Eucharistic Adoration - There's an App for That!!

I just counted and I have 19 Catholic apps on my iPhone (in a folder cleverly named "Oremus" - Latin for "let us pray" because I'm a nerd). I thought my collection of Catholic apps was pretty exhaustive, but I just stumbled upon the COOLEST APP EVER that locates Adoration chapels!! AdorationDirectory.com is the website that has produced a free app on the iTunes store. The app searches for adoration chapels based on your current location and notes which chapels are truly perpetual (meaning Jesus is exposed in the monstrance 24/7). You can also submit listings of chapels you know about to help build up their database of perpetual adoration chapels. This is a wonderful resource!

Perpetual chapels can be tricky to find if you don't know where to look, so I hope this website/app will be successful! It took me several weeks to find the sole perpetual chapel in Cincinnati (strangely...it's not well advertised or searchable on google), but I just submitted it to the adoration directory website so hopefully some other person will be able to find Jesus more easily :)

Click here to download the app or search for it on iTunes in the App Store under "Eucharistic Adoration Directory." Mother Teresa was quoted as saying, "The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time you will spend on earth." Yes and amen!

My favorite place to pray - adoration chapel at St. Patrick in Kokomo

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Habemus Papam Franciscum! +{ ]:-)

I think Wednesday was one of the most exciting days of my life, no joke. I could barely sit still at my desk, watching the smokestack intently on one computer screen and monitoring my Twitter feed on the other. I almost wish the conclave hadn't ended so soon, the anticipation and joy in the past week has just been so fun! After an hour of watching the smokestack and waiting I had to go to a meeting and anxiously monitored my phone the whole time - I wanted to know the very second we had a new Pope (I totally tweeted it before PopeAlarm.com broke the news)! I made it back to my desk in time to see the white smoke pouring out of the chimney, while shouting at my coworker, "CHRIS! IS THAT BLACK OR WHITE SMOKE? BLACK OR WHITE??? IT'S WHITE!!!!" I really wish I could have been watching this all unfold with friends from home/college, but several of my non-Catholic co-workers were very interested and so it was a great moment of evangelization to share with them about the church and the papacy and my sheer joy at this moment. An older woman I work closely with named Gladys is a practicing Catholic. What a gift God has given me placing her in my life and my office! She's quickly become a friend, mother-figure, and a mentor in both the professional sense and as a Catholic role model, so we watched it together at my desk when the new pope was announced and then when Pope Francis came out to greet the world :)

The popes of my lifetime

Admittedly, I was a bit unsure of him at first. I commented to Gladys how overwhelmed and almost afraid he looked. Even Pope Benedict, who often was kind of criticized in the (secular) media for not being as warm and personable as Pope John Paul II, greeted the square with a huge smile. Since Wednesday I've been following coverage of his homilies and addresses given in Rome and have seen much better pictures of him smiling peacefully. Did you hear how he eschewed the papal car that was waiting for him to go back to collect his bags from the hotel where the cardinals had been staying during the conclave? Instead he rode a small bus with the other cardinals. He even insisted on paying the bill for his room.

However, the video below of him greeting the cardinals won my heart over and I fell in love with our new Holy Father. He's very animated and his personality shines through as warm, humble, down to earth and very joyful. Watching him interact with American cardinals George and Dolan (at 0:43 and 1:40) and was particularly endearing, especially when he gives Cardinal George the thumbs up :)

My friend Kelly came over for dinner the night Pope Francis was elected and brought a bottle of wine from Argentina to celebrate our new Argentinian pope (have I mentioned how much I love my friends?) When he was addressing the cardinals yesterday, Pope Francis used a great analogy, and I'm sure he was referring to a good bottle of Malbec from Argentina ;)

Speaking especially to the elder cardinals, Pope Francis said, “Courage, dear brothers! Probably half of us are in our old age. Old age, they say, is the seat of wisdom. The old ones have the wisdom that they have earned from walking through life, like old Simeon and Anna at the Temple, whose wisdom allowed them to recognize Jesus. Let us give wisdom to the youth: Like good wine that improves with age, let us give the youth the wisdom of our lives.”

One last thought...what if every day we gave God as much attention as we gave the conclave?

Now hop on over to Erin's blog and read about her experience being in St. Peter's Square when the new Pope was announced. Click here.

Celebrating with St. Somewhere Argentinian wine!

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A Humble Shepherd - Pope Benedict XVI

I went to a Mass in Thanksgiving of Pope Benedict’s papacy yesterday at the Cathedral downtown Cincinnati (conveniently located a block from my office!). In his homily, Archbishop Schnurr relayed a few personal anecdotes about the Holy Father. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the archbishop was working for the USCCB as the general secretary and met then-Cardinal Ratzinger. On his subsequent visits to Rome he would see Cardinal Ratzinger walking around St. Peter’s Square, speaking with the faithful. Instead of walking around in his cardinal getup (black cassock with scarlet piping, a scarlet fascia or sash, and a scarlet zucchetto) which would invariably draw a lot of attention, Ratzinger would walk amongst the people in a simple black cassock. He would happily play photographer for unknowing tourists who thought they were asking a kindly parish priest to take their picture :) Twenty years later when Archbishop Schnurr met Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, the Holy Father recalled meeting +Schnurr in the USCCB office.

This guy wasn't fooled by Cardinal Ratzinger's simple cassock!

