Sunday, November 4, 2012
You are worth more than these...
Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny. -- CS. Lewis
I often wonder why life has to hurt as it does. I believe there is great joy in this world to be had and to be lived but I also believe that we must endure great suffering to get there. So why must life hurt even though there is so much joy? Well the obvious reason is we must suffer. True--we must struggle with monetary needs, we must endure the people around us, who are such virtue builders in our lives ;) -- we must suffer through the death of a loved one, a break up, and so much more. But in this entry I am deep calling to deep here and say that there is much more that we need to endure. That there is much suffering that takes place underneath and inside each one of us.
My experience recently has lead me to see such suffering. I had been angry for a while now and really not knowing why I was. In fact I had no idea that I was so upset until it was brought out of me today. I did not understand why life was going as it was and that honestly, as good as it was going I was still hurting inside. I was still trying to understand what I could not--"Why does God allow us to face such things when He knows that it is not good for us to be in the midst of it?" Now this can be understood in light of relationships--why am I amongst crappy people or why do the people I meet not people I need to date or be around? Also it can bring up, why does God put in a position at a job which is no good for me. In other words-- why does God allow us to be where his perfect will is not? It's an interesting question which I touched upon tonight in prayer.
As I prayed and cried out to God in understanding I heard the word healing--and I heard "the refiners fire" Joy can only be felt through knowing some sort of pain--when I say joy, i mean true joy, from the depths. I realized that we are allowed to walk outside the parameters of His perfect will so that we can find our way to it. It's as if all that stuff he doesn't want for us helps us heal and get to the core of who we are. I believe that it makes real to others and ourselves and most especially makes us real before God. There is an old song that says "refiners fire, my hearts one desire, is to be holy, set apart for you Lord." Wow, that makes a whole lot more sense today then it ever did when I sang it a hundred times before. To be set apart we must be refined in the fire -- if holiness and intimacy with Christ is what we long for then we most certainly need refinement.
The interesting part is that in the end it was all part of his perfect will for you! That his allowed will and perfect will worked side by side to get you to exactly where you are today--real before God. He does not want what you think you are--he wants what HE thinks you are to be what you see. HE wants you to be you and nothing less. I found that I kept hearing from scripture " you are worth more than these.." That is from Matthew 6:26: Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?
So he has got me, whether I understand why life can hurt so much or not--he has me and knows what he is doing--for you are worth more than these and there is no need to worry only to be willing to accept the pain and endure the journey--for there is always joy and lots of it to be had--but there will always be refinement so that we can get to where he longs for us to be, heaven!!!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
The Truth will set you free..
Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Truth is a beautiful thing! I was just thinking about its power and fierceness yesterday.
Truth has the ability to open the eyes of the blind and soft the hearts of the hardened! Truth is that which can and will penetrate the person because that is what it was made to do. You and I were made for the truth!
This is kind of a bold statement considering the amount of rationalizing, manipulating and lying that goes on in this world. It happens so often that truth does not seem real and what the world has distorted us to think is that truth is, saving face, getting what I want at all costs and being the person that people want me to be. The reality is that, that is the LIE- the truth is the very thing that unravels the manipulations, allows us to be real and also pushes us to be everything that we were made to be. It also calls us to desire that in, not just the world around us, but then company we keep. I know for myself, their is nothing harder then watching someone living in a false reality. Living in a way that you know denies the very person that they are. It is tough, and what is even tougher is having to be the light of that truth. The truth is beautiful, but it hurts. It can hurt as bad as a slap in the face, because it surprises the one who has not been living in it and then stings -- It is exactly what you needed and nothing that you wanted.
The Gospel this third Sunday of Lent spoke very much of truth--Now there were two gospels, Cycle A w/ the scrutinies and Cycle A-- I got the one with the scrutinies and that Gospel spoke of the woman at the well. She was a woman living in shame--hence why she went to the well at noon, no one went there then because of the heat, so she could go with no worries of being called names or worse, being called out. So she went and Jesus met her there, as he does with all us in the midst of out lies and sins! He met her and spoke to her with not just mercy but firm justice. He spoke truth to her, knowing that she then would have to make a choice to believe and drink of the living waters that He spoke of to her. He brought her sin to the light, and gave her hope through his living waters. Saying in many ways to her, "you don't have to live this way anymore, and you can have a new life if you want it...there is hope."
Where there is truth there is hope to be found. Whatever that truth that is given to you may be. I believe that the reason the truth sets us free is that it gives an opportunity to choose a simpler more life giving way. I never, and no one ever said, that way would be easy, but it is a chance to live in a genuine, authentic light. A light that only Christ can provide for you and me. Christ came to die for us out of love for us and to bring that light of truth upon a dark and hopeless world. He in many ways asks us to do the same with our lights,
You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. (Mt 5:14-16)
We are called to be light in a darkened world..we are called to be Christ to others. As we have received the gift of the truth in healing and forgiveness, we are in turn to go out and do the same. It is scary out there and shining your light is taking quite a risk, but: if are God is for us, who can be against us. (Rom 8:31)
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Truth is a beautiful thing! I was just thinking about its power and fierceness yesterday.
Truth has the ability to open the eyes of the blind and soft the hearts of the hardened! Truth is that which can and will penetrate the person because that is what it was made to do. You and I were made for the truth!
This is kind of a bold statement considering the amount of rationalizing, manipulating and lying that goes on in this world. It happens so often that truth does not seem real and what the world has distorted us to think is that truth is, saving face, getting what I want at all costs and being the person that people want me to be. The reality is that, that is the LIE- the truth is the very thing that unravels the manipulations, allows us to be real and also pushes us to be everything that we were made to be. It also calls us to desire that in, not just the world around us, but then company we keep. I know for myself, their is nothing harder then watching someone living in a false reality. Living in a way that you know denies the very person that they are. It is tough, and what is even tougher is having to be the light of that truth. The truth is beautiful, but it hurts. It can hurt as bad as a slap in the face, because it surprises the one who has not been living in it and then stings -- It is exactly what you needed and nothing that you wanted.
