7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 92

— 1 —  This Week’s Post:  How Much Time Should You Give Him?  6 months.

“…the marriage discussion should be on the table, prompted by him, in the first 6 months…”

— 2 —  Next Week’s Post:   Even secular, non-chaste guys agree that a girl should not wait around for a guy to decide.  I will share an article by a secular, non-chaste dating ‘coach’ who backs up the limited time factor!

— 3 —  Not Alone Series:  The girls are back!!! And, they had 15 contributors along with several new ‘hello, my name is’ introductions on their Facebook private page (come and join us!).

    This week they discuss ways they can be more involved at church or in their communities.  Check out all their posts over at Morgan’s blog!  I am so proud of all of them and felt so edified by their sense of service to the Lord and His Church.  Way to go, girls!

— 4 — Spotlight On:  This week’s spotlight is on Mark and Katie Hartfiel as they are going to be on Life on the Rock tonight at 8:00pm.  Remember Katie wrote the book, Woman In Love (which I loved) and I did a review. Check them out!

— 5 —  Clouded By My Unmet Needs:  I read the article called “My Survival Story” which was about surviving the hook-up culture in college.  There was one line that really caught my attention as I think it explains what goes on inside the head and heart.  What are your unmet needs and what are you doing to manage them and heal?
“I was clouded by my unmet needs.”

— 6 —  Still Thinking On-line Dating Is Stupid?:  Check out this video!

— 7 —   The Lord Loves Repentence:   Saint Romanos Melodios (around the year 560) wrote this:

“Let us meditate on the Ninevites…, let us listen to what they did. After the terrifying proclamation made by Jonah before this gluttonous and drunken people…, like capable workmen they made hast to restore the city their evil deeds had destroyed, taking a sure rock for its foundation…: repentance.

Son of the One God, O only God, who carry out the will of those who love you, protect them in your mercy… As in former days you took pity on the Ninevites… so today release from judgment those who sing to you and grant me forgiveness in return for my confession… Since I have no works worthy of your glory, at least save me, my Savior, for my words of contrition: you who love repentance.”

God love and bless you!

p.s.s. Check out all my posts listed by category here!

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this post! If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Please check me out and follow me on Twitter too!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 92

— 1 —  This Week’s Post:  He Doesn’t Need More Time  It is tempting to think that guys need to gather more information before deciding to marry a girl.  More time, to me, can spell trouble. How much time, you ask?  See next week’s post!

— 2 —  Next Week’s Post:  This was in the comments section and I plan to answer it, as well as the ‘how much time?’ question next week!

Cindy, why do you think that men string women along even when they know they don’t want to marry them? I understand that for a lot of men, it’s sex, but why would a practising Catholic/Christian man (whose girlfriend is, I assume, not sleeping with him) string things out?

I’ve heard the opinion that a woman should break up with a man after a year if he hasn’t at least mentioned marrying her (the opinion-giver added the caveat that the man and woman should both be finished with university in order for this rule to apply.) What do you think?

 

— 3 —  Saint Hat Trick:  Three great saints had feast days this month!

August 20th:  Saint Bernard of Clairveau (patron Saint of this blog)

St Bernard of Clairveaux

August 27th:  Saint Monica (Saint Augustine’s mother and patron saint of mothers with sons)

St Monica

August 28th:  Saint Augustine (patron saint for all of us sinners searching for the truth)

St Augustine 1

— 4 — Of Course He Would Give Us A Pope:  Sunday’s readings reminded us that God cares about us so much that He left us in good hands.  He did not leave us to figure it out on our own.  Isn’t it interesting that the role of The Pope was prophesized about way back in Isaiah?
  “I shall place the key of David’s palace on his shoulder; when he opens, no one will close, when he closes, no one will open.”
Isaiah 22: 22

— 5 —  Peter, Our First Pope:  And, Jesus confirms it!

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of man is?’  And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’  ‘But you,’ he said, ‘who do you say I am?’  Then Simon Peter spoke up and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’

 Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a blessed man! Because it was no human agency that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.  So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my community. And the gates of the underworld can never overpower it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  

Matthew 16:13-20

— 6 —  Psalm 138:  I love this Psalm:

I thank you, Yahweh, with all my heart, for you have listened to the cry I uttered. In the presence of angels I sing to you,  I bow down before your holy Temple. I praise your name for your faithful love and your constancy; your promises surpass even your fame. You heard me on the day when I called, and you gave new strength to my heart. Sublime as he is, Yahweh looks on the humble, the proud he picks out from afar.  Yahweh will do all things for me. Yahweh, your faithful love endures for ever, do not abandon what you have made.”  

