Suffering With Joy

Praying the Psalms – Psalm 28

July 24, 2010

On Saturdays we join Jenny at Just a Minute to pray a new psalm each week. This week we pray Psalm 27 where we learn the reward of trust in the Lord.

I think often of Jesus, Mary and Joseph praying these psalms in the synagogue and at home; of the apostles praying them with Jesus.  The psalms are the prayer of Christ to the Father, and our prayer to the Father in Jesus’ name as members of His Mystical Body.

Psalm 28 illustration by Moshe Tzvi HaLevi Berger. From a series illustrating all 150 psalms. Artist's comment: "His estate is the world. He made it round like the pupil of His eye or, like the womb pregnant with existence, His world is surrounded by emanations precipitated in the middle of nothingness and supported by His power. For the world would not endure for a second without His care. And His people would not exist for a moment without His blessing."

1.  To You, O Lord, I call; O my Rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you heed me not, I become one of those going down into the pit. [The realm of eternal death and defeat is not ours when we call on the Lord.  The proof of God's mercy and love for us is eternal happiness, but we must call on our Rock who stands firm, never moves, and is always accessible in the storms and ravages of life.]

2.  Hear the sound of my pleading, when I cry to you, lifting up my hands toward your holy shrine. [We lift up our hands to His sanctuary, holding in them our hearts.  The work of our hands is the repression of evil in this world through fulfilling our vocation - to "do whatever He tells you" as Mary instructed the stewards at the wedding of Cana.]

3. Drag me not away with the wicked, with those who do wrong, who speak civilly to their neighbors though evil is in their hearts.

4.  Repay them for their deeds, for the evil of their doings.  For the work of their hands repay them; give them their deserts.

5.  Because they consider not the deeds of the Lord nor the work of his hands, may he tear them down and not build them up. [God is the just judge, the one who tries every heart. We are right to beseech deliverance from the wicked, to not be identified with their deeds, but in charity we must pray for their conversion and forgive them as Christ forgave his tormentors.  Only Satan and his fellow fallen angels are beyond hope and we must pray against them to the Father that they not overcome us.  For us, until we draw our last breath, we hope in God's mercy and justice.]

6.  Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the sound of my pleading; [God always hears us and always gives us what we need.  We must pray that we recognize the gifts and blessings He is giving us, even when they come disguised as suffering and adversity.]

7.  the Lord is my strength and my shield.  In him my heart trusts, and I find help; then my heart exults, and with my song I give him thanks. [In this great declaration of dependence, we decry any strength of our own and avow a childlike trust in God.  His power and loving care for us is cause for joy and thanksgiving.  This espousal of the truth of our relationship with Him reaches complete fruition in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.]

8.  The Lord is the strength of his people, the saving refuge of his anointed. [Jesus' strength is in His Father - "the Father and I are one," - "Philip, he who sees Me sees the Father".  Anointed at Baptism and Confirmation and finally in Extreme Unction, we profess with Jesus that the Father is our strength.  Fleeing to Him, seeking His face always in the midst of death and destruction around us, we share in the victory of Christ, the Anointed of the Father.]

9.  Save your people, and bless your inheritance; feed them, and carry them forever! [We are the inheritance of Christ, all of us who bow down before the Holy Trinity, who confess Jesus to be our savior and live that confession daily.  We are fed with His Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist, and we are carried in the arms of the Father forever.]

Sometimes I, the wriggling child, try to wrench myself from the arms of my Father to go off and do what I want, rather than peacefully resting on His shoulder.  This psalm tells us that our reward for trust in God is to live shielded in His arms and fed on His Word eternally, safe from all disturbance.  The final peace of soul we receive is the rest in absolute Truth and perfect relationship with God.  Lord, that I may stop wriggling and reaching away from you and settle myself in your arms forever!

Tags: psalms

Seeking God’s Will

July 23, 2010

Over the past couple of months I’ve been thinking of a dear friend, Father Philip Schuster, O.S.B., one of the monks murdered at Conception Abbey on June 10, 2002 by a gunman whose motives will forever remain unknown as he had no connection to any of the monks nor to the abbey and left nothing in spoken word or writing to say why he did it.

Lloyd Robert Jeffress got in his car with an AK 47 and a .22 caliber sawed off rifle and drove a couple of hours from Kansas City to Conception, Missouri to execute as many monks as he could find. Father Philip, age 84 and monastery porter, was shot in the torso and finished off with a shot to the head after he fell.  The bullet hole remains in the hallway floor.  Brother Damian, known as “the weather monk” was also killed.  Two other monks who entered the hallway from their offices were shot, gravely wounded, and recovered after a long time.  When Jeffress couldn’t find anybody else to shoot, he went back down the hall and through the same door to the basilica he had used to enter the monastery, and killed himself.  In the midst of mourning the Abbot re-consecrated the basilica the next day.

