KEEP THE FAITH

Birthday Shout-Outs!🎂

Happy Birthday to:

•  Cheryl (Michelle's daughter) - no age necessary!
• London, (Melda & Tom's granddaughter, Michael and Erika's daughter) turning 6
• Claudia Grillo (Luke's fiance and Dan & Jan's soon to be daughter-in-law) Wedding has been postponed to September 26... God-willing!

For those of you who may not know the significance of the monarch butterfly... that is Cheryl's reminder that her son Dan is always there with all of us! And hearts too... you will see that at the end!

Dan added one heck of a comment yesterday... it was listed as anonymous, but he can't fool any of us! I think that the reference to OLD GUYS AND GALS was the dead give-away... since he is the youngest of the Murphy siblings! And I don't know about you, but I am going to have to read it again and again to try to absorb the knowledge he shared!  His post/comment reminded me of a time when he was in college and home for the summer. Dan was a math major and he made the comment that "ultimately, mathematics is your morals!" To which our great aunt Rene replied, "then I ain't got none, because I can't add 2 + 2!" LOL

Luke commented on Dan's Comment and there was another anonymous comment, that you are enjoying the posts... thank you! :)

Perfect segue to morality/religion/faith... Today is Palm Sunday... I would normally be so crazy-busy with choir practices... starting with Masses on Palm Sunday and practices Holy Week services:

Holy Thursday, Easter Vigil, and of course, Easter Sunday!

I miss my life, but as we all are doing, I am finding ways to walk through my faith, and am so grateful for technology that is available. As I mentioned, what I thought was a curse, is now such a blessing to find other resources. It is out there... and here are a few that are helping me:

• Hot off the press! Michelle loves her Church. Pastor Greg Laurie is another good local pastor and President Trump and Vice President Pence contacted Pastor Laurie that they were going to watching his service today. You might want to check out harvest.org
• I just went online for Bishop Barron's Palm Sunday Mass celebration. His reflection on the reading of the Passion was one of the best I have ever heard! Plus this website offers a lot of other resources! wordonfire.org
• Saddleback Church happens to be located in our city...Rick Warren is doing some incredible outreach...as always... his leadership is amazing... he has over 60,000 volunteers handling local  food banks, and his small groups have grown tremendously since this started. I truly believe that we cannot rely 100% on our government during a crisis, the groundswell will come from our family, neighbors, our faith communities. You can access Rick's messages at any time: saddleback.com/watch
• Annie Webb shared that she is going to this website for her daily Masses: stsebastianmi.org/homilies

Share your faith with us

Questioning our Catholic faith and looking to other faith communities runs in the family. Walt left the priesthood because he did not agree with some of Catholic Church positions. I remember Rene telling me that she used to sneak into other non-Catholic Churches because she was so curious; and her daughter Ann was one of the most spiritual people I've ever met! But Nancy told me one of the funniest family stories. Grandpa Jim always had an interest in other religions. He went to a revival Church in Butte. At the end of the service, the pastor asked everyone to stand, declare their faith and make a dollar donation. No one stood. So the pastor called for the Pledge Of Allegiance... and you guessed it... everyone stood and then had to pay! Grandpa Jim felt he had been swindled, and never went back!

I just got a tip from a neighbor... if you have any palm trees in your area, cut them and put them on your gate to display that this is Palm Sunday.

Please feel free to send me either in comments of emails any favorite resources that you are using that might help and inspire us all. 

 Giant's Heart, St. Michael's Mount Castle in Cornwall England
photo: 10/2016 - Maureen Renden

Heart-filled Loves,

Reenie