[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Faith Break.
Finding God moments in your everyday.
Each week on Faith Break, hosts Karen Luke and Anne Gallagher bring spiritual refreshment to your daily life.
It's Thanksgiving weekend and also the first Sunday in Advent.
In this week's episode, Karen and Ann reflect on being grateful for the things in our lives right now and get ready for a December filled with thankfulness, peace, and appreciating the gift of each present moment.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Hi, everybody. Welcome to Faith Break. I'm Anne Gallagher.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: And I'm Karen Luke.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: We are co workers, friends, moms, wives, ministers, all of those things together, and we are here to help you find your God moments in your everyday life.
[00:01:02] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: And this is Thanksgiving weekend.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: Happy Thanksgiving.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: And this is the first weekend of Advent.
So we have all kinds of fun things going on.
And in this season two of our Faith Break podcast, we are looking at all the seasons of life.
So today we're going to focus on the season of Gratitude.
[00:01:22] Speaker C: One of my faves.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Yep.
We were just joking that we have not prepared very much for this episode, but we think we can probably wing it. And I just looked at Karen and was like, you know what we should have done?
We should have completed those gratitude journals that we each gave each other for Christmas last year. Yeah, I did it about maybe five times.
[00:01:44] Speaker C: So this gratitude journal you guys remember.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Like, it's such a.
[00:01:48] Speaker C: We were so excited to give each other Christmas gifts last year, and when we opened them up and we just busted out laughing that we both got each other gratitude journals.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:01:57] Speaker C: I have yet to write in mine.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: I did write in mine a handful.
[00:02:01] Speaker C: Of times, and not only that, but I have, like, six other ones on my nightstand, so. And those haven't been written in either.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: And we gave them to other people, too. We gave them to our seniors. Keegan and Sarah got gratitude journals. Martha. And then Keegan's like. He's like, I'm gonna give it to my girlfriend. And I was like, I hope she's gonna use it, because we don't really use the ones. I know.
[00:02:23] Speaker C: It's not that we're not grateful.
We just.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: We're very grateful people. This is why we're gonna have no problem with this episode.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: Just forget to physically write in it, you know?
[00:02:34] Speaker B: All right, I'm gonna try more.
[00:02:36] Speaker C: I pin it. I pin them. I pin my gratefulnesses during the day.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: What do you mean you pin them?
[00:02:41] Speaker C: Like, in my head.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: I thought you had, like, a Pinterest board or something.
[00:02:44] Speaker C: No. Oh, I haven't looked at that in forever.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Forever. Yeah.
Okay. Gratitude Attitude of gratitude. Here we are, Thanksgiving weekend.
Let's start with our God moments.
[00:02:54] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Do you have a God moment?
[00:02:55] Speaker C: I have a couple, but I think.
I think I'm gonna do a mommy God moment. Okay. So on Facebook, they now have this thing where they show a picture of what you had posted however many years ago, and then you can do upload, like, a new picture then.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: And now.
[00:03:13] Speaker C: Yeah, then and now.
And Emma's very first swim meet in modified in second, seventh grade. Popped up today.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: And she's come so far.
[00:03:27] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: And I was like, oh, my gosh, look at her.
[00:03:29] Speaker C: And then I was like, oh, my gosh. That's only, like, three years ago. No, four years ago.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Four.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: Seventeen.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: She's 10. Yeah.
[00:03:38] Speaker C: Four years ago.
And just, like, how little she was.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: I know, right?
[00:03:43] Speaker C: She wasn't even starting from the blocks. And now she's insane. Like, qualifying for sectionals, possibly. And it's just like. Oh. And. But she. Like, we are. We used to be like oil and water, and now we're like ranch dressing. We're just mixed up together.
Ranch is her favorite. And it's the only thing I could think of that was, like, actually combined instead of, like, oil and water.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:04:09] Speaker C: Like, we hang out, and she comes up and talks to me. It's.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: It's just. She helped you move a couch when I needed to move a. She came and helped us move a couch when we needed to do that recently.
[00:04:18] Speaker C: Yeah, she asked me to come.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: She was really good at it, too. My kids weren't helping us move couches that day.
