Healing Hope
Mother Nature seems to be going rogue these days. She’s off script. Last week it was warmer in Wisconsin than it was in Florida. Temperatures have been in the eighties one day and the forties the next. A couple weeks ago I stepped outside at 7am, rake in hand, to rescue our fragile evergreen trees from the snow that was bending their branches to the ground. It was a winter wonderland. Only to find myself outside again a few hours later without any trace of snow around. For a second, I wondered if I had been dreaming. I did love those unseasonably warm days last week though. It gave me the opportunity to start preparing the garden beds around our house. This year it’s particularly exciting, because it’s the first Spring in a new house, so I have no idea what all is going to pop up. It never ceases to amaze me when those tiny specs of green start peeking out from the dry, hard ground this time of year. Ground that has been beaten down by months of harsh conditions. Yet, it still finds a way to open to the new life that can’t contain itself. And because it is open to this new life, the garden grows, transforms the look of the yard, and brings great beauty to the world. In the month of April reflection in Joyce Rupp’s book, May I Have This Dance, she compares the human spirit to a spring garden. She says, “If growth is to happen, it too (the human spirit) must be made ready. The human spirit must be opened up if God’s goodness is to grow there. Open minds and hearts are ready to receive the abundant life God constantly offers.” How often our minds and hearts become like the beaten down soil. Hardened and closed off as a result of life’s challenges. Repeated seasons of unmet needs, unanswered prayer, and discouragement can weather us. Before we know it, we aren’t who we want to be at all. We close ourselves off to the goodness of God within us and in others. We suffer because of it, not to mention the people around us. No matter how significant our hurts have been, there is always hope. There is hope that situations will change, people will change, we will change. We need to pray for openness to the healing hope of newness. Ask God to heal...
Alleluia!
Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. John 20:1 Thanks to the Resurrection, we need not run to the tomb like the Magdalene in anxious hope of finding him, or in fear that someone may have stolen him from us. He promised us that he would be with us always. That is why Easter joy is peaceful. For Jesus is now present, no longer just in Galilee or on Golgotha, but in all things. (Excerpt from I Thirst by Fr. Joseph Langford) Alleluia!! Wishing you and those you love an abundance of Easter joy, Joan...
The Dumbfounded Outlet
People often ask me how I come up with the topics for my blogs. I don’t “come up with them;” they seem to come up to me. Like the topic of last week’s blog and this week’s blog. When this happens, I know it and I know I need to go with it. So, if this week’s blog makes you shake your head, I apologize. Remember, I’m just the messenger. I was sitting on the couch the other day when I glanced down and saw what I have identified as an electrical outlet for all of my life. Two receptacles that provide power. (See the picture above.) But for some reason, this time, when my gaze landed on this common household object, I saw something new: two small, dumbfounded faces looking back at me. Do you see them? My initial reaction was one of surprise, then laughter. As the smile crept across my face, I thought to myself, “There’s my blog.” This newfound outlet awareness had me pondering: How could I not have seen it like this before? All my life this has eluded me. What else is right in front of me but I don’t see it, I wondered. Why did I see it then? Do other people see this? These are some of the same questions I have asked myself when confronted with a new awareness in my spiritual life. A spiritual truth that I have recently been made aware of that has me asking these same questions was uncovered in our study of the book, I Thirst, by Fr. Joseph Langford at Firstfruits. If you have been reading my blogs this Lent, you have read many quotes from his book. The astounding truth that I saw completely different than I had all of my life was the truth that God thirsts for you and for me. God yearns for us. I’ve always believed that God loves us, but somehow this truth that He yearns for us surprised me into a new way of seeing our relationship with God. Jesus proclaims that thirst of the Father for us on the cross when He says, “I Thirst.” The very act of dying on the cross was to point to the profound yearning of the Father to be with us for all eternity. Jesus’s death made that possible. There is a truth to really ponder as we come into the final stretch of our Lenten journey. With this newfound...
The Cross Plant
As my parents were aging, I remember my mom encouraging me when I would go home to visit to put my name on anything I wanted that was in the house. I thought it was kind of morbid and really didn’t see the point which is why my siblings ended up with the good stuff and I ended up with the luau decorations. (See my blog) I better understand my mom’s request now. I will probably do the same with our kids. It is interesting to me, just what things the kids would even want. There is one possession of mine that I am really interested in knowing where or with whom it is going to end up. My Dead-Jesus-on-the-Cross plant. (See picture above.) I’m sure there will be a real bidding war between my children for it. I can just see it now. Fifteen years ago, I found this odd but beautiful rotting piece of nature while on a walk. It was a sunny fall day when I was struck by the Divine in an otherwise very ordinary day when I looked down and there was this dried-up plant on the side of the road. I immediately saw an image in this old plant that I was very familiar with, the image of Christ on the cross. If you look closely at the pictures in the frames you will see what looks like a crown of thorns around what I saw as a head. The side branches almost look like arms and the large clumps of dried leaves on either side of the main branch reminded me of the weight of our sins, ugly and heavy, that Jesus took with him on the cross. I carried this somewhat odd artifact with me often and looked forward to any opportunity I had to share it with others. I was transporting it in a DSW shoe store bag when one of my friends in a Bible study I was attending begged me to let her husband make me a more solid, permanent home for my find. Thus, as you see, my Jesus Plant is now safe and sound, encased and on display at Firstfruits. During Lent we are prompted to ponder the mystery of the cross. Ponder the connection between the suffering of Jesus on the cross and our own suffering with the crosses we bear. And we all bear crosses. We can’t escape them. In his...
