Blessed be dog forever

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Justin and I took Duke to church today for the Blessing of the Pets – a tradition some Catholic churches observe in conjunction with the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. I think this might have been the first time St. Anne’s had it, but years back we took Lady to our old church’s ceremony.

We’ve seen lots of dogs, cats, mice, lizards, birds, guinea pigs, snakes, tarantulas and all sorts of creatures in the past. This year someone brought a sheep, which got spooked by some dogs (just doing what they find to be natural) then broke its leash and ran away! Fortunately a couple dozen people were able to help round it up before it got out into traffic.

Duke made a lot of new friends, but I think he kind of expected it to be like the dog park where he can run, jump and play. It was hard to keep him restrained but overall he was a good boy. He even laid down a couple of times, surprisingly enough.

It was a beautiful morning, and a lovely ceremony.

A prayer for our pets

O God, you have redeemed all creation
through the incarnation of your eternal Word;
Protect our pets, your creatures,
who provide us with joy
and nonjudgmental companionship;
Give us respect
for all of your Word-redeemed creation,
that we may care for creation
as just and humble stewards;
We pray this in the name of the same Word, Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
~David Bennett

An epiphany

Have you ever had one? I did recently and would love to share it with you.

First I’d like to start with a snippet from the motion picture Evan Almighty. Do you remember when Evan’s wife was in the restaurant and God appeared as her waiter? He helped her to understand that prayers aren’t always answered directly, and when she prayed for more family togetherness what God gave her was the opportunity for her family to be together more.

What a powerful message.

I pray for many things, and probably like most people, I have a few long-standing prayer requests dotted with different ones that fade in and out depending on what’s going on with my life at the time. One of these would be a recent prayer to do better at my job. I really love my job, and one of the things I love best about it is its unique challenges. If you have ever worked in a position with a multitude of challenges then you know that one day you can shine and the next day you’re knocked down into the dirt. Sometimes you go through days, weeks or even months when it seems all you’re doing is shuffling your feet in the dust.

Recently I experienced a time like this and it was getting hard. Really hard. So I prayed. I prayed that I could do better at my job. That I could not just meet my goals, but exceed them, impress my boss and rise within the company. And still all I did for a long time was just play catch-up. I would look at the clock at 5 and realize that I couldn’t pinpoint what I’d done all day, but I was sure busy! Why couldn’t I look back on my workday and immediately know the goals I’d accomplished?

So I prayed more. And more, and more. And it seemed like my prayers weren’t being answered. In fact, things were getting worse. The challenges were getting harder and I seemed to have less and less time to accomplish my tasks.

Then the epiphany.

God was indeed answering my prayers – how did I not see it? He was sending me challenges. These challenges were in fact opportunities to shine. So as I prayed harder and harder, he gave me more to do, more difficult tasks and less time to do them in! What better way to excel at my job than to take advantage of these opportunities!

As soon as I realized this (insert V-8 slap-on-the-forehead) I let go and I put my faith in God. I continued to work hard, but didn’t worry about things as much. I continued to do the best I could at my job and trusted that the critical items that needed to be completed would be. And I’ve gotten a lot done – miraculously more than I had during my previous “stressful time” noted above.

Now I don’t have a “happy ending” like how my boss recognized my superhuman project management ability and gave me a huge raise (I wish!). Actually I haven’t had the chance to review all I’ve done with him yet. But you know, just knowing that the Lord is answering me, that He is giving me these wonderful opportunities – that’s enough. And I am thankful.

Litany of Humility

Written by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X.

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved…
From the desire of being extolled …
From the desire of being honored …
From the desire of being praised …
From the desire of being preferred to others…
From the desire of being consulted …
From the desire of being approved …
From the fear of being humiliated …
From the fear of being despised…
From the fear of suffering rebukes …
From the fear of being calumniated …
From the fear of being forgotten …
From the fear of being ridiculed …
From the fear of being wronged …
From the fear of being suspected …

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I …
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may, increase and I may decrease …
That others may be chosen and I set aside …
That others may be praised and I unnoticed …
That others may be preferred to me in everything…
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…