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Dara’s Corner
· Foodie
o Start your day with a satisfying breakfast featuring cheese curds. Head to a local farmer’s market or grocery store to pick up these tasty treats. Whether you enjoy them plain or in a dish like poutine, cheese curds are a delightful way to start your day.
o For lunch, celebrate with a flavorful shawarma. Look for a nearby Middle Eastern restaurant or food truck that offers this delicious dish. If you’re feeling creative, you can even try making your own shawarma at home using simple ingredients like chicken, beef, or lamb.
o For dinner, consider trying your hand at cooking roast pheasant. While this dish may seem fancy, it can be a surprisingly affordable option for a special meal. Look for recipes online and enjoy the process of preparing and savoring this unique dish.
o End your day with a cozy indoor activity like mushroom foraging or cooking with mushrooms on National Mushroom Day. Visit a farmer’s market or grocery store to pick up a variety of mushrooms and experiment with incorporating them into your favorite dishes.
· Spirit Hour: Carmelite Water
o In between meals, take a moment to practice good hand hygiene on Global Handwashing Day. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds to help prevent the spread of germs and keep yourself and others healthy.
o In the afternoon, embrace movement and self-expression on National Dance/Movement Therapy Advocacy Day. Put on your favorite song and dance around your living room, or try out a virtual dance class to explore new styles of movement.
o As the day winds down, take a moment to appreciate the contributions of rural women on International Day of Rural Women. Consider supporting local female farmers or artisans by purchasing their products or sharing their stories on social media.
o Lastly, take a moment to acknowledge the significance of National Grouch Day. Embrace your inner grouch and indulge in some self-care activities like taking a relaxing bath or enjoying a favorite book or movie.
East African Coastal Pilgrimage — October 15–22, 2025
Theme: Currents of Clarity & Embodied Grace
Coordinates: Beginning near Zanzibar (–6.1659 S / 39.2026 E), sailing toward Mombasa, Lamu, and the Somali coast
🕊️ Day 1: October 15 — Anchoring near Zanzibar
• Closing Rosary Procession on deck—each decade a threshold crossed
• Final Meal: Swahili feast—coconut rice, grilled tilapia, banana fritters, rosé
• Final Toast: Psalm 27: “One thing I ask… to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.”
🌺 Day 2: October 16 — Sailing toward Pemba Island
• Morning Ritual: Blessing of hands with clove oil—honoring the labor of healing
• Meal: Spiced cassava with grilled octopus and hibiscus tea
• Reflection: “The body is a vessel of mercy—every scar a doorway.”
• Hospitality Arc: Share a story of a scar—physical or spiritual—and its grace
🌿 Day 3: October 17 — Offshore Tanga, Tanzania
• Sunrise Psalm: “Let the rivers clap their hands…” (Psalm 98)
• Symbolic Meal: Tamarind-glazed chicken, baobab salad, cinnamon rice
• Evening Ritual: Circle of gratitude—naming the unseen helpers of the journey
• Reflection: “Gratitude is the fire that sanctifies memory.”
🕌 Day 4: October 18 — Approaching Mombasa, Kenya
• Pilgrimage Station: Fort Jesus—prayer for justice and protection
• Meal: Kenyan coastal platter—pilau, coconut beans, grilled prawns
• Hospitality Arc: Write a blessing for a child in exile; offer it at the rail
• Evening Psalm: “You hem me in—behind and before…” (Psalm 139)
🌊 Day 5: October 19 — Sailing toward Lamu Archipelago
• Morning Silence: Fast of words—honoring the wisdom of restraint
• Symbolic Meal: Sweet potato stew with tamarind, cardamom bread
• Reflection: “Silence is not absence—it is the presence of reverence.”
• Hospitality Arc: Offer a silent gesture of mercy to someone aboard
🕯️ Day 6: October 20 — Offshore Kiwayu Island
• Dawn Anointing: Oils of frankincense and sea salt—prayer for clarity
• Meal: Grilled snapper with mango chutney, millet cakes
• Reflection: “Clarity is not certainty—it is the courage to see.”
