondering when I’ll get to the point. Well, here it is. I want to make a quilt again. This time, though, I’ve enlisted the aid of my clever and crafty wife. Whereas my first attempt was solo, this will be a joint effort. This way, I’m hoping to see the project through.

It was totally all my idea to make a quilt (again). But, I have left the pre planning and decision making to my wife. I have feigned involvement. For instance, when we were trying to pick out fabric online, I would point to a bundle and say something like “what about that” or “that looks nice”, all the while knowing that it really wouldn’t do. I had to stand there and wait until Ginny found the perfect bundle. Which she did. Some Heather Robert or Rose or Ross (covering my mouth and mumbling) something or other…which I’m sure is going to make for a fantastic, fun yet practical, color scheme! Yay! (Oh my goodness. It's Heather Ross, dear.)

We are going to make a Log Cabin quilt. I don’t really know much about what that means, but I do know that we will be hand tying it in 99 places. (Hi! This is Ginny. Specifically we are planning to make the log cabin quilt from Patchwork Style. Each square is quilted and then squared up before they are all joined. We don't totally understand it yet. I do know that this doesn't eliminate the need for the entire thing to be quilted at the end, but the pattern calls for tying it, so we can avoid machine quilting, which is good because we aren't equipped for that.) And while I had hoped to actually show off some of my sewing skills, Ginny hasn’t accepted that the fabric needs to be cut. She says it’s too pretty. (Isn't it?) I’m not really reading anything right now. I just finished one of my birthday presents, Confessions of a Bad Beekeeper: What Not to Do When Keeping Bees (with Apologies to My Own). I’m planning on keeping with the bee theme and reading The Queen Must Die: And Other Affairs of Bees and Men next. I don’t really think it’s possible to read too much about bees.

~ ~ ~

What about you? Sewing? Reading? A little of both?  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 thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD 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:-)

Pretty Pickle Pix Post

We made up the refrigerator dill pickle recipe as we went along, basing it loosely on the one in this post.

Calendar Craziness

Are you-- like me --struggling to make all those calendar items work as the school year begins? I'm thinking that adding something might be even more important than deleting. Read more here please: Family Time-Management Simplified.

(Hmmm. Can't wait to see what this looks like after I fill in the weekends...)

Quick Labor Day Almanac

I find myself:

::noticing God's glory

The maple trees on Freedom Street took a very long time to fill in last spring. Now it is summer's end and they look like they might turn straight to brown. I'd be so sad. I love that treelined street...

::listening to 

The microwave defrosting the lamb roast I forgot to defrost last night (and the night before and the night before that). I'm determined we'll have it for dinner tonight.

 

On White's Ferry on the way to Maryland. Mike and I have spent the last two days driving all over Maryland and Northern Virginia.

And questioning our sanity.

::clothing myself in 

A super-cute skirt from Open Arms. At Open Arms, refugees earn a living wage taking recycled t-shirts and turning them into seriously adorable skirts. Open Arms is not a charity, but a "social enterprise", a sustainable, for-profit company working to achieve a social purpose through the materials they use, the products they sell and the impact they have. As such, Open Arms measures its success against a triple bottom line that is economic (employ), ecologic (engage) and social (enjoy). Win. Win. Win. 

::thinking and thinking

About a comfortable suburban existence and how this ^ is keeping balls in the air in my world. Thinking a great deal about social justice and how the gospel calls us to live. Are these the stresses He intends for us? 

::pondering prayerfully

"The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” . ~Blessed Mother Teresa

::Carefully Cultivating Rhythm

As the seasons change and I try desperately, frantically to make my calendar behave, I find myself again drawn to the rhythm of the Liturgy of the Hours. Could it be that living that rhythm gives meaning and direction to the secular rhythms in our lives in a real and tangible way?  More on that on Wednesday.

::creating by hand

I'm going to knit this week. I made the To Eyre shawl shortly before I stopped knitting last year. It was way too small. It's been re-drafted into a larger "outdoor" shawl. I think I'll give it a go.

::learning lessons in

Doing things that terrify me. Much, much more on that next week.

::encouraging learning 

Is there anything lovelier than a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils? I think not.

::begging prayers

for all the people who have joined our weekend prayer community. I carried your requests with me to Mass and I will keep a candle lit for you throughout the week.

for a dozen personal intentions--each of them precious and urgent. 

::reading

Mindset. I just downloaded the audio version of this one, so I haven't much to report.

I'm listening to this book. It was highly recommended by a soccer mom from Nick's team. 

Someone asked how I manage my listening books. I'm super auditory, so I love to listen to books. It's what I do when I clean and when I drive and when I sew. I find them on Amazon and click through to Audible (I have a membership there). I download to my Kindle or to my iPhone. Kindle audio quality is really good--and I just have the basic Kindle. 

::keeping house

Mary Beth and I worked on daily school and extracurricular schedules; now to work on the chore chart. It's been a long time since we've had a really workable one. This is the season we nail it.

::towards being unplugged

This week, I'm going to try not to use my phone for social media at all. And I plan to be away from my laptop a lot. We'll see how that balances things. I've noticed that since getting an iPhone, I'm on Twitter more. I still don't really like Twitter, so that's probably not the best use of my time. I'm also on Pinterest a lot less (likely because Pinterest's app is not all that great). I'd like to be better at making all my online time meaningful and none of it mindless. I'd like to make my writing time a set chunk, worked into the schedule, all written down with everything else. I tend to try to wedge writing in around everything else. And that is making meeting deadlines pretty awful. If I had a set time, I could get to work, get it done, click the laptop shut and walk away. 

::crafting in the kitchen 

Mary Beth is cooking this week.  All week.

weird iPhone self-portrait

::loving the moments

Last weekend, Patrick and Hilary gave Mary Beth and me their Brad Paisley tickets. Patrick proposed the idea late Satruday afternoon. We had just spent the whole day out in the rain at soccer and being outdoors in more rain didn't appeal to me so much. But...it was Brad Paisley and a chance for a Girls' Night Out with my favorite girlfriend. So my girl and I stood huddled under a Neat Sheet (I forgot my umbrella) and took in a really good concert. And the whole time, I kept thinking that I must be the luckiest mom in the world to be standing there so close to my teenaged daughter, sharing music and deep conversation. I'm ever so grateful.

Seven--count 'em-- seven ponytails. I love this picture.

::giving thanks 

for my "village." My boys play soccer. My girls and I have a community of friends forged on the sidelines. I'm grateful for these people. The girls see soccer games as many kids do weekly play dates. And there is an abundance of soccer siblings their ages to keep them company. Heck, together, my friend Becca and I have 18 kids. And that's just two families! (Truth: no one else's family is mega like that but there are lots of soccer friends for them.)

::living the liturgy

For years, our mission church has met in the elementary school gym across the street from my house. This weekend, it moved to an auditorium at a nearby new high school. It's a good change--the acoustics are a million time better. We've traded bleachers for real seats. Much, much easier to concentrate without the posters encouraging us to work out and eat right. But we all miss being able to walk to church. I'm seriously eyeing the houses being built near the new permanent church site.

::planning for the week ahead

I'm going to spend the entire day today making lists and checking things off.

More almanacs at Suscipio.