On the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker

Prayer to St. Joseph the Workman 

Composed by Pope St. Pius X 

(State your petitions) 

O glorious St. Joseph, model of all those who are devoted to labor, 

Obtain for me the grace


*  To work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my natural inclinations, 

* To work with gratitude and joy, in a spirit of penance for the remission of my sins, 
considering it an honor to employ and develop by means of labor the gifts received from God, 

* To work with order, peace, moderation and patience, without ever shrinking from weariness and difficulties, 

* To work above all with purity of intention and detachment from self, 
having always death before my eyes and the account that I must render of time lost, 
of talents wasted, of good omitted, of vain complacency in success, so fatal to the work of God. 

All for Jesus, all through Mary, all after thine example, O Patriarch, St. Joseph. 
Such shall be my watchword in life and in death.

Amen

Prayer to St. Joseph the Worker 

O glorious St. Joseph, model of all those who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my natural inclinations, to work with gratitude and joy, in a spirit of penance for the remission of my sins, considering it an honor to employ and develop by means of labor the gifts received from God, to work with order, peace, moderation and patience, without ever shrinking from weariness and difficulties, to work above all with purity of intention and detachment from self, having always death before my eyes and the account that I must render of time lost, of talents wasted, of good omitted, of vain complacency in success, so fatal to the work of God. All for Jesus, all through Mary, all after thine example, O Patriarch, St. Joseph. Such shall be my watchword in life and in death.
 Amen.

Prayer to St. Joseph for Employment

Dear St. Joseph, you were yourself once faced with the responsibility of providing the necessities of life for Jesus and Mary. Look down with fatherly compassion upon me in my anxiety over my present inability to support my family. Please help me to find gainful employment very soon, so that this heavy burden of concern will be lifted from my heart and that I am soon able to provide for those whom God has entrusted to my care. Help us to guard against bitterness and discouragement, so that we may emerge from this trial spiritually enriched and with even greater blessings from God. 
Amen

Good St. Joseph, Pray For Us!

Oasis Field Trip

 Only minutes from Las Vegas, Spring Mountain Ranch is a Nevada State Park Oasis.  The day we found the park (last Friday), it was so green and beautiful we forgot for a while that we weren't back in Colorado -- a happy illusion made more real by the fact that it was crazy windy, cold, and rainy that day!  You have to know that weather in Las Vegas is about as bland as it comes to understand how thrilled we were to dig out our jackets for this visit last Friday!  It was a chilly 50 degrees -- in late April, when most Las Veganites are going around in shorts and tank tops.  But, HA!  No immodest outfits to have to try to ignore this day!

Take a look at this beautiful old ranch, though! Located on a side-route of the Old Spanish Trail, the artesian springs at the base of this canyon provided water for pioneer campsites as early as the 1830s.  By the 1870s the land had been purchased by Sgt. James Wilson and set up as a ranch (called "Sandstone Ranch").  It's been a working ranch ever since. It was once owned by Howard Hughes (though it's doubtful he ever actually visited).  It changed hands a couple of times after the Hughes empire let it go and eventually -- thank goodness! -- landed in the hands of the Nevada State Parks before it could be developed into condos or casinos.  Which would have been tragic.

 Now the whole 520 acre ranch is a historic site with daily tours, summer concerts, and special events.  They have Civil War battle re-enactments for kids every last Saturday (an activity in which we are so going to participate).   But, really...  Even without all the national park perks (especially exciting to history junkies!)...  Look at this place!  The green meadows and 400 year old cottonwoods, against the stunning backdrop of craggy mountains.... It is truly breathtaking!   And, get this: because of its high altitude, Spring Valley Ranch is always a good 10 to 15 degrees cooler than Las Vegas!  I'm thinking we'll make this park a regular stop in our Nevada wanderings.

Would that beautiful old tree make for an amazing rope swing or what?  I'm guessing the Parks Service would frown on the idea...

