“The foundations of the round world shake; but the altar’s light burns ever brighter.”
(Bl. John Henry Newman)
Only by the help of the Holy Spirit
Worth the watch:
In His hiddenness
Why does God seem to hide from us?
“‘. . . Then he also went, not publicly, but as it were in secret’ (Jn 7.10). This preference for hiddenness, for remaining unseen, seems to have been a definite impulse of Jesus, clearly depicted on a few occasions in the gospel. It appears he wanted to go unobserved during certain interludes, to pass shrouded through the crowds, inconspicuous and ordinary, even after he began his public life. Surely this desire to remain unrecognized cannot have been a capricious gesture. What is happening here, since in other places he is intent on revealing himself? Does it give hint of a divine attribute which we have not named properly, and yet of vital importance for knowing God’s relations with our soul? These occasions when he desired to remain concealed and unnoticed, are they showing us the shape and contour, as it were, of the only encounter with God at times available to us? Must we necessarily seek him in his hiddenness if we are to find him?” (Fr. Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations)
All for the good
Friday: from the archives
Here’s a story I just read about one way God worked all things for the good:
In the devotional book Voices of the Faithful, a missionary couple in South America tells of a local pastor in Uberaba who bought a van to transport people to church. To help make payments on the van, he removed the backseats and did delivery work through the week. But the van needed four new tires, and the pastor had no way of paying for them.
One night the van was stolen from the church property. Some of the church members tried to console their pastor by saying that perhaps it wasn’t God’s will for him to have the van. But he knew he needed the vehicle for God’s work, so he trusted the Lord to work it all for the good.
A few days later, police officers from a nearby town called on…
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God is moved
“God is moved not only by the overall tenor of our lives, but by every single movement of our heart. Our smallest return of His love has more impact and importance with God than we will ever know.” (Fr. Joseph Langford)
Weakness is a Strength
From Ben in Thailand–and well worth reading. (Subscribe to his blog–it’s full of gems.)
About all those shadows we live with
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.
Most strangely so
“I have had prayers answered–most strangely so sometimes–but I think our heavenly Father’s loving-kindness has been even more evident in what He has refused me.”
(Lewis Caroll, from The Letters of Lewis Carroll)
Something Other Than God
I just finished this book. What a fun read–and here are some folks having a fun time reading excerpts of it:
A blessing
“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
Witnesses to Hope 