This has been a busy week which has included a 1 day trip in and out of St. Louis for my husband’s doctor appointment yesterday, so I have neglected my posting.  Although I’m really tired from yesterday, I wanted to write about a lovely experience I had this morning.

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are the times when I can get into the therapy pool at the rehab center.  There are a group of us “regulars” who come between the hours of 8:00 to 11:00 to do our various exercises.  It’s gotten to be an uplifting experience of support and encouragement for all of us who are so grateful for the chance to get moving with as little stress as possible.  We often speak of how much worse we feel if we miss our pool time.

Today we were blessed with a newcomer who, due to family schedules, usually comes once a week in the evening.  She is a pre-teen in a wheelchair whose mom brings her and helps her to exercise.  With all her obvious physical limitations, nothing is wrong with her mind or her spirit.  She is everything I love about young people and more – she has the innocence, purity, open-heartedness and joy of youth, yet with a wisdom beyond her years.  This child bears a great physical burden with grace and God, is cheerful and outgoing, and does not fail to inspire.

We spoke freely about our favorite Bible books and how life without God would be unbearable.  She mentioned how God tests us and proves us with our infirmities and how her sister encouraged her to visualize herself doing something she has wanted to do for some time.  The ability to look forward and set goals for herself regardless of the grave challenges she faces, and to do it without a trace of self-pity or hesitation is a gift others with far fewer infirmities would do well to seek.

The three of us, her mother, I, and the girl, agreed that our meeting was meant to be – a real God-incidence. I was pleased to tell of my great fortune of finding a natural health doctor in the area who also might be able to help her with certain aspects of her health conditions and happy that they both are also interested in holistic medicine.  We found we shopped at the same health food stores and chattered about how we dealt with our gluten sensitivities.

I don’t know if we will see each other again, but my takeaway from today is that if we are where we are supposed to be, doing what we are supposed to do, God will send us precious moments like these where He reveals Himself in unexpected ways. Please pray for this remarkable young lady who lights up the place wherever she goes.  She is truly one who suffers with joy.

St. Josemaria Escriva

One of my favorite bishops in this country is Robert Finn of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese in Missouri.  On the feast of St. Josemaria Escriva at Our Lady of Good Counsel parish he preached a great sermon that reinforces the “Little Way” of St. Therese of Lisieux and “The Work” of St. Josemaria which is very like the “Little Way” applied to modern times in the world.

When St. Augustine wrote that “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee,” he was speaking of man’s search for peace, joy, and meaning in life. These desires can only be fulfilled by the all-holy God who fills us with His holiness when we open our hearts to Him. As a practical matter, doing this is not easy because with all the cares of the world we often become side-tracked, chasing after everything else but God.  It is just this condition that makes St. Josemaria’s message so appealing for the modern person who is not called to the cloister, the hermitage, or the priesthood.  Holiness is for everyone.

Here are some excerpts from Bishop Finn’s sermon:

I know that one of the primary things that has attracted me to St. Josemaria is his humble devotion, his fidelity to the Church at a time when there was much upheaval, and his simple plan to help us see all of our most everyday tasks and efforts, our daily work, as a path to holiness…

And he was given such a profound God’s-eye view of the way that ordinary men and women, lay faithful, family men and women, and diocesan priests as well, could be holy in accord with God’s plan: not by leaving the world but precisely by living close to God in the world – and offering all that happens, and all they do as a gift to God for the end of sanctification…

We can reach heaven surely and safely by being contemplatives in the middle of the world. This is so important because, in fact it is the vocation of probably 95% of humanity!…[So important for the sick, suffering, disabled, and war-torn to understand.  Our lives are not useless or meaningless no matter what the politics of the day may say.]

Emblematic of the simplicity and depth of St. Josemaria’s vision for holiness is the truth that God is our Father… [And trusting in Him is fundamental.  "Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die..." - Kipling's "Charge of the Light Brigade".]…

[Jesus] has a Father, and…we can call Him “Our Father.”…this truth is not for a few. It is for all the sons and daughters. It is for you and me. WE have a Father. We must never forget it. We must, again and again, surrender ourselves onto His lap, into His arms…

We are, as St. Josemaria said, like God’s donkey, quietly pulling the load and doing the work. [Donkeys are beautiful (to me), dependable, and sure-footed.  One bore Christ into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Being a donkey bearing the Son of God to others through daily work seems like a very good thing to me.]