[00:04:24] Speaker C: Yeah. And that's all we could say was pivot. Because we were, like, friends. Oh, my gosh. Moving their. Oh, I wish there was a camera that had captured that.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: But we had to move. Hysterical.
We had bought a sofa bed.
This is all gonna come back to Thanksgiving. Hang on, I'm gonna do it. But we had bought a sofa bed for my mom's new apartment that she never got to move in to because she passed. And then after she died, we had to empty the apartment, and it was like.
I mean, it was, like, really a drag. It was like. It was a lot sad. We were trying to. I mean, it was the death of a dream. It was the death of. And we had this giant, heavy couch because sofa beds are like.
[00:05:02] Speaker C: It's a sofa bed.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: Freaking heavy.
All right. And it's up a flight of stairs.
[00:05:07] Speaker C: And the staircase was like this.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: N.
We decided we were gonna keep it in our living room. Cause I didn't really like the couch that we Had. And so at a staff meeting, I was like, does anybody want this couch? And Karen's like, I do. I was like, okay, you can have this couch if you help me move the other couch that needs to go in here.
And so we figured out it would fit in my van. But, like, Brian and I were not gonna be able to get this couch ourselves from the second floor to the van and then back into our house, even though we have a lot of experience moving furniture together. Like. And we actually have joked about that if we were in charge of marriage prep for our parish, that's what we would have.
Because we remember there was this one time we had to move. My aunt and uncle were giving us two couches, one of which was a sofa bed, but they were on, like, the third floor or second floor. That. Third floor. The second. I can remember.
[00:06:04] Speaker C: No, not happening.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: And we had to go and put two couches in my van. Like, one this way and then one, like, that way, like, Tetra style. And we didn't have childcare for the day, so we had. Liam and Bridget were maybe.
I don't know. I wanna say, like, 4 and 8 or something. Or like, they were just so. And my aunt and uncle weren't home, but they had a dog. They have dog toys around. So, like, the kids found the squeakiest dog toys.
They're making all this noise. We're trying to get all these. And I was like, you know, we looked at each other like, this is what they have to do. They can borrow my children, and they can just move furniture. And if you can get through this.
[00:06:45] Speaker C: Yeah, you're good. I think that's a great opportunity.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: We weren't gonna be able to move this one, so we called in you and Emma, and you guys were just. You guys made it fun. Because there was one moment we had it up and, like, the steps went down, but there was, like a. Not like a landing, but like a.
A ledge. Right.
[00:07:03] Speaker C: Shelf thing.
But it was narrow. I've never seen narrower stairs in a apartment.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: Right. So we kept having to, like, negotiate which way we were turning things and who was holding the thing.
[00:07:16] Speaker C: They were sending pictures of all of our bruises to each other.
Okay, back to gratitude.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: Gratitude. I am thankful that you and Emma showed up to help us that day because it made something that could have been just, like, miserable actually pretty fun. And you have a couch that you live now, so is that okay?
[00:07:36] Speaker C: What's your God moment?
[00:07:37] Speaker B: Well, that wasn't gonna be my God moment, but now I think it kind of was my God Moment. No, I was gonna say that my God. Moment was.
This is a boring one.
But I got. Do you ever get like a burst of energy for cleaning? I'm not. I don't like to clean.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:53] Speaker C: So mine is on the way home from work.
But then I don't get that first.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Oh, it passes. By the time you.
[00:08:00] Speaker C: Yeah, it's already done. So I get home and I'm like, yeah, I'm just gonna take a nap.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: I don't know what came over me. I was like, something was like dinner was cooking and I had like a 15 minute block and. Remember back at Lent when we were gonna do the 40 bags in 40 days? Yeah, but you did well, didn't you? I got started and I got organized and we did it for a couple weeks and I took a whole bunch of stuff out and then we got distracted by the robotics season and I had a whole list of places in my house.
[00:08:25] Speaker C: You still have all the bags?
[00:08:27] Speaker B: I'm not keeping track of the bags anymore.
[00:08:29] Speaker C: No, but I'm saying like from Lunt.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Oh, no, they went out. Oh, okay. They went out with.
