The Eucharist - Finding Jesus in God's "Stereogram"

In the early 1990s, my sister lived in New Zealand and worked for a traveling science roadshow. We talked on the phone rarely. It was too expensive, and the voice delay on oversea phone calls was really frustrating. My sister began sending postcards to keep us current on her exciting adventure. One postcard stands out in my memory from that era. On the front of the postcard, there was a stereogram, a hidden 3-D picture wrapped in a blue-green 2-D design. The instructions on the postcard said to hold the image right up to your nose and slowly pull the picture away from your face. The reader was told to stare through the picture rather than try to focus on the 2-D pattern. “Let your eyes go beyond the obvious image, and you will begin to see the hidden image,” the footnote read.

I raised the card to my nose and tried it about ten times. My children figured it out almost immediately.

“I give up. I can’t see a thing!” I tossed the card on the table and my son picked it up, imploring me to give it another try.

“You have to let it happen, Mom. Don’t look at it. Kind of let your eyes go out of focus. And fight it when your eyes want to look at the design. You’ll never see it that way. The picture is deeper. Not here.” He rubbed the palm of his hand across the postcard. “It’s there.” He took his right index finger and pointed down to the postcard in his left hand. When his finger touched the picture, he slid it around the side of the picture, and kept on pointing to an imaginary place beyond.

He handed the card to me, and I took it reluctantly. I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but I thought about what my son had said and gave it one last serious effort.

And suddenly, I saw it. Three dolphins. Three 3-D dolphins in a row. It was SO cool.

There are times when the indelible mark of God on the lives of those around us can seem as elusive as the 3-D picture hidden in a stereogram. We don’t see Christ in our neighbor. We don’t see Christ in the poor. We don’t see Christ in the priest.

We just see a rude neighbor. A guy on the side of the road with a sign. A man with foibles like everyone else who sometimes wears a stole.

God tells us to look closer. No, not at the surface. Don’t fixate on the outward patterns. You’ll never see what lies beneath that way. Jesus is there, and you can see him if you let yourself get past the surface image.

He’s there, in the eyes of your neighbor.

He’s there, in the eyes of the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the immigrant.

He’s there in the ordained one. A priest forever. Marked with God’s indelible imprint.

Sometimes, the pattern on the surface throws us off. We become frustrated by what we see. God tells us to look a little deeper. Give it another try. True identity is sometimes hidden. Cloaked in external trappings.

And if we can begin to see Jesus Christ hidden in the faces around us, maybe we can begin to see Our Lord hidden under the appearance of bread and wine.

Fight it when your eyes want to look at the design. You’ll never see Him that way. Christ is deeper. He’s there.

No longer bread.

No longer wine.

Jesus.

Soon, we enter the “Year of Faith.” It’s time to put on the eyes of faith and see Jesus Christ.

 

 

The Eucharist - Finding Jesus in God's "Stereogram"

I Need Thee O I Need Thee - Acapella Arrangement

I Need Thee O I Need Thee - Acapella Arrangement

Awesome: listen to this one-man choir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3wSbLa2uGg

Awesome: listen to this one-man choir

Something from Catholic Lane

http://catholiclane.com/helping-people-into-rcia/

Something from Catholic Lane

Someone Posted the Final Score on Facebook

My husband watched the football game today. He recorded it so he could fast forward through all of the commercials and uncomfortable moments when the Rams weren't playing so well.

I sat on the sofa with him, one eye on our two young grandsons and the other on Facebook. A Facebook friend posted that the Rams won the game.

My husband was only at half-time on the recorded game.

I sat there and listened to John (my husband) lament. The Rams were a mess. They didn't stand a chance. Their defense stunk. It looked terrible. This team was giving the win to the Cardinals Football Team.

I kept the final score to myself. John hated the way the game was going, but the only thing he would hate more would be for me to tell him that we really do win in the end.

I realized that I could watch the game without stress - because I knew how it all ended. I knew that John would be relieved in the end. All his fussing and fuming was just baseless fear.

Our team had already won.

And I thought of Judith. How she stood up to the fussing and fuming men in Israel and told them to buck up. Their God had never let them down, and He wasn't about to let them down now.

