Feeling Creative Without a Direction

August 9, 2021August 9, 2021 Spes in CaritateLeave a comment

I’ve been sensing a bit of the creative pull in the past few days. It’s been months since I’ve felt any kind of inspiration to blog or make videos, but here we are:). Its odd that now would be the time this happens, given the fact that life has been crazy and is becoming ever more so.

I want this to be a place where I do something consistently that I find meaningful and is genuinely helpful to others. What that is or will be, I don’t know. But my hope is that by trying new things over and over, one of them will stick and I will find a niche to fill. I truly believe God forms us to occupy a place in the world, and in the lives of other people.

God has never spoken to me audibly. I’ve never had a “go forth” and do such and such experience. But the course I ought to take has always become clear as I go. Try; see if the door continues to open, or if God closes it. It’s hard, and it takes time, but God does clearly communicate by this means. Impatient me, being what I am, have always kicked against the goad. If I can’t know a thing is going to be “successful” in advance, I struggle to be confident enough in my idea to follow through and do it.

But the truth is, that God loves and cares for each and every one of us. And I know He uses the efforts we make, whether they are meant to eventually lead to something long-lasting, or a failure we learn from. So here’s to attempts that fail. Our value is from who we are, not what we do. The gifts we have we may not lead to success every time. We may not know how they are meant to be used perfectly. But if we don’t try, what kind of stewards are we?

The world is a strange and puzzling place to me in many ways; the same holds true when it comes to others. But there are also wonderful, beautiful things about the world and so many great things about the people He has formed. Doing new things is a way to connect other people and the world that really is impossible by any other means. There’s something so uniquely human about the kind of discourse creativity produces.

So I guess what I’m saying is I want to try new things. And I’m praying God will send me some ideas about what path to take. If you read this, would you say a prayer too?

Thanks, and praying for all of you who read this,

Grace

Daily Roman Missal Book Review

December 19, 2019 Spes in Caritate2 Comments

Hello everyone,

I recently got a book which I have been wanting for some time: the Daily Roman Missal published by the Midwest Theological Forum! It is according to the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal and is the 7th edition, 3rd printing. This is a beautiful book and one which I think will be useful for years to come. The price was $56.47 on Amazon, which was the cheapest price I was able to find.

Physical Characteristics (Standard Print, Bonded Leather, Burgundy) – 5/5 stars

Judging from the pictures, I was expecting a beautiful volume; the book does not disappoint. The cover, as I stated before, is bonded leather. It is not flexible, but does feel nice in your hands. The one aspect of this book which did surprise me was the size. It was small than I expected (about 4.75″ wide, and about 7″ tall). This feature is a positive one. It makes it more unobtrusive while you use it at Mass. It is a thick book (approximately 2″ deep), but not so heavy that it becomes unwieldy. The necessary trade-off for this, of course, is that the paper is a bit thin. It reminds me of the paper used in a high quality Bible: thin enough that you can read the text from the next page through it, but thick enough that it doesn’t tear easily. The creamy color of the paper is really beautiful.

The text is a readable size and font. This missal has really helped me to learn more about the Mass, and drew my attention to some actions of the priest which I had overlooked before. The pages of the Daily Roman Missal are gilded nicely, and the Order of the Mass is marked in red on the sides for easy access.

There are six differently colored ribbons, each a different color. The ends of the ribbons seem to be sturdy, and I think I can reasonably hope they will not fray soon. Since I did want to have a few more things marked in the missal, I have used a prayer card for that purpose. You could also use some of those tabs designed for textbooks.

Overall, the Daily Roman Missal is a well made, high quality book that I would recommend to anyone looking to follow what happens at the Mass more closely.

The Glories of Mary

The Glories of Mary: Chapter 1, Part 1

January 29, 2019 Spes in CaritateLeave a comment

Hello everyone,

My first recording of the work The Glories of Mary by St. Alphonsus Liguori is up on Youtube! I hope that you enjoy listening to it. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments. The recording itself has a few mistakes, but I hope to improve with experience as I keep working. I am also excited because I have some books in the mail and I will be recording a haul video soon! God bless all of you!

Commentary

Prayer Spotlight: St. Michael the Archangel

September 6, 2018September 6, 2018 Spes in CaritateLeave a comment

Hello,

Today’s post is going to be a brief collection of links interspersed with my commentary because I think they contain material which is important for everyone to read! Also, the history behind the St. Michael the Archangel Prayer is fascinating and pertinent to the times in which we live.

Here is an excellent piece written by Fr. William Saunders about St. Michael, and which mentions the St. Michael Prayer. Here is the text of the St. Michael Prayer from EWTN. Here is the link for a post, which speaks more about the St. Michael Prayer in particular from Church Militant. They give a lot of fascinating history.

I hope that you all enjoy reading these. The St. Michael Prayer is one of my favorite, and I am attempting to learn it in Latin at the moment. Catholic Answers has a fascinating article on their site which dissects some of the original Latin of the prayer and provides some more insight into the meaning of the Latin. I highly encourage reading this! It is available here.

God bless you all! And please – begin to pray the St. Michael prayer for the Church in our days.

St. Michael

Commentary

Welcome to September!

September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Spes in CaritateLeave a comment

Hello,

I am so excited that fall is on the way! This is my favorite season (closely followed by Fall Picture

winter). I love the part of the year when the weather first hints at a chill. There is something special when you smell the crisp air, the fallen leaves and the odor which comes from the fields being harvested, all come together into something indescribable. The beauty which God has breathed into His creation is something wondrous and humbling to behold.

I know that I have not had as many posts up on the blog lately. The pace will have to slow down a little bit because of the ways in which my schedule is changing, but my goal is to put out at least one blog post per week. My next post should be either a review of the Daily Roman Missal or a book haul. I’m just not sure what I want to write about as of yet!

May God richly bless all of you in the upcoming season. Let us all use this time of beauty as an opportunity to contemplate the Lord in His goodness!