For the newly engaged, newly married, still married and everybody else too!

Today, I stopped by a business I frequent from time to time. The two ladies who own and run the place often stop and chat with me. One was leaving, but the other asked me if I knew her husband had died recently. She told me how he’d suffered over the years; she spoke briefly about their life and about his last days. We even found out her late husband and my husband retired from the same police department.

This lady told me an older woman came in one day and told her, “At least your husband died loving you.” The older woman’s husband had left her years ago for another woman. Obviously it still hurt after all these years. When I heard that I told the lady who’d recently lost her husband how true the fact of having a loving marriage through it all was special. I told her one thing my own husband has taught me, through his actions and words, was to say “Thank you.” I have to say his example, even after twelve years, has opened my eyes to the need of sharing appreciation. She smiled and said her husband did the same thing. She said he told her thank you, and he said it often. I left with thankfulness again for the husband God has sent me.

When my husband and I married, our priest said sometimes the three most important words aren’t always, “I love you.” Sometimes the most important words are, “I need you.” We can be independent men or independent women, and sometimes it is hard to voice our needs. It can be difficult to share a new life with someone or old life for that matter. The key word is “share.” However, the key is to acknowledge the need for each other and to say those words of, “thank you.”

On the way home, I started to think about how this relates to Jesus as the Groom and the Church as His Bride. We know our need for Him and why we should continually be thankful. The question is how does Jesus need us? The answer is He doesn’t, but in love He gives us the ability to be needed by Him. He needs our hands, our feet, and our witness to His heart. He has shown His appreciation for us by sacrificing Himself and opening the door to eternal life with Him.

Like the groom for his bride, Jesus’ desire is for our gaze and heart to belong to Him alone. God has the ability to do whatever He chooses, but He gave us free will. Why would He do this? Maybe because He knows a forced love is not true. He could force us to love Him, and we would truly love Him, but it wouldn’t be freely given. By giving us free will, He knows when we come to Him through a relationship of discovery we will find we love Him the Creator of love. Though we may come through much pain, worry, sorrow and life’s troubles, we acknowledge the blessings of joy, friendship and love. No matter our lot in life we have reason to be thankful. The one physically wounded may still be thankful for a whole mind and spirit. The one spiritually wounded may still be thankful for a whole physical life….and the list goes on.

We finally arrive at a thankfulness of not only how God has fulfilled our needs, but even at times our wants. He delights in giving us the desires of our heart even unto the death of His Son. We stand before Him and say, “O Lord how we love you. We love you for being there through it all. We love you for not holding back even a small bit of yourself. We love you for teaching us the meaning of life, even though sometimes it hurt. We love you because you’ve shown us how to love. We are thankful for all you have given to us. We thank you for every breath we’ve ever taken, especially for the one of life you breathed into us. Lord we can never thank you and love you enough.” I envision His response to be one where He stands with open arms and says, “My love has forever existed for you, and my Heart has only ached for your love in return.” His wounds eternally present remind me how He has loved us and does love us. The Lamb slaughtered by our sinfulness bears the marks of a pure One willing to take on what He didn’t deserve. He knows His Bride is not spotless but He makes Her perfect. He presents us to His Father who sees us through eyes of pure love. Jesus not only does this because He loves us, but because He knows we need Him. This is where we should find the vision of love…unselfish and true love.

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Father, we thank you and love you for loving us into existence. Jesus, we thank you and love you for loving us to your death. Holy Spirit we thank you and love you for bringing the fire of your love to us.

We believe Lord, help our unbelief. Amen

Keep A Candle Lit for the Baby Jesus

Lately our readings have been on the travels of Joseph and Mary. One reading pointed out that Mary didn't have to go to Bethlehem, but Joseph did. Mary could have stayed in the comfort of home and family, but she didn't. This made me see again how Mary followed the will of God our Father. She ventured from what was familiar, safe and comfortable to bring Jesus to the world. She showed us there is no place Our Lord will not go to reach us!

The prayer on my mind lately has been for those far away from home this Christmas Season, and for those missing loved ones too. I received a letter from an old friend, and she had the following on her Christmas Letter: Please pray this season for the "military overseas/home and their families." Specifically for those families who will have a member missing from the table because their life was given for their country. A beautiful prayer and touching also because this friend lost her elderly mother recently. Here she is asking me to remember others rather than focusing on her loss.

One thing we can count on is change, but we can also count on Jesus to remain. Mary showed us no matter what the circumstances, no matter the uncharted territory we venture into, Jesus is there. He is never far away, and His heart is the home we can all share.

Keep a candle lit for the baby Jesus. Let us keep a soft place in our heart for Him to lay His head. Let us view the world through eyes first beholding a Savior's star, and let us grasp that wonder this Christmas Season! Amen

In Relation to Eternity ~ Carmelite Jubilee

This past weekend, my dad and I had the pleasure of attending the 50^th Jubilee of a dear woman named Sister Mary Joan. This Carmelite nun is Sister Mary of the Angels. No matter how much time passes before I see her, I always feel a kinship with her. Believe me I let “way” too much time pass.

Some of the descriptive words I’ve heard used for Sister are ~ precious, childlike, sweet and joyful. I have to agree with that description. There is no doubt she is a woman, but her sweet nature and faith reminds us Jesus calls us to be childlike so that we may enter into His Kingdom. Some people don’t understand the use of the term “childlike.” It doesn’t mean childish. It means a pure trust in God, seeing good in others, choosing to love, and finding joy in all creation.

