Morning Pages -31 Day Challenge Day 3

The trouble with looking on Facebook on a Monday morning is that everyone posts the great things they did that weekend and sometimes I can end up feeling like a slug.
I saw that friends were at the Ryder Cup, went canoeing, hiked in Duluth and one even rode an elephant. It all sounds so exciting!
Sure, this last weekend was great and I posted pictures from the wedding and even wrote about my time with family, but envy  can creep in even when you are having a great time!
Envy is a tough sin for me. I suppose it relates to my need to want to have more. Growing up in a family of six can probably train you to work for what you need and grab it quick before it is gone. Wanting more of something really good is bad when you compare yourself to others. It is also bad when you don't want others to have what you have.
One year for Lent I gave up comparing myself to others.
Gods love is endless and so is his goodness. Why should I limit my love and goodness by comparing it?
Resolve for today: Live in the moment. Love what's in front of you. Don't compare your life to anyone else's.
You are unique! (Like everyone else! Haha)

Morning Pages 31 Day Challenge Day 2

So the point to morning pages is to write every morning before you really do anything else. You are trying to capture your first thoughts in the morning.
The reason I want to combine this discipline with prayer is because all to often I start my day thinking of what I need to do instead of being grateful to God for all I have.
Yesterday I spent the day at my great niece's wedding. It was awesome that they were married in the beautiful church in New Prague, St. Wenceslaus, the church I was baptized.
Being with family really gives me a lot to be grateful for. My four sisters (and one in heaven) have a bond that has grown in different ways throughout the years.
This is always the most evident when someone is in crisis. A few years ago I was having some extrem difficulty through my workplace and was having, what I guess I would call, a nervous breakdown. I took a leave from work to work things out.
I emailed my sisters to let them know and the following week we all met for dinner. It was a different gathering than most of the time we meet. We didn't talk about our kids, but instead talked about our experiences growing up. Birth order, experiences and personalities had all made us view the world slightly differently, yet there is a deep bond that draws us together. Just this one experience with my sisters helped in healing some wounds I was dealing with.
My sister Maureen commented yesterday that we probably only all get together 5 or 6 times a year, if even that much, but the love and support is always there.

Resolve for today- make a point of spending time with those you love; family and close friends near and far.

Morning Pages a 31 Day Challenge

Today I am starting a 31 Day writing challenge. I realized that I have not blogged here for so long, that I had forgotten my log in.
For me, writing is one way in which I pray, so I will be writing my morning pages (a discipline that has helped me write and pray in the past) each day.
Morning pages are about the consistency of the writing habit but it also is about the disipline of prayer.
There are no rules in Morning pages except to write every day!
Wish me luck and follow along.

A little late in sharing this but I want to introduce 

the book I helped publish with Fr. Kevin Finnegan! 

I have a confession to make. Since it is Ash Wednesday, it seems like a good day to lay out the truth.

Here goes: For as long as I can remember, I have never liked praying the Stations of the Cross! I mean I never “got” it. As a child, I remember waiting out the time repeating words I didn’t understand. Later, when I taught physical education at a Catholic school, I jokingly called it “Catholic aerobics.” Stand, genuflect, kneel, repeat.

I suppose, as with other beautiful Catholic devotions I didn’t immediately take to, I needed to explore the stations more deeply and see how God could make them personal for me. And that’s exactly what He did last year.

On Good Friday, my husband and I attended the Stations of the Cross at our parish, Divine Mercy Catholic Church in Faribault, MN. Fr. Kevin Finnegan, our previous pastor, had compiled beautiful reflections from various Catholic authors and saints that fit each station perfectly. My husband and I were in tears at the end of the service. The journey of Christ’s passion, through the stations, finally became personal for me.

The Stations of the Cross are Christ’s journey to the Cross. We follow in His footsteps with each station, and reflect on our own journey through life and the specific trials we have encountered.

After my experience with the Stations of the Cross, coupled with the beautiful reflections Father compiled, I set out on another journey: to share these stations with others. After Easter, I approached Father about the possibility of publishing these stations as a book. Perhaps if I struggled with the Stations of the Cross, maybe others did, too. Perhaps these additional reflections could assist them in growing in their love of this timeless devotion, like they helped me.

Well, I am happy to share that these stations are now available in a book called A Walk of Mercy: The Divine Mercy Stations of the Cross. Inspired by the prayers of St. Faustina, it includes reflections from various Catholic saints and writers, and is a moving devotional for personal or communal use. Along with the stations, Fr. Finnegan gives instruction on how to pray the stations. Also included in the book are striking photographs of the 100-year-old Stations of the Cross from the old German Catholic Church in our community.

Here is an excerpt from Bishop Andrew Cozzens’ foreword in the book:

This Walk of Mercy is meant to draw us more deeply into the merciful love of Jesus. It is meant to teach us that our own sufferings and failings are places of mercy, not places of condemnation. It is meant to show us that the merciful love of Jesus knows no limits. This is what allows us to surrender our whole lives to him: we know the depth of his mercy for us, so we can pick up our cross and follow him. As you pray these stations and meditate on Jesus’ mercy poured out for you, I pray you will be able to say in every circumstance what Jesus himself said the night of his passion, “for his mercy endures forever.”

