Gratitude

Ok, I’m going to be a little bit cynical here. 

Once again, we have one specific day to show our gratitude, our thanks for all that we have. 

It’s what I frequently call those “Hallmark” holidays…you know the ones…Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, etc.  Those holidays that forces our society to head to the stores to buy those obligatory flowers, candy, presents, the list is endless.  We get more wrapped up in the WHAT we are buying versus WHO we are wishing to show our appreciation for.

We may fall into that trap with Thanksgiving: the turkey, stuffing and Aunt Martha’s sweet potato casserole.  Everything must be perfect.  A “Martha Stewart” moment or all is lost.  Then Uncle Fred has an issue with cousin Gertrude, the insults fly, Grandma is flinging threats at both.

Or maybe it’s forgoing the dinner in lieu of the shopping deals.  The stores that must make their sales quota in the span of what is now an entire week.  I’m all for capitalistic ventures, for small businesses to prosper and grow.  But at what cost?

Is this what we have to be thankful for?   Do you really need more “stuff”? 

Take a serious look at what you are truly thankful for.  If it’s the “things” in your life, maybe it’s time to reassess.

Maybe it really is about Martha, Fred, Gertrude and Grandma.  But not about the “things” they bring to the table, it’s just having THEM at the table.  Arguments and all!  For we may not be able to put a price tag on the value of that person in our lives, until they are no longer with us. 

For it is then,  that we realize they were priceless.

Love one another as I have loved you...

So I just completed a letter to a friend.  Now we often shoot off emails or post on a social media site a quick note or message and we think nothing of it.

But this letter is different.

It's actually going through the mail.  For I cannot write to my friend via social media or email.  Anyone who knows me personally will agree that I detest talking on the phone and I am a procrastinator when it comes to actually having to mail anything via USPS!

However writing to my friend Robert is different.  For in writing to Robert I must shun the human weakness to judge him.  I must strip away my human weakness to push him aside.  He is a "reject" according to secular standards.  Now granted, he has made choices that led him down the path of life to be "rejected".  But as stated by Pope Francis, "Who am I to judge?"

Are we not all sinners?  Do we reject God's love when we do things that go against His very desire for us?  Yet guess who is always waiting for us, waiting for us to seek His forgiveness, His warm embrace?

The man pictured with (soon-to-be Saint) Blessed John Paul II is Mehmet Ali Agca.  He is the man who shot (then) Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981.  The Pope visited him in December 1981 where the two spoke privately.

We are called to forgive our enemies.  We are called to love our neighbor.  We are called to love one another as Christ has loved us.  Yes, some days it may seem impossible.  But if Blessed John Paul II could forgive the man that tried to kill him, who am I to judge those around me for the transgressions and sins in their lives when I myself am a sinner as well?

So I will mail my letter to Robert in the morning.  

In a few days it will be received by a young man waiting for his life to end...on death row.

A Woman's Vocation is to Love and to Nurture

I imagine a world where all women embrace their true vocation.  

We have an understanding of one possible vocation as seen through art history: Venus of Willendorf; Bottecelli's Birth of Venus; Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Wedding; numerous Annunciation paintings; Raphael's Madonna paintings; Kauffmann's Cornelia Presenting Her Children as Her Treasures.  

All of these possess a common theme: motherhood.

Not all women have been called to motherhood though: "For blessed is the barren woman who is undefiled, who has not entered into a sinful union; she will have fruit when God examines souls." Wisdom 3:13

“A woman’s vocation is to love and to nurture.  Understanding this, we can see that abortion is the crime par excellence of our decadent and sad century.  Not only does it sin against God, against the Child Jesus, against the sacredness of human life, but it kills one of the most noble and tender qualities rooted in the female heart: the vocation to protect what is weak.”   Alice Von Hildebrand

Wouldn't it stand to reason that if a woman finds herself not wanting the unborn child in her womb, she ought to live up to her vocation "to love and to nurture" and offer that child to another who is unable to bring forth children in her own womb, yet is called to the vocation of motherhood?  For while the pregnant woman may not want the unborn child, there are those who would step forward to open their loving arms and nurture that child as their own flesh and blood.

The vocation of all women is to love and to nurture, to protect those who are weak.  The vocation which has been engraved upon her heart is rooted in love.  God is Love.

