Keeping the faith, and preparing for more frolicking with yarn...

Hi all! I have a big weekend coming up, and this week so far has been absolutely insane, with tons going on both at home and at work. But all is well! This weekend I am bound for Rhinebeck, NY, where I will attend the NY Sheep and Wool Festival for the second straight year, and I could NOT be more thrilled! I had such a wonderful time last year, and I feel blessed to be going again with my knitting group. Mid-October, in the Hudson Valley, amongst friends, food truck falafel, fiber-bearing animals, and reams and reams of gorgeous yarn. It is a dream come true, I tell you! I will report in next week with all of the yarny goodness. 🤗

In other news, we were at an open house this past weekend for the local Catholic boys high school that Henry would like to go to next year. The excellent, expensive, Catholic boys high school. 😬But it was a wonderful experience, and Henry handled himself so beautifully in a new situation, interacting with lots of people, both of which I know make him very nervous. I was so proud of him. 💗 The entrance exam is November 17th, and I would appreciate any prayers for focus and discernment that you could wing his way!

In the lead-up to the open house on Sunday, we all attended Mass together as a family. And it was the 8 am Mass. Remember what happened the last time the kids and I went to the 8 am Mass Henry was serving at? Yeah. It was a bit of a disaster. I was feeling so low, and our experience at that Mass only made things worse. Well, needless to say, I wasn't exactly looking forward to going back, but Henry was serving, so I steeled myself, and Mike came with us, which is always lovely. After Mass, this same person came up to talk to me, which I have to say is perplexing, because we don't know each other at all, but I'm a friendly sort. It was again a little strange, but there was a key difference: God allowed me to see something very important. This man doesn't have any ill intentions, he is simply a bit socially awkward. I felt a lot of peace afterwards. And it changed the way I look back and view the other situation as well. I'm feeling peaceful and grateful for this revelation. Sometimes these little things mean a lot, you know?

And in that same vein, attending Mass has become easier for me again. In my time of spiritual dryness, it was hard to go to Mass, but I went anyway. Now, I feel peaceful there again. I know that we don't *need* that feeling in order to go, but it does help, yes? And so here is the crowd sourcing part of our time together. ;-) My subscription with Magnificat is up this month. I have always loved Magnificat, and I still do. I just ordered Anne a subscription to MagnifiKid, in fact. But I thought before taking on another 2 year subscription, I would look at the other options just to see if I liked any of those better. A refreshening and reevaluation process. I spied with my little eye Word Among Us and their format of a small monthly magazine with the optional supplement of the daily Mass readings really appealed to me. Does anybody subscribe to either of these, and what are your feelings on what they have to offer? How about a regular old Sunday missal? One of the things I love the most about Magnificat is the beautiful artwork and the special Holy Week issue each year. Word Among Us seems to have uplifting articles to read throughout, appealing to a bookworm like me.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

A foray back to daily Mass on the Feast of the Visitation...

So, a couple of interesting Catholic tidbits to share today. The first is that my new experiment with Magnificat magazine, after my first full month, is officially a success. I use it pretty much every day. I don't often get to the evening prayers, but I say morning prayer nearly every morning, and I use it for Mass on Sundays as well. I've also read nearly all of the daily meditations and saint stories. It tucks easily into my purse, and I have it for all of the needs that I just mentioned in one compact source. It's quite perfect.

And today, I used it for daily Mass. :) It's been a long time since I've been to a true daily Mass, usually attending during the week only when there is a holy day of obligation. But I used to go all the time back when I was in law school and working as an attorney. My schedule, as well as my location, worked out such that I could make it nearly every day back then. I also went occasionally when I was in college, which is what initially turned me on to what daily Mass truly was.

Daily Mass is pretty much the reason why I'm a committed Catholic today, and didn't just laze around in terms of my spirituality when I was a young adult. I had always assumed that it was like Sunday Mass, just during the week. It's not. It's a lot shorter (less readings and you don't recite the Creed, usually a more concise homily as well), but it packs a heck of a powerful punch. As well, many parishes don't celebrate daily Mass in the main church, having a separate, small chapel for this purpose so that they don't have to worry about heating/cooling the larger space. Obviously, there will be a much smaller crowd for daily Mass as opposed to Sunday, but the people that do go form this cohesive little community. It's comforting to see the same faces all the time, there is a feeling of camaraderie. And these are people who treasure the Mass and the Eucharist, so the reverence level is high.

It was a huge boon to my faith life when I started to attend daily Mass in law school, and that is when the religious vocation discernment took place. After I graduated, I went during my lunch break at work, Our cathedral downtown had a beautiful daily Mass chapel that I could walk to in under 5 minutes.