I made a some private retreats at the abbey with Father Philip and visited him there with my husband on our way north to see friends.  He had been the novice master of my pastor and he was just the person I needed at that time of my life.  On one of my visits, he gave me a copy of the book he wrote, Seeking God’s Will Through Faith, Hope & Charity, full of the simple wisdom about life only a very prayerful monk with vast pastoral experience could write.

Father Philip was everything a priest should be and solid as a rock theologically.  He set a good example for me in the spiritual life and I often think of things he said in our conferences.  One typical exchange between us happened when I was sitting in his porter’s office and we were discussing the rosary.  Father pulled an old, really old broken rosary out of his breast pocket (it came from a monk who died in 1927 and I have one just like it from the same monk) and waving it in the air said, “I love praying the rosary.  I don’t worry about getting all the prayers in.  Sometimes I just get a good meditation on the mystery and don’t worry about finishing every decade.” In other words, keep to the purpose of what you’re doing and don’t sweat the small stuff. Of the monk who blessed our rosaries so long ago he said, “Father Lucas hung every indulgence under the sun on these rosaries. I don’t mind that it’s broken.  Our Lady doesn’t mind if we pray on broken rosaries.”And Father Philip prayed on his so much he plumb wore it out.

If you boiled down the essence of Father Philip, it would be simplicity and faithfulness in conforming ourselves to God’s will.  He was kind and gentle, but very firm about obeying God’s laws.  He was utterly faithful to his monastic vows and using that old, broken rosary was a perfect example of his approach to the vow of poverty.  He clearly knew what was important and what was not.

Because life itself is threatened with such great intensity from so many sides these days, and peace of soul can be elusive for the person in the world, I decided to read a little of Father Philip’s book again every day and share some passages with you here.  This is a great book that never gets boring no matter how many times you read it. Father Philip was a gift from God to all, but especially to the tortured soul who needs to learn to suffer with joy, and I’m sure he brought many to God.  He lived what he wrote.

From Chapter Two: Faith:

“He who through faith is righteous shall live” (Rom. 1: 17).  In an age when personal freedom is so much stressed, it seems helpful and necessary to try to clarify our notion of faith.

Many of us were born into a Christian family.  Many of us, especially Catholics, were baptized as infants, or when we were very young.  I do not wish to see this practice changed.  I agree with it.  But it does have at least one danger.  We are prone to think that faith, like love, comes easily, naturally, without real effort on our part.  We assume that anyone who professes to be Catholic, and who goes to church, has a deep faith.  I challenge that notion.

It is true that when the child receives the sacrament of baptism, the virtue of faith is implanted in the soul, like a seed.  Whatever else that virtue may be at the time of baptism, it is an inclination, a force, that inclines us, helps us, gives us the attitude of one ready to believe, ready to be taught by God, relying simply on His wisdom, His fidelity, His goodness.  Relying on God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

“Relying on God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.”  Wherever lies or deception of any kind exists, there is Satan who is the clever master of re-direction and re-definition. We see and hear this every day in the news media.  Something is forever being presented as something it is not and people rely on these deceptions to justify the unjustifiable. A fair question to ask is, am I ready to be taught by God, or do I habitually look elsewhere to be told what I want to hear?

Tags: Catholic Church, conversion, suffering

Prayer from 8th Sunday after Pentecost

July 20, 2010

The Church prays her sacred liturgy as the words of all true believers.  We can never go wrong when we address God through her official prayers. They are chanted in the name of all in her Body, which is the mystical Body of Christ. The thought that all the baptized are members of this Body is truly awesome to contemplate, and we should do our best to help others to become part of it that they may find the great spiritual joy we have.

From the rising to the setting of the sun all over the earth, the Holy Sacrifice is re-presented to our heavenly Father and we benefit from all the graces that come from this perpetual offering.  There is not one moment in time that the Church is not praying and there is not one prayer in the sacred liturgy that fails to show a right relationship with our Father. By praying these words attentively and with all our heart, we are imitating Christ just as much as we imitate Him by doing good to others.

When we pray the sacred liturgy we need never fear that our prayers are not good enough, or that we are praying for the wrong thing, or that our prayers lack sufficient merit, because it is Christ Himself offering the prayers. This is why our sacred liturgy is infinitely pleasing to the Father. With this in mind I take great comfort in the Sunday collect (prayer) which is prayed often in the liturgy throughout the week.  This past Sunday’s prayer is much needed in our day.

