QT Friday: Last Day and St. Michael

Best guys ever

Today is my last day of work at my current job.  Starting on Tuesday, after the holiday, I begin working with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. 

Tuesday simply cannot come fast enough.  :)

However, today I am doubly grateful for my direct supervisor who has sustained me these last few years.  He is a true gem and someone I was always happy to work for.  His boss, too.  :)  My love for and appreciation of both those men are what brought me into work each morning. 

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Poor thing is shredded

I went on a veil buying binge Wednesday night.  It was terrible.  And by terrible, I mean amazing.  :)

All my Garlands of Grace ones wore themselves out, and due to their verbal misstep a few months back, I've found myself Catholic-friendly vendors with exquisite products. 

If you aren't already a fan, may I suggest to you the following for all your veiling needs:


Veils by Lily
Liturgical Time
A Snood for All Seasons (A Woman's Place)
Happy Homestead

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Vince and Ray

My brother, Ray, bought his very first house!  To celebrate, John, Vincent and I took him out for dinner.  He chose a new Hibachi place near his house, so Vincent got to experience his first Hibachi!!! 

He was super scared of the fire, so he kept covering his eyes, afraid that the chef was going to keep surprising him with huge bursts of flame.  He got over it pretty fast, though, and happily ate his rice and noodles. 

There was a brief accident before the food came out that had John, Ray and I scrambling to mop up after Vince, but otherwise, it was a great time all around!

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Yay family picture!

Vincent also got to experience his first trip to the circus!!!

We have a circus that comes around every year, and John decided that this would be a good time to take Vincent.  I agreed, and we were able to enjoy front-and-center tickets to a really amazing show! 

I loved the acrobats the most.  Vince loved the man running around in a giant hamster ball.  John loved the motorbikes riding around in a steel cage. 

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Lucca

Now that Vincent is starting to be interested in video games, John (an avid retro gamer) has been introducing him to games like Mega Man, Sonic and Zelda. 

On his own, however, he's been playing another older game for nostalgia.  It's called Chrono Trigger and it's actually his favorite game from when he was a child. 

Anyway, one of the character's names is "Lucca."  I caught my breath again when I saw that name randomly pop up as the character introduced itself.  Just thought that was interesting, especially because the night before, I had had a dream in which I gave birth to a little boy.  I couldn't decide if I should call him Luca or Nathan, but ended up introducing him to my brother as "Luca Nathaniel."  

I've had Luca on the brain!

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I got to spend an hour and a half at Adoration the other day.  There is a beautiful adoration chapel near my home that has a very unique monstrance / tabernacle.  The laity is encouraged to approach the Blessed Sacrament that is enclosed within the tabernacle and unhinge the doors so as to "open" the monstrance in order to view the Host. 

I wasn't sure if I could approach the monstrance / tabernacle combo, because I felt as part of the laity I was not supposed to touch the sacred vessel.  I asked Father Z from WDTPRS about it, and he was kind enough to dedicate an entry to answering me.  That can be found here.

Anyway, considering I'm not a EMHC, I won't touch the door.  So when I went to adoration and saw that the door was closed, I simply knelt before it and prayed without approaching.  Christ is present regardless of if I can see Him or not.

A few minutes later, a woman walked in for adoration and opened the monstrance.  I could feel her laughing at me... as if I didn't know I was supposed to open the door.  She stayed for about five or ten minutes, but when she left, she said "Please make sure you close the door."

I silently nodded.  I was thinking "Okay, Lord, you know I don't want to touch Your door because I don't think I'm supposed to.  If you don't want me touching it either, just send someone else to do it for me."

Don't ya know about 10 minutes later, someone else came for adoration?  :)  God is good.  I'm taking this as the sign similar to that I got last year.  Steer clear of touching His sacred vessels, because even with the best of intentions, it's not His Will.  For me, anyway.  Ha!

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Very early this morning I had a dream of St. Michael.  It was very brief, but incredibly intense.

I was home with Vincent.  I was on the phone with John (who was at work) trying to warn him of an approaching storm.  I looked out the window, and I saw a huge tornado swirling down the road towards John (who, for some reason, was on the roof several doors down).  It was sucking up buildings, trees, etc.  I saw it tearing apart everything.  I remember feeling intensely scared for John.  I kept yelling for him to take cover. 

The tornado suddenly stopped and lost its fury.  I watched as the debris began spilling forth from the mouth of the once furious tornado.  John, now thinking he was safe, didn't realize that the debris posed more of a threat than the tornado.  I was still yelling for him to take cover when I saw him.

It was Saint Michael.  I knew it the instant I saw him.  He was coming down from the sky, just off from where I saw John, and he was holding his sword above his head as if he were leading a battle charge.

What's odd about how he appeared to me is that he didn't appear as a full-colored "body" like I've seen in paintings and such.  Instead, he was an actual entity, but he was almost in negative... sorta like this:

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Sorry for the creepy effect, but I couldn't actually make out any of St. Michael's facial features.  He was enveloped in such a bright, bright light that it almost seemed to be coming out of him.  It was as if he was made out of light and the armor he wore somehow clung to the light that formed him.  Strange, right?  I dunno.  A photo-negative is the closest thing I can think of to what he looked like.

When I saw him, I felt such peace.  I knew that everything was going to be okay, but I also knew that we were in for a world of chaos.  He brought the knowledge that peace was coming, but before that peace, we'd be dealing with an incredibly destructive tornado of chaos. 

Upon seeing him, I turned back to find Vincent.  I dropped to my knees and began saying the Prayer to St. Michael over and over again.  Before I could find Vincent, though, my alarm woke me up.  Regardless, it was an amazing dream, and it's thus far stuck with me through the entire day.  St. Michael, pray for us.

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