Posts
Candace’s Corner
· Pray Day 2 of the Novena for our Pope and Bishops
· Tuesday: Litany of St. Michael the Archangel
· Spirit hour Sunrise Strawberry Mimosa
· Carnival Time begins in Catholic Countries.
· Try Lavash Baked Trout Fish
· Bucket List trip: Santorini
· Plan winter fun:
o Soak in hot springs
o Hit the snow slopes
o Ride a snowmobile
o Go for a dog sled ride
o Ride a hot air balloon
· How to celebrate Feb. 10
🍇 Candace’s Worldwide Vineyard Tour
Absolutely — here is February 10 in the exact same format as your Week 13 entry, fully aligned with your structure, spacing, symbols, and tone. This becomes Week 14, centered on St. Scholastica and the Umbrian wine region.
🍇 Candace’s Worldwide Vineyard Tour
Week 14: Italy — Montefalco & Bevagna (Umbria)
Theme: Vine of Holy Friendship, Vine of Perseverance
Dates: February 10–16, 2026
Base: Montefalco • Bevagna • Umbrian Hills
Seasonal Note: Winter quiet — bare vines, soft light, and the contemplative stillness of February.
🗓️ Tuesday, February 10 – Arrival in Umbria → Montefalco
✈️ Travel: Arrive at Rome Fiumicino Airport
🚐 Transfer: 2 hours to Montefalco (~$45 bus/train combo)
🏨 Lodging: Palazzo Bontadosi Hotel & Spa ($110/night)
🌙 Evening: Stroll Montefalco’s medieval piazza
🔥 Symbolic Act — “The Prayer That Changes Weather”
At the Church of St. Francis, offer one bold prayer for someone you love, asking God to “bend the weather” of their life toward grace.
🗓️ Wednesday, February 11 – Sagrantino & Scholastica Silence
🍷 Visit: Arnaldo Caprai Winery ($20 tasting)
🌄 Overlook: Winter vineyards facing the Umbrian valley
🍽️ Lunch: Light Umbrian fare at a local trattoria ($18)
🌱 Symbolic Act — “Rooted Friendship”
Write the name of one person whose friendship has shaped you, and thank God for the season you shared.
🗓️ Thursday, February 12 – Bevagna & Medieval Wine Guilds
🚶 Experience: Walk Bevagna’s ancient wine‑maker quarter
🍷 Stops:
• Antonelli San Marco
• Scacciadiavoli
• Tabarrini
✨ Symbolic Act — “Joy in Stillness”
Sit in a quiet chapel for 10 minutes of “Scholastica Silence,” letting God speak first.
🗓️ Friday, February 13 – Montefalco Rosso & Hill Walk
🏛️ Visit: Montefalco Museum & Church of St. Francis
🍷 Tasting: Montefalco Rosso (~$15)
🌳 Hill Walk: Bare vines, stone terraces, winter air
🔥 Symbolic Act — “Fidelity in the Vine”
Name one commitment you intend to keep this year, and offer it to God.
🗓️ Saturday, February 14 – Passito & Citrus‑Grove Journaling
🍷 Visit: Sagrantino Passito tasting (~$20)
🚶 Vineyard Walk: Quiet winter rows, long shadows
✍️ Reflection: Journal under an olive or citrus tree
🌄 Symbolic Act — “Sweetness Returned”
Write one gratitude line for something that has quietly healed.
🗓️ Sunday, February 15 – Mass & Umbrian Benediction
⛪ Mass: Church of St. Augustine, Montefalco
🕚 Typical Sunday Mass: 11:00 AM
🍷 Visit: Terre de la Custodia (~$18 tasting)
✍️ Writing: Compose a blessing for the next vineyard traveler
🥂 Evening: Toast with Sagrantino Secco
🌄 Symbolic Act — “Umbrian Benediction”
Bless the hills, the vines, and the friendships that endure.
🗓️ Monday, February 16 – Departure
🚐 Return: Montefalco → Rome
✈️ Depart: Rome Fiumicino Airport
🌍 Suggested Next Stop:
• Georgia (Kakheti) — “Vine of Origins, Vine of Fire”
• Spain (Rioja) — “Vine of Pilgrims, Vine of Strength”
• Portugal (Douro Valley) — “Vine of Stone, Vine of Glory”
💰 Estimated Total Cost: ~$690 USD
Includes:
• 6 nights lodging
• 5–6 vineyard tastings
• Museum + chapel visits
• Local transport
• Sunday Mass
• Transfers to/from Rome
February 10 Tuesday-St. Scholastica
Leviticus, Chapter 19, verse 32
Stand up in the presence of the
aged, show respect for the old, and FEAR
your God. I am the LORD.
A
people or Nation is known by how it treats its most vulnerable persons. Are the
most vulnerable; the young, including the unborn and aged treated with dignity
and honor.
Are
these people who are created of and by God treated by us as an object; as a
vehicle to obtain something, or as a wall that blocks us from what we want or
are they seen as useless and unimportant?
We must avoid identifying with the culture of death.