Graciously grant to us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the spirit to think and do always such things as are rightful: that we, who cannot exist without Thee, may be enabled to live according to Thy will.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end.  Amen.

How can our heavenly Father not grant this to us? We are asking that our minds and bodies be infused with the Holy Spirit so that we do only that which is just in His eyes and think only of that which is in accord with His law. We can be confident that God will give us what we ask for because we are asking for exactly what He wants to give us.  This prayer opens our hearts to Him, He who is deserving of all our love, honor, and worship.

In today’s age with the supreme arrogance of man wafting over airwaves and satellite day and night, the Church admits (and we with Her) that we cannot exist, and in fact would not exist at all without the power of our Creator.  This humble acknowledgment is the simple truth, and when we pray in total humility, we honor our Father who is offended by those who act as if all power comes from themselves. Moreover, this just prayer benefits all humanity.  We ask these things from God not only for ourselves, but for all our fellow men everywhere. As God was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if Abraham could find only ten righteous men (Gen. 18), so the humble prayers of the few bring grace to the many.

We ask to be enabled to live according to the Father’s will.  We can do this only if we practice daily surrender to His providence and keep our eyes fixed on Christ, our Teacher and Savior.  The entire world becomes a better place when even one person becomes better at thinking and acting like Christ, doing the Father’s will. It’s the ripple effect of good that, if strong, can collide with and turn back the ripples of evil.  The effects of this prayer will be hidden from those who have eyes that do not see (Ez. 12: 2, Jer. 5: 21, Ps. 135: 16, Ps. 115: 5) but will be obvious to those who strive towards God, trusting in His care.

Tags: Catholic Church, liturgy, trust in God

Praying the Psalms – Psalm 27

July 17, 2010

David points to his eye: an illustration of verse 13 of Psalm 27, tempera colors and gold paint on parchment, Master of Jean de Mandeville French, Paris, about 1360 - 1370

Psalm 27 is a prayer of trust in God no matter the adversities we face.  Every verse speaks of faith in the power of God and trust in His ways with sure knowledge of victory over the evil one.  Since my main spiritual task is to learn to trust in God for everything and to thank Him for His goodness, this psalm helps me a lot.  It’s long, so I will take only one of my favorite verses to speak about, #5:

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to contemplate His temple.

One thing I look forward to about heaven is to “behold the beauty of the Lord”, a beauty that is sure to evoke a feeling of everlasting joy.  In heaven everything will be in place, in peace.  Nothing will be able to trouble us.  But God evidently means for us to start practicing faith and hope in Him in this life, and practicing humble worship of Him in His temple, too.  He is our strength.

I am learning not to struggle against adversity in this life, but rather to face it calmly and ask God what He wants me to learn from it.  Facing temporal and spiritual difficulties with peace of heart and confidence in God is a lifelong exercise of the soul and will. It is an habitual turning toward Christ and laying all things at His feet. As Father Paschal Botz, O.S.B. wrote about this psalm:

Faith and trust are an ever-flowing fountain that leads to eternal life.  If we seek His face in the celebrations around the Altar, Christ can fill our whole lives.  Generally Christians do not know all that the Altar means.  It is God’s special place, the crossroads of two worlds, the rock of ages, where trust grows out of the Sacrifice-Banquet.  There we live anew the Mysteries of Christ in our midst, share His sentiments of trust, become identified with His life-giving vitality. We lose our fears and false self and become truly free of real and phantom enemies.  We must take seriously that He is the Light of the world (Jn. 8:12), that no one goes to the Father except through Him (Jn. 14: 6), which includes His incarnation and sacramental system.  He was consumed with passion for God’s house, which He fulfilled in Himself.

After contemplating this I must often say to myself verse #14:

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!

This psalm is prayed every Monday at the hour of Terce in the 1962 Divine Office. Monasteries and convents have it right when they stop everything seven times a day to praise God (eight times if you count getting up at 4:30 to chant Matins).   Because we’re human and very distractable and get agitated over worldly things, setting formal hours throughout the day to recollect ourselves and focus on God builds peace of soul. Holy Mass usually follows Terce in monastic life, and this psalm foretells the sharing in the Holy Eucharist. Gathering around His altar on earth I see the goodness of the Lord (the Holy Eucharist). I am in the land of the living with all others who are living in Him.

Tags: psalms

Praying the Psalms – Psalm 26

July 10, 2010

Jenny at Just a Minute hosts the meme Praying the Psalms each week.  Join her and other Catholic bloggers who share their thoughts on the psalms.

