Kseniya Simonova, the winner of Ukraine’s Got Talent, and her tribute to the fallen in the “Great Patriotic War” of 1941-45.

I am blessed indeed

The first is from Mary at The Beautiful Gate ~ the Lovely Lady, Lovely Blog Award. Thank you, dear friend

The second is from Cathy over at A Bit of the Blarney ~ the Gorgeous Blogger Award! Thank you so much Cathy

In accepting this award I have to tell you 6 things about myself you don’t know. Now that’s a challenge…let’s see:

1. My most favourite food of all time is cheese on toast! I’m a simple girl
2. I have read the book The Nun’s Story about 20 times and will probably read it 20 more in my lifetime!
3. My favourite film is a German film called The Lives of Others.
4. I am very interested in former East German culture and would love to own a Trabant car
5. I hope to visit Berlin for our holiday next year.
6. I suffer from sleep paralysis from time to time, which is horrid

So there you are! I amsupposed to pass these on to a number of people, but unable to choose, I shall award it to everyone who reads this blog this week Have a blessed day, as I have!

Hello and happy Saturday! It’s been a quiet couple of weeks on the blogging front, and this last week has been our half-term holidays, and I have been spending less time on the computer and more time with family, including a lovely visit from my sister and her family So, I have not deserted you all! Now let’s sit down and sip a nice, frothy cappucino together (or tea, if you prefer )

Actually, it’s nice to sit down and have a quiet day. I am tired, and I am still coughing (and have been for weeks now) I just can’t shake it. We’ve all had nasty viruses over the last month or so, and found that the cough lingers. My husband has it too, so we make quite a duet, coughing in stereo! I have found Covonia night-time medicine helps, as it has  sedative in it which enables you to sleep without coughing yourself awake. The only problem is, you wake feeling like you have a hangover! Oh to feel 100% well again! I need my strength at the moment, as life with an 8 month old is never restful, and there’s always something else to do. The dishes always need washing, the carpets always need hoovering, dirty clothes multiply overnight in the washing basket, and trying to keep meal-times interesting and varied becomes a challenge. It reminds me of the words of Saint Frances of Rome:

“It is most laudable in a married woman to be devout,
but she must never forget that she is a housewife.
And sometimes she must leave God at the altar
to find Him in her housekeeping.”

How true! It is the essence of “Domestic Church”! God is not just to be found in quiet places of prayer, but in the midst of baby sick, spilt food, mounds of laundry and dirty dishes…Even our Holy Mother had to do all the tasks of the housewife, adn it is through Her that our work is sanctified. That is why I love this picture, which depicts Mary hanging out Her laundry! If She could, then I can, and with a heart full of love and joy!

I pray that God will bless you today, in whatever you’re doing around your home

I have joined this weekly meme hosted by Colleen

Sabbath moments are a way of taking time, just “being” instead of “doing”. Sabbath time is time to rest in God, to enjoy God in silence or in nature. Sabbath moments can include: taking a walk, watching the sunset, sitting by the beach, listening to music. Sabbath moments can be a few minutes, an hour, a half a day or ideally a whole day!

Sabbath moments can be planned and they can come up spontaneously, like rounding a corner in the road and seeing a gorgeous rainbow. The word sabbath comes from a Hebrew word meaning “cease.” And that is what we need to do sometimes, cease our activity and live in the moment and breathe in God.

And my contribution for this week is taking time out today to enjoy God in nature, walking through the park and along the river and into town, and recording the Autumnal beauty around me as I went along! Enjoy!

Well, it’s been a little while…

The trouble with not blogging very often is that you get out of the habit of blogging. But it’s been good to have a break, and I don’t think I will go  back to blogging several times a week. The way my life is right now, I just don’t have the time, and it takes me away from other stuff in my life which is, at present, more important ~ work, family, Church ~ all busy, all full, all needing a greater percentage of Mrs. Pogle!

But today is Saturday and I have a rest day (the first in a while) and am alone in the house! What luxury I plan to do a little housework (not too much!) and then spend some quality time with God and pray in a more focused way, instead of praying on the hoof as I have been doing this last few weeks. Then I am going to watch a film this afternoon and eat some Thorntons chocolates…life can have its little luxuries once in a while. The film I will watch is one of my favourites ~ it’s funny, sad, poignant, quirky all at the same time: Goodbye Lenin

Later on I shall go to Mass. I am going to a different Church, one which isn’t very far away, but I haven’t visited before. It’s a Novus Ordo Mass, but I have heard positive  things said about the reverence with which it is said, and the respect the congregation have for the presence of our Lord, instead of the noisy chatter before the service. It may be a possibility for the weekends when there is no Latin Mass. Oh, I hope so, I sincerely hope so. I have tried so hard where I am, and have come to a point where I need to look elsewhere. Please pray for me, and especially that I allow myself to be guided by God and make the right choice.

So that’s me this week! Nothing deeply spiritual, nothing profound. It has been a whirlwind of a week, but God was there in the midst when I looked for Him. Sometimes, that is simply how life is.

“All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven.” Ecc. 3:1

Just popping in to share this with you. My passion flower ~ blooming in mid October!

The Passion Flower with its various parts is seen as a symbol of Jesus’ scourging, crowning with thorns and crucifixion.

