Merry Christmas What’s everyone doing?

I have been called to fasting recently also, but I am not doing great. New year I will need another big push. There must be great evil power right now because its not just an obvious call to fasting its to also to live as sinless as possible, I find when I sin the slap on the hand comes fast and hard these days.

Happy Christmas to you all. Happy Birthday Jesus Christ.

 

I worked this evening, and so I wanted to avoid celebrating Christmas with a meal as I was determined to go to work 100% sober, so I declined 3 invitations to join others for a meal.

My adult children went out of town to have Christmas at the home of their father and stepmother.

I came to the temporary " home" of my daughter and son in law, to housesit for them and water their plants while they are away. The home is actually a sort of farm shed, in a rural setting, solid and warm but more like quarters of farm hands, rough and ready , abit like the ranch cabin scene from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Americans would call this place a Ranch and I am in the barn. The kitchen sink is outside. The toilet and shower are some distance away., accross the lawn. There are no curtains on the windows and the windows are not clean. There are spider webs everywhere and it looks like birds lived in here at some stage in the past, from the sight of the rafters.

Much to be concerned about that my married daughter is living in a situation like this. ( not family freindly and she does not seem to be living in a marriage that is open to life). Good for me to experience her day to day reality so I can pray more specifically for her and understand her strange situation better.

It reminds me that Baby Jesus was born in a primitive stable. I spent Christmas completely alone as I waited to go off to work the evening shift. I absolutely loved the peace of it. Its the first time In my entire life that I have spent Christmas alone and I am 57.

I had a Shepherds Pie for my lunch. A couple of peices of Shortbread for a treat. When my phone rang, I did not answer it.

I prayed the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet. I had lit a candle and put up a special Christmas card I had bought after weeks of looking for decent Christian Christmas cards, it is an image which is called "Madonna of the Fir Tree", by Marianne Stokes.

I have been struck by how my attention is able to focus solely on the beautiful Madonna and child portrayed on the card, and forget my surroundings.

Outside the barn here are huge fir trees also known as Pine trees. They make a tremendous noise when there is a wind.

At night I hear rodents - but I think they are on the roof and hopefully not inside with me.

In the late afternoon, I went off to work until 10pm and I drove back out here to the Ranch at 10pm. It was dark and I felt afraid to be coming out of town so late at night but I got safely in to my primitive home and had a glass of wine and listened to commentary on Archbishop Vigano's latest missive.

I prayed for the big Saints and heroes of God's Church, who are leading us - Cardinal Mueller, Cardinal Burke, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Archbishop Vigano, Father Richard Heilman,
Taylor Marshall, Michael Voris, Christine Nyles, John Henry Western, Timothy Gordon, Alexander Tschugguel , to name but a few. To me they are those of whom St Louis de Montfort spoke of as being raised up in the last days and taller than the Cedars of Lebanon.

Merry Christmas to all, wherever you may be on this earth, from the ends of the earth here in New Zealand.

 

What a beautiful Christmas. So out of the ordinary.

 

That was beautiful...thank you for sharing. Your writing is so detailed...I felt like I was there. A tear of sadness but also moments of beauty and joy. You let me into your world.

You were not alone. You were with the communion of saints...celebrating a spiritual Christmas. God sees all...and so did your MOG family. We were there with you. What a great Blessing.

God Bless you and your family.

Br. Al

I will pray for your daughter today.

 

Thank You Brother Al, your prayers for my daughter are very much appreciated.

Thank you Brian K for uploading the beautiful image! I wanted to put it up but did not know how to do that on my phone. That was a lovely surprise to see it there when I woke up this morning. In New Zealand it is just after 9 am on Boxing Day.

 

It is quite beautiful, yes, thank you , Brian.
Lumena, you are blessed.
Brother Al, I have enjoyed this thread.

 

You said a mouthful there Indy. So so true.

 

Lumena this is so beautiful. Thankyou for the vivid description of your Christmas. I felt I was right there with you. I especially love the image of Our Lady. And listening to the saints and heroes of our faith. In these very dark days illuminated moments are such a gift. Merry Christmas.

 

Yes, maryrose, it is sad when the Christmas/Easter Catholics cross the threshold but a handful of times a year. At least they still possess a smidgen of respect for God in their hearts or a least a sweet memory from the past. May that tiny seed fall into the ground and take root to bear precious fruit for the Lord!

Safe Under the Mantle of Mary!