To read the entire sermon visit The Catholic Key blog, written by the staff of the diocesan paper for Kansas City – St. Joseph.  I promise that if you liked these excerpts, you will like all the rest.

The May, 2010 issue of Inside the Vatican published Vincent Twomey’s opening address for the first International Liturgical Conference on the theme Pope Benedict XVI and the Sacred Liturgy.  Held on Fota Island, Co. Cork, July 12th-13th, 2008, the conference marked a new beginning in the restoration of the Catholic sacred liturgy. Although this occurred two years ago, Twomey’s address titled “Pope as Leitourgos” is worth revisiting in light of the world’s current mad exaltation of every corrupt deviance in man which appears to be heading towards an explosive and disastrous crescendo.

Twomey first summarizes Pope Benedict’s commentary on Romans 15:16, which reveals St. Paul’s understanding of his own mission, quoting from the Pope’s sermon from the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul in 2008:

[Paul knows he has been called 'to be a leitourgos of Christ Jesus for the Gentiles, serving the Gospel of God as a priest, so that the pagans become an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.' Only in this passage does Paul use the [Greek] word heirourgein – serving as a priest – together with leitourgos – liturgist.  Paul speaks of the cosmic liturgy, in which the world of men itself must become worship of God, an offering in the Holy Spirit. When the whole world will have become the liturgy of God, when in its reality it will have become adoration, then it will have reached its goal; then it will be whole and saved. And this is the ultimate objective of St. Paul’s apostolic mission and of ours. It is to such a mystery that the Lord calls us.  let us pray in this hour that he may help us carry it out in the right way, to become true liturgists of Jesus Christ. Amen.

In this statement Pope Benedict identifies his mission as Pope with St. Paul’s mission.  Twomey then remarks that the above quote “sums up… the central concerns of the theology that Joseph Ratzinger had systematically developed over the course of his life as a theologian.”  He says that even when speaking or writing on other subjects, especially creation, “the liturgy found a central place in his writings.”

Twomey addresses a core point in the Pope’s theology:

The first account of creation in Genesis has nothing to do with how we were created (such as is proposed by the scientific theory of evolution).  its message, rather, is to convey to the reader why we were created.  According to Ratzinger, the cosmos has been brought into existence for one thing only: worship.

More precisely, God called the cosmos into being so that humanity could share in God’s Sabbath rest and hence experience that life is good, and that creation, especially humanity, is very good. In the Old Testament, creation and covenant form a unity.

In other words, God created humanity so that he might enter into a covenant relationship with us, so that he might heal our infirmities and restore us to the relationship that he intended from the beginning of the world: union with him in Christ, the source of that joy which God intends for humanity and which is the object of the Church’s mission.

As Ratzinger reminds us, St. Paul expressed it in another way: “the whole of creation has been groaning in travail together until now.”  Paul was acutely conscious that “the creation itself will be set free from bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8: 21-22).

After making a number of excellent points about the Pope’s writings on the liturgy, he closes with this:

But the Pope’s concern for a true reform of the liturgy is also expressed in the care and attention he gives to every celebration of Holy Mass according to the new rite over which he presides as Pope.

Today he teaches the Church not only by words but also by example.

As I was reading this address I couldn’t help being reminded of the core truth: that God created everything for the purpose of worship of Him.  Unless and until we are willing to fall on our knees before Him with a clear interior disposition of awe and reverence, we deceive ourselves about our own importance and power. Moreover, the sacred liturgy is the work of the Body of Christ, designed to bring us individually and corporately into a right relationship with God.  It belongs to no one individual but to the Mystical Body as a whole.

I also thought of the nonsense put out by various gurus of positive thinking.  Things like telling people they should stand in front of the mirror and say “Every day in every way I am getting better and better”, and writing books with the theme: “Think and Grow Rich” and other topics designed to give the impression that we are our own masters.  These promisers of earthly success and delights enrich themselves while never pointing to Christ Who is our only true hope.  We achieve our highest calling when we lose ourselves in God in trustful surrender and praise.  Nothing else matters that much in comparison.

