A Happy Ending and an Amazing Beginning ....

... for our dear friend, Karen over at That I May be of Use.  A little less than a year ago, I came to ask your prayers for Karen as she discerned God's will for her to join the Domincans of Nashville.  A major stumbling block was the heavy financial burden she had with her undergraduate student loans. 

She has reached that goal through the prayers and sacrifice and financial support of many people and organizations and on August 11, 2010, Karen will enter the Domincan Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, TN.  Thank you for all your prayers for Karen ... and please continue to keep her in your prayers as she begins the walk to follow God's will for her.  She will join a former student of Rick's who has been in the novitate a year and has taken her first vows.

St. Dominic and St. Cecilia ... please pray for Karen and all those discerning a vocation to the religious life!

 

Review: finding the fountain of youth ...

... well, not really, but have I got a book for those of us who are feeling our age ... or worried about aging ... or worried about our loved ones aging. 

Run, don't walk, and get a copy of Aging with Grace by Dr. Snowdon, an epidemiologist.  This is a remarkable book that tells lovingly about the lives of School Sisters of Notre Dame and the aging process.  Because, after all is said and done ... we are all aging.  We can do it gracefully, as the Sisters do, or we can do it "fight and screaming" (as I'd like to do).  But, the bottom line is that we are all aging. 

I find out about this book through knitting.  Seriously. 

A few weeks ago, I spoke at a women's Lenten retreat and after I did my talk, I sat in the back and knitted away while the retreat ebbed and flowed around me.  A dear friend, and Dominican sister but NOT a knitter, gave me a rough time about knitting.  Sister loves to tease and I took it all in the spirit for which it was meant ... basically I ignored the poor non-knitter.  But she made a statement that struck me as odd ... "I'll learn to knit when I'm 60."  I just half-jokingly told her to email me and I would be right there with needles and yarn.  And then she explained Aging with Grace showed her the need to learn new things.

Intrigued, I requested the book and read it cover to cover in just a few days. 

I can remember hearing occasionally about the "nun study" on aging and how some scientist had found that proverbial fountain of youth.  Well, not exactly, but what Dr. Snowdon did find when we started studying these dear women is that aging with grace means staying cheerful, constantly learning/trying new things, and loving the journey all the way to the end. 

Dr. Snowdon has been tracking various School Sisters of Notre Dame for over 20 years and has found that those who exhibit minor (if at all) symptoms of Alzheimer's are those who at 67 went to Africa to evangelize, who at 70 were still teaching in schools, who at 87 were still knitting a pair of mittens each day for the homeless.  These ladies know how to grow old gracefully and with all their mental (if not their physical) faculties in tact.  As a group, those who show few signs of the sad part of aging -- dementia, physical ailments, depression, self-centeredness -- but rather show the joy of loving the Lord and living fully the life God has given them.

One thing I really liked about the "nun study book" is that the researcher, a cradle Catholic who attended Catholic schools most of his life, really loves his "test participants".  He describes each sister with a love and care of a son or nephew.  He rejoices when he visits a centuarian on her birthday and is saddened when one of his ladies dies before he can visit her one last time.  He plays cards with them, jokes with them, banters with them -- regardless of their age or infirmities.  And all his subjects are not aging with grace -- but he treats each with the God-given dignity of the Human Person, regardless of their incapacities.

This book is filled with much more than the answer to aging -- it is filled with love of the human person and the gifts each brings to the world.

Novena: thank you St. Angela!

As I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago, our dear friend Karen asked us to pray a novena to St. Angela Merici for her intercessions on helping Karen attain her goal of wiping out her financial debt so that she can enter the Dominicans in August. 

Yesterday, Karen was notified that St. Angela had pulled through for her and the grant from Mater Ecclesia came thru -- Karen is now 51% of her way through with fund-raising. 

If you have a minute please pray a prayer of thanksgiving to St. Angela; also it would be wonderful if you could take a minute and send up a prayer that Karen's fund-raising efforts continue successfully so that she may follow God's call to become a Dominican Sister of St. Cecilia!

Novena: prayer card for you

As I mentioned last night, we are doing a very special novena for a very special friend.  If you'd like to print
a copy of the novena, just right click the image above and save to your computer or print directly.  This is a beautiful prayer to a beautiful saint for a beautiful woman trying to fulfill God's call. 

Please join us in prayer.

Novena: please pray this lovely prayer with us ...

... for a dear friend, Karen Mahowald, who is discerning a vocation to the Dominican Sisters of Nashville.  Karen is trying to enter this August, but needs to clear her student-loan debt before being accepted.  She has asked for our prayers to help her in this endeavor.

Here is the novena to St. Angela Merici, which we will start on Tuesday, Jan 19th and finish on Wednesday, Jan 27th (St. Angela's feast day):

Novena to Saint Angela Merici

January 19th to January 27th (Ending on St. Angela's Feast Day)

Saint Angela, you chose Karen as she prepared for her Confirmation, please watch over her now as she prepares to enter religious life. You instructed the young women of your time to live and grow in charity. Pray that Karen will receive a grant from Mater Ecclesiae. Please intercede not only for Karen's material needs but also her spiritual ones. Pray that Karen will be impelled always by charity and zeal for souls.


Lord, may Saint Angela commend us to Your mercy; may her charity and wisdom help us to be faithful to Your teaching and to follow it in our lives. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen

Pray one Our Father, One Hail Mary and One Glory Be in honor of Saint Angela; end the novena prayer with St. Angela, Pray for us.

St. Therese says it all ...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my personal motto for the year is a quote from St. Therese.  Known as the Little Flower, St. Therese is inspiring in her simplicity and love of Jesus.  Here is a link to a beautiful post by a good friend who, God willing, in 2010 will enter the Dominican Congregation of St. Cecilia (aka, Nashville Dominicans).  Karen did what I do all the time .. took a simple thought and made it into a bigger, more stressful post than it needed to be.  This link is the result of her self-awareness....

St. Therese tells us quite simply:

Our Lord needs from us neither great deeds nor profound thoughts. Neither intelligence nor talents. He cherishes simplicity.

I need to remember this in all things ... particularly in pushing my kids to excel or in stressing myself out over the unimportant minutiae of the day.  I really need to memorize her Story of a Soul!

St. Therese, please pray for us all ... that we remember to stress the right things and not stress over the wrong things! 

Family: climbing the mountain to fulfill God's will ...

A dear, dear friend of ours needs help.  She is a young teacher at dh's high school who believes God wills her to become a Dominican Sister of Nashville (an amazing, vibrant community of ladies who teach all over the world). 

This is not an easy journey.  There are many bumps, hills, and even mountains she must scale before she can join.  First, she had to accept the call, the urging within her that God was asking her to "be of use" in this way.  She has climbed that bump.  First she had to be accepted into the novitiatiate.  She has climbed that hill.  There is at least one mountain, a big one at that, which she needs to climb before she is able to join.  She's about two-thirds of the way up that mountain, but it is a big one ...

The Dominican Sisters will not allow you to enter until you are debt-free.  Now, Karen is a very frugal person; however, her one big debt is the student loans she took out to allow her to receive a degree from Catholic University of America.  She has cleared two of the three loans and now has less than a year to clear the last loan.  Donations to Karen are not tax-deductible ... but they will help this lovely young woman on her journey to fulfill God's will.

Won't you help?  On her blog, That I May be of Use, she has a donation button.  There is also an address if you'd like to send her a check. 

She also asks that you send up some prayers for her continued quest to be obedient to God ... all else will follow.