Catholics
Comments
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Smiling Spirit,
I think I remember you said you are Presbyterian? I am as well, and still receive calls of well wishes from my parent's life long friends of the Church. I am most comfortable here, and consider myself very blessed to have found these wonderful ladies. I also post in the Power of Prayer thread. I have learned a lot, and have always loved to expand my horizons. We come together with a wealth of diversity, and various places in our spiritual development. Somedays, it is almost like a history lesson for me. I was thinking months ago, that I really have a limited knowledge base concerning the history and timeline of the Bible. I had almost no knowledge regarding Saints and their work here on earth. Now I am starting to really appreciate the life works of those who came before me.
So welcome.
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Yes, Michelle,
Lead the way!
and I am going to noodle on the conference thread too...how it may play out, pros and cons
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Michelle ~ I agree, in fact my personal 1st ever Novena said 20+ years ago was St. Jude. Very powerful and many people post classified ads and some leave it on light posts, or on the Church pews.
My reason for the separate site for our Friday prayers is because there's limitation on this site, with my complaint of "lag time". With the other site that I've signed up for, everyone is on it at the same time, you will see the leader's queue when to start, participants to write something or ask question. Just like how we do a webinar. Power point, white board etc can be used. Dial in phone conferencing as well (maybe there's a fee for the phone conf - will need to verify).
I'm sending each a PM to give me email address. I hope you all like the idea.
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Traci: Your idea about the NOVA/DC/MD members to get together at a concert, etc sounds good. Any ideas? We will be gone (Seattle) over the week of Thanksgiving. DH's family is out there.
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Hi, I'm sorry I had to go somewhere and just came back. I guess I totally misinterpreted the post! My apologies. I'm new to BC.org and on other threads I and others have been told to leave so I just mistakenly assumed I was intruding here but it wasn't the tone of your post at all. It was me trying to be respectful and let Catholics have their own thread. I didn't mean to upset anyone! I just was reading all the info about doing one thread for this, another for that, and didn't understand. I thought this was going to be for Catholics only and I should find another thread or another one of those you were starting.I was't offended because the tone of that post wasn't mean at all. My sincerist apologies to all!
I was raised in a very strict Presbyterian church. Then I lost my way entirely. Then I got married and the now ex and I went to a Baptist church. We left that after our separation (long story) and I wandered around, visiting Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Church of God, Assemblies of God, and Pentacostal.
I have found that for me, and this is just for me and is NOT a criticsim of any other Christian denomination, but for me, the Evangelical/Charasmatic movement really spoke to my heart. I am very much at home in a church where people sing new Christian songs, clap, raise their hands and praise God. They are not "rowdy" but they invite the Holy Spirit in to direct them and are very happy praising and worshiping. This is what works for me and is not a reflection on any other Christian church at all. My parents left the original Presybterian Church and now belong to a more charasmatic Presbyterian one. I found a wonderful Evangelical Presbyterian church but it's too far for me to drive!
I respect all forms of Christianity as long as they believe in the Holy Trinity, the Virgin birth, and that Jesus is the way to Heaven. I don't disrespect anyone but I don't agree with the others that don't believe this.
I think Catholicism has much in common with me and my beliefs. A very close, long time friend of mine is a Catholic and her church now is charasmatic! I am very happy that we two can discuss and agree on things like divine healing!
I hope I've not offended anyone. I have nothing but respect for you ladies.
Love, peace and blessings!
W
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Dear sisters,
I've done a tally, the regulars for Friday prayers are just 10 of us (yes, there may be more but not coming up on the row call). What I propose to do is to do the "Friday Group prayer" on the other site which we can see each other all at the same time. Anyone interested can PM me and sign up, up to 25 participants. ALSO, we will post the prayers on this thread for someone who may stumble onto this thread to say the prayer "RIGHT ON TIME" with us. Is that good? We all know the limitation of what this thread, prayers on different page, last minute update of intentions not being able to post on time, just the general slowness (lag time). And honestly, I don't think that there are than many more that joins every Friday, I can't tell because they are the quiet ones.
