I had been out to the pasture and seen these huge purple thistles abloom... I had yearned to get some pictures of them, but was on a mission to move a farmer husband. Well, I ended up in the pasture yesterday and was told to bring a book as I would be waiting out there for him to finish something... Yes, I brought a book, but also my camera. When he was out of sight I headed out to find my thistles - sprayed and bent over dead! I know that thistles are not good in the pasture, but they were so pretty and now... trying to get it from underneath, I ended up with this stark reminder that it's beauty was not appreciated on the farm, and the large purple bloom was a easy mark for the spray gun... the sky is pretty! I headed out for mass this morning at about 7a... at that time of day on a cool calm morning there are many people out walking and running for exercise, and I had a twinge of guilt. Then as I was walking up the steps to Church I thought that really in the scheme of things that getting myself up and to mass is doing my Spiritual exercises, and they are the most important thing for me in my life. Yes, I am probably rationalizing a bit, but it was great to start the day with mass... and then to have some quiet time in church with my rosary afterwards!
I did find some pretty purple flowers that must not be noxious in the pasture, and although they were blowing around in the wind - I captured them in motion. Back to Spiritual Exercise... I am in the process of reading a biography on Dorothy Day, which was handed to me a few days ago. I was not really reading anything right now so I am working my way through it. I really like to have some spiritually uplifting reading on hand, because TV was lame and I turned it off early last evening. Then I usually wander to the computer and make a short entry in my blog. Yes, we all know that I love to share a lot, but not all from my life! I love to have something to read about an inspirational saint or person from the Church. I went back and reread the chapter in the book, My Life with the Saints by James Martin SJ. I had heard of Dorothy Day but did not really know much about her, so it was great to get a taste in his chapter devoted to her...Just after getting my surprise picture of Hallel - I read this in his book yesterday.."My first intoduction to a saint is often through an image: a photo, a mosiac, a fresco. Sometimes these images, pregnant with meaning and symbolism, transcend anything I later read about the saint. I find this to be true especially with photographs. Something of the saint's situation is communicated by what she wears. Something of her soul is communicated in her face. And something of her message is communicated in her gaze." He wrote this about the first time he noticed Dorothy Day was photo on the cover of her book The Long Loneliness...."Here is how Dorothy Day seemed to me in the picture on that book; intelligent, resourceful, dedicated, hard working, straightforward, kind,holy. Everything I have read about her since I first saw that photo has only confirmed those initial impressions."
Today being the Solemnity of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus...I saw him beckoning me from his vigil in the gathering space.... I was alone in Church and ventured to capture some of the pictures that express for me the feelings of peace and the LIGHT of the new and gleaming tabernacle! I should say that it has been cleaned and polished and now is glowing forth in the darkness!
I am jumping around a bit today... I am back to Dorothy from the chapter in Fr Martin's book - about her conversion I was thrilled to read that "The Imitation of Christ" was very important to her as a woman pregnant with her first child and then looking for the Truth - This book was huge for me as a baby Catholic at the age of 21! "So for Dorothy Day, as for Thomas Merton, it was the large and mysterious Church, sure of itself and its place in the world, that satisfied her idealism and her desire for a new life with God." This thrills me too - as I have found my home here and Merton was one of the authors that filled me with wonder and awe in my early infancy as a Catholic. I recently read his life in a book, and it was a good reminder of our humaness and that God loves all of us without exception! "The Sacred Heart of Jesus is rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings without exception." CCC478
Aglow with the LIGHT and LIFE of Christ! Jesus, we thank and praise you for your LOVE for us that is without exception and without merit! We are weak and sinful and you forgive us and take us back again and again as the Prodigal Son was welcomed joyfully, with great celebration by his father! This amazing reminder of your boundless love in the face of anything that comes our way! "What will seperate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or peril, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or distress,or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, not angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to seperate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8: 37-39 Thank you,Lord, for this reminder that you are always with us - by our side, or carrying us when we are weak and down! May we follow with joy and hope and trust the path laid out before us carrying our Most Cherished Cross! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family on heaven and earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the Love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."
Ephesians 3: 8-12, 14-19
Jesus, we love you and praise you to the highest heavens! ... that it about as close to an Hallel psalm as we can get and it probably is in one!
Ruffled water in the pond in the pasture due to the wind! Today it would be like glass!
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