I love Archbishop Schnurr's story. It illustrates perfectly how humble the Holy Father is. I vividly recall at my first papal liturgy being struck by how small and humble the pope was. In fact, I was in such a haste to get a picture that I missed him the first time he walked past me amidst the bishops surrounding him because he was shorter than most of them and he kind of blended in among the other mitres. I was looking towards the very end of the procession expecting to see him there, walking apart from the rest. I have great affection for Pope Benedict. Unlike Pope John Paul II, whom I became familiar with after his death and papacy, I followed along with Pope Benedict during my reversion to the faith at the end of high school and paid attention with great interest to his papacy and writings (especially during the last few years). I saw Pope Benedict in person 6 or 7 times during three trips to Rome. Each time I seemed to make it progressively closer to being near him physically (the last time I was seated on the same stage as him), and joked that perhaps on my 4th trip I'd get to kiss his ring ;) My favorite B16 moment was on Easter Sunday in 2011. My friend Sr. Mariana Rose and I had great seats in the front section and along the center aisle. As the Holy Father came up the aisle on the Popemobile, he looked directly at me. I managed to snap the below picture. At the risk of sounding cheesy, let me just say I don't remember much else about that moment except our gazes meeting and being overwhelmed with so much love for this humble "servant of the servants of God." 

No zoom, I could have reached out and touched him.

Also check out my friend Erin's blog - she has attended all of the papal events since the Holy Father announced he would renounce the papacy and has been blogging about her experiences in Rome and posting lots of pictures. Click here to read her blog.

Finally, check out this tribute video Lifeteen.com made...and grab a kleenex (or the whole box if you inherited the Blankenberger crying genes, God bless my dear mother). Let us give thanks for Pope Benedict's humble servant leadership and for his fidelity to the church and to Jesus Christ, and let us pray for our next pope!!

"Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life. Amen.” - Pope Benedict XVI

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Sharing the faith is like sharing a tasty pizza!

Evangelization explained in three minutes! You'd want to share the best pizza ever with your friends and invite them to eat a piece with you, right? If Jesus and the Eucharist are the best things in our lives, our source and summit, we should propose to our friends (not impose, there's a difference!) that they check it out too. The video makes a great point that we are good at sharing everything in our lives with our friends except the faith. In the past week I can think of excitedly recommending a nail polish, a clothing store, and a new band to friends - but when a coworker asked where I went over lunch I quickly glossed over having gone to Mass with another coworker and then changed the subject. Approach sharing the faith like you were sharing a tasty, life changing pizza! :) But really, this video is excellent and was made by seminarians from my home diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana.

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On Well-Polished Nails

My current manicure - Berlin There
Done That by OPI with leopard spots! 

My love affair with nail polish began as a little girl. My babysitter would paint my nails hot pink, and my little brother would beg her to paint his nails too. This along with pictures of Joe wearing all my Pretty Pretty Princess jewelry are two moments he'll never live down. From what I hear, toddler Joe running around with hot pink nails did not go over well at all with my dad, teehee. There's a picture of me when I was probably 5 years old, sitting very seriously at my Grandma's kitchen table as she painted my nails - now I paint her nails when I visit....full circle! ;) I worked as a receptionist at a salon & spa in high school in college so I always had access to the latest and greatest polishes and products and developed somewhat of a "reputation" among my friends and classmates for always having well-polished nails. My friends and cousins always wanted me to paint their nails or use my massive collection of nail polish and still do. I'm still somewhat convinced that my two best friends in college really just liked me because they could use all my nail polish ;)

When I started my job in Cincinnati someone asked for a list of my hobbies and interests to put in the company newsletter. What came to mind was Catholicism, international travel, nail polish, scarves, and wine. So naturally I love when these things mix with each other. A winery in an old Benedictine monastery with wines named Sangre de Cristo Sangria and Revelation? I'm so there. OPI Nail polish collections themed around countries I've visited? Yes please. I'm so cheesy I even bought a polish called "An Italian Love Affair" and painted my nails and toes with it before I went to Italy for the first time. I was consequently really upset when I tripped and fell into the Mediterranean Ocean on my second day in Italy, breaking my big toe and ruining my Italian Love Affair pedicure. I'll spare you the pictures of the damage! Anyway...when I was living in Budapest I bought a polish called "Hungary for my Money" (I'm pretty sure I blogged about that actually, lol) and when OPI released their Germany collection this fall I bought bottles of "Berlin There, Done That" for myself and my friend Kristen since we traveled to Berlin together. The first time I wore the Berlin polish I was getting my haircut and found out the hairdresser was originally from Berlin. I proceeded to excitedly show him my new nail polish that was named after Berlin (as if he cared...). He wasn't impressed and continued railing on about why Berlin sucks. Personally, I think Berlin is much more beautiful and exciting than Cincinnati, just my two American cents...though Cincinnati does still have a German Mass, the 2nd largest Oktoberfest outside of Germany, and a Hofbrauhaus just like the one in Munich!

Okay so why am I yammering on about nail polish and countries? I just discovered OPI's latest Euro Centrale collection is inspired by Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania!!!! You better believe tomorrow after Mass I'm going to the store to buy Suzi's Hungary Again, You're Such a Budapest, My Paprika is Hotter Than Yours, and Can't Find My Czechbook. Happy Liz :)

*this post is totally vapid, but I really love nail polish. Forgive me. Also my birthday is coming up in March. Gifts of nail polish, cute scarves, wine, Catholic things, or plane tickets to another continent are welcome ;)

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