Stormy Weather Soon Passes

In Miami, a thunderstorm is followed by such a hot sun breaking through the clouds that the puddles of water are soon no more and one forgets the storm. I suspect the same often happens in our interior life; let the love of God shine out and the storm seems to have been a thing of no consequence even if our soul was torn and troubled only a short time before the sun appeared. I remember my mother in winter sighing for sunshine; she said that it gave her life. I think the Son of God gives us life and is always with us, even if there seem to be clouds hiding the sun. His love penetrates and brings peace. (I do not know where these thoughts came from but this picture chose itself and I never know what I am going to write when I sit down to do so.)

What I really wanted to share with you today is a new absence and therefore another two week vacation from my blog. I leave tomorrow early for St. Louis for a week in a cottage lent to me (one that the Society of the Sacred Heart uses behind our school for meetings and retreats) and which I will be sharing with some of my college classmates who were in the group of us who went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans as Freshmen way back in 1949! We are having our 60th reunion as the alumni week end at Maryville begins on Friday. Several of us are arriving on Wednesday and having a reunion with some in St. Louis on Thursday just to be together and share. A couple of us will be in the cottage until Wednesday and then I will go to one of our communities and have another week in St. Louis to work in the archives.
In the meantime, please do check the Concord Pastor's blog and click on the Bible to read the different commentaries to prepare for next Sunday's liturgy. I just read them and hope you do not miss John Kavanaugh's.
I count on your prayer for these two weeks and will be back blogging after October 10. It just does not work for me to write a blog when I am away from home. However, I will be keeping my gratitude journal and hope you will be keeping one, too. One suggestion is to just sit quietly and say over and over, "Thank you, Jesus" and let this be said from your heart. Try it!

What is your inner ocean like?

Another Monday after a rainy week end has arrived and with it more gratitude for the fact that we have so much while others have so little. This applies to the rain (the midwest suffers from the lack of it), the comfortable house that shelters us, the fact that we do have all the modern conveniences - I am grateful and then I pray for all those who lack water, have no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and so many things we take for granted in the United States.
Well, this is not getting to the poem I am going to share today; I just received it from a good friend and so I want to share it with you today - it is a haunting poem full of images to reflect on - we do have an inner ocean...

“The Silence Now” by May Sarton

These days the silence is immense.

It is there deep down, not to be escaped.

The twittering flight of goldfinches,

The three crows cawing in the distance

Only brush the surface of this silence

Full of mourning, the long drawn-out

Tug and sigh of waters never still –

The ocean out there, and the inner ocean.

Only animals comfort because they live

In the present and cannot drag us down

Into those caverns of memory full of loss.

They pay no attention to the thunder

Of distant waves. My dog’s eager eyes

Watch me as I sit by the window, thinking.

At the bottom of the silence what lies in wait?

Is it love? Is it death? Too early or too late?

What is it I can have that I still want?

My swift response is to what cannot stay.

The dying daffodils, peonies on the way.

Iris just opening, lilac turning brown

In the immense silence where I live alone.

It is the transient that touches me, old,

Those light-shot clouds as the sky clears,

A passing glory can still move to tears,

Moments of pure joy like some fairy gold

Too evanescent to be kept or told.

And the cat’s soft footfall on the stair

Keeps me alive, makes Nowhere into Here.

At the bottom of the silence it is she

Who speaks of an eternal Now to me.

  

Jesus teaching His Apostles

This Sunday's Gospel has Jesus taking his Apostles aside to teach them. He tries again to tell them that He is going to be put to death but will rise on the third day. They do not seem to hear him. Instead, as they walk along, they are arguing over who is greatest and Jesus needs to tell them that the first shall be last and that they need to become childlike. He actually takes a child to show them by example. I thought this time when I read the Gospel that the Heart of Jesus must have hurt when his chosen ones seemed so indifferent to his telling them that he was to suffer and die - they just do not seem to get it and so act as if they have not heard him. I think Jesus was more patient and understanding than most teachers would be. He had taken them apart to teach them and they do not even seem to listen to him. They do not understand and so just seem to dismiss what he is trying to tell them. So, Jesus waits, lets them talk to each other, and then he asks them what they are arguing about on the way. This gives him a new opportunity to teach them about humility, about serving others, and about being open and trusting as a child.