You Don’t Know Him
Friday Fish Fry anyone? My Fridays are open now that the high school basketball season is over. My son is the head coach of the boys’ varsity basketball team at Pius High School and my husband is on his staff. November to March you’ll find me in a gym on Friday nights decked out in Pius Popes gear, nervously munching on a Nutter Butter from the concession stand while I try not to care about the outcome of the game. These games are truly a family affair. My sister and my friend, Mary, sell Spiritwear in the lobby. My brother-in-law wouldn’t miss a game. And with the promise of concession stand treats, pom- pom routines to imitate, and free rein to run up and down the bleachers for an hour, the grandkids don’t miss a game either. It’s a lot of fun, except when it isn’t. My daughter-in-law (the coach’s wife) and I (the coach’s mother) seem to have developed a keen sense of hearing at these games, almost like we sprout antennae that specifically pick up words of criticism hurled at the head coach. My daughter-in-law especially. All of a sudden, she will turn to me and say “Did you hear that?” And I begin the search for the target of my mama bear glare. We have learned it’s best to sit away from the crowd and give our antennae a rest. It’s just so disheartening to hear some of the comments when you know first-hand how hard it is to be a good coach and the sacrifices a coach’s wife and family go through during the season. All the blood, sweat and tears a passionate coach pours into his craft trying to create a culture of determination, hard work, and mutual respect, not to mention winning a few games along the way. When there is criticism, I want to say “But you don’t know him.” During this time of Lent, I try to take some time to think about Jesus’s mother, Mary, and how the events we reflect on during these weeks affected her. She knew, from the time of his conception, who Jesus really was and what he was destined for. She longs for all to know him. In Joseph Langford’s book, I Thirst, he says, of Mary; “For the nine months during which she carried the eternal Word within her, she came to know as no other human creature the depth of God’s...
Plumbing the Depths
BLOG WARNING: If the thought of needles and blood make you queasy skip to paragraph two. Before I became a full time Jesus lover, I was a part time Medical Technologist. I worked in the laboratory of a few different hospitals in my career doing diagnostic testing. One of my job responsibilities was drawing blood. It never ceased to amaze me how the human body worked; in particular how this life-giving fluid pulses through our bodies and maintains all our organs and cells even when it feels like nothing is happening. Such a powerful force at work and we are oblivious to it most of the time until I come along and plumb the depths of your arm with a needle. (I warned you.) In his book I Thirst, Joseph Langford M.C., says “The Holy Spirit is constantly, day and night, praying within us, waiting for us to open to the mystery of his prayer and to enter in to it.” It is our job to join that flow of prayer and let it become our prayer. That is how we deepen our prayer life to a place that goes beyond the superficial, stale prayer we easily become accustomed to and that often keeps us from finding God’s presence. This prayer of the Holy Spirit within us can provide us with life-giving grace and helps us maintain the life-giving connection to God that we need. There is such a powerful force at work and available to us even when we feel like nothing is happening. Just as we can’t feel the blood coursing through our veins, but we know it’s there, we can’t feel the prayer coursing through our beings but we know it is there. We just have to go deeper. How often in our prayer life do we stay at the surface? How often are we distracted in prayer? How often is our prayer more about quantity then quality, especially during Lent? In prayer, quality is more important than quantity. Superficial prayer that never makes the effort to go deeper cannot satisfy us and cannot satiate the Lord. Instead, we need to dive beneath the surface of our souls to find God’s presence in what the Eastern Church Fathers have sometimes called “prayer of the heart.” At the superficial level we are easily assailed by thoughts and distractions. The living waters are flowing at a deeper level below all the surface disturbances. We...
The Promise of a Sunrise
I took this picture outside our front door the other day. A beautiful sunrise in the east peeking through the starkness of the bare trees and hardness of the snow-covered ground. It reminds me of what this season of Lent is all about. A temporary darkness with the promise of coming light. Lent is a somber season when we are encouraged to do a lot of soul searching. We are called to take a hard look at where we have fallen short in our efforts to love. We are called to take a good look at where we have fallen away from the love of God. Where we have turned our backs on the grace and the love that is waiting for us. Where we have been duped by the world’s false promises instead of being delighted and delivered by God’s immutable promises. He calls us back. Again. It's a reflective season when we take in, with gratitude, the abundance of what we have been blessed with and offer what we can to those who have less. We are called to share our firstfruits. The best of what we have is to be shared generously. It’s a colorful time for our prayer lives. We are called to deeper and more regular prayer. It’s an opportunity to try some new prayer practices. Get creative. Prayer is conversation, prayer is quiet, prayer is a walk, prayer is a cure for insomnia. Prayer is with beads, prayer is with trees, prayer is in the car, prayer is in the shower. Don’t confine your prayer, let it free. The other thing that struck me about this picture is the promise of newness, the promise of potential, the promise of hope that the rising sun brings to a dark world each day. God promises those same things to us come Easter morning after our days in the darkness of Lent. This time of Lent shouldn’t be rushed. Stay in it. Learn, grow, pray, share, and trust. Know that the Son will rise with all His promises and it will be beautiful. Joan...