Painting by Mose Tzvi HaLevi Berger illustrating v.3 of Psalm 26. His comment about it: "The branches of this tree spell the word love. A father who loves his son must teach and reproach him, sometimes with kindness and sometimes with severity. Thus the Almighty's tree projects the color of red for strength and the color of blue for mercy. As for the middle, the white zone is reserved for loving kindness celebrated by surrounding branches."

This week we are covering Psalm 26 where the author defends himself before the law.  This psalm is about innocence on trial in the courts of the Lord.  The innocent One, Christ, prays this to the Father on our behalf. We pray it with Christ, signifying our unity with Him.

1  Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. 2 Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind. 3 For Thy steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to Thee.

We are asking something fearsome in this psalm – to be tested by God in our hearts and minds – to be proven by God as as faithful to Him. God’s tests are never easy, but by constantly keeping the love God has for us before our eyes, that is, seeing and recognizing Him working in our lives for our good, we need not fear failing His tests.  By putting God first in our lives, we walk in faithfulness.  This does not mean that we don’t sin.  It means that we seek never to sin deliberately, and to get up after falling and keep walking on that narrow path that leads to the narrow gate.

4  I do not sit with false men, nor do I consort with dissemblers; 5 I hate the company of evildoers and I will not sit with the wicked.

One of the greatest and surest pieces of spiritual advice is to keep good company. It is akin to the old saying that we are known by the company we keep.  If we love God, we will keep company with others who love Him. We will withdraw from association with those committed to serving Satan even though they may promise us earthly wealth, prestige, and honors.

6 I wash my hands in innocence, and go about thy altar, O Lord, 7 singing aloud a song of thanksgiving and telling all Thy wondrous deeds.

Hand washing is symbolic of becoming clean of heart. King David speaks of coming to the altar of sacrifice with a pure heart and joining the procession around it, glorifying God.  Verses 1-7 are a sworn oath in the presence of God. Jesus was the true Innocent with the most pure Heart who glorified and thanked His Father in everything, no matter how bitter His suffering.

This is an important attitude of mind for us when we attend Mass.  We must be washed of sin and denounce our attractions to it before partaking in the Body and Blood of Christ. We must continually seek to be delivered from attachments to sin while asking for the grace to be attached to God. Moreover, we must develop a thankful spirit that does not hesitate to proclaim the great things God has done for us – we, spreading the Gospel, the good news of salvation and all that it implies.  What Jesus did for us on the cross is what we must do for our neighbor.

8 O Lord, I love the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory dwells. 9 Sweep me not away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, 10 men in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes. 11 But as for me, I walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me.  12  My foot stands on level ground; in the great congregation I will bless the Lord.

Graced we are when we love to attend Mass, to be present in front of the tabernacle, to be for those short moments each week transported from time into eternity. We cannot see the angels and saints in front of us at the Holy Sacrifice, but we know that we, and they, are in the house of God together, the place of glory where He dwells.

In verses 9-10, before the just Judge, we plead for the grace of faithfulness and salvation so that we do not spend eternity in hell with those who persist in offending God. I cannot help thinking of abortionists and aiders of suicide and euthanasia when I read the first part of verse ten. Our God is the God of life who always stands opposed to death and the usurpation of His power by mortals in league with Satan. It is right that we plead not to be swept away with them for in this plea we seek God’s grace to live a holy life that leads to eternity with Him. May our feet be on the level ground.  May we bless the Lord with all the angels and saints forever.

About the illustration:  From the Museum of Psalms in Jerusalem:

Moshe Tzvi HaLevi Berger, born in Transylvania in 1924, is a living embodiment of the strength of the human spirit. A Holocaust survivor, he went on to study art at both the Belle Arte in Rome and the Beaux Arts in Paris. His art has been showcased in over 100 one-man exhibitions across three continents. Mr. Berger has the distinction of being the first artist to exhibit his paintings at Jerusalem’s Western Wall.

Tags: art, psalms

God, the Master Gardener

July 8, 2010

The prayers from the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite are so rich that praying them is like attending an endless banquet.  You never run out of food for thought. This past Sunday’s collect from Mass has stayed with me all week.  Of course, it is the prayer at the end of each hour of the Divine Office, so I have prayed it often these past few days, but even if it were not put before me every day, I would still be haunted by it because of the images it evokes.

O God of all power and might, to Whom all that is best doth belong, graft in our hearts the love of Thy name, and grant us an increase of religion: that Thou mayest foster what is good, and with tender zeal guard what Thou hast fostered.

O God of all power and might…

Let us not ever forget that no one is greater or more powerful than God. Of ourselves we can do nothing but through the power He allows us – a really humbling thought for the creature to contemplate, especially when we get pretty full of ourselves, which can happen so easily if we spend too much time pursuing our own interests rather than His.