Today the dryer quit.  In the middle of drying a particularly large load of clothes.  My wonderful husband is loading up the wet clothes and going to a public facility to finish the load.  Meanwhile, the repair guy can’t come until Monday.

Time will tell the lesson God has in mind for this inconvenience.  Maybe we will have to buy a new dryer after 20 years and trust that God will give us the money for it. Another opportunity to practice abandonment to Divine Providence.  The immediate opportunity is to practice cheerfulness.  I am so cheerful I just whipped up a batch of corn bread so Roger can have some to enjoy when he gets back.

I have put all kinds of extras into cornbread, from jalapeño peppers, chili seasoning and grated Mexican cheese to blueberries and a little sugar.  Today I went the blueberry route because I had no jalapeños.  To stay gluten-free I used soy flour and a little whey protein.  The basic recipe came from my Mom’s very old Betty Crocker cookbook.

Rejoice in the Lord, always!  Again I say, rejoice. (Phil. 4: 4 – Introit for the Third Sunday of Advent.)

God really has ways of delighting us unexpectedly.  A couple of years ago I wanted  to put in an asparagus bed, but after reading about the work involved, the time for a bed to mature, and considering my health issues – and Roger’s, too, I gave up on the idea.  (Fibromyalgia and arthritis sufferers just can’t do a lot of digging, bending, and stooping for serious garden work.) A number of times since then I’ve thought about how great it would be to have asparagus out of our own beds and had to say, “Thy will be done.”

Asparagus beans. Also known as Yardlong Bean, Snake Bean, and Chinese Long Bean. A useful Asian import that is disease and bug resistant.

Wouldn’t you know that God’s plans are always better than ours! This year in mid-April I went to Walmart to get plants for the garden.  Every year we’ve put bush beans into the Earthboxes® and into the ground and I’ve been unhappy with the paucity of the harvest.  No matter where we put them or how we treated them, the beans were just plain puny.  As I collected the various starter veggies this year, I saw something called an “asparagus bean” that the tag said “grows 15″ to 18″ long.”

“Well, what do I have to lose? Same amount of space and over 3x the amount of veggie.  A no brainer,” I thought, and picked up a packet.  It looked like they were similar to pole beans and I had already decided to switch to climbing beans I could train on the chain link fence.

The beans went into the ground just fine and they look happy, having grown five or six inches over the past couple of weeks.  Today I finally got around to reading about asparagus beans and I really had to chuckle.  God gave us some real bonuses with these plants.  Local Harvest says:

Asparagus beans in bloom

Asparagus beans are easily grown, produce heavily, harvest easily, thrive in hot weather, are slightly more resistant to drought than snap beans and are tolerant of a wide range of soils. [Music to my ears!] Grow in the same manner as pole beans or along a trellis, 8″ apart, 1″ deep. [A chain link fence will have to do.] Sow in June [we started early and will see how they work out] and make two or three successive plantings about three weeks apart for a steady supply. HARVEST: Harvest when pods reach 12-15″, before the seeds fill the pods. The mature beans may be threshed or shelled from the pods and cooked in the same fashion as dried beans. Their flavor is like southern peas but with a drier, nutty quality. Young leaves and stems are also edible.[What a deal!] FLAVOR: Sweet and mild resembling the combined flavor of asparagus, mushrooms, and beans. [Hmmm...this should be very interesting!]

So I don’t get my asparagus, but maybe this will be tasty and enjoyable instead.  They cook up just like ordinary green beans and should be a great addition to our eating for wellness.  I have nine plants and if they live up to the description, we’ll have beans coming out our ears.  Thank you, Lord, with joy.

Holy Trinity, 1430, Master of the Votive Picture of Sankt Lambrecht, Museum mittelalterlicher österreichischer Kunst, Vienna

“O Lord,” I prayed, “Help me to grow more patient and trust You more.”

“Are you sure?” He asked.

“Yes, Lord.”

“Okay, I’ll give you fibromyalgia and everything that goes with it,” He said.

“Whoa!  What is that, Lord?” I asked.

“You’ll find out, and I’ll be with you every step of the way,” He replied.

