Divine Mercy Sunday

Divine Mercy Sunday

and
Adoptions

*****While rummaging around the net looking for a picture to "steal" (I'm not real fond of the usual Divine Mercy image), I spy this lovely image. I clicked on it and was led to a blog by a one Father Anthony Ho.

*****It didn't take long to be rather engrossed by the delightful posts of this cheerful and energetic priest. I was feeling rather down today (it's an easy trap to fall into with all the strange stuff going on in our country), but after a half hour with Father Ho, I feel energized again. Thank you, Father!

Do yourself a favor and pay a visit to Father Ho.

Adoptions

*****As some of my long time readers know, I "operate" an adoption service for people that have passed away. I acquire funeral cards of folks that have, in most cases, died many, many years ago. It occurred to me that if these cards were floating around (many come from ebay auctions), then there was a good chance no one was praying for them.

*****The cards are kept in a bowl on my prayer table and so have become known as my "bowl" people. A few months ago nine lovely French people came to live in my bowl and are looking for homes. All are up for adoption except for Georgette Renault, who has asked to stay here.

*****My adoptions are, of course, not limited to just these folks. My bowl is bursting and I have twelve new cards on the way that I just purchased on ebay.

Send me an email at adrienne0645 at gmail dot com or the email on my "about me" page. I will mail you the card and you will be in charge of praying for that person. And remember - they will be praying for you!

Read more about my "bowl" people....

The red colored card is a souvenir of the Jubilee of Abbe Paul Lecouflet who was ordained in 1898...

You may click on images for larger view

Some of them died as long ago as 1902. Two of the cards have actual photos that were glued on which I thought was quite interesting

Monsieur Etienne Eudeline and Madame Eudeline will be adopted out together. He passed away in 1937 and she passed away in 1941. Both were in their 70's.

Georgette died 2 years and 23 days before I was born. She was 17 years old...


See you all Monday

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.

It Snowed Last Night

(Just enough to be appreciated.... Thank you God)

We have gorgeous sunsets

Father Costello

*****A few weeks ago I posted on finding two holy cards for Father William Costello in a book I purchased at the thrift store. I wondered what had caused him to die so young and put him up for "adoption." My blogger buddy Packrat offered to adopt and pray for Father Costello and so I mailed one of the two cards to her.

Just days ago I received this email from Greg in North Carolina:

*****Hi there... I was running some Google searches tonight and found your blog about my cousin (well, technically my mother's cousin) Fr. William Costello. How funny you'd find his cards tucked away in a book after all these years! I still have one of those myself!

*****Fr. Bill was a Jesuit scholar and formerly head of the English Dept at Gonzaga in Spokane. He was Harvard educated and then went on to England to complete his PhD. He was the first Jesuit scholar admitted to Cambridge since the Reformation. One of his brothers, Fr. Frank Costello, is the retired VP and former head of the Political Science Dept at Gonzaga, and his sister Mother Mary Michael Costello is Mother Superior of an order of nuns in Bridalveil, OR. She had been a Provincial Mother when I was young, and after a petition to the Vatican, she was allowed to form her own order by decree granted by Pope Paul VI.

*****Our family originally came across in a wagon train in 1852 and settled in Spokane as either the first or some of the first white settlers. My great grandmother Caroline Costello lived in Moscow, Lewiston and the Nez Perce area in the 1910s and 1920s. My grandmother Reta Costello Breshear graduated from Lewiston Normal School for Girls in +/- 1906 and I believe her first job was teaching in Nez Perce. I have a postcard from the school dated 1910 inviting her to an alumni dinner which was addressed to her simply as "Reta Costello, Nez Perce, ID." I also have a photo of her dorm room from Lewiston Normal, which is one of my most prized possessions.

*****I could go on & on... my great grandparents are buried in the family plot in Walla Walla (I graduated from Whitman) and it just happens that I am the de facto keeper of the family history. My mother is still living (in the San Juan Islands); she adored Fr. Bill and I am sure she would love to have the prayer cards. If you want to drop them in the mail I will forward them along.

Thanks for the posting. Always nice to find these bits and pieces of the family floating around.

Greg also added this to the combox:

*****Adrienne, I sent you an email via gmail. Fr. Bill is my cousin. He died after a ruptured aneurysm caused a massive stroke. He had been head of the English Dept at Gonzaga; his brother Fr Frank Costello was head of the Political Science Dept at Gonzaga as well. His ties to Cambridge were because he completed his PhD there, and he was the first Jesuit scholar admitted to Cambridge since the Reformation. I don't know if that book of his was a barn-burner or not but I suspect it was his doctoral dissertation. They are not known, generally, to be great reads.

Adopt a Bowl Person for Lent

*****If you are new to this blog or missed the post on my "bowl people" and the adoption program you can read about here

*****Lent would be a wonderful time to adopt one of these souls as your very own. Over the past few years I've probably adopted out over 100 people to be prayed for in a special way.


See you for Saving Money Saturday. Seeing as how our current President's 3.55 trillion budget will cost each and every citizen of the United States over 25 thousand dollars, we will do well to be thrifty.

The Bowl People

I love holy cards, and it saddens me to know there are young people out there who do not know what they are. When a Catholic died back in prehistoric days, everyone gathered at the funeral home to say a rosary the night before the funeral Mass. As a way of remembering to pray for them, you were given a holy card with a beautiful religious picture on one side, and a prayer on the back. Usually above the prayer was the person’s name and dates of their birth and death. We kept these cards in our missals and prayed often for them.

Newly ordained priests also gave out holy cards, and cards could be purchased with blank backs, or with just a prayer. I know that new holy cards are available at Catholic bookstores, but often at funerals you will see some awful computer generated “program” for the funeral service. Just a poor folded up piece of paper begging to be thrown away.

Due to distance, my brother handled most of the arrangements for our Dad’s funeral. Even though I was consulted by phone over what he perceived as important, such as the number of limousines (very important for an Italian male), it never occurred to me to ask about holy cards. As a result, my Dad was laid to rest with an ugly, computer-generated program, complete with some New Age poem. He did, however, have three limousines so it balanced out.

A number of years ago, holy cards began showing up on ebay and I started buying them – usually in fairly large batches or “lots.” When the first lot arrived, I noticed some of them were actually vintage cards from a long forgotten funeral, or from an ordination that took place 60 or 70 years ago.

Adopt a Bowl Person

I knew most of these folks had no one left to pray for them, so I placed the cards in a pretty bowl on my prayer table and I pray for them. I will be purchasing more in the near future, so if you would like to adopt one of my bowl people, just email me your address and I will pick out the perfect person for you to adopt. Please note: your information will be private and not given or sold unless I am offered a really, really huge sum of money in which case I will split it with you.

email address: adrienne at icehouse dot net