Me: I don’t remember that happening, do you?
Hubby: No.
(Okay, I won’t quit my dayjob. Oh, this IS my dayjob.)
Thought for the Day
“Never play poker with someone who’s first name is a state.”
Someone said that. I don’t remember who. Let’s test it out…
Montana Jones
Tennessee Jones
Kentucky Jones
Texas Jones
Nah…I wouldn’t play poker with those guys.
Indiana Jones
No. But I might play poker with…
New Jersey Jones
or
Rhode Island Jones
You can do it with countries too…
Mexico Jones
No.
Finland Jones
Okay.
Another Empty-Nester Conversation
Me: I think I’m starting to look old.
My husband: I don’t think so.
Me: That’s because you’re blinded by love.
My husband: I do need new glasses.
Me: I go get a foot massage and a latte.
Yes, these are actual conversations, tweaked only slightly for literary purposes.
Empty-Nester Conversation
Me: The garbage is smelly.
My husband: Oh.
Me: The garbage is smelly.
My husband: It’s garbage night. I’ll take it out later.
Me: The garbage is smelly now.
My husband: “Wives do not nag your husbands” is one of the Ten Commandments.
Me: (I take the garbage out.)
Prayer Intention
This is my own prayer intention. My sister, who has cancer, recently was hospitalized with a blood clot and several weeks later, had a heart attack. She had a terrible experience in the hospital with a lot of problems. She is recently home and resting. Please pray for her and our family, particularly my elderly mother, who lost my oldest brother to cancer in March. This is a very trying time for my family. I deeply appreciate anything you can do in this month of the Holy Rosary. Thank you-CF
PS Feel free to contact us with your own intentions as well.
Feast of the Annunciation, Prayer Intentions
On this Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord, let us pray…
For a dear friend who lost her young nephew yesterday. For his soul and their family.
For my 2 siblings who have stage 4 cancer and my elderly mother.
For the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady, taking place today, that it may be effectual unto life everlasting for many.
For the intentions of all our readers.
+ + +
O Blessed Lord, announced this day to Thy loveliest of creatures, have mercy on us!
O Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom the Incarnation of Christ was made known by the message of an angel, pray for us!
O Dear Saint Joseph, whom we honor this month of March, pray for us!
O Saint Gabriel the Archangel, messenger of the Incarnation, protect us!
All ye holy Angels and Saints, pray for us at this hour!
Please note, today is a solemnity.
Thought for the Day
The universe does not revolve around me. A little disappointing. But mostly a huge relief. Actually, it’s very good news for the universe.
Just sayin.
Prayer Intention & Thought for the Day
One of our subscribers named Joseph asks for prayers.
If you would like to be added to our prayer list, please contact us above. The feast of Saint Joseph the Worker is coming up May 1st-please think about the indulgence…
~ Happiness is a good measure of holiness ~
Let Me Introduce Myself
After 6 years on this blog, maybe it’s time to tell you a bit about me. I initially did not want to write a bio because I do not like the focus to be on me. But recently, I have been thinking that it is probably important to give my readers more of a sense of a personal connection. So, here goes my life story (sorry, there is only one version…the long one)…
Chiara Florence Mathews
I was born in Levittown, New York, in the late 60’s. This was the first of William J. Levitt’s idyllic pre-fab post WWII communities. My formative years were a beautiful initiation into life. To some degree, my personality was formed by Levitt’s vision. I have never lost, through great trials, that spirit of beauty, order and exuberance that Levittown gave me. Of course, I also must credit my loving parents. Though not devout, they sent me to Catholic school and gave me some understanding of the Faith.
It all went south when my father died of heart attack when I was 7 years old. My mother was left confused and helpless, with 3 children still at home. 2 years later, she married a Jewish man and we lived a strange dual-religion life, with Judaism being predominant. This led to spending several months in Beersheba, Israel, when I was 10 years old. It was an incredible thing visiting the Holy Land at such a young age and it changed the direction of my thinking and my understanding of the world. I remember walking across the desert to the bus station (quite a walk) and thinking, “Maybe Jesus walked in this very spot.” We spent a few days in Jerusalem and visited the Western Wall of the Temple, the significance of which I did not comprehend at the time. As is customary, I wrote something and placed it within the wall. I have no idea what I wrote-I wish I could remember. This was nothing like a pleasure trip. The experience was fraught with difficulty and terror. But I am deeply grateful for it and everything I learned about Judaism, which enriched my understanding of Catholicism.