So, my question is, if we post the prayers here but we have our other Meeting thread that has the capability, so why not give it a try? We can do a dry-run first.
Let me know, if you haven't received my PM and is interested, then please PM me directly.
If you don't like the idea, it's ok too but having a decision is better than no having one
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W: So glad you came back! My DH, a convert to Catholicism, and I are pretty opposite. I'm the quiet conservative who prefers quiet Masses with meditation and contemplation. He's a music minister (guitar), so he's into liturgical music and spent a lot of time (before we married) in a group called Curcillo, which sounds very charismatic. We are both Secular Franciscans (I'm in formation) So there's a wide range of how we practice our faith on this thread and in our lives, but we have one common theme, love of Christ, helping each other on the Journey Home.
I loved the reading today at Mass: 2 Timothy 4:6-8
My life is already being poured away as a libation, and the time has come for me to be gone. I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith; all there is to come now is the crown of righteousness reserved for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that Day; and not only to me but to all those who have longed for his Appearing.
When it's time for me to depart, I'd like that scripture read at my funeral Mass.
And for all of us here, the first reading at Mass was appropriate: Sirach 35: 12-13
For he is a God of justice, who knows no favorites.
Though not unduly partial toward the weak, yet he hears the cry of the oppressed....
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I love it when I go to do a household chore, come back, and am lost because of all of the new posts.
So I will take my time, but Paula, now that you explained how it would work, I see the wisdom behind getting past the lag time issue. I think it would be wonderful to give this a chance, and here is another challenge..drum roll please....
How about we each take turns leading prayers? We would know a week in advance, and then, while keeping our "regular format" also add in a prayer or two, or a meditation that reflects our personal spirituality? For example, and as Theresa knows, I am very nature oriented, and see God in the mountains. I am also learning that the Franciscan path is also very attuned with nature, and so this might stretch my spiritual muscles some more.
So those are my thoughts, anyone else?
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helping each other on the journey home.
That is one of the most beautiful sentiments Theresa. With tears on my cheeks, I am honored to share this journey with all of you. We will be alright, no matter what. We do not have to fear.
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Hi Paula - my hesitation is that i've had some not so good experiences on some of the group sites - Yahoo groups in particular. I also think we might lose some sisters and certainly lose the quiet sisters who may be joining us in prayer and prefer to remain in the background or annonymous. (Actually all of us need to be a little careful for safety's sake because this is a public site.) I agree this site has some disadvantages but they do screen for spam and take precautions until each person has 'established' herself. Seems like they fixed the slow response time - has been much better last couple of weeks.
W - so glad you came back!!! One of the priests at my parish is young & a charismatic healer -- tamborines passed down the pews, lot of happy singing/dancing, laying on hands. But no one is more reverent than he is. I think at first some of the parishoners were kind of shocked - but his healing masses now draw a ton of people.
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Michelle,
Queen of Novenas..love it. I am absolutely on board with the next Novena, and I remember when I found the bookmark for St. Jude in the street one day while walking my dog...I took it as a sign.(this was two years ago.) It is up on my fireplace mantel right now. I think it follows me around my apartment
There are many Churches in DC that I do know I can walk into, and if need be, back to Georgetown Chapel I will go. It helps be tremendously to understand my part in choosing my life challenges. Sometimes I look at it as an IF, THEN time-line. IF by this time in my life, certain things are not in place, THEN such and such will happen to push it along. I do believe in free will, and that not every second of my life is ordered. I have choices in how I react to everything, and how I choose to grow or regress.
Perhaps we cannot change the order of things, or the fact that we have been diagnosed with cancer in our lifetime. Breast Cancer for me was a wake up call. Theresa, you referred to it as a second chance. Michelle, you choose to take back your power by giving it all back to God with trust. A very powerful decision indeed, and we all in our separate ways are making choices in the face of cancer. I was woken up to my own mortality, and want to make this next part of the journey really reflect who I am, instead of just going through the motions and unhappy.
and for me, how could I be mad at something I chose to help me grow? I have been scared, tired, in pain, but honestly, not mad at the cancer. The treatments...maybe. I have railed against the chemo more than once.
