Discerment in Progress

I blame my recent lack of posting on St Therese.  At the beginning of the month I wrote that I said a novena to her however because I had so much to think about I said for my intention all that is on my heart.  Its funny how the heart can hide things even from the person in whose chest it beats.   As some readers might recall I have said she seems to have taken an interest in me for the past couple of years trying to get my attention for some reason.  After the novena this getting my attention only seemed to increase as I couldnt escape her quotes, her photo, her statue and each time it was like she was staring right at me and saying “follow me, follow me to Christ.”  So naturally my first reaction was something like aaaah, go away, leave me alone,  but she didnt   So I gave in and said what, what do you want? Now it is only because my family & friends dont know about this blog that I can say what it seems she wants from me.  Something I never expected and that is to follow her literally.  To think about becoming a Carmelite nun.  (o_O)  To give up everything in reparation for sins and for the conversion of sinners.  That is why I havent posted lately because Ive spent my free time looking into this.

Updated to add

Well I talked to a priest today for some guidance (three weeks after this started) and that helped a lot. It was definitely a conversation I never thought Id have. No verdict yet just to keep praying and wanting to do God`s will not my own, which is hard for me but he said there would be graces if its meant to be. Ask Mary for her intercession etc. I was kind of hoping he would say Im nuts and to completely forget it because if he did then I could take the easy selfish way out but that didnt happen.

The priest asked me what sort of ministry I felt attracted to such as teaching and I said that for the past year or more I felt drawn to offer prayers and sufferings for the reparation of sins and the conversion of sinners. I had no idea until just recently that the Carmelites are one of the orders that focus on that.  Eek.

I emailed a couple of communities with some questions I had and will see what they say. I knew very little about religious communities, their lifestyles, and formation until just a couple of weeks ago.

Japanese Conversion & Vocation Stories

I was looking at the Daughters of St Paul`s website here and in their section titled who are we they have their vocation stories.    Each story is quite short and can be read in two or so minutes.

St. Damien of Molokai

He was Fr. Damien then Blessed Damien and today, October 11, he is Saint Damien.  EWTN aired the canonization mass which I remembered half an hour after it was over

Here is one of many articles covering the event.

Here is an article about a painting of Fr … I mean Saint Damien that was given to the Pope.   The late artist had Lou Gehrig`s disease but she did an amazing job.

Ex Finance Minster Found Dead

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) — Shoichi Nakagawa, who resigned as Japanese finance minister in February amid accusations of drunken behavior during an international conference in Rome, was found dead in his Tokyo home yesterday. He was 56.

One of many articles on this story.  Another is here

Mr Nakagawa was infamous for a very drunken looking press conference but also for exhibiting drunken behaviour at the Vatican Museum such as sitting down against the  Laocoon statue, touching some of the art, and for opening an emergency exit door.  My original post on that is here.  I will include intentions  for his soul and for comfort for his wife and children when I say my chaplet of Divine Mercy today.

Update

An autopsy on former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa has detected numerous anomalies in his cardiovascular system as well as the presence of alcohol, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

article

Feast of St Therese of Lisieux

In January of 2008 I found a prayer card with a novena to St Therese on it while cleaning up some stuff one day.  I thought it would be fun to pray because I had heard that sometimes people receive roses and I wanted to see if that would happen to me too, so I prayed the novena.  I got roses and on my birthday no less   It was also the first time I had ever said a novena.  I also seemed to have gained the interest of St Therese who keeps trying to make herself known to me for almost the past two years now.  I keep encountering her in quotes from her mostly but also by seeing her picture and statue.  Later in 2008 I started to read a free copy of her book Story of a Soul on Project Gutenberg which you can read here but gave up since it`s not very easy to read that much at the computer.  A couple of months later while visiting my family I found a copy on my Mom`s bookshelf and so read the entire book very comfortably.

Her relics have toured the world but have never been to Japan and currently they are in England for a month.  If they ever do come here, and Im still here, I will definitely go say hi.  I also found out that another favorite Catholic of mine, and likely future saint, Archbishop Fulton Sheen`s talks about her have been compiled into a book see here

I found this video which shows the public areas of her convent as well as some of her personal items.