As the School Year Winds Down. . .

A number of things we've been working with:

Break-ins in our subdivision. Last night as we were at Mass preparing for communion, one of my sons leaned over and suggested we leave straight away after communicating, for the sake of the house. We weren't a mile from the church when a friend of his called his cell phone, saying he had just chased the Person-of-Interest from our property. There have been six break-ins in the last few months, and four took place two week-ends ago. One happened at a cop's house.

On a lighter note, 0ur school year is winding down, and my Aspie son had a great IEP review. He has made tremendous progress this year. I hope we can get his other needs addressed this summer. After the start of the next school year, we will be attending six counseling sessions at TEACCH, which is where he and I both were diagnosed as Aspergers Autistics.

Both boys have concluded that they wish to be engineers. I am encouraging the civil branch, as that has more opportunity in more places. Our school system has career tracks, so both will be pursuing the engineering track. Both boys are gifted with doing algebra in their heads.

The recession has taken its toll on hubby's job. He had his pay docked 10 percent, and is home every other Friday until further notice. He will be proctoring End-Of-Course exams at our high school this Friday. One of our sons will get extra credit for it.

Our summer will be taken up with driver's ed again, only for my youngest son.

Part of being a lay hermit is learning how to keep peace within one's heart while moving through life and adversity. We are all so used to our own spaces, but an occasional meal together at a fast food restaurant is essential to family unity. I'd use my own dining room table, but it was turned into my Aspie son's workbench for his Fundamentals of Technology class. Another thing we can work on over the summer--family meals at the table again!

And speaking of food, I would highly recommend everyone start storing up food. I usually take doomsday warnings on TV with a grain of salt, but I did receive in prayer this week that I needed to start laying in provisions, and therefore I pass the information on to you.

Blessings,
Gemma

Overwhelmingly overwhelmed

Will post more after the Easter holiday. A lot of illness in the family.

Blessings,
Gemma

Husband's Surgery Monday

Please pray for a successful surgery on my husband's back. A herniated lower back disc will be removed. He will be here at the house for two weeks recouperating.

Since hermits are permitted to be caretakers for one person, this should prove interesting as to how caretaking gets integrated into the horarium. I know our Cloisterite Hermits will benefit from the experience.

Consequently, I will not be able to update any of the blogs until mid-February. God be with you.

Blessings,
Gemma

"Don't go looking for the cross, it'll find you" (deSales)

The next few weeks will be "caddywhumpus" for us.

Our main computer is in Staples' "hospital," awaiting diagnosis. I had to run it over to Staples after Hewlett-Packard said they would not support us, as the machine was over 5 years old.


We're using my Dell laptop presently.

My boys are on half-days, as this is finals week at school. They return to a regular schedule next Wednesday.

I'm trying to fit in every-two-hour-ten-minute lay-downs for my neck, as per my physical therapist's instructions. Three MRIs on my back before Christmas vacation showed bulging neck discs and vertebral bone spurs. My neurologist called for physical therapy. I'm going to request a second opinion, as I'm having numbness in the arms.

Last, but not least, hubby will be having lower back surgery (herniated disc) in two weeks, and will be recumbent for the next two weeks after that.

Pray for us.

Blessings,
Gemma

Reparation -- Our Way of Life Here

Aside from taking bits and pieces of Fray Justo, OP's Rule for Hermits as part of my own personal rule, I have the following:

"YOU are the hermit, not the family.

Don't want complaints from the family that this way of life ruined theirs. If they remember you for anything, it should be for being the best spouse and parent ever. Ideally, they would see only that, and only family-friendly devotions.

As Fray Justo advises, do not be opposed to spontaneity.

When caring for the family, offer it in reparation for those who don't.

Vigils will be when family illness awakens you. Offer it in reparation for those caretakers whose mouths are on auto-complain or for those who are in ignore mode (speaking of family caring for sick family).

Pray the office when able. Join sufferings to Jesus Crucified.

Take care of your health, that it may serve you to serve God (St. Francis de Sales). Try to work out thrice weekly, more if possible.

If obligations keep you from Daily Mass, pray to be able to attend at least on Thursday, when your emerging charism is making reparation for sins against the Blessed Sacrament.

Being there for God is also being there for the family. As St. Vincent de Paul says, "You're leaving God for God."

Blessings,
Gemma

"Dedicate Yourselves to Thanksgiving"

A short thought about the Pauline year, and his admonishment to "dedicate yourselves to Thanksgiving."

Perhaps we can learn from not only the ancient Hebrews, but the Native Americans as well. The Hebrews had their own Thanksgiving festival. The Native Americans had such a feast after each harvest, which meant they certainly had more than one celebration.

Of all the religious orders in our church, only one is actually dedicated from its foundation to the practice of Thanksgiving. They are the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, who have been made famous by Mother Angelica, the TV nun.

We are such children when it comes to receiving gifts--and being thankful for them. We should take more responsibility for offering thanks, and make it a daily practice, particularly when blessing our meals.

Our loving God is a generous God. We are the ones who fall on our faces when dealing with our gifts. We should not only offer more Thanksgiving, but also ask for the graces of better stewardship of such gifts. And I'm especially praying for that gift for the Obama administration.

Blessings,
Gemma

'Steal Away' to Jesus

I grew up Baptist, and after the aforementioned eremitical experience, I wanted solitude.

Our church was a rather large structure, built of native limestone in the 1800s, with a square sanctuary, and extensive education building. Some of my more spiritual moments in the tween years came when I found the church unlocked and totally vacant.

Dangerous, I know, but this was back in "Mayberry days." (They really haven't left, we just have to resurrect them, but that's for another time/post).

The way the education building was built made it like a tower--albeit two-storey. When all of the doors were open in the Sunday School classrooms, one could just about see 180 degrees around them.

Perhaps I should make a note about Protestant Sunday Schools. In this case, there were three or four different age groups to two large rooms, with smaller rooms for the age groups off the side. When all of these rooms' doors were open, one almost had a panoramic view.

Once I came of age, I started attending the 8:30am service, which had the youth choir (yes, I was in it). I would oftentimes get there early, just after the custodian had opened the building for services. This helped me get centered on the task at hand--the worship of the Almighty.

It also gave me a fighting chance of getting a choir robe that fit. Petite robes were the exception and not the rule. Our youth choir robes were almost metalflake blue with pointed gold collars. The adult choirs' robes, OTOH, were gold with pointed burgundy collars. My dad was in the adult choir.

What's the point of this post? Actually an exercise in retrospect--making note of the times God called me to the desert and I did respond. In future posts, I will reflect more.

Blessings,
Gemma