An
encouragement to live life to the full[1]
I encourage each of you to live with serenity the years that the Lord has
granted you, I feel a spontaneous desire to share fully with you my own
feelings at this point of my life, after more than twenty years of ministry on
the throne of Peter and as we await the arrival, now imminent, of the Third
Millennium. Despite the limitations brought on by age, I continue to enjoy
life. For this I thank the Lord. It is wonderful to be able to give oneself to
the very end for the sake of the Kingdom of God! At the same time, I find great
peace in thinking of the time when the Lord will call me: from life to life!
And so I often find myself saying, with no trace of melancholy, a prayer
recited by priests after the celebration of the Eucharist: In hora mortis meae
voca me, et iube me venire ad te – at the hour of my death, call me and bid me
come to you. This is the prayer of Christian hope, which in no way detracts
from the joy of the present, while entrusting the future to God's gracious and
loving care. “Iube me venire ad te!” This is the deepest yearning of the human
heart, even in those who are not conscious of it. Grant, O Lord of life, that
we may be ever vividly aware of this and that we may savor every season of our
lives as a gift filled with promise for the future. Grant that we may lovingly
accept your will, and place ourselves each day in your merciful hands. And when
the moment of our definitive “passage” comes, grant that we may face it with
serenity, without regret for what we shall leave behind. For in meeting you,
after having sought you for so long, we shall find once more every authentic
good which we have known here on earth, in the company of all who have gone
before us marked with the sign of faith and hope. Mary, Mother of pilgrim
humanity, pray for us “now and at the hour of our death”. Keep us ever close to
Jesus, your beloved Son and our brother, the Lord of life and glory.
Copilot’s Take
Evil in the modern world rarely announces itself with horns and
smoke; it works quietly, numbing consciences and training people to see one
another as disposable. The Church confronts this not by matching the world’s
fury but by embodying a different way of being—one rooted in reverence, mercy,
and the unshakable dignity of every person. When Scripture commands us to stand
before the aged and honor the vulnerable, it is teaching us how to resist the
culture of death at its roots. In an age when headlines magnify scandal,
conflict, and decay, the Christian is called to magnify light: to protect the
weak, to speak truth without cruelty, to hope without naïveté, and to live with
the serene courage of those who know that death is not the end. The saints show
that confronting evil begins in the heart—refusing cynicism, refusing contempt,
refusing to let fear dictate our vision. Fidelity, not outrage, is the Church’s
sharpest weapon. And when believers savor each season of life as a gift,
entrusting the future to God’s mercy, they become living contradictions to the
darkness around them, witnesses that even now the Kingdom is breaking in.
Feast of St. Scholastica[2]
St. Scholastica was the twin sister of St. Benedict, the Patriarch of Western monasticism. She was born in Umbria, Italy, about 480. Under Benedict's direction, Scholastica founded a community of nuns near the great Benedictine monastery Monte Cassino. Inspired by Benedict's teaching, his sister devoted her whole life to seeking and serving God. She died in 547 and tradition holds that at her death her soul ascended to heaven in the form of a dove.
Things to Do
·
Tell
your children about the "holy twins": St. Scholastica and the tender
love she had for her brother St. Benedict. Ask them how they can help one
another to become saints.
·
Make
an altar hanging or window transparency in the shape of a dove to honor St.
Scholastica.
·
If
you are traveling to Italy, try to visit St. Benedict's Abbey of Monte Cassino.
NOVENA TO THE HOLY FACE
DAILY PREPARATORY PRAYER
Most Holy and Blessed Trinity, through the intercession of Holy Mary, whose soul was pierced through by a sword of sorrow at the sight of the passion of her Divine Son, we ask your help in making a perfect Novena of reparation with Jesus, united with all His sorrows, love and total abandonment.
(Console Holy Face and recite Daily Preparatory Prayer)
Psalm 51,6b-7.
You are just when you pass sentence on me, blameless when you give judgment. You know I was born guilty, a sinner from the moment of conception. Prayer of Pope Pius IX O Jesus! Cast upon us a look of mercy: turn your Face towards each of us as you did to Veronica; not that we may see it with our bodily eyes, for this we do not deserve, but turn it towards our hearts, so that, remembering you, we may ever draw from this fountain of strength the vigor necessary to sustain the combats of life. Amen. Mary, our Mother, and Saint Joseph, pray for us. Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition Pardon and mercy.
Prayer of Saint Francis
All highest, glorious God, cast your light into the darkness of our hearts, give us true faith, firm hope, perfect charity and profound humility, so that with wisdom, courage and perception, O Lord, we may do what is truly your holy will. Amen.
To the Angels and Saints
We salute you, through the Holy Face and Sacred Heart of Jesus, O all you Holy Angels and Saints of God. We rejoice in your glory, and we give thanks to our Lord for all the benefits which He has showered upon you; we praise Him, and glorify Him, and for an increase of your joy and honor, we offer Him the most Holy Face and gentle Heart of Jesus.