• Evening Ritual: Candle procession—each flame a prayer for discernment
🌅 Day 7: October 21 — Sailing toward Kismayo, Somalia
• Pilgrimage Station: Threshold of lament—prayer for regions in conflict
• Meal: Somali spiced lamb, rice with raisins, banana stew
• Reflection: “Lament is not despair—it is the mercy of remembering.”
• Hospitality Arc: Write a prayer for peace; release it into the sea
🕊️ Day 8: October 22 — Offshore Ras Kamboni
• Closing Ritual: Eucharistic sunrise—bread and sea, mercy and fire
• Final Meal: Coastal fusion—grilled seafood, coconut flatbread, rosewater tea
• Final Psalm: “The Lord will guard your going and your coming…” (Psalm 121)
• Benediction: Each pilgrim receives a shell—etched with a word of grace
Here’s a 7-course East African coastal-inspired meal plan from your pilgrimage menu, complete with links to authentic recipes so you can recreate the flavors aboard The World.
Each course honors the themes of Currents of Clarity & Embodied Grace, blending Swahili, Somali, and coastal traditions into a liturgical feast of mercy and fire.
🍽️ 7-Course Pilgrimage Meal Plan
1. Starter: Banana Fritters (Swahili-style dessert as appetizer)
Golden, crispy banana fritters evoke the sweetness of welcome and the warmth of community.
2. Soup: Spiced Cassava Broth with Clove & Coconut
A gentle cassava broth infused with clove and coconut, served warm to honor healing hands.
- 🧑🍳 Use cassava base and infuse with coconut milk and clove oil. Pair with this cassava preparationand adapt for broth.
3. Seafood Course: Grilled Tilapia (African Style)
Whole tilapia marinated in garlic, ginger, and African spices, grilled to smoky perfection.
4. Main Course: Somali Spiced Lamb with Raisin Rice
Tender lamb sautéed with cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves, served over fragrant rice with raisins.
5. Vegetable Side: Baobab Salad with Tamarind Dressing
A citrusy baobab pulp salad with tamarind glaze, served with cinnamon rice.
- 🧑🍳 Use baobab powder and pair with this cinnamon rice recipe
6. Bread Course: Coconut Flatbread
Soft flatbread infused with coconut milk, perfect for soaking up the grace of the meal.
- 🧑🍳 Adapt from Swahili chapati or use coconut milk in dough. Pair with Swahili coconut rice recipe
7. Tea & Dessert: Rosewater Tea with Hibiscus Syrup
A floral close to the feast—rosewater tea steeped with hibiscus and ginger, served with honey.
Let’s continue this pilgrimage with Day 15—a radiant unfolding of mercy through the life of Mother Antonia. From the endurance of faith in captivity, we now turn to mercy as embodied presence: a woman who chose prison not as punishment, but as home.
🕊️ Leafing the World Behind: Day 15
Witness: Mother Antonia Brenner
Theme: Mercy as Dwelling
Virtue: Mercy
Virtue Connection: Presence in Suffering
Symbolic Act: Offer a gesture of mercy to someone overlooked—write a note, share a meal, or simply listen.
Location: A threshold, a cell, a kitchen table—any place where mercy dwells.
🌿 Introduction: On Mercy
Mercy is not pity—it is presence.
It does not hover above suffering—it enters it.
To leaf the world behind is to choose love over judgment, proximity over power.
Today, we do not visit the imprisoned—we live among them.
We do not ask what they deserve—we ask what they need.
Mercy, in this rhythm, is not a transaction—it is a transformation.
🌺 Witness of the Day: Mother Antonia Brenner
Born into comfort, she chose captivity.
A Beverly Hills socialite turned servant of the imprisoned, Mother Antonia moved into La Mesa Prison in Tijuana—not as a visitor, but as a resident.
She wore a secondhand habit, slept in a cell, and became a mother to murderers, addicts, and the forgotten.