Six years or so ago when I was diagnosed my body was burning from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head.  I couldn’t stand to wear my glasses and couldn’t see without them.  Every morning I got up, dressed, had breakfast and promptly collapsed into bed again.  After awhile I gave up on dressing and stayed in my nightgown.  My mind was in a stupor such that I could hardly pray and I lay there simply clutching my rosary.  When I had a conversation with my husband I forgot what I wanted to say after three words were out of my mouth.  I gave up driving and stopped going anywhere except to church, which finished me off for the rest of the day.

A couple of years went by and I found myself completely discouraged and wanting to go to bed never to wake again.  It seemed that everything the doctor told me to do and prescribed for me only helped marginally.  Yet as sick as I was, I never lost the feeling that this condition was God’s will for me, although I did think for awhile that maybe He might have picked a less unpleasant way to get His point across.

One day I said, “Well, Lord, I don’t get it.  Here You have smacked me over the head with a 2×4 and I still don’t get it.  What is it you want of me?”

“I want all of your pain and suffering.  Give it to Me with joy for the restoration of the Traditional Catholic Mass.  Give it to Me for the priest I have chosen to be your next bishop.  Give it to Me for the redemption of others and to expiate your sins.  Give it to me for My priests who are troubled,” He said.

“OK, Lord.  Whatever you say.  I want to do Your will.  But Lord, why did You have to teach me patience and trust this way?” I asked.

“Because  you were too full of yourself and your talents and ambitions were misplaced. I could not work through you the way you were.  I want you with me for all eternity.  I want you to know and understand Me better, to trust Me more through your helplessness and pain and to share what you are learning on this journey with My other children who are suffering even worse than you,” He said.  “I want you up here on the cross with Me.  I want you to witness to My message of hope and love, and the joy that comes from doing My will.  I want you to understand the fullness of My love for you.”

Morning sun over the ocean, Shizuoka Prefecture, (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

And so I didn’t give up, and after accepting two new hips from Him through a good surgeon, and after slowly regaining some physical and mental equilibrium from remedies He showed me through knowledgeable holistic practitioners, I started this blog and put it in His hands.  I blessed Him for giving me this miserable disease and for putting me through the added great pain of hip degeneration; for making me aware that I have to depend on Him for every breath, every blink, and every beat of my heart.  I blessed him for giving me a high maintenance body because I know He wants me to learn how to care for it properly and share what I learn with others. I blessed Him for showing Himself to me both through pain and through the many forms of beauty that reflect His being.  Most of all, I bless Him for loving me enough to have created me and for having put all the wonderful people in my life whom I would never have met had I not become disabled.

Sometimes it is just too much to pray using books or even rosaries when people are ill.  But sacred art demands no effort from us in gazing upon it’s beauty. This window to the divine draws our spirit and sweeps us to prayer almost before we know it.  It teaches us the truths of our faith wordlessly – a catechism in brush strokes, mosaics or sculpture.

Picturing Mary is a DVD I’ve had for some time and watch occasionally when I need calm and peace.  With today’s technology we can travel the world and see great images of her that date from very early Christendom.  Whenever I look at it something new strikes me and I am always left wishing for more.

The same can be said of the DVD,  The Face: Jesus in Art.  We are privileged to see images of Jesus from the catacombs through the 20th century and note how he is pictured in many different cultures.  As many sections as this video has, it, too, leaves me wishing for more.

Both of these were made for WNET 13, a New York public television channel.  Whenever I watch them I think what a great teaching aid they would be for home schooling families.  You can stop the video to demonstrate art principles and you can use it for art projects and appreciation.  But most of all, these videos inspire great love for Jesus and Mary through the artwork filmed.  I highly recommend them and have placed them in my store.

Rule of St. Bruno approved by Jesus, the Blessed Virgin and St. Peter, fresco, Museo della Certoso, Milan

A priest friend of mine suggested I add this gorgeous Carthusian blog to my blogroll.  The pictures are lovely and the short meditations wonderful.  I especially like their subtitle:

Rejoice, because you have escaped the various dangers and shipwrecks of the stormy world. Rejoice because you have reached the quiet and safe anchorage of a secret harbor. -  Saint Bruno’s letter to his sons the Carthusians

We are fortunate that men of deep prayer like the Carthusians exist and that we have a site like Sacred Harbor to bring their spirituality to us.  Following Pope John Paul II’s recommendations that the Church make better use of the media enriches us all.  Since it is difficult for most Catholics to have a spiritual director, we have to fend for ourselves.  Thank God for the opportunities He gives us with these kinds of blogs.