The usual suspects...  Check out how we're the only people in the park.  Any kind of REAL weather scares away Las Vegas natives -- which suited us just fine!  We pretty much got the whole park and the tour guides all to ourselves.

Isn't the "new" ranch house (built in the late 1800s and added to throughout the years, into the 1950s) unique and beautiful?  I'd live in this house -- even in Nevada, I'd take it.  (Wish we'd gotten pics of the indoors!)

William and friend.

Yeah, these guys again --  Cathy, Anna, Gabe, Theresa, and William -- blowing in the wind.  No biggie, though.  These are Colorado kids.

"Moo."

"Tweet."  (The old fashioned kind)

The "old" ranch house, built in the mid 1800s

The gang in front of the old blacksmith shop that aided the pioneers traveling this leg of the Old Spanish Trail.  You can see that, by the end of the day, the sun had broken through and we got to enjoy a hike around the property.  Great day!

*  Of all the sites we've seen yet in Nevada, this park is probably our favorite.  The Space Needle and the Luxor have got nothing on this place!

*  Happy Trails, Folks!

Feast of St. Catherine of Siena!

   St. Catherine of Siena

Born	March 25, 1347 Siena, Italy
Died	April 29, 1380 (aged 33) Rome
Canonized	1461, by Pope Pius II
Feast	April 29; April 30 (Roman Calendar, 1628–1960)
Attributes	Dominican tertiary's habit, lily, book, crucifix, heart, crown of thorns, stigmata, ring, dove, rose, skull, miniature church, miniature ship bearing Papal coat of arms
Patronage	against fire, bodily ills, diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, Europe, illness, Italy, miscarriages, people ridiculed for their piety, sexual temptation, sick people, sickness, nurses

                (Found on Wikipedia)

Coloring page to click and print
or to find here, courtesy of talented Charlotte and Waltzing Matilda.

Happy name day to our Catherine!  She was actually named specifically for our dear St. Catherine of Laboure, but we like to lay claim to all the heavenly help from friends we can get -- and  St. Catherine of Siena is truly one of the greats of the heavenly court!  St. Catherine, Pray For Us!  Pray for our Church!  Pray for the Papacy!

The Feast of St. Mark

What do you know about St. Mark?  Even though, Mark is my husband's middle name, and therefore, one of his patrons, until I did some research this afternoon, I knew very little.  Even though St. Mark is one of the four Evangelists, he seems somehow to hide in the shadows of the Bible.  He's just a little bit anonymous, in other words:  he's not like St. Matthew, unversally known for being the Jewish tax collector; he's not St. Luke, the physican, who learned the tales of the Bible through the lips of the Mother of God; he's not St. John, the beloved Apostle, who survived being boiled in oil...  So who is St. Mark?

Abbot Gueranger says in the Liturgical Year:

Mark was the beloved disciple of Peter; he was the brilliant satellite of the sun of the Church.  He wrote his Gospel at Rome, under the eyes of the Prince of the Apostles.  The Church was already in possession of the history given by Matthew; but the faithful of Rome whished their own Apostle to narrate what he had witnessed.  Peter refused to write it himself, but he bade his disciple take up his pen, and the Holy Ghost guided the hand of the new Evangelist.

Yes.  But what do we know about the man?

After looking around (and around and around), I've found that we do have one or two facts -- and a lot of guessing -- about St. Mark.  He was believed to have been born in Jerusalem and was the cousin of Barnabus, the disciple of St. Paul.  He is reported to have been a Jewish priest and a learned man,  and it is traditionally believed that he was a married man when he became a Christian.  St. Mark's mother,  (another) Mary, seems to have been one of the faithful women of the early Church; it was to her home that St. Peter apparently fled after his release from prison (Acts 12:12-13). 

