We Propose, God Disposes
Celebrating my 50th jubilee was an opportunity to review my life. One thing that stood out was how it didn’t go as I had planned. Yes, I always dreamed of being a teacher, but not a teaching Sister. Then I decided I would teach freshmen English at my high school, Notre Dame Academy, all my life. Two years later that school moved to Chardon. I never taught there, not even one day, not even as a substitute teacher! Then as I attended College preparing to be a high school English and math teacher, I was plucked out and sent to teach primary grades for three years.
When I was finally a high school teacher and head of the English department at Regina, I was sent to the University of Minnesota for a Master’s in math, which I was unprepared for, not having had undergraduate math courses. I changed to an English program, which culminated in a six-week experiment with my students. After receiving an Ohio grant to carry this out and being assigned the necessary class, I was asked to leave teaching to help finish writing a high school religion series. My six-week experiment was shortened to six days in a borrowed class for which I commuted! My teaching career ended after thirteen years and I become a writer. I never wanted to be a priest because I would have to give homilies, yet now I am a speaker.
Looking back at the way my plans were foiled, I realized that God’s designs were superior. They gave me joy and unexpected graces. You probably have had similar experiences. (more…)
Communities: From the Trinity to Us
In a few days, I will be moving to an apartment building where I will live with about forty Sisters of Notre Dame and a growing number of laypeople. We will form a community that will be a new experience for me. I’ve lived with large and small groups of Sisters, I’ve lived alone, and once for two months I lived with a community of disabled people in Chicago in a home called Shelter of God’s Love. A recent retreat focused me on our deep-rooted need to form communities and how important they are. It all begins with the Trinity, three holy Persons bound together as One: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Since we are made in God’s image, then we too are naturally drawn to live in communities.
Jesus, our model, lived with others and wasn’t a loner. He could have chosen to appear on earth as a fully formed man. Instead he came as a member of a family, the basic human community. He spent about thirty years eating, talking, and working in this unit. As a native of Nazareth, he belonged to the community of two hundred or so people who lived around him. He made their scythes and plows in his workshop, helped build their houses, and danced at their weddings.
After Jesus left his hometown, he gathered a team of twelve men who accompanied him day in and day out for the next few years. They walked from town to town together, shared meals, laughed and talked, slept in inns or under the stars. Three of these apostles were his best friends, chosen to share special experiences with him. Knowing the value of support, he sent his disciples out two by two to spread his teachings. At the end of his life, he did not die alone but was flanked by two other crucified men.
Jesus spoke of his followers as a tight-knit group, in fact, as his mystical body. We Christians are all united with him and with one another, like branches on a vine. We worship God as an assembly each week. Our parishes are faith communities.
Men and women religious form communities in order to encourage and support one another in carrying out the Lord’s mission. As such, synergy is at work: together they can accomplish more than individually. A string can be easily broken, but when a number of them are together, they are strong. A page can be ripped easily, but tearing several pages at the same time to recycle them requires a great deal of strength I learned. In addition, communities are more fun.
What communities enrich your life? Do you have special friends? Four of us high school “girls” meet periodically for dinner and discussion. Do you know the people in your neighborhood? If not, could you be the catalyst starting a block party? How does your parish support you? How do you support it?
At the end of time, we will all be swept up into that eternal community of the one God.
Precious Gift of Your Life
Today I came across this short talk on my computer. I forgot where I gave it. May you will find it inspiring: You’ve probably seen photos from the Hubble telescope that show the galaxy Andromeda, the one closest to us. It makes you dizzy. There are billions of stars in it. Beyond that there are zillions of other galaxies. And here we are on tiny planet Earth, just a blue and green speck in the enormous universe, but Earth contains life. It’s a miracle.
Reflect with me a few minutes about what your life means. From all eternity God planned to create you. Then at a certain time and place, almighty God loved you into being. A certain woman and a certain man met and came together and gave you a set of genes unlike any other person’s. You are unique. And you are marvelous. Your eyes keep blinking to keep them lubricated. Right now your stomach is digesting your last meal. Put your hand over your heart. It beats more than 100,000 times a day, sending oxygen to cells to keep you alive. And all these things go on without your even thinking about them.