[00:08:33] Speaker C: I thought you were gonna say they were like in your garage.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: But I still have my list of the areas in my home I need to. So I hadn't gotten to a bunch of them. And then, you know, since my mom's accident and death, like our guest room has just become so much drop spot. So much stuff. Right. It just became like the armpit of the house where everything got thrown. But we're having. My sister's coming for Thanksgiving and she needs a place to stay. And so we had been working on that room last weekend and we got it to like, I don't know, 95% rate.
And I finished in that room. I was like, I have 15 minutes before dinner's ready. I'm gonna tackle the cabinets in my bathroom, which, like, some of them, you know, like have not been opened in 10 years. But there's not that much of them. Right. Like it's a finite small space. So anyway, I got a burst of. Of cleaning and we actually did, you know, a bunch of it. And then if I like at like after dinner at 6:30, 7:00', clock, I'm like, I'm done now.
[00:09:30] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: But so yeah, just a little, little house cleaning. Not normally I'm better at the like organizational throw stuff out part than the actual like vacuuming, dusting, those.
[00:09:42] Speaker C: Brian.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: But Brian has to do those kinds of things, so.
[00:09:46] Speaker C: That's awesome.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
All right.
[00:09:49] Speaker C: I think we should just be Grateful that we have houses that are a mess for us to clean.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: I know, right? Well, and I think that's why, you know, going back to our non use of gratitude journals, our failure to use gratitude journals, but like, the idea of that practice is that every day you have so many things to be grateful for that it is important to stop and notice them.
[00:10:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: But that doesn't mean we necessarily have to write them down. But maybe, maybe this year I'm gonna try that again. We'll see. I still have.
[00:10:18] Speaker C: So looking ahead or looking behind or whatever, is there anything that you're most grateful for?
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. This year I'm just so grateful for family and friends, especially given the crap year that we had. The difficulties of last few months. Losing my mom.
I can't believe how people showed up for us.
I just can't believe how people, I mean, moving couches, bringing meals when we needed them, just helping us clean things out. And like there was one day, my cousin, you know, when you're at the point where you don't even know what to ask for?
[00:10:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: And instead of my cousin Kate, instead of saying, what, what do you need me to bring? She's like, I'm gonna be at your house in an hour with two casseroles and a pie. Like, you know, like, it's just people will just show up and do that. And I think, yes. I can't begin to list the things that people did to help us through a really tough time, you know?
Yeah. I don't know. Give me some of yours.
[00:11:22] Speaker C: Well, I mean, I'm grateful for family and friends too, but I feel like I'm really grateful for where I live, our community.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Your neighborhood was fun. I got to go hang out in your neighborhood recently.
[00:11:36] Speaker C: My little cul de sac. I mean, we're. We're a little tight knit group and you know, we always, even though it was raining for Halloween, we put up tarp city that was miserable and we still had a fire and we all came out and just hung out and it's growing little by little because we're inviting friends and family to come. So it's like one, just one big party. But the school district, you know, everything with Emma's swimming and her swim, I think I'm most grateful for her swim coach. I'm gonna give a shout out yay to Dani Richards, the swim coach for Gananda Wayne Varsity Swim, because she is amazing.
She doesn't just. She's not just coaching the girls to swim, she just has a relationship with them. That is teaching them life skills and what a gift, you know, interacting with teammates and just everything. And I just.
I like being close to my parents and my in laws. We're like five minutes away.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Can we talk about the geographical area that we live in, too? And how beautiful it is to live here? I mean.
[00:12:48] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: And to have, you know, we're in this moment where the seasons are changing and a lot of people around us might be complaining about the weather.
I'm not either. I love having fall. I love the movement from fall till winter. I love this. Even though it gets dark so early now, we can, like. I mean, we can hunker down. I'm out a lot of nights for work meetings, but, like, when you get to be home and, you know, I just.
I like living somewhere where we have all four seasons and can appreciate each other.
[00:13:18] Speaker C: Yeah. And especially when you have all four seasons in two hours.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Never a dull moment.
[00:13:24] Speaker C: We are. Our new neighbors are from Florida.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
And so do they know what to expect?