If you love sacred art, you will love seeing the photographs of the frescos of St. Bruno at Milan.  Sacred art and all true beauty aids us in suffering with joy for God.  Contemplating it is prayer.

*****

Another topic: I received an email from a friend which encouraged all people of America to  say a prayer for our country each night at 8:00 Central time.  This initiative is like the one Winston Churchill went on radio to promote in Britain during World War II when their country was bombed nightly by Germany.

Please invite all your friends to participate in this daily effort.  America must return to the principles on which she was founded or she will perish. Darkness already envelopes much of the world.  Let us plead before God that Christ reign in all hearts and that our individual lights lit by Him truly shine among men.  The best ammunition we have against the powers of darkness is prayer.

*****

I invite you to visit my Custom Shop to see books, CDs, and DVDs about the Blessed Mother, saints, and the faith.  If you have suggestions for additional items I might stock, please let me know.

St. Jane of Valois

Today we honor St. Jane of Valois, surely an example of humility, persistence in prayer and also great charity. She was born in 1464 and died in 1505. A daughter of King Louis XI and Charlotte of Savoy, she was hated by her father from birth because he wanted a boy. Not only did he not get a boy, Jane was sickly and had some physical handicap. The king banished her to a country place where she was raised in a condition of grave neglect. But God had plans for His spurned and despised creature.  She developed a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother, especially in the mystery of the Incarnation.  The Angelus was her favorite prayer.  One day Our Lady revealed to her that she would found a religious community dedicated to her.

St. Jane could not escape being a pawn in the hands of her father.  Although he despised her, in a political scheme he betrothed her to his second cousin, Louis, Duke of Orleans, at the age of two months. They were married when Jane was nine.  She remained his loyal and devoted wife for twenty-two years.  Unfortunately, the Duke did not return her devotion.  He had not wanted the marriage and hated her even though she was instrumental in obtaining his release from prison for treason. Upon taking the throne as Louis XII, he publicly humiliated her by treating her ill in front of the court, repudiating her and seeking an annulment of his marriage from Rome. He got the annulment on the grounds that the marriage had not been consummated and that he had not consented to it. St. Jane saw this as a great blessing and used her situation to found the Order of the Annunciation.

The charism of her order is to practice the ten virtues of Our Lady as found in the Gospels.  They are:

• Most Pure (Mt 1:18, 20, 23; Lk 1:27,34)
• Most Prudent (Lk 2:19, 51)
• Most Humble (Lk 1:48)
• Most Faithful (Lk 1:45; Jn 2:5)
• Most Devout (Lk 1:46-7; Acts 1:14)
• Most Obedient (Lk 1:38; 2:21-2, 27)
• Most Poor (Lk 2:7)
• Most Patient (Jn 19:25)
• Most Merciful (Lk 1:39, 56)
• Most Sorrowful (Lk 2:35)

St. Jane also charged her community to pray for her husband, her father, and her brother as her legacy.  Such forgiveness after the cruel treatment she received is awe-inspiring.  St. Jane would be a great patron to ask for help in mastering the virtue of forgiveness. When she died, she was buried with the royal purple and a crown under her habit.

The Angelus, 1857, oil on canvas, Jean-Francois Millet

During St. Jane’s lifetime the Angelus prayer spread throughout France, helped by Pope Sixtus IV who was the first to attach an indulgence to it in 1475.  Devotion to this prayer continues today, and is enshrined in the great Impressionist painting of  Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875) of the Barbizon school of landscape painting. 

It is interesting that almost  two-hundred years after Pope Sixtus encouraged the praying of the Angelus a painter named Jean-Francois created a work expressing the devotion to Our Lady that St. Jane (Jeanne) of Valois, whose spiritual directors were Franciscans, practiced.

We cannot escape suffering in this world so we might as well profit from it spiritually as did St. Jane, who though queen, was humiliated repeatedly by the very people who should have loved and cherished her.  She is a great example of suffering with joy.