We are powerful, we have strong spirits, and we gather here to honor our lives, and God.
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Janet ~ I understand your concern
This group prayer is actually more controlled as the participants has to be invited. We now have a hard count of 11 of us (including myself). I will put all 11 of us (for the time being) as the regular invitees. Like Traci said, we will rotate to be the prayer lead each week with a roster posted. If you have done an online live webinar, it is similar to that. There will not be any lurkers, it is not open to the WWW that way.
Re: Spam ~ I do not think you need to worry about SPAM, I'm sure that each one of our email accounts have SPAM filters and it is my email account that I've used to sign this up. Yes, your email address will be used so that the invitation link will be sent to you and reminder for the meeting. But I don't think that they are selling your info, I'll PM you the info re: Privacy Rules. Also, you can create another anonymous email address strictly to be used with this only.
Re: Catch all ~ We will also post the same prayers on this thread in case there's anyone stumbling onto the thread.
Since there's only 25 spaces, and we have 11 right now the rest of the available space is going to be first come first serve. So the serious participants will be the regulars (but if you can't make it, it is understandable). Interested ones will sign up with me or another person.
I think this way, we will take care of our needs here every Friday (for technology sake), and the newer ones that want to join later, there are 14 spaces left to accomodate those. The "quiet ones" can remain anonymous.
Whoever will PM me with email address will be the interested participant. So think about it and email me. There should be a deadline this 7pm PST evening, there's things to do on my part and I think you ladies would like a dry run also.
p.s. We've never exceeded 9 participants at the last 2 Friday prayer meeting.
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Janet,
You bring up some good considerations as well. Let's put it this way, I am as per usual, like my element of water. I can flow in any direction. Our Quiet Sisters are important to me as well.
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Traci
we just posted at the same time (LOL)0 -
Paula,
I guess we posted at the same time
Would Quiet Sisters need to send their email addresses to you, but then they could remain anonymous? 0 -
Paula - what site are you investigating - Yahoo, Gmail, Go to Meetings?
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Traci ~ good point about can't change the order of things. That lead me to think more about it today. Never crossed my mind that way. Indeed good point.
Michele ~ Can you please elaborate more on how you "Give it back to God"? I realized after waking up this morning from a repetitive dream about asking my rad onc about why my Friday treatment is painful as the beam was hitting me. Throughout this BC journey, there was nothing like this type of fear that caused a dream to keep re-playing in one night.
Today, I am feeling stressed and jumpy at whatever sounds that came about when my kids are doing house chores. Earlier I felt shortness of breath, so I drank a bunch of water and it seemed to subside.
Sheila & Traci ~ my dear RN friends, what do you think? I personally want to terminate the rad treatment since rad onc said on Thursday that the beam does hit my heart. So worried.
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Janet ~ check your PM
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Traci ~ re: quiet ones sending me PM and remain Anonymous?
Think the best answer is, they will be Anonymous on Catholics thread. I will have to add their email address to invite them and send reminders. As long as we don't talk about who else joins on the other prayer meeting, then they will be Anonymous here.
Or, they can just pray on their own at 7pm PST, 10pm EST with whatever prayer we post on here.
We don't discriminate any denomination so I really don't see the point of being anonymous. Lord Jesus loves us all, he encourages all of us to pray. Why are we being timid to ask for assistance?
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Theresa I had the same feeling that you did about The Timothy reading. I have been crying my way through Mass each week, But less each week. Then this reading and the tears started to flow, But more in a comforting way.
Thank you Smiling Spirit for relooking. One thing with BCO that may help as you journey through, is once you find a site that appeals to you is to go back to the beginning of the thread and read it from the initial posting . Read from page one all the way through. In case of the Catholic thread you will find that Laura Estepp who started the thread, right in her topic post she invited all. Reading from the beginning gives you an understanding of the focus and culture of the group. In the case of this thread that will take some time , but with what you have expressed already, I think you may very much enjoy this.