As a Church, we are going through some tough days. We can't sit around as though the game is over. We are in the middle of the fray. In a strange way, we are playing the game in real time, but we are also looking at the status report that says the game is ours. We have already won.

We are actively engaging the opponent. AND we have won the battle.

There is peace in this kind of assurance - a Judith kind of peace.

Judith knew what it meant to be in this both-and place. God had already won the victory, so they needed to quit acting like they'd already lost. But they needed to get off their butts and pray and fast and DO SOMETHING! Anything. Except throw in the towel.

Chances are, you are dealing with your own enemies right now. Chances are, you have a few struggles that have you feeling down and out.

Take a lesson from Judith and pick yourself up. Wash the tears from your face. Skip a meal or two and pray instead. Amazing what a little prayer and fasting can accomplish - or rather, what God can accomplish when we offer him our prayers and fasting.

God has won the battle.

We know who wins in the end.

To the one who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you unblemished and exultant, in the presence of his glory, to the only God, our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, power, and authority from ages past, now, and for ages to come. Amen. Jude 1:24-25




  

Someone Posted the Final Score on Facebook

The First Time I Prayed the Rosary - years before entering the Church.

Trivia for the day. I prayed my first Rosary for peace in 1990 when I was teaching in a Catholic school in Iowa. I wasn't Catholic and had no idea how to pray the Rosary. I didn't pray another Rosary for 15 years. But, I organized my Spanish club to join together and pray the prayers in Spanish that day in 1990. Back then, I found the Spanish version easier to say/pray - because I still had a strong anti-Catholic bias against things like the Rosary. Strange how praying in another language freed me from that bias long enough that I could join with my students in prayer. I still remember how to pray those prayers in Spanish. Padre Nuestro... Dios te salve Maria...

 

Nikki, a student at Beckman High School, taught me the order of prayers and helped me to lead the students. We prayed in the Adoration Chapel. I had no idea that Jesus was truly present in the Tabernacle. I knew that the Communion bread was there - but that is all I knew.

 

Today was the first time since that day that I prayed a Rosary for peace - this time as a Catholic.

 

I suppose I will always feel like a little girl, the little sister of the Cradle Catholics, but I have come to love my little place in the Church. I am blessed to learn by watching and listening with an open heart.

 

And it is good.

 

May Our Lord hear our prayers for peace and spare our world the tragedy of more violence. May our leaders exercise restraint so that no one suffers at the hands of our country's leaders.

The First Time I Prayed the Rosary - years before entering the Church.

Once Upon A Time, when I was in a non-sacramental marriage

I've been in a marriage deprived of marital grace.

I lived 13 years in a non-sacramental marriage. I remember feeling like I was living in a black box with a locked door. The door was locked from the outside - and I was trapped within.

I remember thinking that my husband had the key and that he could unlock that door at any time and let me out. And I would live. And I would be filled with joy.

I thought he held the key in his hand. That my loneliness had everything to do with him. With his choices. What he did. What he failed to do.

The truth is, the other spouse does not hold the key in a non-Sacramental marriage. The truth is, the key is marital grace. I was blaming a man.

God held the key. But we had entered the marriage without letting God form it and seal it and remain in it.

No one is qualified to determine whether a marriage is sacramental or not. Only Mother Church - the venue for God's marital grace and the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony - can make that determination. But I do know this, if there is no marital grace, there is only sadness. A box.

And a lonely soul inside of it.

In 2005, a went through the annulment process and realized many things about myself - and that marriage. I took a long hard look at the two people that met that day and took vows. And I realized what Mother Church determined after looking at it all very closely. We were not ready. I . . . I was not ready.

The details don't matter here. It is enough to say that no woman (or man) can make up for the absence of marital grace in a non-sacramental marriage.

That grace is mystery. It is beauty. It is serendipitous. It is always on time.

I know these things because, today, I know the strength and joy of marital grace. This month, my husband and I celebrate 17 years of grace-filled marriage.

I still have a box. Inside that box, my soul abides with Christ. Grace is there - that key is there. And grace opens the door and lets me go out and love my husband and my family and live for Christ and do tough things and give of myself. Then, I go back to the quiet place, the door is always open, and I enter into that intimate space where Our Lord waits. He fills me up. He even shuts the door and locks us in together if I desire it.

And then, He walks with me to the door and we walk through it together. And I am filled with what I need to live my vocation.

