Weekends

Addie got her hair cut this week. Davy smiles for the camera.

Yesterday I saw a conference given by a Spanish couple who have 18 kids, 15 living. Her name is Rosa Pich and she has a book here. One of my takeaways from the conference, other than there really is no natural explanation for all their sacrifice (just supernatural), was that you have to make time for your spouse, away from your kids. I already knew that you should put your spouse first, before your kids, but it has been more of a challenge now with a baby who doesn't sleep easily aaaand a toddler. Imagine with 15!

Last weekend I left the baby for the first time... for a mere two hours... and we had a coffee date. It was short but oh so worth it. Here's to hoping this weekend is as good as the last. Even though the house was constantly messy and we were tired, we went on the date, we ate yummy things (see picture of spanakopita + salad with feta + rasberries + wine), and we had our first ever family movie afternoon, complete with popcorn. We watched The Sound of Music. Ok, so the baby didn't cooperate much, the toddler sat still for about ten minutes... but us parents actually watched it.

Happy weekend to you!

Diary of Saint Faustina Quotes

I've wanted to read the Diary of Saint Faustina for a long time and during the Year of Mercy was the perfect time. It is long and repetitive and hard to get through, but worth it. The first third of the book (about) I was having a really hard time getting into the book. Saint Faustina sounded like a massochistic psychopath and Jesus like a sadistic psychopath. Sorry, yes, it was freaking me out.

But then I don't know if the book changed or I changed, but I suddenly started loving it and it suddenly started making sense. Hmm, I guess that will forever remain a mystery. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

I saw Our Lady visiting the souls in Purgatory. The souls call her “The Star of the Sea.” She brings them refreshment. (20)

A confessor can help a soul a great deal, but he can also cause it a lot of harm. Oh, how careful confessors should be about the work of God’s grace in their penitents’ souls! (35)

Sufferings, adversities, humiliations, failures and suspicions that have come my way are splinters that keep alive the fire of my love for You, O Jesus. (57)

Suffering is a great grace; through suffering the soul becomes like the Savior; in suffering love becomes crystallized; the greater the suffering, the purer the love. (57)

And now when I hear people sometimes say that they have no confessor; that is to say, a director, fear takes hold of me, because I know very well how much harm I myself experienced when I did not have this help. It is so easy to go astray when one has no guide! (61)

I change hard work of yours into bouquets of most beautiful flowers, and their perfume rises up to My throne. (65)

I see that God never tries us beyond what we are able to suffer. Oh, I fear nothing; if God sends such great suffering to a soul. He upholds it with an even greater grace, although we are not aware of it. One act of trust at such moments gives greater glory to God than whole hours passed in prayer filled with consolations. (41)

It is not for the success of a work, but for the suffering that I give reward. (90)

When I receive Jesus in Holy Communion, I ask Him fervently to deign to heal my tongue so that I would offend neither God nor neighbor by it. I want my tongue to praise God without cease. Great are the faults committed by the tongue. The soul will not attain sanctity if it does not keep watch over its tongue. (46)

Sometimes we kill with the tongue: we commit real murders. And we are still to regard that as a small thing? I truly do not understand such consciences. (119)

Still, superiors are always superiors. And although they humiliated me personally and, on occasions, filled me with all kinds of doubts, they always allowed me to do what the Lord demanded. (128)

I will avoid sisters who grumble, and if they cannot be avoided, I will at least keep silent before them, thus letting them know how sorry I am to hear such things. (226)

I must do everything and act in all manners now as I would like to do and act at the hour of my death. (226)

I must not let myself become absorbed in the whirl of work, but take a break to look up to Heaven. (226)

I will thank the Lord Jesus for every humiliation and will pray specially for the person who has given me the chance to be humiliated. (243)

I feel certain that my mission will not come to an end upon my death, but will begin. (281)

I tried to explain to her that when we suffer much we have a great chance to show God that we love Him; but when we suffer little we have less occasion to show God our love; and when we do not suffer at all, our love is then neither great nor pure. (303)

Oh, how great a grace it is to have a spiritual director! One makes more rapid progress in virtue, sees the will of God more clearly, fulfills it more faithfully, and follows a road that is sure and free of dangers. The director knows how to avoid the rocks against which the soul could be shattered. (331)

Jesus answered that He would grant her that favor, not for her sake, but for the sake of my request. Now I understood how much we ought to pray for sinners, and especially for our wards. (350)

To comfort you, let Me tell you that there are souls living in the world who love Me dearly… Their number is very small. They are a defense or the world before the justice of the Heavenly Father and a means of obtaining mercy for the world. The love and sacrifice of these souls sustain the world in existence. (367)

