Prayers answered in the smallest of places

[caption id="attachment_448" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="my Dad's smile and an answer to a Prayer"][/caption]

Maybe it was because I was listening to Sufjan Stevens Christmas album, or, maybe it was just one of those days.  But I was feeling a little down yesterday.  Nothing major, but I started to think about Christmas and how different Christmas is now without my Dad.   Then I started to think how proud my Dad must be of me for being more present with my mom and helping her out more than I had in my early adult life.  But what got me down was that I wish I could see his smile.  That smile only a son knows when his father is showing his pride for his son.  I am thankful that I have been able to see that many times in my life, even though I have seen it go the other direction more often than I like.  But as time has moved on, as with anything you are grieving, you start remembering more of the good times than the bad.

I said a prayer in my jeep yesterday morning after thinking about this.  I told God that I wish I could see my Dad's smile again.  I meditated on that a bit while I was driving and had one of those small good cries with God as I drove to my Mom's house.  Later that evening when I got home, I checked my mail and to my surprise there was clown nose sent to me as a promotion.  Being the playful fun person I am, I put the nose on and took a picture of myself.  Of course, being a little vain, I had to take several till I got the one I liked.  As I looked through the pictures I noticed something.  I saw my Dad's smile in my smile.  It was almost identical.  Maybe it was because of the clown nose and it separating my smile from the rest of my face that made me noticed it, or maybe it was God.

The more I explore my faith and my prayer life matures, I find myself seeing God more and more in every day activities.  You always hear people argue that God is not present today and ask, why was he so more present in biblical times than he is today.  But I think one must be open to God to see his graces and presence.

So there I was last night, looking at my iPhone and saw a prayer answered.

Thanks be to God!

From the 24th floor of Chase Tower Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument

I am a rich man - Christmas present 2011

November 13th I started to listen to Christmas music for the new season of 2011.  It has been about a year and half since my dad past. (This will come back) I always start listening to Christmas music early.  I love it.  But it wasn’t until tonight I realized why I start so early.  And why I try to stretch Christmas out as long as I can by starting it as early as possible.  If I could, I would make it all life long.  I think my vision of heaven is the feeling of Christmas.  I know Christmas is different for everybody.  But I am talking about the status quo.  Peace on earth, goodwill to all men, women and children.

But tonight, my start of the Christmas season 2011 I had an epiphany.  Why do I enjoy this season so much?  It’s easy to say, that it is because of my childhood.  The presents.  Santa Claus.  The bigness of everything.  But it is.  Really it IS!   My childhood directly influences why I love Christmas so much and its not because of those things.  For my parents did everything to make Christmas special.  No, I did not get everything, or even THE present I wanted.  There was seldom the Red Ryder BB Gun under the tree.  But there was the possibility!  Oh, the possibility!  Oh the excitement!   And no matter what the big gift was, or the little one that was in the bottom of the stocking, it was special.   It was given with such love that still to this day, I have trouble fully understanding the amount of love that was in the present.   It usually changed everything for the next following year.  May it be a Commodore 64 (even though I barely knew what a computer was), or the matchbox motorcycle under the tree when I wanted a real one.  That made Christmas, it was the moments and the love within those moments.

Let’s not forget the TV.  The TV was the center of my family life growing up.  It was cartoons (animation) of Rudolph, Frosty, The Santa Clause, The little drummer boy, The Christmas Story, The Nativity; and all the music specials that feed into it all.  But there was also one thing; it was one of the two days we ALWAYS went to church.  Midnight Mass! (Even though I got to show off my new clothes as an 80′s teenager), it felt Holy.    It was the love incarnate, which made it special.  And it was my Dad.

My Dad’s favorite Christmas movie was a Wonderful Life.  As he was dyeing from cancer, he lived that.  It was a wonderful life for my Dad.  And he made Christmas that.  As much as he worked, as much time he spent from his family providing, he always made Christmas the pay off.  Not pay off in gifts, but pay off in making the season as he saw it.  Even though he didn’t practice his Catholic faith with piety, he lived it.  As my Mom says, she lives life as a prayer.  And that’s what my Dad did as well in his way.  And he made Christmas a prayer too, in the way he lived life.

Why am I rich man?    I bring you back to tonight.  I am sitting here listening to Christmas music for the first time for this Christmas season and I felt the Christmas spirit rising in me.  The warm thoughts of Christmas long ago started to flow, not quiet like Ebenezer, but flowing the same.   I found myself remembering certain moments.  Maybe gifts or gifts that wanted to be.  But the spirit arose.  And I was overwhelmed with my Dad’s spirit.  His Christmas Spirit, warmth and love surrounded me.  Crying, I looked down and found myself rubbing the palm of my hand……

I am a rich man.  I am my Dad’s son.  I have his name, and his ability to love.  And I feel his love radiating through every molecule that exist or I can imagine existing.  He is not gone, but in the room next to me.  And that’s the best Christmas present ever, and it happened in 2011.

May God keep you and bless you!

Wesolych Swiat

Sight, and how Jesus still heals - Readings Nov 14, 2011 Lk 18:35-43

“Son of David, have pity on me!”

Since my dad passed, the world has been a bit upside down for all of us in our family, to say the least.   There has been many blessings, and some blessings in disguise.  Reflecting on today’s Gospel, I looked at the blessings in disguise.

It’s easy to see the fruits of your faith when things are working out, or going the way you think or want them to go.  When things are not, it’s easy to feel trapped or helpless.  In some ways I feel like the blind man in today’s reading.  There are many things going on where it would be easy to say that the world is working against me.  I have cried “Lord, have mercy on me” many times dealing with my hardships.  But as today’s reading shows, the blind man was relentless with his faith.  And I have to ask myself, where has my faith wavered, where have I left out God and kept control myself.