That same miracle happens to my husband.

And to both of us together.

Grace is always there.

Marriage is no longer a trap. I am no longer imprisoned by fear. This life of marriage - it no longer feels like a box I want to escape.

It is life.

Where love holds me. Where grace reigns.

Once Upon A Time, when I was in a non-sacramental marriage

Life is Surreal

Life can be surreal sometimes.

I spent the last two days working on a marketing plan for a book I'm writing. The proposal is in the final stage of evaluation.

I suppose that is why I am remembering something I did almost two decades ago. I hopped on a plane and headed to Chicago and Minneapolis to interview book publishers - Evangelical book publishers, that is.

The article I was writing was about Christian fiction. The question I was asking was whether or not Christian fiction would ever hit the cross-over market. Would it ever make it in the mainstream and hold its own.

I was given good interviews and stacks of galleys. One set of galleys was for the Left Behind series.

Lo and behold, Tyndale had a cross-over book in galley stage in 1995, and we didn't even know it. I packed the galleys in my suitcase, including the Left Behind galleys, and headed home.

Now, almost 20 years later, I am writing a book. That's nothing new; I've tried it a few times.

But this time, it's not fiction. It is non-fiction.

And it is Catholic.

Life can be surreal sometimes.

God prepares us for every good work. And sometimes, the preparation is in the most unusual places. Like a restaurant in Chicago, seated with Protestant publishers who hope to get exposure from your column for their up-and-coming book.

And then, God leads you down another road. He had something else in mind all along.

I'll keep you posted on the book. I'm excited. But the really important decision has already been made - the one to come home to the Catholic Church. The decision to say yes to grace and the Eucharist and the ongoing conversion that brings us into communion with Christ.

For that, I say, thanks be to God.

Life is Surreal

Find My Gift: The Called & Gifted Workshop

Find My Gift: The Called & Gifted Workshop

Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

John the Baptist Martyred for Love of Jesus

 

August 29th

 

It's a good day to show love to one of your cousins,

Or to a co-worker who goes above and beyond,

Or to a lifelong friend,

Or to Our Lord, like St. John the Baptist.

 

 

 

John the Baptist Martyred for Love of Jesus

Out of the Mouths of Teenagers

The other day, I dropped my daughter of fifteen off at the parish office so that she could return something to our parish priest. (She thinks he's pretty awesome, which factors into what I'm about to tell you.)

So, I dropped her off, and she bounced in and bounced out within a few minutes. As we pulled out of the church parking lot, she said, "That office is just like home."

I know what she means. But the best part of the whole thing is that she gets it!

She gets it because we have an amazing staff and an active youth program. But she gets it most of all because we have an amazing priest.

He takes the time to know each of us - even the teen who likes anime and manga. He even knows what anime and manga are. He speaks her language, and in doing that, he is able to find moments when he can teach her the language of faith.

Which brings me to my second happy moment as a mom.

Quote by St. Augustine, St. Monica's son.

Last night, I watched TV in my bedroom, but the door was open, and I could hear my daughter who was showering in the bathroom down the hall.

She was singing.

What was she singing, you ask? Not some tune from her iphone. Nope. My daughter-of-fifteen-almost-sixteen was singing "And I will raise you up on eagle's wings, bear you on the breath of dawn, make you to shine like the sun, and hold you in the palm of my hand."

Okay.

That's my mom story.

St. Monica, pray for us - that our children stay close to the Eucharist and that those children who have fallen away from their early faith will feel the pull to come back. May they remember, somewhere in the deepest recesses of their souls, the beauty they once knew. Lord, hear our prayer!

Out of the Mouths of Teenagers

Take a Second Look at Elizabeth - She's on fire!

Elizabeth Westhoff and I were in graduate school together. She was single, and I was a divorced mother of three. We knew of each other, but we didn't really know each other.

I'm not sure what she was like outside of classes, and she didn't know that I was the daughter of a Protestant minister and the former wife of a United Methodist minister.

I don't know if she was living for Christ at that time, but I wasn't. That's for sure.

Our worlds only intersected at school, and after school, not at all.

Fast forward sixteen years, and our worlds come together again.

Elizabeth is the Director of Marketing and Mission Awareness for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. She began working for the Archdiocese 9 years ago.

