Managing Anxiety During an Epidemic

Jesu, Ufam Tobie

Posted on May 14, 2020 •Edit “J

The Domestic Church & An Invitation to Prayer

Posted on May 7, 2020 •Edit “The Domestic Church & An Invitation to Prayer”

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Oy Vay! Do I Have Issues! (First published June 1, 2016)

God is so good. And He has such a sense of humor!!! I thought that starting a blog which I originally titled “Everyone Has Issues” would be referring to the exhaustive list of each of our brokenness. I thought that after twenty-five years of suffering with Ehlers Danlos and the myriad of maladies that accompany that disease, I’d have a few words of wisdom or encouragement to share. Well not today. Today, I realized that “everyone has issues” can also mean something completely different. There are things, issues that can just drive each one of us a bit more off our rocker. In the big picture, these pet peeves can be trivial especially when we look at the big problems of our world. But it is these little things that can pick, pick, pick at us and sometimes we just need to vent. That’s what’s fun about blogging, I think – it’s an outlet for, as well as an insight into the mind of the blogger. In my case that might be a Pandora’s Box, so be careful.

“Is this an issue?”

When my youngest was about 5 he asked for something to which my answer was “No.” His next question befuddled me. “Is this an issue?” WHAT?! I didn’t understand. “Is this an issue?” Thank goodness his older sister was present to my confused countenance and explained. “You know how when we ask you for something, sometimes you say no but then you say yes? And then there are other times you say no and you say that it isn’t an issue and if we keep asking you’ll just get mad and we will have to go to our room? What he is asking is, if this is an issue or if he has a chance at changing your answer to a yes. Oh, that kind of issue.

“Yes!” I have issues about a lot of things. Did I react with an over exaggerated response years ago when I heard that crayons were being imported from China that weren’t safe for children? Did I boycott and make sure that any company selling those crayons knew I took issue with their lack of concern for children and should be ashamed of themselves? Of course I did. I realized back then that there are a few issues you just don’t mess with, and for me they are: kids and God. This would also include babies and Godly things as well as teens, the pre-born and Church things. Oh, and relativism and Truth and not respecting the dignity of the human person… Well as you can see, I have plenty of issues.

In my next post, The Dirt on St. Joseph, I will introduce you to one of my many quirky issues that I feel strongly about. I’m sure you have your own list. My husband takes issue with the fact that I have no problem mixing the salad forks with the dinner forks in our silverware drawer. Hey, I’m a free-spirit. What can I say but – Everyone has issues, right?!

And it is my hope that as I share some of mine with you, you will choose to jump on board this train wreck of “randoms” and enjoy the ride. Please share and subscribe/follow this blog if you are interested in journeying through the adventures, ramblings and insights of, well, me – Joni. Hold on to your hats, we could be in for a wild ride together. I’m sure that we won’t always agree and that there may be bumps along the track. Hopefully this will not de-rail our charitable love of one another. God help us if it does and help us to remember that You, Lord are the One that we want to be the Conductor of our lives.

 

The Dirt on St. Joseph (First published June 6th, 2016 –Please read post: Oy Vay, Do I Have Issues before reading this post. It might save you some eye-rolling or hand-palming.)

 “Why burying a St. Joseph statue* in the dirt drives me bonkers.”

And please!!! NOT upside down. The reason this is on my mind is that my daughter and her husband are in the midst of trying to sell their townhouse. She called to ask me if she could borrow a statue of St. Joseph, assuring me that she was not going to bury it but put it in her window sill to remind her to ask for St. Joseph’s intercession and prayers for their house to sell. She did tell me however, that if St. Joseph didn’t get their house sold quickly then his statue might be banished TO the backyard but not IN the backyard. My daughter knows that if I thought for a moment she might be burying the statue, I WOULD be riding in my electric wheelchair along Rte. 3 to her house to personally dig up poor St. Joe. And if for no other reason than out of the sheer embarrassment that this sight would cause her, I knew the statue would be returned dirt-free.

In short, there are three reasons why the practice of burying a St. Joseph statue upside down to sell a house is a big issue for me.

The first one is that intentionally burying anything in dirt, (other than seeds, a dead persons’ ashes or body or the Hallelujah during Lent) just seems disrespectful to the person that the item represents. (I do realize that burying or burning holy or blessed items can be a proper way of disposing these items respectfully. But burying a brand new statue in the dirt is not the same thing.)

Burying St. Joseph might seem like a silly little thing to take issue with but remember, I’ll always be a Jewish girl at heart. In Judaism one doesn’t even write out or speak His name but respectfully writes out G-d on something that might be destroyed or trampled underfoot. They do not even touch the Torah with their hands. I was taught that those who practice Judaism respect holy things and items that represent holy things. I like that, I respect that and I wish I would honor that more.

The second reason I have issues with this practice is that doing anything upside down that has to do with anything Catholic speaks too much of an occult practice to me.

Which leads me to the third and most important reason… The practice of burying a St. Joseph Statue in the ground is superstitious.**  And, yes, I realize that most people who are digging a hole for their St. Joseph statue aren’t meaning to be disrespectful, satanic or superstitious. They are probably good people just desperate to sell their house. I hear all the time “But, it works!” Well, yes, it might work, but do we ever wonder why? Who might be giving us this favor? Which takes me back to the reasons I take issue. If it is disrespectful, perhaps rooted in the satanic and definitely superstitious, from whom are we asking the favor? “But why would the evil one help us sell our house” my husband asked. “To suck us into being more superstitious perhaps, especially when we are desperate.”

So when it’s time to sell our house, dust off our St. Joseph statue, put him on our window sill or shelf and let it remind us to pray to Our Heavenly Father who already knows who will buy our house and make it their new home. Let us ask Him for the graces of patience in our stressful moves and changes in life. Let us also pray and ask Him to increase our trust in Him and to know that his timing and plans are worth waiting for.

Just a little something to think about when we are tempted to dig in the dirt.

* Catechism of the Catholic Church, pg. 535 2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, “the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype,” and “whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it.”70 The honor paid to sacred images is a “respectful veneration,” not the adoration due to God alone: Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.71 IN BRIEF 2133 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

**Catechism of the Catholic Church, pg. 530 2111 – Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.41