[00:13:32] Speaker C: I think they do.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: You might need to tell them about, like, shovels and salt.
[00:13:36] Speaker C: No, I think they're good with that. But it was funny because at Halloween their son came out and he was just in, like, a sweatshirt.
And I had.
I had, like, a long sleeve shirt. I had a sweatshirt. I had a flower fleece. And then I had my Halloween costume because, of course, I have to dress up for Halloween.
And.
And he's like, I think I'm gonna have to go put on something warmer. And I was like, yeah, you might want to. He's like, I've never been to New York in the fall.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Do you remember when we were little and we had those, like, plastic. Plastic costumes, which you could wear your whole. You could put your coat on and then put your snowsuit and everything and then put your costume over it?
[00:14:16] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
As I was putting Matt, I was like one of those, like, circus clown freaks, you know, whatever. And okay, this is funny. I'm grateful that I have a memory of a goldfish sometimes, because I was about to go out and buy a Halloween costume and I opened up Jeremy's trunk and there was a Halloween costume I had bought two years ago.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Perfectly ready for you.
[00:14:42] Speaker C: Still in the package.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:14:44] Speaker C: And it still fit. Fortunately, over all of my sweatshirt, as I'm putting it on, I hear, like, grip, rip, rip, like, stretching of this costume.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:14:57] Speaker C: But, yeah, I love, I love we're.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: Blessed to live where we do.
[00:15:03] Speaker C: And we both got married in, like, fall winter.
We did.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: Yes. You have a Thanksgiving Wedding. And I have a. Gosh, my anniversary.
Yes. Right. By the time this episode is airing, you will be celebrating your anniversary. Yes.
[00:15:16] Speaker C: We would have celebrated how many years since 19.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:20] Speaker C: And it's great.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: That's longer than me and Brian. You've been together longer than we have, but we've been married for longer.
[00:15:25] Speaker C: I am grateful Jeremy asked me to marry him.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: There you go.
Aw.
I am grateful for my spouse, too. He is just the best.
[00:15:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: He really, really wants to come back on the podcast.
I just can't believe the stuff that he handles.
And, I mean, I handle stuff, too. We handle different things, but just, like, how. Maybe it'd be better to say, like, how we work together as a team.
[00:15:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:53] Speaker B: Has really grown over the years. Like, this did. I'm not. We didn't. Our marriage didn't fall from heaven this way. All right. Like, this took a lot of work and a lot of fighting and a lot of communication over the years, but now.
[00:16:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:06] Speaker B: It's like, I. Oh, my gosh. With everything else in my life that has been traumatic and chaotic over the last months, like, to have him to steady me and ground me has been, like, the greatest.
I'm grateful for our work team, and we recently had a really fun day together doing fall Halloweeny things.
[00:16:30] Speaker C: And.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: You guys all showed up for me when my mom died, too. You guys were the first ones at the wake, and that was really cool to have everybody, like, kind of show up as a team and be there. And then you and Dan and Rob came to the graveside and helped lead the prayers there, which was really, you know, I just feel like.
I feel like I got a lot of good people around me in my life. Yeah, I'm super grateful for that.
[00:16:55] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's funny because sometimes, like, I joke about, oh, I'm the church lady. I get all the questions or all the stuff that comes in the mail, and I was like, what am I gonna do with all this? But really, when I look back on it, being asked by Rob to participate in sanctimonious celebrations.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:17:19] Speaker C: You know, it's like, wow, what a privilege and a blessing it is to.
To walk with people on their journey.
Yeah, it's great.
I'm glad I was there for you.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:37] Speaker C: Let's see.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: Just call him out. We'll do a lightning round.
[00:17:39] Speaker C: We can't get strong.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: I'll say something now. You say something. Something you're grateful for.
[00:17:43] Speaker C: I'm grateful for the new no phones at school.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:47] Speaker C: I love that.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: Do you feel like, it's changing how you're.
[00:17:52] Speaker C: I do.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: But, like, you just got. You literally just got a call from the school, Karen.
