'Dear Friends' August 2010

Week of August 2, 2010 Prayer Requests    Helping Your Loved One Find Forgiveness and Peace Dear Friends:       Once again, a new month means new material posted at CatholicCaregivers.com. The flier focuses on helping your care-receiver find forgiveness and peace. You can also find the same material here as a Topic. This is how it begins:        If your care-receiver is facing death, he or she may feel the need to make peace with a friend, with a relative, or with God.         Just as you help your loved one eat right and get to doctors’ appointments, you may also be called on to help him or her prepare spiritually for death. The task may seem overwhelming to both you and your care-receiver. Neither of you may feel equipped for this. But helping that person find peace can make such a difference for him or her—the dying loved one—and for you, the one who will be left behind.        These are suggestions for helping your care-receiver heal old wounds by admitting mistakes, offering apologies, and accepting forgiveness:        You can find the flier here and the Topic here.        CatholicCaregivers.com also has new Prayers of Intercession for Sunday Masses in August and new Bulletin Briefs, including:        “Compassion is the divine quality that, when present in human beings, enables us to feel deeply the suffering of others and move from being an observer to being a caregiver; from caring for only ourselves, to being a vehicle of God’s mercy and love in another person’s life.”                            --Father Stephen M. Koeth, C.S.C. - - -        Thank you to all who have responded to our annual non-event fund-raiser! Here's the front of our non-invitation: And here's what's inside: - - -        Please join us in welcoming Elizabeth W. of Colorado as the newest member of the Friends of St. John the Caregiver. Please keep her and her intentions in your prayers. She's promised to pray for you and yours.        Also, we cordially invite you to join the Friends of St. John the Caregiver! (FSJC's programs include YourAgingParent.com and CatholicCaregivers.com.) You can find out more about becoming a member here.        No meetings, no dues. All we ask is that you pray for caregivers and those receiving care. Our members include caregivers, care-receivers, and those who support both (including quite a few former caregivers).        You can:         sign up on-line here                 or call us toll-free at 1-800-392-JOHN (5646)                or print and mail an application form.        God bless you!                                                           Monica and Bill To contact us To join FSJC To make a donation To view or make prayer requests Materials order form Past "Dear Friends" notes "Among Friends" quarterly newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weeks of August 9, 2010 Prayer Requests    When Your Care-receiver Leaves You Dear Friends:        (This is a piece for grieving care-receivers that we wrote two years ago.) Next Sunday the Church celebrates the feast of the Assumption, Mary's being taken to heaven, body and soul. It's good to consider-- to keep in mind -- that this event also marks the ends of St. John's caregiving duties. That's why the feast of the Assumption is a special day for all caregivers grieving the loss of their loved ones.        It seems safe to assume that all the members of the early Christian community mourned Mary's leaving them but -- as Our Lady's primary caregiver -- St. John's sorrow, and joy, were unique.        Sorrow because he missed her. Joy because his faith told him she was now in heaven with her Son. There was that combination of emotions whether or not Mary physically died.        The Church doesn't say, definitively, one way or another on that issue. As the Encyclopedia of Mary explains, the Assumption is:        A dogma of faith Pope Pius XII solemnly defined on November 1, 1950. In his apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus, Pius wrote: "We pronounce, declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."        Pius' use of the phrase "was assumed" indicates that the Assumption is different from Christ’s Ascension. And his "having completed the course of her earthly life" does not say whether or not Mary actually experienced death.        Tradition favors the theological opinion that Mary died and was most likely buried near the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem. And, as with the body of Christ, her body did not undergo decomposition after her death and burial but was assumed intact. Theologians note that, as in the case of the Resurrection, what the dogma of the Assumption defines is seen as a reality and a truth only by those with the gift of faith, by those who accept and respond to what is contained in Divine Revelation.        There is no explicit biblical evidence for the Assumption but, based on theological reasoning and Tradition, there is the implicit belief that Christ took his mother to himself at the moment of her leaving this life because she is one declared "full of grace" and the "highly favored daughter" of God the Father (Lk 1:28).         Of course, the caregiver and care-receiver aspects of this feast aren't just for caregivers whose loved ones have passed away. Many, many caregivers can testify that as their care-receivers have become more ill, their loved ones have "left them," little by little. The loss -- and the grieving -- don't begin with death. It can start weeks, months or years before that day.        May Our Lady in Need and St. John the Caregiver be with all those whose care-receivers have left them, with all those whose care-receivers are gradually leaving them. - - -        Thank you to all who have responded to our annual non-event fund-raiser! Here's the front of our non-invitation: And here's what's inside: You can find more information about making a donation here. - - -        Please join us in welcoming Rev. Mark H. of Nevada as the newest member of the Friends of St. John the Caregiver. Please keep him and his intentions in your prayers. He's promised to pray for you and yours.        Also, we cordially invite you to join the Friends of St. John the Caregiver! (FSJC's programs include YourAgingParent.com and CatholicCaregivers.com.) You can find out more about becoming a member here.        No meetings, no dues. All we ask is that you pray for caregivers and those receiving care. Our members include caregivers, care-receivers, and those who support both (including quite a few former caregivers).        You can:         sign up on-line here                 or call us toll-free at 1-800-392-JOHN (5646)                or print and mail an application form.        God bless you!                                                           Monica and Bill To contact us To join FSJC To make a donation To view or make prayer requests Materials order form Past "Dear Friends" notes "Among Friends" quarterly newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week of August 16, 2010 Prayer Requests    Welcome, New Members! Dear Friends:        This week we're so very pleased to welcome four new members to the Friends of St. John the Caregiver. "Hello!" to Sister Therese Marie B. in Delaware, Eileen K. in New Jersey, and Father A.E. Rosenau and Veronica A. in Arkansas. Please keep them and their intentions in your prayers. They have promised to pray for you and yours. - - -       Again, thank you to all who have responded to our annual non-event fund-raiser! Here's the front of our non-invitation: And here's what's inside: You can find more information about making a donation here. - - -        Also, we cordially invite you to join the Friends of St. John the Caregiver! (FSJC's programs include YourAgingParent.com and CatholicCaregivers.com.) You can find out more about becoming a member here.        No meetings, no dues. All we ask is that you pray for caregivers and those receiving care. Our members include caregivers, care-receivers, and those who support both (including quite a few former caregivers).        You can:         sign up on-line here                 or call us toll-free at 1-800-392-JOHN (5646)                or print and mail an application form.        God bless you!                                                           Monica and Bill To contact us To join FSJC To make a donation To view or make prayer requests Materials order form Past "Dear Friends" notes "Among Friends" quarterly newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week of August 23, 2010 Prayer Requests    At the Risk of Sounding Like a Broken Record . . . Take a Break! Take a Break! Take a Break Dear Friends:        At the risk of sounding like a broken record -- and realizing that caregivers under 30 may not know what that expression means -- we want to make another plug for taking a break. Even a small break.        We write this after spending three nights and four days last week at a cabin on a lake. The "cabin" being much nicer than our house. And "on the lake" being a steep trail down to the water and, somehow, an even steeper one coming back up. (Physically impossible but true!)        As two Topics on YourAgingParent.com point out:         Human beings weren't created to work nonstop seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year. To be responsible for someone else twenty-four hours a day. Our bodies and our minds simply can't maintain that grueling schedule. But in many ways, that's exactly what many primary caregivers try to do. And it's not good for them or for the people in their care.      "Respite care" is a term that’s becoming more common. It means a break for someone who is taking care of an ill person, a rest for the person primarily responsible for the well-being of another. In some instances, it's a mother taking care of her child who is severely disabled; in others, it's an adult child and a sick parent. In still others, it's one aging parent taking care of his or her ill spouse.      No matter what the particular circumstances may be, the basic truth is the same: A primary caregiver needs to take breaks or soon will burn out, soon will be unable to take care of anyone, including himself or herself.      These are some points to consider:        (You can read more on Respite Care here.)        And what about when you can't take even a full day off?        Give yourself a tiny break. A minute or two. Go into the bathroom, shut the door and wash your face with cool water. Or walk out onto the porch by yourself and take a few deep breaths. Taking a day off may seem impossible, but you can take a one-minute break. And you can build on that. More breaks, longer breaks. It takes time to go from exhausted to well. Start planning what you'll do. Something to look forward to. Take ten minutes while Dad is watching the news; take fifteen while Mom is napping.        (Go here to read more about Exhaustion and taking a little time off.)        Still can't believe taking even a small break is something God would really like you to do? In the words of Jesus to his disciples: "Come away . . . and rest awhile" (Mark 6:31).        Here's a "coupon" we offered in May. Notice it has no expiration date. We encourage you to redeem it soon . . . and often. - - -        Again this week we cordially invite you to join the Friends of St. John the Caregiver! (FSJC's programs include YourAgingParent.com and CatholicCaregivers.com.) You can find out more about becoming a member here.        No meetings, no dues. All we ask is that you pray for caregivers and those receiving care. Our members include caregivers, care-receivers, and those who support both (including quite a few former caregivers).        You can:         sign up on-line here                 or call us toll-free at 1-800-392-JOHN (5646)                or print and mail an application form.        God bless you!                                                           Monica and Bill To contact us To join FSJC To make a donation To view or make prayer requests Materials order form Past "Dear Friends" notes "Among Friends" quarterly newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week of August 30, 2010 Prayer Requests    Like a Student with a Summer-Reading Assignment Dear Friends:        Like a student with a summer-reading assignment, we've managed to get the summer newsletter out just under the wire. It certainly seems like summer ends with beginning of the new school year although, technically, it will be here till the third week of September.        And to our members in the southern hemisphere: Hang in there! Winter is almost over and spring is just around the corner. - - -        Please join us in welcoming Monica O'D. of Ohio as the newest member of the Friends of St. John the Caregiver. Please keep her and her intentions in your prayers. She's promised to pray for you and yours.        Again this week we cordially invite you to join the Friends of St. John the Caregiver! (FSJC's programs include YourAgingParent.com and CatholicCaregivers.com.) You can find out more about becoming a member here.        No meetings, no dues. All we ask is that you pray for caregivers and those receiving care. Our members include caregivers, care-receivers, and those who support both (including quite a few former caregivers).        You can:         sign up on-line here                 or call us toll-free at 1-800-392-JOHN (5646)                or print and mail an application form.        God bless you!                                                           Monica and Bill To contact us To join FSJC To make a donation To view or make prayer requests Materials order form Past "Dear Friends" notes "Among Friends" quarterly newsletter