Blessing of the Food

 On April 10, 2023, I wrote a blog about a Polish tradition of bringing baskets of food to the church for the blessing of the food that will be eaten on Easter Sunday. The first time it was held in the gathering space of the church and there were about twenty-five persons in attendance. I had never heard of this tradition and thought it was a lovely thing to do on the Saturday before Easter.

I have attended two of these ceremonies and on the Internet, I learned what is placed in the basket and what they represent. Bread and butter in the shape of a cross or a lamb, sausage represents God's generosity, ham for joy and abundance, salt for God's people. There are other things that can be placed in the basket for the blessing, but I have just listed a few. The baskets are covered with a crisp white cloth and some of the cloths have fancy embroidering.

 It's amazing that this tradition has been going for many generations. One article I read mentioned that the tradition has been around since the 15th century. This year, 2025, it will take place on April 19, at 9 a.m. in the chapel at Spirit of Christ Catholic Community in Arvada. The second time I attended, there were about forty families that continue the blessing of the food on Saturday. What I noticed is that the majority of the persons are Polish, though other countries also celebrate the tradition. The parents should be complimented to see many children and young people participating in the ceremony and I am sure they will continue the beautiful tradition as they become adults.

Burning of the Palms

 After the eleven o'clock mass at Spirit of Christ Catholic Community, eight people gathered on the back patio for the burning of the palms. The ashes from the palms will then be used for Ash Wednesday when a cross will be smeared on our forehead in the sign of a cross! That will be the beginning of Lent. I was surprised that there were a few people because in years past there have been around forty or more persons at the burning. Deacon Joe Nowak was assisted by a young man who held the prayer book and Nick Roy lit the palms that had been saturated with lighter fluid. The flames burst into glorious flames in anticipation that the ashes would be used in a few days!

As the palms burn, they become ashes to remind us that "from dust you came and to dust you will return." The ashes are a sign of hope and remind us that death is not the end. Getting the ashes in the sign of the cross on our forehead reminds us that in the forty days before Easter we should strive to get closer to God. Through prayer, almsgiving and self-sacrifice we try to imitate Jesus on his painful forty-day journey before his crucifixion.

Mind vs. Heart

 As I parked my car in the church parking lot to attend the Saturday 5 p.m. mass at Spirit of Christ Catholic Community, I saw a man slowly getting out of his car. I noticed that he was bent at the waist and had trouble walking. My first thought was to see if he needed an arm to hang on to. Then I thought I was going to be late if I walked with the man, and my heart asked if it was better to be late or to help the man. I thought that if I helped him and he fell down, I would go down with him! I noticed the man had reached the row of parked cars and he was holding on to each car as he made his way to the entrance of the church. Again, the thought briefly entered my heart that I should go help the man, but I didn't.

As bent man walked holding on to each parked car, I noticed that he walked over to the handicapped area to cross over to the sidewalk. Again, my heart thought I should probably go ask if he needed help, yet my mind said, "He's almost at the door, if you were going to help you should have done it when you first saw him." I entered the church, found a place to sit and about ten minutes later the bent man walked down the aisle to a pew a few rows in front of me. 

Again, the feeling of guilt passed over me and I wished I had offered an arm to the man when I first saw him. The homily was about seeing people, really seeing them by giving eye contact. An example was when we see a homeless person at an intersection with a sign asking for help, how we look every which way and try not to see the homeless person. It's if we do not see him, he isn't there! The bottom line was that we should look at people, eye to eye, and not dismiss them because they are not invisible, though we wish they were! The words the priest was saying made me realize that I had tried not to see the bent man!

If we look at someone eye to eye, we acknowledge they are a person made in the image of God. When we do not, it is sometimes called an evil eye and that is not a good thing. It is dismissing the person as if he or she is not there. I had seen the bent man, and ignored my heart when it suggested I help, so I had not been a good person. What I do know is that the next time, if I see a similar situation as the bent man I will listen to my heart!

Later, when I was at Mother Cabrini Shrine, I saw a small sign, "Let all that you do be done in love." Corinthians 16-14. I need to remember that quote!

The Hypnotist

 I have never really believed in hypnotism. To me it was some sort of a gimmick. When I saw what Tracy Gray could do, it made me believe that it could possibly be true. She was the entertainer for the Young at Heart group luncheon on February 18, 2025! She calls herself a Hypnotist/Mentalist and she did some pretty amazing things. She began by having a few persons pick certain make-believe playing cards. I was surprised that a card was pulled out of a box of cards and it was the one that began the game! Remember it was all make-believe until a card was actually pulled out of the box! When we looked at a black and white spinning wheel and then she said to look at her nose, it appeared as if her face got bigger. This happened to everyone in the room who looked at the spinning wheel!