My teenage years were spent in New Jersey, in a spiritual search for truth and an immersion in music, creative writing and theater. After making the rounds of Protestant churches and considering conversion to Mormonism, a friend invited me to come to the city with his family, to see a priest they knew. This priest was none other than one of the greatest Catholic theologians of the 20th century, Fr. John A. Hardon (there is now a cause for his canonization). To me, he was just a nice old man. I spent a few minutes privately with him and confided that I was confused. The only thing I remember him saying is, “Pray the Rosary every day.” He handed me a pair of blue plastic Rosary beads, which I cherish to this day. Through the same friend, I met my future husband, also from a devout family. He was able to explain all the things about Catholicism which I did not understand. I made the decision at the age of 18 to return in fullness to the Catholic Faith.
At Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), NJ, I majored in music. After meeting Fr. Michael T. Mannion, famed for his work in post-abortion healing and the director of the campus Newman Center, I started a pro-life club. We accomplished some great things, but received flack for it, which included a run-in with the head of the music department. I left to pursue my dream of becoming a singer/songwriter in Manhattan (I wound up working all the time to pay my rent). Eventually, I continued college at the State University of New York in Purchase. I was one of a group of winners in a recorded music competition, which gave me the opportunity to present my work on a CD put out by the college. This led to a meeting in the Sony building in the city, with a well-known producer. He likened one song to Leonard Cohen and was interested in working with me. I was supposed to record a few more things and come back. I never entered the Sony building again.
With John Paul II’s “Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei" in 1988, my husband-to-be brought me to the Tridentine Mass. At the age of 21, just down the block from Grand Central Station, at Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s former parish, Saint Agnes, I wept while kneeling. Seeing what I had been deprived of growing up…The most beautiful thing this side of Heaven*, I was forever changed. In the ensuing years, this is where my spirituality and intellect would continue to take shape, through the extraordinary oratory of theologians Fr. George Rutler and Fr. John Perricone. This is where we would be married. This is where our son would be baptized.
Work during my 20’s included teaching music, a series of office jobs and a difficult position at Good Counsel as a live-in counselor at one of their homes for women and children. I got to know the director, Chris Bell, and his pro-life heroin wife Joan Andrews Bell (I had sung 2 of my songs at their wedding reception prior to working there-Joan had asked me to do so, because she really liked a pro-life song of mine). Fr. Benedict Groeschel was part of the ministry and we would occasionally have retreats with him. My pro-life activism also led me to NYC’s pregnancy center pioneer Chris Slattery and sidewalk counseling at some of the worst clinics in the city. All of this gave me life experience well beyond my young years.
From Levittown to the Negev Desert to the death camps on Main Street, it’s no wonder my music sounded like Leonard Cohen. But gradually, I realized Cohen’s “cold and broken Hallelujah” could not be mine. There was another “Hallelujah” which called me. And I began to see, looking at the Signs of the Times, that the jig was up anyway.
After 10 years with my best friend, I finally married the young man who helped me so much in the spiritual life. We had a beautiful big baby right away. This was to be our only child. I became ill with Chronic Fatigue/Pain Syndrome, which I still suffer from. We bought a house on Long Island, not far from Levittown. In the past 20 years, I have continued with pro-life work, in addition to volunteering in various capacities (church, school and community garden projects). I have had training in preparedness/back to nature issues, including the Cornell University Master Gardener course. I am also proud to have pioneered a program with a local Montessori school, which has introduced thousands of Long Island children to gardening, at the annual Huntington Tulip Festival.