 

As I've often mentioned, Geralyn and my six children are widely scattered. As of today my younger daughter, Therese, and her family who live north of Philadelphia, are flying to Los Angeles to visit her sister Rachel, and her family. Our oldest son, Fr. Ben, who lives in Dallas recently visited Christopher and his family in Houston. Danny from Ohio, our youngest, is home with us, while Fr. Patrick, in Atlanta, is flying north and will visit us in the first week of January. We, ourselves went south last weekend to visit Therese and her family. So, living hundreds and even thousands of miles apart, is difficult; we do the best we can!

The uniting of our hearts in the Two Hearts is not difficult for the Holy Spirit, praise God. But the physical separation can be disappointing at times.

Thank God for the gift of MOG, for the encouragement and prayer support it provides for us all! Thank you Dear Lady.

We still have 4 hours of Christmas left here so I wish you all a Blessed Nativity. May the Christ Child minister to our hearts and strengthen us to be faithful Catholics!

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you!

 

Thankyou Terry. Beautifully said.

 

wow....I’m amazed! When reading this, I could visualize where you are and how you felt! Much like reading a good book!
You must be a tough breed! Wish I could go it alone like you in these primitive surroundings. Although I must say that the simplicity of it all seems inviting in a way..(except for the bathroom...lol). Makes me wonder if this may someday be viewed as “the good life”!

Blessings to you....and Merry Christmas. I enjoyed this post!

 

I am blessed in that my 2 married children & families live next door. We live in the countryside. We all celebrated together with the 10 grandchildren aged between 2 and 11. We finished up at 10.30pm after a few games of Articulate.
My youngest daughter got engaged this Christmas and she is in Donegal for Christmas meeting her fiancé 's family. I am so thankful for everything. I pray always to keep peace in my family, not always easy. I pray to St Therese and her parents and siblings to adopt members of my family and help them. Louis is to help the dads to be good fathers and husband, Zelie likewise to assist the Mom's in carrying out their tasks. I pray to Leoine for my asbergers granddaughter. Each of the remaining sisters have been given 2 children each to assist.

I hope the Lord grants each of you your hearts desire in the coming days and I pray for peace & joy in our hearts in 2020.

 

12 degrees here this morning. But clear antiseptic sunshine. No snow!!! That is a great gift. God bless us everyone. (Tiny Tim)

 

AED,

It's been a strange winter indeed! It's been cold enough so far to maintain our snow cover, but we've had hardly any snow. By now we would have normally had 50" in December but we've only had 20". Well, less work for us. Thank you Jesus. Now, it even looks like we'll be in the high 30s for the next week, too! Maybe the scaremongers should switch back to naming it global warming!

 

Lol
We had 28 degrees and frozen fog this morning. I have never experienced it before. Dangerous. I had to drive 25 miles to car dealer to get service appointment. I was being super careful.
Nice now, sunny and 44. That is very different about your weather in Northeast! Wow.

 

Merry 2nd Day of Christmas everyone! I was quite busy, but had a very good Christmas. It was Christmas Eve when this was posted so I'll start with that, I read through a bit of the Apocalypse on Christmas Eve, to add a bit more of an Apocalyptic feel to the last day of Advent. I noticed that this Advent was really good for me, I grew and advanced a lot during Advent, I'm very grateful for that and am grateful for the support I received from everyone on MOG, during this Advent.

Reading the Book of the Apocalypse helped me focus during Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning masses, I was able to focus more on the mass helping us reach our supernatural end than, letting my mind wander to other things. I always struggle with staying focused during an irreverent Novus Ordo mass, that's one of the first things notice about the Latin Mass during the two times I have attended it so far, how easy it is to stay focused during one.

Christmas was spent at my parents place with my brother. My grandmother wasn't able to come, she lives in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia and the mountain passes have been closed over the week, she'll be arriving this weekend instead. Among other gifts, I bought some Catholic books on themes my family members would be interested in, they responded quite well to them so I am hopeful it'll hope with evangelizing them.

I'm planning on and have been saying one Rosary on the Joyful Mysteries during these 12 Days of Christmas, with the primary petition being to receive all the graces available during this Christmas Season. Today is the Feast of Saint Stephan and I have contemplating the courage of the martyrs today, particularly the ones I have personally been deeply inspired by and have developed a great devotion to this year, the Canadian Martyrs. I hope to make great advances in overcoming my anger and increasing in the virtues of meekness, mercy, and fortitude, the Canadian Martyrs, pray for us: