Sunday, November 6, 2011

Religious Joys/Religiöse Freuden

Sundays are always our days of religious joys.  There is Mass every morning, of course.  Our pastor is in a rehabilitation center of the Brothers of Mercy now.  He is improving, but nobody knows if he will gain enough strength to come back.  So we had Monsignor B. today.  Based on the readings for today he asked us in his homily: Are you ready to die, in 10 minutes, in several hours, in several months or years?  Do you live your life in a way that, like the ten wise virgins, shows you are prepared for your death, which could come, like the bridegroom, very unexpectedly?  Lots of food for thought here and so appropriate for the month of November.  We also had coffee and doughnuts today.  A lady from our congregation has put together a beautiful calendar of our parish with lots of pictures of our pastor and the parishioners.  We could see the first copy of it today.  Another couple from our parish had just returned from their two-month trip to Europe.  They took the ship there -- something I would love to do one of these days, just to get a feeling for the distance.  They showed us where they had traveled.  They went down the Rhine and said hello to Bonn, my birthplace.  Jonathan and Miriam helped in the kitchen while the other girls colored.

Some religious joys at home were the first story from the beautiful book Catholic Stories for Boys and Girls.  It was about a little girl that through her love and tenderness helps a dying man in a hospital to have a last confession and receive the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick after a very sinful life.  Another joy was the re-reading of the book Father Phillip Tells a Ghost Story, a book that starts out with Halloween and leads to the exploration of ghosts from a Catholic perspective.  We (Jonathan, Charlottoe and I) also watched the movie Thérèse a few Sundays ago and enjoyed it very much.  Here is the trailer:






Some faith in action was the coloring of placemats for prisoners in the area.  We are not finished with these, but they have to be done by early next week so that the prisoners will be able to receive them for Thanksgiving.

Now some last pictures for today.  Julius, our cat, for the first time sat in Flora's lap.  She was very touched and happy.






Unsere Sonntage sind immer unsere Tage für kleine religiöse Freuden.  Natürlich gibt es am Morgen stets eine schöne Messe; leider ist unser Pfarrer immer noch nicht wieder zurück.  Er ist jetzt in einem Rehabilitationsheim, welches von den "Brothers of Mercy" (Der Gründer dieses Ordens, den "Barmherzigen Brüdern von Montabaur",  kam aus Deutschland und hieß Bruder Ignatius Peter Lötschert.), geleitet wird.  Es geht ihm besser, aber er ist immer noch schwach.  Wann und ob er zurückkommen wird, steht noch nicht fest.  Deswegen hatten wir heute Monsignore B.  In seiner Predigt, die sich an den Lesungen und dem Evangelium orientierte, stellte er uns Fragen, wie "Wenn ich in zehn Minuten stürbe, wäre ich dazu bereit? Oder in einigen Studen, oder Monaten oder Jahren?  Lebe ich mein Leben so, daß ich jederzeit guten Gewissens sterben könnte?  Gehöre ich zu den klugen oder den törrichten Jungfrauen (Evangelium heute), die sich auf das Kommen des Bräutigams vorbereitet haben?".  Das gibt natürlich viel Stoff zum Nachdenken.  Nach der Messe gab es Kaffee und Kuchen.  Eine Frau aus unserer Gemeinde hat einen schönen Fotokalender von unserem Pfarrer und den Gemeindemitgliedern zusammengestellt.  Man konnte ihn heute anschauen und eine Bestellung dafür aufgeben.  Ein anderes Ehepaar war gerade von einer zweimonatigen Reise durch Europa zurückgekehrt.  Sie sind mit dem Schiff dorthin gefahren; etwas, was ich auch unbedingt mal machen will, um ein Gefühl für die Entfernung zu bekommen.  Sie haben uns auf der Landkarte genau gezeigt, wo sie überall waren.  U.a. sind sie auch mit dem Schiff den Rhein runtergefahren und haben meine Geburtsstadt Bonn besucht.  Jonathan und Miriam haben in der Küche geholfen, während die anderen Mädchen gemalt haben.    


