The other day, I realized that it had been a very long time since I posted anything about type II diabetes. Recently, one of the people from my church asked me to meet with her.
She had just been diagnosed with pre diabetes, and she was scared. She asked if it would be possible to sit down with her and her son to talk about diabetes and how they could prevent it. Their desire to get back on track while there is still time is pretty common. Actually doing something about it is not.
I’ve been trying to make it to Mass every day since Ash Wednesday. So far, I’ve been successful, but today, it was so hard to get moving and make it on time. I’m glad I made the effort.
One year ago today, I published my first post on Making All Things New:
I’m embarking on a new adventure! For the last eleven months, God has been doing some amazing new things with me. It’s been a radical transformation of my body, mind, and spirit. I want to share with anyone who will listen what’s happened to me, with the hope that maybe they will find some good advice and make some changes for themselves.
307 posts and nearly a quarter of a million hits later, I want to thank everyone who has joined me on this adventure. It’s been fun, and I’m ready to start the next leg of the journey.
For the last couple of years, I’ve learned to appreciate the simplicity of monastery cooking. I guess you could say that I owe it all to a Brother Vincent, a Benedictine monk from upper state New York.
Before I bought his book, Sacred Feasts, I was unaware that, since the beginnings of monastic life, monks were basically vegetarian. Brother Vincent has written several cookbooks and books on prayer, and I like both his cooking and writing styles. One day, I hope to make it up to his monastery to visit.
Do you sometimes scratch your head and ask, just what is God up to? I don’t know about you, but when adversity or difficulties come, there’s a part of me that wants to run the other way. I only give God a fleeting thought as I do my best to avoid the harder things in life.
But running the other way or doing your best to avoid problems means that you really don’t believe God can bring a greater good out of the situation. God sometimes allows adversity to take you to a higher place. He wants to make you stronger. Will you do your part?
The word Lent is from the Anglo-Saxon lencten (spring). This penitential season of six Sundays and forty weekdays prepares us for the great feast of Easter, and it begins today.
Historically, Lent was the retreat-like final preparation for those who would be initiated into the Church at Easter. Many others began using the time for repentance and renewal.
Today is Shrove Tuesday, the day before the beginning of Lent. To shrive someone, in old-fashioned English (he shrives, he shrove, he has shriven) is to hear his acknowledgment of his sins, to assure him of God’s forgiveness, and give him appropriate spiritual advice.
Shrove Tuesday is also called Fat Tuesday, because on that day thrifty housewives use up all the fats (bacon grease, lard, etc.) that she has saved up for cooking, but won’t use during the Lenten season. Since pancakes were a standard way to use up fat, many people dined on them on Shrove Tuesday. That’s the reason way many churches, including my own, have Pancake Suppers tonight.
Thanks for all the prayers for our Confirmation retreat. I’m happy to say it went off without a hitch, and when you put on such an event that involves hundreds of people, that’s no small feat. I promise you that the Holy Spirit was with us each step of the way.
So often I find myself ramping up my prayers to the Holy Spirit whenever I focus on something really big, like a retreat or a major decision. When it comes to the little things in life, however, I think I try and go it alone more often than not. Now, I’m not talking about asking the Holy Spirit to help me decide what I’m going to have for breakfast. Rather, I’m talking about inviting God into normal rhythms of life.
I know a lot of people don’t like mushrooms, but I’ve always felt it’s because they’ve never had them cooked properly 🙂 Just kidding.
Mushrooms are an important part of a vegetarian diet, mainly because they have a meaty texture and add a nice depth of flavor to a recipe. Throw them together with barley and roasted red peppers, and you have a great tasting combination.
We have about two hundred teens going on their Confirmation retreat this weekend. It takes literally hundreds of hours to prepare for this annual event, and I’ll be the first to admit it’s pretty exhausting. I’ll also be the first to say that it’s also exciting to watch the Holy Spirit at work.
I think most of us know that the Holy Spirit is a part of God. Through Scripture, we understand that the Holy Spirit was there in the beginning as a mighty wind (Gen. 1:1), and will be there at the end as life-giving water (Rev. 22:17). But sometimes, in the midst of our daily living, we miss the presence of the Holy Spirit. What can we do to change that?