Because you have life, you can thrill to music, run with wind blowing through your hair, play basketball, dance, swim, eat pizza, play the guitar, and read others’ thoughts in books or on iPads. Because you have life, you can know the satisfaction of mastering algebra and French (well maybe) and learning how to cook and to build a house. You can create things: a new recipe, a song, a computer program, or art. You can imagine, remember, solve problems, and make decisions.
Because you are alive, the whole cosmos is your playground. You are free to explore earth and gaze at wonders like the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and star-studded night skies. You can be astonished by exquisite flowers and enjoy animals like your pet.
You also have spiritual life and the divine life we call grace. This makes you godlike. You are God’s child with a destiny of living forever.
What is life’s greatest blessing? Love—the whole spectrum of it. You can know the love of God and the love of parents, spouse, children, family, and friends. You can also experience the intoxicating joy of loving others in return.
Incredibly God gave us tremendous power over these wonderful lives of ours. We can live them fully. St. Irenaeus pointed out that the glory of God is a human being fully alive. This means using all of our talents and all of our days to the utmost. We can re-gift our lives by turning them into a present to God. As Saint Mother Teresa urged, “Make your lives something beautiful for God.”
On the other hand, we also have power to waste our lives, ruin them, and even destroy them. Doing this is like laughing in our Creator’s face.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said he came that we might have life and have it abundantly. He passed his baton to his followers, us. If you are baptized, you are called to carry on the mission of Jesus, to bring others life, abundant life.You are called to see that people’s lives are not snuffed out before they leave the womb, that refugees have a safe place to live, that the homeless find food and shelter, that the imprisoned are humanely treated, that the elderly are respected and cared for, and that all people, no matter what their race, religion, or sex, are treated equally.
“Live” spelled backwards spells “evil.” When we do not promote life, our own and others’ lives, we promote evil. If we are not life bringers, then we are death dealers. We spoil God’s creation that he made very good. Promoting life is a form of loving. Isn’t that Jesus’s commandment? “Love one another as I have loved you.” Protecting and nurturing life, loving, is being holy, being like God, because God is love.
Here are three suggestions:
- First, in order to live fully learn something new. Tap a hidden talent: take up crocheting, learn how to play the tuba, teach yourself Chinese.
- Second, foster life in others in some way. Help in a soup kitchen, participate in a protest march, or just smile at someone.
- Third, plug into the source of all life, God, through prayer. Increase your prayer time by at least five minutes a day. Let God speak to you through his word in Scripture, pray a set prayer like a decade of the rosary, or just rest in God’s presence.
Your life is in your hands. So what will you do with your one wild and precious life? The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the counselor dwelling within you, will help you make the right decisions.
What three things to you cherish about your life?
Clutter in Home and Heart: Confessions of a Hoarder
In Sunday’s Gospel we heard Jesus tell his disciples to take nothing for their journey but a walking stick, sandals, and ONE tunic! The homily was about eliminating clutter. This came at an opportune time for me as I pack up my house and office to move. What a lot of stuff I accumulated in the past twenty years, making my sorting and packing job all the more difficult!
Why am I saving a box of transparencies when no one uses an overhead anymore? Why should I keep these size 8 clothes when I’m way past the middle age spread stage? That container of tatting thread? Really, I doubt I’ll be tatting anymore since I’ve taken up crocheting baby blankets. And those letters and greeting cards from years gone by? They only have meaning for me. I don’t think I need to save them as material for my canonization. The packs of paper that I “just might need” someday, I’ve never used. (more…)
Vacation
Dear Friends,
I’m on “vacation” from blogging for the next two weeks while I pack up to move to Chardon, celebrate my 50th jubilee as a Sister of Notre Dame, and finish up some writing projects. Kindly choose one of the previous posts for a reflection today!