The Gospel this third Sunday of Lent spoke very much of truth--Now there were two gospels, Cycle A w/ the scrutinies and Cycle A-- I got the one with the scrutinies and that Gospel spoke of the woman at the well. She was a woman living in shame--hence why she went to the well at noon, no one went there then because of the heat, so she could go with no worries of being called names or worse, being called out. So she went and Jesus met her there, as he does with all us in the midst of out lies and sins! He met her and spoke to her with not just mercy but firm justice. He spoke truth to her, knowing that she then would have to make a choice to believe and drink of the living waters that He spoke of to her. He brought her sin to the light, and gave her hope through his living waters. Saying in many ways to her, "you don't have to live this way anymore, and you can have a new life if you want it...there is hope."
Where there is truth there is hope to be found. Whatever that truth that is given to you may be. I believe that the reason the truth sets us free is that it gives an opportunity to choose a simpler more life giving way. I never, and no one ever said, that way would be easy, but it is a chance to live in a genuine, authentic light. A light that only Christ can provide for you and me. Christ came to die for us out of love for us and to bring that light of truth upon a dark and hopeless world. He in many ways asks us to do the same with our lights,
You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. (Mt 5:14-16)
We are called to be light in a darkened world..we are called to be Christ to others. As we have received the gift of the truth in healing and forgiveness, we are in turn to go out and do the same. It is scary out there and shining your light is taking quite a risk, but: if are God is for us, who can be against us. (Rom 8:31)
The key is the relationship with God. Nothing is really difficult when you have love and live in truth. When you drink of the streams of the living water, you know that the truth you speak is not your own but of the one who has brought you to light. Who has given you the ability to see such truth--we need to be Christ to others so that the world can be reached.
Truth is a gift that we are given after being blinded, but I have found that I am even grateful for the times that I was blind to the truth because now I am a light bearer for that road for others. I think of an image of a man on a dark road that carries a lamp--he is there to meet you in the darkness and that is what we are to be to others. And we are to walk until they either reject the light or find there own!
Truth is a hard pill to swallow, but is most medicine that works. It is potent and powerful but when taken allows the body freedom from the suffering that it may be carrying.
It's funny to me that sometimes we are called to speak truth to others and they may not be showing signs or symptoms--some diseases are masked and or maybe in a latent stage. Speak the truth and allow God to work through you. We are only the carriers of the truth and are not the truth itself.
God is truth, God is light and God is purely and simply love and love is above all what we strive for. Love requires more than just feelings-- love calls us to die, love calls us to live and love call us always to new life!!!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
The Mountain Top
Give me all of you!!! I don't want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want YOU!!! ALL OF YOU!! I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man or woman, but to KILL IT! No half measures will do. I don't want to only prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! Hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them ALL over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self---in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart. --C. S. Lewis
So i went to mass today and as the priest spoke of the readings in the homily he specifically spoke of the mountain top theme that was all over the readings. Abraham walking up the mountain to sacrifice his only son and Jesus taking Peter, James and John up the mountain top to see Him transfigure before them.
The interesting part was how Father showed how in both readings their was an experience of transfiguration on the mountain top. How when Abraham reached his destination he proceeded to do what he was told, God’s will, and in that moment was asked to stop and not take his son’s life. So in his attempt to do what he understood God’s will to be for him, God stopped him only to bless him in his act of faith and in turn Abraham was transfigured by his experience.
I think to myself, how hard it is to climb that mountain top at any point in time and how, and as Father put it, it is a test of trust.
And as I climb I get so tired and frustrated wondering day in and day out, have I lost my mind to walk this road upward like this? Have I lost my mind to say yes to God and act in such a way that requires a certain amount of suffering? The answer is yes I have lost my mind and what I am asking God to do is slowly but surely help me see as he sees and love as he loves. I cannot do that with my mind...I have to lose mine for his. I have to give up what I know, for what he knows. I have have to die to myself and do what my heart is calling me to and not necessarily what I think feels good. Feeling good, does not bring transfiguration--death to self and pushing through what is comfortable is what brings about change and strength.
I am sure that Abraham was not happy with what God was asking of him, but he knew that God was calling him to more and and he knew that God knew best.
Transfiguration, or transformation brings only new life in Him who is calling you to take that risk and die to what you know feels comfortable.
This time of year can almost be a bit scary--I think, I let go of something that may or may not have a hold on me for 40 days, or rather I add something in my life that changes the way I live. Both call us to change--a change I do not see the outcome of. I think from the first moment that lent starts, and we make a forty day commitment, we are attempting to transform--we fall in our attempt, but so did Christ on his way up the mountain top. He actually fell three times -- he knows that the way up is painful, trying and hard, but he knows that his grace is sufficient. He knows that as he called upon his own Father in his anguish--we too are to call upon the Father in those moments where lent gets way to hard and the journey to our calvary is way more painful than expected.
Transformation is scary, but it is a process and I think lent does a pretty good job of gauging where we are at in our spiritual lives. It gives a pretty good read on how we treat ourselves in these times when we fall. I know for me, I use to beat myself up more, but the reality is, I am human and I am going to fall and I am not gonna get it right all the time--it is not about getting it right all the time, it is about getting it. It makes me laugh that even in my sacrifices I am prideful, wanting to get it perfect and make this 40 days like there is a grade that I am shooting for, or at then end of the 40 days there is a pizza party or I am trying to attain gold stars or something. haha!! Not at all....we give things up and attempt to draw closer to Christ--heck it might be harder to add things onto your life, because making time for God is not the priority it needs to be.
That is the point of lent--to draw closer to Christ--to walk with him this road to calvary--to attempt to feel with him, every lash of that whip and thorn from the crown and nail on the cross. The point is that we draw more intimately in relationship with Our Lord, so that nothing in this world will ever be a hindrance to that loving relationship--the only relationship that matters.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
"What on earth is he up to?"
