Place: Charlotte, NC

Order: Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration

Things I didn’t know: cloistered nuns aren’t boring, introverted or serious

Best part of visit: laughing and enjoying each others sense of humor

I was extremely happy with my blackberry PlayBook until I realize it has a total lack of catholic apps. No daily Mass readings (only generic Bible apps), no breviaries, nor MassTimes.Org, or any of the spiritual material I need. I really didn’t want to settle for an ipad but looks like I might have to…though who wants to lug a ten-inch thing around, or even take pics/video with such a monster.

so, I can wait for apple to make a 7-inch tablet (whenever that will be), wait  for the new $250 Asus and hope for the best, or none of the above.

I’m so bummed I’ll go with option C. Why settle? Sometimes technology isn’t so great.

It seems that patience has lost its place in the modern world. We even expect God to answer us instantly as if He were Siri telling us where the nearest Starbucks is. Click here to continue reading.

You watch too much British TV when…you see the word “schedule” and have to remind yourself to pronounce it the American way. #anglophile

“SUNDAY DRESS - Remember the time when people put on their “Sunday best” to go to church? In fact, dress clothes were often referred to as Sunday clothes. In some parts of the country, this is not common today. In fact, all too often, dress in church has become too casual. In all areas of our lives, we should offer Christ our best. And the same is true of our dress. We should offer Christ our “Sunday best”, not our everyday or common wear. And we should dress modestly, not in a flashy way that would bring attention to ourselves. Our dress should always be becoming of a Christian - especially at church. 

North American society in the late 20th century is rather casual in its approach to life. Don’t allow this prevailing attitude to enter into your Orthodox Christian piety. There are surely a lot of other areas that could be covered here. Much of church etiquette is based on common sense and showing respect for God and others. Always remember that you are in church to worship God, the Holy Trinity. The priest says, “With the fear of God and faith and love, draw near.”

Many in our post modern world today want to be “spiritual” - but they want to be spiritual without being religious. As one person wrote in one of our national news weeklies: keep Jesus but lose the Church. Many, it would seem, want to have a relationship with Jesus but without the Church. And so we find people who say that they believe but they do not belong. (And we also see people who belong but who do not believe.) But as Jesus indicates in the Gospel today, this is not possible. One of the ancient Fathers of the Church wrote: You cannot have God as your Father if the Church is not your mother.

(Source: miamiarch.org)

Christian without joy is an oxymoron.

A beautiful video about vocational discernment

Now that I’ve seen the official trailer, I don’t think I want to watch it anymore. Modern music?? Are you kidding me? That kills it. Takes away from the jazz age feel. Ugh. I’m so disappointed. It’s one of my favorite books. (And never mind that DiCaprio is wayyy too old for Mulligan. Just sayin’).

In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers.

In reality a few years’ difference in the date of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university over another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting — any of these chances might have kept us apart.

But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work.

Christ who said to the disciples, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to any group of friends, “You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.

(Occasion: unintentional rhyming.)

How great that we have the true Giver of life:
The very Son himself, present in our lives,
Like the warmth and embrace of sunshine.
Imagine how much more we would thrive
If we were to live in this light at all times!

-C.S. Lewis

We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing.

Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others.

(Source: sweetybuu)