Thank you for praying for me and sharing these readings with me! They actually brought tears to my eyes because they were very timely, due to a conversation I had with my sister and husband today. My sister had asked me if I ask God for things and I explained that I'm like the person in the parable that never stops knocking until God answers the door and gives me what I need. And that was in the Gospel you shared with me! The crazy thing too, is that I'd just asked my husband why every time I make up my mind to love this land we're struggling so much over, I show up and find a snake, or a really scary stinging bug, or a scorpion, that makes me afraid and unsure of it all over again... What are the odds that that would be there in the Gospel too, about a good father not handing his son a snake or a scorpion? I don't really know the meaning for me. But I do know that everytime I prayed for land, I always heard the words, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." So I'm confident that God is working on whatever it is, and we'll keep trying to give Him our best. In a couple weeks, we're going to drive with my brother a few states north to the FSSP seminary where he and my son both hope to end up one day. I'm curious how we'll feel about the area.
Is that the FSSP in Nebraska? I know someone whose son is in seminary there. She has posted vídeos of their liturgy, they sing beautifully.
Great post. Thanks for the link. That’s a beautiful saying from your elders. You have had great elders!
One of our recent situations that had us a bit down was that our house didn't qualify for normal, cheaper insurance because we happen to not be in an actual fire district. So our insurance is twice as much as it would have been, when we're already struggling with money. Well, today my husband went to pay the first half of it, and was told it was paid already, two days ago. My husband said that's impossible. He never paid it. And they said, well, it was paid two days ago by check. We never told anyone the name of our insurance, so we don't know who could have done this. It was $1500! Two days ago was the feast of the Maternity of Mary, so I'm going to take this as a sign of Mary watching over us, as strange as this path may be!
It is a coincidence. I haven't been going to daily Mass lately but on that day I had brought a family member to a hospital outpatient's appointment and was able to go to Mass in a church near the hospital. Also, that was the first Mass in weeks where I could hear the readings because I had just had my ears unblocked after a period of almost total deafness. Knowing there were snakes around would scare me to death. You're very brave. If you can cope with snakes you can cope with anything. Just be careful not to saddle yourself with a lot of debt. Congratulations on the new baby. Your children are blessed to have a mother like you.
Wow, almost total deafness! I'm so glad your hearing has been restored! I hope you'll stick around the forum for a while.
It turns out that our bill was paid by our mortgage lender and now we have to reimburse them. So, oh well. God is still looking out for us, no matter what!
An update on our home: The well water has an abnormally high amount of iron. The iron blocker can't even get it all out. But hopefully the rest will be removed by a water softener, and a reverse osmosis system will go under the kitchen sink. With the thousands of dollars this costs, plus hundreds in maintenance each year, we're at a point where my husband doesn't see how we're going to afford living here unless God works some kind of miracle. A raise... a new job... lowering of the interest rate so we can refinance.... One of those things probably must happen. I love it here. I don't know how to go back to the city at this point... I'm hoping that if God is planning to move us on from here, that it's to a place where we can still be in the country, but with a lower cost of living. A few days ago, I was waiting in the confessional with my baby and my 3-year-old son August, and in the silence, August suddenly whispered to me, "Mass is where we live." It made me tear up, because it's true that Mass seems to be our one security at this time, our home as close to Heaven as we can get. In all the confusion and uncertainty, all is well with my soul when I'm at Mass.
This is the loveliest truest thing any one could say. "Mass is where we live." Where we should all live. Cardinal Newman said once that if we don't like being at Mass then we won't like heaven very much. Your little one is very close to God. I am going to start prayers for your water situation. Is it unsafe to drink? You can always just have a water service. A lot of people here with wells have 5 gallon water jugs delivered every month. It might be cheaper than all those systems. Something to look into anyway.
I wish we could just do that, but the biggest problem right now is that the water is so incredibly hard that just washing my hands in it a few times during the day makes my skin start cracking and bleeding. So the system is really for washing.... One guy said its probably fine for drinking but the next lady said it could not be. So idk. We're drinking cheap jugs of water from the store right now. And my 3 year old... He's such a sweet and silly little boy but occasionally says something that seems so profound out of nowhere...Like when my kids were wondering where Heaven is, and he piped up "Heaven is at Mass!" He was my only child I didn't have to pray a long time for. I prayed a novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to be given a child who loved God with all of his heart...and I was pregnant immediately afterwards. He is named August for the title of Mary, August Queen of Heaven.
I hear you with the expenses! When I moved to the country a few years ago I thought it would be so much cheaper living but was definitely wrong. Between the rural electric bill which is MUCH more expensive and septic and water maintenance, also having an LP tank that has a yearly rental fee on top of the expensive LP gas fill each fall, it really has been an eye opener! I did manage to switch to Natural Gas when it came down our road this past year, and am so looking forward to getting this ugly LP tank out of my back yard. One year we got 5 feet of snow just in two weeks in the spring, I ran out of fuel and had to shovel them a path across my back yard to come fill the tank. It took me three days of on and off shoveling (I had to rest after 20 minutes and go back out later several times) to get a path 60 feet from the garage to the tank for the guy to come and fill it!
Wow, what a terrible ordeal. This inflation is taking a terrible toll, and families are suffering. The cost of living is so high that people are unable to save for emergencies, and they end up in debt. Just the cost of homeowners insurance is outrageous, and most have never filed a claim. They have succeeded in breaking the backs of the middle class.