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself. --C. S. Lewis
This quote really struck a chord in me. I thought, well God is like the most amazing and innovative architect you could imagine. I find that in my own life lately, nothing seems like it is in its "right" place. I feel like someone has gone in and put everything where it wasn't and put some stuff in the trash....took some things out of the trash and unpacked some new boxes. I feel like some wings have been added on and some stuff is being fixed and tweeked.
All this is happening and at the same time, I am not too sure of what is going on. In fact the only thing that I can be assured of is that I am not in charge. The question arises in me...why does God do the things that he does? Why can't everything be good for me? Why can't life just move at a pace that I can not only keep up with but perfect? Because of so many reasons, but the main one being, if we knew all that and God allowed all this perfection here on earth, we would never reach higher and go deeper within ourselves. We would never have a longing for heaven if we were living in it already and we would never get to be surprised if we knew the outcome of everything.
I have found in my own life that, God knows what he is doing!!! I know, right? crazy thoughts like that need to be censored! haha...but really God knows what he is doing and when something goes right instead of left and something goes down instead of up...there is a purpose. It's funny, because I have heard it said and I say it myself--well, if I only knew the purpose I would feel better. But would you? I find that timing is everything and that God leaves no stone unturned. He loves us so much that he makes sure that we are ready to hear and understand the purpose. We might not be able to accept it, but we can begin to hear it and heal from it and take it all in. I have found that the truth will unfold itself in time! That God has a reason for withholding it. I know that if I had heard some things too soon, my heart would have shattered even more than it was in that very moment.
Why God are you doing all this house cleaning and rearranging right now, why can't you wait until I am ready--until I tell you where to move things etc. Why can't all this house management that has to do with my house go one when I am ready? Well here's the thing, what makes you think you're not ready? What makes you think that you can't handle what is happening in the interior? God is moving and God is allowing--he knows what you can and cannot handle. He made you and knows what is best.
Now the interesting part of all of this is that he allows all of this so that we can reach out to him. We can cultivate a relationship with him and as a trusted friend we can allow him to do what he needs to knowing that he has everything under control. But that takes time...so while he is rearranging the place, get to know him and reach out to him in all the confusions and the whys and the what's. Reach out to him and ask him to help you trust him so that you can be at peace with all that he is doing. He will do it whether we want him to or not because the reality is that he wants us to grow and be the best version of ourselves. The pain usually comes more in the resistance to God's will than in embracing it at all. So allow him to rebuild, reconstruct, remodel, heck build you up from the ground up--because the reality is and as I heard a great priest say in regards to Jesus building in us, "He was a carpenter, so he knows how to finish the job."
This quote really struck a chord in me. I thought, well God is like the most amazing and innovative architect you could imagine. I find that in my own life lately, nothing seems like it is in its "right" place. I feel like someone has gone in and put everything where it wasn't and put some stuff in the trash....took some things out of the trash and unpacked some new boxes. I feel like some wings have been added on and some stuff is being fixed and tweeked.
All this is happening and at the same time, I am not too sure of what is going on. In fact the only thing that I can be assured of is that I am not in charge. The question arises in me...why does God do the things that he does? Why can't everything be good for me? Why can't life just move at a pace that I can not only keep up with but perfect? Because of so many reasons, but the main one being, if we knew all that and God allowed all this perfection here on earth, we would never reach higher and go deeper within ourselves. We would never have a longing for heaven if we were living in it already and we would never get to be surprised if we knew the outcome of everything.
I have found in my own life that, God knows what he is doing!!! I know, right? crazy thoughts like that need to be censored! haha...but really God knows what he is doing and when something goes right instead of left and something goes down instead of up...there is a purpose. It's funny, because I have heard it said and I say it myself--well, if I only knew the purpose I would feel better. But would you? I find that timing is everything and that God leaves no stone unturned. He loves us so much that he makes sure that we are ready to hear and understand the purpose. We might not be able to accept it, but we can begin to hear it and heal from it and take it all in. I have found that the truth will unfold itself in time! That God has a reason for withholding it. I know that if I had heard some things too soon, my heart would have shattered even more than it was in that very moment.
Why God are you doing all this house cleaning and rearranging right now, why can't you wait until I am ready--until I tell you where to move things etc. Why can't all this house management that has to do with my house go one when I am ready? Well here's the thing, what makes you think you're not ready? What makes you think that you can't handle what is happening in the interior? God is moving and God is allowing--he knows what you can and cannot handle. He made you and knows what is best.
Now the interesting part of all of this is that he allows all of this so that we can reach out to him. We can cultivate a relationship with him and as a trusted friend we can allow him to do what he needs to knowing that he has everything under control. But that takes time...so while he is rearranging the place, get to know him and reach out to him in all the confusions and the whys and the what's. Reach out to him and ask him to help you trust him so that you can be at peace with all that he is doing. He will do it whether we want him to or not because the reality is that he wants us to grow and be the best version of ourselves. The pain usually comes more in the resistance to God's will than in embracing it at all. So allow him to rebuild, reconstruct, remodel, heck build you up from the ground up--because the reality is and as I heard a great priest say in regards to Jesus building in us, "He was a carpenter, so he knows how to finish the job."
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Advent Watching
Advent reflection by: Blessed John Henry Newman
Do you know the feeling in matters of this life, of expecting a friend, expecting him to come, and he delays? Do you know what it is to be in unpleasant company, and to wish for the time to pass away, and the hour strike when you may be at liberty? Do you know what it is to be in anxiety lest something should happen which may happen or may not, or to be in suspense about some important event, which makes your heart beat when you are reminded of it, and of which you think the first thing in the morning? Do you know what it is to have a friend in a distant country, to expect news of him, and to wonder from day to day what he is now doing, and whether he is well? Do you know what it is so to live upon a person who is present with you, that your eyes follow his, that you read his soul, that you see all its changes in his countenance, that you anticipate his wishes, that you smile in his smile, and are sad in his sadness, and are downcast when he is vexed, and rejoice in his successes? To watch for Christ is a feeling such as all these; as far as feelings of this world are fit to shadow out those of another.