[00:17:56] Speaker C: Okay, let me rephrase this. I love the fact that I can't get phone calls from my kids on their cell phones or text messages throughout the day. I do have many heart attacks now that the phone calls from them come from the school.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:14] Speaker C: But no, I feel like their attention is.
Is a lot better during school. The only thing is, is, like, they are psycho about it when they get home. It's like a detox. Like, oh, my gosh, I have to.
[00:18:27] Speaker B: Be all on my phone.
[00:18:28] Speaker C: Be all on the phone. So we do have to. You know, actually, I was at Emma's physical with her, and her doctor was asking, you know, how are you on social media? And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
She's like, oh, it's fine. My mom locks my phone at seven and the doctor at seven. That's exactly what the doctor said. Wow, seven for a high schooler.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: And I was like, that's crazy.
[00:18:49] Speaker C: I'm like, I'm mean. And she's like, you're not mean. You're just cautious. I was like, so here's the thing. I do it at school.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: My kids would kill me if I did that.
[00:18:56] Speaker C: That's our family time.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: That's awesome. You're such an awesome mom.
[00:19:00] Speaker C: I try to make sure, like, I mean. And granted, that's just their phones, so they can be on their switch.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. Like, so, you know, but then they're doing something together, right?
[00:19:11] Speaker C: We're doing something together. Or we're all downstairs and.
But yeah, I mean. And I'm on my phone. I'm not gonna lie. But when it's later at night, we try to make sure that there's free time, so.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: And they will be grateful for that eventually. Eventually. Even if they're not now, they will be grateful for it later.
Let's see. I had a.
I have another one. I'll do another one. That'll come to me.
[00:19:41] Speaker C: I am grateful for all of our families and our programs. Ye.
We're like, bossing at the CEO.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: This year is so fun. In our confirmation programs, our youth ministry programs, our religious ed programs, first communion.
[00:19:56] Speaker C: And Reconciliation, there's like 45 kids.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: And I like, the numbers are great. That's fun. But even more so, I've had some really fun conversations with our teens this school year so far.
And it's just a joy. Yeah, it's just a joy. And now we are taking a big group to The National Catholic Youth Conference.
[00:20:19] Speaker C: We're grateful for ncyc, right?
[00:20:22] Speaker B: So we're gonna do something really cool. We don't know what it's gonna be yet, but we are gonna do a highlight episode from our time at the National Catholic Youth Conference. Probably not till later in the winter, so we give ourselves time to really do a good job with it. But Karen and I and Jeff are going to the National Youth Conference this fall along with 15 of our teens from the churches.
And it's so joyful. It's just so joyful. And so we'll do a coming episode in the next week or two where Karen and I will talk about what the experience was like for us. And then later in the winter, we'll do more of an intensive one about the experience with the kids. But that NCYC is my single favorite thing about youth ministry that I ever get to do. I will never get tired of it. And I just. This year, I really need that elevation in my. In my joy and in my spirit. And. I know.
[00:21:27] Speaker C: So moving on. I mean, we. We could just talk for hours about everything that we're grateful for. But, like, how do you. How do you live it? Like, do people see. Besides not writing in our journals, besides.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: Failing to write in my gratitude journal, how do I have an attitude of gratitude?
[00:21:42] Speaker C: How do you live it?
[00:21:44] Speaker B: I think I just try to notice, like, just the small things every day. It's so easy to get focused on the negative. You know, like that one email we get every week. There's an email. I don't know who sent it, but there's. You know, there's always.
There's always negativity out there. And I think I'm at talk about seasons of life. I think I am just reaching a point where, like, I don't really care that much anymore about anyone else's negative commentary. I mean, I do.
You need to talk me down from the ledge as often as I need to talk you down from ledge.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: But, like, just in general, I just feel like I'm not giving that any attention or any energy. I'm just. I'm done. I am done with that. People can say what they're going to say. I am going to focus on all of the things that are. I mean, we have overflowing graces.
[00:22:41] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:22:42] Speaker B: In our lives, in our personal lives, in our faith lives, our community. Faith community.
[00:22:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: There's a lot of badness in the world and out there, but, like, we just gotta be grateful for the life that we Have.
[00:22:58] Speaker C: Yeah. I try to make sure that I let people know that I'm aware of what they did for me. I'm not.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: I say thank you to people. Horrible.
[00:23:11] Speaker C: I am horrible at writing thank you notes, as you can tell, because I don't even write in my gratitude journal.
But I always make sure that, like.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: There'S, like, send a text. You can send a text.
[00:23:25] Speaker C: Please.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: Or thank you.
[00:23:26] Speaker C: Yeah. It was really cute because when Covid hit.
After Covid, I was at every Mass because we did the registration.
We, like, had people sign up for which Mass they were coming to.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:23:41] Speaker C: To make sure. And we, like, spaced everybody out. And we did this whole big, like, right when we reopened.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: The first few weeks, I mean.
[00:23:49] Speaker C: Okay, so I was at both Masses and I got to, like, really meet the people on Saturday.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Cause we don't. We're not around the.
[00:23:58] Speaker C: We don't usually come on Saturday. And so I, like, a couple weeks ago or maybe even a month ago, I don't even remember. I'm like, you know, I haven't seen them in a while, and it's because I haven't been to the Saturday. So I just dropped them a note in the mail.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: Fun.
[00:24:12] Speaker C: And then I had seen them, and they're like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe you sent me. And I'm not doing this to toot my own horn, but it was like, I have to remind myself.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: To express.
[00:24:24] Speaker C: In other ways than thank you.
[00:24:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:27] Speaker C: You know, physically and verbally.
So, like. Yeah. Just drop in little notes or. Or text messages or things like that.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: It helps people feel seen.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:38] Speaker B: That's why it's important.
[00:24:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:40] Speaker B: Cool. Yeah, I think, too, like, we're at this point in the liturgical year where, like, Advent is. This is the first weekend in Advent as well as Thanksgiving weekend. Purple. And you know how the. We're not going to do a whole lot with the Mass readings, but, like, you know how this time of year, those first weeks of Advent, they're not really focused on Christmas, Nativity, Baby Jesus.
[00:25:03] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: Even. Not even on Joseph and Mary. They're focused more on, like, the end of time. Right. Like, Jesus's second coming. And this whole idea that, like, you know, I don't want to say, like. Like, we just have this moment we're in right now, and we know that the future is coming, and we know that, like, the past has been. And we are in this moment in between that's open. Right. And, like, Jesus is coming again, but he's already come. And what God wants us to do right now is not worry about what's happening in the future. He wants us to be here now.
[00:25:39] Speaker C: The present.
[00:25:40] Speaker B: He wants us to be here now. And like, guys, we are heading into December. Like, it is gonna be a little chaotic. Right.
[00:25:47] Speaker C: The present of presence.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: So I think that's part of gratitude too. Is just like coming on down for a landing in this present moment, appreciating what's here.
And yeah. Being present. Being present.
[00:26:08] Speaker C: I got laughing because one of my friends I saw on Facebook, she says, oh, I bought an extra Advent calendar because I forgot I had already bought one. So we're gonna do Advent in November.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:26:23] Speaker C: I was like, oh, man, you're already, like, you're already in the thick of it.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it's.
[00:26:29] Speaker C: But here we are.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: You know, it's so much easier to.
[00:26:33] Speaker C: Say than to do it.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: I know. Just like to simplify to be present, to be thankful, to notice. Yeah.
[00:26:41] Speaker C: I'm not gonna go out all decorating or I'll only do this and I'll do that. And then December comes and you're like, oh my gosh, how did we get here? How did we get here every year.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: Without fail, you know? Yep.
[00:26:54] Speaker C: Even when we're planning in May for the next year, it's like a double edged sword for us as ministers because a lot of times I don't feel present because we're already thinking of.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: And we're always trying to add more stuff too. Oh, wouldn't it be cool if we did this? Wouldn't it be great if we added this? And when we're thinking about it in June, it all makes perfect sense. And then we start rolling and we're like, how did it get to be December?
[00:27:27] Speaker C: That's not gonna happen.
And I think it's okay to say, I just. I can't.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: Right.
[00:27:33] Speaker C: No. And I can't. There's. There's a. There's a season of gratitude, of just being no.
