Finding Peace Amongst The Wreckage
life
69 posts
Bishop Robert Barron’s Reflection for today, this Feast of Mary as Queen of Heaven, is absolutely brilliant, so wanted to share it. In particular, Bishop Barron refers to the “two standards” meditation that is part of St Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. The “two standards” are a reference to the battle pennants that are flown at the head of an army, and St Ignatius invites all people to meditate upon whose army are we a part? God’s with all the angels and saints who fight for the good, true and beautiful and the things of eternity like love and friendship? […]
Today is the Memorial of St Maximilian Kolbe. He was a Franciscan priest who was martyred in 1941 in the Auschwitz concentration camp when he volunteered to take the place of a husband and father who had been chosen to die by the Nazi prison guards. St Maximilian had a deep and profound devotion to Mary, the Mother of God. St Maximilian’s title of endearment for Mary was Immaculata, and he founded the Militia Immaculata–which has the goal of sharing with the world how Mary’s intercession and support help us on our journey towards holiness. Here is an excerpt from […]
I have now been blogging daily for more than a month (actually 38 days!) and I am in awe at how our Lord has sustained and helped me in this endeavor–just as He said he would when I first committed to 30 days straight. I admit that my hesitancy to a daily writing commitment was partially a fear that I wouldn’t be able to have anything to say, but also because I was forgetting that God is the One in charge to begin with! LOL But my willingness to trust and step out in faith has resulted by my life […]
Almost 20 years ago, there was a movie called, Pay It Forward. The movie chronicles how a 12 year old young man is given an assignment to think of a way to change the world and put it into action. The result was the launch of a goodwill movement known as “pay it forward” in which people did acts of charity for random people in anticipation of their someday receiving charitable acts from others themselves. The idea of “paying it forward” is a great way to look at the the process of working to grow in daily virtue. Because the […]
Here in Alabama, another school year has begun. (Yes, you read that properly) Anyway, the last two days I have seen a flurry of photos posted on social media by many friends who are parents of school age children. There are lots of smiles amongst the nice, crisp school uniforms or new outfits that capture the moment when all things are possible during the upcoming academic year. New beginnings are like that–lots of potential and possibilities, and great hope tends to surround those moments. But as parents, we also tend to worry a bit. Is our son or daughter going […]
So today’s Gospel gives us the story of Jesus walking on water and how Peter had the courage to get out of the boat and walk on water, too–until he stopped trusting Jesus. Peter’s initial success and then subsequent failure prompted me to reflect today upon the many times that I have done the same thing in my own life. Where I am going along just fine, but then I get distracted by the storm or the waves or the leaky boat or the people around me, and I doubt. And then I become frightened by the prospect of what […]
Today, I had the “joy” of dealing with moving stuff out of our basement crawl space in anticipation of workers coming on Monday to take care of some water issues. As I was moving FAR too many boxes of Christmas decorations, storage trunks, bike gear, and other assorted flotsam of life, I reflected that it was apparently time for me to simplify again. I say again, because part of the spiritual battle is to constantly be checking to make sure that my priorities are in order and that the things of this world are not distracting me from what is […]
Today, I received an ENORMOUS gift from God. What was it? He clarified my vision. What do I mean by that? Well, throughout my day, God continued to send me signs that made it clear that I was on the path that He was desiring for me to walk in my life right now. I know that can seem a bit crazy for someone who is not a person of faith, but it’s actually not. It’s really as simple as having the proper eyeglass prescription. For anyone who has had an eye exam, you know what I mean. Part of […]
Today I had the great joy of reconnecting with an old friend. We shared what we had been up to, everything from the big highlights and current challenges to the small joys found in the midst of walking the journey with God. It was a beautiful grace and consolation in the midst of my day, but what has stayed with me the most from that conversation was not what we said, but how. For in the midst of our sharing, I felt us quickly slip into the easy give and take and playful banter that has always been the nature […]