He watches for Christ who has a sensitive, eager, apprehensive mind; who is awake, alive, quick-sighted, zealous in seeking and honouring Him; who looks out for Him in all that happens, and who would not be surprised, who would not be over-agitated or overwhelmed, if he found that He was coming at once.
And he watches with Christ, who, while he looks on to the future, looks back on the past, and does not so contemplate what his Saviour has purchased for him, as to forget what He has suffered for him. He watches with Christ, who ever commemorates and renews in his own person Christ's Cross and Agony, and gladly takes up that mantle of affliction which Christ wore here, and left behind Him when he ascended. And hence in the Epistles, often as the inspired writers show their desire for His second coming, as often do they show their memory of His first, and never lose sight of His Crucifixion in His Resurrection. Thus if St. Paul reminds the Romans that they "wait for the redemption of the body" at the Last Day, he also says, "If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." If he speaks to the Corinthians of "waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," he also speaks of "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." If to the Philippians of "the power of His resurrection," he adds at once "and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." If he consoles the Colossians with the hope "when Christ shall appear," of their "appearing with Him in glory," he has already declared that he "fills up that which remains of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church." [Rom. viii. 17-28. 1 Cor. i. 7. 2 Cor. iv. 10. Phil. iii. 10. Col. iii. 4; i. 24.] Thus the thought of what Christ is, must not obliterate from the mind the thought of what He was; and faith is always sorrowing with Him while it rejoices. And the same union of opposite thoughts is impressed on us in Holy Communion, in which we see Christ's death and resurrection together, at one and the same time; we commemorate the one, we rejoice in the other; we make an offering, and we gain a blessing.
This then is to watch; to be detached from what is present, and to live in what is unseen; to live in the thought of Christ as He came once, and as He will come again; to desire His second coming, from our affectionate and grateful remembrance of His first. And this it is, in which we shall find that men in general are wanting. They are indeed without faith and love also; but at least they profess to have these graces, nor is it easy to convince them that they have not. For they consider they have faith, if they do but own that the Bible came from God, or that they trust wholly in Christ for salvation; and they consider they have love if they obey some of the most obvious of God's commandments. Love and faith they think they have; but surely they do not even fancy that they watch. What is meant by watching, and how it is a duty, they have no definite idea; and thus it accidentally happens that watching is a suitable test of a Christian, in that it is that particular property of faith and love, which, essential as it is, men of this world do not even profess; that particular property, which is the life or energy of faith and love, the way in which faith and love, if genuine, show themselves . . .
. . . Year passes after year silently; Christ's coming is ever nearer than it was. O that, as He comes nearer earth, we may approach nearer heaven! O, my brethren, pray Him to give you the heart to seek Him in sincerity. Pray Him to make you in earnest. You have one work only, to bear your cross after Him. Resolve in His strength to do so. Resolve to be no longer beguiled by "shadows of religion," by words, or by disputings, or by notions, or by high professions, or by excuses, or by the world's promises or threats. Pray Him to give you what Scripture calls "an honest and good heart," or "a perfect heart," and, without waiting, begin at once to obey Him with the best heart you have. Any obedience is better than none,-any profession which is disjoined from obedience, is a mere pretence and deceit. Any religion which does not bring you nearer to God is of the world. You have to seek His face; obedience is the only way of seeking Him. All your duties are obediences. If you are to believe the truths He has revealed, to regulate yourselves by His precepts, to be frequent in His ordinances, to adhere to His Church and people, why is it, except because He has bid you? and to do what He bids is to obey Him, and to obey Him is to approach Him. Every act of obedience is an approach,-an approach to Him who is not far off, though He seems so, but close behind this visible screen of things which hides Him from us. He is behind this material framework; earth and sky are but a veil going between Him and us; the day will come when He will rend that veil, and show Himself to us. And then, according as we have waited for Him, will He recompense us. If we have forgotten Him, He will not know us; but "blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching ... He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants," [Luke xii. 37, 38.] May this be the portion of every one of us! It is hard to attain it; but it is woeful to fail. Life is short; death is certain; and the world to come is everlasting.
Do you know the feeling in matters of this life, of expecting a friend, expecting him to come, and he delays? Do you know what it is to be in unpleasant company, and to wish for the time to pass away, and the hour strike when you may be at liberty? Do you know what it is to be in anxiety lest something should happen which may happen or may not, or to be in suspense about some important event, which makes your heart beat when you are reminded of it, and of which you think the first thing in the morning? Do you know what it is to have a friend in a distant country, to expect news of him, and to wonder from day to day what he is now doing, and whether he is well? Do you know what it is so to live upon a person who is present with you, that your eyes follow his, that you read his soul, that you see all its changes in his countenance, that you anticipate his wishes, that you smile in his smile, and are sad in his sadness, and are downcast when he is vexed, and rejoice in his successes? To watch for Christ is a feeling such as all these; as far as feelings of this world are fit to shadow out those of another.
He watches for Christ who has a sensitive, eager, apprehensive mind; who is awake, alive, quick-sighted, zealous in seeking and honouring Him; who looks out for Him in all that happens, and who would not be surprised, who would not be over-agitated or overwhelmed, if he found that He was coming at once.