She brought medicine, forgiveness, and dignity.
She walked unarmed into riots, calmed violence with prayer, and reminded inmates they were beloved.
Her mercy was not soft—it was fierce.
She reminds us:
Mercy is not weakness—it is strength in surrender.
It is the courage to dwell where others flee.
🛡️ Virtue Connection: Presence in Suffering
Mercy does not fix—it accompanies.
It does not erase pain—it shares it.
Mother Antonia’s witness was not distant—it was incarnate.
She did not rescue from afar—she lived within.
She did not condemn—she consoled.
Like Kolbe, like the Christian guard, she chose proximity over safety.
She reminds us:
Mercy without presence becomes pity.
But mercy with presence becomes communion.
🕯️ Symbolic Act: Dwell in Mercy
Find someone overlooked.
Offer a gesture of mercy—not as charity, but as kinship.
Write a note. Share a meal. Listen without fixing.
Let it be a dwelling, not a duty.
As you act, say:
“Lord, let my mercy be presence.
Let my presence be peace.
Let my peace be Your dwelling.”
If no one is near, pray for those who feel forgotten.
Let your mercy be a home in prayer.
🔥 Reflection Prompt
Where have you fled from suffering?
What place or person have you avoided out of fear or judgment?
Can you name one moment when mercy changed you—not by fixing, but by dwelling?
Write, walk, or pray with these questions.
Let Mother Antonia’s witness remind you:
Mercy is not escape—it is embrace.
It is the strength to dwell, the grace to forgive, the love to remain.
OCTOBER
15 Wednesday-Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor
Acts, Chapter 24, Verse 2-3
When he was called, Tertullus began to accuse him,
saying, “Since we have attained much PEACE
through you, and reforms have been accomplished in this nation through your
provident care, we acknowledge
this in every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, with all gratitude.
The scene in this verse is set with Paul being on
trial for sedition with the Roman governor of Palestine Felix. The peace that
Tertullus alludes to is worldly peace which is not Christ’s peace; it is the
peace that is giving to an enslaved people to be happy with the scraps given
them for their meager existence. They have their lives if they follow the rules
but little liberty or power to pursue their personal dreams.
Paul on Trial[1]
A. The Accusers (vv. 1-4)
1. Their identification
(v. 1)"And after five days Ananias, the high priest, descended with the
elders, and with a certain orator, named Tertullus, who informed the governor
against Paul."
a) Ananias--Ananias was a corrupt high priest. He saw
Paul as a threat, so he wanted to get rid of him. That's why he was part of the
entourage that went to accuse Paul.
b) The elders--They were key leaders out of the
Sanhedrin, the supreme court of Israel.
c) Tertullus--Ananias and the elders didn't want to
accuse Paul themselves, so they hired a professional case reader by the name of
Tertullus. He was probably well versed in the legal procedure of Rome and spoke
eloquent Latin. Verse 1 says that he "informed the governor." The
high priest and the elders stood silently while Tertullus did the talking.
2. Their flattery (vv. 2-4) It was very common for
orators in those days to do what Tertullus did. In verses 2-4 he laid the
flattery on thick. The Latin description of what he did is Captatio
Benevolentiae. That could freely be translated as a "soft-soap job."
Tertullus buttered up Felix with flattery. There wasn't much good that could be
said about Felix, so Tertullus spoke in generalities. But that was a common
approach to obtain a favorable hearing. Felix knew what Tertullus said wasn't
true, but he liked to hear it anyway. That was true of Herod in Acts 12:21-22.
