The Joy in the Desert

What is joy? The catechism offers several explanations, sources of and impediments to joy; however, there isn’t a definition, at least one that I could find, of what or who it actually is. Mother Teresa’s definition below is awesome and one I’ve started to intentionally pray.

As we approach Lent, what is your disposition? Are you a glum Catholic counting the cost of sacrifice? Are you counting down the days until you can get on facebook, eat chocolate, check your phone whenever you want, text while driving, or break an intentional time of silence? We do not go to the desert for the sake of the desert. We go knowing it is the path from exile to freedom. We go in imitation of Christ.

I love to travel and if you asked me ten places I’d love to go. I can guarantee the desert ain’t in the top 50. That being said, I have to come to love the journey through the desert of the spiritual life. I love it not because it’s where I want to end up. Nor do I love it because it’s easy or comfortable. It’s neither. But if we let it, it is transformative, life giving, and beautiful.

In the beauty of the desert I have learned it is in enveloping darkness that the Light shines most brightly. It is in the resounding silence that we hear whispers that echo. It is in the emptying and stripping from harsh conditions that we cling to Our Protection, Our Lord and Lady. It is in the midst of the coldness where we hover around the fire of the Holy Spirit and it is in the midst of this unknown territory where we come to depend on our guides, the Holy Family and saints. Joy is the proclamation in the wilderness that the desert yields abundant fruit.

As we journey this Easter along to the way of the Cross, let us remember we embrace the cross because it leads to new life. “Pier Giorgio was not afraid to die because he knew that death is, ‘a very simple path,’ as he once said, ‘between life and Life, which must in any case never frighten us.” (Blessed Pier Giorgio: An Ordinary Christian, 100). It has been said that making a good Lent can be a storehouse of graces for the year. Let us let Him make us new and whole. Let us become joyful apostles who live bold hope and joyful courage.

Let us dare to dance in the desert. 

Verso l’alto, K.G.R.C.

Dance, then, wherever you may be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejeyoqH_Gg0&noredirect=1

Shining in the dark, I will follow you 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49x_h4CbZxs&noredirect=1 

We can Trust Our God. He knows what He’s doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6mEQS2fsWE&noredirect=1

How do you wait for Heaven?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Sgn0SQB_I&noredirect=1

“Joy is prayer – Joy is strength – Joy is love – Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. God loves a cheerful giver. She gives most who gives with joy. The best way to show our gratitude to God and the people is to accept everything with joy. A joyful heart is the normal result of a heart burning with love. Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of Christ Risen.

We all long for heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be in heaven with him right now – to be happy with him at this very moment. But being happy with him now means: loving as he loves, helping as he helps, giving as he gives, serving as he serves, rescuing as he rescues, being with him twenty-four hours, touching him in his distressing disguise.” Mother Teresa 

Striving Towards Acceptance

Being cleared to swim two weeks ago meant I could swim 50 m intervals with a two minute rest in between each set for 30 minutes. I have to be honest the rest part the past few weeks looked more like range of motion and abdominal work off t side of the pool then pure rest. Since this week I was going to be doing 100 meters mixed in with the 50 meters I decided to do this crazy thing and rest during the allotted rest period. I reasoned that if I actually rested I might be able to swim faster. From previous experience, I knew it would work and it did!  

As I was focusing on pulling myself down the length of the pool I had this seemingly dichotomous repetition running through my head: striving and accepting. Striving towards the wall as fast as possible with the best form while also accepting the period of rest as necessary, good, and even beneficial.

We should strive to holistically improve – physically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and socially. We should desire and long to be the great saints God creates us to be.  We should emphatically run the race and compete well. However, we can’t grow if we are busy fighting where we are.

I’ve been struggling with acceptance as of late. In the pool I realized it’s not something to struggle with but rather something to strive towards. What is God asking you to accept – His joy, His peace, His Providence, His goodness, His eternal love, His teachings, His Mother, His cross, His time of preparation, His resurrection?