And he watches with Christ, who, while he looks on to the future, looks back on the past, and does not so contemplate what his Saviour has purchased for him, as to forget what He has suffered for him. He watches with Christ, who ever commemorates and renews in his own person Christ's Cross and Agony, and gladly takes up that mantle of affliction which Christ wore here, and left behind Him when he ascended. And hence in the Epistles, often as the inspired writers show their desire for His second coming, as often do they show their memory of His first, and never lose sight of His Crucifixion in His Resurrection. Thus if St. Paul reminds the Romans that they "wait for the redemption of the body" at the Last Day, he also says, "If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." If he speaks to the Corinthians of "waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," he also speaks of "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." If to the Philippians of "the power of His resurrection," he adds at once "and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." If he consoles the Colossians with the hope "when Christ shall appear," of their "appearing with Him in glory," he has already declared that he "fills up that which remains of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church." [Rom. viii. 17-28. 1 Cor. i. 7. 2 Cor. iv. 10. Phil. iii. 10. Col. iii. 4; i. 24.] Thus the thought of what Christ is, must not obliterate from the mind the thought of what He was; and faith is always sorrowing with Him while it rejoices. And the same union of opposite thoughts is impressed on us in Holy Communion, in which we see Christ's death and resurrection together, at one and the same time; we commemorate the one, we rejoice in the other; we make an offering, and we gain a blessing.
This then is to watch; to be detached from what is present, and to live in what is unseen; to live in the thought of Christ as He came once, and as He will come again; to desire His second coming, from our affectionate and grateful remembrance of His first. And this it is, in which we shall find that men in general are wanting. They are indeed without faith and love also; but at least they profess to have these graces, nor is it easy to convince them that they have not. For they consider they have faith, if they do but own that the Bible came from God, or that they trust wholly in Christ for salvation; and they consider they have love if they obey some of the most obvious of God's commandments. Love and faith they think they have; but surely they do not even fancy that they watch. What is meant by watching, and how it is a duty, they have no definite idea; and thus it accidentally happens that watching is a suitable test of a Christian, in that it is that particular property of faith and love, which, essential as it is, men of this world do not even profess; that particular property, which is the life or energy of faith and love, the way in which faith and love, if genuine, show themselves . . .
. . . Year passes after year silently; Christ's coming is ever nearer than it was. O that, as He comes nearer earth, we may approach nearer heaven! O, my brethren, pray Him to give you the heart to seek Him in sincerity. Pray Him to make you in earnest. You have one work only, to bear your cross after Him. Resolve in His strength to do so. Resolve to be no longer beguiled by "shadows of religion," by words, or by disputings, or by notions, or by high professions, or by excuses, or by the world's promises or threats. Pray Him to give you what Scripture calls "an honest and good heart," or "a perfect heart," and, without waiting, begin at once to obey Him with the best heart you have. Any obedience is better than none,-any profession which is disjoined from obedience, is a mere pretence and deceit. Any religion which does not bring you nearer to God is of the world. You have to seek His face; obedience is the only way of seeking Him. All your duties are obediences. If you are to believe the truths He has revealed, to regulate yourselves by His precepts, to be frequent in His ordinances, to adhere to His Church and people, why is it, except because He has bid you? and to do what He bids is to obey Him, and to obey Him is to approach Him. Every act of obedience is an approach,-an approach to Him who is not far off, though He seems so, but close behind this visible screen of things which hides Him from us. He is behind this material framework; earth and sky are but a veil going between Him and us; the day will come when He will rend that veil, and show Himself to us. And then, according as we have waited for Him, will He recompense us. If we have forgotten Him, He will not know us; but "blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching ... He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants," [Luke xii. 37, 38.] May this be the portion of every one of us! It is hard to attain it; but it is woeful to fail. Life is short; death is certain; and the world to come is everlasting.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Loss
"Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them". -- Leo Tolstoy
Wow, loss is so hard! There are all sorts of loss...the loss through death, the loss of a friendship, relationship and also the loss of a dream. How hard it is to lose anything that the heart has invested anything in. I think that is the main reason why loss is so hard, the heart has lost it's investment..or has it? I think that is the illusion of loss. When I think of loss of think of the fact that if I hurt at all from it, it is only because I had put some sort of something in it. Whatever that may be--love, expectation, hope, etc. I guess for me I feel that no matter what I lose, I never really lose.
My experience with loss has been great. I have mostly seen people come and go into my life and have experienced a few deaths as well. What I found is that with every circumstance I feared going into the relationship or experience; the fear I had was, what if I don't get to keep what I have been given? What if all I hoped for is lost and I am left empty handed? On the flip side of that picture is this--what if at the end of each of these experiences and even during them, I have something to learn about myself? What if making this investment of time, love, energy, etc helps me to become less selfish? What if this person, place, situation, etc is the gateway to my happiness? what if it is the thing before "The Thing!"
The reality is that when I am in these situations I cannot, and sometimes even refuse to see, the above possibilities. Why? Because I am unwilling to trust that what God has for me is better than what I can see for myself in that very moment. What loss brings forth within us is suffering--suffering is contained in loss to draw us back to God. He uses everything to bring us back to Himself...He desires that we desire Him alone!
The image that comes to mind is a road-- The people you do meet along the way either get to walk with you or are your guide to the path that God longs for you to take. It reminds me of a staircase--each stair is important for the journey to be completed--but each stair must be left so that you can reach your goal. Sometimes we stop to sit down and rest, but each stair lifts us up and carries us further and further along the journey that we are called to walk in this life!!
Loss has never been easy for me. In fact I have fought a long hard battle with the Lord to keep everything that I receive from Him!! haha! Yet what he has taught me is that the people he sends me are gifts--whether they be family or friends! They are all there to serve a purpose in my life. Whether that purpose be for wounds to be healed or virtue to be built etc. Holding on to them would have prolonged all that God had to do in my life. He allows us these losses to show us what we are made of and what we need to work on in our hearts!
I was told one time people are in our lives for a reason, a season, or always! That is a hard truth right there! I think it is pretty cool that God does not tell you how long people will be there and what purpose they will serve. He does it so that we can trust him and that we can just enjoy the person in that moment and invest whatever the person or situation brings out of us. Whatever is brought out, is the blessing.
When people die what happens: families get brought together, people make peace with each other, people remember what a gift the people were in their lives and old wounds begin to soften--why? Because great loss is painful because it holds within it great love--and love can do nothing but soften, heal and bring peace and joy! With every loss he makes more room for himself and he allows for us a great capacity to love!