As he sat on his throne and gave a speech, the people said that he wasn't a
man, but a god. Herod loved receiving such praise even though he had to know it
wasn't true. So Tertullus flattered Felix, even though the governor was
intelligent enough to know that the Jewish people hated him.
a) The hearing begins (v. 2a) "And when he was
called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him [Paul]" We can't be sure if
the hearing was formal or informal, but there is a clue it was informal because
Felix decided to defer the case to a later date according to verse 22. So Felix
calls Tertullus, who begins his accusation.
b) The flattery begins (vv. 2b-4) Great peace (v. 2b)
"Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness" Tertullus begins by
telling Felix that he had brought peace. Yet Felix had made no contribution to
Roman peace at all. The only occasion when Felix brought any peace was when he
stopped a riot that shouldn't have started in the first place. He did such a
bad job of it that he alienated everyone. He hadn't done anything that
contributed to peace; Tertullus was just flattering him. Many of the Jewish
people didn't see the Pax Romanus as peace at all. Calgacus, a chieftain who
fought the Romans, said that where the Romans "make a desolation; they
call it `peace'" (Tacitus, Life of Agricola, 29-30). It may have been
peace for Rome, but it was oppression for everyone else.
Copilot’s
Take
On October 15, the feast of Teresa of Jesus invites us to contemplate the
contrast between worldly peace and divine truth. In Acts 24, Paul stands trial
before Felix, accused by a coalition of religious leaders who fear his
disruptive witness. Tertullus, their hired orator, opens with flattery—praising
Felix for bringing “great quietness,” a peace that masks oppression. This
rhetorical strategy, known as captatio benevolentiae, seeks favor
through praise rather than truth. But Teresa of Ávila, whose reformist spirit
we honor today, embodied the opposite: captatio veritatis, a bold
capture of truth. Her writings and reforms pierced through illusion, calling
both cloister and court to deeper fidelity. While Tertullus spoke of peace that
enslaves, Teresa lived a peace that liberates—born not of Roman order but of
divine intimacy. Like Paul, she faced trials not for breaking laws but for
breaking illusions. Her mystical clarity and Marian courage echo the
Magnificat’s reversal: casting down the mighty and lifting the lowly. In this
light, Paul’s trial becomes a mirror of Teresa’s mission—a confrontation with
false peace, a testimony to truth, and a call to interior freedom.
Saint
Teresa of Avila
Teresa,
whose name was Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, was born in Avila, Spain, in 1515.
In her autobiography she mentions some details of her childhood: she was born
into a large family, her “father and mother, who were devout and feared God”.
She had three sisters and nine brothers. While she was still a child and not
yet nine years old she had the opportunity to read the lives of several Martyrs
which inspired in her such a longing for martyrdom that she briefly ran away
from home in order to die a Martyr’s death and to go to Heaven (cf. Vida,[Life],
1, 4); “I want to see God”, the little girl told her parents.
A
few years later Teresa was to speak of her childhood reading and to state that
she had discovered in it the way of truth which she sums up in two fundamental
principles.
On
the one hand was the fact that (1) “all things of this world will pass away”
while on the other God alone is (2) “for ever, ever, ever”, a topic that recurs
in her best-known poem: “Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you, All
things are passing away: God never changes.
·
Patience
obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing, God alone suffices”. She was
about 12 years old when her mother died, and she implored the Virgin Most Holy
to be her mother (cf. Vida, I, 7).
·
When
she was 20, she entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation, also in
Avila. In her religious life she took the name “Teresa of Jesus”. Three years
later she fell seriously ill, so ill that she remained in a coma for four days,
looking as if she were dead (cf. Vida, 5, 9).
·
In
the fight against her own illnesses too the Saint saw the combat against
weaknesses and the resistance to God’s call: “I wished to live”, she wrote,
“but I saw clearly that I was not living, but rather wrestling with the shadow
of death; there was no one to give me life, and I was not able to take it. He
who could have given it to me had good reasons for not coming to my aid, seeing
that he had brought me back to himself so many times, and I as often had left
him” (Vida, 7, 8).
·
In
1543 she lost the closeness of her relatives; her father died and all her
siblings, one after another, emigrated to America. In Lent 1554, when she was
39 years old, Teresa reached the climax of her struggle against her own
weaknesses. The fortuitous discovery of the statue of “a Christ most grievously
wounded”, left a deep mark on her life (cf. Vida, 9).
