Our blood is precious!

Once again, my Catholic social networking group has decided to write on a specific topic. Since July brings us the Feast of the Most Precious Blood in the old calendar, someone convinced the rest of us that the Precious Blood should be our topic.

I was very hesitant about this topic because I simply had not thought very much about it, though I receive this Gift several times a week and also on Sunday. But here I am, putting my fingers to the task of typing up a blog article about the Most Precious Blood!

The first thing that came to my mind is how precious blood is to us. Without it, we couldn't exist. The average human body contains 8-10 pints of blood (more or less depending on one's size). A unit of blood is considered a pint. Blood makes up about 7% of our body's weight.

When we are hurt and we see our life's blood seeping away, we immediately try to stanch its flow. We know instinctively that we need that blood to live.

There is another kind of life's blood that we desire to receive and that is the Precious Blood that we are allowed to consume along with Christ's Body at Holy Mass. When I was a child and young woman, only the priest was allowed to receive the Precious Blood at Mass. And he did so in order to complete the entire Sacrifice. As for ordinary folk like me and everybody else, Christ's Body in the form of the Consecrated Bread was our complete communion with the Lord. Of course, we all realized that the Bread was both Body and Blood, soul and divinity, so we were satisfied. It was just one of those things which we didn't question.

But what a joy it was when one of the changes that came about after Vatican II was to bring us the privilege of communicating under both species. The symbolism of receiving under both species is important because it makes us even more aware of how precious the Blood shed by Jesus is for us. Not only is the Body taken and eaten; but the Blood also touches our lips and is consumed together and becomes a part of us.

Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ is as precious to us as our own life's blood. We need both in order to live. However, we don't require 8 pints of Precious Blood in our body. Just a simple sip is all we need...

Lord, we thank you for the Blood you shed for us.

The End of Life as we know it ~ Part 3

For my friend, Doris T_ _ _ , who asked me to speak at her funeral...


I visited Doris soon after her serious bout with pneumonia, a couple of months ago. She had an important favor she wished of me.

"What would you like for me to do?"

And Doris said: "At my funeral, I want you to comfort my family and tell them about me."

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My dear loved ones... Henry, Robin, Tiffany, Mother, Nana girls, sister and brother, other family members and friends. I am truly aware that YOU are the ones who knew Doris best of all...

I think what Doris wanted me to do was to tell you what I understood about her experience of our Heavenly Father and the beauty I found in her heart and soul because she allowed me to see it.

I am the one she entrusted to bring her Holy Communion from this, her beloved parish church, during the times she was unable to attend our services.

It all began two years ago when my pastor told me to expect a call from Doris T_ _ _ , a parishioner I barely knew. Doris told me later that she knew me only as a choir member and a lector but she apparently trusted our pastor's judgement that her desire for privacy about her illness would be safe with me. Anyway, Doris called me and asked me to visit her and to bring her Holy Communion, which she very much desired.

During that first visit, we discovered that our personalities were well matched and our reactions to our life experiences were quite similar. Thus our friendship began.

Doris would phone me when she was ready for another visit... Each time I visited her, we would catch up on what had occurred in our lives since the last visit. Doris was very perceptive and would realize immediately if something was troubling me. Sometimes, Fr. _ _ _ and I visited her together, but most of the time, I visited her alone. Though not really alone for I carried the Body of Christ with me.

Anyway, all of the joys and concerns that we had just shared during the visit became part of the prayer we offered to God in petition and thanksgiving as she prepared to receive Him.

Those moments when Doris received the Body of Christ were holy and tender moments of communion with "her Jesus." Afterwards, I prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for the Gift she had just received and she sometimes added her own prayer to mine.

My dear loved ones, Doris loved the Lord and she knew where her strength and courage would come from. She had a great yearning and desire to be united with Him through receiving the Body and Blood of Christ during Mass. When she was unable to attend Mass because of her illness, she still was able to satisfy that longing and receive Him at home.

I believe this is what she wanted me to share with you.

As for myself, I want to tell you what a privilege and honor it has been for me to be allowed to accompany Doris on that part of her journey. You know I loved her with all my heart and I know she loved me too.

In loving memory...

The End of Life as we know it ~ Part 2

Just a few months ago, I wrote a blog article about my friend, who knowing that she was reaching the end of her journey, asked me to speak at her funeral. You can read the original article here.

She has been in and out of the hospital or rehab center ever since. She has always been a very private person, so I only visited her when she expressly called me to do so.

Last night, I received a phone call from her husband. My friend was again in the hospital and this time, she will not return home. She asked her husband to call me; that she wished me to come to visit her. I said that I would come the next day or Tuesday. Her husband advised me to come the next day...that is how bad off she is.

