All posts by CadyLy

Lobster Nachos vs. Cheerios

Reflections on Paul
Lobster Nachos by Mike Saechang
Lobster Nachos, a photo by Mike Saechang on Flickr.

Perhaps this is something which I am getting wrong, but when St. Paul was speaking about knowing how to live in humble circumstances, as well as how to live with abundance, I didn’t think he was solely talking about his contentment with his daily fare regardless of it was lobster nachos or stale Cheerios set before him, (Philippians 4:12).

Rather, I thought he was speaking of a balanced view of life, and the way in which we should strive to live.

Meaning, that if I was in a position where lobster nachos was my de rigeur, I should work to maintain my humility, and recall that my abundance is a gift from God and not something which I earned, or worse, that I am entitled to. I should always keep in mind my brothers and sisters who do not have food in abundance(or other necessity of life) and work to see to their comforts as best I can.

On the other hand, if I am living in humble circumstances, I am not to fall into despair, but to trust in the Lord that He will provide for me. I am to be joyful for the things that I have and offer up my small sufferings for the good of my brothers and sisters in Christ.

In either circumstance, I would know that my worth is not measured by the things I own, but by the way I live in Christ and the example I can show to others in my living out of the Gospel.

What a Beautiful Morning!

Jennspeak, Neat Things I Didn't Author

This picture is taken from a great article on genetic engineering by Mercatornet.com.
Chromosomes
I think that it represents me today very well. I feel happy and brightly colored on a subcellular level. 🙂

This is a great morning! I was running a bit late getting out the door, but I had clean clothes in the dryer and gas in the car. Traffic was light and fast (!) and I made it to Mass early (YAY!). Mass was beautiful. It was one of those times where you are completely immersed in the liturgy and feel very connected to Christ.

After Mass, I went to my favorite Starbucks in Plymouth, and was served an iced (no-ice) caramel mocha. Oh YUM!

Even though I feel pretty weak today, on a muscular level, my energy level is high and I feel like dancing or skating or something. I blasted my dancey music all the way in to work. 🙂

On the bus ride in to work, I read some more of Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI and was struck by several insightful passages, based on the parable of the Good Samaritan.

“I have to become like someone in love, someone whose heart is open to being shaken up by another’s need.”

“The risk of goodness is something we must relearn from within, but we can do that only if we ourselves become good from within, if we ourselves are ‘neighbors’ from within, and if we then have an eye for the sort of service that is asked of us, that is possible for us, and is therefore also expected of us, in our environment and within the wider ambit of our lives.”

“Man is, they said, spoliatus supernaturalibus and vulneratus in naturalibus: bereft of the splendor of the supernatural grace he had received and wounded in nature.”

“From earthly history alone, from its cultures and religions alone, no healing comes.”

“God himself, who for us is foreign and distant, has set out to take care of his wounded creature…. He pours oil and wine into our wounds, a gesture seen as an image of the healing gift of the sacraments, and he brings us to the inn, the Church, in which he arranges for our care and also pays a deposit for the cost of that care.”

After work today, I anticipate meeting up with a friend and attending a prayer meeting on healing. Can’t wait to see how the rest of the day will unfold! 🙂

Happy Friday!

Apathy

Reflections on Paul
Apathy by Toban Black
Apathy, a photo by Toban Black on Flickr.

St. Paul says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep,” (Romans 12:15).

Why then do so many people think it is their duty to stay out of other’s lives? Far beyond some idea of privacy or politeness, people are increasingly becoming apathetic to what is going on with other people. And this doesn’t just go for strangers who may be crying around you, but even those closest to us: our friends and family.

Paul preaches unity; the culture of the day preaches isolation and independence.

The early disciples pooled everything that they had, sharing all resources, so that all had enough food and clothing. Today, we are expected to “make it on our own,” and “not be a burden.”

Where is the love?

Is it truly a better society to live as though we didn’t need anyone or anything besides ourselves?

I don’t think so. I think community and caring and sharing and love are what characterize the best societies. And this means that we have to build relationships with the people around us. We need to care not only about their physical condition and material needs, but about their emotional and spiritual needs as well. It has to really matter to us whether they are happy or if they are sad.

And we have to be willing to give ourselves. Make their sorrows our sorrows. Make their joy our joy.

This is my beloved brother or sister. I choose to focus not on me, but on him or her. I choose to love.

St. Anastasia Book Club: He Leadeth Me

Book Club
HLM

Welcome! St. Anastasia’s Parish Library is sponsoring a book club, which I will be facilitating. In order to encourage greater community participation, I will update which books we will be reading here, and encourage anyone who is unable to make our monthly meetings to read along with us and join us on this online discussion forum by commenting below.

