Monday Morning Musings...

• Good morning, sweet Jesus, I love You, sweet Jesus, all for You!

• We are incredibly blessed! Had four of five children and their families here yesterday for Sunday brunch (and pizza later) minus one college student and one working teen. The cousins, all 16 of them, enjoyed the trampoline, ultimate frisbee, bike and trike riding and cuddling the babies. Not one squabble! Lots of adult conversation as well as adult-child conversation when the kids took a break from playing. Lots of games, good food, and laughter. Night prayer last night, after everyone was gone except our visiting out-of-town daughter and her family, was a joyful and peaceful end to a blessed day. Thank you, Lord!

• Cleaning up and rearranging chairs back to their "normal" places this morning thinking how wonderful it is to have evidence of so many loved ones in our lives. The little bit of confusion in the kitchen and dining room is thanks to many loving, helping hands yesterday who cleaned up after dinner. I was shooed out of the kitchen several times during the day. Somebody quietly emptied the trash. The toys were picked up and put away. The littlest cousins left first wishing they could stay longer. Thank you, Lord.

• Checking some interesting articles this morning. The end of the liturgical year is coming so it's a perfect time to reflect on the four last things. You've no doubt heard clergy who say we can have a "reasonable hope that all our saved." Not so. Read Fr. Peregrino's article and the followup article and pray for the grace of final perseverance. To presume that everyone is going to heaven is just that -- presumption, which is a sin. Let's all reflect on God's goodness and then reflect on our ingratitude. And then let us repent. Have mercy on us, Lord.

• And now it's time to get ready for Mass, the greatest gift of all when Christ, through the ministry of His priest, takes us back to those moments of his passion, death, and resurrection so we can be physically with Him in a miraculous union of hearts. Think of it! God, the creator of the universe, wants to be intimately in union with you and me. There are no words sufficient to thank Him for that blessing.  

• May God bless you and keep you this day and every day!