Let the Rabbits Run

One of my favorite training sessions we did at camp was called Let the Rabbits run. There is a fable that tells the story about a duck, a fish, an owl, an eagle, a squirrel and a rabbit who all went to school with the hopes of improving themselves. On the first day, the rabbit is elated over how great school is. He got to run!  He found out not only that he was very good at it, but that he enjoyed it. However, when the rabbit tried swimming and flying he was discouraged and frustrated. Now, I’m all about personal growth and think it is important to honestly assess areas in our life that are opportunities for growth. Yet, how often do we squander the gifts we have in an attempt to become something or someone we are not ? Are you trying to be everything to everybody? Are you spreading yourself too thin?

The moral of the story is to “let the rabbits run.” What are you great at? What unique gifts, talents, experiences has God given you to build up His kingdom and to incarnate love? When we look at the stain glass windows at Church we can see the light entering through the beautiful, unique depictions. As the saints highlight different aspects of who God is, so too are we called to bear the unrepeatable stamp God has placed on our hearts and lives. St. Peter’s already lived his story. St. Therese? She’s already taken. “The glory of God is man fully alive”. In a world that aches for our unique story, why do we hide in conformity and mediocrity?

“Our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were all meant to shine, as children do.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.” Marianne Williamson

Let God give you the courage to live the story He has written for you. It’s the freedom to be as you are settled in the truth of whose you are. “Become what you are.” JP II

Verso l’alto,

Kathryn

Oh Freedom!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veiJLhXdwn8

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig8dO3VVayw

Free to be Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKSKTauUGZo

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it SHINE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCN893hzueQ

Moments of Truth

“ ‘When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?’ (Luke 18.8) That, the Pope said was the question that had challenged every Bishop of Rome for almost 2,000 years. It was a question inextricably intertwined with the question Christ had asked Peter after the resurrection: “Do you love me?” (John 21.17) That was what Christ had asked the archbishop of Krakow on the afternoon of October 16, 1978.  The question put to Karol Wojtyla that day had been ‘do you accept your election?’ – a question at once magnetic and terrifying, for to love Christ meant to walk his way of the cross.

[On his twentieth anniversary as Pope,] John Paul said, “I can not fail to ask myself a few questions today. Have you observed all this? Are you a diligent and watchful teacher of faith in the Church? Have you sought to bring the great work of the Second Vatican Council closer to the people of today? Have you tried to satisfy the expectations of believers within the Church, and that hunger for truth which is felt in the world outside the Church?” The very asking of those questions, after twenty years, was a moving testimony to the Pope’s humility and his enduring sense of responsibility.…The athletic vigorous John Paul II of twenty years before had passed into history. Those watching saw something even more compelling: a man who had so evidently spent his life out in service to his Lord was still asking, 'Have I loved enough?' "(Witness to Hope, 840).

One of the greatest opportunities to love and to trust, I think, comes in the crossroads of life. I call them crossroads, my friend Michael calls them moments of truth. Michael explained that these moments are analogous to bench pressing. “It’s like when you attempt to do three ascending sets, reps of ten. The first sets relatively easy. The second one you start to struggle around the 6^th or 7^th rep. The third you are struggling around number 4 or 5 and usually need your spotter to give you a hand in order to complete the set. There comes a point when you need to push through to get stronger. There comes a point when you need to accept help in order to succeed.”These moments come in both the life defining moments and in the mundane (i.e. to bite one’s tongue or to pray for others instead of doing what we might prefer).

It’s easy to look at the mark of a great Pope, a GREAT Saint, and to see the compendium of his life and work as a canvas of grandeur. However, what I love about Bl. John Paul II’s reflection is that he shows us the constant call to conversion, to refine our wills, and to offer a complete gift of ourselves to Christ and His Church. We know that the Pope’s confession of faith and love was an outflowing from the work of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of Christ, through Mary, that allowed him to profess yes consistently and continually to the will of God. Yet, it was his willingness to preserver in loving with a great love by continually allowing Christ to stretch him.

How’s Lent going?  Maybe it’s blessed and peaceful and an intimate time with the Lord. Sweet! Keep on walking. Maybe the festivities from St. Patrick’s and St. Joseph’s feast days (what a good week) have thrown you a little off. Maybe your initial commitment for this time of intentional growth has waned. Wherever you are in your Lenten journey, let us commit and recommit to this time Christ offers us. Let us entrust ourselves to the process of change so that we who die with Christ may proclaim on Easter Sunday that we rise with Him.  Let us give of ourselves selflessly. Let us trust the Pope’s advice that we can only find our self by making a total gift of ourselves. Let us get comfortable being uncomfortable. Let us trust we can’t get where we want to go unless we embrace where we are.

Bl. John Paul II, pray for us. Teach us to be holy, selfless, and joyful apostles. Teach us to Love

freely in truth. "The love of Christ and human freedom are intertwined, because love and truth have an intrinsic relationship."   

