Building Sandcastles

“ ‘Everyone one who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew, and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.’ When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”  Mt. 7: 24 – 29

~~~~~

Are you busy building sandcastles?  We’re all busy but are we busy building and investing in things that last? Are we staking our projects, efforts, time, talents, gifts, and heart on things that are supported by a solid foundation? We tend to think of foundation and structural realities after a storm. Witnessing the devastation prompts the question of how to rebuild and forces one to reassess the foundation one initially chose. Similarly, we can think foundational questions of life are only applicable when shit hits the fan.  However, as Christians, the art of foundation is something we are pouring and deciding every day.  To over simplify the Gospel reading from today, if I may, it seems to me that the choice is between rock, listening and acting on the Gospel, or sand, listening and ignoring the call. Wherever you are in the spiritual life and wherever you are in your current circumstances, it seems as though God is the contractor who comes back again and again to ask us, lovingly, what foundation are you building upon? I believe this choice is one we make constantly.

Knowing the devastating effects of building on sand, it would seem as though the obvious choice would be to build upon rock. However, it’s easier, in the here and now, to build on sand. Building on rock involves cutting through some tough surfaces and working with an uneven lot as the rocks weren’t so kind as to think about future building projects when they formed their own arrangement.  Yet, as arduous as building on a solid foundation might be it is more effective, more efficient, and more rewarding than building sandcastles.

What do you build your life upon?  What are the ways in which you make yourself available and accessible to listen to the whisper of the Holy Spirit to hear and see God’s blueprint for your life? What does this mean in reality and what does this look like, beside a cute analogy?  Bl. Pier Giorgio shows us as he built his life around prayer, the sacraments, community, and an active love of neighbor. He lived in a way in which his foundation was the advice from the Sermon on the Mount as well as the Person of Christ who bestowed the Sermon.  

Verso l’alto,

K Coop

I’d be building my kingdom just to watch it fade away, it’s true

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qGa5rIOB28&feature=kp

I've been wandering
All my life you've been calling me
To a home you know I've been needing
I'm a broken stone
So lay me in the house you're building

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjX7c4sx8Pg

It is when we have chosen the Rock of salvation and Christ as our cornerstone that we can proclaim with the Psalmist: “Though a host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.” Psalm 27:3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV40NzkqJrw&feature=kp

Let us hear the Voice of Truth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwsvqVmFV6Y&feature=kp

Man Up

“It used to be that if you were under performing at work, your supervisor would take you into the back room tell you like it is and would tell you it’s time to Man Up!”  Jason explained. “Now a days,” he continued, “they bring in you the back and say ‘I used to have a problem like that, I know it’s difficult, we need you to try harder so we are going to track your progress and I’m here to help you and to talk about anything you want.’” Though words on a page barely do justice to his overly exaggerated enactment of this scene, his point bears some reflection. Man up! It’s a great phrase with immense power.   

Now I’m thankful we live in a Title IX society and for the opportunity to play sports competitively, for the advancement of women’s roles in education, sports, business to name a few. However, there is a vital distinction to be made: equality is not sameness. What does it mean to be a man? How does one live it in today’s society? Now, I’m not going to say I know how to be a man. I do, however, want to say that authentic manhood is attractive.

As St. JPII and Bl. Frassati demonstrated there is something awesome, courageous, inspiring, and life giving that comes when one lives authentic masculinity. It is not only vital for the revitalization of our culture but for our hearts. There is something attractive when a man mans up. Some of us have seen it; others of us have heard of it; hopefully, you have experienced it. Men, do you know the vital role you play to your friends, sisters, girlfriend, fiancé, and/or wife? Men, do you know the value you have in affirming us, protecting us, supporting us, and romancing us? The true man knows the precious role he plays and does everything to prepare his heart, mind, body, and soul so as to step up and man up so that he may respond with courage as God calls.

Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, form our men into manly men of God. St. John Paul II, affirm their goodness and their desires for authentic masculinity. Show them they are called to be uniquely courageous and strong and that as they answer this call it will lead them on an adventure that will surpass all expectations. Thank you for giving them the courage to respond to this invitation to an adventure of a lifetime.

Verso l’alto,

Kathryn Grace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCTJmXrgsFg&feature=kp

You got plenty of time for tomorrow - you focus on TONIGHT!
It's I got your number, I got your back
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlXDo5WhQXI

Joy Sufficiency

“Joy deficiency, a pervasive phenomenon, presents with many symptoms – restlessness, anxiety, emptiness, malaise, inability to focus, insomnia, fatigue, irritability, and apathy. Excessive stress decreases efficiency, productivity, and creativity. Stress also weakens attention, worsens most medical conditions and hastens your escape from the present moment” (The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living, xiii)

Joy deficiency, what an interesting phenomenon. Though the author, Dr. Amit Sood, does not offer a definition of joy nor joy deficiency, that I could find, it is a rather interesting notion as it would be hard to say that we are in want for pleasure, on demand pleasure at that, in our society.  If most of us reading this have every conceivable material need (housing, water, food, shelter, love and education, etc), why then do we face a pervasively joy deficient culture?

“We are dealing here with two profoundly different experiences, pleasure and joy, which underlie two distinct conceptions of happiness: One belongs to the domain of the senses; the other belongs directly to the moral and spiritual level. Let us note their essential differences: Pleasure is an agreeable sensation, a passion caused by contact with some exterior good. Joy, however, is something interior, like the act that causes it” (Morality: The Catholic View, 78). Distinguishing that joy arises from the interior and pleasure is dependent on exterior goods shines a glimmer of understanding that there are many beautiful witnesses of people who are suffering and actively choose hope and live joy. To the naked eye it might seem as though they are doing the impossible. And in many ways they are. However, because joy and pleasure are different we can see that joy is plausible in all circumstances. How, though, does one find joy in the midst of truly grievous and sorrowful situations? How do joy and sorrow unite like the vine and the branches?