When I started working as a librarian/went to library school (both at the same place) it wasn't as easy. There is a Newman Center here, but they only have daily Mass during the main semesters, and even then only 3 times per week. My schedule is also different here, I often have classes or meetings that conflict with the Mass time.

At first, when the Newman Center was an easy walk from my office, I would go down there occasionally for Mass. Then, last year, they built a new, gorgeous Newman Center building, which is great, but I can't walk to it. It necessitates a short drive (this is a fairly large campus) and parking here is at a premium. I didn't want to leave my spot and then have to agonize over finding a new one when I returned. Plus, all that walking out to the lot and driving to and from took my time away from my office from about 20 minutes to 40 or 45. It just didn't work.

But I had always wondered about the daily Mass at our parish. The church is maybe a 2 minute drive from our house, and they have an 8 am Mass. I usually like to get to work around 8:30, but even with attending Mass I knew I would get in before 9 am. I just often have 9 am commitments and didn't want to be feeling rushed. Well, today I had no meetings, classes, or reference shifts on my calendar and I knew the opportunity was nigh. It's also the summer, and so parking is easy. I was going to daily Mass.

I left my house at approximately 7:53 am and made it in plenty of time. The small daily Mass chapel, located in the parish center, has it's own small parking lot that I had never used before. I arrived, collected my stuff and headed in.

I was unprepared for the amount of people in there. The chapel was pretty full. I suddenly remembered that the parish Women's Sodality prays the rosary after daily Mass for the month of May, and so they must all make a special effort to come during that time. A quick perusal confirmed Mike's suspicion that, when I expressed an interest in joining the Women's Sodality, I would likely be the youngest member by at least 15-20 years. :) I slipped into a seat and scanned my Magnificat while I waited for Mass to start. There was a featured meditation on the Feast of the Visitation, since that is what we are celebrating today. Love!

I recognized all of the people present from Mass on Sundays. Many of them also serve as lectors or Eucharistic ministers, or in the choir. I sensed some interest generated amongst the congregation that a new person was suddenly in their daily Mass midst, though I'm sure they recognized me. It's not often that a new person will start going to daily Mass, especially when it's not Advent or Lent.

The chapel was quite warm (it's pretty hot here today, at least by my standards :)) but Mass was lovely. I just feel so *good* when I go to daily Mass. It's the perfect way to start your day. After Mass, Father exposed the host in a monstrance, and I stayed to pray for a few minutes before they started the rosary. I was on my way to work by 8:30 am.

So, this pretty much seals the deal that whenever I don't have a 9 am commitment I'm going to go there for Mass in the mornings all summer. It was just smashing.

My latest experiment with daily prayer: Magnificat magazine...

I've flirted with Magnificat before, and at one point before I got married I had a subscription for years. I eventually stopped subscribing because I found myself not using it as much, and I also a full set of the Liturgy of the Hours books. It's not a cheap subscription, so I let it go.

Well, this past Lent showed for sure and for certain that the Liturgy of the Hours just isn't happening at this point in my life. It's not that I don't have the time; it's that in the (somewhat limited) free time that I do have, I'm not disciplined enough to devote the necessary time to it. At some future point it will hopefully be possible, just not right now.

So I tried Magnificat again. Since I last subscribed, they added an option for a 6 month subscription for $24.95. Although you don't save as much money as if you subscribed for a longer period of time, this is a nice option for trying out the magazine at an inexpensive price. No need to shell out $45 for a full year if you're not going to like it or use it. And fyi, Magnificat offers a free sample issue to anybody to wants one, so do take them up on that to get a sense of the magazine if you've never used it before.

My first issue to arrive was May. I was very excited to tuck it into my purse yesterday and pray Morning Prayer. I am so, so glad that I gave this another chance. What Magnificat does is modify Morning and Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours (they include selections of the psalms and readings only) into a shorter format. It also includes the daily Mass readings and prayers, and the Order of Mass, so you can use this instead of a permanent or annual Missal. Each day also includes a meditation and a saint story. The saint stories were always my favorite. There will be a short biography of the saint on the calendar, but the section I'm talking about is called "Saints of Today and Yesterday" and discusses a saint I've never heard of before. As is always the case with saint stories, the details are fascinating, sometimes morbidly so. :)There will be a few articles at the very beginning, an editorial and one other, addressing a theme for the month.The cover always features beautiful sacred art (and there is a description of the cover art in the back, along with another featured work of art that is given a full color display and a longer discussion).

This is really a wonderful publication. It's so much more than merely a magazine, but it's also more than a devotional. It's a daily prayer companion. If anybody else subscribes to Magnificat or starts up a subscription, do leave a comment and let me know how you like it.