If you would like to know how to pray the chaplet of the Ten Virtues of the Blessed Mother, go here.

Hoar frost on viburnam

This morning when I woke up, what did my wondering eyes behold but spectacular hoar frost on everything.  This phenomena occurs every now and then in the Ozarks and thanks to my very nice husband, I have some photos to share with you.

On clear, frosty nights, God works His wonders, readying winter beauty to greet the dawn.  If vegetation or objects have been chilled below freezing by radiation cooling, ice crystals form and the fragile pointy thorns create a fantasy world we glimpse only until the sun melts them with its warmth.  Radiation cooling is the process by which a body loses its heat by radiation and that’s enough science for today.

Gods gift this morning reminded me of the canticle of Daniel in the Divine Office hour of Sunday Lauds (praise).  The third chapter, verse 69 calls out:

Frost and cold, bless the Lord; praise and exalt Him above all forever.

Through Daniel we find ourselves realizing that our poor efforts at praise need the help of all creation. Beginning with verse 57 through verse 90 we call upon the heavens, the earth, the angels, spirits of the just and men to praise and bless the Lord, ending with joyful thanks for deliverance from the powers of hell and death through the salvation Jesus brings.

The fence post is cropped from a larger photo and colored sepia.  the hoary tentacles reminded me of the head of Medusa, hence the title of the picture.

Hoar frost on fence with honeysuckle behind.

This image makes a brilliant graphic statement.  Roger has a real eye for this kind of thing.

Greenbridge

Frosty trees  set off a country bridge near home.  Locals call it “Greenbridge”.  You can see the river underneath on the right.

Forming a perfect background for the hoary branches, still water mirrors the trees on the river bank at the city park.  Cropped from a larger image.

Branch over the river

Lastly, a view from the bridge upriver.  The trees appear to be embracing all the sky.  Cropped image from a larger composition.

On the river bank

These images are copyrighted, but if you want to use them  you may as long as you credit Barb Schoeneberger and Roger Prai and if you would, please donate a little to this site.

Fushimi, Imperial Palace, Tokyo, (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

Wisdom 13:3 tells us God is “the author of beauty.”  In the Catechism of the Catholic Church #2500 we find this idea developed:

Even before revealing Himself to man in words of truth, God reveals Himself to him through the universal language of creation, the work of His Word, of His wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos – which both the child and the scientist discover – “from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator,” “for the Author of beauty created them”. (Wisdom 13:3, 5)

The Catechism goes further in #2501:

Created “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:26), man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works.  Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expression; beyond the search for the necessities of life which is common to all living creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human being’s inner riches.  Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man’s own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing.  To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God’s activity in what He has created.  Like any other human activity, art is not an  absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the ultimate end of man. (cf. Pius XII, Musicae sacrae disciplina; Discourses of September 3 and December 25, 1950)

In his “Confessions”, St. Augustine reveals what happens when the pursuit of beauty is not ordered to God:

Roar of Flames, (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new! Too late have I loved Thee. And lo, Thou wert inside me and I outside, and I sought for Thee there, and in all my unsightliness I flung myself on those beautiful things which Thou hast made. Thou wert with me and I was not with Thee. Those beauties kept me away from Thee, though if they had not been in Thee, they would not have been at all. Thou didst call and cry to me and break down my deafness. Thou didst flash and shine on me and put my blindness to flight. Thou didst blow fragrance upon me and I drew breath, and now I pant after Thee. I tasted of Thee and now I hunger and thirst for Thee. Thou didst touch me and I am aflame for Thy peace….

We can see in all of the above, a relationship exists between wisdom, truth, and beauty. One way the infinite All-Beautiful, All-Wise, All-Truth Creator reveals Himself to us is through beauty.  The pursuit of beauty rightly ordered is the pursuit of God.  And what makes something beautiful?  An inherent harmony, peace and order intrinsic to it.

