Looking at the Litany of Humility this morning... the word calumniate just escaped me... looked it up... to utter false malicious statements about a person in other words - slander. I remember well when my mom sent me the litany and I read it for the first time! I had been dealing with a personal blow to my pride and it was a rough thing to accept. When I read it for the first time... I thought; "How can anyone pray this and actually ask for it in their heart?" I also mentioned to my daughter, Maria, that it seemed Humility was always the virtue being asked of us... her responce.... "I read that one of the saints is known to have said that there are three virtues we need to have... humility, humility and humility!" So true and so very hard! Blessed Theresa of Calcutta - The Missionaries of Charity pray this once a week in their community! They are about as humble as it gets and their lives are spent serving the poorest of the poor! Lord, give us the strength to ask for a humble spirit, and live closer to You as a result!
Today I slipped in for daily mass... as Pat headed out to get a new baby calf into the warming box and out of the -11 degree COLD! We are blessed with a wonderful GIFT this calving season with a surveillance camera that rotates back and forth and allows us to see the cows near calving right on our TV screen in the comfort of our family room. A few times a night we can wander out and sit on the couch and watch them undesturbed and see if any are calving or getting near to calving.... Pat loves the fact that they are not aware that we are watching them, because as soon as he would go out there they would stand up and get nervous to have someone turn on the light and walk around checking on them. "I would get them up, and couldn't get near as good a look at them and what is truly going on. Now they are relaxed and I can tell a lot better just what is going on." It is wonderful! The days of having to get up and dressed, and go out every few hours to check them during the night now is merely walking out by the warm woodstove and looking at the TV! He still has to go out during the night, but now knows that he has a reason to be going...How we are in love with modern technology around here! How we pray for warmer weather for our little babies however at the same time. We are in the midst of a cold cold spell right now!
Mass was a special gift today as we reflected on the story of Jonah... no not the whale part, but the part about how when he finally said "yes" to the job the Lord had for him... that he was used to bring the entire huge city of Ninevah to repentance and forgiveness! I am truly asking the Lord to help me do a better job with my fasting this Lent, and allow me to get myself under my spiritual thumb! I can and do on a regular basis become very indulgant with feeding me and giving me anything my little heart desires.... Lots of work needed here, Lord.
I sat after mass feeling the peace of the tabernacle drawing me to it... How I Love to sit in your presence precious loving Lord! I became aware of three men that were intent upon their devotions! It suddenly struck me how that is not what you would normally expect to find.... One was a young man... younger than me by a ways... kneeling and deeply involved in saying his rosary. Another closer to my age was gazing at the tabernacle with his book of devotions in his hand... A retired man had stood up and was starting to do the stations of the cross... walking around the church with a book of the stations following the journey that Christ made from being condemned to his death and burial... The movie...by Mel Gibson... The Passion of the Christ... is truly a live following of the Stations and we that have seen it will be forever changed by it! To remember how He suffered is so powerful, and so much a part of how we are called to penance during this wonderful yet hard Lenten season! Thank you loving Lord! Jesus we trust in You! Bless-bless, Barb
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