Bullseye Reflections

REFLECTION ON PSALM 23 Born in the valley of the shadow of death Live in the valley of the shadow of death Walk in the valley of the shadow of death Always looming Always present Possibility and fact Consistent shadow I walk in this valley Placed in this valley To learn, to grow, to become To know, to love, to serve The Creator of this valley. The Creator of this valley and All that is beyond this valley  Calls me into relationship My Creator, God of the Universe, Bigger than the valley  Bigger than all the shadows Cares enough to enter into my l ife. Relationship with the Trinity, God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, God the Holy Spirit  Intense light shimmering in the shadows. Even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for God is with me. Guiding me through the valley Anointing me with oil My cup overflows God dwells within me  as I walk through this valley  Moving towards dwelling within God for eternity.  Poem by Sara Fontana Paintings by Kenneth Petr

MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MY ADULT CHILDREN... "... in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19) I believe in a loving God. A God who is parent, sibling and friend – Father, Son & Holy Spirit - rolled into one. In an imperfect way my relationship with my own adult children is a metaphor for my relationship with God.  GOD THE PARENT:  In my children’s life experience, I am the one who gave birth to them. When I held each one of them for the first time, I loved them completely. They did nothing to earn that love, my love was freely given to them. Like God, the parent, I rejoiced in their birth. I have been there holding them, caring for them, loving them, disciplining them, guiding them, listening to them, waiting for them to come home, delighting in time spent together. When they were children, my primary role was as mother. There were times when they were angry with me because, out of love, I disciplined them working to instill an interna

  The funeral ripped my emotional interior apart. I felt shredded into pieces of different color cloth  all representing mixtures of anger, grief, fear of my own death, deep sadness, extreme loss, emptiness  and other unnamed feelings.  I wept and raged at God for taking this friend.    I was observed by others.  Later a young woman asked, "Do you believe you should cry out all your tears and all your grief at one time and get it over with?" I said, "No." You cry uncontrollably in the beginning. Then you cry at anniversaries and birthdays, holidays and special events. Then you cry when you hear a certain song, smell a certain smell, hear a word that reminds you this person you loved can no longer be seen with human eyes. You cry without apologizing.  You cry for what will never be again in this lifetime.  And    In the midst of          All your tears,               You keep on living.  Sara Fontana, 2005           

My husband's and my morning routine includes pouring our preferred morning caffeine and then going to our respective morning spaces.  He brings coffee with him to a lounge chair in our bedroom and I bring tea to a lounge chair in the living room.  After about an hour of separate prayer and morning reading we get together to stretch and do light weight lifting while listening to the scripture reading for the day using Laudate app on our Iphones.   Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time the first reading was from Genesis 2:18-25.  The day before we had heard in Genesis how God formed man out of the clay of the ground.  This day we heard about how God was concerned: "It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a suitable partner for him."  So God formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air and brought them to the man but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.  So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man and while he

  SUICIDE OF A VETERAN Dedicated to Sean Leahy, my nephew   A Veteran             Strong, outer presence             Crumbling inside   Insights within             Moments of clarity             Authenticity with self and others             Is interior strength possible?   Constant, relentless             Visions, thoughts             Tearing at the insight             Breaking down strength within   Crumbling inside seeps outward             The strong outer presence begins to crumble   “You would be better off without me…”   Offering the ultimate sacrifice, The battle ends with gunfire.   Sara Fontana December 3, 2022    

  SARA FONTANA presents an ARMOR OF GOD Family Challenge.... Take up the Armor of God challenge in your family. Print out this blog and use it for Faith Conversations and discussion during the month.   Discuss one piece of armor du ring dinner and use the Faith Conversation questions & tips listed below to have a discussion on how you, your child and your family can put on and use that part of the armor of God. Watch the Armor of God YouTube video with your children https://youtu.be/KxBHEkEzT3M Armor of God Song by BearHug band Research has shown that families who make the time to have family dinners together and have Faith Conversations with their children raise up adults who stand strong in their faith. The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have faith conversations in your family centered on Ephesians 6:10-18 which gives us direction on putting on the full armor of God so that we can "take our stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not a