The highlight of her presentation was when she asked ten people to come to the front of the room and be seated. She put on some strange sounding music; sort of mysterious sounding.  She began speaking and told the ten that they were going to go into a deep sleep. She gave them different instructions, tapped a few that somehow, she knew were not going into a deep sleep and six persons remained! They did everything she suggested, like they were very tired and some leaned into the person sitting next to them to rest their head. Some just let the head rest on their chest. When she said they were eating something delicious they had a smile and pretended to eat something good, but when she said it no longer tasted good, it looked as if they were going to throw up and some pretended to spit into their hands as they tried to rid themselves of the foul-tasting food. They were told that a police man had stopped them as they pretended to drive. When asked why they were stopped one said she was speeding, and one tried to get out of getting a ticket by offering up her boobs! There were other instructions and the six people followed them and of course the audience laughed at the antics of the hypnotized people!

Afterwards I quizzed one about how much she remembered, and she said she had a vague idea but could not remember most of what she was doing. That made a believer out of me!

A few days later I was looking through my Blog of February 8, 2019.  At that time, I had written about a hypnotist. A group of Young at Heart members had attended a show at the Lakewood Cultural Center, paid $18 to watch Tracy Gray hypnotize people. I vaguely recalled the show. (Read my blog, Spongefullofthoughts, dated March 9, 2019).) It surprised me that the same woman we saw in 2019 was the same one in 2025!  I have a photo of the women in attendance for proof!

Long Time Friend Has Gone to Heaven

 Today, February 17, 2025, a dear friend departed from earth by having a mass celebrated at Holy Trinity Catholic Church. A few Spirit of Christ Catholic Community parishioners joined the over 150  other relatives and friends to say good-bye to Mary Theresa Lopez. A priest and family friend, Fr. Rick, celebrated the mass along with the Holy Trinity priest. We were told that Fr. Rick considered the Lopez home his second home and had a room where he could stay when he was in town. 

The grandchildren prayed the rosary for their grandmother and the six children gave eulogies about the kind, religious, attentive, loving, patient, caring and generous their mother was to them. Mary would have been so proud to hear how much they loved her!

I did not go to the burial because the weather was extremely cold. Instead, a friend and I went to the reception area and offered our help in setting up the food for those that would return from the burial services. The food was donated by family and friends, and it amazed me that there was plenty for all in attendance. Father Rick gave the blessing and one of the daughters announced the oldest would be served first. That made me happy because I was in that category. There were a variety of dishes; fried chicken, salads, rice, potato casseroles, green chili, and plenty of desserts.  I got a bowl of posole with a warm tortilla and it was a delicious dish!

I enjoyed being with the family and I remembered how I had met Mary and Rudy Lopez. Working at the Archdiocese of Denver, I would take a busload of pilgrims to Chimayo every year and they traveled with me for ten years. They were the first ones to sign up because they loved the little "vacation."  They celebrated a wedding anniversary on one of the trips! After Rudy passed away Mary and some of her family took one more trip with me.

Meeting Mary has always been special, and we would enjoy seeing each other and talking about life. We met for lunch, I attended her daughter's wedding, attended a graduation party, I would see her at different Holy Trinity bazaars, and I sometimes stopped at her house to visit.  Even though we did not see each other recently I always knew she was there. Now, she is in a better place, and I miss her and feel sad for her children who have lost their beloved mother.

At the reception there were many boards with pictures that depicted her busy life. When I think about her, I admire her dedication to her son Rudy and how special the bond was between them.

My Dear Friend, may you Rest in Peace in the Arms of Our Lord!

A Cookie I can Eat

 I have been buying sweets which I thought were healthy because they are low in carbohydrates. But, come to find out they are unhealthy because of the fat content or other ingredients that are not good for us. So, I found a recipe that I now eat for dessert, and it is tasty with no fat or sugar. It's called a perfect no sugar, no flour cookie!

Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Cookie

2 smashed ripe bananas

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, or pecans)

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of salt

Oven at 350 degrees

Line baking sheet with parchment paper

Mix mashed bananas and peanut butter until smooth

Add oats, nuts, vanilla, cinnamon and salt

Drop spoonful of dough unto cookie sheet - flatten with back of spoon

Cookies will not spread and stay the way they are placed on the cookie sheet

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until they are set

Cool

Enjoy the healthy, naturally sweetened cookies.

Hope you decide to try this recipe because I am sure you will enjoy it. I can eat this cookie and not feel guilty at all!

A Sabbatical

My life became too hectic with planning a trip for forty people, gambling dates, having my granddaughter visit, traveling to California for Christmas, genealogy updates, having work done on my house and many daily duties that made me feel overwhelmed. To keep from feeling stressed I decided to take a few months off from writing in my blog.

Of course, there were many things that I thought I should blog about and in this blog, I will try to catch up on what I could have blogged if I wasn't on a break!

