#catholicmom.com · #Forgiveness · Catholic Faith · Gospel Reflection

March 14th – Daily Gospel Reflection

March 14, 2023 LadyEm632 Comments

Dear Ones, It’s always such a blessing to be asked to write. And I am so thankful that I am part of the hundreds of women who write Daily Gospel Reflections for Catholicmom.com (part of Holy Cross Family Ministries).

My post:

Daily Gospel Reflection for March 14, 2023

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today’s Gospel.

Reflection by Emily Davis

Today’s Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35

It is no mistake that I was asked to write an additional Gospel reflection, and this is the one. In this passage, the servant who’s huge debt was forgiven won’t forgive his fellow servant a small debt. How many times have you made justifications for yourself but lacked compassion for others?

The lesson in this passage is so immense and yet so humbling and simple if we live forgiveness correctly. In our humanity, we don’t live it correctly, but that’s why we have the Bible, so that we can be reminded and ask forgiveness of our own sins.

“Peter approached Jesus and asked him, ‘Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.'” Matthew 18:21-22

Our Lord, Jesus, gave His holy life in reparation to God the Father for our sins. As Catholics, we say the Our Father, we recognize our sinfulness, and yet, we hesitate to forgive any little or harmless mistakes that our closest family and friends make.

In many ways, not forgiving others is not trusting God. Think about that. All we have to do is ask God for forgiveness and we are forgiven. We don’t always feel like we deserve it, because we are often harshest with ourselves. Again – lack of trust. Jesus’s last words on the cross were “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” And in many moments, we don’t get it right. But we can fix it through Reconciliation, which is the gift that cleans our hearts of sin. The trick is lying at the foot of the cross and not picking it back up.

Working on forgiveness is hard, but it’s essential in our path to heaven.

Ponder:

Are you really willing to forgive others their trespasses against you as God has forgiven and to encourage others to forgive your trespasses against them?

Pray:

Lord, please help me, and anyone reading this, see that lack of forgiveness and compassion are negativities that we don’t need in our lives. Help us to pause and reflect on Your words before we react, lest we cause harm to ourselves and others. In your Holy Name, we pray!

You should go to Holy Cross Family Ministries, and Today’s Gospel Reflection. You can sign up for the daily reflections there.

Note to my readers:
I would like to add that forgiveness repairs relationships. But, it also releases you from the angst, insecurity, negative thoughts, that are all eating away at your heart and soul. Forgive people even if they don’t want to hear they are forgiven. Then, be done with all the negatives that surround whatever wrong it is. What I do know for sure is – there are people, who when you call them out, they go about trying to destroy your reputation, so that they can deflect the guilt from themselves. That’s ok. Let them. You move on. Ignore. Pray for peace, etc. Don’t engage them. PERIOD.

My mother was a violent alcoholic with many mental and physical health problems. Thirty years ago, sitting in a therapists office, he said, “forgive her. If you are looking for an apology, it’s not going to come. Alcohol, drugs, mental illness – they rob people of their ability to see the truth. Forgive her, and live a good life. You owe that to your younger self, if no one else!” He was so right. The important thing is that you forgive – for you. For God. You owe no one else an explanation.

I can promise you that Our Blessed Mother Mary – she is the best example of a great mom, and I’m so honored and humbled by Her Holy Guidance.

From an article in the Catholic Journal:

Pope Francis explained how critical it was to understand “forgiveness.” The pope went on: “A person unable to forgive has not yet known the fullness of love. Only one who truly loves is able to forgive and forget. At the foot of the Cross, Mary becomes for all people the mother of forgiveness, as she follows in the example of her Son who forgives those who are killing him.”

The pope further explains, “For us, Mary is an icon of how the Church must offer forgiveness to those who seek it. The Mother of forgiveness teaches the Church that the forgiveness granted on Golgotha knows no limits. Neither the law with its quibbles, nor the wisdom of this world with its distinctions, can hold it back. The Church’s forgiveness must be every bit as broad as that offered by Jesus on the Cross and by Mary at his feet. There is no other way.”