To Whom all that is best doth belong…

God was pleased because Abel gave Him the first fruits of his labor – the very best.  There are many places in the Bible where the first of everything is offered to God.  While picking asparagus beans for the first time I noticed that the first fruits of the plants were abundant and healthy and the harvest tapered off a bit after that.  God deserves our best of everything: worship, daily duties in union with Him, our joys and sufferings, all that we do in this life.  Interesting though, that if we are slipshod in our relationship with God He is not the one who suffers.  We do. So if the best belongs to Him, we might as well give it to Him in the first place because it all belongs to Him anyway.  Out of His belongings He gives Himself to us, especially His Son, Jesus, the best, Who redeemed us and is the cause of our hope in a life that someday will be completely free of our temporal limitations.

Graft in our hearts the love of Thy name…

I’ve never grafted anything, but I know how it works.  Fruit trees and roses are often grafted onto sturdy root stock that combines the best of the roots and the best of the fruits or flowers.  We don’t, of ourselves and left to ourselves, love His name, which is Jesus.  But when God grafts His grace into our hearts that grace comes to fruition in a love for Jesus Who told us to ask the Father for anything in His name.

One of the greatest aspects of love is the surrender of self to the loved one, giving the loved one power over the self.  In a sense, the all-powerful God gives us power over Himself through the name of Jesus when we freely accept His grafting, also becoming docile to His will.

…and grant us an increase of religion…

The virtue of religion, seldom spoken of these days, but a profound necessity for sanctity, means showing reverence for God and love of neighbor by attentive, loving worship and  by performing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. When we ask God for an increase of religion we are asking something very big: to open ourselves to a more perfect reverence for God and neighbor. This idea can take us down so many paths a book could be written on this subject alone so I will leave it to you to ponder it as I continue to do.

…that Thou mayest foster what is good, and with tender zeal guard what Thou hast fostered.

Gardeners foster what is good in the garden.  God, the Master Gardner, will give us all the necessary graces to become holy and pleasing to Him.  All we have to do is co-operate with His will. I love the “tender zeal” and “guard” part of this prayer.  A gardener must have tender zeal or the plants will die.  He must carefully prune and weed.  He must water and fertilize, but in the right amounts.  He can never wake up in the morning and decide that the garden doesn’t need looking after that day.

Tenderness implies love and caring.  It implies guarding and protecting when danger threatens.  In our daily life, Satan tries many ways to spoil the garden of our soul.  In this prayer we ask God to guard us from the bad seeds, worms, beetles (yup, I had to get them in here), mold and other destructive elements the devil uses to cause stunted growth and destruction of the virtue and grace God is fostering in us.

This prayer so perfectly shows a right relationship between God and us. If we pray this way often, we can safeguard ourselves from the deadly sin of pride and grow into the perfect fruit God intends for us to be, fit for the new earth and heaven to come.

Tags: spirituality

A Path to Holiness

July 5 2010

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.

Tags: Catholic Church, peace and joy, trust in God

Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival

July 4, 2010

Happy 4th of July to all my readers.  I praise and thank God for having allowed me to be born in the USA, raised Catholic, and blessed with the skills and calling to “blog for Christ” as I think of it.  One of the greatest aspects of working on our relationship with God is that He always has a job for us, and often it is a new job, no matter how old we get. He’s the only employer that never fires anybody (although some people up and quit).  That’s how I ended up blogging.  As He closes some chapters in our life, He starts new ones with us until He is ready to finish our temporal book with the final words, “Not The End, but The Beginning”.

Please join us at RAnn’s This That and the Other Thing blog where we get to enjoy reading other Catholic bloggers’ posts.  If you’re not a blogger but want to participate, you’re invited to leave a comment anyway.  If you are a blogger, create a “Sunday Snippets” post, link to This That and the Other Thing, and be sure to leave a link back to your site at RAnn’s page.

This week I posted two portraits I painted using lessons on digital painting.  Each are unique and emphasized the uniqueness of the subjects. The first one is about my friend Lynn’s horse, Asti, The Horse with One Blue Eye. The second one is Francie’s Story, a post about our young rescue dog.

I wrote a couple of health related posts: Simple Tips to increase Fat Burning and Improve Conditioning and Simple Way to Stop Mid-back Pain with people like me and my husband in mind. You’re never to old to do easy stuff to feel better, even if you’ll never have a 25 year old body again.

In Thoughts on the Feast of the Visitation I wrote about how Mary and Elizabeth gave us lessons on trust in God. If you’re like me, there are never too many lessons on this subject.

Thanks for visiting.

