I have been reading this every time I’m in adoration these days. I find it quite encouraging, and I hope you do, too.
“During prayer while standing before the Lord, show Him not only your empty hands but also your dirty hands filled with your attachments . . . and pray that He will have mercy on you.” (Fr. Tadeusz Dajczer)
No one can celebrate
a genuine Christmas
without being truly poor.
The self-sufficient, the proud,
those who, because they have
everything, look down on others,
those who have no need
even of God–for them there
will be no Christmas.
Only the poor, the hungry,
those who need someone
to come on their behalf,
will have that someone
That someone is God.
Emmanuel: God-with-us.
Without poverty of spirit
there can be no abundance of God.
Oscar Romero
More from Fr. Marc Foley:
What does it mean to leave childhood? What does it mean to become an adult? It means having the strength not to be ruled by one’s emotions or allowing one’s feelings to dictate one’s choices,and possessing the determination to stand upright in the face of an emotional storm. This was the grace given to Thérèse.
Thérèse was not healed of her hypersensitivity. Rather, she was given the strength to deal with it. . . . God did not remove Thérèse from the battle of her emotions but gave her the fortitude to remain in the battle.
. . . . .
Reflect upon your own life . . . What do we suffer in doing God’s will? Is it not some painful emotion that accompanies our choices? Is it not fear that makes an act of faith harrowing? Is it not the sadness of mourning that makes ‘letting go’ difficult? Is not loneliness or emptiness the price of remaining faithful to one’s vows? Is not tediousness and boredom the burden of being dutiful to the daily round?
Love and suffering are inseparable. If we are unwilling to suffer, then we cannot love.”
Guest blogger: Mary Anne Morgan. Love her blog.
broken prayer
To me, this is what freedom looks like. This leaf, done with gathering its own glory is the perfect window in which to view the true glory. When I found this fragile beauty in my yard last week I immediately bent down to pick it up. It held within its tender frame the similar magnetic powers of a newborn child, with vulnerability it’s greatest strength. This paradox sends me swooning and I want to be like this leaf.
Let me be like this Father. Let there be nothing in me to hold on to offense when the enemy of my soul slings it unreservedly in my direction. Let hurt pass right through me so that it never grows into bitterness and resentment, thus rotting my bones. Let there be nothing in me that insults and injustice can stick to, only you who fills the broken spaces.
Yes Father fill the broken spaces.
You can read the rest here.
I haven’t reposted from Ann Voskamp recently. Probably because I figure that you all follow her. But just in case, you don’t, here’s the latest:
I take the kid that fell off the rip stick and broke his foot back to the doctor.
He may or may not have laid an afternoon or two on the kitchen floor, wailing that I had ruined his life.
Because I had the audacity to not let him and his cast go drive a tractor or jump on the trampoline or swing down the zipline. Yeah, I’m sorta old fashioned and ridiculous like that.
The doctor says one more week of cast swinging. I think the kid may become a happy human pinwheel on crutches, flipping all the way out the doctor’s office.
I get pink eye.
And then youtube how to unclog a toilet so I don’t have to bother the Farmer who is putting in 24 hour days back to back in the field, because yeah, nobody wants to drag their dirt-crusted selves in after 48 hours on an open tractor only to meet a reeking toilet.
You can read the rest here.
“May all your expectations
be frustrated.
May all your plans be thwarted.
May all of your desires
be withered into nothingness,
that you may experience the powerlessness and
poverty of a child and sing and dance
in the love of God the Father,
the Son and the Spirit.”
Blessing given to Henri Nouwen by his spiritual mentor
May this be the prayer of each of us. Beautifully done and sincerely sung: I Shall Not Want (Audrey Assad)
I have counselled a number of mothers whose children have disappointed them in some way or another. Most of them have the same first response as Lysa TerKeurst : “And you know what I’m tempted to do as a mom? Draw a straight line from my child’s wrong choice to my weakness in mothering.”
If you’d like to know more of her thinking process about this, go here. It’s worth the read.
“There is nothing so perfect in the world as to be quite above objection and criticism. The very sun which gives us light and warmth is not free from spots, yet notwithstanding these defects it does not desist from its regular duty. It behoves us in like manner to carry on to the best of our ability what has been entrusted to us . . .” (Sundar Singh)
Witnesses to Hope 