Incorrupt, Valiant, Passionate CATHOLIC

I am Catholic.

Unapologetic, born and raised, devout, vigilant, Catholic. I’m ready to defend the faith that was given to me, and to every Catholic, more than two thousand years ago.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of Heaven and earth;

This is the opening salvo of the Catholic Church, and my declaration of faith. Without God and His creation, my day to day life seems pointless. It’s just drudgery that eventually leads to the vast, dark, nothingness of death. There is no hope. There is no reason.

and in Jesus Christ,
His only Son Our Lord,

To be among the original Christians, it is requisite to believe in Jesus and His Sonship to God. For Catholics, who carried the truth given to the Apostles and first Christians, it goes much further, much deeper than simply believing that Jesus is the Son of God.

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,

I know this and I believe this. I hold Mother Mary in high esteem as the new Ark of the Covenant with God. A pure vessel who carried our beloved Savior in her holy womb. The old testament Ark of the Covenant was made of pure, perfect gold designed by God Himself. I believe He created Mary from the moment of her conception as that unblemished vessel for His Son. He waited for her “Yes” to be the Mother of Jesus and she remained a virgin forever pure.

suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into Hell;

Jesus suffered for me. He suffered for all of us to redeem us from our sins. Jesus Christ, Our God made Man, suffered the depth of the pain and consequence of our sins and in my own suffering, no matter what it is, physical, emotional, psychological I know Jesus suffered His Passion for me. There’s a place for my suffering.

the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into Heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father almighty;

God raised His beloved Son as the beacon in my life giving me the hope for Heaven which I have already declared my belief in. Like the sun rising in the East, we have hope for the New Day of Heaven after our Earthly life. Jesus preceded us to show us the way! “..everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (From John 3:16)

from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

So believing in my salvation does not come without a price. I cannot coast along in life solely on my belief in the Heavenly Kingdom Jesus’ death promises. I have a job. Jesus gave us the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy as part of our job description, namely,

1. To feed the hungry: Mt. 25:35
2. To give drink to the thirsty: Mt. 25:35
3. To clothe the naked: Mt. 25:36
4. To visit the imprisoned: Mt. 25:36
5. To shelter the homeless: Mt. 25:35
6. To visit the sick: Mt. 25:36
7. To bury the dead: Mt. 25:40

But, I’m also tasked with striving to practice the Seven Capital Virtues in order to overcome the Seven Deadly Sins.

1. Humility (overcoming pride)
2. Generosity (Overcoming greed)
3. Chastity (Overcoming Lust)
4. Meekness (Overcoming Anger)
5. Temperance (Overcoming Gluttony)
6. Brotherly Love (Overcoming Envy)
7. Diligence (Overcoming Sloth)

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body
and life everlasting.

The Holy Spirit enflames me with passion and God’s love. He brings me the knowledge and truth of God’s teachings which have been carried down across time through the doctrines, dogmas, the teaching of the Catholic Church. These doctrines, dogmas and teachings have been preserved unblemished and unchanged from Jesus’ time.

As a Catholic I have the Sacrament of Confession where my sins can be forgiven. After Jesus arose from the dead, He breathed the gift of the Holy Spirit onto his Disciples and said, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained.” (John 20:23) I know when I leave Confession, I am free of the sins I’ve confessed, and depart feeling lighter, and freed from the oppression and weight of those sins.

My belief, my faith infuses me with confidence in the truth and in the promise of eternal life in Heaven. if I am a good and faithful servant, and with a little time in purgatory to fully cleanse my soul and prepare me to see the Face of God, I know heaven awaits my arrival. I cannot wait to join the Communion of Saints in Heaven where, I will rejoice in God and continue to pray for friends, family and all on earth and in purgatory. The reward is priceless-one I will ceaselessly strive to achieve.

Amen.

And I finish where I started. My Amen is my declaration, “Yes Lord! I believe!”

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I will stand before you and fight and defend these beliefs and what they mean to me.

I will fight with doctrine. I will fight with dogma. I will fight with two millennium of teaching.

I will fight with the truth.

I stand firm and I stand strongly a Catholic.

Collected

Psychedelic wildflowers in neon, adorn a hippie-esque hippo given to a sixteen year old. A collection was born. The wild hippo became a Speech Meet mascot, kidnaped, ransomed and protected with squinty suspicious eyes.

The obsession passion, nurtured and propagated with Indiana Jones-like quests, procuring even more. The sleuth collected primitive tribal, garishly ornate, and saccharine cute hippos; ruggedly handsome, curiously unique, and itty-bitty hippos. Acquisition are celebrated, some with stories; all loved.
Wide-mouthed wonders heavily populated horizontal surfaces, now are viewed through goggles of dust-free curio glass. The long gone girl smiles. Favorites have escaped and deliberately splashed about.

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The inspiration is long gone. A plush beanbag hippo, became victim to my young need to display it prominently on the dash of my car. She succumbed to the cruelty of the sun which faded and disintegrated the fabric. Many have followed that small beginning.

