Books Read in the Past Week

"Betty Smith
Life of the Author of
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn"#
by Valerie Raleigh Yow
[biography]
(carried over from last week, still not finished)


"The Way of a Pilgrim
and The Pilgrim Continues His Way"
author unknown.
Translated by Helen Bacovcin
Foreword by Walter J. Ciszek, S.J.
[Spirituality (Orthodox, Russian) Fiction? Non-fiction?]
(carried over from last week)

"The story of the Ingalls
What happened next to Laura's Family"#
by William Anderson
[biography]
{one of the most interesting parts was the
inclusion of a diary Laura's youngest sister,
Grace, kept when she was a girl.}

"Magnificent Obsessions
Twenty Remarkable Collectors in Pursuit of Their Dreams"#
by Mitch Tuchman
Photographs by Peter Brenner
[nonfiction]
{carrying over into next week}

"Chelsea and The Outrageous Phone Bill"
by Hilda Stahl
[children's fiction, Christian, Protestant {denomination(s) not specified}, series]
{carrying over into next week}

New Picture Added

I've just added this picture to my Rosary Art Collection.
One thing I love about collecting Rosary art is discovering new artists.
Another thing I love is discovering new paintings by artists I already know and like.

Homily and Prayer Requests

Before beginning his homily, Fr. Anthony made two prayer requests.
In the homily itself, he spoke about the Prefaces for Lent.

This is (was) Strange!

Notice the changes to the layout of this blog? I did not
make these changes. And where are all the elements I added? Where are my links?
Is anyone else experiencing this?
Update: Things are back to normal!  Thank God!

Adapting a Slogan

Remember this commercial?

Well, perhaps what Catholic institutions need to say in regard to Obama's Contraception
Mandate is something along these lines:
"We won't! We're Catholic!"

Chotki

I always find myself praying, silently,
The Jesus Prayer, or The Prayer of The Heart much more frequently when I'm reading,
or have recently read this book!

The version I use, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner," is slightly different from the one the Pilgrim prays.
Sometimes I just say the Prayer over and over, for example when doing certain tasks,
but now that I have a Chotki,

I can also repeat the Prayer a set number of times.

My First Ash Wednesday (reposted from last year)

I remember my very first Ash Wednesday, my first day of
fasting as a Catholic. For me it was easy as pie; it was
a piece of cake. (Although, of course, I had neither pie nor
cake!)
Remember, I am a Jewish convert, a veteran of Yom Kippur
fasts: From a little before sundown until a little after sundown,
no food, and nothing to drink. Not even a sip of water!
The not eating wasn't all that hard (I'm not saying it was a picnic, but who picnicked on Yom Kippur, anyway?).
What I found hard was the "not even a sip of water" part.
So, my first fast as a Catholic was easy in that respect. What I found difficult was figuring out the "two small meals that
together don't equal a full meal."
It was like a combined one-day-diet and math exercise!
When Fr. Kelly asked me how I'd gotten through my first
fast-day, I couldn't help laughing.
"Father," I said, "you don't know from fasting!"