Everyone needs to surround himself with some kind of beauty, especially the chronically ill.  Our bodies are discordant with disease; we are out of balance and disturbed to such an extent that all to much of our energy is spent coping and struggling to achieve some sense of equilibrium.  If we are open to it, looking at or listening to something beautiful restores inner peace and some sense of wellness.  It can spur us on to prayer and praise of God, and imperfect as earthly beauty is, it hints at the eternal harmony, order and joy we aspire to.  For many years now I have been practicing this and know that it works.  Earlier I wrote about the effect images of our beautiful Blessed Mother have on pain.  Sharing beauty will always be a part of this site.

Niju Bridge, Main Gate of Imperial Palace, Tokyo, (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

Ever searching for beauty, yesterday I was looking for free stock photos to use at this site. Many pages into the Google list I stumbled upon an extraordinarily talented photographer who is willing to share his work for free as long as the user follows the terms of the license agreement at his site.  Yun is very generous.  You might enjoy reading about why here.  I find much of his work a real joy and thank God I have eyes to see.  If you visit his site, be prepared to stay awhile and be captivated by the beauty.   Perhaps other bloggers who come here may wish to use his work, or readers may like to download images for personal use.  Speaking as a professional photographer, copyright and credit is important to protect an artist and honor his work.

Snow-capped honeysuckle

The snow began yesterday before dawn and fell softly and consistently until some time late in the night or early morning.  We collected about 8 inches and have discovered that it is too deep for our aging bodies to remove much from the garage driveway and gates. We swept our back porch and Roger dug a path to the garage, though.  With the sun coming out this afternoon we may be able to get to church tomorrow!

Typical of a small town, a kindly neighbor from the top of the next hill came by this morning scraping the street with his lawn tractor since the city had only plowed once yesterday and probably won’t do it again.  He volunteered to clear a path to the mailbox for us which took a load off our minds.  Today we hear the sound of snow shovels as folk start digging out.    Eight inches isn’t much compared to what we got in Nebraska, but this is heavy and wet.  I bet we’re all going to have sore backs tomorrow!

Compare the picture above with yesterday’s to see how much more snow there is.

Cause of Our Joy

I was contacted by a blogger who suggested I consider mentioning her site here.  I looked at it and liked it. Cause of Our Joy (http://cause-of-our-joy.blogspot.com/) is a pro-life Catholic blog geared towards families with disabled children, especially with Down syndrome.  Letitia does a great job bringing practical information and spiritual commentaries to readers. If you have a Down syndrome child in your family or know someone who does, I encourage you to visit her site and recommend it to others.

]]> http://www.sufferingwithjoy.com/2010/01/30/the-snow-is-over-and-cause-of-our-joy/feed/ 0 http://www.sufferingwithjoy.com/2010/01/07/sisters-in-faith-award/ http://www.sufferingwithjoy.com/2010/01/07/sisters-in-faith-award/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:14:04 +0000 barb http://www.sufferingwithjoy.com/?p=623 Mary at The Beautiful Gate sent me this award designed by Karinann at Daughter of the King .  I am looking forward to visiting the blogs she mentioned in her post and thank her for mentioning mine.  You might enjoy visiting them, too.  We are all looking to spread the Faith and help others in our own unique ways.

The requirements for passing this on are:

1.  You must pass it on to sisters who have been with you on your blog the longest and

2.  Pass it on to at least one new sister in faith.

3. Be sure to give links to their blogs.

I have an old friend and business partner, Lynn Baber, who is not Catholic, but who is very much a Bible Christian following Christ.  Lynn is an expert horse trainer and will have a Christian book out this spring called “Amazing Grace – Amazing Greys”.  I’m passing this award on to her since she is the one who got me started blogging in the first place.  Her blog is: Lynn Baber – For love of God, country, and horses.

My new sister in faith is Kristie Moe of The Six:Eight Project.  She’s attempting the ambitious work of following Micah 6:8 (Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly) daily for an entire year.  Visit her blog to see how she is doing it and you may just want to walk right along with her.

It’s a joy to be part of a group of wonderful people who are working so hard to be faithful to God.

January 1, 2010

After Mass today I visited Chiesa to do my monthly catch-up on Sandro Magister’s news reports which are always interesting and informative concerning the Catholic Church. There I found Pope Benedict’s Christmas sermon which made a good follow-on to yesterday’s post concerning childlike simplicity in our relationship with God. This spirituality seems increasingly inviting the more helpless and dependent we become as our bodies fail us.