Heartily Sorry
I’ve decided to give up blogging for Lent. Just kidding. I could never go that long without sharing the spiritual musings that take up residence in my mind constantly. I do feel bad though, it seems the people closest to me have become paranoid of my blogs. They have a real fear of becoming the subject of one. Just last week, after a lengthy conversation with my daughter she said, “Now don’t put that in your next blog.” My Lenten deprivations have slowly morphed from being all about giving up something food related to giving up something I do that hurts me and/or those around me. This year I am trying to give up that 4:00 bowl of anything salty I can get my hands on but I have also taken a good look at where I don’t take sin seriously in my life. I ask myself, what should I give up that is harming me and taking me farther away from the abundant life God wants for me? A life filled with his love and grace. In his book, I Thirst, Joseph Langford M.C. talks about the spiritual problem of lukewarmness or tepidity of soul. He defines it as “the state in which we make no authentic effort to escape the patterns of venial sin that we have developed.” He goes on to list the telltale signs of lukewarmness: lax conscience, praying seldom and without much attention, quick to defend ourselves and slow to accuse ourselves, no eagerness for receiving the sacraments, intemperance in food and drink, content to gossip and criticize others, hold on to resentments and injuries without seriously trying to forgive. These examples gave me plenty of options for my Lenten resolve to give up what is harming me or others. It’s humbling to admit my lukewarmness. That is what we are called to do during Lent. To take a look at our sinfulness. Keeping in mind, the wideness of God’s mercy and the love that is waiting to comfort and heal as we reveal our sadness at our failures and ask for forgiveness. My granddaughter, Harper, made her First Reconciliation last week. She called me shortly after, as she was enjoying her post-confession frosty from Wendy’s, and told me she really did feel “lighter“ after and then proceeded to recite the Act of Contrition without skipping a word. I couldn’t help but smile and I pictured Jesus smiling too, at...
A Big Feeling
Feelings are messy things. They complicate our lives. They enhance our lives. They run our lives. Take an inventory of the feelings you experienced yesterday. Here is my inventory: calm, doubt, happiness, frustration, disappointment, anger, inadequacy, compassion, and love. All that before noon. Feelings seem to be part and parcel of the human life, not something God could be bothered with or would want to be bothered with. So, when I am confronted with the notion that God has feelings, it gives me pause. Fr. Richard Rohr, in his daily meditations on The Prophets, says; We know and we feel; if we are children of God, then somehow what characterizes our heart and humanity must be reflected in who God is. Maybe the only way to get a handle on who God is, is to speak of desire, to speak of anger, to speak of longing, to speak of love. Prophets help humanity experience the pathos of God, the pain, the feeling, the longing, the desire of God...
A Thirsting Love
Here we are again, that time of year when chocolate truffles, red roses, and candy hearts are a hot commodity. We celebrate Valentine’s Day this week and like a lot of other traditional holidays their origin and meaning have gotten lost on us. Lost in the Hallmark store racks and the commercialization. So, I decided to do some digging and here’s what I found out about Valentine’s Day and the saint whose life and reflection of God’s love, gives the day its meaning. On the website Learn Religions it states: Saint Valentine is the patron saint of love. He was sent to jail for performing weddings for couples during a time when new marriages were outlawed in ancient Rome. While in jail he was introduced to Julia, the young daughter of his jailer, and developed a friendship with the girl. Before he was killed, Valentine wrote a last note to encourage Julia to stay close to Jesus and to thank her for being his friend. He signed the note: “From your Valentine.” That note inspired people to begin writing their own loving messages to people on Valentine’s Feast Day, February 14th, which is celebrated on the same day on which Valentine was martyred. Believers say God worked through his life to perform miracles and teach people how to recognize and experience true love. I realized recently that true love, that is God-sourced love, is abundant and all around us, but often we don’t recognize it. We are programmed to see love in the hearts and flowers and Xs and Os, but so often miss it in the quiet, gentle movements around us. I glimpsed true love at a funeral for my daughter’s friend’s mom and the outpouring of care and concern for her friend from her circle of dear friends. I glimpsed true love in a conversation over lunch with a friend who is taking care of her husband who is battling cancer. She relayed a story of how she and her husband found themselves in a laughing fit at 2am over a not so funny situation. The mercy and patience and sense of humor showed me true love. I glimpsed true love when I happened upon a book titled, I Thirst. It is written by Fr. Joseph Langford, M.C. who was an intimate friend of Mother Teresa. In it he says, The message behind all of Mother Theresa’s missionary activity is simple but staggering: in the poverty and Cross of...