Thirsty Thursday: Year of Mercy

Happy New Year’s Eve! 🎆

As the full Year of Mercy draws near, Pope Francis has called us to seek ways to render more kindness to others ~ which is pleasing to the LORD. ☝🏽️

I’ve been praying my daily Rosary and 3 o’clock Divine Mercy with this Pope Francis Rosary from Bishop Mike who blessed me with it on the ☼morning☼ of my dissertation defense and started reading this Rediscover book by Matthew Kelly from my Dad

During Advent, my school, Our Lady of the Lake, kicked off this venture by deeming the Season of Mercy. 🎄

GOD bless you this Merciful Year! Cheers! 🎇

Thirsty Thursday: Evangelist Catholic

The best Catholic💒 examples on Evangelism who I’ve observed have followed these guidelines on 📺EWTN…

Be more Sacramental🍷

• Confessional☝🏽️

Attend Mass💒 regularly

Be an Engaged Catholic✌🏽

Teach Sacramental instruction 📜

• Baptism classes👼
• Confirmation 🙏🏽
• Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist🍞

Catholics Come Home on EWTN

• 🏡 CatholicsComeHome.org
• 😇 GoodConfession.com

Thirsty Thursday: Evangelism

🎈🎁 ¡Feliz 🎂Cumpleaños🍰 a mi querida Evie mañana! 🎊🎉

Aside from calling my co-minister, co-teacher and faithful friend in ☝️Christ, “Ms. Easygoing Evie” in R.E., I also refer to her as a EV for Evie the Evangelist.

I believe that she, her mother Maggie and Maggie’s Bestie Mary Ellen may practice all 4 signs of Dynamic Catholic, with the 4th being Evangelism. To me, I practice the first three:

1. Prayer 🙏
2. Study 📚
3. Generosity 💸

Now I pursue to improve on my evangelistic efforts: to draw others to the faith.

😇Saint Pope John Paul II‘s (who would’ve turned 95 in four days) strength in his convictions opened up countless many Catholics’ minds💡 & hearts💖 to come back [†cross† from 🌴Brownsville Cathedral].

How do we bring people to our beautiful 💒Church?

Mother Teresa restored faith in the poor and meek by helping and healing impoverished communities. This special Time issue dedicated to her was introduced by Rick Warren, who wrote The Purpose Driven Life.

Mary Ellen invites anybody and everybody to our Church and in fact influenced Evie’s family to return. Evie encourages others as well, and her approach is gentle in which those who come don’t feel forced or imposed. When we motivate someone, we want to empower👊 them, that they’re doing this on their own free will because our Christian convictions are deeply rooted on:

*Choice*

Our Blessed Mother the most Generous Mother & Ultiimate Evangelist: our last lesson for R.E., including the Virgin’s apparitions

Speaking of choice, I advocate LIFE and commend those who assume the Pro-LIFE position by choosing to accept the will of GOD.

Pro-LIFE: There shouldn’t be any other way.

Source

• Kelly, M. (2012). The four signs of a Dynamic Catholic: How engaging 1% of Catholics could change the world. Cincinnati, OH: Beacon.

Thirsty Thursday: GT is for…

Generosity with ☝️GOD’s🙏 💝gifts🎁

Time * Talent * Treasure

• Volunteering our time⏰ and treasure to serving our Church💒 (mine is through ministry and teaching ~ photos below are of the Oblate Missions River Rocks that I brought back for my students)

• Donating our treasure (i.e., money💸) through tithing💰

The Key to Happiness:

*STEWARDSHIP*

We can never give enough, so let’s start with gratitude and go on with a generous attitude!

🎓Teacher📚 🍎Appreciation🍏 💝Gifts💅 from Delightful💍 Dani👰

 Live for the sake of worship to serve those in need, rather than for the world to serve our own greed!

So far, our first two signs of Dynamic Catholicism have been:

1. Prayer
2. Study

Last but not least, we’ll explore the sign of:
*Evangelism*

The ☝️Ultimate👏 ✌️Evangelist🙏: Blessed Mother 🌹Mary: Fresh flowers💐 including from my Mom from my Dad‘s garden (2nd-to-right peach🍑 & center back pink🌷)

 Source

• Kelly, M. (2012). The four signs of a Dynamic Catholic: How engaging 1% of Catholics could change the world. Cincinnati, OH: Beacon.

