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| Sunrise in New York |
This Thanksgiving was one that will be remembered for a lifetime! Long drives and getting together with family that has not been together in many years. God blessed the journey with gorgeous weather, and beautiful scenery. We had a light snow on the last day just to remind us what time of year it really is.
Friday morning my daughter and I watched the Sun rise together! I couldn't have asked for a better back drop. Only God could paint a picture like this, and I was able to watch it and to watch her watch it. Thank you Lord for the abundant fruits of my life...Thank you for opportunities like this to help me slow down and appreciate this amazing creation of yours and share it with my children. You are Glorious!
This trip reminded me not to get so wrapped up in the mechanics of worship and prayer that you forget to be present in this life and celebrate what He made for us. Happy Thanksgiving!
With Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years approaching, the focus should be on faith and family, and filled with joy, peace, and happiness. For many people this merely means higher stress levels and loneliness with a side order of depression. For a large part of my life, I have fallen into the later of these categories.
The biggest stress for me and for many has always been making enough money to pay for all this STUFF. Sometimes its even just to pay back debts. Then there are all the charities that are asking for our money this time of year, knowing that this is the time when people are the most "giving." I prefer to offer myself instead of the money that in many ways, already belongs to someone else.
If all these local priests in their 70's and 80's can keep
serving our parishes where we need help, there is no reason the rest of
us can't serve them. I could easily spend more hours working and make
more money and faster to cover my budget strain, but if I did, I
wouldn't have time to do what God asks of me. If I'm not doing His will, I won't get very far! Experience tells me that much, at least.
Through faith and prayer, I am not worried about this year at all. I am looking forward to seeing my children twice in the next two months, and I'm even not really dreading the long drive. With 3,800 miles of driving to do in the next two months, I think its time for an audio bible or other inspirational talks that will keep my mind from wondering to bad places. I know that God will get me through whatever weather I encounter and any struggles will be another opportunity to grow. The same rules apply to every other day of the year. Bring it on!
It was brought to my attention this morning that I haven't posted anything for quite some time. It's possible that I was a bit more ambitious about this project from the start than later on. It really testifies to the reality of our spiritual lives.
It doesn't take long to come up with the words to get a message out there, especially when you call upon the help of the Holy Spirit. The time can be found anywhere, so it really tends to be about the motivation and memory. By now, I'm sure that you can tell that I have a busy life.
The truth is, I work two jobs, serve at Mass daily, help with our parish RCIA, provide spiritual reflections for our local Knights of Columbus council, pray the Liturgy of the Hours daily, try to volunteer with other various projects throughout the year, and now I'm trying to get this blog going too. And that's what I do while my kids are at their mother's house.
My next goal is to get back to school. I know that I am perfectly capable of making time for it...and knowing me, I will try to keep up all the other stuff too...but the fact remains that I'm not quite sure how I will pay for it. Surely, God will provide! I will be looking into and applying for a local school in the near future, and I only ask for prayers. The more prayers the better...It's going to be a difficult road ahead...Jesus and I will be able to get through it.
May the Lord bless all those who bear their cross and gladly take on more for the good of all!
Do you ever sit down and try to start writing a journal? Does it ever seem strange that you seem to struggle with what to write? My biggest issue is remembering to take the time to do it, but when I first started, it helped to look at it from the perspective of, "All I have to do is just make my thoughts show up on this page."
That didn't turn out to be as easy as I thought, but getting the thoughts out of the head, make it so much easier to just sit and be silent. Most people (myself included) don't take enough time to just sit and listen in silence. How can we expect to get an answer from God if we just talk to him, but never take the time to listen? Sure, He shows us things throughout the course of our lives, but to get a prayerful answer to a question, He has to speak to us.
I am convinced that, while He may not run on at the mouth as much as I do, God is always talking to us. How can we possibly hear Him if we never shut-up and listen. Next time you take some time for prayer, take a notebook, write down a few thoughts, and then just spend a while listening. You might be amazed at what He has to tell you.
Today I was greeted with a generous and unexpected gift. After setting up everything for Mass this morning, I was sitting in a chair in the sacristy, "trying to finish my morning prayer." When father came in, we started talking which meant my prayers would be postponed. As I took another attempt at finishing this office before Mass, another face entered the sacristy with a large grin carrying a nice long white surplice. His son is a 1st year Theology student, and knew someone who had an extra large he could not use. "He thought it might fit you," he said.
I spent the rest of the morning, unable to contain my own grin. I was even drawn to tears of joy as I gazed upon the face of Jesus on the cross after communion. I am at a loss for how to express my gratitude to these wonderful young men for their generosity, I can only believe that each of them will make a wonderful Priest in the years to come.
I can only pray that I be as open to God's will as they have surely been. Many people have been asking me lately, "What is your official role here?" My answer to them is that I am just one of the Lord's many servants, and nothing more. Even if the He has something special planned for my future, I hope that I will always remember those words. "Nothing More!"
Well, So much for every Day! It's amazing how much our priorities change on such a daily basis. While the over all picture may remain the same the details adjust. I have been very busy lately with work and prayer and even a little sleep. I hadn't realized how much time has been passing by.
Yesterday, I took the first part of the morning off work so that I could attend a beautiful celebration of the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi. It became quite clear to me that the things I do now are what matter more than those I feel like I could do in the future. I finally got to talk with my children whom I have been having trouble reaching, and even managed to find time for all my daily prayers.
Unfortunately I awoke too late this morning to attend Mass per usual, but I think I may go exploring this afternoon and find a local church that has a daily 5:00 Mass. Life is always throwing curves at us and God is always there to guide us on the path. We need only to open our eyes, our minds, and our hearts. Thank you God for the blessings and the struggles I experience each day!
Sometimes it's difficult to accept that we have our priorities a little randomized. The best I can explain this is that, maybe we have prioritized things, but not planned out our schedules appropriately to reflect those priorities.
For example, my part-time job requires me to work late...my full-time job has me getting up early. While I really enjoy beginning my day with Mass, I have to get up even earlier in order to do so. This all winds up leaving me so exhausted between jobs that I end up dosing off, and not really getting anything done.
I have decided that the solution is to find a daily Mass in the evening that I can attend and preferably serve at after my day job, thus allowing for more consecutive time sleeping. This logical conclusion may seem simple, but it has been difficult to come to.
I realized tonight that perhaps I have become so attached to serving at one church, that the thought of going elsewhere had eluded me all this time. I pray that I can find a daily evening Mass close by with folks who are as eager to let me serve as those at my current parish. For the time being I will continue to endure this suffering for Christ.