We should derive two kinds of profit from Holy Confession:  1. We come to confession to be healed;  2. We come to be educated – like a small child, our soul has a constant need of education. (377)

You are a sweet grape in a chosen cluster; I want others to have a share in the juice that is flowing within you. (393)

I accept joy or suffering, praise or humiliation with the same disposition. I remember that one and the other are passing. (485)

Each battle valiantly fought brings me joy, peace, light, experience and courage for the future; honor and glory to God; and in the end, for me, a reward. (499)

Only love has meaning; it raises up our smallest actions into infinity. (502)

We will bear in mind that a soldier on the front line cannot hold out long without support from the rear forces that do not actually take part in the fighting but provide for all his needs; and that such is the role of prayer, and that therefore each one of us is to be distinguished by an apostolic spirit. (539)

When you reflect upon what I tell you in the depths of your heart, you profit more than if you had read many books. Oh, if souls would only want to listen to My voice when I am speaking in the depths of their hearts, they would reach the peak of holiness in a short time. (584)

Right away I said the Te Deum for this special grace of God; namely of learning how God treats those He intends to have close to himself. Thus, all sufferings are nothing in comparison with what awaits us in heaven. (596)

He has deigned to place these pillars of light along the path of my spiritual life. They light my way so that I do nog to astray or become delayed in my journey toward close union with the Lord. I have a great love for the Church, which educates souls and leads them to God. (749)

When the soul returns to its habitual form of life, it then sees that this life is all darkness and mist and dreamlike confusion, an infant’s swaddling clothes. (767)

My daughter, I am told that there is much simplicity in you, so why do you not tell Me about everything that concerns you, even the smallest details? Tell Me about everything, and know that this will give Me great joy. (921)

Know, my daughter, that the entire Holy Trinity finds Its special delight in you, because you live exclusively by the will of God. No sacrifice can compare with this. (955)

Oh, if only the suffering soul knew how it is loved by God, it would die of joy and excess of happiness! Some day, we will know the value of suffering, but then we will no longer be able to suffer. The present moment is ours. (963)

I took part in this retreat, as I very much desire to know God more deeply and to love Him more ardently, for I have understood that the greater the knowledge, the stronger the love. (974)

I felt today how greatly a certain dying soul desired prayers. I prayed until I felt she had died. Oh, dying souls are in such great need of prayer! O Jesus, inspire souls to pray often for the dying. (1015)

I made an hour of adoration in thanksgiving for the graces which had been granted me and for my illness. Illness also is a great grace. I have been ill for four months, but I do not recall having wasted so much as a minute of it. All has been for God and souls; I want to be faithful to Him everywhere. (1062)

The quintessence of love is sacrifice and suffering. Truth wears a crown of thorns. Prayer involves the intellect, the will, and the emotions. (1103)

Let the toiling and tired souls rejoice. (1127)

O Jesus, I see so much beauty scattered around me, beauty for which I give You constant thanks. But I see that some souls are like stone, always cold and unfeeling. Even miracles hardly move them. Their eyes are always fixed on their feet, and so they see nothing but themselves. (1284)

As I write these words, I hear the cry of Satan: “She’s writing everything, she’s writing everything, and because of this we are losing so much! Do not write about the goodness of God; He is just!” And howling with fury, he vanished. (1338)

O humdrum days, filled with darkness, I look upon you with a solemn and festive eye. How great and solemn is the time that gives us the chance to gather merits for eternal heaven!  I understand how the saints made use of it. (1373)

I have come to know that every soul would like to have divine comforts, but is by no means willing to forsake human comforts, whereas these two things cannot be reconciled. (1443)

Although I am feeling weak, and my nature is clamoring for rest, I feel the inspiration of grace telling me to take hold of myself and write, write for the comfort of souls, whom I love so much and with whom I will share all eternity. And I desire eternal life for them so ardently that that is why I use all my free moments, no matter how short, for writing in the way that Jesus wishes of me. (1471)

O truth, so often oppressed, you nearly always wear a crown of thorns! O Eternal Truth, support me that I may have the courage to speak the truth even if it would come about that I would pay for it with my life. (1482)

But understand that the strength by which you bear sufferings comes from frequent Communions. So approach this fountain of mercy often, to draw with the vessel of trust whatever you need. (1487)

My child, know that the greatest obstacles to holiness are discouragement and an exaggerated anxiety. These will deprive you of the ability to practice virtue. All temptations united together ought not disturb your interior peace, not even momentarily. Sensitiveness and discouragement are the fruits of self-love. You should not become discouraged, but strive to make My love reign in place of your self-love. (1488)

Secretary of My most profound mystery, know that yours is an exclusive intimacy with me. Your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about My mercy, for the benefit  those who by reading these things will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach Me. I therefor want you to devote all your free moments to writing. (1693)

At the same instant, I received an interior answer from God that a thousand souls had received grace through the prayerful mediation I had offered to God. We do not know the number of souls that is ours to save through our prayers and sacrifices; therefore, let us always pray for sinners. (1783)

Article up

Ok, here it is... my article about zee Mr. Trump:

Trump Embodies the American Spirit

Even if you don't agree, I hope it's thought provoking. That's what I hope with all my articles. And this one was certainly fun to write.

