Healthy With Tea

Healthy With Tea

Joyfully Back in the Kitchen!

This afternoon, I worked my first shift at my new job as a cook! Cooking is one of my passions, and I was overjoyed to be in a professional kitchen, among colleagues who know and love food, after several years. I made frosting for a wedding cake, but had to beat the mixture much, much more, as my employer patiently showed me the proper consistency. Well, now I know!

My sweet husband remarked that I had rosy cheeks when I came home from work this evening; I had to be honest and admit that it was from overheating and dehydration from working in a south Texas kitchen for five hours!

Still, my favorite role is that of wife and homemaker. My highest calling is to care for my husband and our home, and nothing makes me happier! God Bless!

Finally Coming Home

I was so pleased to be able to meet with our parish priest for the first time today, for the interview which begins the RCIA process. Our priest is a historian, a fact which makes me even more anxious to begin the process. I love to study the history of the early Church (actually, any area of history captures my attention!). The meeting lasted about an hour, and I was grateful that my husband, who is Catholic, accompanied me; for some reason, I felt terribly nervous.

Nerves aside, I felt blessed and grateful to finally be heading home to the Catholic Church. Mother Church has been calling me for years, and it took some gentle prodding by my husband to finally get me in the door. The beckoning wealth of wisdom and holiness of the Church and her saints held an irresistible attraction. This evening, my heart is resting peacefully in the knowledge that I will one day be able to call myself a member of this Church. Enough wishful thinking, lets get on with it!

Seeking His Divine Mercy

A great blessing for me, as I travel my road to Catholicism, has been my introduction to the Divine Mercy Chaplet. My husband bought me a rosary for my birthday in May, and has encouraged me to read Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Saint Maria Fastina was a Sister of Our Lady of Mercy in the 1930's. The Lord Jesus Christ, in a series of visions to Sister Maria Faustina, instructed her to write the prayers to the Divine Mercy. Sister Faustina was canonized on April 30, 2000.

I have read excerpts from the Diary, and am also reading Fr. Seraphim Michalenko's booklet The Divine Mercy Message and Devotion. I have been praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet nearly every day, and have experienced indescribable peace during the prayers, and sometimes even during the day when I just think of the Divine Mercy. My husband has taught me about the Hour of Great Mercy: at 3:00 every afternoon (the hour of Christ's passion), we meditate on and embrace God's mercy.

As I prepare for my instruction and conversion to the Catholic Church, I am already blessed by the treasures of the Church, and have already devoted my heart to spreading the story of God's Divine Mercy. My husband will accompany me to my first meeting with the parish priest tomorrow, and I can't wait to hear what further wisdom Father will teach me! Thank you, Lord, for your unending love!

Seller of Purple

I would like to pay tribute to one of my favorite heroines of the Bible, St. Lydia of Thyatira. In Acts 16, we learn that Lydia, St. Paul's first European convert (along with her entire household), was a successful businesswoman--a dealer in purple dye, or purple cloth. She opened her home to the follwers of Jesus Christ, and risked all that she had gained in order to further the Gospel. Her hospitality and generosity are not as widely known as they might be, so I believe it is important to spread the story of her conversion when I have the chance. Let her story be an inspiration to women to open our hearts and homes to serving others and the Lord.

A Time of Miracles

The past year has been a year of miracles for me. In fact, the miracles began during the darkest days of my life, days spent wandering the streets during the day, and sleeping in the park at night. Those lonely days and nights led me to my real life! As a resident at a Christian homeless shelter, I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. The Living God had reached down and pulled me from the brink. I was soon working at the shelter as a shift coordinator, and stayed at that job for 2 years.

The most recent miracle has been my marriage to my best friend and spiritual partner, whom I shall call S.P. After a life alone, I had all but given up on the search for my soulmate. But as Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." I am especially blessed that S.P. has shared his Catholic faith with me; I have been considering converting to Catholicism for several years.

I would like to share a prayer that my husband and I found at http://www.comeandseeicons.com. We love this prayer:

A Prayer of Married Persons

O merciful God, we beseech Thee ever

to remind us that the married state is

holy, and that we must keep it so.

Grant us thy grace, that we may

continue in faithfulness and love;

increase in us the spirit of mutual

understanding and trust, that no

quarrel or strife may come between us.

Grant us thy blessings, that we may

stand before our fellows and in thy

sight as an ideal family.

And finally, by thy mercy, account us

worthy of everlasting life: for Thou art

our sanctification, and to Thee we

ascribe glory: to the Father, and to the

Son, and to the Holy Spirit; now and

ever, and unto ages of ages.

Amen.