Friday, April 10, 2015

7 Quick Takes {Take 76} Sorrow, joy and consolation this Easter Octave, edition...


Happy Easter Friday everybody! It's a gloomy day here in WNY, but April showers bring May flowers, right? We're going with that. April showers also melt record February snowfall, so we'll take that too. :0 It's been an emotional start to the Easter season for me, so let's chronicle.

-1- In your charity, please pray for the repose of the soul of a friend's husband...

The husband of a dance troupemate of mine had been ill for well over a year, in need of a liver transplant. Earlier this week, he passed away. He was just 43. :( Would you take a moment to say a prayer for the repose of the soul of Mike, and for strength during this tragedy for his lovely wife Lara? It's such a heartbreaking situation.

-2- But things are going better for young Julia...

I mentioned last Friday that the daughter of a friend is going through a trying bout with cancer right now. Well, initial results for her first set of treatments are in, and they are *excellent.* Although she still has a long road of chemotherapy ahead of her, the fact that her body is responding so well to the treatment is a tremendously good sign. We are all quite thrilled about this. Keep up the prayers, good prayer warriors!

-3- It's a Marian Consecration start date!

April 10th marks a potential start date of the 33 day preparation period to consecrate oneself to Jesus through the intercession of His mother. That makes the consecration date May 13th, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. This is the first time I've ever used this time window during the year for a Marian consecration renewal, I usually start on January 9th and pray the consecration prayers on February 11th, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. But..., this year I forgot. Oops. :) I was on a second honeymoon trip with Mike, so I had a good excuse. At any rate, I use the book 33 Days to Morning Glory by Fr. Michael Gaitley:


If anybody is interested in this, please do join in! I see that it is now available for Kindle, and I don't think it was several years back when I purchased my print copy. Instant gratification! And quick-like-a-bunny joining in with Tiffany in prayer! ;-)

-4- Summer plans are taking shape...

I often dread the summer heat, but this year, after the winter we had, I'm actually looking forward to it. Exhibit A being the fact that I'm voluntarily going to Atlanta in early June for the Catholic New Media Conference. ;-) And I can't wait! But in addition to that, Mike and I talked this week about some dates that we want to reserve for summer activities with the kids. Baseball games, hikes, fireworks, all good stuff.

-5- And speaking of good stuff...

Summer dance gigs are lining up, and I look forward to this all year long. Especially with our Lara going through such a tough time, we are all rallying around her and trying to raise her spirits. She's looking forward to the coming rehearsals and performances as a way to get her mind off of things a bit, and we certainly have an interesting repertoire this year. Saidi canes, gigantic veil wraps and Shaabi folk dance... Betcha can't wait for the stories that are to come. ;-) It's almost certain that I will at some point become engulfed in the gigantic veil and nearly fall off the stage. Almost.certain. :0

-6- Anne's birthday gift!

As I mentioned yesterday, Anne's birthday is next month, and she has asked for a St. Kateri doll. Ta da! She has been ordered:


This would be from Saintly Silver, on Etsy. I can't wait til she comes in the mail! I'm hoping she arrives in time, since they are made to order and I know the wait list can be six weeks, so we'll see.

-7- New spiritual memoir alert!

This morning on Twitter, I happened to see someone tweet about Rachel Held Evans' new memoir, which is slated for release next week, on April 14th:


I absolutely adore memoirs like this. I read and enjoyed Rachel's A Year of Biblical Womanhood, and while I don't agree with her on everything, she is an excellent and interesting Christian writer, and I am pleased to support her work. I plan to download this book to my Kindle the instant I'm caught up on my book club reading. It's currently perched on my wish list. :)

All right everyone, have a fantastic weekend! I have to work the reference desk tomorrow afternoon (insert groan) so I'll be tweeting a lot, I presume. ;-) Other than that, I'll talk to you on Monday!

And head to This Ain't the Lyceum for more 7 Quick Takes!

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