Thankfully, I don’t hate the Stations of the Cross anymore! And I am recommitted to exploring other Catholic traditions that haven’t penetrated my heart yet. (The key word here is yet.)

This Lent, consider exploring a devotional tradition that has slipped away from our modern lives. Maybe it is the daily Rosary, a particular novena, lectio divina, Eucharistic Adoration, or Stations of the Cross. Maybe it is recommitting to the practice of fasting and abstinence. Maybe it is answering that question, “What are you giving up for Lent?” in a way that allows real commitment to journey with Christ in the desert.

Our Catholic Church is rich in so many traditions, and we are blessed to have God working in our hearts in so many ways.

A Walk of Mercy: The Divine Mercy Stations of the Cross can be purchased on Amazon.com. Proceeds for the book go to the Garden of Mercy at Divine Mercy Parish in Faribault, MN.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. (John 3:16)

This Scripture quote is from today's Gospel. One can hardly not know this reading from John. It is plastered on bumper stickers, signs at football games, coffee mugs, and T-shirts. It has been called he most famous Bible verse. It has also been called the "Gospel in a nutshell," because it is considered a summary of the central theme of Christianity.

It takes on as many personal stories and meanings as there are people.

Today, it holds a special meaning as I reflect on these words.

Yesterday was the 23rd anniversary of my own son’s death. At three weeks old, he died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, leaving behind his twin sister and his two very broken parents. In this short post, I can’t fully explore what this Gospel passage means to me, but I know that it has taken 23 years to fully reflect on the gift Christ gave me in knowing that Jordan David Wilson did not perish but waits for me to join him in eternal life.

Today, reflect on some aspect of the gifts you have received because you believe in this “Gospel in a nutshell.”

*The above photograph is from the Garden of Mercy at Divine Mercy Catholic Church in Faribault, MN. Inspired by Sharon Wilson, the garden came into fruition by a group of volunteers from the parish. It is dedicated to all who have lost a child, before or after birth. A stone with a child's name can be placed in the garden as a memorial. For more information, please visit Divine Mercy Catholic Church or call (507) 334-2266.

 merry “little” christmas!

By Sharon Wilson

In my husband’s family, we celebrate “Little” Christmas. I have no idea if this is a wider tradition than the Wisconsin Wilson family, but it mostly consists of an opportunity to give a small gift to loved ones.

“Little” Christmas lands on the Feast of the Epiphany—traditionally January 6 though celebrated liturgically last Sunday.

From my vantage point, I think it is a tradition made up by my mother–in-law so that she could give the gifts that she had forgotten to give on Christmas Day. These gifts were most likely purchased in July and hidden under the bed until Christmas. But in the bustle of wrapping a multitude of gifts, they were missed.

The Feast of the Epiphany is the celebration of the Magi reaching Christ in the manger.

And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother.

—Matthew 2:9-11

The word epiphany is also used when we have an experience of sudden realization. Realizations, like Isaac Newton’s “discovery” of gravity by the falling of an apple, are characterized as an epiphany. We hear these words used so differently—epiphany as a realization and Epiphany as the celebration of the Magi—we sometimes forget that they are related.

Psychologists have studied the process of innovation, and despite the idea that an epiphany comes “out of the blue,” they have found that epiphanies are generally followed by a process of significant thought about a problem. Often, they are triggered by a new piece of information, but a depth of prior knowledge and effort is required to allow the leap of understanding.

Applying this to my spiritual life, I think about all of the epiphanies I would like to have infused into my brain. Some mysteries of the Catholic faith are harder for me to understand, and though I accept them on faith, I long to have a clearer understanding of the mysteries of the Trinity or the Eucharist. I have had a few “eureka” moments, but like the Magi, who sought long and hard to find Christ, I need to put the effort into it.

The Feast of Epiphany is a time for me to reflect and recommit to the life-long study of our faith and maybe, like the long forgotten gift under the bed, an epiphany will come as a welcome gift to be shared with others.

Today, pick an aspect from our faith to study. Or recommit to Bible study or prayer time. Like the Magi, we should search long and hard for Christ every day. We just may find that the gift we seek was under the bed the whole time!

I Fell in Love Again Today

I wrote this in April, but just remembered to publish it today.


After months of dealing with change, disappointment and sadness, I woke up today remembering that God is real and he knows me and loves me.
All of us experience disappointments in our lives and depending on the circumstances it can take days, months even years to move through them.  I say move through because all wounds need to be cleaned.  If a wound is left to it's own devices it may fester and if tended only lightly it will leave a great scar.  All wounds of the heart leave a scar and as we heard last week on Divine Mercy Sunday of Christ's great example of of how His wounds were exposed so that Thomas could believe.