Verso l’alto,

Kathryn Grace 

Lord, please keep making me broken

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGkmPeVpBbI&feature=kp

The thing I find most amazing about amazing grace is the chance to give it out, maybe that’s what Love is all about

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1ZgtCRO-KY&feature=kp

I hit walls and I wanted to quit, I picked myself up but the truth is

I didn’t get here alone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqJQTSsant8&feature=kp

Changed for the Better

A few weeks ago I voraciously read The Long Run. It was the kind of book you opened every free moment you had. Matt Long, a New York Firefighter and Ironman competitor, was on his way to work one morning when a bus made a turn into his lane, sucking him under the bus leaving his bike impaled onto his body. He sustained life threatening injuries that resulted in doctor’s preparing his family for a mere miracle chance of survival followed by dozens of surgeries and years of rehab.

I saw Matt speak about a month ago. He started by noting he would talk about his comeback story though he hated the word comeback. As an athlete who has been sidelined longer than I desired over the past few years, though I appreciate the lessons from atrophy, I am attempting to once more get back on my bike and needed inspiration and encouragement. Matt delivered both from the podium; however, the genius he shared was in the quick few minutes we chatted afterwards.

I asked about the process of coming back: what did it look like in the midst I inquired. “It wasn’t pretty,” he replied. I knew I had met somebody I could relate to. I myself had uttered the same phrase many times. The thing, though, is that as much as it wasn’t pretty at certain moments, when I step back and take the “long view” (pun intended) I see the life changing opportunities that came through obstacles that God used to transform me.

Similar to traveling or hiking, once you start walking, you realize how much further you want to go. Proverbially, it’s when you live on the edge of your comfort zone your limits expand and your comfort zone grows so that you have new boundaries. Comebacks aren’t a bad thing; however, I think there’s more to be said about coming through and experiencing metanoia, change of heart.

We fight change and we fear it. Yet, as Christians, this is the gift of Lent. We are offered the opportunity to give up life  of the flesh and to live life in the Spirit.  We are given the opportunity to turn from our ways of sin and turn to the love and mercy of God. We are invited to die to ourselves so that we might live LIFE in ABUNDANCE. Lent is a time when we mortify our mortal desires so that we might more resoundingly hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit, who leads us verso l’alto. Are you living Lent with the intention of being changed for the better ? Are you living Life according to the Holy Spirit?

“Life according to the Spirit, whose fruit is holiness (cf. Rom 6:22;Gal 5:22), stirs up every baptized person and requires each to follow and imitate Jesus Christ, in embracing the Beatitudes, in listening and meditating on the Word of God, in conscious and active participation in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church, in personal prayer, in family or in community, in the hunger and thirst for justice, in the practice of the commandment of love in all circumstances of life and service to the brethren, especially the least, the poor and the suffering. (CHRISTIFIDELES LAICI, no. 16) “ Bl. Pier Giorgio, teach us how to be attentive to the whispers of the Holy Spirit.

Peace,

Kathryn

​There's a HOPE inside of me, getting stronger with every breath  I breathe 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of7dGa91uO8&noredirect=1

Mercy will we overcome this, one by one we will turn it around

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kww33eLc6Cs

I have been changed for good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsJ_deSs18U

Playing with the Big Kids

The other day I was swimming and two big guys got into the pool. Well this was great because I knew they would displace water into my lane making it harder to pull myself through my workout. “It’s time to swim with the big kids,” I thought.

Growing up my dad would often talk about practice. You’ve got to practice outside of team practices to get better was oft mentioned . I can’t even say he was a broken record to my fifteen-year-old ears because I love to play. In particular, the one thing that was absolutely certain was that if you want to get better not only do you have to practice but also you have to play against people who are better - faster, stronger, older- than you. Mostly, though, he told me to play against guys.

Are you a big fish in a small pond or do you surround yourself with people who are smarter, wiser, kinder, and braver than yourself? Now, I believe we are all unique and unrepeatable miracles. That is as true as the day is long. Therefore, this question is meant to assess our desire for formation. Similar to a traveler about to ruck up and roll out, if there are people who have walked the places we want to go, wouldn’t it be prudent to garner their advice so we can learn from their experiences and apply their knowledge to our own unique trip? God has given us models, the saints, who have followed Christ, the Way, to walk with us as we journey towards Him this Lent.

Last night I was reading over Pier Giorgio’s letter to his friend Marco Beltramo. The letter detailed Bl. Pier Giorgio’s reading of St. Augustine.

“In any event, these days I am mixing my rather boring studies with the marvelous writings of St. Augustine; never before have I found such endless enjoyment, because in reading Augustine’s powerful Confessions, we get a glimpse of the joy reserved for those who die under the sign of the cross” (An Ordinary Christian, 61). 

He loved Augustine. He had a devotion to Catherine of Siena; he longed to read Aquinas; and he loved Dominic and Dominican spirituality to the point of taking vows as a lay member, known as a tertiary. (In my biased opinion, he has good taste). Pier Giorgio exclaimed “to adore was the greatest act, because it meant taking part in the life of the saints in heaven” (An Ordinary Christian, 60).  Bl. Pier Giorgio knew the value in playing with the big kids and following their example. Who are your patrons?  Do you hear their invitation to share their wisdom for your Lenten journey? Do you see the way they extend their hand in real friendship towards us?

Let us adore Christ and thank Him for the example He has given through the lives of the saints. May they intercede for us and invite us to know the crucified and risen Lord more intimately. May we, like all great saints, behold Our Mother and entrust all of our cares to her maternal and Immaculate Heart. Let us play with the big kids and let us play all out

Verso l’alto,

Kathryn Grace