Feast of the Assumption of Mary

Yesterday was the Feast Day of the Assumption of Mary into heaven. I got to play Ave Maria during communion, very kool... As Catholics, we hold Mary in super duper high regard. After all, she is the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God if you will. God sent His only Son to us through the Holy Spirit, through the Blessed Virgin Mary. Because of this, we honor Mary often. This feast day celebrates the fact the God called Mary to heaven, body and soul, rather than allow her to decay into death. Mary is special because like the old Ark of the Covenant contained the 10 Commandments, the earthly dwelling place of God for a time, she is the Ark of the New and Everlasting Covenant, having carried Jesus, the Son of God in her womb. And so we honor Mary on August 15th each year. We also honor her on a more daily basis by praying the Rosary, asking for her intercession with God for us, to help us in our time of need. We do much the same things with various Saints, asking them to intercede on our behalf, to help us with God. It is often thought that Catholics worship or pray "to" the Saints and to Mary. However, we actually only pray "to" God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We ask the Saints and Mary to go with us to God, to pray on behalf of us, aid us as we seek God's Grace.

"Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art thou among women, and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen."

It's kinda getting weird now, this whole thing about closing my office and going to work at the bank, now that I can see the fact that I am closing down. I have begun to clean out drawers, take things home, throw out stuff I don't need, shred files that have been scanned to disc, etc. I am excited about the new opportunity at the bank, but I am definitely going to miss running my own place. I am quite confident that the financial rewards will be exponentially great for having made this move. For the most part, I think we have seen the end of the prominence of the mortgage broker in the mortgage industry. Going forward, mortgage brokers will have to squeak when they walk and operate very, very cleanly (which they should have been doing to begin with) and they will be very specialized in what they offer customers. I am glad to be getting out of that part of the business, it's not pretty!

This afternoon, we roll out our new foreclosure task force to the public and begin organizing on a larger scale. This will be exciting, and hopefully helpful to homeowners in our county that are facing tough times ahead.

I place myself in the presence of my God...

Please help me to stay sober today, it's truly the most important thing in my life. Everything depends upon me staying sober a day at a time. Please help me to be of service today, to You and to those about me. Please be with my friend J and his gal and children as they try to deal with their failing relationship. Thank You for bringing my friend MC's son home safe and sound from Iraq. I pray that all our military families find themselves in Your Grace, and are able to be reunited safely, and soon. I hope and pray that our world leaders find ways to bring peaceful conclusion to all the world's conflicts.

May the peace of Christ be with you all!