Seeking Shelter

Nine days I have been wandering this lone dusty road,

No beauty as yet have I seen.
The sky has been gray for sometime now;
And the dark hovering cloud follows me.

A fierce wind is blowing,
I shiver with cold;
The warmth of some shelter I seek.

The dust swirls toward me,
But I still move on;

With hand lifted, protecting my eyes.

The sky starts to rumble,
The rain begins to fall;
I look up to heaven and cry.

I know that I must keep on going,
No matter how long this road winds.
I must continue this journey,
For I know at the end what I’ll find.

 
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me...

Surely goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.  Psalm 23: 4,6

Forgiveness, The Journey Continues

Yesterday is gone.
Tomorrow has not yet come.
We have only today.
Let us begin. ... Mother Teresa




Sometimes the hardest person to forgive is ourselves;

We dwell on what we have done,

We dwell on what we have failed to do.

This keeps us focued on ourselves,

Rather than focusing on God.


Prayer:

Thank you Lord for making me just the way I am,


For You are the creator and I am the created.


Thank you for the parts of myself that I struggle with,


For it is in this struggle that I come closer to you.


May I give to others what you have given me,


with generosity and gratefulness. Amen

Fire of Your Love

Desire, discipline, perseverance and self-control; these are just some of the words that come to mind as I watch the athletes perform at this years Winter Olympic Games.

Each one of these athletes has endured rigorous training schedules over the course of many years in preparation to compete in these games. Each athlete has encountered various trials that have strengthened their fighting spirit and perseverance. Each athlete has one common goal and one common dream; they each want to win the “Gold Medal”.


St. James tells us “Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters,

when you encounter various trials,

for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

And let perseverance be perfect,

so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Jas 1:2-4


Lord, I know that you have not called us all to be great Olympian athletes. However I do know that you have called us each by name. Your desire for us is to preserver in faith and to grow in holiness that we may be perfect and complete, as you oh Lord are perfect and complete.

Grant us  Lord, the wisdom and courage we need to overcome all the obstacles in our lives that are displeasing to you. May the fire of your love burn brightly within us, warming the hearts of all you send our way.

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

"Dear children! Again today I call you to consecrate your life to me with love, so I am able to guide you with love. I love you, dear children, with a special love and I desire to bring you all to Heaven unto God. I want you to realize that this life lasts briefly compared to the one in Heaven. Therefore, dear children, decide again today for God. Only that way will I be able to show how much you are dear to me and how much I desire all to be saved and to be with me in Heaven. Thank you for having responded to my call." (BVM 11-27-86)


From Exodus, the miracle of water from the rock:

But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, "Why now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?"


So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me."


Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.


"Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. (Ex 17:3-6)

From a letter by St. Bernadette Soubirous, 1861:

The third time I went, the lady spoke to me and asked me to come every day for fifteen days. She also told me to drink from the stream…She indicated a little trickle of water close by. I went back each day for fifteen days and each time…the lady appeared and told me to look for a stream and wash in it…

Reflection: As with Moses and the Israelites in the desert, miraculous water flowed from the grotto at Lourdes as a sign of God’s healing power and love.

In response to this life-giving love, we are called, like St. Bernadette, to consecrate our lives to the Blessed Mother so that, as she says, “I can guide you with love.”

In love we can see with new eyes that, “this life lasts briefly compared to the one in heaven,” and so Our Lady urges us to prioritize our lives, putting God in first place. “Decide again for God,” she says, which will enable her to guide us to peace and eternal life.


The water in the desert and the healing waters at Lourdes both invite us to drink generously of God’s grace and love. Only a prayer and an open heart are necessary. (1)


Today on this special feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, I have renewed my consecration  to Our Lady and have asked  her for consecration of a special child of mine. I ask you to keep this child in prayer today if you would.  I thank God for each of you and ask His blessings upon you.

