New Awakening

As I awoke this morning I realized I was saying the Our Father. Not too hard to understand. A lot of people awaken saying the Our Father in the morning as a matter of course just as I did. But this morning I had a New Awakening. I was struck by the fact that THIS day I said "Thy will be done!" I can only surmise that the excerpt from Contemplation Haven, Asylum for Your Refugee Soul made a real impact on me yesterday. She shared a wonderful excerpt by Hans Urs von Balthasar called Maybe Tomorrow. Wow! It must have had more of an impression on me than I thought!!! TODAY I hear myself saying, "Thy will be done" now...not tomorrow...today! I'm really going to TRY today!!!

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Thanks be to God!

Wisdom of G.K. Chesterton

Though my birthday is still a few days away I received the most wonderful book of reflections from my dear friend, Martha. (You might remember her from my entry on friendship in May this year). I have always love G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown Mysteries. Now, I am so delighted with this gift that I have to share today's reflection with you from the "Wisdom of G.K. Chesterton".

Levity and Levitation

Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly. This has always been the instinct of Christendom, and especially the instinct of Christian art. Remember how Fra Angelico represented all his angels, not only as birds, bu almost as butterflies. Remember how the most earnest medieval art was full of light and fluttering draperies, of quick and capering feet...In the old Christian pictures the sky over every figure is like a blue or gold parachute. Every figure seems ready to fly up and float about in the heavens. The tattered cloak of the beggar will bear him up like the rayed plumes of the angels. But the kings in their heavy gold and the proud in their robes of purple will all of their nature sink downward, for pride cannot rise to levity or levitation. Pride is the downward drag of all things into an easy solemnity. One "settles down" into a sort of selfish seriousness; but one has to rise to a gay self-forgetfulness. A man "falls" into a brown study; he reaches up at a blue sky. (ORTHODOXY)

REVIVE THE SPIRIT

For thus says the high and lofty one
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Isaiah 57:15

PRAYER
Holy God, bear us upward toward you. Make our spirits
lighter, more joyful. Teach us how to live without fretting,
without the anxieties that so often obscure our view
of you in your high and holy place, that heaven which is
our true home.

ADVENT ACTION
If you live near an art museum, plan a day trip there and spend an hour or more
in the medieval section. if not, find art books at a local library or search the internet
for images of great art. As you look at the painting, consider what Chesterton
says about the lightness, the "gay self-forgetfulness" of some of the figures. Try
to appreciate the art while also opening yourself to it as a mode for devotion.

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I hope you find this to be a source of reflection you might find as useful and uplifting as I have found it to be. Gee, aren't birthdays grand!!!

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Thanks be to God!!!

Christmas Cards

A co-worker several years ago told me she never sent Christmas cards because they were a waste of time and money. "No one keeps them," she said. "They just throw them away." Well, I had to agree that she might have been right about that.

But I had a wonderful teacher when it came to the "art" of Christmas cards. My dad's cousin, Pat, would SHOP every year for her Christmas cards. It was with loving tenderness and with great care she sought the card she was going to send each year. I remember going shopping with her once. I asked her what she looked for in a Christmas card and she said that it had to have a certain beauty that struck her as being really Christmas. "But why?" I asked. She told me she always wanted the card to be a real gift, not just a piece of paper that was sent in the mail. She said that with each card she addressed and signed she said a prayer for the friend or family. And at least once a year she had remembered them personally in her prayers, her gift to them. Well, that bowled that teenager over...

Ever since, I have tried to remember the lesson Pat taught me that Saturday so many years ago. When I work on the Christmas cards they are a labor of love, one in which I take a great deal of pleasure! I treasure this time with my family and friends and share that little prayer for them as Pat did. That's my Christmas card tradition and I love it.

I hope you love to send Christmas cards as I do. For this card is for All who visit here. God Bless you this Holy Season of Christmas.

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And Thanks Be to God!

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

It is so amazing and awe inspiring to witness again how the Spirit has moved the Church Fathers in the instruction of the People of God. I cannot tell you how the reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians really touch my heart and soul this morning at Mass. While proclaiming the Word I was struck by the eloquence of Saint Paul and how on this Holy Feast we are truly drawn securely into the Family of God. This reading is so appropriate and is a reminder of our connection to our Blessed Mother through her son Jesus. I am destined to be holy.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundations of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3-6: 11-12)

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Thanks be to God, again!!!

I Have Always Loved Playing Tag...

This has been a pretty important week for me! I feel really special. I haven't felt so important since Marianne played basketball in high school and people would come up to me and say, "You're Marianne's mother, aren't you? SHE's a very good basketball player." It is really thrilling for me to open this blog and see a comment. I get as excited as a little kid.So to receive the Emmanuel Award and then being tagged for the MEME is quite a treat...

(Picture by Mary Engelbreit)

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HERE GOES:

1. I love to play Scrabble especially with the grand kids. My mom always said it is the best way to learn to spell, learn your vocabulary, and have fun at the same time.
   
2. I can be a poor sport and poor looser (but not at Scrabble) when it comes to watching Denver Bronco football. These roots are deep.
3. Sometimes I play solitaire. That's my remedy for avoiding poor sportsmanship when the Broncos are playing.
   
4. I was scared to death of dogs as a child. Now I have two.
5. I am dyslexic when it comes to numbers. (eg. I weighed a patient today whose weight was 232 lbs, and in the computer he weighed 323 lbs. when I got through.) Luckily I have a boss with a good sense of humor and patients who know me pretty well.
6. I graduated from St. Mary-of-the-Woods college in 1994 with a degree in gerontology at the age of 48. (To which my husband remarked, "At your age, you will be in the forefront of your field.)
   
7. When I was in college, three of my children were in college at the same time.
   
8. I find the greatest joy in waking in the morning knowing that I start it with a clean slate and at the end of the day see how much chalk dust there is on the eraser. Some days are better than other.

And one for good measure...I love a good cup of hot tea.

Now my journey begins to "tag" others...hoping they have not already been tagged.

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Good evening to all and Thanks Be To God!!!!!