to the new priest's wife, wondering & worrying about the future

This comment was recently sent to me: 

I have been a priest’s wife for just under two days. Please pray for me. I have no idea what the future has in store for us!!

Please pray for this new priest, priest's wife, and any children they have!

Bless this marriage and his priestly ordination and grant unto these Your servants  a peaceful life, length of days, chastity, love for one another in a bond of peace, offspring long‑lived, fair fame by reason of their children, and a crown of glory that does not fade away.

Account them worthy to see their children's children. Keep their wedlock safe against every hostile scheme; give them of the dew from the Heavens above, and of the fatness of the earth. Fill their houses with bountiful food, and with every good thing, that they may have to give to them that are in need, bestowing also on them that are here assembled with us all their supplications that are unto salvation.

For You are a God of mercy and of compassion, and to You do we send up Glory: as to Your eternal Father and Your All‑Holy, Good, and Life‑creating Spirit, both now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen

blessed be the mediocre, for they shall be okay enough

source: Byzantine, Texas blog 

Flannery O'Connor, writer and Catholic of great renown, said that she couldn't be a saint, but she could be a martyr "if they killed her quick." G.K. Chesterton asserted that “the most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.” Saint Bernadette of Lourdes said that God had used her for an extraordinary purpose and then put her back in the corner like a broom. 

Let's be faithful enough to be like 'Bob' in the (parody) troparion above. Let's be martyrs, witnesses to Christ even if we are ordinary. Let's be brooms.

Our Romanian Byzantine Catholic Bishop celebrates 20th Anniversary of Episcopate

May God grant you many more blessed years in health and happiness, Bishop John-Michael Botean! 

National Catholic Register's take on Byzantine Catholic Priests' Wives

Take a look at this informative article on Byzantine Catholic priests' wives! We are not 'showcased' very frequently. We are just living our lives, the way we have traditionally lived from the beginning of the Eastern Churches.  Thank you to writer Peter Jesserer Smith for taking the time to interview many priests' wives. 

pretty funny happy real politics- Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?

pretty- Today is the feast of Christ's Ascension on the Gregorian calendar! Have a blessed day- now, after 40 days, we Byzantine Catholics stop singing 'Christ is risen' until next Easter.

happy- It is only early May, but academic-centric homeschooling is winding down for the little ones with field trips and swimming lessons increasing in frequency. They had their last poetry recitation of the school year last week. Boy recited Ozymandius, and Girl recited Now We Are Six. The big girls wowed the younger crowd with their winning performances of Charge of the Light Brigade and Vain & Careless.  

funny- I think this is funny/cute. I recorded Girl's poem for her to memorize. I found her dancing to the recording with her eyes closed....I think we will memorize her Shakespeare lines next year like this! Watch her on instagram here. 

real- I don't get political here, but I do confess that I will be voting for Pedro.

“Men will surrender to the spirit of the age. They will say that if they had lived in our day, Faith would be simple and easy. But in their day, they will say, things are complex; the Church must be brought up to date and made meaningful to the day’s problems. When the Church and the world are one, then those days are at hand because our Divine Master placed a barrier between His things and the things of the world.A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, ‘You are mad, you are not like us.” St. Anthony of the Desert (251- 356)

more phfr at lmld