Bloom Where You're Planted

He could read hearts.

With such a gift people would travel
for hundreds of miles
just to go to him
for confession of their sins.

He was given an assignment
in a very small town
most priests wouldn't desire.
Maybe he didn't either.
But it didn't keep him from blooming
where he was planted.

Are we blooming where we are planted?
Or are we waiting
for another stage in our life,
a better time, a better place?

This is the time, this is the place, now!

Like St. John Vianney,
through the grace of God
we can be faithful to our "ars."
Ars is the place he was assigned.

Wherever we are assigned right now--
our home, our family, our circumstances--
is the place we need to bloom.

Look!

"The Bridegroom is Present but not Seen."
That's the talk I was listening to about silence,
mindfulness, and contemplative prayer
by Sr. Pascaline Coff.

Sitting at the breakfast room table,
I gazed in and out of the picture window
overlooking the backyard.

A word caught my attention from the talk.
"Look!"

We hear this in scripture.

Simply look.

I listened carefully to every word

taking notes on the main points.

And then I was drawn

to look out the window again.

This time the scene had changed.

A sparrow, blue jay and then dove flew onto the birdbath.
Delighted I ran to get my camera hoping they wouldn't fly away. 

I looked. I saw.
I experienced.
His love. His message.
 


There was a dove again.

One of them, I imagine,

that had been on the front porch back in the spring.

And in that moment His voice came.

That still small voice.

"Peace!" He whispered tiny.

And I heard...

because I looked. And saw the bridegroom in creation.


You may enjoy this link about Sr. Pascaline's reflections on peace:
http://www.becomingwomenofpeace.com/2011/04/sr-pascaline-coff-osb.html

Child of God

"Whatever did not fit in with my plan
did lie within the plan of God.
I have an ever deeper and firmer belief
that nothing is merely an accident
when seen in the light of God,
that my whole life down to the smallest details
has been marked out for me
in the plan of Divine Providence
and has a completely coherent meaning
in God's all seeing eyes.
To be a child of God,
that means to be led by the Hand of God,
to do the Will of God, not one's own will,
to place every care and every hope in the hand of God
and not to worry about one's future.
On this rests the freedom and the joy of the child of God.
But how few of even the truly pious,
even of those ready for heroic sacrifices, possess this freedom.
When night comes, and you look back over the day
and see how fragmentary everything has been,
and how much you planned that has gone undone,
and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed:
just take everything exactly as it is,
put it in God's hands and leave it with Him.
Then you will be able to rest in Him --really rest --
and start the next day as a new life."

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, O.C.D.
October 12, 1891 -- August 9, 1942
Feast Day--August 9

Dancin' in the Rain

May your week

be full of rejoicing

like the children dancin'

in the long-awaited rain

in our drought-ridden city.

Peace of Heart

Six stages to be passed through in attainment of peace of heart and tranquility of mind by Aelred of Rievaula:

• The rejection of worldly standards, particularly the search for pleasure or possessions and the ambition for honors.
• The setting aside of self-love, vanity, pride, and the comparison of self with others.
• Reflection on the necessities to which one is subject, as a creature subject to the desires of the flesh.
• The experience of one's own infirmity, i.e., one's incapacity to do good and resist evil. (without the Holy Spirit's help, I might add)
• Learning to place a guard over one's mouth and to be disciplined and restrained in speech.
• The practice of bodily stillness and stability in all one's undertakings.

cover of Michael Casey's book

My husband was reading this excerpt aloud last night from one of our favorite books, Living in the Truth by Michael Casey which is about Saint Benedict's teaching on humility.

Aelred of Rievaula was a Cistercian monk, historian and author of many books. He later became abbot of the monastery in Rievaula.

Which of Aelred's six stages can you relate to? Is there one that resonates with you more than another?

I wish you much peace of heart always!

Cultivating Silence

Monks should diligently cultivate silence at all time, but especially at night. RB80.42.1 *

"Silence is an important monastic value. The ability to be maintain stillness and quiet within life is a skill that eludes many of us in today's culture that is often desired. There is always an abundance of sensory stimulus that hinders us from being able to maintain any semblance of inner quiet--iPods, cell phones, pagers, im, facebook, etc.

How can I best establish an inner peace within myself?

1. Establish a tech free zone in my day. Resist the temptation to go to sleep and awaken with facebook.
2. Find random moments within my day to just breath and call on God's name to remind me of God's presence within my life.
3. Start my day with a recommitment to doing God's will."

by Sr. Catherine Martinez, O.S.B. 
St. Joseph's Monastery  Tulsa, OK   U.S.A.
http://stjosephmonastery.blogspot.com/
http://www.stjosephmonastery.org/

* The Rule of Benedict

Crape Myrtles

Now I know why my grandmother--GG--said her favorite flowering bush was a crape myrtle. A master gardener, she knew how to take little ornamental trees, bushes and shrubs and make them blossom in her yard.

Her words about crape myrtles have never left my memory. "They stay in bloom the longest," was the reason she gave me decades ago.

Wonder if she knew too how they endured the heat, the drought. Here they are today in our yard and many yards around the city. You wouldn't know the hardship they face day after day this summer. The burning sun upon their leaves and flowering buds with no relief. They smile anyway. No sign of brown on the foliage, no wilting greenery, no halt to the blooming--no complaining.

If only I could be that way. When the burning heat of purification comes, when the trials of a season are prolonged, when thirsty for life-giving water and it seems sparse, may I bloom anyway.

When the temperatures soar within the atmosphere and within the dome of my soul, and the heat index rises to unbearable degrees, may I be sustained in giving glory to One who designed it all.

Just looking at their red, purple and pink blossoms brings a sense of relief and promise of a future full of hope. Jer 29: 11

GG, you were right!