Little Things for God

By Mary Wollney

Preparing Our Hearts for Christmas

At this time of year we receive a variety of holiday invitations.  Traditional ones come from friends asking us to join them in celebration.  Non-traditional invitations come from both society and religion:

·                    Society invites us to prepare our homes for the holiday. 

·                    Advent invites us to prepare our hearts for Christmas.

We know how to prepare our homes.  But just how do we prepare our hearts???

We do it one trying situation at a time.  Every time we feel ‘pushed’ we are given an opportunity to change and prepare our heart by sharing love instead of frustration.  

Sometimes a visual aid helps: When we are stressed and in a foul frame of mind, that’s when it helps to visualize lighting a candle of love in our hearts.

Candles represent light. When a candle of love is in our heart we feel at peace, which makes it easier to share love.  Sharing love is one way to prepare our heart for Christmas.

As we go about our lives it’s easy for our candle of love to either blow out or completely burn out.  Someone may cut us off in traffic.  Someone may take ‘our’ parking space.  Someone may cut in line at the department store.  They may utter an unkind word.  They may make unreasonable demands.  Every day, all day long, life presents us with situations that can cause our candle of love to burn out.  Darkness results.

That’s when we need to relight our candle.

Little Things for God

By Mary Wollney

A Gift from the Beach

It’s interesting to know that one little thing can lead to a variety of discussions and raise so many questions.            

Last Saturday morning I went for a walk along the beach. Each day the treasures are different.  This day was unusual because partially buried in the sand was a strand of beads.  It turned out to be rosary beads.  Not your usual beach treasure. 

It was a first for me, and especially meaningful because later that day I was to speak to approximately 1000 people at mass.  It felt to me that God was saying, “I am with you. Take these beads and go forth to tell your story.”

When I spoke at mass I mentioned the treasure I found.  I was a bit surprised by the reactions. One gentleman remarked that he reached for a Kleenex when he heard the story. It seems that for most this find was a sign from God that touched their heart.

Another woman’s reaction was simple. 

The celebration of Mass is a corporate act, an act of the whole assembly gathered for worship. All the particular ministries serve this corporate function (GIRM, no. 27). In the Mass, the Church is joined to the action of Christ, the high point both of the action by which God sanctifies the world in Christ and of the worship that the human race offers to the Father, adoring him through Christ, the Son of God, in the Holy Spirit (no. 16). We are joined to this divine action through baptism, which incorporates us into the risen Christ. This action, which lies at the center of the whole Christian life (no. 16) is not initiated by us but by God acting in and through the Church as the body of the risen Christ.

Finding Your Keys: Chris Faddis & “Fast For Haiti" - A podcast by Catholic Josh LeBlanc.  He discusses suffering, and offering it up with special guest Chris Faddis talking about his unique project, Fast For Haiti!

What if thousands of people decided to fast 1 to 3 meals and then donated $5, $10, or $15 to relief efforts to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti? We could literally send thousands of dollars in aid to help those in need and we could do it in the matter of a few days. Join the effort and spread the word, get your entire youth group, your church choir, your parish, your co-workers, your young adult group, your campus ministry group, whoever you can to join this effort. Pick one day in the next week and fast for 1 to 3 meals that day - then donate $5, $10, or $15. www.fastforhaiti.com is an effort of Chris Faddis and www.livinggracefully.net - all proceeds are to be given directly to an aid organization such as Catholic Relief Services. For more information or media inquiries please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CRUCIFIX

Catholics are often asked why we have crucifixes and not just the plain cross? A crucifix is a cross which has the crucified body (the corpus) of Christ. The answer comes from Scripture:

"But we preach Christ crucified: unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness: But unto them that are called...Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." ( I Corinthians 1:23-24)

The presence of Christ's body on the cross does not mean that we ignore the Resurrection. Instead, it is a reminder to us that the bonds of sin were broken by Christ's suffering and death (1 Peter 2:24).

The crucifix is a sign of Christ's unconditional love for us, a reminder of the hope we have for a life united to Him, and an outward expression of our Faith as Catholic Christians.

For these reasons, the Catholic Church encourages the faithful to place crucifixes and other sacramentals in their churches, institutions, and homes. A sacramental is an object such as a crucifix, rosary, statue, or artwork which helps us grow in our faith and open our hearts to God's graces. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1677)