Love School

"The truth is that we must pray for the strength to do what we are meant to do. We must pray for the courage to meet the challenges of life. We must pray for the endurance it will take to go on even when nothing changes. We must pray that the spirit of God is with us as we do what must be done, whether we succeed in the process or not."
Sr. Joan Chittister, "The Breath of the Soul" (as quoted in Give Us This Day)

I have long had a bug-a-boo about praying for specific outcomes. Maybe it was a lack of faith that made me leery of praying that "this" will happen, or "that," on Tuesday between the hours of four and six. I've never been good at it, really. I pray for people all the time, but just not that specific things will or won't happen. God only knows what would be best for that person, what outcome would be best in the long run, or in the Big Picture. What if my idea was not big enough or the outcome I desired would end up being harmful? I always like the example of Jesus' mother at the Wedding Feast at Cana.  She just identified her concern and left it at that. "They have no wine," she said. Then, presumably, she let go of the situation and let Jesus take it from there. (And we all know what HE did!) So especially now in these trying times, I like the idea of praying for strength to do what we are supposed to do. (And, God knows, I need really clear directions!) I think we all need to pray for courage and endurance and also the wisdom to learn from this valuable time. Despite the closing of all the schools, we ARE in school, folks. Think of it as being in Love School. How can we learn the lessons of love through a difficult time such as this? The Spirit of God is with us and the lessons are right in front of us. What are we learning at this Wisdom School? Blessings and love, heidi

Calm the storm!

"(Jesus) got into a boat and the disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so the boat was being swamped by waves; but Jesus was asleep. They came and woke him saying, 'Lord! Save us, we are perishing!'...
Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm..."
Matthew 8:23-25, 26

I watched a nice interview with Fr. James Martin, SJ in my newsfeed this morning. He was asked (from six feet away) what scripture can help us during this time of fear. He immediately said the calming of the storm Gospel. This is certainly a wild storm, isn't it? We all feel tossed about, hanging on for dear life as we swirl and bounce along in the boat. We wonder how in the world Jesus can sleep through this storm, right? But, as Fr. Martin suggests, we can wake Jesus up and ask him to calm our inner storms and fears. This is a major storm for all, but it can also be a fierce inner storm, deep within, and fear can grip us tightly. Let's read this passage from Matthew and spend some quiet time with Jesus in our own little boats. What storms within would we ask him to calm? Can he give us ideas of who we can help or how we can calm storms for others who may be suffering even worse? I'm thinking the food banks are being taxed to the max right now...could we send them a donation? Is there someone we can check up on? Goodness knows we have time now to spend quiet time with Jesus...what do we ask him? Love, heidi