This month’s book will be He Leadeth Me by Walter Ciszek.

Here is a recommendation for the book by Jennifer Fulwiler, a recent convert to Catholicism, who has an excellent blog at Conversion Diary.

This stunning autobiographical account of Fr. Ciszek’s wrongful imprisonment in Russia is one of the most life-changing books I’ve ever read. I read it more than a year ago and yet I still find myself thinking about it almost daily.

What was most surprising to me was how applicable the lessons he learned are to modern American life. His insights about everything from suffering to discerning God’s will to trusting God in all things — which he learned the hard way during five years of brutal solitary confinement and fifteen years in a Siberian death camp — are amazingly inspiring, whether you’re experiencing great suffering or just feeling numbed by the daily grind. I particularly loved his thoughts on how to maintain a lively spiritual life even when life feels mundane or boring. I highly, highly recommend this book.

Circumcision of the Heart

Reflections on Paul
Scalpel by tudedude
Scalpel, a photo by tudedude on Flickr.

What is circumcision, anyway?

In a basic sense, it is the removal of extraneous flesh, usually done for religious or aesthetic reasons. It was also a sign for the Jews of their being people of the covenant. It was not optional.

Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. His praise is not from men but from God. (Romans 2:25-29)

Paul speaks of a new circumcision: a circumcision of the heart. But how are we to understand this?

Certainly, this new circumcision marks us as having entered into the new covenant. At our baptism, our souls were indelibly marked. God’s laws were inscribed on our heart. Is this what is meant? In part, perhaps.

But I think it goes further than that.

Physical circumcision is an active event. God doesn’t do it. You do it, or have it done for your child.

So, too, I think the circumcision of the heart is an active event. It’s not merely an awareness of the indwelling of the Spirit, but it is a choice that we make every day to be a disciple of Christ.

Every day, we need to take again our spiritual scapel and cut away from our heart (our will, right?) all of those things which are not of God…the “extraneous bits.”

And this, too, is not optional.

Reflections and Questions on Revelation

Bible Study, , , ,
DSCN0494

Since I have a flaw in me that makes me like to finish things, especially tasks on a list, I have been working on finishing up some things from last semester, including some Bible study questions from Revelation.

What made me write this post was a question from one of the “Application” sections:

In the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant was carried by the people of God into their greatest battles. What are the ways we can carry Mary, the New Ark of the Covenant, with us in the spiritual battles we face today? — Jeff Cavins and Thomas Smith, 34.

Early last week, I had this freaky dream. The dream itself wasn’t particularly scary yet rather intense and bewildering, but believe me when I say that I woke up immediately and could not shake this sense of fear and even a sense of the presence of something evil. So I spoke to my bedroom saying something like, “If there’s anything in here which is not of God, leave now! Because He is more powerful than you and will not let anything bad happen to me!” I felt a little better, but was still uneasy. I started praying a string of Hail Marys, over and over. I peeked into every room in my house, just to make sure things “looked normal.” This is not normal behavior for me.

By the time I came home from work, things were fine. Later in the week, I had a meeting with my spiritual director. She asked if I had had my house blessed (not yet), and suggested that I do so, and also that I speak with one of my pastors because he believes that dreams mean something. I got to talk with him yesterday, and he said that while he didn’t want to place too much emphasis on this, evil was real. Then, he prayed a blessing over me.

Reading the question, I realized that I had been doing that: bringing the new Ark into my spiritual battle. Sadly, I do not yet have the devotion to our Blessed Mother that I would like, but I know that when I am frightened or very sick, I still turn and run to my Mother for comfort. She’s a good one to run to. 🙂

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. — Rev. 21:1

I don’t think this means that there will not be a beach or an ocean in Heaven. At least I hope not, since I love to swim! 🙂 I think this was more meant as an idiom, since the sea represented the feared unknown, “Here there be monsters,” and all that. So, with the coming of the new heaven and new earth, there will no longer be any fear or anything which is not known.

Throughout Revelation we have seen many temple furnishings (like the ark and the altar) and the heavenly Temple itself. In God’s new heaven, a temple cannot be found (21:22). What new reality has replaced the image and symbol of a temple? — Jeff Cavins and Thomas Smith, 49.

The Lord Jesus and God the Father are our new temple. We will worship in them and upon their foundation, within their light and place ourselves upon their altar, as a complete gift of ourselves to them.