“We can also understand how the virtues are like the arteries that carry strength and disperse joy throughout the entire organism of the moral life.” (Pinckaers, 80). The fruits of a tree come to be only because they are connected to the vines, which stems from the trunk, which is nourished by the life giving sap running throughout. Similarly, the fruit of joy is possible in the midst of sorrow solely because one is allowing Christ to live within him so that the Holy Spirit runs throughout animating one’s sorrow and transforming it to joy.

​It is because of one's relationship with Christ that this is possible. ​It

  is outside the realm of pleasure. Pleasure can’t look at death and see eternal life. Pleasure can’t see sickness and know a renewal of health. Pleasure is fleeting. Joy is rooted and grounded in an eternal love that acknowledges sorrow as a reality but doesn’t give sorrow the final word.  

We boldly proclaim that sorrowful joy is a possibility as Christians. It is portrayed in the hope found in Our Lady’s hands as she held the limp, beaten, crucified, and bruised body of Christ. As she mourned the loss of her Son, she entered more deeply into her Motherhood for all of humanity. Her sorrowful heart and her immaculate heart are one as the sorrow and joy of life are found most fully by participating in and holding His Sacred Heart. Is your Joy sufficient? Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things; love never fails. Joy, a fruit of His Love, the Holy Spirit, enables and ennobles our actions so that we might know peace in the midst of the storm as well as the fruitfulness and faithfulness of God.

 "Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.  "Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world” (John 16: 20-21)

Verso l’alto,

Kathryn 

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness

DRIVE the dark of doubt away

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIRFE_1huMc&feature=kp

Your love carries me
Out of valleys and the darkest places

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcORoyyjqjw

And the foxes in the vineyard will not steal my joy

Because You are good to me, good to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKosVfAEUPE&feature=kp

Waiting on a Miracle

So if we are ever on the phone and I say I’m going hiking, please feel free to ask if I am going by myself. If so, you might attempt to suggest I find a track to walk around instead.  The last two times I have attempted to stroll up a mountain solo have resulted in significant bush waking.

Now, there are times when we are just blatantly on the wrong path, heading in the wrong direction. Other times we get lost because we are distracted. Sometimes one could be accused of seeking an adventure, thinking she is “close enough” to the path, though the result leaves her four miles from her car (hypothetically, of course). Yet, what happens when we are doing the “right” thing, following the path laid out before us and for unknown reasons we end up pushed off course? The conversation I had right before starting out on yesterday’s adventure was about the last of these situations. Regression: how do we handle slipping backwards for unknown reasons? What happens when you finally believe in miracles and yet you are awaiting the miracle itself? What do you do when it feels as though your pleading prayers are met with an abyss of seeming silence? Well, God has a sense of humor. Let’s just say there was a parable to be found in between the branches and leaves.

As I was coming down the mountain, the trail disappeared and I found myself side stepping tree trunks while getting smacked in the face with tree branches. In order to come out of the forest, we must first know where we want to go and recognize when we are not heading in the right direction. Before we can change direction, we must know we are lost. So even though there is that sense that things aren’t going the right way, it is an opportunity to pause so as to no longer continue down a dangerous path. 

For me this came as I approached the edge of the cliff. Seeing as hang gliding wasn’t an option, recognizing the path I was on was a dead end (potentially literally) it forced me to recognize I needed to find a path, the way. I spent many moments walking a little and then waiting. As I waited, I listened. In an attempt to hear anything other than the crickets, straining to hear other voices, I reassessed my surroundings. Waiting invites us to silence, which opens us to listen. After several attempts of walking and reassessing, I recognized I needed to back track. The spot I was in wasn’t going to lead me to join up with the trail, so I needed to head to the top of the mountain to get some perspective.  It was here that I was able to redirect my efforts so as to begin again.

Though I was happy to be back at my car, what is the value in the journey? While hiking it was getting to see look out points I hadn’t planned on stopping at, it was listening to the bugs and watching the sun set. It was the opportunity to be outside to play longer than expected. Similarly, how can we learn to appreciate the gift of time, the gift that is found in the waiting for a miracle?  For me, it has been in this “waiting space” that God has unfolded a myriad of gifts that I would have missed out on had God granted the instantaneous miracle I plead for. Friendships formed, adventures lived, faith purified, and joy received are some of the gifts God has generously given. These gifts are universal and yet incredibly specific.

It takes patience and grace to recognize that two steps forward and one step back are apart of the dance of life. Here is an invitation to work like it depends on you and to pray like it depends on God. It requires a sitting still, an open awareness, that in the midst of difficulty potentially lies the greatest grace. Do you dare to sit actively and to wait with courage? Do you dare to open the gifts that can only be found in the waiting? Let us wait with joyful courage and bold hope.

Verso l’alto,

Coop

And you were meant to be here tonight.
This is your time. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdmyoMe4iHM

Miracles happen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf_uXiJf6Eg

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.” Bonhoeffer 

Dare to redefine the Waiting Place

 It is not an abyss of nothing but rather a font of grace.

~

You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…

…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO! That’s not for you!

Somehow you’ll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You’ll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

Oh the Places You’ll Go - Dr Seuss