You may have heard of Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R. (Eternal rest grant unto thee, O Lord.) He was a Priest of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a psychologist, an author, and the host of a live show on Sundays on EWTN. He also recorded all four mysteries of the Holy Rosary with Simonetta, which is played on EWTN radio every night. I enjoy his Rosary recording and the reflections before each decade of Hail Marys.
In this video from an online retreat by the Monte Christo organization and facilitated by Mr. Kyle Clement, he discussed the 3 figures at the foot of the Cross on Good Friday. As you are likely familiar, the figures were Mary Magdalen, St. John (the only apostle to not flee), and the Blessed Virgin Mary. All 3 were at the same Cross but each of them was processing the moment in 3 different ways. Question: Why is this important to learn about and meditate on?
St. Alphonsus was an Italian Bishop who lived from 1696 – 1787. “Uniformity with God’s Will” is a small book published by TAN books that contains these words relevant to all of us facing adversity, including aging, dementia, and caregiving: The essence of perfection is to embrace the will of God in all things, prosperous or adverse. In prosperity, even sinners find it easy to unite themselves to the divine will; but it takes saints to unite themselves to God’s will when things go wrong and are painful to self-love.
At Catholic Aging, one of the many things we attempt to do is to equip our community with tools that may not be well known. While any medication changes (adding, stopping, dosage modification) should only be done in consultation with your physician/nurse practitioner and/or pharmacist who knows you, you can start the research to have an effective conversation with them. In addition, you may be studious (a daughter-virtue of temperance) about the safety of medications without the intent to change.
The website Anticholinergic Burden Calculator was created by Dr. Heather King and Steve Rabino to help older adults realize the challenges that they may have from their medications having anticholinergics. From their website https://www.acbcalc.com/: Medications with anticholinergic properties can be associated Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs). Examples of such ADRs include dry eyes, urinary retention, dizziness, cognitive impairment and falls. The anticholinergic effect increases if a stronger anticholinergic is used, or if different anticholinergics are used in combination.
There is no shortage of claims of what may prevent, alleviate, or slow down dementia. It can be very difficult to sift through what is truth, what is half-truth. and what is fraud. Enter Google Scholar, your search engine within a search engine that will search the primary sources of the popular articles found in the media. Type in https://scholar.google.com/. Add search terms, such as “coconut oil and dementia.” Read the articles that catch your attention.
Image: The Catholic news agency of the Bishops’ Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina We pray for the repose of Benedict XVI and thank God for his service to Holy Mother Church. Benedict was pope for eight World Days of the Sick, from 2006 to 2013. In 2007, he said the following for communities like The Peace with Dementia Rosary: “Here I would like to encourage the efforts of those who work daily to ensure that the incurably and terminally ill,
Rather than a specific disease, “dementia” describes a broad group of symptoms, that can include memory impairment, diminished judgment, difficulty in concentrating, communication challenges, disorientation of time and place, and other symptoms. Causes of dementia besides Alzheimer’s disease, such as Vascular dementia, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Frontotemporal Degeneration, Parkinson’s with Dementia, Traumatic Brain Injury, and others. Have you ever walked into a room, only to forget what you came to do or retrieve – and then you went back to your starting point and remembered the purpose?
Below is an excerpt from the wonderful 100-page by Fr. Jacques Philippe entitled “Searching for and Maintaining Peace.” Every page of the book is good and the result is highlighting or underlining the whole manuscript! Try reading this text twice and there’s a question below that is worth meditating on. Fr. Philippe writes: “The first obstacle is that, as long as we have not experienced concretely the fidelity of Divine Providence to provide for our essential needs,
