My Birthday is on Ash Wednesday This Year! Wow What an Honor!

I tried to search on the I'net for a database and found out that this is the second time in my life that Ash Wednesday has happened on my birthday.

The first time was 1953, when I was five years old.

Alessandro Volta is honored on the Google Doodle for today.

Shocking!

This article claims that the image makes people think that Volta invented the light bulb.

But, doesn't everybody know that THOMAS EDISON did that? I mean, what is up with ignorance these days?

Speaking of ignorance --- I did not know that Thomas Edison was born on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Thomas Edison died At 9 P.M. On Oct. 18th, 1931 in New Jersey. He was 84 years of age. Shortly before passing away, he awoke from a coma and quietly whispered to his very religious and faithful wife Mina, who had been keeping a vigil all night by his side:  "It is very beautiful over there..."     Recognizing that his death marked the end of an era in the progress of civilization, countless individuals, communities, and corporations throughout the world dimmed their lights and, or, briefly turned off their electric power in his honor on the evening of the day he was laid to rest at his beautiful estate at Glenmont, New Jersey.  Most realized that, even though he was far from being a   flawless human being and may not have really had the avuncular personality that was so often ascribed to him by myth makers, he was an essentially good man with a powerful mission....  Driven by a superhuman desire to fulfill the promise of research and invent things to serve mankind, no one did more to help realize  our Puritan founders dream of creating a  country that - at its best - would be viewed by the rest of the world as "a shining city upon a hill." 

~~~ from http://www.thomasedison.com/biography.html, copyright Gerald Beals.

But, it's amazing I think?

I like Brother Paul's post for today, on his blog, A Certain Hope.

Lourdes and Beyond --- An Article for February 11, 2015, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

Here is a great article from the Catholic News Agency, by Sr. Joan Roccosalvo, C.S.J., in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes, whose feast is today.

I'm taking the lazy path today --- simply linking to two articles from the Catholic News Agency today. The first was my post about the statute of Fr. Junipero Serra, right before this.

Some excerpts from Sr.'s article:  (But, I recommend reading it entirely, also. Just click the link where it says, "Here is a great article . . ," above. )

Bernadette did not understand the meaning of the two words, Immaculate Conception, even though the Church had defined the dogma four years earlier in 1854.  Today, the Church celebrates the feast of that lady, Our Lady of Lourdes. 

 . . . 

Since pilgrimages to Lourdes began in the last half of the nineteenth century, five thousand cures are known to have taken place.  Fifty-eight have been declared miraculous by Church officials though unofficially as many as seventy have been reported.     

. . . 

Mother: A Word with Multiple Levels of Meaning

We know that mothers may be described in different ways, especially by their children, for example in the film, “I Remember Mama.”  Since mother is a primordial word, your mother and my mother participate in the universal understanding of motherhood.

What of the Mother of God?  From the early Church, she is a constant and ubiquitous presence in liturgical worship and in devotional prayer.  In the Liturgy of the Hours there is a classical prayer available for every major Hour that venerates the Mother of God.

There is more information at the bottom of the article about Sr. She is quite the accomplished academic, not that I'm surprised, after reading her article. There is also an email address for her.

I have been a little unwell, both mentally and physically. That is my excuse for the aforementioned laziness.

The mental unwellness is because of a tragic anniversary of February 11.

My brother committed suicide on February 11, 1983, when he was twenty years old. At the time, I had been away from Holy Mother Church. I did not realize that February 11 was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

I don't exactly know what the physical unwellness is about?  Hoping just the flu or something??

Please ask Our Lady for help. I get some very scary panic attacks sometimes.

I hope to get my health back soon. Health is the only true wealth we have in this world. That was one of the main things I learned from my late father.

Prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes 

Oh ever immaculate Virgin, Mother of Mercy, Health of the Sick, Refuge of Sinners, Comfortess of the Afflicted, you know my wants, my troubles, my sufferings. Look upon me with mercy. When you appeared in the grotto of Lourdes, you made it a privileged sanctuary where you dispense your favors, and where many sufferers have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal. I come, therefore, with unbounded confidence to implore your maternal intercession. My loving Mother, obtain my request. I will try to imitate your virtues so that I may one day share your company and bless you in eternity. Amen.

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

This is with reference to Sr.'s mention of the 1948 movie, "I Remember Mama" starring Irene Dunn,  Barbara Bel Geddes and Oscar Homolka. (I do not know how to put footnotes in this blog yet, sadly.)

Sr. Roccosalvo says:

We know that mothers may be described in different ways, especially by their children, for example in the film, “I Remember Mama.”  Since mother is a primordial word, your mother and my mother participate in the universal understanding of motherhood. 

At first, I was just going to mention that I never saw the 1948 movie, because I was born a few weeks before it was released. I just intended to mention that I very well remember the early TV show, though, and loved it so much.  I just wanted to watch TV all the time. In those days, TV was only on for a few hours per day.

I rarely saw my mom. She was out working or hanging out with a guy who later became her second husband. She and my dad were already divorced. I stayed at the home of my grandma, great uncle, one or two aunts (--- one traveled back and forth to Philly---), step-grandpa and great-grandpa ( my mom's grandpa.) My mom and I both technically lived in a room there, but she was rarely in that room.

