God and fleas?

I have been visiting family and friends for the past few weeks and God has revealed himself in so many ways, while also revealing my own weaknesses and shortcomings. One such very unusual way is through fleas. It sounds strange, but as I was petting my grandparent's dog, I felt something bite me. Looking down I saw it was a flea! So we went into a full-force cleaning of the house and animals. They received flea treatments and the carpets received thorough attention as well.

How was this an experience which brought me closer to Christ? First of all, it really helped me to come out of myself and complete service to my grandparents and their animals as I tried to do everything possible in the short time I was there. But more than that, it gave me a deeper appreciation for the sufferings of those who cannot live in very clean environments due to financial or social difficulties. Never before do I remember getting bitten by a flea, although my own animals have had them and this experience and the subsequent flea bites I obtained allowed me to truly feel for those less fortunate than myself. I have worked and volunteered helping the poor, but never truly felt for them as I did then. How strange that such a small little creature, despised by so many could put me in contact with my fellow man!

Thank God for fleas!

The beauty of family

Family is an interesting term as it includes so many people, many of whom we often do not know or have never met. I also have found myself reflecting on the family of the Church. I went to Mass this morning at the Little Sisters of the Poor home in Newark and introduced myself to one of the sisters there. She was so excited to hear who was in Palatine and how things were while I was there, it made me realize how large the Little Sisters family is, but also has opened my eyes to the family of the church.

Reading an update from Maggie's Place, where I used to work, I also saw that although it is a workplace with women coming and going according to need, they are a family. They even had a chance to go on a "family vacation"!

So, my dear family, I love you and for those of you whom I have never met, I look forward to meeting you in Heaven! God be with you!

Simple Prayer

I am doing a few weeks of traveling around visiting friends and relatives. While at my grandparents, I was able to help with a bit of weeding and mowing the lawn. As I mowed the lawn in the solitary sound of the mower, I felt that it was almost like the silence of a peaceful monastery. It seems hard to explain, but I found myself happily praying as I was mowing the lawn reflecting on the beautiful method of prayer this outdoor work was becoming. I loved it! never have I enjoyed mowing a lawn so much!

I also had a chance to pressure wash a few outdoor areas and this provided me with a very similar experience. I enjoyed my chance to drown out all other noise and have a merely droning hum in my ears that allowed my concentration to once more be enlivened on Christ alone.

As I learn these simple pleasures and the beauty which God provides through work, I am even more anxious to find the monastery God is beckoning me to enter. I struggle to find the patience necessary and the trust in God's timing.

thank you for your prayers! May God bless you!

Cleaning out

For the past week, I have been digging through my closet and trying to get rid of everything I think my parents would not want. I have saved extraordinary amounts of papers, letter, id tags, plane tickets, post cards... etc. I finally finished sorting through everything yesterday and the closet looks bare! It is good to have done it thought and the knowledge that my parents will not have to worry about that mess when I am gone is a good one.

While God is pouring amazing grace upon me as I had not been able to part with even a left-over bag from a purchase in Rome and now all of that is gone, I also come face to face with the crossroads which is in front of me at this time. Spending another few weeks seeing people on the other side of the state, saying good-bye again, and planning a month in a monastery in Massachusetts all place before me, very tangibly, the sacrifices/joys/excitement/fear of my very near future.


thank you for your prayers. I look forward to the day when I can share with you an entrance date and place! God bless!

Nocturnal Adoration

My father is part of a group called Nocturnal Adoration. On the first friday of every moth there is Eucharistic Adoration throughout the entire night where groups take different shifts throughout the evening. I was blessed to go with m father this month as he was there 11-12.

The other men asked me to lead the prayers and I felt so unworthy! This faithful group which meets every month was to be led by me, a visitor! But oh how good God is that they asked me to do this as I was then given the chance to be up front on a kneeler closest to my dear Lord!!! Oh to be so close to Him! What a blessing!

Thank You God!!!!

Adoration Blessings

My dear friends!

Oh how wonderfully glorious it is to have Adoration available to us! Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to Adoration at a local parish for 3 hours!!! How fantastic! Truly this is the bread we live on and it is the source of our life, the fire of our soul! How truly blessed we are as Catholics to have Christ present and vulnerably placing Himself before us to aid us in being vulnerable with Him, in seeing Him, and in diving into His Heart!

I am also blessed because I am at home trying to live a balance of being with my family while obeying the Lord's constant urgings to come and kneel at His side. What a beautiful blessing it is to have a family who understands this yearning and encourages my time in the chapel! Praise God!!!

Passionist Nuns in Pittsburgh

In typical Joanna fashion, I had visited the Passionists Nuns in Whitesville, KY but there is a monastery 20 minutes from my house which I didn't even think to go and visit!

Well, I have finally overcome this barrier of visiting within driving distance and took the 20 minute (2 hour for people with a poor sense of direction) drive to the monastery yesterday. I was permitted to enter the Monastery and even to eat in the refectory with the nuns! How wonderful to chant the office with them and to be surrounded by such holy women who make many of the altar breads for our diocese. they have Adoration everyday and all-day Adoration on Fridays! How incredible!

The poor monastery was surrounded by farm fields when it was built in 1911, but now is surrounded by the city and the beautiful silence of the chapel is interrupted by the busy streets outside the chapel windows. Even as they have been engulfed by the town, they have learned that it is an aid in prayer as they are continually drawn out of themselves to pray for the streets below, and the teens they can hear outside during their 1AM prayer.

As I dive deeper into His Heart the mysteries also grow deeper! Glory be to God who is so wonderful that we can spend our entire lives searching His ways and continue to discover new things and deeper meanings until the day we die! For as one of the sisters said to me, we travel in an ever deepening circle, continuing the learn the same lessons at deeper and deeper levels. Let us drill into His heart as our circles dig deeper!!!