Tags: art, trust in God, wellness

Thoughts on the Visitation

July 2, 2010

The Visitation, Vicente Masip (b. ca. 1475, Andilla, d. 1550, Valencia), panel, Museo del Prado, Madrid

Today is the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Mother to her cousin Elizabeth.  Mary, newly carrying Jesus in her womb, brought the sanctifying grace of Baptism to St. John the Baptist as he rested in the waters of the womb of Elizabeth. He lept and his mother felt it.  Beyond the obvious pro-life message of this incident recounted by St. Luke (1: 37-47), many other lessons, especially those of trusting in the Lord abound in this ten verse passage.

And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord.

Mary trusted.  Elizabeth trusted.  Both pointed to Jesus as did St. John the Baptist from the womb to his death.  What God asked of them they did without question and the whole human race was saved.

God has His plans for us, too, and those plans are not only for our own good but for the good of others.  We all have a part in helping others to heaven, no matter how small.  The difficult thing is to do God’s will without second guessing Him.  Mary did not second guess God and neither did Elizabeth.

On Wednesday of this week as I was chopping beans for blanching before freezing and pulling leaves off mint stems, my back was really hurting but the job had to be done.  Standing at the kitchen sink I had a bit of an epiphany.  Learning to trust in God is my big spiritual job right now.   As I thanked God for the goods of the garden I also saw that I had to thank Him for everything else He sends me, including pain and fatigue and anything else disagreeable in my life, as well as the good things. I saw that the spirit of thankfulness reflects belief and trust that He knows what is best for me.

We can’t give what we don’t have.  If we are to be like Mary carrying Christ to Elizabeth, we have to do whatever necessary to imitate her faith and trust, letting Christ grow in us.  If we are to be like Elizabeth who received Christ and His mother, we have to do whatever is necessary to recognize Him in the many hidden ways He comes to us and the many gifts He gives us. These are the little day-by-day acts that constitute doing our part in God’s plan for the salvation of souls.  We don’t need to know the specifics.  We just need to follow faithfully where He leads us growing in His grace.  Someday all will be clear to us and we will be eternally praising Him with joy.

Tags: Blessed Virgin

Praying the Psalms – Psalm 23

June 19, 2010

Jenny at Just a Minute hosts a Saturday meme called “Praying the Psalms”.  Visit her this week to find other Catholic comments on Psalm 23.

We often hear Psalm 23 quoted in movies dramatizing burial services because it mentions the “midst (or valley) of the shadow of death”. I use the Douay-Rheims Bible often and the translation sometimes differs from the more familiar RSV, giving additional opportunities to delve into the mysteries of God’s Word.  What struck me today about Psalm 23 is that it mentions three of the seven sacraments in our life with God.

1 The Lord ruleth me: and I shall want nothing. [In Hebrew, is my shepherd, viz. to feed, guide, and govern me.]

2 He hath set me in a place of pasture. [God puts us where He wants us to be and provides for all our needs.] He hath brought me up, on the water of refreshment: [Baptism, when we begin our life in God]

3 He hath converted my soul. [By God's power we are converted from the darkness of Original Sin to the Light of Christ.] He hath led me on the paths of justice, for His own name’s sake. [For the sake of His beloved Son who died for each of us, the Father gives us the road map to heaven.]

4 For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for Thou art with me. [Sin, death, chaos and confusion are all around us.  We walk daily in the midst of the shadow of death (sin) but God is always with us and willing to give us grace to vanquish evil.  We need only to cling to Him and not try to do battle by ourselves.]  Thy rod and Thy staff, they have comforted me. [We are comforted and secure when we follow the laws of God and the Two Great Commandments].

5 Thou hast prepared a table before me against them that afflict me. [The Holy Eucharist, our strength in the valley of the shadow of death.] Thou hast anointed my head with oil; [Baptism - we have been claimed by God as His own with the anointing at Baptism] and my chalice which inebriateth me, how goodly is it! [The Holy Eucharist fills us with grace, peace, light, and strength so powerful our souls are drunk with the goodness of God.]

6 And Thy mercy will follow me all the days of my life.  And that I may dwell in the house of the Lord unto length of days.  [The sacrament of Penance (mercy) and the spirit of conversion makes it possible for us to dwell in the house of the Lord for eternity.]

How great God is to have done these things for us.  To be good sheep we only need to stay close to Jesus and feed on the pasture He gives us.  But should we wander into sin, He will call us back with his staff and show us mercy because He delights in us and desires that we delight in Him.

Tags: Divine Mercy

St. Ephrem, Harp of the Holy Ghost

June 18, 2010

I was born in the way of Truth:  Though my childhood was unaware of the greatness of the benefit, I knew it when trial came.