·
The
Saint, who in that period felt deeply in tune with the St Augustine of the Confessions,
thus describes the decisive day of her mystical experience: “and... a feeling
of the presence of God would come over me unexpectedly, so that I could in no
wise doubt either that he was within me, or that I was wholly absorbed in him”
(Vida, 10, 1).
Teresa
of Jesus had no academic education but always set great store by the teachings
of theologians, men of letters and spiritual teachers. As a writer, she always
adhered to what she had lived personally through or had seen in the experience
of others (cf. Prologue to The Way of Perfection), in other words
basing herself on her own first-hand knowledge.
Among
her most important works we should mention first of all her autobiography, El
libro de la vida (the book of life), which she called Libro de las
misericordias del Señor [book of the Lord’s mercies].
Among
the most precious passages is her commentary on the Our Father, as a
model for prayer. St Teresa’s most famous mystical work is El Castillo
interior [The Interior Castle]. She wrote it in 1577 when she was in her
prime. It is a reinterpretation of her own spiritual journey and, at the same
time, a codification of the possible development of Christian life towards its
fullness, holiness, under the action of the Holy Spirit. Teresa refers to the
structure of a castle with seven rooms as an image of human interiority. She
simultaneously introduces the symbol of the silkworm reborn as a butterfly, in
order to express the passage from the natural to the supernatural. The Saint
draws inspiration from Sacred Scripture, particularly the Song of Songs, for
the final symbol of the “Bride and Bridegroom” which enables her to describe,
in the seventh room, the four crowning aspects of Christian life: the
Trinitarian, the Christological, the anthropological and the ecclesial.
Prayer
is life and develops gradually, in pace with the growth of Christian life: it
begins with vocal prayer, passes through interiorization by means of meditation
and recollection, until it attains the union of love with Christ and with the
Holy Trinity. Obviously, in the development of prayer climbing to the highest
steps does not mean abandoning the previous type of prayer. Rather, it is a
gradual deepening of the relationship with God that envelops the whole of life.
Another
subject dear to the Saint is the centrality of Christ’s humanity. For Teresa,
in fact, Christian life is the personal relationship with Jesus that culminates
in union with him through grace, love and imitation. Hence the importance she
attaches to meditation on the Passion and on the Eucharist as the presence of
Christ in the Church for the life of every believer, and as the heart of the
Liturgy. St Teresa lives out unconditional love for the Church: she shows a
lively “sensus Ecclesiae”, in the face of the episodes of division and
conflict in the Church of her time.
A
final essential aspect of Teresian doctrine which I would like to emphasize is
perfection, as the aspiration of the whole of Christian life and as its
ultimate goal. The Saint has a very clear idea of the “fullness” of Christ,
relived by the Christian. At the end of the route through The Interior
Castle, in the last “room”, Teresa describes this fullness, achieved in the
indwelling of the Trinity, in union with Christ through the mystery of his
humanity.
Dear
brothers and sisters, St Teresa of Jesus is a true teacher of Christian life
for the faithful of every time. In our society, which all too often lacks
spiritual values, St Teresa teaches us to be unflagging witnesses of God, of
his presence and of his action. She teaches us truly to feel this thirst for
God that exists in the depths of our hearts, this desire to see God, to seek
God, to be in conversation with him and to be his friends. This is the
friendship we all need that we must seek anew, day after day. May the example
of this Saint, profoundly contemplative and effectively active, spur us too
every day to dedicate the right time to prayer, to this openness to God, to
this journey, in order to seek God, to see him, to discover his friendship and
so to find true life; indeed many of us
should truly say: “I am not alive, I am not truly alive because I do not live the
essence of my life”. Therefore, time devoted to prayer is not time wasted, it
is time in which the path of life unfolds, the path unfolds to learning from
God an ardent love for him, for his Church, and practical charity for our
brothers and sisters.