Psalm 138

— 7 —   Saint Raphael Arnaiz Baron: (1911-1938), a Spanish Trappist monk wrote this:
“We lack virtue not because it’s difficult, but be-cause we don’t wish for it. We lack patience because we don’t want it. We lack moderation and chastity for the same reason. If we were to wish it we would become saints; it’s much more difficult to be an engineer than to be a saint. If only we had faith!…Interior life, life of spirit, life of prayer. My God that is what must be hard! It isn’t so. Remove the im-pediment from your heart and there you will find God. Everything is now done. Many times we go looking for what isn’t there, and on the other hand pass by a treasure and don’t see it. This happens to us with God, whom we seek… through a jungle of things which, the more complicated they are, the better they appear to us. And yet we carry God within the heart, and don’t look for Him there. Retire within yourself, look at your nothingness, at the nothingness of the whole world, place
yourself at the foot of a Cross, and if you are guileless you will see God…If God is not there in our souls sometimes, it’s because we don’t wish it. We have so many affairs on hand, distractions, predilections, vain desires, presumptions, so much of the world within us, that God withdraws Himself; but it is sufficient to love Him, for God fills the soul in such a way that one must be blind not to see it. Does a soul wish to live according to God? Let it cast out everything that is not Him, and then it is achieved. It is relatively easy. If we were to wish for it, and if we were to ask God with simplicity, we should make great advances in the spiritual life. If we were to wish it we would become saints, but we are so stupid that we don’t want it, we would rather waste our time over foolish vanities.
 God love and bless you!

p.s.s. Check out all my posts listed by category here!

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this post! If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Please check me out and follow me on Twitter too!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 91

— 1 —  This Week’s Post:  Tactile Healing!  I pray this conversion story blessed you.

— 2 —  Next Week’s Post:  Oh goodness, so many things on my mind! I hope it is as good as this:

If You Want Justice, Work For Chastity”  Saint Pope John Paul II

— 3 —  Audrey Assad:  Death In His Grave.  I am also more of an Old Testiment girl!  Check out her whole post.

“Many of the ones I considered seemed ‘cliche’ to me, which seems terrible to say about a verse from Scripture, but I couldn’t help myself.  And I felt disconnected from their tone—on their own, removed from their surroundings, they rang hollow to me, as though stripped of the rightful dignity of context. I felt more connected to passages in Ecclesiastes that spoke of the vanity of life.  I was more enamored of Job than of Paul or Peter.”

— 4 —  Spotlight On:  This week’s spotlight is on Joan from Everything Is Yours for her post called The Mission of My Life. Here is the beginning but be sure to visit Joan to read the rest!
‘The Mission of my Life’ by Blessed John Henry Newman

“God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.

 

— 5 —  Leah Darrow:  This was good:  A Message From Leah Darrow – A Word to Men

— 6 —    Q-TIP:  I love this from Kari Kampakis and will be posting it in my office!
QTIP
— 7 —  Kari Kampakis’ Book:  I am honored to be asked by Kari to review her book, “10 Ultimate Truths Girls Should Know.”  I will be doing a review soon!  Remember I read very slowly so the review may not be posted for a while. 🙂
BuMxGO9CQAINTeA
God love and bless you!

p.s.s. Check out all my posts listed by category here!

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this post! If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Please check me out and follow me on Twitter too!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 90

— 1 —   This Week’s Post:  What Are You Looking For?  I did some blog organizing and I hope it helps you find the exact post you need!

— 2 —   Next Week’s Post: Testimony time! A reader will share her conversion story and the power of God’s grace.

— 3 —  Not Alone Series:  Did you hear the EXCITING news?!?!  Jen and Morgan are going to be on TV!!

What: Jen and Morgan of the Not Alone Series community on This is the Day
When: Friday, September 12, 2014, 10:30AM EST
Watch: LIVE online at CatholicTV.com OR on the CatholicTV YouTube channel after original broadcast
Follow: We’ll be posting throughout our weekend in Boston and using #NASBoston to track our travels!
Morgan: Twitter | Instagram

— 4 —    Not Alone Series:  The girls are back and this week is a Freebie.  I have today off of work and can’t wait to get all caught up!  

