Prayer to Obtain Favors

The following prayer was given to me by Chris' sister-in-law last Sunday. It is a Prayer to Obtain Favors. According to the prayer card: it is believed that whoever recites the prayer fifteen times a day from the feast of St. Andrew, Nov. 30, until Christmas will obtain what is asked. Nov. 30 is today!! You can say the prayer whenever you like during the day: all at one time, throughout the day, or in groups. Personally, I'm going to try for five recitations at a time three times during the day.

Here's the prayer:

Hail and blessed be the hour and
moment in which the son of God was
born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at
midnight, in Bethlehem,
in piercing cold.
In that hour grant, O my God!
to hear my prayer and grant my desires,
through the merits of Our Savior Jesus
Christ, and of His blessed Mother.
Amen.

I hope everyone has a joyous Advent season!

Healthy News

Last year at my annual doctor's appointment we discovered that my cholesterol was too high. I had a check-up six months later (still too high), and just went yesterday to get results on the latest check. At my age I didn't want to be on cholesterol medication.

Good news!! My cholesterol is now in the healthy range!! At 192 I brought it down 35 points from where is was in May. I had to share the good news!

My doctor wanted to know what I did (she seemed surprised that it came down that much). I did lose 7 pounds, but I'm not sure what else I did to make that significant of a difference.

Oh well, I guess I just need to keep doing things the way I'm doing things.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!

It's still a couple days early, but I know everyone will be busy with traveling and family and other activities (shopping?). I'll be staying in KY this year and going to Bardstown with Chris on Thursday. Otherwise, I will be catching up on sleep and practicing for my concert in early December.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and a relaxing and enjoyable weekend!

First snowfall

I woke up this morning and went to let the dog out at 4:30am and the back porch was covered in snow. Nothing too major, but more than a dusting. It was no longer snowing at that point.

I got to church at 6am and when I walked out at 7am it had started coming down again; pretty big flakes and coming down pretty hard. Luckily nothing stuck to the roads. The snow finally stopped around 8am.

All traces of snowfall are now gone. :( But I'm sure it won't be the last of it.

Young Adult Retreat Weekend

This past weekend was the Young Adult Retreat for my church group. We held the retreat at a cabin out in Lebanon, Ky. It is beautiful out there!

We had dinner Friday night, put together our folders for people to leave us notes in, and discussed the significance of the candles we light for each of us and for the group and for the person who owns the cabin. Our theme this year was Mary, the Saints, and Heaven. As a result, I planned that we would say all four sets of mysteries of the Rosary. So we ended Friday evening with the Rosary doing the Joyful mysteries and then all headed for bed.

Saturday was our full day. Rosary in the morning (Luminous Mysteries), breakfast, discussion on Heaven, discussion on Mary (specifically the doctrine of the Assumption), then lunch. After lunch we had a little free time and then Father Frank arrived. He led a discussion of the Saints which of course touched again on Mary and Heaven. We then had about an hour or more for quiet, reflective time, Confessions with Fr. Frank, and setting up for Mass and for dinner after Mass. We were smart, dinner was a pre-cooked lasagna that we could just stick in the oven and it would be ready when Mass was over. Having a small Mass for only 7 people is interesting, but something I always enjoy. Dinner was great and then Fr. Frank had to leave to get back to Lexington. We then started a bonfire out by the lake/pond and made smores. We did the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary before bed and then we all crashed.

Sunday morning was nice: Rosary again (Glorious Mysteries), breakfast, clean the cabin, pack up, everyone leaves. Chris and I actually headed to Bardstwon instead of home and visited with his family that afternoon. We had dinner with them and didn't leave there until 9pm, which put us back in Lexington at 10pm.

It was a great weekend! Lots going on, but truly a fun time. I like these retreats and I hope the Young Adult Ministry at the Church continues and retreats like this will be organized in the future.

I hope everyone else also had great weekends!

Special Prayer Today

Please say a prayer today for the successful surgery this morning for Grayson Albers and for the doctors performing the surgery. Grayson is the son of two very close friends and he's my Godson.

The surgery will be about three hours and is being done at a very good children's hospital in Atlanta (my brother had two surgeries there when he was a baby). I was told that they expect to be able to go back to SC by Friday.

Please pray for Grayson, his parents, and his surgeons. Thanks!

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Update: Last I heard Grayson was doing well. The surgery went well, even better than expected! All looks good. Thanks to everyone for their prayers!

We have a date

Chris and I have a date. We will be married on October 20, 2007 at 2pm. Yeah!!

We are also putting together a webpage for the wedding with info for our guests about hotels, the area, travel to Lexington, etc. We'll let people know once we have something we want to share.

The ceremony will be at our church, the Cathedral of Christ the King. The wedding will be a full Catholic Mass.

The reception will be at the Griffin Gate Marriott in Lexington off of Newtown Pike and very close to I-75. The reception location is beautiful!!