There was no one in the room when I arrived this morning. Her husband had gone to get something to eat since he had been with her all night. One of the daughters would arrive a bit later. My friend was drifting in and out of sleep since she was heavily sedated. She is on hospice care now. She decided herself that she wanted nothing else done for her except to be kept comfortable. Not only is my friend a private person but she is a strong woman who has tried to keep as much control of her life as she can. She has even written her own obituary! I am in awe of her strength and character.

I went to her bedside and spoke to her. She became alert and recognized me. The first thing she said to me was to remind me of my promise to her. She can hardly speak clearly now but there was no doubt what she was saying to me. I assured her that I would do everything she wanted.

We are in an unfortunate period in my parish right now. We are in a transition time from one pastor to another. The priest who has been caring for my friend's spiritual needs the past 3 years has transferred to another diocese far away. He left in early June. Our new pastor will take over July 1st. In the meantime, we have had a visiting priest to celebrate our Sunday and Wednesday Masses. Neither of these priests know my friend or her family.

I explained all this to her husband who is not Catholic. He wants my help to make the church arrangements. In speaking to her daughter, I was reminded of another priest from a nearby parish who does know her. Hopefully, this priest will be available when the time comes.

I left them with the promise to return tomorrow... My friend's remaining days on earth are getting shorter now. It will soon be time for her to go home to her Heavenly Father.

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Update: My friend entered into the arms of her Heavenly Father on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 around 8:15 p.m.

Talking about Spiders!

There was some discussion on Plurk this evening about Spiders! Spiders are not my favorite among God's creatures; in fact, the larger ones always give me a start. Anyway, the discussion reminded me of the spider that once stalked me!

I was staying with cousins in Germany some years ago, when I encountered this nightmare. It was night and I was reading before going to sleep. I was propped up in my bed with my book. Across the room was a tall wardrobe with a large mirror on its door.

I was musing about what I had just read and so I happened to glance up from my book. There on the wall across the room was a humongous spider! Its body was the size of a quarter and with its long legs, this frightful vision looked as large as the palm of my hand! Yech!

Of course, not one to leave such a spider running loose in the bedroom, I immediately got up and looked for something with which to attack it. I think I picked up one of my shoes and almost on tiptoe, I swatted it on the wall! And missed! I finally hit it and it fell. I couldn't move the furniture to make certain I had killed it, but I guessed I had at least wounded it critically. So back to bed I went and continued reading.

A short while later, I happened to glance up again and much to my dismay, there crawling across the wall was the same humongous spider! Yuck! I hadn't killed it after all! This time I got up and really gave it a whack! Again, it fell behind the furniture; and again, I figured I had killed it for sure. So, back to my book I went.

A few minutes later, I glanced up for the third time; and this time I nearly froze with horror! For there in the reflection of the mirror on the wardrobe door, I saw this horrible spider directly behind me on the wall next to the bed! I jumped out of that bed like a bat out of hell! Thank God for that mirror! It still gives me the shivers to think that I could have had such a huge spider taking a walk across my face during the night...

This time, I slammed that spider everything I had and it's remains on the wall and on my shoe proved to me that I had finally disposed of it! Whew!

I had no trouble sleeping that night...

The next morning I told my cousin about my battle with the spider. My cousin said. "Oh we see a lot of them this time of year. They won't hurt you." Right!

Our Lady of Grace

Several of us from the Catholic Community of Plurk decided to blog an article in honor of Mary since May is dedicated to her. There are many different directions one can take in writing such an article. Here is mine...

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Somewhere in an old picture album is a photograph of a little girl of about five or six with long straight brown hair, all dressed in white. Her arms are filled with hydrangeas and she is marching with a group of other little girls... and boys too... as they process up the sidewalk beside the church in our annual May Procession.

When I was a little girl, our parish membership was several times larger than it is today. We had many families with young children and many activities for both young and old.

Today, my parish is a shadow of its former self. People, long ago, moved out to the suburbs and built new churches and thus, the membership of my inner city parish declined. Now, we have become a parish of older people with fewer young families with children to fill the pews.

I got to thinking about Mary and her place in the life of our parish community. What immediately came to mind was the annual May procession and the crowning of the statue of Our Lady of Grace, which once stood in the sanctuary to the left of the altar. This statue and several others are long gone; sold off during the 1970's when the church was renovated to accommodate the Vatican II changes.

My thoughts went back to that annual procession with boys dressed in their Sunday best and the girls in their white dresses. My arms were filled with blue hydrangeas from my parents' garden at home; other girls carried roses or whatever else was blooming in their family's gardens. I doubt if anyone had any formal bouquets.

As we climbed the steps to the church, mothers would herd us along to keep everyone moving as we fervently sang the Marian hymns that all of us knew from years past. One of the older girls would be selected to crown Our Lady of Grace, a high honor for the one chosen. The rest of us must have gathered around Our Lady of Grace there in the front of the church, watching the May Queen climb the ladder with the crown made of fresh flowers. I don't remember what we did with our own flowers... perhaps we left them at the foot of the statue and later someone placed them in water.