Happy Tuesday all.

Love, Hugs & Blessings,
LadyEm

Anxiety and Fear · Catholic · Catholic Faith · CCDTeacher · Comfort Zone · LadyEm · Lent · Mental Health · Sacraments · Self Improvement

Sacrament of Reconciliation ~ Much Needed

March 13, 2023March 13, 2023 LadyEm63Leave a comment

Comfort Zone – Post 2

Dear Ones,

I’m making my way back to full-union with the Church. Sigh. It’s a process y’all. And I’m trying to be honest about it, so that others know it is ok and you can always come home.

After the Pandemic, we didn’t have a set Priest here in our MIL Parish. Lack of Confession (Reconciliation) and such created the perfect storm of “why bother?” And “Let’s just stay away.” The new Priest has been here for a year or so – maybe 18 months. I can’t remember. And I sent him an email, literally titled, “Worst Catholic Ever?” I’ll spare you the text, but suffice to say, I set up Confession for my husband and I. Neither of us had been for at least 18 months. In our defense, it’s NOT readily available. And the Parish here has not been well-manned. But – we could have arranged it, so I shall step off that broken record.

We worked to get on his calendar, and it ends up, we confessed our sins on Fat Tuesday. What a great way to kick off the Lenten season. On a related note, we have a Parishioner who has a very sick child, and they will make their way back to the states soon. In the meantime, I have taken over their CCD Class. You see, during confession (here in Italy, a lot of times you are looking at the Priest. It takes some getting used to.), the Priest and I also spoke about my not feeling like I belonged here at this Parish. So many things happened within the Command Chaplaincy, and rude parishioners… that many of us backed off. It’s a strange thing to come from being so active and fairly respected in your home Diocese, to being treated very poorly and disrespected by folks. I’m not the only one this happened to, and it’s in the past… but you now have a little background for when I say “feeling like I didn’t belong”. I mean it was to the point, I was doubting my faith.

So back to Father. He said, “we may need you to teach a CCD Class”. HA – how could I say no! I wouldn’t have anyway… it’s just funny. He’s done so much good for this little Military Parish. Including recruiting a teacher for CCD. I had taken this year off as I was truly unsure if I was going to be able to manage my son being so far away (5018 miles, but who’s counting?!). And my husband and I just thought we needed a break this year. God knew what I needed, and I am excited about the next few months.

I got a little head’s up about extra confession coming up this coming weekend, and I decided that after my class and I met, and chatted through introductions, we’d pick up one of my favorite children’s confession booklet and talk about Examination of Conscience as it pertains to the Ten Commandments. It’s by TAN Books, and it’s called My Confession Book (click on it and it will take you there). First published in 1958! Old school. The kids really enjoyed it. And Father stopped by to talk to them about confession and invite them to partake this weekend. YAY

During our discussion in class, one of the children said when he went to confession it was like a huge weight was lifted and he was floating. Y’all – it’s so true. My head was so chaotic as our life got crazy here in Italy… and being away from Sacraments during the Pandemic and after – it really took its toll. We are already feeling so much better about things here.

It’s now the 3rd week of Lent and we are enjoying being involved and going to Mass/Being in full union again. The first weekend of Lent I was in Assisi with a group of Catholic Women (Yes, I do owe you a post or ten). We have been participating in the meatless Pot Lucks on Friday evenings (I will share my recipes used soon). We will hopefully go to Stations of the Cross this weekend. Sunday I am bowling with children from a local Orphanage here in the Naples Area. I love kiddos, so that will be fun.

Because of anxiety and depression, I had honestly let a lot of things go… and I’m also purposing to be a better and more joyful home-maker, and make the house more pleasant for my husband too. It’s not like I was horrible to him, but I don’t have a full-time job here, and I could do more… so I am. Today, I am baking corn bread, and organizing a few things at home. We also have a guest bed here, and the tech is coming to put it together this evening and then we will officially have a guest room – YAY.

