Once more thinking about "seeing"

After writing yesterday... I found myself outside on a windy day at the clothesline and burning the trash... I was led to think about how the wind is invisible and we know not where is starts or comes from... yet we can see it as it moves the clothes on the line, and the leaves in the trees, and the tall grass in the ditches, and the smoke from the fire.  Today is another gospel about sight... Zacchaeus is too short to see Jesus, so he climbs a tree, and that is where he encounters Jesus's personal call!  He is predestined to take the effort to rise above his human self, and mend his wrongs, and welcome Jesus into his home when Jesus tells him... "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay in your house."  Luke 19:1-10

Pat got tired of my saying how amazing the readings were the other night, but they are so wonderful that I want to share them today, and keep my personal sharing to less...
"Let us give thanks to the Father
for having made us worthy
 to share the lot of the saints
in light.

He rescued us
from the power of darkness
and brought us
into the kingdom of his beloved Son.
Through him we have redemption,
and forgiveness of our sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, (The winds of the Spirit came into an infant child... God took on flesh!)
the first-born of all creatures.
In him everything in heaven and on earth was created,
things visible and invisible.

All were created through him;
all were created for him.
He is before all else that is.
In him everything continues in being.

It is He who is the head of the body, the Church!
He who is the beginning,
 the first-born of the dead,
so that primacy may be his in everything.

It pleased God to make absolute fullness reside in him
and, by means of him, to reconcile everything in his person,
both on earth and in the heavens,
making peace through the blood of the cross." 
Canticle of Collossians 1:12-20  Was that not the best?  Our Salvation.... Jesus Christ Our Lord, King, Good Shepherd, Lamb slain for us...

One more beautiful scripture from ST Paul to the Ephesians..."You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.  Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.  Take no part in the fruitless work of darkness; rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is the light.  Therefore, it says:  'Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."  Ephesians 5:8-14  Remembering that the largest part of sight too is the LIGHT to see those things that are right before us.  Thinking of the beggar, whose eyes were given sight for the first time and when he saw... there was Christ right before him in the newfound light of the world!  Too amazing!  Don't you feel that way when we are led into new insight through scripture or the Spirit at work in us and those around us?   That He is there before us as our eyes are opened to "see?"

Listening to the sound the wind is making as it blows around the house and past the window... there is no doubt that it is a windy day today. Jesus, how we long to see you in all the ways that we are touched by the Truth.  When our eyes are opened, and you look up in the tree and call us down to welcome you into our homes... we know that you are gazing in our direction and we come face to face with YOU!  You ask us to not take our eyes from you, and how we long to continually follow after you and walk with you!  May we keep you in our homes and within our domestic church - our families may you have the place of honor... first above all else!  May we walk away from sin and selfishness as Zacchaeus did today... coming to you for unconditional forgiveness and laying all our burdens at your feet.  Thank you for the gift of your sacrament of reconcilliation and your words to us... "Go in Peace!  Your sins are forgiven, and sin no more."  WE are healed!  Jesus, we trust in you!  Amen and Halleluia!

Bless-bless, Barb

"Accept all things, whatsoever their cause, silently and with a tranquil mind, as coming to you from the fatherly hand of divine providence.

Free yourself, therefore, from all the impressions of earthly things, insofar as your state and profession require,so that with a purified mind and sincere affection you may cling to him to whom you have so often and so entirely vowed yourself.

Let nothing remain which could come between your soul and God, so that you may be able to pass surely and directly from the wounds of the sacred humanity to the brightness of the divinity." 

St Albert the Great (1280), thank you for these amazing words of wisdom, and please intercede for us on this your feastday!