Obtaining clean soles and souls

A few weeks ago I had a Saturday afternoon to myself.

I wanted to run a few errands and hit Confession, which I sorely - sorely - needed. It had been several months, and my soul was heavy. You know, that I have got to make Confession this weekend urgency.

One of the errands I needed to run before Confession was buying a new pair of sneakers. My old pair was God-knows-how old (I honestly can't remember); and they were filthy - as you can see from the photo - bald as old tires and the soles were coming up at the heels.

I hit Macys, and bought the same style.

Then I headed for Confession and, without realizing the parallel between this and my sneaker purchase, traded in my worn-out, sinful soul for a blindingly-white new one. It stayed blindingly white, for about 30 minutes I would say - LOL - but it was a whole lot lighter than it was before I knelt down.

I didn't always love Confession, and that's A Post For Another Day. But, boy, are we so lucky to have it.

I just came back to finish this post after going for a walk with the kids. Before we left, I bent over to tie my shoes and their brand name hit me between the eyes like a 2x4 - Easy Spirit.

Of lilacs and parishes

Last week our family visited my brother's new home.

Out in the backyard, there is a beautiful lilac bush.

When my sister-in-law noted how she felt bad cutting flowers off the bush, Mo - who's like a second mother to us all - said: "You have to cut it back to keep it healthy. The more you prune it, the more beautiful it will be in the future."

That's all I could think of when I opened my diocese's newspaper this morning and saw the front-page story on parish closings. The diocese has been studying this for years now and, like so many others, is closing several parishes.

The thought of closing a beautiful parish, with all the history it holds for its parishoners, breaks my heart. But, in thinking about it, it would be more painful seeing a parish continue to struggle.

Parish closings and mergers are not easy. They are complex and emotional, understandably so. If my childhood parish closed, I'd be incredibly sad, even though I live 50 miles away and the only time I visit now is for funerals. But it was where my brother and I were baptized, where my parents were married, where I was married, and where we said our final good-byes to too many family members too soon.

So I get where those affected by closings are devastated. Just reading the story in the paper today made my heart break.

However, I think right back to that lilac example from last week. I looked it up online, just to make sure I didn't mishear, and found this quote:

"Without regular attention to pruning, lilacs can lose their shape and become overly bushy, inviting disease. So, for healthy lilacs, regular pruning is essential."

And an unrelated note: Sorry I've been so long between posts. Life's been very hectic as of late. Everything's fine, just not leaving me much time to post. Hoping to rectify that now!

Pray a Rosary for the Unborn Tomorrow!

Just a reminder that the One Million Rosaries for the Unborn event is scheduled for tomorrow!

The St. Michael Organization is hoping to get a million people to pray the Rosary during the same hour (see here for times and time zones).

If you can, join in and let's help those defenseless souls. And, if you can't make the specific hour, I would think any Rosary offered up for the unborn tomorrow would "count."

And if you want to pray another Rosary tomorrow, EWTN notes the Pope will preside over a Rosary from the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome tomorrow. EWTN will be broadcasting it live at 12 p.m. Eastern. The event will be rerun at 3:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday.