Offering it up – From the other end

Around this time of year, conversations about sacrifice tend to increase, and in Catholic circles, we look that whole business of “offering it up” – that once common phrase and practice, not so frequently heard any longer. Unless you’re me over the past three and half weeks. You can find lots of articles discussing, justifying [...]

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You are dust

One of the best ways to begin Lent is with the Holy Father’s message: From what I have said thus far, it seems abundantly clear that fasting represents an important ascetical practice, a spiritual arm to do battle against every possible disordered attachment to ourselves. Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other [...]

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Yes

There is much going on and, you will not be surprised to know, a great deal of thought and emotion and prayer. In the past two and a half weeks, I have filled two Muji notebooks and should be completely dehydrated from fluid loss at this point.  I could write ten blog posts a day [...]

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Gratitude, again.

I have many people to thank – a couple hundred thank you notes to write, which I will start next week, I promise. People have been so generous, and I will go into more detail in a future post about that, but I just wanted to break this recent silence with a heartfelt thank you [...]

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Go figure

Imagine my surprise as I prayed over the past week – prayed the Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary – imagine my surprise when the words of the prayers did not include: Oh, God, bring Michael back or God of Heaven and Earth, let Amy go back in time and forcibly take Michael [...]

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Remembering

This post is mostly for me, our family and Michael’s friends. If anyone who knew Michael has anything to add, please do so. Several people at the visiting hours quite accurately observed that Michael would abhor any sense of being canonized, either in terms of his earthly life or his eternal life. He was keenly [...]

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Euthus

First: What you’ll read here is nowhere near the sum of what is going on. I’m not using this space to pour out and expose everything that is going on.  I’m using it to share thoughts and experiences that have been helpful to me and that I hope will be helpful to others, and to [...]

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Gratitude

People are wonderful. I am grateful beyond words for the outpouring of support and prayer we have experienced over the past week. And it has been a week, exactly. Thousands of prayers said, rosaries prayed. Scores, if not hundreds of Masses offered. Michael was always quite firm when we discussed this element of the future. [...]

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The Last Column

Michael had been writing a column for the Diocesan newspaper called “Some Seed Fell” and posting them after publication on his blog. His sweet secretary Allison just sent me the last column he wrote, being published this week, that he wrote Monday night. While in Washington, D.C. several weeks ago, I ran into an old [...]

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Michael Dubruiel

November 16, 1958-February 3, 2009 Michael collapsed this morning at the gym and was not able to be revived despite the efforts of EMTs and hospital personnel. We are devastated and beg your prayers. Many thanks for all of the prayers and notes. It is overwhelming. Many have asked what they can do of a [...]

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