Thirsty Thursday: Religious Study

Devout Catholics pray.🙏

 So do Dynamic Catholics, who also engage in the other three signs that include:

• Study

According to Matthew Kelly (2012), reading👓 Catholic books📚 regularly draws us closer to our 🌞faith.

All it takes is just five pages📖 per day …

You’ll be amazed at how much you learn about our religion and answer such questions as:

• Why do we practice certain rituals in Catholicism?

One Catholic💒 worth studying is 😇 Saint Pope John Paul II (who passed away exactly a decade ago as of this month and has his 95th birthday next month) ~ who my parents visited in 🇮🇹Italy⛲️ during my dad’s USAF✈️ tour of Europe (where I was born in 🇩🇪Germany)!

As we reach our final moments on 🌍Earth🌏, we still won’t know EVERYTHING, but we can die⛪️ trying to absorb as much information as we can to bring us closer to His☝️ 👼Kingdom!

My St. Pope JP2 †cross† from 🌺Brownsville🌴 & the 🌹Rosary🌷 that he blessed⛲️ in Italy🇮🇹 from my CHRIST Bro Joe for my 🎈birthday🎁

#LifelongLearners✌️

My little kiddos👼 learn and teach a great deal in 💒R.E.

 

Source

• Kelly, M. (2012). The four signs of a Dynamic Catholic: How engaging 1% of Catholics could change the world. Cincinnati, OH: Beacon.

Thirsty Thursday: The Prayer Process

Happy 🌍Earth🌎 🌏Day🌞 yesterday!

Bishop Mike blesses the tree that he & Angelo Catholic School planted at Holy Angels Catholic Church, San Angelo, TX

The first sign of being a Dynamic Catholic is Prayer. 

We all pray differently in our daily lives, yet the practice that Matthew Kelly (2012) points out that can enhance our own communication with GOD is through our Examination of Conscience*, which we Catholics do before Confession, and we listen for His message.

This hibiscus🌿 is starting to sprout its petals!🌺

Here, he goes through the steps of The Prayer Process:

1. Gratitude
2. Awareness
3. Significant Moments
4. Peace ✌
5. Freedom
6. Others
7. Our Father 

 

We opened our R.E. class with this simple reminder of the beginning…

*Now here are my Church’s Examination of Conscience:

The First 3 Commandments

1. I am the LORD, your GOD; you shall have no other GODs besides Me.
2. You shall not take the name of the LORD your GOD in vain.
3. Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it Holy.

Beautiful 💝gift🎁 from our special student Felicity

 

The 7 Deadly Sins (and their roots)

• Anger (root: fear of forgiving)
• Envy (root: fear of being powerless)
• Lust (root: fear of being a child)
• Pride (root: fear of submitting my will to another)
• Gluttony (root: fear of mortification)
• Sloth (root: fear of commitment)
• Avarice (root: fear of detachment)

🌍Earth🌎 Day: Delightful Dani shows off her giraffe after her interview, Faithful Felicity and I showcase our 💐plants🌾 + fellow *Dallas Cowboys* fan Amazing Adrian & I wave👋 like 😇St. Pope JPII!

Bibliography

• Kelly, M. (2012). The four signs of a Dynamic Catholic: How engaging 1% of Catholics could change the world. Cincinnati, OH: Beacon.
• *† ♥Sacred Heart Catholic Church. (n. d.) Examination of Conscience. Diocese of San Angelo

Thirsty Thursday: Dynamic Catholicism

My 🍳Easter🐇 season read …

 

The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic💒

1. Prayer🙏
2. Study📚
3. Generosity🙌
4. Evangelization😇

 

From the same author of Rediscovering Catholicism📖 that I read last year during Lent, Matthew Kelly conducted a 🔭study🔬, and according to his 📊results📈, only 7% master ALL of the Above. I’d like to become part of that 📉statistic✅, and as someone who demonstrates the top three, I also pursue to practice the fourth by bringing more people to the faith and increasing that percentage.

Key points that I’ve found here so far that confirms my own actions include:

• Intentionality ~ so I’m delighted that I’ve been on point with preventing distractions by disconnecting from my devices and social media to keep up with my prayers, priorities and practices!
• Spiritual Health ~ in which Kelly includes a road behavior barometer as an indicator that makes sense of how our mood reflects our joy or discontent

☝️GOD bless you all!✌️

Source

• Kelly, M. (2012). The four signs of a Dynamic Catholic: How engaging 1% of Catholics could change the world. Cincinnati, OH: Beacon.