Pray that we may become formed according to
the heart of God. Pray one (1) Our Father, (3) Hail Mary’s, (1) Glory Be.
O Bleeding Face, O Face Divine, be every adoration Thine. (Three times)
Bible in a Year Day 223 Responding Well
Fr. Mike takes us through the last chapter
of Isaiah by explaining how our emotions can sometimes get in the way of us
responding well to those around us. This means mourning with those who mourn,
and rejoicing with those who rejoice, as Isaiah teaches us in preparation for
the coming of Christ. Today's readings are Isaiah 66, Ezekiel 25-26, and
Proverbs 14:1-4.
Litany of Trust- “From
the lie that my life loses value as I grow old… deliver me, Jesus.”
Age is not a
diminishment in the Kingdom of God; it is a deepening. Scripture commands us to
rise before the aged not because they are fragile, but because they reveal
something about God that youth cannot—perseverance, memory, endurance, and the
slow wisdom that only time can carve into a soul. The world fears aging because
it fears dependence, weakness, and limits. But the Christian learns to see
these not as failures, but as invitations to trust.
St. Scholastica
shows that holiness ripens with time. Her final encounter with St. Benedict was
not marked by strength or achievement, but by a heart so united to God that her
prayer bent the weather itself. She reminds us that spiritual authority does not
fade with age; it intensifies.
Jesus, free us
from the lie that our worth is measured by usefulness, productivity, or youth.
Teach us to honor the elderly, to cherish the slow seasons, and to recognize
Your presence in every wrinkle, every limitation, every year You grant. Let us
live with the serenity of those who know that life is moving not toward loss,
but toward fulfillment—from life to life.
Jesus, I trust in You.
Daily Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Restoring
the Constitution
·
Litany of the Most
Precious Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
She Knew All the Answers (1941)
Starring: Joan Bennett, Franchot Tone, John Hubbard
Director: Richard Wallace
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Genre: Romantic Comedy / Screwball‑Adjacent
Runtime: ~85 minutes
Plot Summary
Gloria Winters (Joan Bennett) is a glamorous, ambitious nightclub performer who plans to marry wealthy playboy Randy Bradford (John Hubbard). There’s only one obstacle: Randy’s guardian and financial manager, the impeccably controlled Mark Willows (Franchot Tone), who believes Gloria is a gold‑digger and refuses to approve the match.
Gloria, determined to prove him wrong, takes a job as Willows’ secretary under an assumed identity. What begins as a strategic maneuver quickly becomes a tangle of misunderstandings, romantic sparks, and comic reversals. Gloria discovers that Willows is not the cold, calculating figure she imagined, and Willows discovers that Gloria is far more sincere, intelligent, and grounded than he assumed.
As the masquerade unravels, the emotional truth emerges: Gloria’s heart is not where she expected it to be, and Willows—despite his polished reserve—finds himself falling for the very woman he tried to keep out of Randy’s life.
The film resolves in classic 1940s fashion: misunderstandings cleared, masks dropped, and love revealed not as a calculation but as a surprise that humbles both pride and presumption.
Catholic / Moral-Thematic Reflection
1. The Danger of Assumptions
Mark Willows embodies the temptation to judge by appearances. His “prudence” is really pride disguised as responsibility. The film gently exposes how easy it is to mistake control for wisdom.
Moral note: True discernment requires humility, not suspicion.
2. Gloria’s Hidden Virtue
Gloria begins as a showgirl stereotype, but the story reveals her loyalty, honesty, and courage. She’s willing to work, to sacrifice, and to tell the truth even when it costs her.
Moral note: God often hides virtue in unexpected places; the heart is revealed through action, not reputation.
3. Love as Conversion
Both leads undergo a soft conversion:
- Gloria moves from ambition to authenticity.
- Willows moves from judgment to vulnerability.
Their romance becomes a parable of how love dismantles our defenses and invites us into truth.
4. Providence Through Missteps
The comedy of errors becomes a kind of providential choreography. What looks like chaos is actually the path to clarity.
Moral note: God writes straight with crooked lines.
Hospitality Pairing (Era‑Appropriate & Thematically Fitting)
Cocktail: The “French 75”
Elegant, crisp, and quietly potent—just like Franchot Tone’s performance.
A 1940s favorite that fits the film’s blend of sophistication and surprise.
Ingredients
- Gin
- Fresh lemon juice
- Simple syrup
- Champagne
Why it fits
- Light and effervescent like Gloria’s charm
- Structured and refined like Willows’ personality
- A celebratory drink for a story about unexpected love
Food Pairing: Chicken à la King on Toast Points
A classic mid‑century supper dish—creamy, comforting, and slightly theatrical.
Perfect for a film that moves between nightclubs, offices, and high‑society drawing rooms.
Optional Devotional Angle (If you want to weave it into your calendar)
Theme: “Judge not by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:24)
Reflection:
Gloria and Willows both misjudge each other. Their journey mirrors the spiritual discipline of seeing others as God sees them—beyond roles, reputations, or first impressions. The comedy becomes a gentle reminder that charity begins with curiosity, not suspicion.
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