Friday: from the archives
An encouraging meditation from Amy Carmichael:
Luke 4:40 He laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them.
This verse took life for me one day lately. I was reading in the Revised Version and looked up the Authorized, to see if I was reading something new, for it felt new. But no, I must have read it hundreds of times before.
On every one of them. It comforted me to know that He does not look upon us as a mass, but as separate needy souls. I remembered the terrific attack that is always on the love that should hold us together, and I read over and over again John 15.9-17. I know well that the devil hates and fears strong love. If he can weaken us there, all goes. For us, to weaken means to perish. I found rest in remembering the hands laid on every one of us, not one of us overlooked, and the hands laid upon us are wounded hands.
A simple offering
“‘Lately in prayer’, in the words of a contemplative, ‘I have been roaming around in a search I did not realize would frustrate my soul, seeking to enjoy God’s presence close at hand, when he was waiting as usual for the simple offering of my love in the current hour.'”
~Fr. Donald Haggerty, Contemplative Provocations
Let nothing trouble you
Hiding Nothing
Wisdom for all of us . . .
You can hide nothing from God.
The mask you wear before men will do you no good before Him.
He wants to see you as you are,
He wants to be gracious to you.
You do not have to go on lying to yourself and your brothers,
as if you were without sin;
you can dare to be a sinner.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer from Life Together
One of my Monday morning jobs in our college health clinic is to meet with any student who got so intoxicated they had to spend part of the weekend in the emergency room. Alcohol poisonings are distressingly common on all college campuses, and ours is no exception. What I do during our morning-after visit is review the records with the student so they have some idea what took place before they woke up hours later on a gurney in a noisy smelly emergency room– alcohol…
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We must not fret
“We must not fret over our own imperfections.”
~St. Francis de Sales
Do not despair
“Our gracious Lord does not wish His servants to despair
because of frequent or grievous falling,
because our falling does not prevent Him from loving us.”
(Julian of Norwich)
Isn’t this the Good News?
Take heart
Michele’s story
Last night at Witnesses to Hope, Michele Hufnagel shared her very inspiring story of finding grace amid the many losses in her life, grace she found through the power of the rosary. (Unknown to me, I scheduled her for last night, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary with absolutely no knowledge of how significant the rosary is to her story.) If you want to listen, you can go here to find the links. Thank you, Michele, for your transparency and for being such a witness to hope!
“In that hidden corner of the soul”
I was really struck by this today from Contemplative Provocations by Fr. Donald Haggerty. I’ve been reading and re-reading it . . .
The psychologists are sometimes quick to remind us that forcing any painful experience into a forgotten corner of the soul is likely to do eventual harm. But if we have ignored this warning, it is good to remember that God entered that corner as well, and that he is still waiting there with an offer of his friendship if our soul wishes to meet him. Some people may only realize the extent to which God has been secretly giving himself when they perceive that his companionship has all along been present in that hidden corner of the soul.