— 5 —    Healing Signs and Wonders:  If you are in the Washington D.C. area next weekend (23rd), please consider going to the conference which features Father Dan Leary and Damian Stayne.  I follow Damian Stayne on Facebook.  He has an amazing healing charism which is such a gift to us at this time.  I would not normally put too much stock in lay folks having such a powerful ministry but it is backed by Father Dan and that is good enough for me.

— 6 —    Heroic Priesthood:  Word on Fire ministries has a very inspiring video called Heroic Priesthood.     
— 7 — Feast of the Assumption: Don’t forget today is a Holy Day!
God love and bless you!

p.s.s. Check out all my posts listed by category here!

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this post! If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Please check me out and follow me on Twitter too!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 89

— 1 —   This Week’s Post:   It Only Takes One   I hope you were encouraged!

— 2 —   Next Week’s Post: My email has been hopping this week! I have been so busy enjoying this correspondence that I have no idea what my post will be for next week. Come Holy Spirit, enkindle an idea in my heart!

— 3 —  Appreciate Your PriestThis article gave a number of ways to show appreciation to your priest.  We are going to put some of these into practice!

— 4 —  Spotlight On:    Kari Kampakis wrote a great post called Hurt People Hurt People So true!

“There was a time when I thought I had nothing in common with mean people. They were bad, I was good, and that was the end of the story. But with age and maturity, I’ve grown to understand that nobody is 100 percent good or 100 percent evil. We are all good and evil, a community of sinners in a fallen, broken world.”

— 5 —    Reasons To Wait:  This was a good article about discipline.  Three Reasons to Wait Before You Flirt Or Date

— 6 —  Bound to Happen It was bound to happen.  A girl in Australia agreed to be a surrogate mother to twins.  She found out late in pregnancy that one of the babies, the boy, has down syndrome.  This twin sister, however, is healthy.  So, the biological parents, upon birth, took the healthy twin girl home with them.  They left their precious baby boy behind.  Read the sad story here.
“She said the agency knew about Gammy’s condition four or five months after she became pregnant but did not tell her. It wasn’t until the seventh month of her pregnancy that the doctors and the agency told her the twin boy had Down syndrome and suggested that she abort the fetus.  Pattaramon recalled strongly rejecting the idea, believing that having an abortion would be sinful. “I asked them, ‘Are you still humans?’ I really wanted to know,” she said.”
  — 7 — Saint Thomas More (1478-1535):  Martyr.
“Letter from prison to his daughter, 1534  “Lord, save me!  “Mistrust him, Meg, I will not though I feel myself faint. Yea, and though I should feel my fear even at point to overthrow me too, yet shall I remember how Saint Peter with a blast of a wind began to sink for his faint faith, and shall do as he did, call upon Christ and pray him to help. And then I trust he shall set his holy hand upon me, and in the stormy seas, hold me up from drowning.” 
God love and bless you!

p.s.s. Check out all my posts listed by category here!

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this post! If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Please check me out and follow me on Twitter too!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 88

— 1 —   This Week’s Post:  The Danger of Fixing It Later  ~  This post generated some good comments and emails!

— 2 —   Next Week’s Post:  It Only Takes One ~  🙂

— 3 —  Not Alone Series:  Did you check out the recap of their trip to Savannah?  They had so much fun!  What a great way to solidify lasting friendships! Love all you girls!

IMG_4103

— 4 —  Spotlight On:  This week’s spotlight is on Joan from Everything Is Yours for her post, Dear Jim. Gregg and I feel the same way that Jim feels when we see you young people at Mass and Adoration.  We want to thank you and we have to restrain ourselves from hugging you.  

— 5 —    Spotlight On:  I am also spotlighting an article from Truth From The Heart called To Wonder at Love: Wojtyla and Hildebrand.  You know that these two men (Saint and future saint) are my favorite, right??

“When authentic love is manifested in all its beauty, freedom does not flee. Wojtyla realized that man desires love more than he desires freedom. Freedom exists for the sake of love; freedom finds in love its true fulfillment.”

“Yes, love is attraction, desire, and affection but it is also goodwill, reciprocity, and real communion.”