[00:27:40] Speaker B: If you're saying no to something, it's probably because you're trying to say a bigger yes to something that's more important.
[00:27:46] Speaker C: Oh, right. Hold on for that rehearsal.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, if you, like when you're saying no to something, it's not that that thing's bad, it's just that you doing it might keep you from doing something else that's more important to you or that's more important for God that God wants you to do.
[00:28:04] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, look at that.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: We're going to add that to the list of things we share at staff Meetings. Remember the quotes? Remember we had that one we shared with the staff about, like, someone else's lack of planning is not your emergency or whatever.
[00:28:19] Speaker C: Your poor planning is not my emergency.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: My emergency. Right. Although we don't read unsigned criticisms.
[00:28:26] Speaker C: I'm grateful for Ben Cutter, now that.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: You just said that. Yeah, he's great. What makes you say that in particular?
[00:28:32] Speaker C: Okay, so, so funny, because we had a baptism outside of mass.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: Oh, yes. And let's give a shout out to men.
[00:28:41] Speaker C: I need to give a shout out to Ben and Clyde. Yeah.
Because I'm not used to being present at baptisms at transfiguration.
[00:28:50] Speaker B: Right. You usually do them all.
[00:28:51] Speaker C: You usually do missing gatherers. And so Father Rob was like, yeah, we need to make sure that the font is heated. And I was like, okay, I'll turn that on. And I'm thinking it's just gonna be simple. Switch. Right.
So I ended up asking you where it was. We got discombobulated. Didn't happen. So I texted Ben. I'm like, hey, can you tell me how to turn the font on? He's like, I don't think the heater's working. I was like, wait, what?
Oh, my gosh. So Ben and his dad Clyde got gallon buckets, filled them with hot water, and was just rotating the font water.
Bless them. And I even said to them that night, I'm like, thank you. My poor planning was your emergency, and I appreciate you add them to the.
[00:29:42] Speaker B: List of things we're grateful for.
[00:29:43] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[00:29:45] Speaker C: But, like, it's so true sometimes. Like, I.
It's so funny because I can notice other people's poor planning to make my. To make it an emergency for me, but sometimes I don't see my poor planning as someone. As somebody else's emergency. So for anybody that I poor planned for, I apologize. And I'm grateful for you for being patient.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And okay, so let's just keep in mind as we. As we wrap up Thanksgiving weekend, as we head into adventure, you know, guys, just, like, just stay focused on what you're grateful for.
Hang with it. Hang with the stuff that's most important because it's real easy to get off kilter.
[00:30:30] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: In December.
How about a scripture passage? Here's first. Thessalonians 5:16 to 18.
Rejoice, always, pray without ceasing, and in all circumstances, give thanks.
I think you can always find something.
[00:30:50] Speaker C: Something to be thankful for.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:30:52] Speaker C: In the midst of the dumpster fire, that is.
[00:30:58] Speaker B: That is everyday life.
It's true.
All right. I think that's all I got for this one. How about you?
[00:31:07] Speaker C: Me, too.
[00:31:08] Speaker B: All right, you guys, thanks for sticking with us.
[00:31:09] Speaker C: Oh, wait, no. I have one more. Sorry.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:31:11] Speaker C: We're grateful for you.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: We are grateful for you. Thank you for watching and listening and.
[00:31:16] Speaker C: Supporting us and asking if we were going to come back and giving us ideas. We really, really love doing this and we do it for you.
[00:31:26] Speaker B: And we're looking for guests. So if you are living through a season in your life that you think maybe we should have a discussion about here on Faith Break, reach out to us and we'd love to talk to you.
[00:31:38] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: Thank you, guys. Have a great week.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Thanks for taking a Faith Break with us today.
Karen Luke and Ann Gallagher are lay ministers with the parishes of St. Catherine of Siena in Menden, New York, and Church of the Transfiguration in Pittsford, New York.
More about our parishes, including weekly live streamed Sunday Mass, can be
[email protected] or transfigurationpittsford.org Engineering Today is by Jeff Beckett. Join us for new episodes of Faith Break each week in Studio on YouTube or on your favorite audio podcast or music.