This is a pleasant memory for me because the tradition of a May procession has been lost in our parish. However, the neighborhood is in the beginnings of a resurgence. The beautiful old Victorian homes are being renovated and affordable housing is also on the drawing board, so there is hope for my parish too. In the years to come, young families with children may once again grace the church... Perhaps, these families will bring along their own May traditions. Who knows, a May procession may one day wind its way up the sidewalk again. And inside, Our Lady of Grace may await her earthly crown once more.

I wish I had written this - An excerpt from St. Anselm's Proslogion

I was given this excerpt to reflect on... It really touched me deeply because it reminded me so much of the search for God in my own life. It expressed that yearning that God places in our hearts and souls that only He can fill.


A portion of Chapter 1 of Proslogion by St. Anselm:


Come now, you poor creature, turn your back on your busyness for a little while. For a few moments leave the tumult of your thoughts; throw off the burden of your cares and put aside your wearisome occupations. Make some time for God; rest in God for a while. Enter into the chamber of your mind, exclude everything but God, and what will help you find God; shut the door and search for God. Now say how you long to see God's face. Say to God: Lord, it is your face that I seek. Say it with your whole heart.

Come then, Lord my God, come and instruct my heart where and how to search for you, where and how to find you. Where shall I look for you, Lord, if you are absent and not here? And if you are everywhere, why are you not visible to me? But of course, your dwelling is in light inaccessible. Then where is this light inaccessible, and how can I approach it? Who will guide me and conduct me into it so that I may see you? And then, by what signs, by what visible form shall I know you? I have never seen you; I do not know what you look like, Lord my God. What am I, this exile of yours, to do in a far off land, O most high God, what am I to do? Banished far from your presence and distressed by my love for you, what shall your servant do? With burning desire I strive to see you, and your face is very far from me. I long to come to you, and your dwelling is inaccessible. I wish to find you, and have no idea where you live. I want to search for you and I do not know your face...

O Lord how long? How long, Lord, will you forget us? How long will you avert your face from us?... Look upon us, Lord, listen to us, enlighten us, show yourself to us. Give yourself to us again so that all may be well with us, for without you everything goes wrong for us. Look kindly upon our labors, our strivings to come to you, for apart from you, we can do nothing.

Teach me to seek you, and to the searcher show yourself; for I can neither seek you unless you teach me how, nor find you unless you make yourself known. Let me seek you by my desire and grow in desire by seeking you. Let me find you by loving and grow in love by finding you.


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There is so much to reflect on in these few paragraphs. I hope it will be helpful for you also.

Considering the end of Life as we know it...

"I want you to do something for me," said my friend. She had just finished receiving "the Body of Christ" from me and we had prayed our words of thanksgiving for this wonderful gift.

We were in her room at a rehab center near my home. I was coming straight from Sunday Mass to bring her Holy Communion. She was and is hungry for her Jesus and wants me to come to her whenever I can. She is a woman of deep faith, strength and courage, and I love her... She has become like a sister to me. And the feeling is mutual.

"At my funeral, I want you to say some words of consolation to my family. I want you to tell them about me," she continued. This is the first time she has spoken to me about her death.

"Yes, I will do that for you..." I said.

It only took a moment for me to make up my mind... This was no time to give false hope when we both knew that her illness was severe. I had been with our priest when he anointed her during a recent hospitalization. She was in a coma and the doctors had told her family that they could do no more. She had recovered from pneumonia that time and now, if she can get strong enough with physical therapy, she can go home. But only a miracle can cure her cancer at this end stage.

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I began visiting my friend to bring her Holy Communion about two years ago. She called me one day at the recommendation of our priest and asked if I would visit her. Though my parish is small and I knew who she was, I had not really spoken to her other than a nod or a "hello"... She knew me only as a choir member and a lector.

She had just been diagnosed with a virulent form of cancer and would not be able to come to Mass for awhile because of the aggressive treatment. I had not even noticed that she was missing from the congregation and no one else in the parish except for our priest and her godmother even knew that she was ill. My friend is a very private person. It was not until this last hospitalization that parishioners learned of her illness and could pray for her by name.

I visited her soon after her initial phone call and we connected right away; and so our friendship began. We have marveled many times how God works in bringing people together. How our priest had happened to select the right person for her, and for me too.

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I am really honored to be asked to speak at her funeral and I will tell her story of grace, courage and love.

My friend is preparing herself to leave this world and to enter the next. She is indeed fortunate to be able to do that. Think of how many people are taken in an instant...

But all hope has not been lost for her; for only God knows what He has in store for her. The prayer I said for her after she had received her Jesus, was that God would give her the grace to surrender her life to Him for whatever purpose He had for her. Amen.