Giving Thanks for Christ the King!

Everyone wants to know, what's Thanksgiving like with the nuns?

Okay, so maybe not everyone wants to know, but some of you do, right?

Well, Thanksgiving with the nuns is very enjoyable, and maybe not too unlike your Thanksgivings. We eat alot, then eat some more, rest and watch TV, pray, and then eat again.

My sister Janet shared the experience with me which I was very grateful for. It brought a little bit of home to my new home! She also brought some of the "Polish" foods which are tradition for us, though we're pretty sure even though the Polish cookbook says it's Polish, cauliflower with cornflakes melted on top is kind of universal. Or maybe not. What do I know about cooking?

Though everyone had to contribute and make a dish and I was asked to make the stuffing. Not from scratch, mind you, because Jesus loves me and knows me! He and Sr. Agnes were merciful and let me make it from a box. And turned out very well, I must say!

So we began our morning with Mass and prayer as always. And it's nice because even thought Thanksgiving isn't technically a religious holiday (you can argue about that, though...why did the pilgrims come here after all? religious freedom!) being with the Sisters made it a religious feast and I felt that I was able to give thanks to God all day- as it should be!

And it made me think- every day should be Thanksgiving where we just give thanks to Him all day! I mean, Eucharist means "thanksgiving" in Greek and I receive the Eucharist each day in Mass. Every day can be Thanksgiving!

The Eucharistic table is our 'feast' and Jesus gives us many 'feasts' in His own way. With family, friends, His Word, His Church, His Sacraments.

Okay, enough preaching.

So we prayed, then we cooked and got ready. Janet came over a little before 1pm. We ate around 1ish. And just had a leisurely table conversation about Thanksgiving traditions. Janet and I noted that it is tradition in our family to have "Blue Nun" wine at the table (which I never liked, btw- too sweet!) and now we were sitting at a table of Blue Nuns!!!

The highlight of the day was Sr. Agnes gracing us with her "Turkey Song". A song she learned when she first came over from Italy and barely new English. It's pretty amazing that she remembers it! But once you hear it, you will know, 'how could you forget it?' We have it on video documented ;)

Janet hung out for a while and we called the fam on her cell and they passed the phone around to each person twice- once to talk to her and then to me. She left before our evening prayer and then after evening prayer we (too full from the afternoon) made some popcorn and played "Apples to Apples" as a community.

That game is hilarious anyways. But when you play with nuns its even funnier. And then when you play with 2 70+year old nuns with English as their second language- forget it. It's hysterical.

So I have much to be thankful for. You reading this blog just to name one! I got sick the day after Thanksgiving- too much fun, I tell you! So I am recovering from a bad cold that knocked me out for the weekend.

But today is the feast of Christ the King!!! And that means next Sunday starts ADVENT??? I can't wait! HA- and the irony of that IS that Advent is all about WAITING ;)

Today is a pretty great FEAST in itself, speaking of feasts. And one of the great things we've learned so far here in our formation classes is that we have a KING who uses His power to empower the powerless. Take the Gospel for today- it is Jesus on the Cross, dying for us. The soliders are taunting Him. The sign INRI above Him is meant to mock Him- but the Truth is, that is OUR KING! He, the suffering servant, is our KING. And that is the beauty of our faith. That our King makes Himself powerless to save us. As a good King should!!!

Thank You, Jesus!!!

God bless you all! Enjoy the FEAST! And let the waiting begin ;)

Peace,
Julia

My Big Break

So this week is completely crazy, but I wanted to tell you about it! :)

Starting with Sunday, my free day: I met up with my former roomate from Leesburg's friend (did you follow that?) who lives in the Lou for brunch. She was sweet to treat me! As I am finding many do now since they realize I don't have an income and that is appreciated! There is an international film fest in town so we caught a very, very important and moving flick at the art museum. It was called: We are Together. It is about a South African family who are orphaned and suffering from the effects of AIDS but keep hope alive with their gift of song. So beautiful and inspiring. I recommend it!

Then I met my sister for dinner and we both met up with one of my friends from CUA for drinks. All in all another great free day!

Yesterday we had to give presentations as a project for one of our classes. We each had to gear our talk to a certain audience. Shocking- I chose teens as my audience :) I kind of felt bad because I had a slight advantage over the other girls :) but it wasn't a competition and we weren't graded. It was actually really interesting to see the different angles we took on the same topic- which was our congregation's devotion to Jesus as the Divine Master, Way, Truth, and Life (if you ever care to know more about that particular devotion, just ask me ;) I can tell you complete with movie clip and power point ;)

So that was yesterday. Today, I was on the radio!!!! Albeit Catholic AM radio, but it was a my big break on the airways. One of our Chicago sisters had told me she thought I had a voice nice for radio, so I think I may have a future :) I called to plug our 2 events this week- one which was tonight. Our Sacramental Theology teacher came to give a talk on the return of the Latin Mass at our Book Center. He is always very entertaining and informative and gives a straight forward approach which I appreciate. What was the result of the talk? Well, the Motu Proprio that the Pope gave pretty much just says the same thing as we had before- bishops and priest have the OPTION to do the 1962 Mass if they want at some Masses. Which was the case before with JP2, too, Benedict's just trying to encourage it a little more, it seems.

So that's today. TOMORROW and this weekend we are going to be exhibiting our wares at a Christian Brothers Conference in which our famed Media Studies Sister- Sr. Rose- will be speaking. I'm excited to meet her and hear what she has to say....since I want to BE her someday :)

Friday is our Faith and Film night, too! We are showing Spiderman II, and I was surprised in the message of the renunciation of will that is displayed in the film. I can relate to that theme!!!!

Thanks again for reading!!! you are in my prayers!

peace,
Julia