A Surprise Relative 

On one of my planned trips when I worked for the Archdiocese of Denver, a husband and wife traveled with me. She resembled my ancestors. She had the same last name as my relatives but when I questioned her, we never connected. She did have two names of my cousins in her family.  She mentioned a Perfecto and a Julian in her family, and I also had cousins with the same names. We didn't investigate and then she passed away, so we never found the link. One day I happened to be talking with her husband, and I mentioned how I thought his wife could have been related to me. He gave me the name of a man in California and told me he had been doing research of our name.

I got in touch with the California man and through his research I found out that she was my grandfather's brother granddaughter, making her my second cousin. How I wish we had found out while she was alive so that we could have discussed our ancestors! 

Through the researcher I was able to close the gap between my 4th and 5th ancestors and now I can go back to the 1600's for my mother' family. My father's I can only go back four generations.

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A Prisoner in My Home

I have lived in my home since 1965 and never did my garage door wall remote stop working when it got cold. For some strange reason when we had two weeks of  below freezing weather,  I could not open the garage; therefore, I became a prisoner in my home. I figured out that if I heated a towel in the microwave and held the towel over the wall remote, I was able to get the garage door open. A few times I had to call friends for rides because no matter how many times I heated the towel, it remained frozen. Thanks to God for kind and helpful friends!  Advice I was given was that maybe I needed to replace the battery. I purchased a 9-volt battery but before I could replace it, the weather warmed up and the remote began working again! Just in case it happens again, I brought the handheld remote from my car into the house, and now I carry it with me making it easy to open the garage door no matter how cold it gets! As of now, everything is working fine! 

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Was I Contagious

My granddaughter came to visit and for the four days I was like a brand-new person! Nothing ached and it seemed that she never stopped moving and I kept up with her. Maybe a bit slower as we drove to Estes Park, went in and out of shops, enjoyed Christmas in the park with an elf, characters from Frozen, and carolers.  The amazing thing was that my body never gave me any problems, from my feet to my head!  Of course, my granddaughter probably thought she was moving too slow so I could keep up with her. It seems that it was a whirlwind of activities. Going to bed late and getting up early, visiting her grandfather in the hospital, eating out, and seeing the two Colorado grandchildren when they came to pick her up for a party!  On Monday morning at five in the morning we waited for the G Line to take us to the airport!  Arriving in California my body gave out. I felt tired and my throat felt congested. I missed out on a fun visit to my son-in-law's family on Christmas Day because I did not want to spread whatever I had!  I did go see Wicked - Wicked and enjoyed seeing the movie and eating popcorn! Even though we ate meals together, celebrated Christmas Eve by opening our gifts, and hung around with each other, not a one of the California people got sick! So, whatever I had was not contagious!

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Yuka Application

My granddaughter put an App on my phone that lets me know if what I am purchasing to eat is bad, good or excellent. I realize that most of the food I thought I was eating was good for me, but I am finding out it is in the bad category. One excellent rating is my rye bread! 

As I shop, I scan the bar code of the item and up pops the rating. There is also an explanation why the item is either good or bad. 

Frozen Kung Pao -Trader Joe is good

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Mix - Trader Joe is good

White Chedder Popcorn -Trader Joe is bad.

Sweet, Savory and Tart Trail mix -Trader Joe is poor

Unsweetened Original Almond Milk is poor

California Sun-dried Raisins is good

Whole Grains Oat Nut Bread is excellent

Sun Maid Raisin Bread is bad

Organic Chopped Vegetables is Excellent

Artisanal Sauerkraut is excellent

Cranberry Walnut Salad is Bad

Pure Almond original almond milk is good

Cholula Original Hot Sauce is bad

Isadora redried beans is excellent

Extra sharp Cheddar cheese is bad

Old fashioned oats are excellent

Creamy unsalted peanut butter is excellent

Hydrating facial Cleanser - poor - the recommendation is Hydrating Facil Cleansing Gel 

I find I enjoy shopping now that it is sort of a game! I have a more balanced way of eating and before the App I just ate low carbs. I realize that low carbs can have too much fat and not good for me!

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Sadness Comes to Visit

On February 6, 2025, I lost a good friend who also was my ex-husband! He and I, because of our children, became better friends than spouses. He entered Lutheran hospital after experiencing a fall in his home and what seemed like three months later, he was still in different hospitals. From Lutheran he went to St. Joseph's and then to Swedish hospital. The last visit, when my granddaughter and I saw him on December 22, 2024, he looked good. He was sitting up, laughing and seemed to be doing well. I remember thinking that he might be going home once they found out his problem or a least to a rehab place. It was a shock when I got the sad news. "His heart just gave out," and he was gone. The consolation is that he is now with his wife and two of his sons who preceded him. He leaves a daughter and two sons and four grandchildren.

May he rest in Peace!