Eight years ago, I converted to the Catholic Church. I became a Catholic writer.

She was hired under Raymond Cardinal Burke (Archbishop at that time), and I was received into the Church when he was shepherd of the St. Louis flock.

God works in strange ways. We found each other through Facebook about a year ago. Since then, I have been amazed by everything Elizabeth touches. I love her work. My heart fills with joy when I see what God has done in and through her. And I am in awe of the God who is working at all times to form us for His service - even when we're sitting in a poetry workshop class on a secular campus, thinking that the class is worth very little save the three credits we will bank at the end of the semester. When we think we're just living life one day at a time - that's when God is at work and has His eyes on us and on what He has planned to accomplish 16 years down the road.

Please take the time to read what Elizabeth Westhoff has written. You can find her most recent post here. I tell you, it will light a fire within you.

We are in this battle together, even though sometimes life seems to meander and have no moments of clarity. God is at work in each of us and has called us to serve Him.

When we do that, we are fused together with every part of the Body of Christ--

and those who once were faces-in-the-crowd become brothers and sisters-- like Elizabeth.

Take a Second Look at Elizabeth - She's on fire!

New at Catholic Lane

http://catholiclane.com/put-on-the-eyes-of-faith/ by Denise Bossert

New at Catholic Lane

St. Joseph and Eucharistic Prayers I, II, and III

           I met John in 1996, just a year after the failure of my non-sacramental marriage. I was treading water, spiritually, financially and emotionally. The future loomed before me. I had a teaching degree, but no job. I had three children (seven, nine, and eleven). My only option was to live in my parents’ basement and see if I could gain some ground by working on a master’s degree.

Grace has a way of showing up when we are at the end of ourselves. And that’s what happened in graduate school. That’s where I met John. Eventually, we married and began rebuilding a family out of the ashes.

I look back over the years now and realize just what a gift John has been in my life. Like so many other step-fathers (and step-mothers), he has taken on a responsibility he did not have to accept. He has become a father to my children and given them the most normal childhood one can possibly have when their biological parents are not both under the same roof.

Daily, John has picked up this unique cross and carried it with a very steady hand. In many ways, he has been my St. Joseph. He could have married a woman without children, a woman without a non-sacramental marriage in her past. He could have remained unmarried and spent his salary on himself rather than on orthodontia bills and school clothes. Instead, he has given his entire life to making a family where there was very little hope for a normal future. He has offered advice and meted out discipline, always carefully weighing in the balance the fact that he is not the biological father, and yet he is a father. He is a St. Joseph in this family. And I know that Our Lord’s beloved foster father, the real St. Joseph, must be interceding on John’s behalf.

Blended families need St. Joseph. We need someone to carry our burdens to the Lord and intercede for our children. We need someone to pick up the pieces when we are at the end of ourselves. We need a saint who is given to the mission of helping the family to endure the present age and triumph in its effort to raise saints for the Kingdom of God. St. Joseph is that saint. As Pope John Paul II said, "Saint Joseph was a just man, a tireless worker, the upright guardian of those entrusted to his care.”

He is a patron saint for every family and most especially for every step-parent and non-traditional family that is trying very hard to create a home following their own cataclysmic familial event.

In June of 2013, in his first decree of a liturgical nature, Pope Francis announced that St. Joseph would be added to Eucharistic prayers II, III, and IV. I believe Pope Francis understands that we are living in an age of blended families, single-parent families, and step-parenting, and that we desperately need St. Joseph’s intercession. May God bless the step-parents and all blended families!

St. Joseph and Eucharistic Prayers I, II, and III

Catch Denise Bossert's Conversion Story On Seize The Day With Gus Lloyd August 7th

I will share my conversion to the Catholic Faith with Gus Lloyd on Seize The Day during their "Conversion Corner" this Wed at 9:30 EST (8:30 Central). Catch it on the morning program on SiriusXM’s The Catholic Channel.

Catch Denise Bossert's Conversion Story On Seize The Day With Gus Lloyd August 7th

Mary, the Mother of a Converted Heart

Mediatrix of All Graces

Let me be your daughter - truly.
As I grow in this love for you,
and learn this new avenue to God's own Heart [which mysteriously takes to Itself and is also given Flesh by your Immaculate Heart],
let us be as Mother & daughter.