My greatest losses have always been my greatest blessings--he did not allow pain without a gift! He brought out of me, with every loss, more and more of me! When i look back at what I have lost in my life: friendships, relationships, jobs, dreams, expectations, etc...all of them brought me joy at some point but their leaving in my life only brought me to something better! Everyone of them have made me stronger and more and more of whom I am called to be. The loss always brought me back to the arms of Christ, who never leaves, never disappoints and who always has my best interest involved.
I know for me today loss is still hard and I go into a lot of situations thinking, well I wonder how long this will last? Then I think, well if anything I am going to enjoy it and see what God does have in store. I am going to love every person he gives me and see what kind of arrow they are in my journey! They may even be walking companions! All in all, I miss out when I don't enjoy the journey and all that comes with it.
Wow, loss is so hard! There are all sorts of loss...the loss through death, the loss of a friendship, relationship and also the loss of a dream. How hard it is to lose anything that the heart has invested anything in. I think that is the main reason why loss is so hard, the heart has lost it's investment..or has it? I think that is the illusion of loss. When I think of loss of think of the fact that if I hurt at all from it, it is only because I had put some sort of something in it. Whatever that may be--love, expectation, hope, etc. I guess for me I feel that no matter what I lose, I never really lose.
My experience with loss has been great. I have mostly seen people come and go into my life and have experienced a few deaths as well. What I found is that with every circumstance I feared going into the relationship or experience; the fear I had was, what if I don't get to keep what I have been given? What if all I hoped for is lost and I am left empty handed? On the flip side of that picture is this--what if at the end of each of these experiences and even during them, I have something to learn about myself? What if making this investment of time, love, energy, etc helps me to become less selfish? What if this person, place, situation, etc is the gateway to my happiness? what if it is the thing before "The Thing!"
The reality is that when I am in these situations I cannot, and sometimes even refuse to see, the above possibilities. Why? Because I am unwilling to trust that what God has for me is better than what I can see for myself in that very moment. What loss brings forth within us is suffering--suffering is contained in loss to draw us back to God. He uses everything to bring us back to Himself...He desires that we desire Him alone!
The image that comes to mind is a road-- The people you do meet along the way either get to walk with you or are your guide to the path that God longs for you to take. It reminds me of a staircase--each stair is important for the journey to be completed--but each stair must be left so that you can reach your goal. Sometimes we stop to sit down and rest, but each stair lifts us up and carries us further and further along the journey that we are called to walk in this life!!
Loss has never been easy for me. In fact I have fought a long hard battle with the Lord to keep everything that I receive from Him!! haha! Yet what he has taught me is that the people he sends me are gifts--whether they be family or friends! They are all there to serve a purpose in my life. Whether that purpose be for wounds to be healed or virtue to be built etc. Holding on to them would have prolonged all that God had to do in my life. He allows us these losses to show us what we are made of and what we need to work on in our hearts!
I was told one time people are in our lives for a reason, a season, or always! That is a hard truth right there! I think it is pretty cool that God does not tell you how long people will be there and what purpose they will serve. He does it so that we can trust him and that we can just enjoy the person in that moment and invest whatever the person or situation brings out of us. Whatever is brought out, is the blessing.
When people die what happens: families get brought together, people make peace with each other, people remember what a gift the people were in their lives and old wounds begin to soften--why? Because great loss is painful because it holds within it great love--and love can do nothing but soften, heal and bring peace and joy! With every loss he makes more room for himself and he allows for us a great capacity to love!
My greatest losses have always been my greatest blessings--he did not allow pain without a gift! He brought out of me, with every loss, more and more of me! When i look back at what I have lost in my life: friendships, relationships, jobs, dreams, expectations, etc...all of them brought me joy at some point but their leaving in my life only brought me to something better! Everyone of them have made me stronger and more and more of whom I am called to be. The loss always brought me back to the arms of Christ, who never leaves, never disappoints and who always has my best interest involved.
I know for me today loss is still hard and I go into a lot of situations thinking, well I wonder how long this will last? Then I think, well if anything I am going to enjoy it and see what God does have in store. I am going to love every person he gives me and see what kind of arrow they are in my journey! They may even be walking companions! All in all, I miss out when I don't enjoy the journey and all that comes with it.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Love Begins with a Dream
Taken from The World's First Love
by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
Every person carries within his heart a blueprint of the one he loves. What seems to be "love at first sight" is actually the fulfillment of desire, the realization of a dream. Plato, sensing this, said that all knowledge is a recollection from a previous existence. This is not true as he states it, but it is true if one understands it to mean that we already have an ideal in us, one that is made by our thinking, our habits, our experiences, and our desires. Otherwise, how would we know immediately, on seeing persons or things, that we loved them? Before meeting certain people we already have a pattern and mold of what we like and what we do not like; certain persons fit into that pattern, others do not.
When we hear music for the first time, we either like or dislike it. We judge it by the music we already have heard in our own hearts. Jittery minds, which cannot long repose in one object of thought or in continuity of an ideal, love music that is distracting, excited, and jittery. Calm minds like calm music: the heart has its own secret melody, and one day, when the score is played, the heart answers: "This is it." So it is with love. A tiny architect works inside the human heart drawing sketches of the ideal love from the people it sees, from the books it reads, from its hopes and daydreams, in the fond hope that the eye may one day see the ideal and the hand touch it. Life becomes satisfying the moment the dream is seen walking, and the person appears as the incarnation of all that one loved. The liking is instantaneous—because, actually, it was there waiting for a long time. Some go through life without ever meeting what they call their ideal. This could be very disappointing, if the ideal never really existed. But the absolute ideal of every heart does exist, and it is God. All human love is an initiation into the Eternal. Some find the Ideal in substance without passing through the shadow.
