03.14.2026

22°F SE10mph SR0716(0616) SS1908(1808)

Morning Offering given

Village sleeps

Coffee strong

St. Mathilda proves that political leaders can encourage charity through righteous leadership. Lord, thank you for those leaders who model and promote Christianity in government.

Meditations for Each Day, pg. 98, “The Spirit of Prayer.”
Jesus tells us, “they must always pray and not lose heart.” We must always remain united to God in mind and heart. The Spirit of Prayer can really change everything.

Scripture Reading Day 14 ” The Way of the Cross”
John 19:30 ^* When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.”^q And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

The prediction for today is wind and snow. With that in mind, today’s schedule has been redone to include staying around the home fire. Yesterday, the walls in the kitchen were sanded. Today, hopefully, they will see paint. This has been an extremely long and challenging process for me. This project was started when Jason was 18, yesterday he turned 25. Our longest ongoing project has the hope of being finished. The man and I have always had a yearly project to work on, and in most instances, that project was completed in a certain time frame. Generally, before the annual family reunion in July. This year, the man turns 75. There are aches and pains he refuses to admit to. There are memory issues he doesn’t acknowledge. The same goes for me; I turn 71 this year. Our children are off living their own lives, as are our grandchildren. When you put that all together, you get delayed projects that seem unending. What was once a family endeavor has become two old people trying to continue. Sadly, this means it takes much longer. Pride gets in the way of asking the children to help. Hope that perhaps they would recognize the issue and just show up saying, ” Let’s get this done,” factors in. Regardless of whether it is finished or not finished, this will be our last project.
Sometime this weekend, I will go around and make a list of everything that needs finishing. As well as a list of things left to do. Perhaps that will get a place on the refrigerator to cross off. He is tired of me reminding him of something he already knows.

I’ve commented previously on a blogger named Sarah Trent. She touches me with her writing. Perhaps she has something for you as well. I’ve also commented previously on Jay Jay Douglas. His reels touch me as well. During this Lenten season, I have been watching and reading these two, wishing I had known about them years ago. They would have made a difference in my life back then. They make a difference in my thought process today. I’ve also been reading (barely, it makes me think too much) Overcoming Lukewarmness: Healing your Soul’s Sadness by Francis Fernandez-Carvajal. This, too, has been eye-opening for me. When I was younger and so very busy in the Church, it never occurred to me that I would feel distance. But when the COVID shutdowns happened, it messed with my commitment. Unfortunately, it messed with many people’s commitment. The Church was suddenly saying everything that was a must was now ‘not a must’. They chose fear of something that might happen over tending their flock. They punished those who went boldly ahead to preach the gospel by making them seem like they were doing wrong. I wonder what would have happened to the Lepers if St Damien of Molokai had listened. Where would the Church be today if the disciples had stayed in line? They pushed everyone away out of fear of catching and spreading something. In doing so, the foundation cracked and began to crumble. Now they are doing the ‘new age’ thing with happy, clappy music and a change in wording to make things more entertaining. There is NOTHING entertaining about Christ’s sacrifice of life for our sins. The quiet and heavy load of acknowledging that MY sin put Christ on that Cross and that he willingly died for ME is what Mass is all about. They say the retirement years are “Golden”, they could be if we weren’t rushing through them like madmen trying to have “fun” and see all the things we’d put on our bucket list over the years. But then, the going rage is to “have fun”, do it all, regardless of the cost to you or your soul.

Know you are prayed for.