Tomorrow is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This falls under the category of idea feasts, a liturgical commemoration of some aspect of Christ but not a particular event in His life such as is Christmas, Easter, Ascension, etc. This particular feast celebrates the Jesus’ Sacred Heart which is a symbol of His divine love.

My siblings and cousins are the first generation in our family to be born in the U.S. As you can imagine, sometimes the American culture we were being raised in conflicted with the Indian culture of our family. And as any normal kids, our parents accent and ideas were a source of amusement to us. I remember when we were teenagers and, of course, talking about who was “in love” with whom, one uncle asked us (please read this with an Indian accent to get the full amusement out of it) “What is this love? What is this falling in love you Americans talk about. How do you FALL in love?” We just laughed because everyone knows what it means to fall in love, right?

The question is less amusing to me now - indeed, what is love? I have come to learn that real love is less about warm fuzzy feelings and more about how that love is put into action. What is this love God has for us? I think Scripture answers it best when it says “…God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)”

We have all sinned and falled short. None of us loves God as we should. And yet, and yet, God loves me and Jesus died so that I might have eternal life with Him AND They sent the Holy Spirit to be with me always. And they do that for all of us and each of us. THAT, my friends, is LOVE.

I wish everyone a most blessed Feast of the Sacred Heart!

I have a new blog format! I love it… especially the color. I am hoping to be better about getting pictures up since this set up should be easier to use.

This past weekend was the Feast of Corpus Christi and an oblate weekend here in Clyde. For those who don’t know, oblates are lay people that are affliated with a particular monastery and promise to live the Rule of St. Benedict as much as their station in life will allow. You can find out more about our oblate program here. We have a wonderful group of oblates associated with our monastery it was particularly moving to celebrate the Feast of the Body of Christ with our extended “family” of oblates.

As luck would have it - Sr. Cheryl, Postulant Mary, and I were scheduled to cook on Sunday. In honor of the feast, I decided to make a special cake - a 14 layer cake. And since we had so many guests I would need to make two of them! I have since renamed the cake - 14 Layers of Insanity Cake

14 layer chocolate raspberry cake

I ended up making one 14 layer cake and 2 seven layer cakes. They turned out pretty well and they tasted good but I don’t think I will be attempting another cooking project like that for a while!

Its hard to believe that June is half over and so is the year! Hope you are all staying cool. Blessings!

…since I last posted!

I just returned from some vacation time with my famly as we celebrated the wedding of my niece.  It was so nice to gather for this joyful occassion.  The bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome, love was in the air, and a good time was had by all. Read the rest of this entry »

I hope and pray that you all had a wonderful celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection!

Two weeks ago today, my oldest brother died.  Selwyn had stuggled with mental illness most of his adult life.  Last December, he was diagnosed with very aggressive lung cancer that had already spread to his liver. Read the rest of this entry »