Prompt from Velvet Verbosity’s 100 Word Challenge #379:
This weeks word comes from the last page of The Book Thief: “Collection”

This is a blog-hop, so click the 100 Word Challenge button above to enter your link and view other submissions.

2013 in review

2013 was a pretty good year for me creativity wise, even though I lost steam at the end of the year. Here’s what WordPress put together for me for the end of the year. Thanks to all who have read and found my little blog. I hope you stick around for more in 2014!

~ Debbie

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,300 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 38 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

I Can Change

I can change,

but I won’t change who I am. I have behaviors, attitudes, actions, that hinder and alter the way I can, and should interact within my own life as well as with friends, family, acquaintances and even strangers.

I can change,

judging into loving.
fear into confidence.
anger into calmness.
melancholy into happiness.
cynicism into teaching.
weariness into fitness.

These can change me, so I can see an image of a proud and confident woman in the mirror, and project that same pride and confidence to all who are around me.

These are words. Words just lie on a page (or a computer screen), inanimate, inactive. Written and not lived and acted upon, they become a bittersweet symphony. I need to pick up these words and roll them around in my soul, wrap them around my heart and begin living them, because

I can change.

Week 99 at Trifecta has this prompt: We’re asking for your own resolutions in just three words.  Make it count.

Time Slip

My time to blog and write have been seriously infringed upon by my home based business which is rosary sales and building. Every year I set up a table at a bazaar sponsored by our parish’s CCW which has become an annual local event than many attend. As I always manage to do, I wait until about six weeks before to realize my inventory is woefully short and I need to get more items built for the bazaar. This year is no exception. The added pressure came from an uptick in sales of my rosaries from the Parish store. The short version is I’ve been building a minimum of two rosaries a day for the last few weeks. Between the building and the difficulty I have making a design decision, my creativity has been focused very narrowly on the visual and not the written, emotional.

I daily get a twinge, pining away for my laptop and the familiar flow of ideas when I read a blog prompt. I’ve tried but my brain is so firmly involved in beads and wire, and metal it’s like trying to see through a brick wall. It’s not happening. Happily, there is a light at the end of the tunnel as the Bazaar is in just over two weeks.

Every year, after I sit back with my rosary building binge hangover I tell myself, “I’ll build one or two a week for inventory.” That commitment will keep the Parish store stocked and my on hand inventory at a place where if I need, I could build up stock adequately to have a deep selection for the Bazaar in November. It takes 45 minutes to and hour to build and I can carve out that amount of time and it won’t infringe on my writing. I’m already thinking those thoughts and will honestly work on that as a goal moving forward.

I hope those of you who follow my blog and have been reading my story “Faith from Ruin” will stick with me. The hiatus is temporary and I will continue the story, which I hope has the enough potential to become a published piece.

Here’s an example of what I’ve been doing. This is one of around 40 rosaries I’ve built in the last few weeks. There are 19 more on my table to be finished. “Can she do it?” you ask. She certainly hopes she can.

It’s what I do

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Where I Am

Conscience brings my writing to a fork in the road. Personal values push to the front. Do beliefs trump creative suggestion? Or does a virtuous writer write in spite of the moral dilemma?

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Trifecta has given us free reign to write what we want. “this weekend we are asking for a thirty-three word free-write.  Any topic, any style–just give us your best thirty three.”

Writers block, embracing values and asking myself  “Are you who you wanna be?”

Trifextra: Week 75

These Two People

Fifty-four years ago two people, a man and a woman came together, made vows, promises and a covenant was born. This marriage made of vows and promises brought to life a family, born of and in love.

Two people, a man and a woman, served as a Holy example of family and marriage to the family they bore and turned loose on the world. They leaned on each other and held one another up through the ease and the difficulty.

These two people raised that family and taught them to laugh and have fun. A Mom and a Dad, themselves unafraid to be silly, crazy, weird, punny. In fact they encourage it. When all are together it’s sure to be fun and often out of control (in a good way).

These two people, my Mom and my Dad, are MY heroes. What I hope I emulate and what I strive to be. I know every relationship is different, but the nuts and bolts of marriage are the same:

A promise to be true, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. To love and honor all the days of life.

I love you Mom and Dad! Happy Anniversary ❤ ❤

Oh Heavenly Day

He watches clouds billow and dance. Amid the shape-shifting  forms another appears, bouncy and unchanging. His angel retrieves and delivers the white balloon to the boy. Clapping gleefully, he receives the kisses and wishes.

They see a glittering trail where the message traveled from below. A shiny dimpled face dances and sings while two more smiles sigh “Right now, the only thing we really have to do, is have ourselves a heavenly day.”

The boy watches, more balloons appear, their sparkling trails dazzle and thrill. Whispering in his tiny ear, their greeting slowly rises,

“Have a Heavenly Birthday, baby brother!”

