Morning Star

"Sister, I have a question to ask you." Trinh looked at me pointedly. Hundreds of students were filing out of the school's main doors. "Go ahead."  My eyes darted to a parent who seemed to be hunting for a lost child. "Well, Hùng was wondering if you designed your community's website." "Yes, I did.  But I don't volunteer that information because I already have enough work here." "You, have work?" she responded with a mischievous smile. Trinh was one of 72 catechists who help teach over 900 students in Sunday School at Giáo Xứ Đức Mẹ Hằng Cứu Giúp in Garland.  The church had just dedicated a new education center at the start of the school year. "Oh, I don't have any thing to do.  All these parents read the church's newsletter or goes on our school's website and so they know what's going on.  They don't call me and ask me for information that is already given.  They take their kids to scho...

Sisters at Salerno's Artichoke Lucia.  Baked with Italian cheeses and breadcrumbs. Grilled fillet salmon on a bed of blanched spinach and mushrooms, topped with pine nuts. 8oz. marinated and charbroiled steak topped with sauteed mushrooms; served over linguine. Saturday night at Salerno's. It was time to "open community." Every year we choose a venue to celebrate the beginning of our time together as a religious community.  This year the venue chose us. "Bingo!" An almost audible gasp escaped from the surrounding tables. Sr. Leslie Thu at our table had won another bingo game. A Knight of Columbus member handed her a sealed envelope. Her eyebrows arched in delight. It was a $50 Walmart gift card. We cleared our cards and another round started. It was the Knights of Columbus Sisters Appreciation Luncheon. It was on a early Sunday afternoon. They had sent the invitation two months ago. Sr. Jacinta Ngân had "highly encouraged" ...

"I think it is an empty photo frame and we put our pictures in it," Trúc commented. "Must be.  This retreat house is open to all sorts of people and so some must bring pictures of their family."  I paused momentarily.  "I didn't bring any."  We both laughed softly because we couldn't figure out any other reason for the sisters to place black and white photos in our rooms.  And of a serious looking girl too. The aspirants and I were on retreat at the Mount Carmel House of Prayer in Houston, ran by the Missionary Carmelites of Saint Teresa. "Nothing is so like God as stillness," remarked the 14th-century German mystic Meister Eckhart.  We got plenty of stillness the past few days. Yet, the black and white photos lingered in the back of my mind. Along with the plaques in Spanish. "Vamos a vivir con Dios con un amigo." Sor Isabel. "Creer que un ser que se llama el Amor habita en nosotros, en todo instante."...

A shepherd boy searching for treasure and love. He encounters a king and an alchemist. And a thief. Fictional story, yes. Yet, "The Alchemist" dares stupendous assertions. “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”  The whole book is based on this premise. Do you really attain your dream if you truly will it? The atmosphere of the story is ethereal. It is filled with nudges to look within, such as, "Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.  And that no heart has every suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." Some have said "The Alchemist" is a vague New Age spirituality that would collapse under close application.   Published in 1988, it has sold about 35 million copies and is the most translated book in the world by any living author. Perhaps it is a vague...

$6.8 million dollars. 29,000 square feet. 750,000 pounds of marble and granite. The Vietnamese Martyrs Catholic Church had become the the largest-capacity Vietnamese church in the United States on December 10, 2011.  Our sisters from the mother house in Việt Nam were impressed.  They weren't the only ones. Visitors come weekly to gaze upon the harmonious interweaving of French and Vietnamese architecture.  Or ViVi's huge oil paintings of the Holy Family as Asian.  And enjoy the cool walk in the church's portico, reminiscent of ancient Greek temples. When I first attended the Dedication Mass, I was unaware of its cost. Thousands of dollars were poured into the candlesticks that lined the church walls. Enough to buy ten 55-inch TVs. Much  more was given to obtain the ornately-wrought gold tabernacle. I marveled at the generosity of the parish's 1,250 families. We ended the visit with dinner at the Thanh Thanh restaurant, about 10 minutes from the c...

What do you do when the person you love doesn't remember you? What do you do when the memories of your love together haunts you, and not them? Meet Leo. What do you do when it seems as if life is complete with a happy family and an ex-fiance who still cares for you and this strange man keeps reminding you that you have a memory loss? Meet Paige. Paige and Leo are happily married.  Newly-weds who wrote their own vows and staged their wedding (illegally) inside the Art Institute of Chicago.  Then the car accident. I did spot the cover at Target. It looked like another romantic chick flick. It has all the sweet moments. I vow to help you love life, to always hold you with tenderness and to have the patience that love demands, to speak when words are needed and to share the silence when they are not and to live within the warmth of your heart and always call it home.  - Paige And doesn't shirk the hard moments. How do you look at the woman you love, and te...

Our Lady of Fatima "This is how you are to hold the rosary." Each of us looked at my mom carefully as she wound the plastic beads around my hand and into my little pinkie.  My younger siblings were in awe that I was deemed mature enough to hold a full-length rosary.  They only got to hold the little finger ones during our family prayer.  I was eight. "That way, the rosary doesn't slip off your hand and it keeps moving smoothly from decade to decade," mom continued. I've never quite seen anyone hold the rosary like my mom. Literally.  Most people's rosaries dangled unexpectedly into their armpits or near their behind. My mom held the rosary as any fantasy game character would hold her sword. Carefully and consciously. Never letting it leave her sight. Ready to do battle for justice and mercy. As mom ages, she's beginning to forget which pieces of jewelry marked which occasion. She's beginning to forget recipes to our favorite di...