Some statisticians report that June
remains the most popular month for weddings in the
United States. Then August
and
September.
Least popular? 10. February. 11. March. (Hmmm. We were
married in March.) And 12. January.
In Australia, on the other hand . . . . (The Friends of St.
John the Caregiver is an international organization,
after all, and our first member lives in Australia.) The
most popular months there are November and March (yea!).
Least favorite are June and July.
We mention all this -- as summer approaches for those of us
in the northern half of the globe -- to highlight a
recent addition to the Topics section. Here's an excerpt
from
Celebrating Birthdays and Anniversaries:
Birthdays and anniversaries are wonderful
opportunities for fun, but your loved one may be
approaching a birthday with mixed emotions. Your dad
might have a great sense of accomplishment: “In
spite of all that I have been through, I have
survived. I have been richly blessed.” But he might
also have a sense of confusion, anxiety, or even
dread: “I never expected to live this long. I didn’t
plan to. I didn’t want to. Why am I still here when
my wife and so many of my friends and relatives are
gone?”
What can you do to help? These are some suggestions:
Again,
thank you so much to all who have sent in a "Non-event
2008" donation. (The
invitation
was a big hit!) If you've been meaning to do that,
please take a few minutes to write that check and drop
it in the mail.
- - -
Please
join us in welcoming the newest members to the Friends
of St. John the Caregiver. "Hello"
to Martha I. in Louisiana and Monika M. in Nebraska.
Please keep them and their
intentions in your prayers. They have promised to pray for
caregivers and those receiving care.
And,
of course, we invite you to join, too! You can find out
more about becoming a member here. No meetings, no dues. Our members
include caregivers, care-receivers, and those who
support both (including quite a few former caregivers).
We're pleased to announce we've begun posting caregiver videos on YouTube. It's one more way to help
families with the information
that's available here and
on FSJC.org and
CatholicCaregivers.com.
We invite -- and encourage -- you to take a look at our
videos and, if you
should be so inclined, rate what you see and add a
comment or two. Please also consider sending links to
your family and friends and embedding the videos
themselves in your Web site or blog.
Here's one of the four we've posted. Just click on the arrow
in the center of the screen to begin.
You
can find all the videos at our YouTube "channel":
JohnTheCaregiver.
- - -
Happy
Father's Day on June 15th to all dads. Special prayers
for those who are caregivers, those who are now
care-receivers and those now with our Heavenly Father!
Thank you, dear Lord, for all dads!
- - -
Again,
thank you so much to all who have sent in a "Non-event
2008" donation. (The
invitation
was a big hit!) If you've been meaning to do that,
please take a few minutes to write that check and drop
it in the mail. We truly
appreciate your donation.
- - -
Become
a member of the Friends of St. John the Caregiver! No
meetings, no dues. All we ask is that you promise to
pray for caregivers and those in their care.
Our members include caregivers, care-receivers, and those who
support both (including quite a few former caregivers).
You can find out
more about becoming a member here.
- - -
And
please stop by the Prayer
Requests page, too, and keep these intentions in
your prayers.
The recent news and weather reports about the
devastating storms and flooding in the Midwest hit close
to home even though
we live some 1,500 miles away.
Bill is a native of Iowa and has many relatives there. And
the Friends of St. John the Caregiver has a number of
members in that state and in other sections of the
United States affected by the
rain, wind and rising rivers.
Our prayers are with all those touched by these events and
especially with caregivers and care-receivers whose
lives -- already so stressful -- are now further
complicated. We know the prayers of all the members of the
Friends of St. John the Caregiver worldwide are with
them, too.
All of us often look for the answer to our prayers and forget
that, sometimes, prayer is the answer. "How can I help
those hurt by this catastrophe?" "What can I do for
family caregivers now dealing with these added worries?" You can pray for them. Right
here. Right now.
Our faith offers the comforting assurance that we're never
really
"helpless." We have the power to help those
who are hurting. We have the power
of prayer.
Thanks
to all those who stopped by our new YouTube
"channel":
JohnTheCaregiver. We invite -- and encourage
-- you to take a look at our videos and, if you should
be so inclined, rate what you see and add a comment or
two. Please also consider sending links to your family
and friends and embedding the videos themselves in your
Web site or blog.
Here's another sample: "A Caregiver's Prayer." Just click on the arrow
in the center of the screen to begin.
- - -
Thank
you to those who have returned a "Non-event
2008" donation. (The
invitation
was a big hit!) If you've been meaning to do that,
please take a few minutes to write that check and drop
it in the mail. We truly
appreciate your donation.
- - -
Please
join us in welcoming the newest members of the Friends
of St. John the Caregiver. "Hello" to Amy S. in New
Mexico and Sister Mary Magdalene in Pennsylvania. Please
keep them and their intentions in your prayers. They
have promised to pray for caregivers and those receiving
care.
