GO:New Media Monday (Adjusted for Vacation Time) Liturgy of the Hours on Podcast

Some of you may know that I love the Liturgy of the Hours but have a difficult time remembering to do it without some prodding. I have found that I love to use my IPod to do morning and evening prayer, but I really miss the Office of Reading.

Today while listening to Fr. Roderick's Daily Breakfast podcast from last week (I am usually about a week late listening to his podcasts) I found out about a podcast from a group called Catholic Classes which does the Office of Readings via Podcast, so of course I quickly subscribed to it and am downloading this week's readings as I type this.

Now my daily Office is complete. Morning and evening prayer and the office of reading is all I really need. I do a modified examen as my night prayer, and the rest of my prayer is a running conversation with God (usually, sadly apologizing to him for my judgmental thoughts about the people around me, but I am working on that.)

I hope you all can benefit from my interesting new media find.

Pax

The Road to Holiness

I have been struggling a bit lately with someone.

I know, you are all amazed that I, angelmeg struggle with relationships.

There is someone in my life, a friend actually who happens to have a very strong personality. She can be downright overwhelming at times. She has a tendency to want to control every situation.

For instance when we go out to lunch, she will tell me what to order. Knowing that I have food issues because of my many allergies, I at first saw this as a kindness on her part. Often the last few times this has happened though I have seen this as an intrusion.

In other areas of my personal life though I have found that her "helpful suggestions" are almost commands that I do things in a way that she wants me to, even to the point of trying to strongly dissuade me from applying for a certain job for which she thought I was not suited.

I still value her friendship in many ways, but I struggle with where her intrusions into my personal life should end. To that end I have found myself talking to other friends about her in a not so charitable way. This I find to be very uncomfortable.

I began to pray about this situation over the weekend, and today's scripture passage from the Office of Readings spoke to my heart about this situation. I wanted to share it with you all.

By obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves for a
genuine love of your brothers, therefore, love one another constantly from the
heart. . . .

So strip away everything vicious, everything deceitful;
pretenses, jealousies, and disparaging remarks of any kind. Be eager
for milk s newborn babies -- pure milk of the spirit to make you grow unto
salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Come to him a living stone, rejected by men but approved nonetheless,
and precious in God's eyes. You too are living stones, built as an edifice
of spirit, into a holy priesthood, offering
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ.

1Peter1:22 . . . 2:1-5

I have never been a big one for the Litany of Humility, but I do see that getting angry at this woman's constant need to control everything is a very destructive response on my part. I need to let this all go. I need to let go of the hurt I feel and do what God wants in each situation keeping in mind that as helpful as my friend is trying to be, I am fairly certain she isn't God.

The road to holiness will be filled with a lot of opportunities to allow myself to let go of small hurts, received because of "helpful suggestions" from well meaning friends. Today's reading reinforced for me that I can do that and remain friends with her.

Pax