• The spiraled tendrils ~ the lash of Christ’s scourging
• The central flower column ~ the pillar of the Scourging
• The 72 radial filaments ~ the Crown of Thorns
• The top 3 stigma ~ the 3 Nails
• The lower 5 anthers ~ the 5 wounds
• The shape ~ the Sponge used to moisten Christ’s Lips with Vinegar
• The leaves (some species) ~ the head of the Centurion’s Spear
• The red stains ~ Christ’s Blood Drops
• The Round Fruit ~ The World Christ came to save
• The Fragrance ~ The Spices prepared by the Holy Women

Such symbols gave a specific focus of Christian faith to the religious sense of nature, and also provided a visual means of teaching the Gospel story in an era where there were no printed catechisms.

Then look here

Life has become come increasingly demanding. I have a lot to think about. In order to do so, I need to withdraw into an inner hermitage for a while.  A “poustinia of the heart”, so I can hear God’s voice.

A poustinia (Russian: пустынь) is a small sparsely furnished cabin or room where one goes to pray and fast alone in the presence of God. The word poustinia has its origin in the Russian word for desert (пустыня).

I hope to find God within…meanwhile, I will only be blogging here: Seeking Silence 

ps: please continue ot post your prayer requests to St. Therese! Although I won’t be blogging, I will still be reading and praying xxx

I shall be back!

Haven’t done this for a while!

I wish I could say I was in this idyllic scene, pouring coffee in a sunlit kitchen with my family wearing a beautiful long gown, but alas ~ I am sat in an office during my lunch hour, taking a break from the daily grind with my laptop! But my heart is in such a beautiful place, and I find myself wanting to share the vision with you. So this will be one of those chatty, informal just-what’s-on-my-mind sort of posts

I am feeling somewhat rested after a quiet baby-free weekend, just my husband and myself at home, pottering about, catching up with housework, shampooing rugs, baking cakes, making soup, watching “The Return of the King” on tv, and of course attending Mass yesterday…

It is the Mass that remains on my mind, as I find I am caught in a kind of Limbo between the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. I recently started going to a Traditional Latin Mass in a village about 20 minutes drive away from my home, and was just bowled over by it. I think I have shared elsewhere that the Catholic Church, when I converted, was the home I had always searched for. The Latin Mass was like finding the best room in the house, the one where I felt truly at home and free to express my love to God in a very special way. I love the Latin Mass! Gradually, over the last few months, I have found myself struggling with elements of the NO Mass, and I was painfully aware of these things yesterday. I guess my biggest issue is that when I first went to a TLM, I felt a truly Catholic identity, going back through the centuries. Something very special and sacred. The NO Mass is so, so similar to an Anglican service I struggle to see that Catholic identity within it, apart from the consecration of the Eucharist. How did we get to resemble the Church of England so closely? Being a convert I don’t know the answer to that one…

I also struggle because of the level of noise in my parish Church before Mass, which makes it very difficult to pray beforehand and put myself in the right place with God. Of course I pray and prepare myself at home, but just a few minutes quietly kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament prior to Mass would be nice! With my eyes closed, I could quite easily be in Costa on a busy Saturday afternoon  I just think people have forgotten how to stop talking, and there are precious few truly quiet spaces left in life. That is why I value my time at the Convent so much. I have tried and tried to shut the noise out, and sometimes I manage to do it, but a lot of the time the noise level is such that I can’t find that still centre within myself.  I try instead to find reasons to praise God, such as the fact that folk ar friendly and communicative, but wish they weren’t quite so much before Mass! I could say more about awful worship songs form the 70s and 80s which make me think I’m back in the Baptist youth group I used to attend as a teenager, feeling called to wear a veil but not wanting to draw attention to myself (I wear a headscarf instead and save the mantilla for TLM), desperately wanting to receive communion kneeling but making do with genuflecting instead (which still marks me out as “different”, as does receiving on the tongue) and last but not least, questioning the role of Extraordinary Ministers of HC (I am one, but don’t feel at all comfortable in doing so anymore, so I will be resigning).

Oh, my dear friends, I don’t wish to sound unhappy or as if I am nitpicking. After all, I’m not talking about major Liturgical abuses here (thank God) but from that long analysis, it is obvious that my heart is troubled, and I am stuck in this not-very-pleasant place of only feeling truly at one with God in the Mass once a month! That doesn’t mean I will stop going to the NO Mass, as I still recognise my Sunday obligation. I also believe that Jesus is truly present in the Mass whichever form it is celebrated in, but I can see I will tussle with this for a while yet. 

On the subject of the Eucharist, the last time I was at the Convent I read a superb book, Jesus Our Eucharistic Love (link), which I gobbled up (in a spiritual manner!). The more I read, the more I was overwhelmed with the significance of the Eucharist. It really did blow me away ~ and then I discovered last week that the entire book is available on line. I would highly, highly recommend it…I may take passages from it and write some reflections! Take this, for example:

Holy Communion represents the loftiest point of this exercise of love, Whose consuming flames unite the heart of a creature and Jesus. St. Gemma Galgani could exclaim in this regard, “I can no longer avoid the thought that in the wonderful scope of His Love, Jesus makes Himself perceptible and shows Himself to His lowliest creature in all the splendors of His Heart.” And what may we say about the “exercises” of the heart of St. Gemma, who desired to be a “tent of love” in which she would keep Jesus always with her? She longed to have a “little place in the ciborium” to be able to stay always with Jesus. She asked that she could become “a flaming ball afire with love” for Jesus.

Well, that certainly was a chat over coffee ~ a little deeper than I had intended, but it has really helped me to just pour out what’s on my mind and in my heart today. May God bless you for listening, and I pray that you will have a day in which you experience the love of Jesus above all things

…may you be blessed today and every day through her intercessions!

Today I came across this beautiful painting of Therese, the most beautiful I think I have ever seen, by Leonard Porter. I pray it brings you blessings, too!