The Holy Father also pointed out something I have been pondering for some time – the intrusion of the world through so many means that God comes last in our lives, not first.

Can we build a habit of seeing God, referencing God in the small things of life? When I read the quotes from the poor in brochures and solicitations from Food For the Poor, I am ashamed that I am not more grateful for the smallest sign of God’s love as they are because they recognize what I do not: I am not seeing Him in what is present before my very eyes.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from Pope Benedict’s sermon which seemed a perfect answer to my musings:

To awake, then, means to develop a receptivity for God: for the silent promptings with which he chooses to guide us; for the many indications of his presence. There are people who describe themselves as “religiously tone deaf“. The gift of a capacity to perceive God seems as if it is withheld from some. And indeed – our way of thinking and acting, the mentality of today’s world, the whole range of our experience is inclined to deaden our receptivity for God, to make us “tone deaf” towards him. And yet in every soul, the desire for God, the capacity to encounter him, is present, whether in a hidden way or overtly. In order to arrive at this vigilance, this awakening to what is essential, we should pray for ourselves and for others, for those who appear “tone deaf” and yet in whom there is a keen desire for God to manifest himself. The great theologian Origen said this: if I had the grace to see as Paul saw, I could even now (during the Liturgy) contemplate a great host of angels (cf. in Lk 23:9). And indeed, in the sacred liturgy, we are surrounded by the angels of God and the saints. The Lord himself is present in our midst. Lord, open the eyes of our hearts, so that we may become vigilant and clear-sighted, in this way bringing you close to others as well!

The last sentence above is the fundamental purpose of this web site and blog.  We who are hidden away through illness or adversity of whatever kind can form the habit of responding to the music of God’s call, and by offering our lives teach others to hear Him as well, helping cure the “tone deafness” of the world.  All we have to do is ask Jesus for this grace.

Adoration of the Shepherds, c. 1707, Antonio Balestra, oil on canvas, San Zaccaria, Venice

Today too there are simple and lowly souls who live very close to the Lord. They are, so to speak, his neighbors and they can easily go to see him. But most of us in the world today live far from Jesus Christ, the incarnate God who came to dwell amongst us. We live our lives by philosophies, amid worldly affairs and occupations that totally absorb us and are a great distance from the manger. In all kinds of ways, God has to prod us and reach out to us again and again, so that we can manage to escape from the muddle of our thoughts and activities and discover the way that leads to him. But a path exists for all of us. The Lord provides everyone with tailor-made signals. He calls each one of us, so that we too can say: “Come on, ‘let us go over’ to Bethlehem – to the God who has come to meet us.

The Holy Father’s words remind me that every day is a “Come to Bethlehem” day when we have learned to see and hear God’s manifestations of Himself to us.  We cannot help inviting others to go with us in joy.

P.S. Friends, I love this Pope!  He is the Pope of Hope.

Today I got hooked on Chapter 14 of this book, Christendom Awake: On Re-Energizing the Church in Culture while I was researching an article I was writing for the monthly newsletter I publish.  Father Nichols is a preeminent British theologian who writes in a way that the ordinary person can understand.   I first got acquainted with Father Nichols when I read his excellent book Looking at the Liturgy: A Critical View of Its Contemporary Form.

Chapter 14 is titled “Resituating Modern Spirituality”.  In it, Father Nichols discusses the change in Catholic spirituality that began in 1886 and how it is exemplified by St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) and others.  Childlike trust in God was the basis of their spirituality and directly contrapuntal to the New Age spirituality which says, like John Denver, “One day I will be God.” (Unfortunately he ended up in little pieces at the bottom of Half Moon Bay, never having become God.)

Vilnius Divine Mercy Image

Today we face a hoard of challenges to our Catholic Faith from both inside and outside the Church.  Our Judeo-Christian traditions are under attack as never before in the history of the world, yet, for me, John 14:1-3 is a source of hope:

Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be.

Whatever 2010 brings to us, now is the time to practice trust in Jesus.  Think of the Divine Mercy chaplet and image.  Jesus had a reason to give it to St. Faustina in the 20th century and tell her to spread the devotion.  Happy New Year  and peace and joy to all.