Recently on Women of Grace® Live, I received a call from a woman we’ll call Sandy. She shared that not long ago she “did something” she deeply regretted. She told us that she had confessed this “something” several times but could not forgive herself. She was sick of heart and this disposition was clearly evidenced in her voice.
First, I asked my listening audience to join me in prayer for Sandy and then I offered her some thoughts to ponder. Shortly thereafter, I received an email from someone who was listening that day. He expressed that he found the advice helpful in his life as well.
The fact is many have suffered, are suffering, or will suffer with the guilt of a sin. How do we look at the mistakes we have made? Can they be stepping stones to a deeper relationship with God rather than chains that bind us to bad decisions? Let me share with you some of the insights I offered Sandy.
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Many traditions have accompanied the celebration of Easter which lasts for fifty days (from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday) and is called the "great Sunday." Following are some of the ones I have found most interesting to discover. See what you think.
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Today is the 2nd anniversary of my husband Anthony's death. It hasn't gotten much easier. Oh, the mind-numbing grief has waned, but I haven't gotten used to him being gone. No way. Does that ever happen I wonder? Just last week while in New Jersey presenting at a women's conference, I had the overwhelming urge to call him and share with him about the events of the day. ZING!
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I recently received this email from my friend, Dale O'Leary. It is well worth reading and sharing with those you know who may be misinformed. Over Christmas I had a conversation with a well-meaning young lady who insisted that condom use takes care of the threat of HIV. As I told her then, and state yet again, not so. In fact, condom use does very little to curtail the spread of AIDS for a number of reasons. O'Leary points these out. Identify those reasons, learn them, and share them when given the opportunity.
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My landscaping was ravaged by the last frost that hit the Tampa Bay area. I've done nothing about it, fearful that we might get one last blast.
Everything outside my windows looks dead. Brown and decaying. It is sad, though somehow strangely right, to have things dead-looking during Lent. It seems liturgically correct.
For me personally, the sad exterior of my home and the liturgical season are more than "strangely right." They are fitting. And perfectly match the landscape of my heart.
The past five Lents have been particularly poignant for me and have settled into my being like another self. Five years ago, during Lent, my son, Simon, was killed in a vehicular accident not long after he returned to the States from Iraq. Two Lents ago, my husband, Anthony, was in the last days of his life. Brain cancer. He succumbed to a coma on Easter Sunday morning and died three days later.
The lens of life turned brown then, like the shrubbery outside of my home.
And every Ash Wednesday, without a conscious thought to the past, brown comes back and paints the inner recesses of my heart in somber tones.
It's a funny thing about those shrubs, though. They don't tell the whole story. My limited vision sees only brown, but another color is working its way through them. Green.
Lent doesn't tell the whole story either. New life is coming. Resurrection.
And my heart's landscape is short-lived, too. Blossoms are on the horizon. Hope.
On my son's grave marker is the passage Revelation 21:5 -- "Behold, I make all things new." And so He does. My God takes brown and makes it shimmer with gold.
Easter is coming.
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I had just gotten to baggage claim after arriving in Orange, CA. I turned on my cell phone to see that a voice message was waiting for me. The name and number said, "Michael Dubruiel." A smile came to my face as Mike has been a long time friend. Editor of two of my books, and acquisitions editor for another, Mike and I have spent many long hours on the phone together. Most recently, Mike was appointed Director of Evangelization for the Diocese of Birmingham.
When I listened to the voice message, however, my smile instantly dissipated. It was Mike's wife's voice I heard, well-known author and blogger, Amy Welborn. I heard what she was saying and yet it couldn't register in my mind. I pressed the button and listened again, and then quickly called her. When I spoke to her in person, Amy confirmed what I feared I had heard: Mike was gone. He collapsed at the gym the morning before. Just barely 50 and with no apparent physical problems.
Amy's blog has it all there for you, including the last article he wrote for publication in the Birmingham diocesan paper. Something worth reading, to be sure. Amy's blog address is
www.amywelborn.wordpress.com.
I have experienced the death of loved ones twice now -- one tragically and unexpectedly, one planned for and anticipated. The surreal experience of it all -- the shock and disbelief, the numbing reality, the misery and sorrow -- are almost impossible to communicate. And yet, for those of us with faith, we know God is present with us, and somehow mysteriously interacting with us in the midst of it all.
I know you will pray for Amy, for the four children left behind, and for the repose of Mike's soul. He would be pleased, I know, if we kept our eyes on Jesus, lived each moment in the grace of the present moment, and did all we could to bring the Faith to others. Mike was/is an evangelizer. He lived it in word and deed. Let us do the same.
May you rest in peace, Mike. And God bless you, Amy and children. We are praying for you.
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I just don't like it -- putting away Christmas, I mean. I must be the last person in our neighborhood to take down the tree, pack up the ornaments, and put away the garland and wreaths. I've pondered what it is I dislike about it, and it clearly is much more than the work of it all. It's seems deeper than that. Certainly the memories of Christmas "play forward" as they say, so it can't be that either. What
is it? What could it be?
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Today on our radio radio program Halley from Buffalo called in to talk about FOCA – the Freedom of Choice Act – promised to be passed by our president-elect. She told us that someone had listed in her parish’s Sunday bulletin the contact information for all of the senators and congressmen in her state so that parishioners could voice their concerns about all that FOCA entails.
Halley then made reference to a Blog article I had posted on November 3, 2008 just prior to our national election. In it, I talk about FOCA and what it proposes. Halley suggested that copies of this blog article be reproduced and shared with others to alert them to FOCA’s dangers.
I agreed and to that end I am offering you the article again. Please use it to help inform others. Simply make certain that you use the permission notice at its end. May we continue to work together to make certain FOCA does not become law.
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This past Sunday we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany. For those of us familiar with the story, we may well have listened with expectation as the Gospel story drew to its conclusion. But the fact of the matter is, God is always seeking to draw us to Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ and, for that reason, He offers us many opportunities for “epiphanies” in our own lives – moments imbued with His presence that cause us to look at life people, circumstances, and life events – from a more heavenly perspective. These insights reveal to us that the moments of our lives are “shot through” with the Divine Life and offer us a glimpse, no matter how fleeting, of Trinitarian Love.
Following is a prayer time reflection that I recount in my book, Full of Grace: Women and the Abundant Life. It speaks of a moment in which I perceived the story of the Magi from a uniquely new vantage point. May it offer you moments of prayerful meditation, reflection, light, and joy.
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Perhaps one of the topics we get a lot of questions about is prayer. What is Christian prayer? How do I pray? Why does it seem God doesn't answer prayer? These are all good questions, and because prayer is foundational to the spiritual life, they deserve good answers. In this blog, I am going to answer many of these questions and refer to my book. Following are my answers to your requests on prayer.
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