Here’s another question that I have: the juxtaposition of

they were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those of mankind who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads; — Rev 9:4

with

The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot either see or hear or walk; nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their immorality or their thefts. — Rev 9:20-21.

v. 4 seems to be saying that those who are not marked as belonging to God would be the ones who would experience the plagues. However, v. 20-21 make it seem like the ones who SURVIVED the plagues were those who did NOT follow God. Now, I am confused.

Update, based on the comment below:
Rev 9:4 vs. Rev 9:20-21

Why Christ crucified?

Bible Study, Reflections on Paul
DSCN0485

Jesus crucified. God crucified. I think the emphasis here is because of the assumption of Christianity on the part of Paul’s audience. To emphasize the resurrection would be to try to make a point of His divinity, or at least His favor with God. To emphasize His crucifixion, I think, is to highlight the very first days of the covenant made with Abraham.

And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chalde’ans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in two, and laid each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. — Genesis 15:7-10, 17

In these days, a covenant was formed in this manner between two peoples, and whoever would violate the covenant would bring about the same fate upon himself as that of the animals cut in two.

And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant which they made before me, I will make like the calf which they cut in two and passed between its parts — Jeremiah 34:18

So man, as the party who violated the covenant, needed to die because the covenant was broken. In order to fulfill the covenant so that a new covenant could be created, one of the parties needed to die — to fulfill the covenant curse. While we were the ones who deserved death, God died in our stead.
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It also points to how we are to live in Christ now. We hope to God’s mercy when we die, so that we may live with Him in His glory forever. But for now, we look to His Son. In particular, we look to His Son on the cross, which is the best example of self-giving love that the world has ever seen. Think not to your own comfort, but give everything for the good of others. Be ridiculed and mocked, so that they can come to know Truth. Allow yourself to be beaten and scourged, so that they can have access to a Love which heals all hurts. Wear their crown of thorns, so that they can have their own minds be filled with Wisdom. Carry for them the dead weight of their troubles and sins. Have your hands and feet be bound to a tree with spikes, so that they can experience freedom. Experience a moment of feeling abandoned by the Father, so that they may know they are never alone. Give up your Spirit, so that they may receive it.

He did not just allow blood to flow from His wounds so as to heal ours, but squeezed out every drop.

This is the kind of life we are called to lead. If God sees to the birds of the air and the lilies in the field, certainly He can take care of our needs; so we have no reason to dwell on our needs, but can look solely to our neighbor in love and ask ourselves, “How can I squeeze out some of my blood on his behalf, to make his lot in life a little easier?” Not a passive bleeding, as in handing over the spare five you happen to have in your wallet, or giving away clothes you don’t wear any more — although these are not bad things to do. But what can you do that will really be a sacrifice? What’s going to make you stop and think about it, and then deliberately decide that the person is far greater and far more worthy than any object, amount of wealth, amount of time, amount of effort that you could possibly relinquish?

And when you have done something really worthy of being called Love, seek out another situation, another person to Love, another instance where you can pour out the blood of your life for someone else.

For your blood is not your own; it is His. Your life is His life in you.

And He wants it to fall upon all His people.

A Density of Questions on 2 Corinthians

Bible Study, Reflections on Paul

Why does Paul use the same word so densely? In the greeting, endurance 10 times? By the end, I have lost all sense of what the word means. And why would boasting be a persuasive argument? It is like advertising? The “superapostles” were going around preaching “Ivory soap — 99.75% pure!”? Paul: “Bah! Mine is 100% pure and more effective to boot!”? Maybe a silly question, but is “boasting in the Lord” similar to “giving witness/testimony” to the way God has worked in your life? With the “no, no,” “yes, yes,” and “yes, no” section (2 Cor 18-19), is this like accusing a politician of “waffling” and thus being untrustworthy?

If people question that 2 Cor could not be one coherent letter because of breaks in theme, tone, etc., they have not read one of my e-mails. LOL! And now to talk about…vegetables…. It’s all related, just maybe not that clear to others, but perfectly okay in my head. I get that. 🙂

Trust

Jennspeak, Of Vice and Virtue

The thing about trust, is that it can be very easy. But for it to be easy, you have to make yourself vulnerable. You have to be willing to be hurt as badly as you were before or worse, again today. There is no “building trust,” because then you subject the other person to trying to “prove” their trustworthiness, and you always keep this seed of doubt within you, looking for “warning signs” of a breach of trust. True trust, I think, is laying yourself bare before the other person and saying, “I *choose* to trust you, unconditionally, regardless of the past. I *give* you the power to hurt me, because I *know* you will not choose to do so.”

Of course, you’d want to be prudent about whom you are giving your trust to…. 🙂