— 6 —  Death Be Not Proud ~ by Audrey Assad.  I cannot stop listening to this song:
Death, be not proud, though the whole world fear you:
Mighty and dreadful you may seem,
But death, be not proud, for your pride has failed you
You will not kill me.
Though you may dwell in plague and poison,
You’re a slave to fate and desperate men,
So death, if your sleep be the gates to Heaven,
Why your confidence?
— 7 —    Death In His Grave ~ by Audrey Assad.   How does she create such beautiful music? Enjoy

God love and bless you!

p.s.s. Check out all my posts listed by category here!

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this post! If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Please check me out and follow me on Twitter too!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 87

I am sorry that I have no quick takes today!  Crazy week and big plans this weekend kept me from preparing them.  I will be back next week.   Have a wonderful weekend and be assured of my prayers!

-1-  Oh, I do have one thing to share.  My former office mates had a party for me yesterday.  Some of you know that I took a new position at work in June which I believe very much to be the work of the Lord in my life.  My former office mates had a beautiful cake, flowers and this awesome framed photo for me.  It was a wonderful celebration as I move on to my new position.  #blessed

435 Photo

Framed Photo

0724141359     

 

 

God love and bless you!

p.s.s. Check out all my posts listed by category here!

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this post! If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Please check me out and follow me on Twitter too!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 85

— 1 —   This Week’s Post:  Dear Cindy ~ Initiating Contact Online   I was actually expecting some controversy to pop up but   I received very positive feedback on this post!  

— 2 —   Next Week’s Post:   One of my dear readers asked me to do a post called Dear College Self.  I will try not to cringe too much as I write it!

—3 —    #NASavannah:  The Not Alone Series (NAS) Girls are in Savannah this weekend and I just know they are going to have a blast!   I hope you love the bracelets!  #Proverbs3:5  Trust in the Lord with all your heart ~ a verse that got me through many a teary night!

Bs2-d_fCMAAY5VX

— 4 —   Spotlight On:  I have never used the site to promote anything but I have to tell you about SmartPress.com!!! Remember the book I have been working on for my Mom?  Well, it is finished and they arrived on Monday.  This printing company is amazing! Their customer service is wonderful and they once they realized that I paid too much, they informed me and refunded me immediately.  I was expecting it to cost $600 and they refunded half plus the reduced shipping.  I placed my order on Saturday, they sent me the soft copy on Sunday and they arrived one week later.  If you have any printing needs, I highly recommend this company!  

 

— 5 —   Unbroken:  Gregg introduced me to this upcoming movie:

 

— 6 —  The Catholic Company:  You girls like jewelry, right?  Check out The Catholic Company!  I have my eye on this:  

sterling-silver-seven-sorrows-necklace-ss-18-chain-2003211

— 7 —    God Never Rests:  I never thought about this until I saw the words of  Origen.  No, I did not spell it incorrectly.  Origen was a Catholic priest and theologian who lived in the 3rd century (185-253).  Here is what he had to say:
We don’t see that the words of Genesis: “God rested on the Sabbath day from all his works” came to pass on this seventh day of creation nor, indeed, that they have come to pass today. We always see God at work. There is no Sabbath when God stops working, no day when he does not “make his sun rise on the bad and the good and cause rain to fall on the just and the unjust”, when he does not make “grass to sprout on the mountains and herbs for the service of men”…, or when he does not “put to death and give life”.This is how our Lord answers those who accused him of working and healing on the Sabbath: “My Father is at work until now and I am at work.” By this he showed that, during the time of this world, there is no Sabbath when God rests from watching over the progress of the world and destiny of humankind… In his wisdom as Creator he never ceases to exercise his providence and watchful care over his creatures “until the end of the world”. Therefore the real Sabbath when God will rest from all his works will be the world to come when “sorrow and mourning will flee” and God will be “all in all”.

God love and bless you!

p.s.s. Check out all my posts listed by category here!

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this post! If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Please check me out and follow me on Twitter too!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 85

— 1 —   This Week’s Post:  You Are Enough  I was worried that my latest posts have been too basic. It was wonderful to receive your feedback on these post (Thank you, Jen, for the Tweet below).  For example, the whole idea of orienting yourself toward God was not something I knew about when I was your age (20, 30, 40).  I was unknowingly working toward a desired state that I believed would heal me, but I was not intentionally choosing to orient myself toward Him. My hope is to arm you with this information which I myself struggled to figure out. 

Jen tweet

— 2 —   Next Week’s Post: Are you participating in online dating?  Get ready for a philosophical discussion!

