A Very Long Lent

Brad Miner

Monday, April 2, 2018

Lent has ended, but not for me.

I have cancer. At the start, we feared it was stage-four lung cancer, though I’m a non-smoker. This was because metastatic cancer was found on the left side of my neck and, simultaneously, a shadow appeared on my right lung. When cancer crosses the body’s midline, it’s bad news.

But the lung issue turned out to be non-cancerous. And of the “cutaneous and sub-cutaneous” cancer in my neck, several doctors said, “You can live a long time with that!” – the assumption being the metastases were either a treatable basal-cell or a squamous-cell carcinoma.

But after neck surgery in January, the cancer was labeled “aggressive,” and this led to interviews with doctors at major New York cancer centers, the choice of one, and the start of therapies: chemo and radiation every Monday followed by radiation Tuesday through Friday – for six weeks (week three begins today).

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More on Ignatian Yoga

Related posts about  yoga: https://movingbeyondcancerinnola.blogspot.com/search?q=yoga 

Ignatian Yoga Moving into Lent

Ignatian spirituality and yoga can complement each other, writes Bobby Karle, SJ. Combining the two offers a distinctive way of connecting with God and one’s self.

Check out the first in a series of Lenten Ignatian Yoga videos.

Related Posts about Yoga: https://movingbeyondcancerinnola.blogspot.com/search?q=yoga 

How having cancer brought me closer to God

Laura Yeager | Aug 29, 2016

Accepting my diagnosis was the first step toward freedom

It appears I’ve beaten cancer. According to the pathology report, the surgeon got clean margins, thus ridding my breast of the malignancy. And the CT scan of my trunk was normal; the cancer hadn’t metastasized to any of my organs. My brain MRI was normal—no cancer in my brain.

I made it out of the woods.

But this isn’t the interesting part of the story.

The more fascinating aspect of the tale, at least for me, is not that I beat cancer, but that I accepted cancer before I knew I’d licked it.

The upshot of beating cancer is human relief.

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Breathe in God, Breathe Out Cancer

"Breathe in God, breathe out cancer," I prayed with as much conviction as I could muster.

BY Gary Stromberg

PUBLISHED January 11, 2018

Gary Stromberg co-founded GIBSON & STROMBERG, a large and influential music public relations firm of the sixties and seventies. The company represented such luminaries as The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Muhammad Ali, Barbra Streisand, Boyz II Men, Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, The Doors, Earth, Wind & Fire, Elton John, Three Dog Night and Crosby, Stills, & Nash. He also spent time in the film business co-producing movies such as Car Wash (Universal Studios) and The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh (Lorimar/United Artists). Stromberg has also written three books, The Harder They Fall (Hazelden - 2007) and Feeding the Fame (Hazelden - 2009) and a third book for McGraw-Hill Publishing, entitled Second Chances, which was published in 2011. He's currently working on a fourth book, She's Come Undone, for HCI Publishing, which will come out next spring.

The canals in Venice Beach shimmer at sundown. The low-hanging sun casts long shadows, which make the water appear colder than I suspect it is. The ducks that line the banks now seem to like this time of day, as they are more active than when the sun is high overhead. Maybe it's their last chance to scrounge the canal bottom, looking for duck delicacies before darkness sets in.

The gravel path near my house parallels the canals for quite a distance. I love taking walks at the end of the day, especially when the tide from the ocean a few blocks away is high, and the canals are full. This is my private sanctuary, the place I go to check in.

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Faith and Fortitude - Cancer Today

Faith and Fortitude

A cancer survivor embarks on a spiritual journey to Poland and finds inspiration in a local cancer hospital.
By Cynthia Ryan

Just weeks before I met Agnieszka Mitręga in August 2016 at Holy Cross Cancer Center in Kielce, Poland, the 41-year-old mother of six learned that her estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, first diagnosed in the spring, had metastasized to her bones and lungs. I asked Mitręga, whose children range in age from 4 to 22, how she was coping with the news.  

“I have no time to think about it,” says Mitręga, who lives in the town of Pińczów, about 25 miles south of Kielce. Between growing vegetables and rye, tending to the household, and caring for her husband and children on her family’s 32-acre farm, Mitręga admits that, though she worries about the future, she remains “very active” and has “no time to dream about lying around, resting.”

