New Year is a time of reflection, at least for me. I don’t make resolutions, as I figure that if I need to make changes, and I often do, any date will do. But the following paragraphs deal with other matters beyond attempting to be captain of my ship
Prayer: I was taught to pray to Jesus for certain things and to the Virgin Mary for others. Usually, I was to be on my knees with hands facing each other and pointed upward. I did so all the way through grade school, though in high school I might have lost that habit. I don’t recall. At other times in my life, I took on the habit again, saying to myself “God love him/her,” God forgive him/her – and nothing incidental. I don’t recall every praying for something good for me, job, promotion, winning the affection of a girl, etc. I always figured that stuff was left to me to handle. But to this day I say on someone’s death “God rest his/her soul.” Sometimes I insert the word “troubled” before “soul”. I do so for the benefit of people suffering loss.
I attended Catholic schools for the first 12 years of my life. The first eight years were taught by Dominican nuns, with one lay teacher covering second grade. Our school was one block away from the church, so that you can imagine frequent trips there for various ceremonies, like confession, stations of the cross, or just weekday mass. Weekends consisted of Saturday, a free day, and Sunday, at least part of which had to be used to attend church under penalty of mortal sin and eternal damnation if we failed. Unless we had a good excuse. However, going fishing, playing baseball with the neighborhood kids, or even reading a book were not considered good excuses. There were no good excuses, really, save deathly illness, or perhaps death.
Piece of Mindful 