St Teresa of Avila

Know that even when you are in the kitchen, 

our Lord moves amidst the pots and pans. 

(St Teresa of Avila)

 We'll be celebrating with some paella on the grill- it's probably the last time it will be warm enough to grill out. My metal turkey roaster makes a perfect paella pan, and I simplify by using a bag of frozen mixed seafood.

(Image Source: Gerard, St Theresa, 1827)

St Francis of Assisi

Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society. 

(Saint Francis of Assisi)

Image source: El Greco, Francis Meditating

St Elizabeth of Hungary

Elizabeth was a lifelong friend of the poor and gave herself entirely to relieving the hungry. She ordered that one of her castle should be converted into a hospital in which she gathered many of the weak and feeble. She generously gave alms to all who were in need, not only in that place but in all the territories of her husband’s empire. She spent all her own revenue from her husband’s four principalities, and finally she sold her luxurious possessions and rich clothes for the sake of the poor. (Conrad of Marburg, her confessor)



Image top: The Charity of St Elizabeth, Bartolomeo Schedoni, 1611
Image bottom: The Prayer Book of St Elizabeth of Hungary, 1220

St Frances Cabrini

Although her constitution was very frail, her spirit was endowed with such singular strength that knowing the will of God in her regard she permitted nothing to impede her from accomplishing what seemed beyond the strength of one woman.

(Pius XII, Canonization of St Frances Cabrini)

St Martin of Tours

"Lord, if your people still need me, I am ready for the task; your will be done."
St Martin of Tours














Image source: Bernini "The Charity of St Martin"

St Leo the Great

Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no conflict without an enemy, no victory without strife.
Pope Saint Leo the Great












"Alessandro Algardi Meeting of Leo I and Attila 01" by Alessandro Algardi, (Italian, 1598–1654) - Image from Web Gallery of Art. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alessandro_Algardi_Meeting_of_Leo_I_and_Attila_01.jpg#/media/File:Alessandro_Algardi_Meeting_of_Leo_I_and_Attila_01.jpg

When the swallows return to Capistrano

Mission San Juan Capistrano

 A little reading from today's saint and about the mission that bears his name...

 Those who are called to the table of the Lord must glow with the brightness that comes from the good example of a praiseworthy and blameless life. They must completely remove from their lives the filth and uncleanness of vice. Their upright lives must make them like the salt of the earth for themselves and for the rest of mankind...So it must be with the glowing lives of upright and holy clerics. By the brightness of their holiness they must bring light and serenity to all who gaze upon them. They have been placed here to care for others. Their own lives should be an example to others, showing how they must live in the house of the Lord.(
Mirror of the Clergyby Saint John of Capistrano)

There’s a figure in all this...for the condition of American Catholicism. Its long history, certainly, from the Spanish colonial beginnings on. But, most of all, San Juan Capistrano seems an image for recent decades—because sometime around 1970, the leaders of the Catholic Church in America took a stick and knocked down all the swallows’ nests...And it wasn’t until the swallows had been chased away that anyone seemed to realize how much the Church itself needed them, darting around the chapels and flitting through the cathedrals. They provided beauty, and eccentricity, and life. What they did, really, was provide Catholicism to the Catholic Church in America, and none of the multimedia Masses and liturgical extravaganzas in the years since—none of the decoy nests and artificial puddles—has managed to call them home. (Joseph Bottum, First Things)

Image source

Give greater glory to God

When you bring order into your life your time will multiply and, as a result, you will be able to give greater glory to God, by working more in his service. 

(The Way, 80)

The Liturgy derives its greatness from what it is, not from what we make of it. Our participation is, of course, necessary, but as a means of asserting ourselves humbly into the spirit of the Liturgy and of serving him who is the true subject of the Liturgy: Jesus Christ.

-Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, July 2001

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought;

and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

-G. K. Chesterton

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Sins and Housework

It's true, in general our sins are always the same, but we clean our house, our room, at least every week, although the dirt is always the same. Confession is necessary only in the case of grave sin. But it is very useful to go to confession regularly to cultivate cleanliness and beauty of soul, and to mature little by little in life.

