Spiritual Communion

"I believe, that You, O Jesus, are the most holy Sacrament. I love You and desire You. Come into my heart. I embrace You. Oh, never leave me. May the burning and most sweet power of your love, O Lord Jesus Christ, I beseech You, absorb my mind that I may die through love of Your love, who were graciously pleased to die through love of my love. 

(St. Francis) (Other versions available)

Between limited opportunities for daily mass and finishing reading The Imitation of Christ, I've been reminded of the Spiritual Communion prayer I memorized in high school. Our junior high religion class teacher taught us about Spiritual Communion, and a saint who, upon opening her cloak, showed red roses on one side and white roses on the other. One represented Holy Communions received in her life, the other, Spiritual Communions received in her life. The number was almost equal if not more Spiritual Communions.  I cannot remember who and have not been successful in searching out the name of this saint. Enlighten me if you will, please. 

This has always intrigued me. Now at a time when daily mass would cause me to neglect the responsibilities of my state of life, I am limited in the number of times I can receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord. However, this is also revived in me the idea and reception of Spiritual Communion. For this, I praise God. It gives me a greater strength than the days when I have neglected the opportunity or desire to receive our Lord in the Eucharist.

The Imitation of Christ Book 4:10.6

"When people are prevented legitimately from receiving Holy Communion, if they still keep their good and pious intention to do so, they will not be deprived of the blessings it brings them. Every devout person may make a spiritual Communion with our Lord - every day and every hour - without any prohibition, and will profit greatly from this."

What a beautiful gift! Aww-spiration. God love you. Mamma Mary keep you.

It's Not a New Idea

"They always present those finding as though they are new ideas."

This was the comment from the art teacher this evening. We were cleaning up after freshmen class concessions (Funny how the sponsors were the only ones still there. No students to be found.) He was referencing the book study some of the teachers are participating in in the school district, as I mentioned to him it was something I did today. Rather he was referencing the book we are reading: "A Whole New Mind". I admit that I've only read the first two chapters and am still kind of getting into it. Daniel Pink talks about right brain vs. left brain thinkers, or right brain directed or left brain directed thinkers. The synopsis so far, I understand, is that society is transitioning from L-directed dominant to a more holistic approach. We need both sides of our brain. Regardless, I'll let you know how the book ends up. 

I admit that I am a bit of a nerd. I counted last night. I am in the midst of reading eight or so different books at present. This does not include the numerous ones that have found their way back to my bookshelf with a prayer card bookmark somewhere in the middle. Or the textbooks I recap to stay ahead of my students in learning. I digress. Let's get back on track. 

I briefly logged onto facebook and found a link posted by a brother of mine, a brother in Christ. Naturally, I opened it up to read and here is where my thought process went. The article discusses the environment in which we celebrate mass, now-a-days.  The article opens up like this:

"I love chant. I love vaulted ceilings. I love stained glass and incense, ancient gestures and profoundly freighted silence. Beauty is more than decoration: It nourishes the soul."

In "A Whole New Mind," R-directed brains cater to emotion, design, and relationship (of knowledge and of people). The L-directed is geared towards logic and sequence. The R-directed is guiding humans into realizing that prosperity is liberating, though not fulfilling.  It is not a new idea. 

The Founding Fathers of the Catholic Church have known this for years; it is not a new idea. Granted this means of transmitting information and the way it is presented is new to me. This book is new to me. New ideas intrigue us. If we are willing, we can search more and find out about the sources and the past research and study of a topic. But often we settle for the what is presented to us by the work that others have done for us. We miss out on so much.

Tonight at mass (one of my rare occasions for such) celebrating the Chair of Peter, Father reminded us that only by God's grace, or God revealing truths to us are we capable of deep faith and understanding. There are some understandings that only come with grace. My thought at the end of his homily was perhaps we should pray that more people receive the grace to see beyond sola scriptura to the beauty and depth of scripture and Tradition, a "both/and" perception (thanks George Weigel). (I'm sure that's not a new idea either.) 

I no longer know where I am going with this. Perhaps the thought is complete and it is just too late for me to comprehend any more.

Next time you hear a seemingly new idea, challenge yourself to dive deeper and found out more. You might surprise yourself or just be surprised. Or talk with someone about it. They might know more than you, and enlighten you by saying, "They always present those finding as though they are new ideas."

Aww-spiration. God love you. 

Childlike Trust

Here is post I typed up two weeks ago, thinking I would add more to it. But I haven't. Thus I leave it with you in its simplicity. 
----------------------------
Peace of Christ be with you!  Happy Feast of the Presentation of the Lord!  I pray you receive much joy in Christ on this World Day of Consecrated Life.  Someone sent this quote to me today and I thought I would pass it on to you:

Someone who ponders everything only in the light of human logic

will never fully understand the mystery of suffering and of the Cross.

In the face of this mystery the attitude of childlike trust is essential.

Only when you adopt such an attitude before God will you become immune to the influence of Satan –

because he, in his temptations, exploits the way of thinking which is based only on human reasoning.

Only then will you stop analyzing so much.

