Please click for: Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4, Part5, Part 6 In 1991, the MS forced me into medical retirement from the Canadian Civil Service. I sank into a clinical depression. Being put out to pasture at 38 years of age is not a pleasant prospect. Now, more than 28 years since my diagnosis with MS, my physical health is gone, but […]
In March of 2007, less than a month after I had turned twenty-two years old, I was deployed to Afghanistan with my engineer unit. I would remain in Afghanistan, with the exception of twenty day’s vacation in January of 2008, for the next fifteen months. At that point in my life my faith was quietly […]
The other day I had some precious free time which I was going to spend working on the computer. I set up my laptop on the kitchen table, went to grab something to drink, turned around and found my older son sitting at the computer settling himself in. “What are you doing?” I asked. “Working […]
For Part I of this series, go here; for Part II, here. When I was a little girl, like all little girls, I was interested in naming and categorizing my relationships. You could be my friend, or you could be my best friend, and those things were totally different. I also had a temporary category […]
(Editor’s Note: The following inspiring essay resides on the popular UK blog, eChurch Blog and is written by the site’s webmaster, Stuart James. It is reprinted below with his permission.) Many of us dream of a world filled with justice, peace, equality, harmony, beauty, tranquility, security, permanence, plenty and sometimes we may glimpse for a moment, […]
I have another reason to count my blessings these days: My sleep rhythms have settled down. I can consistently sleep 9 hours a night and arise refreshed in the morning. Sounds like a pretty small triumph, doesn’t it? But I remember the days not so long ago when I was sleeping twelve hours or more, […]
My friend Gary Zimak recently wrote, “One of the biggest mistakes that we can make is to treat the Bible as an ordinary book. Although it may look like a book, it is so much more. When we open up the pages of Sacred Scripture, we can actually hear Jesus speaking directly to us.” It inspired […]
Please read Using the Gifts God Has Given You, Part 1, Using the Gifts God Has Given You, Part 2 and Using the Gifts God Has Given You, Part 3. The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit […]
“So basically you are a ‘vanity press,’” was the question posed to me that really sounded more like a statement of fact—and an unattractive one at that. “Well, we offer a variety of publishing services and some of those services are that authors do, indeed, pay to have their books published with us,” were the […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Exodus 16:2-4,12-15; Psalm 78:3-4,23-25,54; Ephesians 4:17,20-24; John 6:24-35) Spending Time with Jesus, The Bread of Life “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” (John 6:32) After another long day of traveling in the desert, you and your fellow Israelites are tired, hungry, and discouraged. “Is […]
“…because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell…” I was in confession a few years ago when the priest, just before the part where you’re supposed to make your Act of Contrition, advised me to recite the version with the above line in it, rather than the one that says, “because […]
Please click for: Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4, Part5 I considered not including the first part of this posting. It’s too incredible for most people to believe and so I rarely mention it, but it’s absolutely true. It happened. I decided to include it to illustrate God’s hand over my life. In 1982, there was a recession […]
There in the desert [the whole Israelite community] complained to Moses and Aaron and said to them, “We wish that the Lord had killed us in Egypt…you have brought us out into this desert to starve us all to death.” …in the morning there was dew all around the camp. When the dew evaporated, there […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Saying Yes to God’s Call and Promptings “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.” (John 6:9) Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you bring your gifts to Jesus as this young boy did, nothing much seems to happen? They just […]
Click for: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. The next eight years were spent in a spiritual wasteland. The only bright spots were that I married LaRee in 1973 and we had two more children we both adored. But even those bright spots were threatened by my alcoholism. I carried the emotional and […]
OK. Deep breath…. pray! Oh Father, Son, Spirit, Three-fold Family from Whom all families are founded… Help us this day to rejoice in the chaos that is our family. To enter intentionally into the endless mystery of the exhausting energy and tempestuous roller coaster ride of our children’s emotions, all raw and real; primordial mixtures […]
Her son was a wild one. She had tried to impart solid virtues and a lively faith—but her atheist husband quashed that with his brusque way and bad example. So when her eldest son reached his teens, he broke away—rejecting Christianity for an occult religion, and preferring an easy life of casual relationships and carefree […]
Click for: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 In the initial few months after my father’s death I was in a haze of grief. The remainder of winter and early Spring were spent dazed, going through the motions of daily life on automatic pilot. It was the Catholic priest, Father Lynch, who consoled me. My father’s Protestant Church […]
That I, Paul, might not become too elated, because of the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to […]
Please read Using the Gifts God Has Given You, Part 1 and Using the Gifts God Has Given You, Part 2. I remind you to stir [fan] into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. (2 Timothy 1:6) Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. […]
I was at a holy hour the other night, totally focused and immersed in my thoughts, when from the back of the church came the sound of a wailing toddler. Just like that, I lost it. I was completely distracted by some kid who was far too young to be stuck sitting in a church. […]
Do you take God with you into all aspects of your life? Or does God stay in the “God – Box” of your life? As adults we have categorized much of our lives. We have “boxes” to keep things neat and clear. There is the “career box” how we feel about our career, our hopes […]
Click for: Part One, Part Two Dad began to slowly recover. We were ecstatic the day he was moved from the ICU to a regular ward. He had slipped out of the clutches of death. The day he was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital, it was like we had turned a corner into sunlight. In […]
“God did not make death, Neither does He have pleasure over the destruction of the living. For He created all things that they might exist, And the generations of the world so they might be preserved For there was no poison of death in them, Nor was the reign of Hades on the earth. For […]