Signing off for today. Tomorrow, I should have a Gospel Reflection going live. I will share it then.

Love, Hugs & Blessings,
LadyEm

Anxiety and Fear · Catholic Faith · Comfort Zone · Emily (Me) · Italy · LadyEm · Lent · Mental Health · Sacraments · Self Improvement

Underestimating God ~ Trust is a Process

March 6, 2023 LadyEm632 Comments

Comfort Zone – Post 1

Happy March 6th y’all. Happy Second Monday in Lent.

On February 16th, I posted the below on my FB Wall. Over the past several years the tragedy of my life – as a child, as a young woman, and even the past decade has weighed on me to the point it really broke me in many ways. And I am thankful.

In the broken, I have been able to handle the pieces of tragedy in a way more positive way. I prayed before I wrote this post because in so many ways, it’s like a broken record. Holding myself accountable and taking responsibility for my lack of focus – on God, on my health, on so many things. And Lent is my saving Grace this year. Learning to fully rely on and trust God – not in a way that I “thought” I was… but truly realizing me that I can not say “Yes God, I trust you. But I’m gonna do what I want!” Trust is hard for me. Anyway…. Read these two pictures, and I will give an update at the end!

The book this passage is from is the Magnificat. I placed the link on the word. If anything happens to the link, go to http://www.magnificat.net and you will find it (and about a zillion other books you may “need”).

Just like the Israelites, mentioned above, I don’t trust God enough to believe HE will do what HE says. So Lent, for me, is a succession of stepping out of my comfort zone moments… in which I let God, my Father, guide me. Imagine that?!

Update: When I spoke to the doc, he said he wanted me to up my BP Meds (because I have a hereditary high BP). And he also recommended that I wean myself off the Anxiety/Depression meds slowly. I went to 1/4 of the dose and after a week realized half the dose is my number for now. Sadly – due to all I’ve walked through, I may have to be on meds long-term. Doc says that’s ok. It’s nothing I am doing wrong. Sigh. I am thankful for friends and family, and for praying people who have bolstered me throughout this period.

I love my medical team here in Italy. Truly they care. They have been instrumental in my learning to care for myself. I’m so thankful. And now that I am headed back to a better relationship with the Catholic Church and God (oh yes, I was flailing/failing both)… things are really looking up.

I will share with you, that a few weeks before Lent started, I reached out to our new Priest about confession and discussion. I hadn’t been to confession in about 18 months or so – not a stellar show of faith. I’d really given up in many ways. Sigh. But when I was speaking to my son about what he needed to do to get back to faith… I clearly heard THE FATHER speaking to me, through me. Sigh.

Now, I am off to do my Italian homework, and make a few cards. I will share the cards on the blog. Soon, I will share about a woman’s retreat I went on to Assisi. Talk about stepping out of my comfort zone. LOL You’ll see. Until Then…

Love, Hugs & Blessings,
LadyEm

Davis Family · Italy · Teverola Home

Teverola Apartment – 3rd Place Is A Charm?!

January 27, 2023 LadyEm63Leave a comment

Dear Readers,

The weather here is cold and rainy. But – I kinda like the fact that I can get caught up on things. I meant to post this a week ago, but here we go.

So when we first moved to Italy we lived within a 5 minute walk to the beach. The views were endlessly beautiful but the house was “poop on a white shoe” poorly maintained. After nearly 3 years of the landlord acting like he was doing us a favor taking our money (and believe me when I tell you we paid 3x more than any Italian family would have for this awful place. So – we moved to a house with a yard. AND basically an apartment for bud since it was his Senior year of school – and we knew he’d be going back to the states. We thought it would be awesome. It was slightly more expensive – but it had a pool, fruit trees, and storage… and Marque decided it was “the one”. However, within a few months we found out it was even in worse shape. Plus the realtor was not an above-board kinda guy… and we just flat out needed to leave. As we were leaving, we knew we had to downsize… and since legitimately most of our storage had black mold. We knew we had made the right choice. So we barely lived there a year and we moved this Fall to a duplex in a different city. It’s not a duplex like in the states. We have a sweet couple that live in the apartment upstairs.