(1)  Medjugorje Day by Day, by Richard J. Beyer

As Witnessed by the Fly

Michael at Reach Paradise has a wonderful meditative MEME going called Fly on the Wall! We are asked to pick three stories from Christ's life and reflect on them as if we were really there. He has asked that we not choose His birth or any time period from the Last Supper on.

His question is this:

If you could go back and watch any hour of Christ's life, which hour would you choose and why?

I am a little late getting to this but here are my picks:

John 8 1:11


I can see the temple full of eager faces patiently waiting to hear the peaceful sound of the Lords voice in the early morning silence of the temple, all wondering what wisdom He would share with them this day.

The Pharisees burst into the area; they are almost dragging this woman who has been caught in the act of adultery. In bully fashion, they push her to where the Lord is teaching; she stumbles and falls down before him, the silence is broken as the people look on.

Some of these onlookers know this woman all too well, so they sheepishly take a step back, hoping she won’t look directly at them, causing others to wonder.

“Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law, Moses commands that we stone her to death. What do you say?”

I would have loved to seen their faces as He bent down and started scratching in the dirt. They must have been dumbfounded as He replied” Let the person among you without sin cast the first stone”.

I would have loved to witnessed her accusers as they  turned and walked away, leaving her alone with her merciful Savior.

Luke 19 1:10

Jesus is passing through Jericho. A rich tax collector named Zaccheus, whom the townspeople dislike, rushes out to see Him. Being a small man, he cannot see Jesus due to the size of the crowd.


Spotting a Sycamore tree not to far ahead, he runs to it and quickly climbs its branches just in time to see the Lord walk by.

I would have loved to see the jaws of the crowd drop as Jesus called out to him “Zaccheus, hurry down for today I must stay at your house”.

Mark 5 26:34

For 12 years this woman suffered from hemorrhaging. Nobody had been able to help her.

Hearing that Jesus would be in town she sets out to see Him. “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured”, she told herself.

Upon seeing Him, she reaches out and touches His cloak; He immediately feels the healing power leave Him. “Who touched me?” Jesus askes.
In fear the woman approaches Him and tells Him it was her.

I would have loved to have seen the joy on her face as Jesus said “Daughter, your faith has saved you, Go in peace…..”

A little note: Michael has asked us to tag three other people to share in this MEME. If you haven't already done so consider yourself tagged!

Community

I am up a little earlier than usual this morning. Sitting on the front porch with rosary beads in hand I can hear the birds speak to one another, softly at first, but their cheerful melody increases as their small community begins to grow a little larger.



Community…My small neighborhood community is starting to stir. Lights are coming on, garage doors are opening and engines are warming up. Their day is beginning too, though their melody is not nearly as sweet as the birds.

I start to say my rosary, as I do every morning and the Lord whispers softly in my ear, “Pray for your community today, for those that live nearby and for others that make up your community”

It is now the second joyful mystery, “The Visitation”. The charity and love of Mary prompts her to visit her cousin Elizabeth who lives about five days away. Though it is a laborious journey, Mary is joyful for she bears with her the Incarnate Word. The whisper of the Lord takes on another meaning now; I begin to understand what He is telling me.


Community… I need to start reaching out to my neighbor as Mary did, through prayer and deeds. The busier my life gets (or should I say, the busier I let my life get) the less I notice my neighbor. Forgive me O Lord , I acknowledge my selfishness and want no further part of it. Please take it from me.


I remember what I have read earlier this morning ; it is God’s will that we bring Jesus into the life of other people once He has entered into our life, to bring him into other people’s joys and sorrows, into other people’s darknesses and bitterness 1


Community…Give me such love for you, O Lord, and for all men, as will blot out all hatred and bitterness.” 2  Help me strengthen my communtiy by sharing your love and by noticing the needs of my neighbor.




1 Pray with the Heart, Medugorje Manual of Prayer, Fr. Slavko Barbaric, O.F.M.


2 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who wrote these words while in a Nazi concentration camp.