Today is the feast of St. Ephrem, the Prophet of the Syrians, Harp of the Holy Ghost, Father of Hymnody, Mary’s Own Singer, and other grand titles including Doctor of the Church. He lived from around 306-373 and we are very fortunate to still have large remnants of his writings.

You might think that anything he wrote so long ago  be would be old-fashioned or irrelevant to today’s world, but like all the Doctors of the Church, St. Ephrem’s writings get down to the simplicity and truth of life as found in sacred Scripture. Here is part of a poem he wrote:

There lie those who improved their complexions,

And artfully disguised their faces;

There lie those who painted their eyelids,

And the worm corrodes their eyes…

There lie those who were enemies,

And their bones are mingled together.

The scroll St. Ephrem holds in the icon above says: “Take thou refuge in God, who passes not away nor is changed.” He wrote about the Holy Eucharist, Penance, the primacy of Peter, about the Blessed Virgin and the sufferings of Christ.

St. Ephrem is known as “The Deacon of Edessa” and is the only male Doctor of the Church who was not ordained a priest or bishop. He lived for some time as a hermit and wrote many poems illustrating the doctrines of Christianity. This beautiful work from the Nativity series gives words to Mary:

The babe that I carry carries me, saith Mary, and He has lowered His wings, and taken and placed me between His pinions, and mounted into the air; and a promise has been given me that height and depth shall be my Son’s… [O Lord Jesus,] In her virginity Eve put on the leaves of shame: Thy Mother put on in her virginity the Garment of Glory that suffices for all.  She gave the little vest of the body to Him that covers all.

Blessed is she in whose heart and mind Thou wast!  A King’s palace she was by Thee, O Son of the King, and a Holy of Holies by Thee, O High Priest!

St. Ephrem organized choirs of women and taught them verses to replace the heretical hymns of Bardesanes, a Syrian writer of the early 3rd century who had written 150 of them, while keeping the music.  Today many of the hymns of St. Ephrem are part of the Syrian liturgy.

Pope Benedict XV proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church on October 5, 1920.

Below is a YouTube recording of John Tavener’s Ikon of the Nativity taken from St. Ephrem’s Nativity hymns.  Tavener is a convert to the Orthodox Church and has written a great deal of music for its liturgy that I think is utterly heavenly. You can also find a recording of a Maronite choir singing St. Ephrem’s Hymn of Light. Unfortunately, embedding is impossible.  Just type in “Hymns of St. Ephrem” and it will come up.

Given the deplorable and sometimes heretical hymns foisted upon Catholics since the 1960s, perhaps it would be wise to call on the patronage of St. Ephrem in the restoration of the sacred liturgy.

Tags: Catholic Church, music

A Paid Project for God

June 17, 2010

This week I have neglected you, my dear readers, but not because I don’t care about sharing.  For the first time in 7 years I have a paid project to do – writing a study guide for my friend, Lynn Baber’s book, Amazing Grays – Amazing Grace, and the deadline is tight.  It has to be ready by next weekend for a homeschooling conference in Austin, Texas.  Lynn and I work as a team and I have to re-read each chapter, develop questions based on the content, and devise suitable exercises for readers to apply the lessons. She’ll edit and add necessary horse-related stuff.

This work is very like what I did in my business career when I developed training programs and training manuals.  Thinking is hard work and very time consuming when I am putting something like this together, just as when I write blog posts. I always want to bring something useful to readers. It also takes prayer.

The project made me reflect on the value Sunday’s collect (prayer) has for me each week.  I pray the 1962 Short Breviary daily and unless we celebrate a particular feast, the prayer at the end of each hour is Sunday’s collect. It so happens that last Sunday’s collect (the Third Sunday after Pentecost) fits with Lynn’s message of obedience to God and the right relationship with Him.

O God, the protector of those who put their trust in Thee, without Whom nothing is strong, nothing holy; multiply upon us Thy mercy, that with Thee as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we may not lose those which are eternal. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who livest and reignest in unity with the Holy Spirit, God, world without end.  Amen.

I can’t think of a better prayer for each of us as we set out to do God’s will daily.  As for the study guide, as of this evening I have only 10 chapters to go!

Tags: trust in God

Sabbath Moments

June 12, 2010

Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts this every Saturday.  Sabbath Moments are the times when we rest in God.

By now my readers know that beauty, especially natural beauty, moves me to God. This week I took some photos of veggies in our garden to include in one of my posts.  As I turned to go back to the house I saw the Stella d’oro daylilies blooming in an attractive pattern.