It’s easy to cry out to the Lord about the injustice you see around you.  But do I petition the Lord to help me to “see” why the injustice and to have faith in the purpose of my path.  Or am I too busy planning how things should be and how I want God to make them for me.  I guess, if I was that blind man in the street and the Son of David was passing, he would turn to me and say “Ye have little faith”.

Many times Christ (and the Catechism of the Catholic Church) teaches us that we must have the faith of a child, to believe completely and freely.  The blind man, asked for pity, not even mercy.  He wanted his God to see him and for him to see God.  Are my cries to the Lord for me to see things His way, or is it to want him to make things the way I want them.

With today’s reading, for a brief moment, I can see.  The Lord is asking me to have faith that He will lead me where I need to be.  That the injustice I feel is a call to faith.  As long as I embrace it and ask Christ to be my light, I will see in faith the beauty of God’s way and see with clearer eyes.

Found this on Bishop Coyne's blog - "The throne of grace"

"Found this during my travels in the 'net ..." - Bishop Coyne

"When we come to pray to the heavenly father, we are not shouting across a great gulf. We are not trying to catch the attention of someone who has little or no concern for us... We are coming to 'the throne of grace' ... and we may and must come boldly and confidently. This isn't arrogance. Indeed, if we understand who Jesus is, what he's done and what he's still doing on our behalf, the real arrogance would be to refuse to accept his offer of standing before the father on our behalf, to imagine that we had to bypass him and try to do it all ourselves. What is on offer, for those who come to God through Jesus, is 'mercy and grace': mercy to set us free from the sin and folly in which we would otherwise sink completely; grace, to strengthen us and set us on our feet for our own lives of service and witness."From Tom Wright, Hebrews for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2003), p. 45

2011 Fall Ball Pumpkin, GO CARDINALS!

[caption id="attachment_369" align="aligncenter" width="497" caption="2011 Pumpkin"][/caption]

 

Go Cardinals!

The last time I did this was in 2006 and we won it all.

This will be the Cardinals 11th World Series win if we win tonight and Friday!

11th Ring in 2011

Destiny!

ETX-90ec

 

I finally got a new telescope, which I am very excited about.  Even though I have a huge interest in astro-photography, this scope should be fun.  Maybe one of these days I can afford a telescope that will let me take photographs of nebula's, galaxies and other deepspace objects.  But I am sure this will be a scope I will enjoy for many years!!

Happy Tau day 2011! 6.28

Just for all you Tau and Pi debaters out there! Here are my thoughts on Tau for Tau day 2011:

I believe Tau (for teaching Math) can be argued as Phonics was argued in teaching reading. It makes it easier for the end user or student to understand, but fundamentally, we are still working with Pi and could ultimately cause confusion. But it is interesting to explore to see what patterns come up with a different series of numbers and may let us look at Pi with new eyes.  It is like a musician that finds themselves in a melodic rut until they change instruments; and their fingers can explore different patterns.

Bare Bear. Tau Pi

If you would like to see a piece of music composed on Tau Click HERE

Lighting 6-4-2011

Took this with my Canon xs.
God's work, what beautiful art!
Thanks be to God!

New Song (cover-Crazy) by Star & Rico

Yup, hard at work at TreeHouse Studios.

Crazy - Star & Rico

Pray for us St. Joseph protector and guardian.

Prayer to Saint Joseph

To you, O blessed Joseph,
do we come in our tribulation,
and having implored the help of your most holy spouse,
we confidently invoke your patronage also.

Through that charity which bound you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the paternal love with which you embraced the Child Jesus,
we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood,
and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.

O most watchful Guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ;
O most loving father,
ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence;
O our most mighty protector,
be propitious to us and from heaven assist us in our struggle with the power of darkness;
and, as once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril, so now protect God¹s Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity;
shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection,
so that, supported by your example and your aid, we may be able to live piously, to die holily, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven. Amen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Playing w/ Garageband on my iPad

So I downloaded the new Garageband app for the iPad and decided to give it a run. Using just the iPad internal mic for my acoustic guitar and vocals (which I can't sing lol) and the Rock Organ in the app (manually played). Did a little editing within the app. I was pretty impressed with the app. For some reason I picked Bruce Springsteen's "Fire". I did this all under 15 minutes, including the mix down. Again, all done on the iPad (original, my iPad 2 is on order). Click Fire to listen. You have been forewarned about my vocals :)

Fire

Prayer I found: A prayer when one can't pray.

Oh God, my Creator, I humbly ask you for the privilege of knowing you according to the way that you alone choose for me to know you.

And I ask you to keep me from hardening my heart to the ways that you alone choose, and help me to discern your most perfect will, so that in knowing the will of the One who created me I may have true peace and a better knowledge of my true self. Amen.

@CatholicFishBye

"Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything"

 

Job
Chapter 42

1

Then Job answered the LORD and said:

2

¹ I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered.

3

I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know.

5

I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you.

6

Therefore I disown what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes.

Me practicing guitar for Mass

I think I was working on Mighty King by Steve Angrisano.

Or maybe the Jesuit Mass parts, I am capo'ed.

Actually, I have no clue what I am playing, I just like this pic of me! LOL

New Christmas Song by Rico and Star: Mistletoe 1-7-2011

Rico & Star - Mistletoe

Click Mistletoe to listen!