The picture invites reflection on the way Jesus is leading each of us.

The Unending Sky

I just came across this poem and thought you would like it:

The Unending Sky (by John Masefield 1878 – 1967)

I could not sleep for thinking of the sky,
The unending sky, with all its million suns
Which turn their planets everlastingly
In nothing, where the fire-haired comet runs.

If I could sail that nothing, I should cross
Silence and emptiness with dark stars passing,
Then, in the darkness, see a point of gloss
Burn to a glow, and glare, and keep amassing,

And rage into a sun with wandering planets
And drop behind, and then, as I proceed,
See his last light upon his last moon’s granites
Die to dark that would be night indeed.

Night where my soul might sail a million years
In nothing, not even death, not even tears

Letting Go

Beauty in nature always speaks to me of God. I loved the mountains in Chile. This scene is so peaceful.
Yesterday a friend gave me a copy of "Spiritual Life", an old one from the Summer of 2011, and suggested I read the article by Romeo J. Bonsaint, "Reflections on Aging Spirituality" which I did and found excellent.  It closes with a prayer that I thought I would copy here for you. The title is "Letting Go" and applies, I think, to all of us.

Letting Go
Dear God, help me grow old with dignity and wisdom.
As the twilight years cast their shadow upon me,
help my mind remain clear-at peace with the world and with itself.
Let me learn to let go of my bonds with this world- of my need for honor and statue;
of my attraction to physical indulgences;
of my envy of others, of my regrets over all that might have been. - Rabbi Nachman

I will leave you with that for today. I need to "let go" of so much that has accumulated in my closet! I intend to tackle this today!!

Empty Boats

I guess this picture says something to me about the many deaths this month of Religious of the Sacred Heart that I have known and loved. I am writing this on Wednesday night for Thursday.
Today I heard that one of the nuns I knew and loved since I had her as what is now called "Dean of Students" but was then "Surveillante General", died very early this morning. I am happy that she has gone to God, but my heart is missing this friend and is still missing the other seven Religious of the Sacred Heart who have died within the past month. I suspect that each tells God that there is another ready for heaven and please call her soon. They now leave us physically but are closer than ever to us spiritually. Still, it takes time for a human heart to grieve.
The empty boats are signs of our loss, but there is another aspect to an empty boat. I remember reading in one of Thomas Merton's books where he tells the story told by an Eastern guru of the value of an empty boat. The way I remember it is that if you are out on the water and someone comes and bumps into you, you are going to be angry that the person did not control the boat or pay attention and so hit you; if it is an empty boat, you simply push it aside and continue on your way without any anger. I think the moral of the story is that we should be empty of our ego - I guess I do not remember the tale well, but the idea of being an empty boat has stayed with me!

I was in a group today and talked about keeping the gratitude journal and found that someone else had tried writing each day three things for which she was grateful; she also said that it was suggested that one write each day one thing that was most meaningful in the day. I might try that, too, as it would certainly help to see how God is working in our lives.

Hope is always positive

I just read this quotation and pass it on to you:

"

“Comfort consists in the exercise of hope.  The theological virtue of hope is purified by the Gift of Knowledge and perfects it.  Hope as a theological virtue does not depend on the past.  In other words, hope is not based on what we have done in the past, whether good or bad.  No matter who we are, even if we are the greatest sinner on earth, we can always hope, because hope is not based on past actions.  It is based on the infinite goodness and mercy of God here and now - a mercy that never changes."

Thomas Keating, "The Gift of Knowledge", Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit

I love the fact that hope is not based on what we have done in the past, whether good or bad! In fact, I think hope is what really gives us confidence and joy because God uses hope to move us closer to Him.
 

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This is a more rugged landscape and is telling me to get to work as there is much labor to be done today and I am very hot - I suspect the Inspector who is here to look at our new installation has turned off the air. I am so spoiled in Miami - I need to think of many things today so will just say that I am still with the idea that it is an amazing grace to be able to sit with Jesus who chooses to sit with me. He knows me and loves me! That is a great reason for gratitude and joy!