Bible in a
Year Day 102 Death of Lazarus
Fr. Mike recalls the death of Lazarus, and how Jesus not only allowed himself
to be broken by the sorrow that breaks us but also how he took that
hopelessness and brought forth life. He also explains how the covenants we've
seen in the Old Testament are all leading to the eternal covenant that will be
instituted through Christ on the Cross. Today's readings are John 10-12 and
Proverbs 6:1-5.
Every Wednesday is Dedicated to St. Joseph
Reflect both Joseph and Jesus camped out at
Sukkot
The
Italian culture has always had a close association with St. Joseph perhaps you
could make Wednesdays centered around Jesus’s Papa. Plan an Italian dinner of
pizza or spaghetti after attending Mass as most parishes have a Wednesday
evening Mass. You could even do carry out to help restaurants. If you are
adventurous, you could do the Universal Man Plan: St. Joseph style. Make the
evening a family night perhaps it could be a game night. Whatever you do make
the day special.
·
Devotion to the 7 Joys and Sorrows of St.
Joseph
·
Do the St.
Joseph Universal Man Plan?
Why is St. Joseph the “Terror of Demons”?[1]
Though we know little about St. Joseph from the Gospels, what we read there demonstrates that his righteous character and behavior served as a defense for his beloved wife and foster Son. The Holy Family was a little city under perpetual siege by the Devil. But Joseph was chosen by God to guard the city walls.
When he first learned that Mary was carrying a Child who was not his own, he naturally concluded that she had committed adultery. But so great was his love for Mary and even for her unborn Child that his primary intention was to protect them. Rather than publicly exposing the situation—which would have led to terrible consequences for both mother and Child—he “resolved to send her away quietly” (see Mt 1:18—19).
When the angel revealed to him the truth of the situation and told him not to fear to take her as his wife, his great faith in God prompted him to do that immediately (Mt 1:20—5). Though he knew that such obedience would come at a great cost, his impulse, again, was to protect Mary and the Babe.
Yet once more, when the angel warned him to take his little Family and flee to Egypt because Herod planned to kill the Child, he obeyed right away, in the middle of the night. With extraordinary courage he left for a foreign land without preparations, without telling their extended family, without a job or home waiting for them, and despite numerous dangers on the highways because of robbers and worse (see Mt 1:13—15). His compelling desire was to defend them, and that desire led him to choose Nazareth as their home when they returned, to avoid the possible wrath of Herod’s son in Judea (Mt 1:19—22).
Our last glimpse of Joseph comes when Jesus was twelve years old, and he and Mary couldn’t find Him in Jerusalem. When they did, after three days of separation, Mary’s words reveal Joseph’s heart as well as her own when she said to the Boy, “Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously” (Lk 2:48).
I think we can conclude that whatever attacks the Devil may have attempted in the “hidden years” of the Holy Family at Nazareth, those attacks were unsuccessful in large part because of Joseph’s protection, who served as their divinely appointed defender.
After Joseph left this world for the next, he went on to take on the mantle of a defender, not just of the Holy Family, but of the extended family of Jesus and Mary—that is, the whole Church. He has in fact been declared “Patron of the Universal Church.” Many titles ascribed to him in the litany that bears his name remind us of this role: Guardian of Virgins, Pillar of Families, Patron of the Dying, Protector of Holy Church. But none among them is more fitting than the title that reveals his might as a spiritual warrior: Terror of Demons.
Joseph may well have been a man of few words; Sacred Scripture has recorded nothing from his lips. But this title suggests that when we call on him for rescue from our diabolical adversaries, he need not even speak to them: His very presence terrifies them and sends them fleeing. (More about Joseph’s role in the apostolic exhortation of Pope St. John Paul II Redemptoris Custos: On the Person and Mission of St. Joseph in the Life of Christ and of the Church.
With the war in the Gaza Strip let us ask Joseph who traveled with Mary and Jesus through this land in his flight to Egypt to have all the idols fall down and all be converted to the peace only Christ can give.
[1]https://angelusnews.com/voices/spiritual-warfare-and-the-saints-who-help/
Daily Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Families of St. Joseph’s Porters
·
Religion
in the Home for Preschool: October
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
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