God seems to have His hand in things this week. It starts with Lance asking me to chose the song this week for his 100 Word Song prompt. As I read his message, my Capt. had music playing downstairs and I heard  “Heavenly Day” by Patty Griffin. I promptly answered with this song as my choice.

When it came time to write, Happy Birthday wishes began to pour onto my nieces Facebook page for her sweet baby boy, who passed away in December. May 1 was his first birthday. My song choice became a God moment, inspiring me to write to, and for, my great-nephew Marcus. With permission from his mommy, I wove my words among the pictures they took at their celebration.

Happy Birthday Marcus!

I Believe

With cool water, I bless, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, kneel and weep. The crimson light proclaims His Body, Blood, and Soul. Mourning your haunted, prodigal faith, mine soars in light 2000 years old.

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Trifecta’s Trifextra: Week Fifty Seven asks us to write a piece of first person narrative in 33 words. This is my bit using my own voice.

One of my favorite songs ever. I use to play flute in a group at weekend Mass. Every time I hear this song, it makes me weep. I loved playing the flute part, so pure and so haunting. It speaks of my faith and my love for my faith. I truly believe.

May Angels Lead You In

Two weeks ago I began a journey of remember how important it is to appreciate those I love. 20 children were taken from their families in Newtown, Connecticut. Stealing the shared memories and love from the families and friends. I found myself knowing how necessary it is to love and appreciating my kids. To tell them and show them as often as possible.

Sunday, I was pulled soundly to the front and center of the road when a blow fell far closer to home. One of the metaphors for a loved one is to compare them to a bright shining light. When we lose a family member or friend we talk of the light flickering out or ceasing to shine. A very dark veil descended over my family last night when we received frantic, tragic phone calls inciting hurried trips to the hospital where our beautiful boy, my seven month old great-nephew tragically died.

Marcus Daniel – May 1, 2012 – December 23, 2012

My big family has stayed, for the most part, right here in the same town and we are neither small nor quiet. A mass of people who belong to me and my siblings, our in-laws and their families converged in the hospital chapel to support and love my niece, her dear husband, and my sister and brother-in-law, grandparents to this beautiful boy, who left us far too soon. Our hearts and souls know he is in the loving embrace of Our God but our hearts and minds are broken with grief. Truly, an innocent, he had to fly instantly into the arms of the One who loves us most.

We have lost so much and the pain is deep, and enduring. Marcus was a first for so many of us. My parents first great-grandson, my sister and brother-in-law’s first grandson, my nieces and nephews first nephew, me and my siblings first great-nephew, my great-niece’s first sibling and brother, most importantly, my niece and her husbands first son. This first has been taken, and no one will fill the Marcus space. This special boy who was our first.

Other lights continue to shine and shower us with blessings and we must not neglect them, the seven little girls, less than five years old, who looked forward to Santa and had no idea what happened. It was our duty to step outside of our profound grief to make a wonderful, joyous Christmas for these girls who are still beacons in the darkness of our grief. We had to spin the dial and refocus so we could see the sunrise beyond the sunset.

As the days pass I realize Marcus’ light hasn’t burned out. Rather it has simply changed location. His light is shining from above. As I prayed, wept and begged God for comfort I found comfort in a vision of our loved ones who have passed. They were waiting for Marcus and the greeting was grand and joy filled. They were all giddy with anticipation as he came to them and they rejoiced with love and laughter as they received our special boy.

Christmas Day brought more sad news from my oldest son. His dog Smallz, who had been with him through hardship and happiness died. Another blow. Painful to lose a beloved pet, but my vision carried on with Smallz in all her diva glory running into Marcus’ baby arms and giving him a face full of puppy kisses.

My sister, Marcus’ Grammy, snuggling his big sis in grandbaby Christmas blankies she made.

This big, crazy, loud wonderful family is coping and recovering in ones.
One day,
one hour,
one minute,
one breath at a time.
Taking memories one at a time hold them for a moment in our hearts, memorizing an exact heartbeat, a certain expression and cherishing it’s familiarity.
We are encircling each other in loving embraces,
laughing through tears,
and crying through the pain.
It’s all moving us in the right direction where we will heal, but will never forget because there’s a mark tattooed on our hearts.

The mundane and boring are so appealing right now. I want something simple to brighten things. And truly? The simple is a blessing. I need to grab on and savor every boring moment. Hug my loved ones. Tell them I love them. I don’t want to spend a minute regretting what I could have done in any moment because every moment is a gift.

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On a day when music was necessary to think beyond the grief, I put my iPod on Genius, chose a category and hit play. The first song that came on was Hear You Me (May Angels Lead You In) by Jimmy Eat World. Truly, it was a God moment and it has become my song for Marcus. Hit play a couple of times and let these lyrics and music sooth your soul. They have done so for me and the family since I shared it on my Facebook wall.

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Marcus’ visitation is on Sunday December 30, 2012 from 5-7 p.m. with a vigil and rosary to follow. Funeral Mass will be on Monday Dec. 31, 2012 at 2:00 pm at St. Matthews Catholic Church.

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