Let me go backwards a bit. Because we are good people – we made every excuse and gave every allowance. Planted things, paid for things, etc. I won’t go back over ever egregious/insulting/unhealthy situation in the first two places… Suffice to say – Italy can be difficult. Things work differently here. And standards/even visuals – are deceiving. LOL I will leave it there.

We now life in a building that used to be a store. The basement has dressing rooms in it and our apartment used to be a shop that apparently sold pizza because there is a pizza oven on our side porch. It’s about 1500 – 1600 square feet (we’re told – it may be smaller). But we do have huge living space outside on porches. One of the things I am most proud of is the kitchen. When we first saw the place, it was all opened up. BUT – we don’t go out to eat all the time, we cook… and I need my kitchen things and Pantry/Fridge/Freezer staples. In my previous post, I explained how I hid my pantry and made my kitchen organized by using my bookshelves, etc. Check out Pantry Challenge – Thawed Out for those pics.

Part of the Lemon Harvest This year. These are so wonderful AND did you know lemon tree leaves smell like lemons? Well they do. LOL

Laundry is different here. The ladies around me do laundry nearly daily. We hang things out to dry and fluff in the dryer. It’s actually nice. This is our side porch area, and the brown door at the end of the fist picture is our outdoor storage. In the winter, this area is not the one I choose, I choose the end of the courtyard where the sun lasts the longest. Also – I have stools everywhere – so I can reach the stuff on top of things (you’re welcome).

FIREPLACE AT THE END OF DINING AND BY FRONT DOOR.

I will blog about our gardening projects soon… and take pics of the outside – including our Blessed Mother Statue we bought our first year here. So far, we love this house. And we are so thankful. Will also show you our basement and things as we improve stuff.

We will chat soon, dear ones, Praying for you all.

Love, Hugs & Blessings,
LadyEm

Fridge or Pantry · Good Cheap Eats · Homemaking · Pantry Challenge · Perseverance

Pantry Challenge – Thawed Out

January 9, 2023January 9, 2023 LadyEm633 Comments

Happy New Year Y’all.
On New Year’s Day, I posted about the yearly Pantry Challenge. I had meal prepped, and menu prepped…and I was excited to get back to it and use what I have over the next couple months. If you don’t know Jessica of Good Cheap Eats, get to know her – she is amazing. Regular mom logic. AND here is her info about the Pantry Challenge. But as life does on occasion – we came home to a change of plans. Our electricity was off and we lost all our frozen/fridge food.

We cleaned up the mess, cleaned out both fridge/freezers, and then washed our pups (who were with a sitter whilst we were gone, who has other animals and watches lots of dogs) and finally got to bed about 2am. I have not given up though.

January 5th was my hubby’s 63rd birthday, and by this past weekend, we were semi stocked up and ready to participate again. We only replaced parts of what we lost and didn’t buy new pantry items… and though we won’t technically save money, we have pledged to eat at home for the next few weeks, and were creative with our purchases.

Speaking of Creative… I wanted to share with you how I made my kitchen bigger by extending/creating a wall. Here, I extended the living room wall with bookshelves and a hutch (it needs painting and was free):

These pics show the pantry (aka the backside of bookshelves) and the refrigerator behind the red piece. The meal calendar was what I’d done before I left.

Our Second fridge/freezer is on our enclosed porch. I will be contacting our insurance company today about how to recoup anything we can. And later on this evening, I will post pics of our apartment we moved into in September (not duplicating today’s pics). Other than power outages, we are really enjoying it.

Don’t let anything sway you from your plan. Regroup and get back to it.

Love, Hugs & Blessings,
LadyEm