I think one of the reasons I so much care for this thread is the writers are so willing to share, accept, teach each other, and listen so well. Squid once made a comment that I felt was so true. She said " at times on some threads she felt like she was talking to herself." Here that doesn't happen. But it moves fast. If I miss a couple of days, trying to catch up on the reading can be a challenge.The posts are very thoughtful literally. The depth of the writing is serious. For my mind that has processing issues--it's work. Sometimes I find I have to reread a particular post several times to get everything I can from the piece. But then by the time I've completed catching up, it seems that some of what i wanted to keep in my brain has already sifted out.
Keeping up with intentions and not forgetting someone is difficult for me because of memory issues. Hence came the thought of the Intentions page. They won't get forgotten because their all in one place. There are some intentions that have been going on for months.
With the ability of the originator of the intention to edit. I , for examle, I could go into an intention I wrote 3 months ago add a date and say thank you the intention for Greg is now complete. I know as a group we will be praying for a long time together. I also know some of our Intentions will be with us for a long time. The Intentions page will allow us to keep track over a very extended period of time. I'm seriously thinking years. That is why I suggested that it be for intentions only and that discussion be on the discussion page which is here. The intentions should be short and to the point.
Michele has so beautifully volunteered already to lead the novenas. She has already demonstrated that she has the ablity to organize and lead them. Thats huge. My scrambled brain would just outdue itself with anxiety worrying over the responsibility. We could say to try maybe to do 2 a month. Thats 18 days. That would allow time for growth of other ideas that we want to explore. For example, the suggestion that Paula has made needs development and exploration.
Nothing is decided all is still in discussion and brainstorming phase. So, please lets see where the flow goes. But I think one thing that should be in the back of our minds is, that it's a plan that will go on for years. as so shall we all with Gods blessing
Son is wanting computer so I have to get off. Namaste to all Sheila
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Paula,
I had a few episodes of arrythmias when going through radiation. I was so tired of hospitals at the time, I did not get an EKG, but I should have. I don't think my shortness of breath came until after radiation. I am hearing your concern, and I don't take shortness of breath lightly. If you have enough concern that you are becoming fearful, just go to the E.R. They can do an EKG, maybe draw your electrolytes, take a look at the red/swollen area. Don't wait if you are concerned. Let your gut guide you.
I would talk your concerns over with your Radiation Oncologist about stopping treatment. Write down your questions and fears, so you can make an informed decision. Weigh the pros and cons. Ask yourself, can you live with your decisions in the future? (I did this by projecting into the future, and seeing the cancer come back in the chest wall because I only got a 1 mm margin of clearance.) My answer was easier for me because I know how I would feel.
Did you have a lumpectomy? I had a mastectomy, and they still recommended radiation. So we each come into this with different types of tumors, grades, positioning, and statistics. Delve into your concerns, and ask your Rad Onc, and maybe your oncologist. My Onc recommended radiation as well. I then went back to my surgeon and got her opinion. You can ask them "If it were you, what would you do?" My BS said she would do it, and that gave me a lot of relief, as she was the one that saw my tumor.
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Sheila,
You have had so many wonderful comments today in different posts, that I am hopping back and forth to try and remember them verbatim. As you have issues with intentions, I am unable to remember much beyond a full sentence of someone else's writings. Many times, it's not even that proficient. I could have never been as actress, as I would only get the first few lines of my soliloquy before having to slink off stage right. I can't ever quote people, but I can remember details. Go figure. Chemo didn't make it better...I thought I might improve in the straight memory challenge, oh well.
So I am off out the door again, dog and I are exercising
But I wanted to say, I loved your idea about having a page for intentions. Would that be another thread? Please excuse me if you already said it, it's a few pages back.
