For Pia's Mom

This is my prayer for your sweet contemplative mom, dear Pia – that the Lord is continuing to nourish and soothe her mind and spirit after her strokes with the beauty of nature and all of His creation, as He has always done for her.

We love you, and I’m sure I speak for many when I say we wish we could be with you in person, to comfort you during these difficult days.

Deep peace of the running wave to you,
Deep peace of the flowing air to you,
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,
Deep peace of the shining stars to you,
Deep peace of the gentle night to you,
Moon and stars for their healing light on you.

Happy Mother's Day, Even If You Think You're Not a Mom

Recently I had the pleasure of reading Johnnette Benkovic’s, “Full of Grace.  Women and the Abundant Life”.  I’ve been meaning to for years, and will certainly be reading it more than once.  It’s one of those books you can return to over and over and always learn something new.

On this Mother’s Day I’d like to share with you two passages, and wish every woman who may be reading this a beautiful day, whether you are spending it with your children or not, whether you are acknowledged by your children or not, whether your spiritually-adopted children know you exist or do not – whatever the case may be.  You are loved, you are precious and you are needed.

Johnnette writes (pg. 12):  In their closing message of the Second Vatican Council, the Council Fathers expressed an urgent plea for women to accept God’s call:

The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of woman is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved.  That is why, at this moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women impregnated with a spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling.

A few pages later (pg. 17) Johnnette continues:

If the preeminent function of our womanly bodies is to bring life…the preeminent function of our womanly soul – our feminine spirit and psyche – must be to bring life as well.  Our entire being is meant to be life-giving, life-producing.  Our call to bring life to others, then, does not stop at the physical level, but only begins there.

By virtue of the gift of our gender, each of us is intended to be “mother”.  Just as our bodies have been created with the capacity to bear physical life, our souls have been especially created by God to bring spiritual life to the world.  Thus, our call to motherhood is in no way diminished or negated by a life of celibacy or an inability to physically bear children.  All women are meant to bring life.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“…at this moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation…”

We can feel it, can’t we.

One Thing Leads To Another…

When we look up joy in the Catholic Catechism it says “see also: Happiness”, and the two combined give us seven entries. As I was reading through them, I reflected once more on how intertwined and inter-related everything is.

One of the entries listed for joy (Paragraph 1829) says:

The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy;

In actuality, the first three of the twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit are charity, joy and peace, so, if joy and peace are not only Fruits of the Holy Spirit but fruit of the first fruit of charity (which is a Fruit of the Holy Spirit) [ have I lost you yet?] we can see how one things builds on another, or leads to another, or blossoms out of another.

One of the entries for happiness (Paragraph 1818) says:

The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man;

Now, the entry I quoted for joy is actually found under the larger heading of the Theological Virtue of Charity, and the entry I quoted for happiness is actually found under the larger heading of the Theological Virtue of Hope. So while I am not referring in this post specifically to the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, we can see that everything is a gift – the theological virtues, the gifts and the fruits – and how we respond to these gifts or nurture the seeds of these gifts will be the telling factor in whether or not our garden grows – whether or not cross-pollination will take place and one blossom will produce another, then another, then another…

To me, pollination is a metaphor for practice, for acting upon the gifts received.  The Holy Spirit distributes virtues, gifts and fruits as He will, but it is our practice that will lead to growth and to His pouring out of more and more as He witnesses our receptivity and actions.  The theological virtues must be practiced; the fruits of the Holy Spirit must be used. 

There are so many practices we can put into place to pollinate our garden, but one that I would like to mention here is the practice of gratitude.  Expressing our gratitude to God every day is a powerful means of bringing joy and other fruits into our lives, despite whatever obstacles and challenges we may be facing physically, financially, emotionally, etc.  If we wake up and give thanks to God every morning and throughout the day, mentally review five things we are grateful for every night before we fall asleep, or list five to ten things every day in a Gratitude Journal, we will see a remarkable flowering take place.

Not too long ago my friend JT sent me a link to this video in which Brother David Steindl-Rast gives a beautiful reflection on gratitude as a spiritual practice and its relationship to joy.  Thank you, JT!  I had not seen this particular video before, but I had been introduced to Brother David a few years ago at the site Gratefulness.org. It’s a wonderful site, and if you take a peek in its left sidebar, you’ll also see a link to something I think many of you may love – the Hours with “angelic company” and beautiful Gregorian chants.

Jan Oliver's Art

What a treat!  In the description area on the YouTube page, artist Jan Oliver says she’s “trying to track how far artful joy can travel on the Internet.”  Well, Jan, it’s travelled to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and I thank you very much for that, as well as the good Lord for the gift He’s given you!

I’ve also posted another video [entitled "A Prayer for Peace"] of Jan’s beautiful Marian artwork at Consecrated to Mary today.

A Celebration of Faith: Paintings by Jan Oliver

Painting “Renewal”, by Jan Oliver

Remembrance Day

Healer of My Soul

For a friend, a hard-working faith-filled loving husband and father of young children, travelling that often lonely path of a world-weary mystic.   

Prayer to Achieve Inner Peace

Hi everybody – I’m going to be taking some time off until August (with probably no Internet or email access), so I just wanted to let you know I’ll be turning off the comments until I get back.  I found this prayer in the Catholic Book of Prayers and wanted to share it here, because I think many of us can relate to its content:

Slow me down, Lord. Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time. Give me, amid the confusion of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in memory.

Help me to know the magical, restoring power of sleep. Teach me the art of taking minute vacations – of slowing down to look at a flower, to chat with a friend, to pat a dog, to read a few lines from a good book.

Slow me down, Lord.

 I’ll miss you all!  See you in August!

Here

 [From:  The Call, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer]

“…I see and am with the fears that hook me into wanting things to be different from the way they are, fears that pull me into the belief that a different location or situation – a more creative job, a home in a more natural setting, more money or time or other resources, a relationship with someone who has the same “spiritual” goals or daily practice – is needed if I am ever to find deep abiding peace, if I am ever to learn how to love well.  These beliefs are rooted in deeper if intermittent fears:  the fear that I am not now and never will be able to hear the call at the center of my life accurately or fully enough to know how to consistently live who and what I am; the fear that the Beloved, tired of my inability to get it right, will simply stop calling, stop sending out the voice that can guide me home…

This is what I learned on my quest:
There is simply no place, no location or situation, that cannot be used to wake up to and live all of what and who you are, if you are willing to show up, to be present in the only place you ever have access to:  here.”
[pgs. 77-78]

“And you can’t trick the universe into giving you what you want by pretending to be at peace with how things are, by imitating what you think it would look like to be fully present where you are, all the while looking over your shoulder to see if some higher power has noticed and is about to deliver you from where you are and put you where you really want to be.”  (pg. 82)