—3 —    Spotlight On:  This week’s spot light is on Dr. Greg from CatholicPsych for his post called The One Most Important Quality To Look For In A Spouse.  Can you guess what it is? I agree with him and will be doing my own post on this sometime in the future!

 

— 4 —  Purity and Peace:  One of my dear readers sent me a Jason Evert quote that is so true:  

“The fingerprint of God on a relationship is peace and purity.” 

— 5 —   Kindness:  The Hidden Power:  We went to Mass this morning and I stayed after to adore our Lord in the blessed Sacrament for an hour. This was a perfect opportunity to crack open a book which I have been meaning to read. It is called The Hidden Power of Kindness. It is so good that I will dedicate #5, #6 and #7 with quotes.  And, I will most likely write a whole post about this book in the future.  The first quote is about passing judgment on others:

Judging

— 6 —  Unkind Thoughts:  This was very profound to me:
“Uncharitableness in judging others torments the soul….While virtue grows in your soul under the influence of kindly judgments, your unkind judgments concerning others are often visited upon you.  You may fall into the sin of which you have judged another guilty…”
— 7 —    Speak Kindly:  This chapter emphasized the importance of truth in our speech.  Truth about others and truth about ourselves.  It encourages us not to brag, exaggerate or pretend we are something which we are not:
“The best way to rid yourself of the habit of pretending is to cultivate simplicity and humility.  Be convinced of the principle that you are what you are before God, no more and no less.  You do not change your status, either in the eyes of God or of men, by self-misrepresentation in words.”

God love and bless you!

p.s.s. Check out all my posts listed by category here!

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this post! If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Please check me out and follow me on Twitter too!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 84

— 1 —   This Week’s Post:  Repost and Upcoming Post  Love you girls!

— 2 —   Freedom Theme:  In celebration of America’s Independence Day, this week’s 7QTs will focus on Freedom.  There are those who seek justice so that other’s can live in freedom.  Also, the beauty of what our faith reveals about true human freedom.

 May I recommend a powerful movie that was a big eye-opener for me?   Nine Days That Changed The World 

 

—3 —    Spotlight On:  This week’s spotlight is on Christie from The Way Home. Here is a little bit about her and her passion for human freedom:

“…I hope to write about my life and relationship with Christ; why I left Protestantism to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church; ecumenical Protestant-Catholic relations; and seeking justice in the anti-human trafficking movement…”

— 4 —  The Catechism of The Catholic Church:  Freedom; Paragraphs #1733 and #1740

   “The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to “the slavery of sin.” ….By deviating from the moral law man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine truth.”

— 5 —   Saint Pope John Paul II: Obedience and dignity:

“…In the depths of his own conscience man detects a law which he does not impose on himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience can when necessary speak to his heart more specifically: “Do this, shun that.” For man has in his heart a law written by God. To obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged.” 

— 6 —      Pope John Paul II:   Freedom defined:
“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”
— 7 —    Human Freedom: The 2nd Vatican Council’s encyclical, Gaudium et spes, talks about true human freedom:
“….Although he was made by God in a state of holiness, from the very onset of his history man abused his liberty, at the urging of the Evil One. Man set himself against God and sought to attain his goal apart from God. Although they knew God, “they did not glorify Him as God, but their senseless minds were darkened and they served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rm 1,21f.). What divine revelation makes known to us agrees with experience. Examining his heart, man finds that he has inclinations toward evil too, and is engulfed by manifold ills which cannot come from his good Creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his beginning, man has disrupted also his proper relationship to his own ultimate goal as well as his whole relationship toward himself and others and all created things.
Therefore man is split within himself. As a result, all of human life, whether individual or collective, shows itself to be a dramatic struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness. Indeed, man finds that by himself he is incapable of battling the assaults of evil successfully, so that everyone feels as though he is bound by chains. But the Lord Himself came to free and strengthen man, renewing him inwardly and casting out that “prince of this world” (Jn 12,31) who held him in the bondage of sin. For sin has diminished man, blocking his path to fulfillment.
The call to grandeur and the depths of misery, both of which are a part of human experience, find their ultimate and simultaneous explanation in the light of this revelation….”

God love and bless you!

p.s.s. Check out all my posts listed by category here!

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this post! If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Please check me out and follow me on Twitter too!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!