Come away and rest a while...

Tonight, at mass, the gospel was about Jesus urging us to go on retreat and to come away and rest a while.  Father shared, during the homily, how important it is to take vacations and rejuvenate.  I found this laughable since earlier in the week, I had debated taking a day trip to Wrightsville Beach today but chose instead to remain in High Point so that I could work on some schoolwork. 


As much as I would have loved to be on a beach today, I'm glad that I remained at home since in the last 24 hours, I was able to complete a 4 hour teaching assistant training video, write a summary on the trainings, do the initial listen and transcription of an interview for a research project, and finalize the rough draft of my portfolio while trying to fix my printer (no luck there)!  After posting this blog, I'll get back to work and begin coding 65 pieces of data for a research project I'm working on with a professor in California.  My goal is to have at least 10 pieces of data analyzed before bedtime tonight.  Anyhow, I had to chuckle to myself as I sat in church tonight and listened to the gospel...specifically the part about Jesus retreating to a place for himself since these were the words on the Retreat Prayer Cards I had given the girls last weekend in Outer Banks!  (By the way, when leaving church, a car with a Wrightsville Beach tag was parked in front of us...hah!)

Speaking of the retreat last weekend, I had some other reflections on how much of a blessing that was meant to be the experience was for us.  The retreat originally had been scheduled for a different date but when one of the original girls who was planning it with me was unable to go, we switched it to the July 12th date to accommodate her schedule.  Unfortunately, for her, she was unable to go during this date, due to unforeseen circumstances, but I still went ahead with planning the retreat for that weekend.  I can't help but wonder if everything else would have lined up as well as it had if we had done the vacation on a different weekend...?  They do say that blessings come in disguises!! 

If you'll recall from the previous blog entry, we enjoyed the musical talents of Kim Kalman, the Catholic singer/songwriter who is based out of OBX after our dinner at Tale of the Whale in the gazebo behind the restaurant nestled in the bay.  When planning into the weekend, I had hoped that we would be able to enjoy Kim's music at church or one of her events.  I had also hoped we would be able to go to dinner at Tale of the Whale since it is one of my favorite restaurants in Outer Banks.  As luck/fate/Godincidence would have it, Kim happened to be performing at Tale of the Whale the Friday night we planned to dine there!

I just tried posting a video I took last week of Kim singing, "I'm Not Alone", but am having issues...maybe I can post the video on Facebook.  In the meantime, check out her website! 

Upon returning to High Point, I met with my priest.  While sharing with him the experiences we had on retreat, we learned that he knew the priest who presided over the Friday morning mass and who graciously performed Confession for us.  What a small world!!

Finally, this last signal grace is especially poignant for me.  When my twin and his wife miscarried for the second time, I began praying to St. Anthony of Padua for them.  Here is the prayer that is on the prayer card that I prayed for them and their desire to have a child:

After a few months of praying this special intention for them, Mark and Liz conceived and had a

beautiful healthy baby boy 11 unexpected days early....on the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua on

June 13th!! 

Thomas Mark weighed in at 6 lbs. 13 oz.  Love the play on numbers here!!!  About halfway through Mark and Liz's pregnancy, I spontaneously gave the St. Anthony prayer card to a friend who had recently miscarried.  I don't know why since my friends are not Catholic and probably don't believe in saints but I just felt compelled to share the prayer and prayer card with her.  Fast forward 4 months to when I was preparing for this retreat last weekend....I had asked each retreatant to share with me their favorite saints so that I could provide prayer cards on these special people in the individualized gift bags I presented to each retreatant on the last night of the retreat when we took in a sunset on the Dunes.  Try as I might, I was unable to locate a prayer card for St. Catherine Laboure in the stores in Delaware and North Carolina that I had shopped at so at the last minute, I opted to put my newly purchased (for myself) St. Anthony of Padua prayer card in my friend's gift bag.  When doing so, I had no idea that this particular friend is currently trying to conceive a baby....coincidence...??  I think not! 

Finally...this may be a stretch, but in thinking about my twin just now as I wrote of this past signal grace, a pair of boy/girl twins were baptized tonight!  :-)