Pope Benedict XVI

Cloche tip to Julie, the Happy Catholic

St Clare

O wondrous blessed clarity of Clare!
In life she shone to a few;
after death she shines on the whole world!
On earth she was a clear light;
Now in heaven she is a brilliant sun.
O how great the vehemence of the
brilliance of this clarity!
On earth this light was indeed kept
within cloistered walls,
yet shed abroad its shining rays;
It was confined within a convent cell,
yet spread itself through the wide world.
- Pope Innocent IV

Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

Whatever did not fit in with my plan did lie within the plan of God. I have an ever deeper and firmer belief that nothing is merely an accident when seen in the light of God, that my whole life down to the smallest details has been marked out for me in the plan of Divine Providence
and has a completely coherent meaning in God’s all-seeing eyes.
And so I am beginning to rejoice in the light of glory
wherein this meaning will be unveiled to me.
(St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a martyr and brilliant scholar, is a wonderful example of feminine genius and an inspiration to the Church Ladies. Read more about her life here.

Going to be at Our Lady's University this winter? Here's a sneak peek at the 6th annual Edith Stein Project Conference, an annual conference that addresses various issues of gender, sexuality, and human dignity by exploring what it means to be authentic women and men. The 2012 conference theme is "Encountering Vulnerability: Courage, Hope and Trust in the 21st Century."

Image source

Kinfolk

I just finished reading Issue One of Kinfolk: A Guide for Small Gatherings online, and it was chock-full of inspirations from kindred spirits. The gatherings range from coffee for two, to dinner parties, to a picnic in a meadow, with an emphasis on simplicity, the better to enjoy each others company. I can't say how much I loved the fact that the first section is Entertaining for One, (i.e., alone time). I even came away with a few insights relevant to my prayer life, as those articles focused on making time to be quiet every day, both outside and in.

Do read and enjoy, pluck something for your quote journal ("A house is no home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body."), and walk away with some new ideas for your next gathering of two or twenty.

(Cloche tip: Margaret Perry)

Proverbs

Source: printablescripture.etsy.com via bemerrykate on Pinterest

A thought for the weekend

Source: funkyvintagekitchenblog.com via justcrazyjane on Pinterest

Considering this quote in the light of Catholic theology (i.e., that we are all meant to conform ourselves to God, who is the Creator) ought to give you more than enough to ponder for the weekend.

Myself, I've been feeling quite creative lately; something about the change of seasons always does that for me. I have a nearly-finished Father's Day present on my sewing machine, along with a shirtdress for summer dinner parties; several less-worn items in my closet are slated for reworking or embellishing to get them back into the rotation; the sprouts in my little garden are starting to look promising, and I'm hoping to tackle some home improvements in the near future.

What creative things have you slated for the coming week?

A Holy Week Morning Offering

Good morning, good God!

It has begun, Lord: the week we call Holy...

I've read that theologians argue
over whether or not time, or some unit of time,
can actually be holy...

I'll leave that to the scholars this morning
and simply wonder about my growing in holiness
in the week ahead...

Just shy of four days left in Lent, Lord,
and those are my last four chances in 2011
to live as a Lenten Christian...

Four days to be more faithful to prayer,
morning or night or in between,
or whenever you and I can sit down
and just have a chat, one-on-one,
just the two of us, Lord...

Four days to deny myself
some taste or sip, some pleasure or toy,
and experience the emptiness denial creates,
the hunger it leaves to be fed
and the chance to wonder
how I might fill and feed the void...

Read the rest here.

h/t Whispers.

How can women rule the world?

To a great extent the level of any civilization is the level of its womanhood. When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more noble her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness, the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Cloche tip to Jennifer Fulwiler

St Margaret, Queen of Scots

She was also a pioneer in another sphere. Bands of women met together at her invitation to study, discuss the Scriptures, and embroider vestments and altar cloths for the churches. So we can call Margaret the inventor of the Women's Club.

[Phyllis McGinley, Saint-Watching]

When tempted, invoke your Angel.

He is more eager to help you than you are to be helped!

Ignore the devil and do not be afraid of him:

He trembles and flees at the sight of your Guardian Angel.

St. John Bosco