A joy safe

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

I keep a number of encouraging and important personal papers in the zipper pouch of my bible cover. They are easily accessible for me to pull out and look at whenever I wish.  But here’s a great idea, too.

“I find that joy can be overwhelmed.  Just as a migraine can ruin a picnic, painful happenings can eclipse joy.  In a hard time recently, I remembered a friend’s grandmother showing me her ‘joy safe,’ a wooden box in which she kept things that connected her with joy and reminded her of God’s presence.  I started my own box last week with two things: a button from the uniform my father wore when he came safely home from war and a note from a grandchild who had been kept back in third grade: ‘Grandma! I got all A’s. I’m gonna make it.'” (Patricia Livingston)

What would you put in your joy safe to help you remember God’s presence in your life?

bx01

Posted in joy

Steadfast taper

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

A poem by Luci Shaw:

       Steadfast Taper
Job 28:3

His candle shines upon my head.
He trims the wick and guards the falme
and though darkness creeps in close
the steadfast taper shines the same.

The flower of flame sways in the air.
Wind fingers snatch and try to snuff
the stalk his careful hands protect.
The light shines through.  It is enough.

His candle shines on me in love,
(protective circle in the gloom)
and through the dreadful night I know
that he is with me in the room.

Throughout the weary waiting time
the liquid flame shines thin and pure.
When tiredness dims my faith, I look
and see his light, and I am sure.

        ~Luci Shaw (Moving into Light, p. 106)

Serving badly, suffering badly, loving badly

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

Friday: from the archives

(Sorry that posts have been sparse. . . . it’s been an incredibly busy time.)

Sr. Dorcee, beloved's avatarWitnesses to Hope

I guess this is a bit of a follow-up to “When you feel like you have nothing left to give”.   I’m thinking of how so often I feel that when I try to give to folks, I don’t feel like I’m doing it very well or saying it very well.  Dom Hebert van Zeller addresses this in the following excerpt from his book, The Inner Search.  Too often I’m more concerned about how well I’m doing things rather than about the importance of just doing something and and maybe doing it badly, but being willing to be humble.  Of course, this is true of loving God as well as loving my neighbor.  It’s important for us to know who we really are as well as who God really is.  A lesson I’m obviously still learning.

What costs the soul most is not the service itself, or the love…

View original post 123 more words

Locked doors

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

Sr. Dorcee, beloved's avatarWitnesses to Hope

I always find this kind of reflection on the Easter appearances full of great hope for folks like me: “ Jesus moves among men and women–even if it means passing through doors locked from within ” (Jn 20.19-23). (Fr. William M. Joensen)  Many of us frequently–or continually–bolt the doors of our hearts from within, yet we long for Christ to come to us.  We can have great hope . . . for He is the One who can enter “through doors locked from within.”

View original post

Soul in need

Sr. Dorcee, beloved1 Comment

Soul in need of mercy,
whoever and wherever you may be,
know that all the riches of the Divine Mercy
are, for you, contained and offered
in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Go before the tabernacle,
or seek out the monstrance displaying the Body of Christ,
–a feast for your eyes–
and there adore the mystery of the Divine Mercy.

Open yourself wide,
become all capacity,
so as to receive within yourself
the mighty torrent of Mercy destined for you and, through you,
for those whose sorrows and weaknesses
you have chosen or have been given to bear.

Adore the Blood and Water that, even now,
gush from the Sacred Side
with a freshness and a purity that never grows old.Adore the Gift of the Holy Spirit
and desire to receive Him anew today
as the Soul of your soul,
that is, the very Life of your life.

The Fountainhead of Divine Mercy
is hidden in the Sacrament of the Altar.
“He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry;
when He hears it, He will answer you.
And though the Lord give you the bread of affliction,
yet your Teacher will not hide Himself any more,
but your eyes shall see your Teacher.” (Isaiah 30:19-20)

Close to the Eucharistic Fountainhead,
you will find Mary, the Mater Misericordiae.
She never tires of communicating to souls
the abundance of Divine Mercy.
So close is she to the Source,
that it is as if she and the Source were one:
all that flows out of the Source passes through her,
and it is within her power to direct the flow of Divine Mercy
toward whomsoever she pleases.
Her Son so trusts her maternal Heart
that He has has entrusted all to her,
allowing her freely to dispense His Mercy to souls.

Soul devoted to the Divine Mercy,
adore Him Who is present as Mercy
in the Sacrament of the Altar.
Divine Mercy enters the world through the Most Holy Sacrament,
for therein in is the Heart of Jesus, the wellspring of His Mercy,
and His pierced Side, the mouth of Divine Mercy,
the opening out of which Divine Mercy enters the universe
and streams into souls
to purify, sanctify, and glorify them.

Soul surfeited with miseries,
if you would experience the Divine Mercy,
draw near to the Eucharistic Presence of the Pierced One;
remain in the light of His Eucharistic Face;
hold yourself still and full of expectation before His Open Side.
There, you will never be disappointed in your hope.
For with Him is Mercy and copious redemption,
and He will forgive you all your sins.
Every tabernacle that shelters His adorable Body and Blood
makes available to you, and to all,
the Fountainhead of the inexhaustible Mercy of God.

~Fr. Mark Daniel Kirby

Where is He?

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

Friday: from the archives

Sr. Dorcee, beloved's avatarWitnesses to Hope

I’ve been trying to imagine what it was like for Jesus’ friends shortly after the Resurrection.  As word spread of His appearances to this one and that one, they must have wondered to whom and where He would appear next.  And would they recognize Him when He did–since so many of them failed to recognize Him at first glance?  Thinking about this led me to ponder my own life and take stock of how great my own expectation is of His “appearing” to me in my daily life.  How often do I not recognize Him when He is present to me?  Come, Holy Spirit, and open our eyes to recognize Christ where He is in our lives.

View original post

Frankly

Sr. Dorcee, beloved2 Comments

A very good friend of mine just died.  She knew she was dying, and, as her spiritual director, we had many frank talks about death.  Her biggest question–one I think is all of ours–was “What will it be like?”  Another friend of mine tackles the same question here.  And, frankly, we both give the same answer.

Lord, you know that dying is not something I’m looking forward to.  You know my thoughts, so you know that I don’t spend much time even thinking about it.  But it’s impossible to mark your death and resurrection without thinking about the fact that I, too, am going to die.

Frankly, celebrating your resurrection doesn’t make death less dreadful.  Nor does thinking about my sharing in your resurrection.  Today, I know; this world, I know.  The resurrection–that’s something I don’t know.  I feel very rooted here.  being pulled up by the roots, well, it’s not a pleasant expectation.

Yet I do know that when the moment of being torn from this world comes, I will not be alone.  You will show me theplant-hand path to life.  No, you will be the path to life.  You’ve already made the journey form this world through death into risen life.  When it’s time for me to make the journey, you’lb be there to bring me from this life into life with you forever.  I still don’t look forward to being wrenched form this world.  And yet, Lord, “my heart is glad” (Ps 16.9)

(Kevin Perrotta)