Catholic Fire

1. Valentine's Day -- Here are the cards we shared with one another. Bill's is on the left and mine is on the right. 2. We decided rather than go out to eat in.  Here is what I prepared for our Valentine's Day meal: shrimp cocktail,  keta salmon with a tasty rub, asparagus, and baked potatoes. It is so easy to prepare and super healthy as well as delicious. 3.  Here is my Valentine's Day gift from Bill -- a diffuser which is so relaxing at bedtime. I combine lavender essential oils with absolute rose and it produces a heavenly scent! 4. What have you been reading this Lent? Here is what has been on my night stand: The Autobiography of Dina Belanger (a French-Canadian Blessed), The Lenten Magnificat, Magnificat Year of Mercy Companion, and The Word Among Us -- Lent 2016. I am really enjoying reading about Blessed Dina, but am taking my time reading this volume, as there is much to savor here. 5. Lenten music -- For Lent, I tend ...

Lent is a season of spiritual renewal, a time of quiet contemplation on the Passion and death of Jesus Christ, a period of 40 days in which we enter into the desert to give our lives to the Lord to be transformed, just as He gave His own for us. Lent at Ephesus , the latest album by the monastic Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, certainly does inspire me to open up my heart to receive all the graces of this holy season. The heavenly voices of the Sisters and the words of their poignant chants and inspiring hymns of glory and redemption lift up the soul, promoting contemplation, as well as the peace and joy that accompany it. The 23-tract CD contains both English and Latin chants and hymns. My favorites include: “Jesus, My Love,” composed by Richard Rolle, a 14th century hermit; “God of Mercy and Compassion,” composed by Fr. Edmund Vaughn, a 19th century Redemptorist missionary, “Divine Physician,” a hymn written in 2012 by the Benedictines of Mary, and “Mother of Sor...