God, too, has within Himself blueprints of everything in the universe. As the architect has in his mind a plan of the house before the house is built, so God has in His Mind an archetypal idea of every flower, bird, tree, springtime, and melody. There never was a brush touched to canvas or a chisel to marble without some great pre-existing idea. So, too, every atom and every rose is a realization and concretion of an idea existing in the Mind of God from all eternity. All creatures below man correspond to the pattern God has in His Mind. A tree is truly a tree because it corresponds to God's idea of a tree. A rose is a rose because it is God's idea of a rose wrapped up in chemicals and tints and life. But it is not so with persons. God has to have two pictures of us: one is what we are, and the other is what we ought to be. He has the model, and He has the reality: the blueprint and the edifice, the score of the music and the way we play it. God has to have these two pictures because in each and every one of us there is some disproportion and want of conformity between the original plan and the way we have worked it out. The image is blurred; the print is faded. For one thing, our personality is not complete in time; we need a renewed body. Then, too, our sins diminish our personality; our evil acts daub the canvas the Master Hand designed. Like unhatched eggs, some of us refuse to be warmed by the Divine Love, which is so necessary for incubation to a higher level. We are in constant need of repairs; our free acts do not coincide with the law of our being; we fall short of all God wants us to be. St. Paul tells us that we were predestined, before the foundations of the world were laid, to become the sons of God. But some of us will not fulfill that hope.
There is, actually, only one person in all humanity of whom God has one picture and in whom there is a perfect conformity between what He wanted her to be and what she is, and that is His Own Mother. Most of us are a minus sign, in the sense that we do not fulfill the high hopes the Heavenly Father has for us. But Mary is the equal sign. The Ideal that God had of her, that she is, and in the flesh. The model and the copy are perfect; she is all that was foreseen, planned, and dreamed. The melody of her life is played just as it was written. Mary was thought, conceived, and planned as the equal sign between ideal and history, thought and reality, hope and realization.
That is why, through the centuries, Christian liturgy has applied to her the words of the Book of Proverbs. Because she is what God wanted us all to be, she speaks of herself as the Eternal blueprint in the Mind of God, the one whom God loved before she was a creature. She is even pictured as being with Him not only at creation but also before creation. She existed in the Divine Mind as an Eternal Thought before there were any mothers. She is the Mother of mothers—she is the world's first love.
"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything, from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old, before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived; neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung out; the mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established: before the hills I was brought forth. He had not yet made the earth, or the rivers, or the poles of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was present; when with a certain law and compass He enclosed the depths; when He established the sky above and poised the fountains of waters; when He compassed the sea with its bounds and set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits; when He balanced the foundations of the earth; I was with Him, forming all things, and was delighted every day, playing before Him at all times, playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men. Now, therefore, ye children, hear me: Blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me and that watcheth daily at my gates and waiteth at the posts of my doors. He that shall find me shall find life and shall have salvation from the Lord" (Prov 8:22-35).
But God not only thought of her in eternity; He also had her in mind at the beginning of time. In the beginning of history, when the human race fell through the solicitation of a woman, God spoke to the Devil and said, "I will establish a feud between thee and the woman, between thy offspring and hers; she is to crush thy head, while thou dost lie in wait at her heels" (Gen 3:15). God was saying that, if it was by a woman that man fell, it would be through a woman that God would be revenged. Whoever His Mother would be, she would certainly be blessed among women, and because God Himself chose her, He would see to it that all generations would call her blessed.
When God willed to become Man, He had to decide on the time of His coming, the country in which He would be born, the city in which He would be raised, the people, the race, the political and economic systems that would surround Him, the language He would speak, and the psychological attitudes with which He would come in contact as the Lord of History and the Savior of the World.
All these details would depend entirely on one factor: the woman who would be His Mother. To choose a mother is to choose a social position, a language, a city, an environment, a crisis, and a destiny.
His Mother was not like ours, whom we accepted as something historically fixed, which we could not change; He was born of a Mother whom He chose before He was born. It is the only instance in history where both the Son willed the Mother and the Mother willed the Son. And this is what the Creed means when it says "born of the Virgin Mary." She was called by God as Aaron was, and Our Lord was born not just of her flesh but also by her consent.
Before taking unto Himself a human nature, He consulted with the Woman, to ask her if she would give Him a man. The Manhood of Jesus was not stolen from humanity, as Prometheus stole fire from heaven; it was given as a gift.
The first man, Adam, was made from the slime of the earth. The first woman was made from a man in an ecstasy. The new Adam, Christ, comes from the new Eve, Mary, in an ecstasy of prayer and love of God and the fullness of freedom.
We should not be surprised that she is spoken of as a thought by God before the world was made. When Whistler painted the picture of his mother, did he not have the image of her in his mind before he ever gathered his colors on his palette? If you could have preexisted your mother (not artistically, but really), would you not have made her the most perfect woman that ever lived—one so beautiful she would have been the sweet envy of all women, and one so gentle and so merciful that all other mothers would have sought to imitate her virtues? Why, then, should we think that God would do otherwise? When Whistler was complimented on the portrait of his mother, he said, "You know how it is; one tries to make one's Mummy just as nice as he can." When God became Man, He too, I believe, would make His Mother as nice as He could—and that would make her a perfect Mother.
by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
Every person carries within his heart a blueprint of the one he loves. What seems to be "love at first sight" is actually the fulfillment of desire, the realization of a dream. Plato, sensing this, said that all knowledge is a recollection from a previous existence. This is not true as he states it, but it is true if one understands it to mean that we already have an ideal in us, one that is made by our thinking, our habits, our experiences, and our desires. Otherwise, how would we know immediately, on seeing persons or things, that we loved them? Before meeting certain people we already have a pattern and mold of what we like and what we do not like; certain persons fit into that pattern, others do not.
