The Storm Named Sandy

               If you live on the East Coast of the United States, the name Sandy suddenly has a new meaning.  Before last week, when I thought of the name Sandy, I thought of Sandy Duncan who played Peter Pan when I was a child.  Now I think of a tropical storm/hurricane coming to our Nation’s Capital.  The weather reports have shut down the schools, the county government and the federal government.   I made the mistake of stopping by the grocery store today for orange juice and yogurt and found long lines at the checkout.  My Eagle Scout husband made sure that both of our cars are filled with gas!

                Saturday morning, at Mass, my pastor prayed a Collect for averting storms.  In it the prayer reads, “Still this awesome storm that it may become an occasion for us to praise you.”  What a beautiful phrase and a hopeful way to look at this impending weather event.  This event helps me to realize that there are many occurrences in life over which I have little control. And it is good to take time to praise our Lord and pray for our needs.

               And if we lose power, then there will be time for our family to unplug and spend time playing board games (I think a massive Monopoly game may be on the horizon) and hang out together.  Potentially a great blessing in this all too busy life that we life!  

              Yet this prayer is just as applicable when confronting many of the storms of life.  A parent with cancer, the sudden death of a young person, a tragic accident resulting in a loved one in the hospital, the loss of a job and the list could go on and on of the storms that we face in life.  With each storm, we can pray for the Lord to still it that we may use the occasion to praise Him.

Mable and the Last Things

               I have been thinking about Mable this week.  I worked with her in the late 1970’s in a Stouffers Restaurant in Troy Michigan.  As a summer employee, I worked in the kitchen doing “cold prep”.  While I’m sure the job included more than this, I remember peeling mountains of shrimp each week, slicing dozens of red onions, mushrooms, and romaine lettuce. But what I remember most are the Fridays in my second summer, working alongside this octogenarian who had the most wonderful outlook on life.

              

               Mable had worked for decades as a baker for a variety of restaurants in the Stouffer’s chain.  Her husband had died many years before.  Each Friday and Saturday her work would fill the kitchen with the enticing smells of the most wonderful kind of sweets – tarts and cakes and pies.  These desserts were enjoyed by the guests who feasted at the Sunday brunch.

               

               I was drawn into a wonderful friendship with her, although there were 60 some years between us.  I learned very practical details about the precision of baking and the need to measure accurately. The most important lessons I learned dealt with how to age.  At 82 she was active, worked not for the money but because it gave a routine to her life.  Some weeks her back ached or her fingers were painful.  Rather than giving up her beloved baking, she knew that aches and pains were part of getting older.  She enjoyed each day that she lives. That fall she was going to Europe for four weeks and had found a grandchild to accompany her.  She was a believer in Christ and would not work on Sunday.

               

                Mable always comes to mind this time of year.  While the leaves are turning beautiful colors and you can hear a crunch under your feet when you walk over leaves that have already fallen, November is fast approaching.  I was reminded of this yesterday when I walked by a tree that has already shed its leaves.

               

               November is the month when the Catholic Church especially prays for the dead.  The focus in November is on the “last things” – dead, judgment, heaven, and hell.  This week, I made a list of the people in my life, who are no longer with us, for whom I want the Church to pray for in November.  Among those on the list are my parents and grandparents, a friend who died of cancer last June, a work colleague who died two years ago of heart complications and Mable. 

               

               After that summer, Mable and I saw each other occasionally when I came back to work in the kitchen during an especially busy time of year.  I never knew her last name or when she died, but I do hope to find her in heaven one day and let her know the important role she has played in my life.  She is my role model for aging gracefully and I am grateful that the Lord brought us together!

               

Turning our Minds to Heavenly Things

                On this second day of the Year of Faith, I’m feeling a like a have a double hangover.  Yesterday, I spent much of the day reading about the year of faith, attended mass and a Holy Hour and have many thoughts buzzing through my brain.  I also spent time, into the wee hours of the morning, watching play-off baseball.  Various members of my family are Nationals, Orioles and Tigers fans.  Each team was facing elimination from the play offs if they didn’t win.  All three teams won, in dramatic fashion.

               

               So in this prayful-baseball haze, I try to make some sense of the potential for the Year of Faith and of the experiences of yesterday.  I have been personally excited about this Year of Faith since Pope Benedict declared it a year ago. I wonder, what can this year mean for me?  For my family?  For those around me? Pope John XIII, who convened the Second Vatican Council, said that the Council was to “turn our minds to heavenly things”.

