Day One: Where can you know abundant life? Where can you
still grow?
I
can know abundant life by paying attention. Our Lord has richly blessed me in
all ways, and if I am simply aware of what God is doing in my life, the
abundance is overwhelming. I can grow my faith and awareness by scripture,
prayer time, and sharing God’s blessings with others.
Day Two: What new word is God speaking to you today?
The
word I am hearing is “Less”. Less food, less drink, less noise: Less of all
things in which I tend to indulge. I’m also hearing “More”. More quiet, more
prayer, more silence with God, more focus on the important things which I have
neglected.
Day Three: Write a wish for your journey along the way.
My
wish for this journey is to reclaim my relationship with God. I have abdicated
God’s place as first in my heart, mind and most especially, time. I wish to
again grow closer, devoted to quiet time with spirit, and give myself to that
place of peace and consent, for the Trinity to reign in all areas of my life.
Day Four: Can you allow yourself to be vulnerable and be
embraced?
It
is easy to be vulnerable before the presence of God, to allow myself to open
before Him, and pour out my frailties and confusion, knowing that God loves me
as I am, and frequently feeling His embrace of Love.
Doing
that with other people is very different. I have some difficulty with being
vulnerable, but as I have aged and gone through all sorts of difficulties, it
is becoming easier to let others see my weaknesses. At the same time, I have
always been open to being embraced – at least in the ways of friendship and
family. Yet I find myself continuing to strive to be the caregiver, even when I
am hurting. The realization dawns upon me that I must allow others to care-give
to me: that allowing others to reciprocate is also allowing them the grace to
express love. There is a freedom, a relaxation in even the idea of being cared
for that allows my shoulders and back to relax. Stoicism is not necessarily a
good thing, I realize…
Day Five: What do you understand about who God is?
I
have a unique understanding of God, due to my experience of being “slain in the
spirit” in 1992, on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina. I truly
believe that God allowed me to feel his unconditional love enveloping me
through that experience, and I KNOW, without doubt, of God’s Love and can
recall being completely immersed in it. I came out of that with the knowledge
that Love encompasses all, and is the ultimate power that moves Creation and
everything in it. God’s love is the current that holds creation in place, and
it exists in each nano-cell of everything in creation, including the places
that we term “void”. God is pure and complete unconditional love that holds the
planets in their courses, and even the smallest parts of creation in that love.
It is that love that allows “even the rocks to sing” – though we haven’t the
ears to hear their singing.
Day Six: How could you be playful in showing love to others
today?
Playfulness
is so easy at times, and difficult at others. Today, I will choose to be
playful: with my spouse and my friends, as well as those I encounter. How?
Well, smiling comes easily to me, and that is a way to impact anyone whose path
I cross. Greetings to passersby can perk up their day. Perhaps it is simply an
attitude change: deciding to be playful makes me so. I think that works! We’ll
see.
Day Seven: What is your reminder that you are loved?
Again
(see Day Five) I KNOW this beyond anything else in my life. Remembering it on a
moment-to-moment basis is, however, not where I live. It is my desire to keep
this knowledge always in my awareness, for when it is, I am a better person to
those around me – more loving, more joyful, more giving. This meditation itself
is a reminder that the desire to keep God’s amazing love for all of creation in
the forefront of my consciousness will make my life and the world a better
place. May it be so.
Day Eight: Where was
God for you today?
God
was in the beautiful sunshine and the singing of birds. I found God in nature
around me as I walked down to get the paper. I found God in the smiles and
waves of people on the street as I drove by. He was in the joy of children in
the stores, in the hands of Theresa as she softened my hands and feet and made
them prettier, in Amy’s strength as she massaged my aches away. I saw God in my
sweetheart’s eyes as he greeted me. And God was in the words of Jessica’s
story, which she shared as her Lenten discipline. God’s creation and His love
surrounded my day, and I am blessed.
Day Nine: What does
God especially cherish about you?
What
immediately popped into my mind was that God cherishes my failings. Now why
that occurred makes me pause: I know God loves it when I am “right on” with him
– aware and in love with God and all of His people. Yet I have a niggling
feeling that He loves me even more when I struggle and fall short, as I do each
and every day. In God’s wisdom, She knows that my desire is to be the best
person I can be, and it aches God’s heart and God draws even closer to me when
I fail to achieve that goal. God’s love is infinite and unconditional, and the
cherishing continues without subsidence, even when I am at my weakest in
returning that love to God by loving those I encounter.
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