Needless to say, as a New Yorker and as a human being, I was very deeply affected by the terrible events of 9/11. After watching Bush’s behavior in the classroom on that day, I realized this is not the world I thought it was. There was something very wrong and I had to get to the bottom of it. Hence my “truther” journey, which involved in-depth study of the true control-structure of the world. This led to many esoteric topics and back to Catholicism, in terms of prophecy. (I have been connecting the dots for the past 2 decades, which prepared me for understanding the events of the past year.)
Realizing, as I suspected long ago, that we are approaching volatile times, a new dream emerged, of creating a Catholic ministry to deal with the issues before us. I started a blog 13 years ago and this is the current version of it. The vision of Nomen Christi Apostolate started to form about 9 years ago, as ideas came into greater maturity, including my thesis of “The Authentic Life.” Simply stated, the way God intended us to live, close to nature and communal, is also the safest, most self-reliant kind of life (ultimately speaking). The vision continues to evolve, particularly in light of the past year, as things are clearly heating up. It is my goal to move out of cyberspace and into the real world. I have become more interested in helping people to create rural refuges from the world. Stick with me and there will be more talk on this. I touch on theology from time to time. I should say, I am not a theologian but I like to meditate on these topics. I have been influenced by the best of the best and I give them all the credit.
My husband is an Information Technology manager. I would never have been able to navigate the computer world without him, so he has been an integral part of this work. Our son has an engineering degree from the University of Southern California. Our Shihpoo Frankie (named after Saint Francis) has degrees in cuteness and begging.
As for music, I will sing with Saint Cecilia on a cloud one day…
PS What have I learned from it all? I’ve learned this.
* famous quote by Fr. Frederick Faber, 1814-1863
Job is Done: Just in time for snow!
Here’s our new creche in our backyard.
I’m so excited about our new creche! As I was planting my spectacular Amaryllis bulbs (you can see the mulch over them in front of the set), I realized there was a very unique spot that I never noticed before, in the exact center of the green wall you can see there. There is a natural clearing and a charming bush which hangs above it. My first thought was, “This is a perfect spot for a creche!” I felt I did not create it, but rather discovered it, after living here for 19 years. This exterior job has been fraught with strange coincidences and remarkable events. The establishment of this Nativity scene seems to be the crowning final blessing of the project.
When I realized I needed a creche, I went online to look for an affordable one. I quickly realized that is a tall order, but found this one on Wayfair. It is small (the St. Joseph statue is 19”), but I am delighted with it. We will pray in front of it as a family on Christmas Eve and give thanks for the incredible transformation of our home in the past 2 months. It has also been a journey of personal transformation. God works in great ways for those who are open to His inspirations!
I had to dig Baby Jesus out of the snow!
You can see some of our beautiful new stone work. Tell me it was worth it. Please!
Now you can see a small part of what was accomplished on our property. I am very pleased with this particular area, which I didn’t even realize would turn out like this, with a perfect new spot for Our Lady. She remains roughly in her original place, under the small tree, which seems to have been placed there long ago, in anticipation of her presence. The statue got pretty dirty over the course of the work and I haven’t had time to clean it yet. Cosmetic things, along with the landscaping, will gradually be worked on through the winter and spring.
I figured out how to cover up the ugly garbage cans with a little blurby thing in the “Paint” program. LOL. Below, Our Lady is crowned with snow, literally one day after the job finished. Another blessing!
Our Lady of the Snows, pray for us!
Update: After 2 months of boot camp, I kinda need a break. Its also Christmastime…I may or may not get something else up before Christmas. After Christmas, we will resume our “Autumn Prepper Rosary Program,” which will now be called “Prepper Rosary Program” for obvious reasons:)
My Christmas wish for my dear readers and the whole Body of Christ, is that we be made strong in all ways for the coming days. This is a glorious time to be alive and we have much work to do!
PS I hope you enjoy the images on this site. Feel free to use them-just say where you got them. Getting pictures from my phone onto this blog in a usable form, involves several steps. Each pic goes from phone to email to “Paint” to file…and finally to blog. During this moving process, they also get cropped, enhanced and re-sized. It is a process, but I do enjoy the creative aspect and have spent much time learning how to do it. I’m always learning more, like how to make a blurby thing to cover up bad stuff!