Mitręga assured me that she was “not feeling any pain,” and that her doctor believed “she was in a good place” following a mastectomy, six rounds of chemotherapy and one treatment of radiotherapy. I was in awe of her calm strength and her belief that she would get through her experience with cancer, even though the disease had spread to many parts of her body, including her spine, ribs and likely her pelvis. 

“I am a believer in God,” Mitręga says. “I am Catholic.”

Read More - Cancer Today

Cabbage, Cures and Crosses

Cherie RinekerAuthor ~ A Pilgrimage Without End, How Cancer Healed My Broken Heart ~979-248-7306

Did you know that AIDS research still gets $270 million of funding every year, even though it no longer is a deadly disease? Multiple myeloma only gets $57 million. Makes you wonder if this cancer that still takes so many lives and grows every year with younger people being diagnosed would have a CURE if we too, could get $270 million. People finally started caring about AIDS when they realized it could affect them also. Well, myeloma is becoming a much more common cancer, and if we would have a more powerful voice, people like me and many other myeloma friends, would not have to die anymore!

My daughter does not want to lose me, and I don't want to be lost. Following is the letter I posted on Facebook for my friends and fans. I am desperate to spread awareness regarding the reality of this horrible cancer.

Yesterday, I saw my oncologist. As many of you know, I have been dealing with a lot of new bone issues that result in a lot of pain. It seems that I crack ribs just by bending slightly, turning wrong, or stepping off the sidewalk (all three happened in the past two months). Obviously, that has made me more on edge and feeling a bit discouraged as my medical team’s bag of tricks is all but empty. It seems my only hope is a trial that is not taking place at MD Anderson, thus requiring me to travel out of state. This is a very hopeful trial with a long waiting list, and I have no guarantee of being accepted, since it depends on my health status and immune numbers which have been very low for a long time.

Needless to say, there were some tears. I have fought the good fight for nearly five years now. I have so much to fight for. But after seeing many of my fellow myeloma warriors succumb to this fight, I also know I do not want to fight needlessly.  All that can be done is throw more and more chemo at me, which will ultimately kill me just as the cancer would. Chemo sucks! Cancer sucks!

 If nothing can be done, I don’t want to do both.

Spirituality and Prayer Relieve Stress

The last thing I think of when I'm stressed out with work deadlines and complicated homework projects with the kids is to get on my knees or attend Mass. But a growing body of research suggests prayer and religion rank high among the best stress busters. In her new book, The SuperStress Solution, Dr. Roberta Lee devotes a section to the topic of spirituality and prayer. 'Research shows that people who are more religious or spiritual use their spirituality to cope with life,' notes Dr. Lee. 'They're better able to cope with stress, they heal faster from illness, and they experience increased benefits to their health and well-being. On an intellectual level, spirituality connects you to the world, which in turn enables you to stop trying to control things all by yourself. When you feel part of a greater whole, it's easy to understand that you aren't responsible for everything that happens in life.' Among the research she cites is one study of approximately 126,000 people that found that

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Online St. Peregrine Novena for Cancer Patienrs

Today is the first day of the Saint Peregrine Novena for Cancer Patients!

Saint Peregrine suffered with cancer on his leg and he was told it needed to be amputated. So St. Peregrine turned to the cross and prayed. He did not allow his illness to bring him to despair, but rather it brought him closer to the cross, even through his suffering.

So today, let's pray for all cancer patients -- that their illness will not bring them to despair.
Day 1 - The St. Peregrine Novena

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear holy servant of God, St. Peregrine, we pray today for healing.

Intercede for us! God healed you of cancer and others were healed by your prayers. Please pray for the physical healing of…

(Mention your intentions)

These intentions bring us to our knees seeking your intercession for healing.

We are humbled by our physical limitations and ailments. We are so weak and so powerless. We are completely dependent upon God. And so, we ask that you pray for us…

Pray for us, that we will not let sickness bring us to despair

We know, St. Peregrine, that you are a powerful intercessor because your life was completely given to God. We know that in as much as you pray for our healing, you are praying even more for our salvation.

A life of holiness like yours is more important than a life free of suffering and disease. Pray for our healing, but pray even more that we might come as close to Our Lord as you are.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

To sign  up to receive the remaining prayers for the novena, go to http://www.praymorenovenas.com/podcast/day-1-st-peregrine-novena-2017.