And,
of course, we invite you to join, too! You can find out
more about becoming a member here. No meetings, no dues. Our members
include caregivers, care-receivers, and those who
support both (including quite a few former caregivers).
We've been admirers of
Dorothy
Day for a long time. For many years we took our
children to a Catholic Worker soup kitchen
once a
month to help prepare and serve a meal at St. James
Cathedral in Seattle. (And to scrub pots
and pans, too!)
This week we were reading
"The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day"
for a book review in
My Daily Visitor magazine when we
came across this passage describing the death of her
mother:
.
. . It made me happy that I could be with my mother
the last few weeks of her life, and for the last ten
days at her bedside daily and hourly. Sometimes I
thought to myself that it was like being present at
a birth to sit by a dying person and see their
intentness on what is happening to them. It almost
seems that one is absorbed in a struggle, a fearful,
grim, physical struggle, to breathe, to swallow, to
live.
And so, I kept thinking to myself, how necessary it is for
one of their loved ones to be beside them, to pray
for them, to offer up prayers for them unceasingly,
as well as to do all those little offices one can.
When my daughter was a little tiny girl, she said to
me once, "When I get to be a great big woman and you
are a little tiny girl, I'll take care of you," and
I thought of that when I had to feed my mother by
the spoonful and urge her to eat her custard.
How good God was to me, to let me be there. I had prayed so
constantly that I would be beside her when she died;
for years, I had offered up that prayer. And God
granted it quite literally. I was there, holding her
hand, and she just turned her head and sighed. That
was her last breath, that little sigh: and her hand
was warm in mine for a long time after . . . .
Our prayer
this week is that all family caregivers may experience,
to one degree or another, what Dorothy describes.
And we
pray, too, for all family members whose relationship
with their loved one is strained or damaged.
Dorothy experienced that, too. Her biographers note: "Dorothy
and her father did not enjoy a close relationship. . . .
His attitude toward his elder daughter may be gauged
from his remarks in a letter to a family friend:
'Dorothy . . . is the nut of the family. . . . I
wouldn't have her around me.'"
Sadly, her situation with her father is not as uncommon as
one may want to believe. And, at the same time, the
relationship they shared -- like every relationship
between a parent and child -- was unique.
And so our prayer this week is also for those caregivers who
must deal with challenging relationships. May you
experience the presence of God in what you do and be
comforted knowing that he understands you would like to
do more but, because of the realities facing you, that's
simply not to be.
- - -
One more time! Thanks
to all those who stopped by our new YouTube
"channel":
JohnTheCaregiver. We invite -- and encourage
-- you to take a look at our videos and, if you should
be so inclined, rate what you see and add a comment or
two. Please also consider sending links to your family
and friends and embedding the videos themselves in your
Web site or blog.
Here's another sample: "Keeping Secrets, Telling Lies." Just click on the arrow
in the center of the screen to begin.
- - -
And,
also, one more time! Thank
you to those who have returned a "Non-event
2008" donation. (The
invitation
was a big hit!) If you've been meaning to do that,
please take a few minutes to write that check and drop
it in the mail. We truly
appreciate your donation.
- - -
Please
join us in welcoming the newest members of the Friends
of St. John the Caregiver. "Hello" to Connie
F. in Wisconsin and Jeannette F. in New Mexico. Please
keep them and their intentions in your prayers. They
have promised to pray for caregivers and those receiving
care.
And,
of course, we invite you to join, too! You can find out
more about becoming a member here. No meetings, no dues. Our members
include caregivers, care-receivers, and those who
support both (including quite a few former caregivers).
We've added links to four solid, Catholic sources on the
"Death and Dying
Resources" page that can help families facing
end-of-life
issues:
the
Catechism of the Catholic Church,
the
Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, the Sacred
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. We know it can be hard to
find reliable and trustworthy information on that
challenging, and often-times heartbreaking, subject.
If your family is dealing with these issues at this time,
please know that the members of the Friends of St. John
the Caregiver are praying for you and your loved one.
- - -
Attention, parishes! The July editions of
Catholic Caregivers (this month's topic: "Alcoholism
and Aging"), Bulletin Briefs and Prayers of
Intercession have been posted at
CatholicCaregivers.com. All the material is free and
can be used by any group or individual. Print as many
copies as you would like -- all for the same great
price: Zero.
- - -
Please
join us in welcoming the newest member of the Friends
of St. John the Caregiver. "Hello" to Donna C.
in Pennsylvania. Please
keep Donna and her intentions in your prayers. She has promised to pray for caregivers and those receiving
care.
And,
of course, we invite you to join, too! You can find out
more about becoming a member here. No meetings, no dues. Our members
include caregivers, care-receivers, and those who
support both (including quite a few former caregivers).
September.
Least popular? 10. February. 11. March. (Hmmm. We were
married in March.) And 12. January.
that's available here and
on 
we live some 1,500 miles away.
once a
month to help prepare and serve a meal at St. James
Cathedral in Seattle. (And to scrub pots
and pans, too!)
issues:
the