Here is a quote from Patricia Garcia de Queveda, a former Superior General of the Society of the Sacred Heart:

"To believe is to love. To love the world as God has loved it. To believe in God means to open ourselves, to surrender ourselves to Mystery. It means know that we are drawn into the free gift of this Mystery. In the work of creation, God decided to make an "other" different from God's own self, so that together they might begin a love story. This God of love is capable of compassion, of self-gift, and even of loving the apparently unworthy. God's faithful love respects our freedom so much that it will not impose itself. It only offers itself. God's love is revealed to us in the very existence of the world, in material reality, in historical events and, in a special way, in Jesus of Nazareth. This is the faith which gives meaning to life."

That gives us all something to reflect on today.
 

I am late writing my blog today as we have had workmen here and I am now trying to clean up after them.
They are almost finished so the end is in sight.
I wonder if God keeps waiting for us to finish and has the desire to push us? I suspect not as our God is a patient God and we are a work in progress all of our lives.
I want to tell you about two new books that I ordered today. One is "Sophie's Fire: the Story of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat" by Constance Solari and is really an historical novel about Sophie's life that will be enjoyable to read, I think. The other is another book by Illia Delio, "Ten Evenings With God" and I know that I loved her other books and look forward to reading this one.

Who do you say that I am?

Today's Sunday Gospel does have some connection with this picture as I find it hard to describe the mist covered bridge that seems to exist between these mountains. I guess it is also hard to answer the question that Jesus asks us in today's Gospel, "Who do you say that I am?" He is my all so there are many words to use: Beloved, Friend, Spouse, my God, my companion, consoler, savior, etc. He is all of this; Peter was inspired to say, "You are the Christ" which took great faith. We know that Jesus rose from the dead, but Peter only hears that Jesus is trying to tell them about the suffering and terrible death that comes before Jesus will rise again. I guess we all need to pray over this Gospel often and to hear again the words, "Follow me."
Here is a link for daily prayer that you may want to mark for yourselves: http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

I had a lovely picture of Our Lady of Sorrows but now cannot find it and so this may be a better picture for us to reflect on today, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. I do go through the seven sorrows of Mary but also find that I celebrate the many joys of Mary and think she likes us to remember the good moments in her life as well as the joys in our own lives each day. God is with us and shows us how much He loves us in little ways; just as the waves touch the shore, God is touching us but we must be attentive or we miss many of the ways in which He makes His presence known in our daily lives.
I am off to water exercise. More tomorrow on Jesus asking us, "Who do you say that I am?" from the Sunday Gospel.

Beginning a Gratitude Journal

Last night I began the beautiful Secret Gratitude Journal that has been sitting on my bookshelf and waiting for me.I intend to thank for at least some of the graces and gifts of each day before I go to sleep each night; the journal also asks me to thank for those things that have not yet happened. I think that is a good way to plan for the next day and also thank for being able to see Jesus in each person, etc. I hope I am faithful about keeping this journal as I am sure it will be a source of joy. You are full of joy when really grateful and gratitude also gives joy! One suggesting is to just sit and say "Thank you, God, about twenty times even before beginning to write!!

I have often suggested to others the advantages of keeping a prayer journal and my own journal that I use most days has my daily entry after prayer; a part for some of my favorite quotes, and a part for my preparation for spiritual direction which is really a review of the month trying to be accountable and seeing both the good and the bad. I also have some favorite pictures pasted into the front and back and a few prayers that I have copied so I always have something to use in prayer if I seem uninspired by the Spirit. It helps to look back over the month to see how the Holy Spirit has been leading me, nudging me, and even shoving me into the Heart of Christ.

We had a good reflection group last night and now we will be 15 this year, but one or the other usually cannot be present; fourteen fit in our living room. We eat, pray, and talk about our experience of the book we are reading. It was really a busy day for me beginning with the Mass of the Holy Spirit at St. Thomas University, followed by my weekly lunch with a great friend, then spiritual direction, my faculty faith-sharing group, and a quick trip to the store to get home in time to prepare a friendship salad for the reflection group.