By the way, you know that US presidents aren't elected by popular vote, right? This question is more for my non-American readers. And did you know that the electoral college only votes in December and the votes are only opened in January? And in a reeeeeally off-chance it could be a tie, the House of Representatives would decide? I read this article and was majorly confused. But then I read this article about the electoral college and how it works and feel much more clarified. I highly recommend it.

Voting...?

The election is coming.. the election is coming!!!

Is anyone else nervous/anxious/excited to see what happens like I am? Ok, I'm sure you're tired of hearing about it and kind of disgusted with the candidates.

I have an article about that... it will be published Monday.

But meanwhile...
Are you confused about all of this pro-life talk? Is it wrong/ignorant to be a "one-issue voter" and just vote according to a candidate's stance on abortion/euthanasia/etc? You should read Evangelium Vitae, if you haven't. It's very clear on those issues (as is every other Church document/statement on those issues... but whatever, people believe what they want to believe). I posted my favorite quotes from EV here.

I recently read a quote from Fr. Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, in which he says a government that authorizes the killing of babies and old people has become a "tyrant state" and moral corruption has been institutionalized in policy. It's not about one issue or another then, the very nature of the state is wrong. He takes this expression from Evangelium Vitae n. 20. I had already read this encyclical but I went back and read n. 20. It's worth a rereading so I'll post it here:

This view of freedom leads to a serious distortion of life in society. If the promotion of the self is understood in terms of absolute autonomy, people inevitably reach the point of rejecting one another. Everyone else is considered an enemy from whom one has to defend oneself. Thus soci- ety becomes a mass of individuals placed side by side, but without any mutual bonds. Each one wishes to assert himself independently of the other and in fact intends to make his own interests prevail. Still, in the face of other people's analogous interests, some kind of compromise must be found, if one wants a society in which the maximum possible freedom is guaranteed to each individual. In this way, any reference to common values and to a truth absolutely binding on everyone is lost, and social life ventures on to the shifting sands of complete relativism. At that point, everything is negotiable, everything is open to bargaining: even the first of the fundamental rights, the right to life.

This is what is happening also at the level of politics and government: the original and inalienable right to life is questioned or denied on the basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the people-even if it is the majority. This is the sinister result of a relativism which reigns unopposed: the "right" ceases to be such, because it is no longer firmly founded on the inviolable dignity of the person, but is made subject to the will of the stronger part. In this way democracy, contradicting its own principles, effectively moves towards a form of totalitarianism. The State is no longer the "common home" where all can live together on the basis of principles of fundamental equality, but is transformed into a tyrant State, which arrogates to itself the right to dispose of the life of the weakest and most defenceless members, from the unborn child to the elderly, in the name of a public interest which is really nothing but the interest of one part. The appearance of the strictest respect for legality is maintained, at least when the laws permitting abortion and euthanasia are the result of a ballot in accordance with what are generally seen as the rules of democracy. Really, what we have here is only the tragic caricature of legality; the democratic ideal, which is only truly such when it acknowledges and safeguards the dignity of every human person, is betrayed in its very foundations: "How is it still possible to speak of the dignity of every human person when the killing of the weakest and most innocent is permitted? In the name of what justice is the most unjust of discriminations practised: some individuals are held to be deserving of defence and others are denied that dignity?" When this happens, the process leading to the breakdown of a genuinely human co-existence and the disintegration of the State itself has already begun.

To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin" (Jn 8:34).

 - Evangelium Vitae, n. 20

Bacalhau

I've posted this bacalhau recipe on here before. In case you don't live in Portugal, bacalhau is salty codfish and it's every Portuguese man's favorite food. It's apparently my two-year-old's, also. She actually yells, " I want bacalhau!" Why would you love a fish so salty and bland when there are so many other delicious things in the world? Beats me, Portugal.

Every time I make this my husband says "wow, this is really good". Which is motivating to make it more often. So I thought it deserved a reposting. And a reminding that you don't have to soak it that long (12 hours is enough) or boil it that long (five minutes is enough) or soak it in milk that long (or at all). And I don't use as much onion, just half an onion. And lots of olive oil. And I now add two cans of chickpeas.

Enjoy!