Zu Hause gab es religiöse Freuden in Form von zwei schönen Büchern und vor einigen Sonntagen in Form einer DVD.  Wir haben heute die erste Geschichte aus dem Büchlein Catholic Stories for Boys and Girls gelesen.  Einem kleinen Mädchen gelingt die Bekehrung eines Mannes, welcher im Sterben liegt, aber seit seiner Erstkommunion nicht mehr bei der Beichte und Kommunion war.  Durch ihre Liebe und ihr eindringliches Reden läßt der Mann kurz vor seinem Tode den Pfarrer kommen, beichtet sein gesamtes sündhaftes Leben und empfängt die Krankensalbung.  Unser zweites Buch ist ein Buch, welches wir jedes Jahr um diese Zeit lesen: Father Phillip Tells a Ghost Story.  Es fängt mit Halloween an und geht von da über zu Geistern und ihren Erscheinungen auf Erden -- alles aus der katholischen Sicht und für Kinder leicht verständlich.  Den Film, den wir (Jonathan, Charlotte und ich) uns vor kurzem angeschaut haben, ist ein Film über das Leben der heiligen Therese aus Frankreich.  Ein sehr schöner Film, oben kann man Teile daraus sehen.  


Unsere Nächstenliebe haben wir geübt, indem wir angefangen haben, Platzdeckchen für Gefangene aus einem Gefängnis in der Nähe zu malen.  Bis nächste Woche müssen sie fertig werden, damit die Gefangenen sie dann am amerikanischen Erntedankfest erhalten können.  


Zuletzt habe ich noch einige Fotos von Flora, die zum ersten Mal Julius auf dem Schoß hatte und darüber sehr glücklich und stolz war.  


7 comments:

  1. We too had the same homily! Father told a story of St Francis. He was gardening one day and was asked, "What would you do if you knew you would die by sunset?" He replied quite peacefully, " Continue gardening!!" I somehow do not think I could be so assured in my relationship with God!

    Sounds like you had a truly beautiful Sunday, what a great way to begin your week.

    Hugs San xx

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  2. I like that story, San. It has almost a "Zen" quality to it. I don't know how I would react, if somebody told me that. Life is so short and there are still so many things I would like to do, but I also realize that I have probably already lived at least half of my life. The Amish around here have a huge trust in God, come what may. Maybe we could learn something from them.

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  3. Continued prayers for your pastor. Julius is a big cat! That is such a sweet picture. My daughter is a bit too rough for our cat to come near her like that. Most times he runs from her. We enjoyed that movie as well. I'll have to rent it again from Netflix.
    Alexandra

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  4. Thank you, Alexandra. Julius is quite large, but not heavy. He gets lots of outdoor exercise. Until recently Flora was too rough with him also, but she has turned into a loving friend. She also likes to feed him. The movie caused me to cry several times. I have a hard time with movies. Movie images stay with me for a long time. That's why I'm very careful about how much and what I watch.

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  5. Julius looks quite fit, just large boned. I like big kitties(not fat, just large) - more to love. :)

    I filter movies and television as well. I rarely watch television, and we don't go to the movies much. We have Netflix, but my son uses this mostly for his children's shows which he enjoys. I've gone through just about all the Catholic type films available at Netflix. I watched many of the saint films during Lent in the past few years. There is a really good Mother Theresa one that is uplifting. I think you'd like it.

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  6. I have never tried Netflix, don't you have to pay for it? Our library has quite a good selection of DVDs, even religious ones. Do you know about Piusmedia? You can rent mostly Catholic movies from them. I haven't tried it, but I'm very tempted, now that a few children are older. I don't allow the little ones to watch DVDs yet.

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  7. Yes, Netflix is about $10.00 per month, maybe more because they recently had a price increase. Our library is not so great, so we supplement form other sources. Thank you for the information about Piusmedia! I will check this out.

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