Little by little I will learn
what to ask for-
how to ask-

For now, be loving & patient with me,
and even though I might seem greedy,
or my requests at times silly,
or even presumptuous,
Mother, consider the requests and present them to the Throne of Grace
        for His permission,
and render your graces to me-
yes, even me.

-Denise Bossert (April 25, 2007)


Blessed Mother, for graces received, thank you! (August 3, 2013)

Mary, the Mother of a Converted Heart

Sharing Conversion Story with Epiphany in St. Louis August 4, 2013

I will be sharing my conversion story at Epiphany parish in STL this Sunday at 7:00 PM. The talk will be 30 minutes - followed by parish Covenant Night fellowship/small group activities.

Sharing Conversion Story with Epiphany in St. Louis August 4, 2013

A Screwed-Up Examination of Conscience

If you live in the United States, you probably think about your clothing size too much. You probably know how much you weigh today, how much  you weighed last month, how much you weighed last year.

You have fat clothes and skinny clothes in your closet. You judge your self-worth based on which set of clothes you fit into right now.

If you are like many Americans - especially women - you go to bed mad at yourself if you ate too much junk and you wake up slightly depressed, believing the only remedy is having a few days of eating a restricted diet.

Other things matter to you as well - like how tan you are, how long ago you had your nails done, if your roots are showing, if your teeth need to be whitened again . . .

These are false examinations of conscience. They have replaced the one that matters. Here is a new way of thinking:

Think only about being the best self you can be for God. Eat healthier, but do not obsess. Being holy matters far more than what you ate today. Exercise, but do not think about it more than you pray - or seek God - or study the things of God.

In short, get over your screwed up examination of conscience.

Here's the real deal.

A Screwed-Up Examination of Conscience

Do Catholic Young People Believe in the Great Commission?

Tonight, my daughter and I stopped at McDonalds for dinner. The table next to us was empty, except for two Bibles and a couple of other books and spiral notebooks. Soon, three young men returned to their table with food. Their Bible study commenced.

They were talking about the Great Commission.  One man was clearly the leader. He would ask someone to read a passage and then ask them questions out of the study guide:

"What do you think it means: the Gospel must go into the whole world? How can we help that to happen?"

I wasn't eavesdropping. They were speaking loudly enough that it was easy to follow their conversation without even trying.

As we were leaving, I asked them what Church they belonged to. I can't even remember the name of it now. It wasn't a mainline -- anything. Something clearly non-denominational, which, of course, is a misnomer. Even a non-denominational church is a denomination  - just with a unique name and no believers by that name (or specific theological slant) anywhere.


World Youth Day - Madrid - 1.5 Million

I wondered what they made of the mandate to go into all of the world and preach the Gospel. I wondered if they thought this had happened, if they thought it had happened to some degree, or if they thought it had barely begun to happen.

This young men from the denomination that I can't remember-- I wondered if they could name a single country that contained another church by the same name as their church. What about another city in the U.S.? Had their version of the Gospel gone anywhere?

They were young. Attractive. Totally into what they were discussing. And, I'll admit, they were full of zeal and that was pretty terrific.

But, did they believe that there were many other young people like them in other countries? If so, what denominations did they belong to? Which countries? How many followers?

It seemed hard to believe that there would be many young people like them, of their Gospel-version, anywhere in the world except the U.S.

But there are young people in the world who love Jesus. The Gospel message has gone into all of the world. It is preached on every continent (in which people inhabit) and has believers in every country of the world. And yes, there are young people just like them, although not quite like them in name or Gospel message, in every part of the world.

In the U.S. - sadly - there is a distinct feeling among many non-denominational groups that Catholics aren't "saved" or that they are downright lost - when, really, Catholics are the ones who have answered the call of the Great Commission more than any other Christian group in the history of humankind!

In fact, that Church is the only church to go everywhere - to truly spread the Gospel to every nation
and people.

The name of that Church is the Catholic Church. It's a memorable name because it's everywhere.

And soon, young people from all of those countries will be meeting as one to worship Jesus Christ - this time in Brazil. That's proof that the Great Commission was heard and answered.

Man, I love being Catholic!

Do Catholic Young People Believe in the Great Commission?