Summer Activities

          It's hard to believe summer band practice at the high school starts next week for my kids! It means the first day of school is right around the corner, and there's so much to do before then. For instance, my daughter needs to finish the first half of her online Spanish I class. She would've been in class from 7:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. had she gone to summer school, but then she wouldn't have had much of a summer break. The online class is a lot like homeschooling because she can study at her convenience. On the down side, learning a foreign language can be a most difficult thing to do without the benefit of a live teacher. I've been helping by giving her a list of things to study in each chapter, such as vocabulary words, verbs, and phrases. That means reviewing the chapters myself!

 

July Devotion

In the Catholic faith, every month of the year is dedicated to a special devotion. For the month of July, this special devotion is to the Precious Blood of Jesus. Our Lord and Savior shed his blood for us for our redemption. His blood cleanses and purifies out of love, opening the door to eternal life in Heaven.

The link to a great blog and pictures:

http://stjudemonastery.blogspot.com/2009/07/month-of-precious-blood.html

June News

We're ready for rain after day after day of sunny blue skies... The water patrol is out looking for violaters of stage 2 drought restrictions. Lawns can be watered only once a week, and there's no watering on weekends!

School's out, and Matt will be a senior and Sarah, a sophomore next year. The last year of high school is full of activity prior to graduation. Mom and Pop will be busy, too, as volunteers for the Band Boosters.

The study guide for "The Haunting, Ebram's Story" is still a work in progress, but it's a very exciting time! The Catholic Writers' Guild (CWG) is working hard for its members, and I'm on the publicity committee as a crew member, helping compile a list of media contacts. 

An upcoming event sponsored by the CWG and the Catholic Marketing Network (CMN) is the Catholic Writers Conference, scheduled for August 3-5, 2011, at the Scanticon Hotel Valley Forge in King of Prussia, PA. Here's a link with more information: http://www.catholicwritersconference.com/ 

News

While working on a teacher's guide for The Haunting (Ebram's Story: 1), I've restrained myself from placing a lot of emphasis on its religiosity due to the separation of church and state found in public schools. But now that the book has been awarded the Catholic Writers' Guild Seal of Approval, I'm revising it to emphasize its Catholicism and Christianity after all. Exhilarating...and humbling! :o)

May

May is the month of Mary, and a website with lots of information about the history and meaning of this special dedication and tribute to Our Lady is: http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/overviews/months/05_1.cfm.  

Mary Gardens are a special way to honor Our Lady, and I found a picture of such a garden on this website: http://www.sjtbcc-vt.org/Mary's%20Garden.html.

Gospel Reading

In an excerpt from yesterday's gospel reading of Luke 24:13-35, two of Jesus' disciples invited him to stay with them and "...while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight."

A thought for reflection from Fr. Phillips' homily that followed the gospel reading is that "Jesus can walk through walls but not through hearts that are closed to him."

In our daily lives it's often difficult to focus on spiritual things due to other demands. But the more we let our spiritual life get pushed aside, the easier it becomes to ignore it altogether. Before long, serving ourselves becomes more important than serving God, sometimes with disastrous results in this life!

Let's always keep our hearts open to the Lord in praise, adoration, thanksgiving, and petition....It's simply a matter of the will.

Almsgiving

            In addition to praying and fasting, Lent is a time of almsgiving. Local parishes may offer special programs for charitable works during the Lenten season. One such program is Catholic Relief Service's Operation Rice Bowl, which started in a Pennsylvania diocese in 1975. Funds are presently used to battle hunger and poverty around the world as well as within the United States.
http://orb.crs.org/about/

             In my parish, the pastor sent parishioners an email requesting the donation of spare change to support the parochial school's sister school in the Holy Land. There's a friendly competition between grades to see who collects the most coins...

             Here are pictures of Easter-themed Giftigami Boxes. Kids can make and decorate their own box, collect coins, and donate to charity, perfect during Lent! For instructions, please visit http://www.estherlocascio.com