I confess that all flowers remind me of Our Lady, and these joyful blooms are no exception. The golden color for the Queen of heaven, for the “House of Gold” in the Litany of the BVM; and the elegant drape of the green leaves as of a full skirt on an ante bellum gown, green the color of hope and renewal, said to me, “I am here.” Everywhere I turn God shows Himself and so often He brings His most perfect creation, the Blessed Virgin, with Him.

Often my Sabbath Moments are just that – moments – a quick second when I think of God and His goodness and generosity to us.  Seeing the daylilies was one. In the midst of all the evil afflicting the world, God continues to say that He is here and wants us to acknowledge Him as our Creator and Redeemer, as the One Who loves totally in a way we can never completely comprehend.

Let us praise Him for His wondrous deeds, great and small, and let us show Him to others joyfully, as the daylilies do, in all we do and say.

Tags: joy

God’s Bounty and Blessing

June 11, 2010

Tomato plants in the Earthbox. Little tomatoes growing already.

“Bless us O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we have received from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

Spring sprang into summer almost overnight in southwest Missouri.  We are experiencing August heat and humidity in June which is causing fruits, flowers and veggies to leap out of the ground (and the Earthboxes®) and produce prodigiously.

This week we started harvesting zucchini and sharing with the neighbors, and I invented a quick dish good for any day of the week, but especially for Fridays because there’s no meat in it.

As I inspected all the vegetables I saw that the tomatoes are forming nicely and God blessed us with a volunteer cherry tomato plant that grew from one of last year’s. Asparagus beans are climbing the fence and budding with pretty blue-purple flowers.  Six of the nine planted are looking very good.  Yellow squash is coming along and the cantaloupe are dawdling but healthy.  We will be at war with the Japanese beetles any day now, though.

Seeing the garden doing so well made me think of the grace before meals we prayed growing up and still pray today.  It’s such an easy way to remind ourselves that it is God’s bounty in all things that makes our lives possible.

Of course, we must remember to thank God for His blessings after our meals, too.

“We give Thee thanks, O Almighty God, for these Thy benefits, Who lives and reigns, world without end. Amen. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.”

Recipe: Zucchini Italian

One of our zucchini plants in the ground. We have two in an Earthbox. Leaves are about 10 inches across.

1 or 2  8-10 inch long zucchini, depending on your family size

Home made or store bought Italian sauce, gluten free

1 tbs. butter

Italian seasoning

Parmesan cheese

Shredded Italian 5 cheese

Turn on the broiler.  Cut the ends off the zucchini and slice it into 1/8 inch slices.  Melt butter in your cooking dish (I use ceramic dishes I bought a couple of years ago from Dr. Mercola) and sprinkle a little Italian seasoning in it, or use fresh herbs from your garden.  Sauté the zucchini in the butter and herbs over medium heat on the stove until it starts getting a little tender.  Spoon the Italian sauce on the zucchini and spread it fairly thin.  Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top and then sprinkle shredded Italian 5 cheese thinly over the whole dish.  Pop it under the broiler for about 2-3 minutes until the cheese is lightly browned.

It takes about 10 minutes max to put all this together and get it out of the oven ready to serve. This makes a good side dish or a good main dish.  If you’re making it a main dish, be sure to fix enough zucchini as the recipe above is intended for two.

Tip for making your own Italian sauce: put a little burgundy or merlot wine in it for a gourmet flavor.

Tags: wellness

A Catholic Analysis of Illegal Immigration

June 9, 2010

No hotter topic incites commentary than illegal immigration. Ever since Arizona passed a recent law upholding federal laws on immigration as it seeks to protect its residents, every talking head and pundit has weighed in on this issue with opinion after opinion while the mainstream media proceeds to favor continued lawbreaking by mainly promoting those comentators who get some kind of advantage from bloviating on the topic.

My primary apostolate since 1997 has been the restoration of the sacred liturgy with the emphasis since 1999 on the restoration of what Pope Benedict dubbed the “Extraordinary Form” in his 2007 motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum.  One of the services I’ve provided gratis all this time is a monthly newsletter on Catholic tradition. Since 2006 it has been hosted by Una Voce Arkansas Ozarks.

Last month the president of the organization tipped me to a statement by Bishop Slattery of Tulsa, Oklahoma on illegal immigration.  The bishop’s writing led me to feature his statement in the newsletter along with my own article, Enabling Illegal Immigration, Cui bono? where I take on certain moral aspects no one else seems to be covering, even the bishops.  Catholics who are praying for the social reign of Christ the King will find a direct application to this need in the article.

Click on the link in the post to read the article.  You will see the connection between the purpose of this site and the subjects covered in the newsletter.  If you want to be on the e-list for the newsletter, please contact me through this blog.

Tags: Catholic Church