Thursday, April 23, 2015

When Your Non-Catholic Bestie Visits...

I have a confession to make: I'm a little nervous about my non-denominational Christian bestie's visit because my faith is a huge part of my life and my daily activities. I've spent an hour (or over an hour) in prayer in the evening for the past couple of days because I've added a couple of novenas to my daily prayer routine. With the start of the Mary Undoer of Knots novena yesterday, it's now gotten longer since it means praying the Rosary twice a day. I have absolutely no problem with that... except that I don't know how to balance all that time in prayer with company.

Last time we had company, it was my older brother who stayed with us for a couple of days (back in early February). I didn't have to worry about things because he understood... and mom kept him busy anyway. All the things we couldn't get done because we needed the muscle? Yep, he took care of it. lol. This time around, the responsibility of being a good hostess falls on me. How am I going to do it when I spend part of my waking hours praying?

I don't get out of bed until I finish my morning prayers and those can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the day. The Rosary? 15-25 minutes, depending on the amount of distractions. Evening prayers? Half an hour on non-novena days; an hour on novena days. I'm on day 6 of a couple of novenas and day 2 of the Undoer of Knots novena. What am I going to say? "Sorry but the first half hour and the last hour of my day you're on your own because I have prayers to do"? That is not including random times in which I see prayer requests and pray for whoever needs prayers. I'm just worried about being rude and being a bad hostess, you know?

I'm lucky that D has already expressed an interest in attending Mass with us on Sunday. Not only that, she's going to veil because she knows that I love veiling. I've already told her that she doesn't have to do it but she already said she would. She's also joining a couple of us Catholic lady bloggers (who are in town for the Catholic Women Bloggers Network - California conference) for dinner and a viewing of Little Boy this weekend. Oh, and she'll be going to confession with me this Saturday as well.

Maybe I'm just worried over nothing but, like I said, I just don't want to be rude. She's coming into town to visit and celebrate my birthday (a month early but I don't mind ;D) and I don't want her to feel like either she's imposing on me (which she could never do) or like I'm trying to push Catholicism on her, which I'm not. Oh... and she's going to be surrounded by images and statues of Our Lady and saints. I have my Mary Undoer of Knots statue on top of my main bookcase in the living room, along with a picture of St. Benedict of Nursia and a crucifix from Jerusalem... Oh, and a St. Cecilia statue sits on top of the record player (yes, I have a record player...) next to the TV, across from the bookcase. Have I ever mentioned that you can tell we're Catholic by simply stepping through the front door of my apartment... or that I tend to over-think things sometimes? lol. Yeeaah. Nearly 10 years of friendship and I'm still worried about these things. *blush*

I might blog during the visit and how we're coordinating everything because I think it may be interesting. I'll have to ask her if it's okay but I'm sure she'll be onboard with it. By the way, feel free to laugh over my worries; it's just been ingrained in me that I have to be on top of things and make sure my guests are comfortable and feeling like my home is their home as well.

Anyway, I need to go finish vacuuming (for the second time this week... yes, I'm one of those people who likes their home clean and orderly) and some dusting before I have to go pick her up from the airport. Wish me luck. ;)

As always, thanks for reading and God bless! :D

1 comment:

Knuckles McMason said...

One of the things that translates well is is "Morning and evening devotions" When I was protestant, they were a common thing, esp among the non-denom and quasi-baptist groups. It wasn't uncommon for us to challenge each other and keep each other accountable for keeping up with our daily devotional time.

When I first started converting, (still in high school at that point) I would keep my normal times, and silently supplant protestant prayers with Catholic ones. I'd sit at the table with my usual books, Bible and do my thing. Continued on into college, I was at a Methodist school, I met no resistance at all.

My experience along these lines is pretty positive. YMMV.