My mom never liked mushy cards or
sticky sentimentalism.

But, while looking on Wikipedia for more information about the movie, I noticed that it was released on March 9, 1948.

My baptismal date was March 8, 1948.

My mom died on March 9, 2012. That was four months after she turned 84 in November. I usually sent her a funny card for her birthday, because she did not appreciate those mushy ones.

She told me she kept it beside her bed so that she could get a laugh each day. I don't remember what it said, but it always took a long time to pick out a card for her. It had to be actually wtty and intelligent and surprising or she would not enjoy it.

Father Junipero Serra Statue Perhaps Evicted from the United States Capitol Building

Here is a link to an article from Catholic News Agency. 

One legislator from California wants to replace the statute of Fr. Junipero with one of Sally Ride.

Msgr. Weber [an 82-year-old Archivist Emeritus of the Archival Center at the San Fernando Mission in Mission Hills, Calif.] worried that an agenda was at work in the criticisms leveled at Serra.

“The Native Americans, I think, are being utilized by these people who have a rather warped view of what evangelization is all about,” he said. “I’m convinced that the questions about Junipero Serra are really not about Serra himself, who simply epitomized Catholic evangelization. I’m convinced that this is an attack on all of Catholic evangelization throughout the world.”

"There is no Dignity in Death by Suicide."

"Assisted suicide . . . is nothing more than a cruel lie."

Please read the entire letter from Wisconsin Vigil for Life, opposing the Euthanasia Bill, recently introduced by Democrats Sondy Pope-Roberts, and State Senator Fred Risser.

So-called “death with dignity” forces routinely speak of patients dying in intractable pain. They call killing oneself a “basic human right” that should be constitutionally protected. Yet medical studies show that virtually all pain can be alleviated at the end of life. The World Health Organization has found that 95 to 100 percent of the pain experienced by people at the end of life can be adequately controlled. Instead of killing the pain, “death with dignity” activists focus on killing the patient." 

----- Excerpt from the Vigil For Life memo, link above.

http://www.notdeadyet.org/http://www.notdeadyet.org/

http://www.icmda.net/http://www.icmda.net/


This week will be the 32d anniversary of my own little brother's suicide. He was born in 1962, when I was fourteen years old. He remembered sitting in his playpen while listening to everybody discussing President Kennedy's assassination, when he was a little more than a year old.

He would have turned fifty two years old in September of 2014. He used to sit in his little baby seat, or recliner, on the table, while I did my tenth grade homework. Of course, he outgrew that quickly, and became too active.

He died on February 11, 1983. I was away from Holy Mother Church. I did not even know at the time that February 11 was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

February 11th is also World Day of the Sick now.

I felt greatly relieved when I rediscovered it was the Feast of Our Lady (I must have known it previously), as if Our Lady is taking a special interest in him, as she does for us all, of course.

He was buried on St. Valentine's Day. My kids and I took a little trip from the funeral home, to the convenience store across the street. They were getting restless at the funeral home. We bought a little box of candy Valentine hearts.

I remembered that I had bought cigarettes for my brother a few days before, in that same store.

This week is a very horrible week for me. I have psychiatric and emotional problems anyway, due to a traumatic past.

I would like to ask for my readers to pray for all those in Purgatory, and for all those with depression and panic disorder, and for those who are contemplating suicide, that they may remain hopeful.

If he were here now, I think he would probably laugh about whatever silliness had made him think of committing suicide back then.

Yet, some folks seem to think that was his "choice," and he had every "right" to do that.

Other, equally ignorant folks, tell me, they're sorry, but my little brother is in Hell, because everybody who commits suicide goes there. Therefore, my brother cannot possibly be in Heaven with Our Lord.

My brother did not have any assistance committing suicide, but the basic idea is the same:  Life is meaningless and without hope.

Catholics know better. We have the three great Theological Virtues:

1. Faith. 
2. Hope. 
3. Charity.

(Not to mention those other four. )

The Feast of the Presentation, Candlemas, is the Fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Blaise, when many Catholic parishes offer blessing of throats during Mass.

St. Blaise has a very good Wikipedia page, I'm glad to see, because I've never known much about him myself --- although always familiar with his name and the blessing of throats.

I must be sure I do get to Mass tomorrow for my throat blessing, because I have had a sore, scratchy throat ever since my mom died of lung cancer in March of 2012. When I was a little girl, I used to try to convince her to quit smoking, but she did not or could not. I don't know which.

So, then, when I became ten years old, (in 1958), I figured I should also start smoking cigarettes, because I did not want her to die alone, and I figured we could "go" together.

However, my kids convinced me to try to quit, in 1982, when they were eleven, five, four and one. I actually had no intention of doing anything at all, but somehow --- I did quit smoking anyway.

When my mom contracted lung cancer, in 2011, I remembered my pledge to die along with her, and I have felt guilty ever since, for not dying along with her in March of 2012, as I was "supposed" to.

I hope that St Blaise will help me become free of this chronic sore throat --- if that is God's will.

Here is a very informative and interesting page about the history,
customs, culture and even recipes pertaining to The Feast of the Presentation.

After all, it is also called "Crepe (Pancake) Day" in some countries, especially France.

The Presentation is the Fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary.

Here is a link to a printable page of The Presentation for young people.




Please pray for my mom to be in Heaven with Our Lord.

Please pray that all smokers will have the grace to quit without trying.