  We don't really know for sure, but there are many traditions explaining how St. Mark entered into the service of the Apostles. Of course it could have been through the instigation of his mother that he became a Christian and met the Apostles, but there are other ideas floating around out there, as well. One account supposes that it may have been Mark who carried water to Jesus and the Twelve at the Last Supper and there is speculation that Mark was one of the servants at the Marriage at Cana who poured out the water that Jesus turned to wine (John 2:1-11).  In addition to these conjectures, it is thought that St. Mark was referring to himself when he told about the young man who ran away naked when Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:51-52), and the Coptic Church believes it was St. Mark who hid the disciples in his house after the crucifixion, into whose house Jesus came after the Resurrection (John 20), and into whose house the disciples received the Holy Ghost at Pentecost -- and that Mark may have been one of the Seventy Apostles sent out by Jesus (Luke 10:1).  But all of this is speculation.  What we do know for sure is that St. Mark, though not counted as one of the twelve Apostles, became a trusted ally and helper of the first pope, so trusted that St. Peter gave him the job of writing his account of the life of Christ.

But St. Mark did more than just write.  After the Gospel was finished,  St. Peter continued to make good use of his faithful friend, sending him to Aquileia (an ancient Roman city at the head of the Adriatic Sea), then to Egypt -- namely Alexandria -- and Antioch.  In Alexandria, St. Mark  founded one of the first Christian schools and instituted what has been called the first seed of monastic life in his Therapeutes.  It was in Alexandria that the success of St. Mark's preaching resulted in his martyrdom. He was dragged to his death by a rope tied around his neck in the year 68 AD, after some thirty-five years laboring for the Church. 

The Greater Litanies Procession is also on this day. 

Here is the post from last year about this traditional recitation of these powerful intercessory prayers.  And here are pictures of the blessing of the farm, along with the text of some of the traditional blessing prayers.
(Tho I looked almost everywhere in cyberspace, all info here was gleaned from The Catholic Encyclopedia and The Liturgical Year, with a couple of the speculations about his meeting the Apostles gleaned from Wikipedia and a Coptic Church site.  Oh, and the drawing above is "The Head of St. Mark" by Albrecht Durer )

For my husband, from St. Mark, on his Name Day, four days before our 27th anniversary. :)

** Repost from 2010.

Happy Birthday, Tim Conway!

The great Mr. Conway is 78 years old today!

This is a somewhat long clip, but well worth the watch!  The story goes that Tim Conway got Harvey Korman laughing so hard at his ad libbing during this sketch that Mr. Korman actually wet his pants...  I believe it!


Much wholesome happiness and laughter due to this guy and the Carol Burnett Show.  I'm old enough to have many happy memories of watching this with the whole family, first run on television.  I wish there were shows like this today that were appropriate for us to all watch as a family!

I don't know about everywhere else...

but it's summer here!

Weird.

We're still getting used to the reality of the climate here in the Nevada desert.  Coming from Colorado, we've marveled at the strange Twilight Zone of spring-ish weather ever since we got here last November.  It's been too chilly to get in the pool, but never cold enough to wear anything more than a light sweater.  And here we are in Easter week, a time when we're accustomed to enjoying the gorgeous blooms of crabapple trees, the cheerful blossoms of daffodils, and the long-awaited shedding of our winter coats and boots -- but here in Vegas, roses have been blooming for a couple of months, we haven't seen a single daffodil actually growing anywhere, and we're rejoicing over the pool being comfortable enough to go in for a swim. 

I say it again:  weird.  But nobody's complaining.

We most definitely don't want to stay in this place for long, but there are some silver linings to living here!

Coffee and Conversation

 It's Easter Monday; my heart is full of the joy and meaning of the Resurrection -- and my mug is full of coffee.

 ==contented sigh==

There's a great Lenten meme out there somewhere (I know it's out there; I just can't find it) that says something to the effect that Lent is good for helping you find out what you're addicted to.

And I am addicted to coffee.

I really did give it up for Lent, though, really and truly.  I conquered the physical reality of the addiction, drinking it solely on Sundays -- but I admit that, emotionally,  the coffee was always still in control. Though I may not have actually partaken during Lent, I most definitely coveted.

That doesn't diminish the effort does it?

