“I simply am”

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

I have been mulling over these lines at the end of Ann Voskamp’s post yesterday:

 

“I stay for a long time at the river’s edge. I simply sit. I simply am. He is I AM — the only One who exists to hold it all together– not me. The water fall sings. Only when we rest do we relinquish our ambitions to be like God.“

 

That can be one of the hardest things to do–at least for me–to simply sit, to simply be, to not worry about what I am or am not. What a wonderful reminder, that first and foremost, “only when we rest do we relinquish our ambitions to be like God.” 

“But Not With Wine”

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

A Sunday-poem from Jessica Powers:

But Not With Wine

“You are drunk, but not with wine” (Isaiah 51.21)

O god of too much giving, whence is this
inebriation that possesses me,
that the staid road now wanders all amiss
and that the wind walks much too giddily,
clutching a bush for balance, or a tree?
How then can dignity and pride endure
with such inordinate mirth upon the land,
when steps and speech are somewhat insecure
and the light heart is wholly out of hand?

If there be indecorum in my songs,
fasten the blame where rightly it belongs:
on Him who offered me too many cups
of His most potent goodness–not on me,
a peasant who, because a king was host,
drank out of courtesy.

Three necessary prayers

Sr. Dorcee, beloved1 Comment

I have been reading Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge, and one sentence has been following me around for days.  One of the characters has a conversation with a man who is seen as a bit of an eccentric by others, one of those holy men whom others find it hard to understand.  The conversation goes like this: “There are three necessary prayers and they have three words each.  They are these, ‘Lord have mercy.  Thee I adore.  Into Thy hands.’  Not difficult to remember.  If in times of distress you hold to these you will do well.’  Then he lifted his hat and turned round again.  I stood at the door and watched him go.  He had a queer wavering sort of walk.  He did not look back.”

As I said, I have been pondering those three prayers–hopefully as our Mother would–and they feed my soul.    I hope you find time to ponder them as well.  (Have you been able to find a place to make little retreats during the day?)

On Corpus Christi, Before the Blessed Sacrament

Sr. Dorcee, beloved2 Comments

On Corpus Christi, Before the Blessed Sacrament

You languish in the darkness like
a criminal imprisoned
a sick man quarantined
an eccentric, babbling uncle, hid away.

Are they so afraid of You?
Are we so ashamed of You?
This is Your pageant day!

Where are Your holy calvacades?
Your solemn ranks of soldiers
with their Captain at their head?
Your festal, fair processions
winding through the curious crowds
who marvel at the sacred spectacle?

In the quiet I hear the echoes
from the stones of ancient streets
crying out with praise to shame us
for our silence.
In the blackness I see faces
of a multitude of children
looking down the ages, wondering
to see so plain a feast.

For the glory due Your name,
how long, O Lord,
must You wait?

~Paul Thigpen

False images

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

What is the greatest obstacle to prayer?  In my opinion, it is our ideas of who God is (or isn’t).  We so easily limit Him or distort His image.  At least, this is one of my primary battles. It is all too easy to impose our own ideas or our own experiences of our earthly fathers upon our image of God.  That, in fact, is idolatry.  The Catholic Catechism says: “God our Father transcends the categories of the created world.  To impose our own ideas in this area ‘upon him’ would be to fabricate idols to adore or pull down.  To pray to the Father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as the Son has revealed him to us.” (CCC 2779)

In what ways do you distort God and make Him into your own image?

Hope in the midst of darkness

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

 

“And if everyone lit just one little candle . . .”  A photo from a recent cancer walk in Canada.  A luminary for each family member or friend who had died from cancer, one of our Sister’s mother was represented.  She aptly described this photo: “Hope in the midst of darkness.”  Her niece, a brave young cancer survivor, walked.

May we each become a luminary, shining with Christ’s presence within us, to this dark world in which we live.