Tag-Archive for » prayer «

Happy Mother’s Day, my love…

Sunday, May 10th, 2009 | Author:

mothersday

Happy Mother’s Day! I wish more than anything that I could be there to share this day with you. In the picture above, you can see the things that bring me more joy than I know I’ve ever deserved. A beautiful wife and two great kids enjoying themselves out in the sun. You’re the reason that I have that joy. You said yes 18 1/2 years ago and made my life complete and full. If there have been times of trouble, there have been many, many more times of joy. I will never forget the look on your face each time we realized that you had a new life growing inside of you. What a tremendous responsibility and blessing we have been given. And you, to have carried them inside of you for 9 months and go through all of the pain that childbirth brings, only to forget it immediately and marvel at the wonder of that new life. When you said yes to me, you also said yes to God and though maybe it wasn’t so obvious then, you also said yes to them.

Today, as every day, I hope and pray that God wraps you in an envelope of peace and quiet. That the stress of the past few months can be wiped away and that you can be allowed to enjoy your Mother’s Day with your children. I can’t wait till we can be together as a family once again and celebrate these times without the distance between us. I love you more than anything other than God himself and I want the whole world to know that you are my life, you are my reason for carrying on each day, and that your love makes me wish I were a better man so that I could feel like I deserve it. So rest, my love. Be joyful today and celebrate the fact that God has blessed you with two of His children to raise, they are the reason you can call this day your own. Without them, you’d only be the best wife in the world, not the best mother as well. God bless you more today than any other day.

With all my heart and love,
Patrick

Category: Family  Tags: , , , ,  Leave a Comment

8-(…

Thursday, November 06th, 2008 | Author:

Every school day, I spend a little time in our Adoration Chapel and I write a prayer that I read at the end of the school day to a group of parents who meet in the parking lot. If I have mentioned that before I’m sorry but yesterday as I walked out and began talking to them, I told them that my original prayer began “Dear Mary, I am so angry with your Son right now…” At that point, I put my pen down and tried to reason out why I was mad; just what it was that caused me to be not disappointed, but angry.

It dawned on me that I was really just counting on taking the easy way out. I’ve always been pro-life but I have never been as outspoken as I have been this year. There are many reasons for it and the dichotomy of the two candidates certainly helped. But the real reason is that I was kind of hoping that we could elect someone who would fight the fight for me and I could go back to my blissfully ignorant little life. Now I understand that I truly need to fight for pro-life issues because they are worth fighting for, not because they’re a good reason to vote for my candidate. I need to educate myself (and my friends) on how to fight within the political process and I don’t mean just marching down Pennsylvania Avenue once a year.

They have rights too.

We have much to be encouraged about but there is still much to do. FOCA must be stopped and we need to make sure that no ‘consented euthanasia’ laws get placed on the books (yes, it is coming). Finally, I realize that there is another Presidential election in 4 years and everyone is searching for the next Republican to get behind but don’t forget that in 2 years, we’ll have another round of Senate elections and that will be the next chance to impact people who will confirm our Supreme Court Justices.

Category: Catholicism, Family  Tags: , , , ,  Leave a Comment

Prayer and Fasting against FOCA…

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 | Author:

I’ve not discussed this with you guys before but I am a moderator for an afternoon prayer group that we call the “Parking Lot Prayer Group” at our school. Every school day, I spend a little time in the adoration chapel writing a prayer and then, about 15 minutes before school ends, I invite the parents in the parking lot to stand and pray together. We have jar that we put prayer intentions into and about 25-45 people on average who attend. Anyway, last week one of the parents in the group suggested that we have a day of fasting and prayer in opposition to the Freedom of Choice Act and for the Pro-Life movement. I was able to receive approval for this and we will be holding this special day tomorrow, Wednesday October 29, 2008. We have several events planned including two complete Pro-Life rosaries that will be prayed at 10 AM and 2 PM.

I’m sure that most of you are not in the Woodbridge, VA area but I would invite any of you to participate by offering up a day of fasting and prayer on your own. If you have never fasted in prayer before, let me just say it is one of the most inspiring forms of prayer that I have ever found. The mortification of the body is a special form of prayer that most of the Old Testament prophets, and Jesus Himself used to gain control over evil spirits and show a special form of love to God the Father.

Category: Catholicism, Family  Tags: , , , , ,  One Comment

This sucks!…

Saturday, September 20th, 2008 | Author:

The slogan goes: “For those who fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.”
I’ve loved that slogan since I joined the military in 1986 but there is now a Landry corollary: “For those who wait for their family members to return, freedom has a fear the rest will never understand.”