Hi, my name is Lisa -- and I'm a coffee addict.  Over the last forty days of not drinking coffee, I have spent a ridiculous amount of time thinking about coffee -- about: 1) how much I missed coffee, 2) what I wouldn't give for a cup of coffee, and 3) how many more days until I could have coffee...  I pinned scads of coffee images and recipes on Pintrest, too, and bought six bags of Starbucks Sumatra beans (my favorite) when they went on sale at the grocery store. One night I dreamed that I smelled coffee brewing downstairs; it was so real, that dream, that it woke me up -- and I tiptoed downstairs to see if there really were coffee in the pot.  If there had been (and there wasn't, darnit)... I fantasized about actually pouring myself a cup, thinking that the whole episode could have been misconstrued as a dream -- whether it were or not.  Such are the desperate longings...


But here it is finally:  Easter Week!  The sun is shining, the birds are singing, there is coffee in the pot!  And life is good.  Got up at 6 a.m. yesterday to brew a pot of rich dark Sumatra, had two cups before Mass -- and I've lost track of the cappuccinos and iced coffees I've had since.   If you could tap into my coffee jitters and the children's sugar buzz as a source of energy, you could light up the whole Las Vegas strip right now.

Guess I really ought to channel all this excess "energy" toward something useful, huh?  Like finding coffee recipes and sharing them!

Here's a good one:

Easy Delicious Iced Coffee

1 empty Quart Jar
1-2 cups strong black coffee (depending on how strong you like it)
1/2  cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup vanilla almond milk (or equivalent in regular whole milk and/or coffee creamer)
As much ice as will fill the rest of the Quart Jar

Stir all together -- and enjoy!

*  The surgeon general has determined that drinking a quart of iced coffee is not compatible with accomplishing any task requiring fine motor skills -- or going anywhere outside a quick jog to the little girls' (or boys') room.

Happy Easter!

From our family to yours!

Dan, me and the bottom five: (l-r, t-b) Theresa, Anna, Cathy; William, and Gabe.
 Missing ( AND MISSED!):  Paul and family (Nicole and grandbabies, Gavin and Evie, all in California), Kevin (in New Zealand), Br. Philip (in Omaha), Dominic (in Denver), Michelle (in California).

Good Friday

Christ Crucified by Francisco de Zurbaran

 "Carry Christ crucified in the oratory of your heart."

~ St. Paul of the Cross

Meanwhile, in New Zealand...

Where my son shakes Prince William's hand...

But doesn't even notice what Kate is wearing!

Kevvy: this Kevvy

If you haven't been over to read Kevin's Middle Earth travel blog, you're missing out!  The pictures are amazing -- in spite of his ongoing camera difficulties --  and the adventures... ?  Things that would only happen to Kevin!   Run over and see what's new in New Zealand! 

 http://exploringmiddleearth.com/

In the Valley of Fire, NV -- Last Weekend

Best hike ever! (Well, in Nevada., anyway...)  The Valley of Fire, which is approximately 30 miles north of Las Vegas (off of I 15), is a great drive-through national park with amazing red rock formations and panoramic western-desert-style vistas.  The oldest and largest national park in Nevada, Valley of Fire is a well manicured and maintained tourist destination; all along the scenic route you find picnic areas, restrooms, and photo stops -- marked clearly for those who just aren't sure where on earth in all this vastness  they should stop for a photo.   

Unfortunately, though, there are only a couple marked hiking trails in the park, but one of them is a doozy!  A kid rock-climbing wonderland and super cool historic site, full of petroglyphs,  Mouse's Tank Trail is named for a nineteenth century bad guy nicknamed "Mouse" who eluded capture by hiding in this maze of rock canyons.  The "tank" part of the moniker refers to the water "catch" areas within the rocks that allowed Mouse to survive indefinitely while hiding.  Lots of fun to imagine him hiding within the caves and tunnels, with lawmen hot on his tail -- but never finding him. You can see how Mouse got his nickname!  

L-R: William, Gabe (top), Anna (bottom), Cathy, Theresa

A fun and unusual feature of this hike was the discovery that the sand on the trail, the accumulation of hundreds (thousands?) of years of wind abrasion off of the surrounding sandstone rock walls, is amazingly fine and smooth.  Softer even than Huntington Beach sand -- and that is soft, indeed!  Dan and the kids all took off their shoes for this hike.  (I kept my sneaks on, though, because my hands were too full of camera to carry my shoes...)  The cool early April temperatures allowed for barefoot rock climbing, as well, though we were thinking that, once the real heat kicks in you'd have to be careful where you stepped out here in the hot desert!

Here are a few shots from the day:  

We translated this petroglyph thus:  Don't underestimate how important it is to aim carefully before jumping off cliff to catch deer with pointy antlers.

Oh, by the way!  Did you notice we had an extra child added to the normal, workaday four at home?  We had Theresa home for a cameo appearance last weekend, as a good friend (Carl B., for those who know him) was passing through Vegas on the way to Cali.  He dropped Theresa home with us on Friday and got to have her until he came back through Sunday morning.  We get her back today, though, for Easter break, and will have her home until Easter Thursday!  Woohoo!

We can't be sure, but we think this petroglyph  has something to do with  aliens hovering over a lolipop tree, watching a deer playing soccer under high voltage lines.

And this one has got to be saying:  Iguana squashed on highway, everybody run away!

This one says:  For heaven's sake, children, get down off those rocks before you break your necks!

This one looks like: Get your little self to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days...

Myself and my only admirer (deluded fellow).  

Greetings from Nevada and the American Southwest!

Little Boys, and Big Birthdays

Gabe's birthday! And guess who's hit the Double Digits?!

Taken at Valley of Fire State Park last weekend

Gabey got a birthday Gift Certificate from Grandma and Grandpa in his card last week. Thank-you, Dan and Sharon!  You have to know that there are few gifts more welcome to a ten year old than the freedom and challenge of a $50 Walmart shopping excursion.  Oh my goodness; let me tell ya...

William and I tagged along for the shopping event Friday afternoon.  I drove us over to Wmart and steered the shopping cart, and William offered lots of moral support; i.e., suggestions about what he would like to have.  (William's like I am with Dan: we love to spend someone else's money.)  But, Gabe had his own plan.

This kid is a real shopper.  Up and down the aisles he led ust. Checked out the sporting goods department, perused the toy department.  Back and forth, forth and back we went -- comparison shopping; thinking and figuring, figuring and thinking; double-checking; adding up prices.  Shushing William.  Re-adding prices; putting things back; adding cheaper items ($.97 Whoppers) in order to up the quality in other cases ($8,.00 Captain America frisbee/shield thingy); refiguring totals.  Then, finally, after a good hour of pondering, Gabey led the way to the cash register, passably satisfied with his booty and expecting to have money left on his card for another day.  Good boy, Gabe; I was proud of his discernment!

But Gabe was anxious.  He watched carefully as the cashier rang up each item; you could see the gears turning in his head as he watched the totals and estimated the addition of the next item.  The parachute toy was a dollar more than expected; the math wheels turn, Gabe's brow furrows... Things were adding up much faster than he expected...  Finally, ringing up the last item, the cashier unceremoniously announced the total:

 "That'll be $40.18." 

Forty Dollars? He handed over the gift card.  Reluctantly. That $50.00 disappeared fast!  

As we were driving out of the parking lot, Gabe thanked me for taking him. He and William, both, were pleased with the goodies they were bringing home. "That was really fun," Gabe told me.  And I appreciated that, being a mood therapy shopper myself -- but I really sympathized when he added,"up to the paying for it part."  Because, yeah...  handing over the money really is a buzz kill.  Gabey is the kind of guy who is sensitive to that.

Happy Birthday to a little-growing-bigger guy, who understands the value of things -- material and otherwise -- better than most grown ups!

.