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

LK 12:35-40

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Gird your loins and light your lamps
and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,
ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. 
Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. 
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
have the servants recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. 
And should he come in the second or third watch
and find them prepared in this way,
blessed are those servants. 
Be sure of this:
if the master of the house had known the hour
when the thief was coming,
he would not have let his house be broken into. 
You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect,
the Son of Man will come.”

Think

What do superfluous riches profit in this world when they do not assist our birth or impede our dying? We are born into this world naked, we leave without a cent, we are buried without our inheritance.". ~St. Ambrose

Pray

Lord show me the biggest way that I tend to waste time. Gie me grace to take greater control of that part of my life today.

Act

If there is some actitivty you think wastes your time (TV, computer, telephone, etc.) give it up today. See what opportunities arise in the pockets of time you free up. And do consider a regular cyber Sabbath.

This week's Think-Pray-Act is taken from Small Steps for Catholic Moms, available now for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

How can we pray for you this week?

{this moment--or two}

Read all about it here.

needle & thREAD

Good evening! We had a busy morning here. I had this bright idea to make headbands out of jazz costumes. Some of the girls in Katie's company had costumes that never fit right. I'd promised them we'd cut them up after the season ended. They were already stretched and ripped beyond wearing again. It was a bit of a miscalculation on my part. There isn't enough useable fabric in the stretched out/ripped costumes to make headbands for everyone.

If you have ever loved a group of 14 ten-to-eleven-year-olds, you know it would have been very bad form to make headbands for some, but not all. 

So, a new plan was hatched. We chose fabric from my stash and Katie, her friend Zoe and I began to make headbands for all 13 (14?) girls in the company. Zoe will be back in the morning to finish. 

I'm reading It's All Good by Gwyneth Paltrow. Haven't tried a recipe yet, but it sure is pretty!

What are you reading and sewing this week? 

I am eager to hear!

  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:-).

Throwback Thursday: En Pointe

Yesterday, Jenny mentioned in the comments that she remembered reading about Mary Beth's first pair of pointe shoes. I'm so glad she commented. I've been thinking about that day too, but Jenny's comment urged me to find the post. And when I did, I was so glad I kept a blog back then. Reading my words, and seeing my hopes in print, and then knowing the rest of the story? Well worth the price of her first pair of pointe shoes, Katie's first pair, all the shoes between, and all the shoes to come. 

Here's that long-ago post.

Needle & thREAD will go up this evening. I've got a big sewing project going this morning. Pictures later (don't get too excited: more and more and more headbands;-)

I left the dance school yesterday with all my instructions from Mary Beth's teacher, Miss Mary. I knew where to sew the elastic and where to sew the satin ribbons. I knew who to request at the dance store for the fitting (only Esther was to be entrusted with this job). And just in case I didn't know, as I was leaving, Miss Mary reminded me of one more thing, "She's not a little dancer any more. Now she's a big girl." Ah, yes. Why is it this day seemed so far off way back when she was twirling for Miss Missy in my dining room?

And so we arrived at The Cinnamon Tree. This was the dance store where I first purchased that outrageously expensive pink skirted leotard because I'd always wanted a little girl in a pink skirted leotard. At the time, Mary Beth was my only girl; a little pink angel in the midst of five brothers. On this day, I had another little girl by the hand and still another in my arms. We walked through door, led by Mary Beth, her hair still pulled up from dance class, her back straight and her stride the unmistakable walk of a ballerina. She sat for her fitting and I snapped pictures. I noticed that Mary Beth was so excited the both her hands and her feet shook.

And then, Esther  held her hand and asked her to go up en pointe. Mary Beth did and I heard a collective gasp from the ladies in the shop. "You did that beautifully!" exclaimed Esther. I will never know if such exclamations come with the purchase price of one's first pointe shoes, but my little girl  ballerina flushed with joy.

En pointe.

Two little girls took it all in, inspired once again by the truest heroine in their young lives. Katie will remember every detail of this day and she is likely to talk about it for the next six years until she claims a day like this as her own.She spent a good deal of time begging for a pink skirted leotard. Not this time, my girl.  And Karoline. Karoline, who speaks very little English at this point, can do a pretty admirable passe, to go with her burre, her port de bras, and her arabesque. Karoline is a dancer in good company. And right now, she has in Mary Beth the best teacher in all the world.

En Pointe

"I feel that the essence of dance is the expression of man-- the landscape of his soul." ~Martha Graham 

"To leap becomes, while it lasts, heart pounding, breath hurting, the deepest, the only joy." ~Denise Levertov

"On with the dance! Let joy be unconfined." ~George Gordon, Lord Byron

"When you do dance, I wish you a wave o' the sea, that you might ever do nothing but that." ~William Shakespeare 

{photo credit: Mr. Sasha} 

.

Katie got her very first pair of pointe shoes yesterday. We all might have been a little giddy:-). Local folks, I can't say enough good things about Heather's Dance Boutique in Manassas. They were so patient and they made it the special occasion that it was. (And no, I'm not being compensated to say that; I just genuinely wish for every little dancer the experience Katie had yesterday.)