Suffering With Joy

Sabbath Moments

May 15, 2010

Today I’m a little behind the curve in participating in this meme.  A friend who needed to talk called me this morning and after that I had to go to the therapy pool to do my exercises.  Now I’m home and glad to join my blogging friends in another Sabbath Moments where we share the times to just “be” with the Lord.  Visit Colleen at Thoughts on Grace to read other blogger’s quiet times with the Lord.

The highlight of my week was getting to attend Ascension Thursday Mass on Ascension Thursday! Forty actually has a biblical meaning and forty days after Easter means just that.  I hope that some day the traditional liturgical calendar and the Novus Ordo calendars will be reconciled with biblical accuracy.  But that’s another subject.

The priest’s sermon was about how Jesus called each of us to spread the Gospel, and especially to do it by example, not words. He also said that as Christians we should not be backbiting, criticizing, or undermining our fellow parishioners because it is not the way to show the teachings of Jesus and is not attractive to others who are looking for God.  It was real food for thought.  As a blogger I surely need words to communicate God’s love and mercy, but also, the blog itself has to be a good example of a Catholic submitting to God’s will and suffering with joy whatever He sends.  sometimes that’s really hard due to human frailty.

My second Sabbath Moment came when I was doing my therapy exercises by myself in the pool.  It’s a good time to be thinking of God, His will, His holy Mother, and other spiritual things.  Of course, exercising itself is praise to God because, if I do it for Him, the ordinary actions become a prayer. I keep thinking about our bodies being temples of the Holy Ghost and know that when we care for them properly we are pleasing God.  Exercising for me is “being” with God.

The last moment was reading Father Oscar Lukefahr’s column in our diocesan newspaper. He wrote a really good book called The Privilege of Being Catholic.  You can learn more by clicking on the title or the image at the right.  It’s a really good book and I put it in Barb’s Custom Shop.

Father was talking about his vocation to the priesthood and what it meant to him.  In the process he made the following comments I found delightful.

At the Last Supper, Jesus told us to celebrate the Mass in memory of him (1 Cor. 11: 23-26). On Easter Sunday, he appeared to the apostles and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of others, they are forgiven: (Jn. 20: 17-23).

Church and ritual are important to Jesus. Some people claim that we should be spiritual but not religious: “I don’t need to go to church,” they say.  “I can find God while hiking in the woods.”  But at the Last Supper Jesus did not say, “Go take a hike in memory of Me.” We can find God while hiking and we should.  But Jesus wants more for us.  He wants us to have real, physical, sacramental, ecclesial union with Him, at the Eucharist and at all the sacraments.  It is the privilege of every priest to make that union possible.

My life has been worthwhile because it has been a life of proclaiming the truth Jesus brings and of ministering the grace that only Jesus gives. I am a priest because so many people called me to this vocation and supported me in it.

Father’s words reminded me to be very thankful for how accessible Jesus is to us through the ministry of His priests.  And that’s it for my Sabbath Moments for the week.

Tags: Liturgical calendar

4 Comments to Sabbath Moments

1. 

   Barb,
   Wise words. When our entire lives become a prayer to Him is when we find that peace and joy in Him. Exercise included! (But perhaps I need a little nudging in this area!)
Mary Nicewarner on May 15th, 2010
2. 

   Barb, what a great post! I love all your Sabbath moments. I love how your exercise becomes a prayer. Thanks for joining me in this meme! God bless!
Colleen on May 15th, 2010
3. 

   Fr. Lukefahr…I have a book of his sitting on a shelf about 4 feet away from me. I didn’t know he wrote a weekly colomn; what’s the diocese?
Christian on May 16th, 2010
4. 

   Springfield-Cape Girardeau runs a couple of his columns a month. They are always good.
barb on May 16th, 2010

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