French fries

Today I had many happy moments, accepted a new job, got to watch puppies playing, saw family and friends. But the happiest moment for me was the two minutes I got to see my fiancée and share a few French fries. That is the joy that sticks out on an eventful day, because even on the biggest day of my life, my true joy is to be with her. Ketchup or no ketchup. 

~ OCG

An offer I can't refuse

Today's joy is a brief personal one: after many months in a job search I've finally been offered a full time job! I am so grateful that God has provided me this opportunity and am especially grateful that it is in a surprising bit of a career change! 

Thank you God!

~ OCG

Making Gravy- Why Pasta unites us

Today my house is very busy as we are making some sauce, sausage and meatballs.  It's a unique smell that fills the air and a unique joy that fills your heart and stomach when a family cooks together.  Cooking is a process that is part science, part art, and a large part genealogy.

Recipes are passed down through the generations and only those who are blood relatives or marry into the family get to share in the secrets that make children smile and grown men cry, "Molto bene!".

The uniting factor of food is something God intimately uses in creating His family with His Bride the Church.  From the earliest days, Christ shared meals with His disciples.  He met some of them for the first time at the seashore where they were fishing.  He brought all of them to celebrate at a wedding feast at Cana before He started His ministry.  He fed 5000 and more with a few loaves and fishes.

Most important to the unity of the family is a family dinner.  We all lead hectic lives, ranging between relationships and states, both mental, spiritual and, in my case, geographical.  The family dinner is when everyone sits at one table and shares one meal.  And in that sharing of the meal they share everything: their troubles, joys, laughs, griefs.  Food is a flash point of our familial existence inside and outside of the frying pan of temperaments family's can be.

Jesus unites us in one universal meal at the mass.  He offers Himself up as the meal that satisfies, the true food and true drink of our humanity.  We are united in Him not only as our priest, our King, our God, but our very sustenance.  He is the very food that gives us life, and life eternal.  It is in the Eucharist that the Catholic Church is truly united as a family around one table which also serves as an altar of sacrifice.

God's love within the Blessed Trinity is familial and it's appropriate and beautiful that He chose a family meal as the sacrificial remembrance of Jesus' Passion.  As I sit and enjoy this time with my family, I am grateful to God I have them in my life, that we have this time together before I get married, and that I will have the opportunity to someday soon have my own family.  Blessed be God forever in His Trinity and may He bless all your families this day!

God love you!

~OneCatholicGuy

PS: The meatballs are really good!

Another forgotten post

But for good reasons!

I was:

-working 

-speaking with my fiancée

-eating pasta

-creating something

All four of which are good things that bring me joy! Perhaps the pasta too much so! 

Anyway, that's a brief post explaining why i didn't post before midnight, my apologies!

~OCG 

An interview question

I had an interview earlier today and I'm very hopeful and grateful to God for the opportunity. It would be somewhat of a career change for me and my interviewer asked me first thing off the bat: 

"Given your background, your round about way to this career, how do you know what you're doing? How can I trust you to do this job?"

I answered that my , ahem, scenic route to this position is exactly what makes me qualified. I am not on the same path as everyone else you're interviewing and I'm happy I had the other experiences I did to get me here today. I don't know everything but I can learn what I don't know and bring something unique to the job. 

It hits me tonight that same principle applies to our discipleship. We all are sinners, and each of has had at one point or another a roundabout way back to God. We've all had lapses in judgement and bumps in the trail. No two saints follow the same road or there would be only one path to sanctity. And, truly, a all roads to heaven have only one common factor- Jesus. He is the way, but His Body has many parts and we all blaze a new trail to sainthood in our flawed humanity by God's love and grace. 

What wualifies each of us for sainthood only God knows. We all are called to that vocation in our baptism and Jesus alone is the path to the Father. He ascended so as to send the Holy Spirit to guide us and bring us closer to God. He loves us all individually as we are for we are His children, each unique but possessing traits of our Father, imitating the firstborn to eternal life, Jesus the Christ. 

I'm not sure if I will get the job, but I know that question will remain with me. Why this long and winding road to here? So I may become the person God needs me to be, today, tomorrow, and for all eternity with Him in heaven.

God love you!

~ OCG

Happy Ascension Thursday!

Happy Ascension Thursday! I had a longer post but it got deleted which is probably for the best. 

I'll keep it short since it's late: the Ascension is joyful because it is Christ bringing the fullness of the Trinity in His triumphant ascension to His throne in heaven! 

The Som returns to the Father to allow the Holy Spirit to come down in 10 days. Christ remains with us in the Eucharist giving is strength for our pilgrimage to the Father while  His Ascension signals the Holy Spirit to come down and guide His Church!

That's about as happy as it gets! God loves is and wants us to participate fully in the Trinity and this great feast celebrates that love!

Amen and Allelujah, He is truly Risen!

good night and God bless 

~OneCatholicGuy

40 winks after work

I realized this morning that I missed two posts this week because of late nights and travelling and tonight I fear the same thing may happen so, to prevent that, I am posting early.  You ever get the sleepy midday feeling after a big lunch?  That's kinda what I have right now.  I want to say something profound, perhaps about the importnatce of the Ascension or the Pope's recent visit to the Holy Land but I'm just durn tired right now. 

I've been very blessed this week to have some part time work.  It's the first work I've had in several months and I've found I'm getting pretty exhausted by the end of the day.  That's a good thing, but I'm even more tired today on my day off.  Partially the muggy dawn of summer is to blame but there's something to be said about work and exhaustion. 

Very often, people who have high stress jobs or exceedingly long commutes can go into a zombie like state once they are done working.  They cannot process anything because their mind and body have been moving too fast all day.  That's completely understandable but also a shame.  Their families never get to see them at their peak state that makes them so productive during the workday.  And at the same time unemployment can rob you of your energy and make you feel worth less than you are.  

The key thing is to work to live not live to work.  We should love our jobs and be ambitious and try and make as much progress in our days as we can.  But what is more important is the whole of your life- not just what you do but also who you are, how you love, etc.  

o as I'm tired today, feeling still very lethargically unemployed I pray to God that I remember the truth- that I am a person, created and loved by God the Almighty Father. 

May the Holy Spirit grant us who are tired in mind, spirit and body a refreshing new spring of energy today and help us remember that our true vocation is to love God and one another and our work should be one of many expressions of that work.  

~OCG