At her reception I told her my Guardian Angel must have been whispering to me earlier that morning. On the way to pick up my dad, I was thinking of Mary and Martha. I thought about how Sister Mary Joan was like Mary, spending time with Jesus. As a Carmelite we think of her praying, reading, sacrificing and studying. Then I thought about how she was like Martha. She has her discipline which includes duties and service too. Every time we hear the story of Martha and Mary, it should cause us to think of our relationship with Christ. Myself, I’m lazy. I know I would be on the floor listening to Jesus while someone else busied about serving everyone else. I often wonder if Jesus is saying there is a time to serve and a time to listen. He didn’t chastise Martha. He just said Mary chose the best. Maybe focusing on Jesus causes everything else to fall into place.

Why did I think my Guardian Angel was whispering that day? The Gospel reading was on Martha and Mary which I believe was chosen by Sister. The priest remarked about the same thing with the contemplation of Mary and the service of Martha.

Finally I thought about our time here on earth as opposed to eternity. Here Sister Mary Joan has virtually given a lifetime to Our Lord. Her love for Him, her love for us, her service to Him and her service to us is a path that it seems few choose these days. Her example is one reminding us to take some time to be quiet and reflect. Her example is one reminding us to serve with love, however and whenever called. Thanks to God for Sister Mary Joan and the other Sisters at the Carmelite Monastery. Thank God for our brothers and sisters who have chose a life of religious service. I love you more than you can know, and I believe many others feel the same. We just fail to tell you or don’t tell you enough.

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Everyone please remember to pray for more vocations.

Do You Know About The Living Ark of The Covenant?

As I’ve stated before, one blog posting can lead to another. Recently I posted on the Nativity of Mary. In that post, I remarked about Mary’s participation in the redemption of man in relation to Eve’s participation in the fall of man. (Gen 3:15) This post is about the Ark of the Covenant. Mary is known as the living Ark of the Covenant. When I first learned of this, I remember being delighted.

The earliest prototype in the Old Testament is the Ark of Noah. Then there is the Ark of the Covenant made of the finest Gold which contained the Ten Commandments, some of the manna that fell from heaven for the Israelites wandering the desert and the staff of Aaron. So what does this prototype have to do with Mary? Well let’s take a look! Remember God had the Ark built to certain specifications and made of the purest gold. Here we have Mary made of the purest flesh. We find the Old Testament Ark carried the Ten Commandments; Mary carried Jesus the Word made flesh. The OT Ark carried the staff of Aaron (signifying his priestly position); Mary carried Jesus the High Priest. And the OT Ark carried a gold ciborium with the manna God provided in the desert. Mary carried Jesus the Eucharist, the Bread of Life.

When Mary arrived to visit her cousin, Elizabeth exclaimed, “Who am I that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43) We are reminded of when David says in 2 Samuel 6:9-10; “How can the Ark of the Lord come to me?” Also John the Baptist, leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary arrived (Luke 1:44). Remember David danced with joy in front of the Ark when it was brought to Jerusalem. But that is not all, The Ark stayed in the house of Obededom for three months, and God blessed the household of Obededom. Mary stayed with Elizabeth and Zacharias for three months, and brought blessing to their house.

And the final thought for this post is beautiful. The Holy of Holies was empty at the time of Christ and Mary. So the Ark of the OT was not there. How could the priests of the Temple know that the “presentation” of the child Mary in the Temple, was the entrance of the living Ark ~ the living Ark of the New Covenant?!

Our Lady carried Our Lord, and in obedience to God, from her arms she handed him over for the Salvation of the world. Today and always, she points us towards her Son, her Savior and ours.

She said YES ~ Yes she did! Happy Birthday Mary!!!

Today we celebrate the Nativity of Mary. When hearing the word “Nativity” we think of the birth of Jesus rather than Mary. I remember a time when I was worried about loving Mary. Was I giving her love due only to God? Our gentle Lord let me know there is a reason we cannot measure love. It is because love is infinite. There is more than enough to spread around.

There is this man I used to work with who told me God randomly picked Mary to be the Mother of Jesus. I’m sure he went on and on about it because he knew of my Catholicism. He basically said she was at the right place at the right time. Even then I found it humorous. I could picture God pointing His finger around saying, “maybe that one…no, I think that one.” I wasn’t able to dialogue with him way back when. But as time passed there is one thing I have learned about our Creator. He is ordered, He is a designer, and He would not leave the Mother of His Child to chance. Even humans (responsible ones) don’t randomly pick a person to form a family.

It was funny because as a youngster people told me Catholics, like me, had to pray to Mary to get to God. I didn’t quite understand it because I prayed to God every night. Did these people know something about Catholics I didn’t? Now I know they didn’t know much, if anything, about Catholics. Well as I grew in my faith God began to give me answers about Mary, sometimes from the questions of others. One such question came from another guy at work. He asked me, “Why did God make it so Jesus would come from Mary?” He clarified by asking, “Why did He come from a woman?” I can only guess he was wondering why God didn’t just show up. I thought of all the questions! I’d never heard that one, but I told him I’d try to find out. Shortly after that my dad handed me a book, and there was the answer. In the beginning woman (Eve) came from man (Adam), and through this man came sin. For our redemption God reversed this occurrence and Mary gave birth to Jesus. This time man came from woman, and through this God-Man, Jesus, comes salvation.

So here I began to see Mary’s role. When she said, “yes” to God, her place was fulfilled. She holds a unique position. She is the daughter of the Father, the spouse of the Holy Spirit, and the mother of the Son. She is not Deity, but she is intricately entwined with the Trinity. And from there she calls us to the Glory of God. She is forever pointing not to herself, but to Him! Where Eve participated in the fall of man, Mary participates in the redemption. Satan thought he’d won with the disobedience of Eve. Oh but he underestimated the obedience of Mary. But the serpent would soon learn this when God Himself said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed…”