Abortion is rooted in hatred: a hatred for love, a hatred for the weak, a hatred for what is tender and most noble.  

These beautiful twins are Love.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/11/15/amazing-video-twins-were-born-but-havent-realized-it-yet/

Freedom

“Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of the common good and public order.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church: 1738)

 In 2013, we find our society drowning in a quagmire of lies, deceit, immorality and destruction.  Satan targets us from all angles: our political beliefs, our daily lives and most importantly our faith.  We must never forget we are children of God.  We were created to do good, to love our neighbor (who lives next to us and who lives across the world), to be responsible citizens of earth.

We must never forget that.  Thank you to all of our veterans who signed on the dotted line to protect our freedoms in America.  For it is under the Flag that they proudly serve.  “I pledge allegiance, to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one Nation under GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Pruning

Hacking tree limbs.  That’s what I did today and a fair part of yesterday.  Known as “pruning” for the gardening elite.  However when you are “pruning” fifteen or so 12-foot trees down to approximately 6 feet in height, it’s more like hacking!  Have you ever used the roof of your car as a ladder?  Picture this: lining up your car perfectly next to a maple that is just getting a little too friendly with the wires overhead.  Now you make sure that when you hack off the offending limb it doesn’t take down the wires or damage your car…that WOULD end rather badly! Did I mention I use my Grandpa’s old hand saw and not a wimpy chain saw?  My right hand has a beautiful shade of ultramarine blue spreading over the knuckles, no pain, just a “lovely” bruise!

So all this elimination of dead weight got me thinking.  I’ve done a lot of pruning in my life in recent years as well.  From losing weight, trimming food choices, saying good-bye to toxic relationships, eliminating frivolous bills like excess cable and a landline phone.  But the most important pruning I’ve worked on is the stripping away of secular society’s ideas of what I should be doing with my life.  I’ve replaced it with what God calls me to do each and every day.  That is...when I listen and put it into action! 

You know what I mean…that gut reaction of knowing what you are supposed to do and not wanting to do it because you have your own idea of what is best.  So you “do your own thing” and WHAM!  Something, somewhere, somehow gets messed up.  Then you kick yourself for not listening to your “gut” to begin with!  Welcome to my life!  Chances are it’s your life too!  Well we are both in good hands because God is well aware of our weaknesses and our failings and he’s going to catch us when we fall.  We have to allow him to catch us and be willing to accept the responsibility of our actions and then prune them in the greatest way possible, through reconciliation.  This is the absolute pruning that will lift away the weight of the world.  When I added monthly reconciliation into my life it was the best move I ever made.  It stripped me down, exposed my wounds and pruned the sins off my soul, preventing them from taking root and growing to a point of needing to be hacked off.  Thanks to pruning, I’m in a much better place than I was before…as are my trees.

What are your gifts?

So what are your God-given gifts?  You know, those things you are really good at whether or not you like to admit it.  Maybe it has to do with nourishing others with good food you prepare…maybe it is nourishing others with your faith.  Have you dug them up and embraced them yet?

For some, the gifts are obvious.  The ability to sing (which I most CERTAINLY was not gifted with…I have the perfect singing voice for silent movies!); to fly a plane; to have a sense of how to work with difficult personalities and temperaments; to be a mediator…the list is endless.

In my vocation as artist, I find that I have been graced with the gift of creativity.  When I use that gift that comes from God to bring joy, comfort, peace to others, I am spreading the Light of Christ.  I am obligated to use that gift to do God’s will.  When I am teaching in my classroom, it is through the gift of teaching and the gift of compassion that I must bring each student in my care, to the love of Christ.  I am the conduit between the student and God.  Through my obedient example, in my thoughts, words and actions, I am in a position to bring Christ and His message to each person in my classroom.  Numerous times I have struggled with wanting to leave the profession of teaching high school, but each and every time I entertain that thought, the Holy Spirit comes to me through a thought, a person or some other means of communication, urging me to stay “in the mine field” for the “harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.” (Luke 10:2)

Where are you on your journey to embrace the gifts you’ve been given by God?  Are you well on your way of sharing with others?  Or are you still holding the shovel, trying to dig up just what you are supposed to be doing?