                In his homily on Oct 11th, Our Holy Father Pope Benedict said that “the Church proposed a new Year of Faith and a new evangelization, . . . because there is more need of it, even more than there was fifty years ago”.  He defined the Year of Faith as a “summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the One Savior of the world” (Porta Fidei 6). In other words, the Year of Faith is an opportunity for Catholics to experience a conversion – to turn back to Jesus and enter into a deeper relationship with him. The “door of faith” is opened at one’s baptism, but during this year Catholics are called to open it again, walk through it and rediscover and renew their relationship with Christ and his Church.

                The priest who preached at the holy hour spoke of life as a pilgrim on a journey. And, that like pilgrims, we can’t go alone.  He remarked that by reaching out to others during this year of faith, we can have a profound effect on our culture.  As we try more clearly to “see the light”, we can help others also find it.

                At mass, the priest described the Year of Faith as a time to fall in love with God all over again, or for the first time. It is a time to return, renew, discover, learn and deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ.

                With so many ideas and thoughts surging through my mind, I do think that Blessed Pope John XXIII said it simply.  This year is a time for us to turn our thoughts to heavenly things, as we let go and stop grasping for the material wealth of this world.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

For me, one of the great wonders of the Catholic Church is that there is so much to learn.  Today is the feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a 17^th century Sister of the Visitation who is especially devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  She is known for spreading this devotion throughout the church.  As a mystic she had many encounters with the risen Christ.

            Today’s reading in the Liturgy of the Hours includes a letter from St. Margaret Mary.  She says,  In the course of every activity pray as follows: “My God, I do this or I endure this in the heart of your Son and according to his holy counsels. I offer it to you in reparation for anything blameworthy or imperfect in my actions.” Continue to do this in every circumstance of life.  And every time that some punishment affliction or injustice come you way, say to yourself: “Accept this as sent to you by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ in order to unite yourself to him.”  But above all preserve peace of heart.  This is more valuable than any treasure. In order to preserve it there is nothing more useful than renouncing your own will and substituting for it the will of the divine heart. In this way his will can carry out for us whatever contributes to his glory, and we will be happy to be his subjects and to trust in him”

            In the apparitions to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Jesus gives these twelve promises for those who are devoted to His Sacred Heart.

1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
2. I will establish peace in their families.
3. I will console them in all their troubles.
4. They shall find in My Heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of their death.
5. I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source of an infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.
9. I will bless the homes where an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honored.
10. I will give to priests the power of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be effaced.
12. The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under my displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments; My heart shall be their assured refuge at that last hour.

"Look at this Heart which has loved men so much, and yet men do not want to love Me in return. Through you My divine Heart wishes to spread its love everywhere on earth."

For more information about Saint Margaret Mary and her life, you can click on http://www.piercedhearts.org/theology_heart/life_saints/margaret_mary.htm.

Dancing Around the Altar of . . .

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of hearing Father Robert Barron speak about the New Evangelization.  It is the best presentation that I had heard on this topic.  He began by recognizing that this is a current focus of the Church.  Father Barron is the creator of the Catholicism series released in fall 2011.  He has the talent to bring the highly theological into lay-mans terms.  He presented much, good content in this talk -too much to talk about here.

One of my take away ideas came from the time when Elijah, “the only surviving prophet of the Lord”[i] challenged the 450 prophets of Baal to have their gods light a fire on an altar. Fr. Barron recalled the scene, describing how the 450 prophets called on their gods to light the altar with fire.  They called from morning to Noon saying, “answer us Baal!” But there was no sound and no one answering. Then they hopped around the altar they had prepared.[ii] 

After continued hopping and calling on their gods and eventually slashing themselves, there wasn’t an answer.  Then Elijah built an altar with twelve stones, each representing a tribe.  He had the altar drenched three times until water flowed around the altar and into the trench around it.  He called on God, saying “Answer me Lord that this people may know that you, Lord are God and that you have brought them back to these senses.”  And the fire consumed the altar, even the water in the trenches.  And all of the people repented and said “the Lord is God”.

Father Barron’s point is that we have our own altars today.  There are things that we dance around all of the time.  For me I spend time each day “dancing around the altar of food”.  For others it can be alcohol or drugs, pornography, vanity, greed, sex, etc.

His point is that rather than follow the Lord in all that we do, as fragile human beings, we find another altar around which to dance and call out and slash our arms in the pursuit of earthly possessions or activities that bring us fame.  Yet all we need to do is to call out to our almighty, loving Lord and to pursue his plan for us, and ask for help to conform our will to His.

In our modern time, it is difficult for many to even think about obeying God.  We have been brought up to grasp and pursue material things, fame, success and money.  These are our altars.  Yet our great and mighty triune God is capable of some much more than we can imagine, if we dance around His altar and call upon Him as our Lord.

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[i] 1 Kings 18:22

[ii] 1 Kings 18:26