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Traci ~ thank you for your detailed explanation
I spoke to my BS and asked him, "If I were your family member, do you still recommend radiation after my partial mastectomy?", he said "absolutely, because lumpectomy/p. mast with radiation is like peanut butter and jelly". Therefore I went ahead, it's just the last treatment on Friday did not feel right and it is just annoying me to the point of cycling through in my dream and it went about all night 
Perhaps I'm just being paranoid today!
{{{hugs to all}}}
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I just lost a very detailed long explanation (&^%%&*9, Ergo it will be short and probably not as cohesive and team building as the other piece UgHHHHHH.
Theresa felt the same way about the Timothy piece
SmiLing Spirit--glad you took a relook. I think you would truly enjoy reading from page one. it will build your confidence in us that we are ecumenical in spirit.
Intentions Page ---we are going to be together for years, Some of our Intentions will be with us for years. Having them all in one place will avoid excess work that doesn't need to be done if we make the topic statement say what we want it to.
Just realized I didn't loose the piece , but I will leave this here anyways. Sheila
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SHEILA {{{{ HUGE HUGS }}}}
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Sheila: I think we all share the same memory problems. There are so many wonderful posts that sometimes I have to have Notepad or Word open to cut and paste some of the thoughts that I want to respond to, otherwise I get lost! :-) Other times I'm tired or lazy and try to remember and fail! :-) We're a good group, and I too hope it lasts for years.
It would be really cool and encouraging if a prayer intention is granted, that we know about it. Or, for instance, if we ever do the St. Therese Novena and some ladies receive the rose as their prayer was heard. It's not testing God, but more affirmation ... like we tell each other miraculous stories and such.
Paula: {{{ Hugs back at you }}} I think I'd feel paranoid too. But I agree with what Traci said.
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Paula. Things aren't right , but i can't give you any absolutes Absolute cut and dried answers are so easy. Your in the gray zone. That always makes the decision more difficult. I say the same thing that SQuid says. If your that concerned that it is causing you distress which this is---you are having effectively nightmares about it, breathing issues and worry about your heart,and concerns about the lump in the armpit------this is the time to give the decision to someone else. Go to ER and let the doc run the tests you will have peace of mind that the info will give you.Your instincts are aroused. God really did give us this wonderful internal alert system thousands of years ago. Thats why we are at the top of heap.
Then after you have some answers. Talk with the rad doc. You do not trust your team. They have to do some repair work on gaining your trust again and pronto.
Just remember to encourage handwashing. Do the things you have learned to do to protect yourself. This is cold and flu season wear a mask while you are there if it doesn't make you to uncomfortable.
love sheila
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Theresa - using cut/paste to Word is a good idea. I can't keep up.
Michelle - definitely yes on another novena. I think I'm either getting a touch of stomach bug - or a reaction to flu shot yesterday. Just unsettled all day. And feel like low-grade fever. (It doesn't take much to give me a fever). I just had soup so have to wait awhile to take temp.
Sheila - yes I noticed Friday at dr's office several people wearing masks. I don't go anywhere without the ole hand sanitizer.
Theresa/Traci/Prayersareanswered - yes, between Thksgiving & Christmas would be nice. And, that would give time to prayersanswered to get strength back after surgery. I'll keep an eye on the papers - there are so many Christmas concerts.
Traci - you summed it up so well about not 'going through the motions' anymore. BC is life-altering.
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Sheila, thank you for your detailed info, I will definitely have another rad onc look at me tomorrow before rad tx.
I'm now more focused what to do. Thank you Traci & Sheila.
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Janet - I'm having "stomach bug" issues today too and yesterday. I'm blaming it on trying out Effexor again. I just feel blah and want to sleep. The last time I tried Effexor for a couple of days, I got that bad sinus infection and was on an antibiotic, so I blamed the stomach issues on the antibiotic. Now I'm thinking it's the Effexor.
I'm taking it to combat the SEs of tamoxifen, but it's creating even MORE SEs!! Does the insanity of cancer ever end?? <venting over> So I'll call my sister who works for my doctor to see if I should tough it out.
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