Advent is the four weeks preceding Christmas and is a time of waiting and preparation for the arrival of the Christ Child. More and more church traditions are celebrating this special time of year. The next four Thursdays I will be writing about Advent, a time of wait and anticipation. Waiting is difficult. Most of us are terrible waiters. Waiting is a time of powerlessness where the imagination runs wild with the what if’s and when will this be over. Our inability to control the unknown generates fear and anxiety when we wait. You have heard the statistics. In an average lifetime, we spend five years waiting in lines and six months waiting at traffic lights. We are now waiting for the Christ Child. At least for this time of wait we do know the end date and what will be happening. Yet like kids knowing Christmas gifts are coming, we fidget and fret as time moseys through December. We are impatient people. We fill this time with parties, to do lists, wrapping, … [Read more...]
Why a Can of Green Beans Brought Me to Tears on Thanksgiving
Ok, I am supposed to be grateful, right?Count those blessings.Make that list of 1000+ reasons to give thanks. (Thanks Ann Voskamp and your wonderful book, 1000 Gifts) Work on the spiritual disciple of gratitude.Embrace Thanksgiving as THEday to share what we are thankful for with the family - the perfect family smiling around the dinner table with halos abounding and hearts full of love. Yeah, right.My Thanksgiving expectations: Norman Rockwell.My reality: Kitchen Nightmare or Lethal Cooking.To be honest, last Thursday was not THAT bad, but by midmorning, by myself, preparing all the food, I sipped on a mug of self-pity. I wanted to make a huge Thanksgiving meal. My family insists that every year I cook for an army. So I set myself up for this annual why-me-scenario. I do it to myself!The green bean casserole broke me.You know the concoction - heavy laden with calories and memories. Green beans, those yummy eat from the can onion rings and cream of mushroom soup. I have tried lighter … [Read more...]
Hem Me In, Lord – Lectio Divina
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”Revelation 1: 8Lord you are the Alpha and the Omega.The first and the last.You surround me with Your protective armsProtecting me from myself and other dangers.You hem me in, Lord encompassed by all that is You.You are the beginning of all things.You are the final conclusion to life.You are the opening prelude and the grand finale.You are the miracle of conception and enclose us with Your presence through tender death and the surprising beyond.My eyes cannot see where You start nor can I comprehend Your closing moments.You existed before anything else and will outlast all that have breath and life.You who is, who was and who is to comeYou are the Almighty.King and Master of my soul.Lord and Savior.My Alpha and my Omega.Enfold me in Your Majesty and embrace me in Your everlasting love. … [Read more...]
Prayer – Edward Hays – Quote of the Week
Grant me daily the grace of gratitude, to be thankful for all my many gifts, and so be freed from artificial needs, that I might lead a joyful, simple life.Edward Hays … [Read more...]
Ten Inspirational Quotes to Bless Your Thanksgiving Day
It’s Thanksgiving here in the USA and I know not all of you are from this country but each day can be a day of thanks if we intentionally seek to be live gratefully. I am thankful for each of you reading this post today. May each path you travel be filled with thankfulness.Here is some inspiration for you today:If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart (one of my favorites!)Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow. ~Edward Sandford Martin We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~Thornton WilderGive thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. ~Native American SayingGratitude ... goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but … [Read more...]
Sacred Scottish Moments – Trasna
My pilgrimage to Scotland and England held many sacred moments and images I will never forget. I am a visual person so symbols and memories often become the ways God stirs my heart and awakens my soul.Even though we have been home for weeks now, I continue to glean lessons from this journey.I love walking the hallowed ruins,pausing at the many high Celtic crosses and drinking in the autumn colors in the Highlands. I experienced God in many of these places.So I was surprised at God’s sudden presence as I gazed at the scenery while riding in the back of the bus on a dreary drizzling day. Sister Nancy spoke over the microphone about lives of the English Mystics we would visit later the day. Most people’s heads lowered, rocked to sleep by the gentle movement of the bus.Nancy closed her talk with a poem about crossroads,Trasna. The words drew me into God’s arms and I listened to His wisdom.The word, trasna, means to cross, to choose which direction to go, to proceed. Not only the physical … [Read more...]
Becoming a Star – Lectio Divina
“‘Men and women who have lived wisely and well will shine brilliantly, like the cloudless, star-strewn night skies. And those who put others on the right path to life will glow like stars forever.Daniel 12: 3 (The Message)Glow like stars foreverLord I wander out to the darkened backyard, void of its green and growing season,Resting now in cold November soil.Hush fills the garden tonight.I snuggle under your protective canopy of a deep blue comforter and gaze at the multitude of lights flickering in Your sky.Why did you create stars, Lord?The varied sizes and glows send a mixed message of their dimensions, distances, and purposes. Some of the brightest are really planets.Some of the tiniest are huge in reality.Some of their lights reach earth long after they have perished.Some represent new births as Your universe continues to expand.These verses today linger in my heart as I survey Your heavens.I want to live wisely for You, Lord, and with You eternally.May my life glow like stars … [Read more...]
Wise Words from Mother Teresa – Quote of the Week
We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. I do not agree with the big way of doing things. To us what matters is an individual. To get to love the person we must come in close contact with him. If we wait till we get the numbers, then we will be lost in the numbers.- Mother Teresa … [Read more...]