All is Gift

From Br. Joseph —

This is the last reflection of a series on seven signposts. The first reflection began Lent, and now this one bridges us into the Easter season and beyond.

Signposts give us direction. They point to some place. They involve action, movement. Many signposts call us to remember something important, some thing that is already there but is often covered up by the minutia of daily life. Signposts represent a choice—to follow or not to follow. It takes grace to see a signpost and courage to follow where it points.

All is gift.

This signpost points to the attitude of gratitude.

Many people say “everything is gift,” but the word all seems bolder, more encompassing. All excludes nothing. Every thing, every person, every situation, every moment of time, every breath, every molecule, and every ounce of energy in your very existence, every opportunity to choose to love and to give—all is gift.

This means that the present moment—the now, and every thing about it, be it joy or suffering or more likely a combination of both—is gift, a present. It is an opportunity to be present to what is, and to be open to God. And the choice (another gift) is yours to receive or resist. Not in the past or in the future, but only now in the present moment can you have presence, awareness, being. Memories and wishes are good, but they are not reality; they are not what is. Receiving is being; resistance is pride.

The first Beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit, is a be-like-this-attitude that all is gift, an awareness of our poverty. For if all is gift, then nothing is mine. All belongs to God. And in opposition to everything the world says, those who can accept the humility of this poverty, or accept grace to move toward it, are truly blessed, and “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Thus the words from Scripture, “In Him we live and move and have our being” are not only poetic, but are actual physical reality. All is indeed gift.

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. (Meister Eckhart, 14th century German mystic)

All is gift. If we receive, then gratitude, and perhaps awe, is our response.

Keep hope alive.
Dare to trust.
Surrender to grace.
••• Reflect love. •••
Gravitate to humility.
Pray always.
All is gift.

Our Lady of Mercy is praying for us…

(See also Certainty and another post titled All is Gift.)

The Longest Day

My heart is a little giddy with excitement and anticipation for tonight’s Easter Vigil Mass. It is my favorite Mass of the whole year, with Christmas Midnight Mass a close second. It has been a long and dark Lent for me, and the hope Easter brings is fresh and renewed.

It is easy to live this day, the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, as a post-Resurrection people. We know what happens tomorrow. But I suspect that this was the longest and loneliest day for Mary, the Apostles, and the other disciples.

Just yesterday, in one day, her only son, their beloved teacher and friend, was arrested, tried, convicted, tortured, and crucified to death. The Apostles scattered for fear for their lives.

Now they wake up today. They sough to regroup. But around what, who? The very center of their lives had been lost in what appears as total humiliation and defeat. What to do? Not much I suppose since it was the Sabbath. All they could really do was wait, and pray. What else is there to do when hope seems lost, faith all but crushed? But wait for what? How much did they really believe about all of Jesus’ talk about rising up on the third day?

Poor Peter. I wonder if he cried all through the night and through the rest of the day knowing his denial? What did Mary do in her grief? What did Mary Magdalene and the other disciples do? When did they learn the truth about Judas? Did the Apostles bicker among themselves? Did they second-guess themselves, playing the we should have done this or not that games?

Oh! The passage from darkness to light, the unknown to the known. At the time, it seems like the slow, long death of everything, but from the other side, it is only the quick, short birth of the new. Death pangs and birth pangs, are they really different?

Pray Always

From Br. Joseph —

This is the sixth reflection on seven signposts for the season of Lent (and for all seasons).

Pray always.

Prays always; if necessary, use words.

Our words in prayer are very important, be them words of gratitude or of amazement, words for forgiveness, or words of need for others or for ourselves. But prayer is more than words. The essence of prayer is a deep longing to be with God. Prayer fosters and nourishes this awareness of God’s presence—our be-with-ness with God—in the world, in others, and in ourselves.

So, enough words. Take this moment to pray, to be aware of your be-with-ness with God. Pray the Our Father or any other words that come to mind.

Or maybe just sit in silence for the moment. Listen. Pause the monologue in your mind and become aware. No words. No labels. No descriptions. Just be. Receive the silence around you. For silence is not the absence of sound but the fullness of sound, as white light contains all the colors of the spectrum. If the room is noisy, then try to notice the silence between the sounds. There is a silence underneath the sounds, supporting the sounds, embracing the sounds. Silence is to sound as God is to creation.

Pray. And if necessary, use words. Be aware of your be-with-ness with God.

Keep hope alive.
Dare to trust.
Surrender to grace.
••• Reflect love. •••
Gravitate to humility.
Pray always.

Our Lady of Mercy is praying for us…

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