Bl. Pier Giorgio and Bl. John Paul II accepted God’s good plans and joy through all seasons. “For the joy of the Lord is their strength.” Let us accept God’s joy as strength knowing nothing is outside of His love and mercy and that He will either protect us from suffering or give us unending strength to bear it. Let us accept peace and joy as we strive towards the top.

Verso l’alto,

Kathryn

I got you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBWFUVq85gs&noredirect=1

There was a young guy in the lane next to me training for the Navy. As we spoke about his preparation I blurted out “You’ll get there. It’s just one day at a time trying to be better than yesterday.” #Justkeepswimming

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBtc254NIMc&noredirect=1 

Plowed by Grace

“Learn to be stronger in spirit than in your muscles. If you are you will be real apostles of faith in God” (Man of the Beatitudes, 118). 

This morning, I sauntered out to my car this morning about ten minutes before Mass thinking I would hop in and head on my way. Well, my car was encased in ice so that plan was a bust. My car looked like a toy car that had been placed in an icicle mold. Without exaggeration, I couldn’t open the driver side door the ice was so high. I attempted to shovel for about twenty minutes but quickly decided it might be better to shovel after the sun warmed up. When I attempted a second time to free my car, I quickly recognized I would need some help as I wasn’t going to be able to do it on my own. 

As I chiseled away like a sculptor does his masterpiece, I recognized the progress I made was the result of many little actions. Though I had found a patch of the road and was excited to see the progress, I started to think about tools. I was using a plastic shovel and realized an old school spade, the heavy metal shovel that could have been found in my grandfather’s basement, would be much more efficient. Shortly thereafter a man offered to let me borrow a replica of my grandfather’s shovel. It surely made a significant difference. A little while later another man came and offered to help break up some of the ice while his mom ran into her apartment. He broke up some of the frozen mass and even pointed the direction to which I needed to go in order to get my car out. Next the PLOW TRUCK came. No joke, kids. The kind driver honked me out of the way and plowed the remaining blockade, which would have taken me hours to get through on my own.  Each stage of this excavation was enjoyable and beneficial.

As I prayed and played in the snow, I was thinking about Pier Giorgio’s tools which he had in his arsenal.  I thought about his good deeds, his investment in community, his love for the Eucharist (in both Mass and Adoration), and his devotion to Our Lady. Similar to the tools used to get my car out, each has their value and was needed at different times. The plow was the quickest and surest way to freeing my car. Today, I’d like to focus on what is analogous in the spiritual life - devotion to our Lady. 

The surest way to Jesus is through Mother Mary. It is in fact how He chose to come. If we are to imitate Him most perfectly, we are to entrust ourselves to her mantle and intercession as Christ vulnerably did. She is both gentle and strong. She gently nurses us to nourishment and growth while also safeguarding us from the snares of the Devil.  She can melt our hardened hearts like the sun melts ice over time and she can cut through and crush the head of the serpent. Are you clinging to her Mantle?  She desires to bring us closer to her Son.

Whatever means God uses to bestow His grace, be it difficulty or consolation, let us implore His mother to intercede so that we may always see with eyes of faith His loving hand of Providence. Also, let us remember the gifts He has given – especially the gift of His love, the Sacred Heart of a crucified Messiah, who holds us in existence. Mary teach us to do “whatever he tells us,” to go in haste to visit our Lord in our brothers and sister in need, and to behold Him from conception through eternity. Let us enjoy the journey and to remember to pray and play along the way.

Verso l’alto,

Kathryn Cooper 

In the sorrow and the dancing … Your Grace Finds Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXZf-rc_XaA&feature=kp&noredirect=1 

ITS TIME TO PLAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(This is my new favorite song. In case you couldn’t tell)

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8JmQ5hIrK4&noredirect=1

“The glory of God is Man fully alive.” St. Irenaeus .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em_ismUt5uI&noredirect=1