The phone call I got today went like the:
Me: “Hello”
Debbie: “I just want you to know that I’m okay. Go look at the news. I can’t talk right now but I’m okay.”
Me: “Huh, what happened? Is everyone alright?”
Debbie: “We have a couple of injuries but I can’t talk right now, I’m okay. Gotta go, bye.”
Me: “^%&^*(&$((*&%%#$$#(*&#$%&%@()*%&$#(*&!!~!%#&$&(*{“

I get all of my news online because I hate American Television’s liberal slant on everything and I’m a computer guy so that’s were I went. What I found was just a short blob about a bomb injuring 50 people at the Marriott hotel in Islamabad. This was from a Pakistani newspaper located in Islamabad. Two hours later, it’s all over the news that the worst suicide bombing in Pakistani history has occurred today and over 55 people are dead. Debbie was about 2 miles from the bomb site and they felt the concussion there. Her house is less than a mile from the bomb site but I don’t think she went there tonight.

There are just so many things that go through your mind when you get that call. Of course, I was so very thankful that God protected her from this attack and that she called because I would have been an absolute basket case if she hadn’t. Of course, she still has a long way to go yet and the militant factions in country have threatened several times recently that if they cannot be safe in their homes, no one in Pakistan will be. So we just pray and wait. Thank you all for your prayers and the kind words so many of you have sent.

Category: Family  Tags: , , , ,  One Comment

What a beautiful day…

Monday, August 18th, 2008 | Author:

Today was the first day back for all of the teachers at our school. Since I work at a private Catholic school, the first day back is always a retreat at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton church (one of the three churches our school serves directly).  Today’s retreat was very special.  A day filled with the Holy Spirit in a way that I have rarely felt it before.  I love being in a relatively large group of people (that I know), discussing our faith and enjoying each other’s company.  Our priest, Fr. Scott Ardinger from the Diocese of Allentown, PA, did an awesome job of explaining the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit and helping us to begin the process of discerning our gifts.  We finished the day with Mass, Adoration of the Eucharist, and group prayer.  It has been probably six years or more since I have had a religious experience to rival this one.  What a great day!

Category: Catholicism, Education, Family  Tags: , ,  2 Comments

Happy birthday to Mrs. Hobbit…

Sunday, August 03rd, 2008 | Author:

Mrs. Hobbit had a birthday today. She’s younger than I am and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

We sang Happy Birthday to her twice, once last night (which was this morning for her) and once this morning (which is tonight for her). You work it out if you want to but she’s 10 hours ahead of us. The lad and lass get a kick out of asking her how the weather is going to be later on. You’d think they were 6 and 8 not 12 and 14. Oh well, at least we get to see her and talk to her over Skype; great invention Skype, great invention.

Anyway, I know that she’s feeling lonely and left out of the family because she’s so far away and removed from everything we do. I’m sure she worries about us to (I’m not her after all and she is the family glue); but I hope and pray that she is safe and well looked after, she deserves it. June Cleaver is much better at this sort of thing than I am; for Valentine’s Day she did this awesome 100 reasons she loves her husband thing that I still think about sometimes. Those kinds of things take planning and forethought, neither of which am I blessed with, being of the male persuasion but I just wanted Mrs. Hobbit to know that I love her and think of her every day (no, I’m not just missing sex) and I ask God every single day, to make sure you come home safely. We need you here after all. I cannot wait for you to return.

I love you very much, have a most blessed birthday!

Category: Family  Tags: , , ,  3 Comments

I hate it when it does that…

Wednesday, July 09th, 2008 | Author:

My son has been bugging me for a couple of weeks now to let him highlight his hair.  Several of his friends recently had theirs done and I didn’t see any harm in it so off we went.  As soon as my daughter knew we were going to get his hair done, she started chiming in with wanting a new haircut as well.  Might as well kill 2 birds with one stone right?

Well, the haircuts/styles went just fine but while I’m sitting there waiting for Jeremy to finish, my previous landlord goes walking by the salon and catches sight of my daughter talking on her cellphone out front.  5 minutes later she’s stopping in the salon to ask about getting her highlights updated (she doesn’t even have highlights).  You see, we’re about to take this sorry wench to court for trying to steal over $6000 from us so that she could remodel the home we’ve been living in for the past 3 years.  We’ve put more money into the house in the past 3 years than she has and yet she’s trying to blame us for the air conditioner going out, the carpets having pet stains (which were there when we moved in), and other sundry things that are almost all fabrications because she’s mad at us.

Anyway, she walks into the salon and shoots me a couple of looks like she wants to attract my attention without making it look like she’s attracting my attention.  I’m sitting there doing everything I can to remember that I am a Catholic father of two (who happen to be within earshot) and I’m not wanting to go to confession because of this woman.  Anyway, I did a pretty good job of not making eye contact or letting her know I even recognized her but as soon as she stepped out of the door I started texting everyone I could think of so that I could vent some of my pent up aggression.  I guess I still had a little left.

My attorney is supposed to send her a letter tomorrow trying to avoid small claims court but we’re not real confident that it will happen.  The good news is that we have a full set of photographs of the house when we moved in and when we moved out.  Comparing those two, I don’t think any judge will allow her to get away with what she’s doing.  Pray for us, we’ll really need it.

Category: Family  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment