First Day of Novena of Healing and Love

To send this card: Novena of Love and Healing - Day One

Quote for the Day: And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. Matthew 14:14

Monday,

Today is the beginning of a Novena for love and healing. No special reason except that I know we all know people who are in need of healing so I hope you will join with me in praying this for those in this special need. If you or someone you know is in need of healing you might want to let them know we are praying for them by sending the card of the day to them if they can get email or just a note or phone call.

If you want to send me an email Send Email of the person (s) you want prayed for we will put the request on our altar and pray especially for them during these nine days. But even if you don't - we will be praying for them. God knows their names even if we don''t - but sometimes for our own knowledge it is nice to know that their name is being placed on the altar.

Blessings of Peace and All Good,
Sister Patricia and all the Sisters

The Confession Connection The Sacrament of Reconciliation: Celebrating God's Forgiveness by Sandra DeGidio, O.S.M. Day Eighteen: Celebration: God always loves us Celebration makes sense only when there is really something to celebrate. Each of us had the experience of going to gatherings with all the trappings of a celebration—people, food, drink, balloons, bands—and yet the festivity was a flop for us. For example, attending an office party can be such an empty gathering of the spouse or friend of an employee. Celebration flows from lived experience or it is meaningless. The need for celebration to follow common lived experiences is especially true of sacramental celebrations. All of the sacraments are communal celebrations of the lived experience of believing Christians. Perhaps what we need to help us feel more comfortable with the idea of celebration in relation to reconciliation is a conversion from our own rugged individualism. Let's face it—there is something about believing in a bogeyman God from whom we have to earn forgiveness that makes us feel good psychologically. It's harder to feel good about a God who loves and forgives us unconditinally—whether we know it or not, want it or not. In the face of such love and forgiveness we feel uncomfortable. It creates a pressure within us that makes us feel we should "do something" to deserve such largess—or at least feel a little bit guilty. The older brother in our story expresses this same discomfort. To be continued A selected article from "101 Inspirational Stories of the Sacrament of Reconciliation."