When we hear music for the first time, we either like or dislike it. We judge it by the music we already have heard in our own hearts. Jittery minds, which cannot long repose in one object of thought or in continuity of an ideal, love music that is distracting, excited, and jittery. Calm minds like calm music: the heart has its own secret melody, and one day, when the score is played, the heart answers: "This is it." So it is with love. A tiny architect works inside the human heart drawing sketches of the ideal love from the people it sees, from the books it reads, from its hopes and daydreams, in the fond hope that the eye may one day see the ideal and the hand touch it. Life becomes satisfying the moment the dream is seen walking, and the person appears as the incarnation of all that one loved. The liking is instantaneous—because, actually, it was there waiting for a long time. Some go through life without ever meeting what they call their ideal. This could be very disappointing, if the ideal never really existed. But the absolute ideal of every heart does exist, and it is God. All human love is an initiation into the Eternal. Some find the Ideal in substance without passing through the shadow.
God, too, has within Himself blueprints of everything in the universe. As the architect has in his mind a plan of the house before the house is built, so God has in His Mind an archetypal idea of every flower, bird, tree, springtime, and melody. There never was a brush touched to canvas or a chisel to marble without some great pre-existing idea. So, too, every atom and every rose is a realization and concretion of an idea existing in the Mind of God from all eternity. All creatures below man correspond to the pattern God has in His Mind. A tree is truly a tree because it corresponds to God's idea of a tree. A rose is a rose because it is God's idea of a rose wrapped up in chemicals and tints and life. But it is not so with persons. God has to have two pictures of us: one is what we are, and the other is what we ought to be. He has the model, and He has the reality: the blueprint and the edifice, the score of the music and the way we play it. God has to have these two pictures because in each and every one of us there is some disproportion and want of conformity between the original plan and the way we have worked it out. The image is blurred; the print is faded. For one thing, our personality is not complete in time; we need a renewed body. Then, too, our sins diminish our personality; our evil acts daub the canvas the Master Hand designed. Like unhatched eggs, some of us refuse to be warmed by the Divine Love, which is so necessary for incubation to a higher level. We are in constant need of repairs; our free acts do not coincide with the law of our being; we fall short of all God wants us to be. St. Paul tells us that we were predestined, before the foundations of the world were laid, to become the sons of God. But some of us will not fulfill that hope.
There is, actually, only one person in all humanity of whom God has one picture and in whom there is a perfect conformity between what He wanted her to be and what she is, and that is His Own Mother. Most of us are a minus sign, in the sense that we do not fulfill the high hopes the Heavenly Father has for us. But Mary is the equal sign. The Ideal that God had of her, that she is, and in the flesh. The model and the copy are perfect; she is all that was foreseen, planned, and dreamed. The melody of her life is played just as it was written. Mary was thought, conceived, and planned as the equal sign between ideal and history, thought and reality, hope and realization.
That is why, through the centuries, Christian liturgy has applied to her the words of the Book of Proverbs. Because she is what God wanted us all to be, she speaks of herself as the Eternal blueprint in the Mind of God, the one whom God loved before she was a creature. She is even pictured as being with Him not only at creation but also before creation. She existed in the Divine Mind as an Eternal Thought before there were any mothers. She is the Mother of mothers—she is the world's first love.
"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything, from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old, before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived; neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung out; the mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established: before the hills I was brought forth. He had not yet made the earth, or the rivers, or the poles of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was present; when with a certain law and compass He enclosed the depths; when He established the sky above and poised the fountains of waters; when He compassed the sea with its bounds and set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits; when He balanced the foundations of the earth; I was with Him, forming all things, and was delighted every day, playing before Him at all times, playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men. Now, therefore, ye children, hear me: Blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me and that watcheth daily at my gates and waiteth at the posts of my doors. He that shall find me shall find life and shall have salvation from the Lord" (Prov 8:22-35).
But God not only thought of her in eternity; He also had her in mind at the beginning of time. In the beginning of history, when the human race fell through the solicitation of a woman, God spoke to the Devil and said, "I will establish a feud between thee and the woman, between thy offspring and hers; she is to crush thy head, while thou dost lie in wait at her heels" (Gen 3:15). God was saying that, if it was by a woman that man fell, it would be through a woman that God would be revenged. Whoever His Mother would be, she would certainly be blessed among women, and because God Himself chose her, He would see to it that all generations would call her blessed.
When God willed to become Man, He had to decide on the time of His coming, the country in which He would be born, the city in which He would be raised, the people, the race, the political and economic systems that would surround Him, the language He would speak, and the psychological attitudes with which He would come in contact as the Lord of History and the Savior of the World.
All these details would depend entirely on one factor: the woman who would be His Mother. To choose a mother is to choose a social position, a language, a city, an environment, a crisis, and a destiny.
His Mother was not like ours, whom we accepted as something historically fixed, which we could not change; He was born of a Mother whom He chose before He was born. It is the only instance in history where both the Son willed the Mother and the Mother willed the Son. And this is what the Creed means when it says "born of the Virgin Mary." She was called by God as Aaron was, and Our Lord was born not just of her flesh but also by her consent.
Before taking unto Himself a human nature, He consulted with the Woman, to ask her if she would give Him a man. The Manhood of Jesus was not stolen from humanity, as Prometheus stole fire from heaven; it was given as a gift.
The first man, Adam, was made from the slime of the earth. The first woman was made from a man in an ecstasy. The new Adam, Christ, comes from the new Eve, Mary, in an ecstasy of prayer and love of God and the fullness of freedom.
We should not be surprised that she is spoken of as a thought by God before the world was made. When Whistler painted the picture of his mother, did he not have the image of her in his mind before he ever gathered his colors on his palette? If you could have preexisted your mother (not artistically, but really), would you not have made her the most perfect woman that ever lived—one so beautiful she would have been the sweet envy of all women, and one so gentle and so merciful that all other mothers would have sought to imitate her virtues? Why, then, should we think that God would do otherwise? When Whistler was complimented on the portrait of his mother, he said, "You know how it is; one tries to make one's Mummy just as nice as he can." When God became Man, He too, I believe, would make His Mother as nice as He could—and that would make her a perfect Mother.
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