God obviously wants you to be guided by reason – but by a reason that is illuminated by faith,

which will allow you to discover His will and fulfill it, even when His will for you is very difficult to accept.
--------------------------
So I might add a few thoughts. February 2nd this year was a snow day for several schools in the area. It is also my Consecration day, and the day Bishop Brungardt was ordained as Bishop of the Dodge City Diocese. Snow day. Right. I was not so fond of the five snow days we had in a few short weeks this spring. Selfishly, I will say they threw off my sleep schedule, and I never accomplished all that I hoped I would. However, each snow day provided me with some kind of blessing and reminded that I am not in control, God is. Let it be done unto me, according to your word. (Luke 1:38). 


On this day, I opted to travel the short drive to Hutchinson to catch the noon mass. However, both parish priests were out of town, assumingly for the Bishop's Ordination. I proceeded with stopping to pick up pliers for the ag shop as well as some wire, all the while beating myself up over whether or not I would still make it to mass that day. "Jackie, if you would have planned ahead and prepared for this, you wouldn't be in this predicament." I figured, if all else fails, I'll drive to Wichita and catch the 5:30 at St. Francis. 
It was a snow day. I planned to be in school. I hoped to catch the 6:30 mass at Holy Cross. (Priest not present)
Not in God's game plan. Thus after much over-analyzing of the situation, I ran to Jesus in Adoration at Holy Cross. (Praise God there is a perpetual adoration chapel not too far away.) This helped me to realize how much I was not trusting God, and under the influence of the evil one.
Upon returning back home, I got onto masstimes.org and called several parishes before finding one about 45 minutes away that had a 7:30 mass with confessions prior. (Confession is also part of the Consecration day).
God came through, as he always does. Aww-spiration!

Word I

Left by itself, the word "word" looks awfully strange. Each time I look at it again, I wonder if I spelled it correctly. None-the-less, how often do you consider the power or strength of words. A deeper question might be, if your words, your everyday language, were to become a person, a being, what would that person or being act, look, sound or be like? 

A few weeks ago, as I was in the midst of praying a Litany of the Holy Spirit, it crossed my mind, "Do I really mean these words that I am praying... reading... saying?" What do they mean? 

Words can be nouns - names of people, places or things. Words can be verbs, often indicating action of some sort. Words can be the pieces by which we hinge together ideas, feelings, emotion, and conversation. 

Many of us are familiar with the text of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. 

         "What's in a name? That which we call a rose
         By any other word would smell as sweet."

The language of word becomes more powerful in the following quote from the same literary work.

         "By a name
         I know not how to tell thee who I am.
         My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself
         Because it is an enemy to thee.
         Had I it written, I would tear the word."

This morning, as I was reading from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, I discovered the following enlightening explanation of Sacred Scripture (Article 3.I, numbers 101-104):

101

In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks to them in human words: "Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men."⁶³

102

Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely:⁶⁴ (emphasis-mine)

You recall that one and the same Word of God extends throughout Scripture, that it is one and the same Utterance that resounds in the mouths of all the sacred writers, since he who was in the beginning God with God has no need of separate syllables; for he is not subject to time.⁶⁵

103

For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body.⁶⁶ (emphasis-mine)

104

In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God."⁶⁷ "In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them."⁶⁸ 

Is that not powerful? Is that not a great explanation of Word? If you have not picked up the Catechism to further educate yourself about Catholicism, I would highly suggest it. You might find some incredible and aww-inspiring truths. Though, I admit that I myself have not done so until just recently. 

unPlanned

On this blizzard-y Tuesday evening, I just received a phone call from the principal that we will be having our third snow day in a row tomorrow. Hmm. What a change in plans from the week I was originally anticipating. Whatever you will, Lord. 

As I prayed a rosary and said evening prayer earlier, it dawned on me that yesterday and today have kind of been the weekend I did not have. For I spent Thursday-Sunday in Manhattan at the annual agricultural educators mid-winter symposium as well as performing bridesmaid tasks for a bridal shower and bachelor-ette party. It was several days outside of the normalcy that I have developed in this small town where I now teach. The lack of normalcy tended to put me a bit on edge, but also blessed me with numerous conversations and time with several beautiful daughters of God I am able to call my friends. A brief stop home and a trip to see Grandpa at the nursing home brought me back to my generally empty  yet somewhat homey apartment. 

Fortunately, I felt as though I used my time wisely, yesterday, walking to the post office, central office, and school. I managed to switch out the desk in my office and sort through all of the ideas that came from symposium, creating a to-do stack for the next time I return to school. Today was much different. While I started my day well, I soon found myself lying back in my bed for an extra three hours of sleep after having been awake for an hour. I really don't know where most of the day went. I'm assuming it was the promptings of God's grace for me to continue to read the book I began reading last night. My sister and I have a habit of exchanging good books we read, or just giving the other an extra copy. I acquire this book from Laura during the Manhattan weekend. I've read it in less than 24 hours - all 264 pages. Makes for a pretty good snow day. 

The name of the book: unPlanned by Abby Johnson. "The dramatic true story of a former Planned Parenthood leader's eye-opening journey across the life line." I'm always a sucker for hearing stories of how God is working in people's life. This story was no exception. In fact, I couldn't hardly put it down. And I didn't, until I had finished. 

Having only every attended one March for Life event in Topeka in January of 2010, the pro-life/pro-choice battle has never been something I've been keenly drawn to. I've never prayed outside of an abortion clinic, and have never traveled with the thousands who descend upon Washington, D.C. (a link to a friend's post about her experience) every January in hopes of revoking the Roe vs. Wade court case that made abortion legal in the United States in 1973. Even in attending the FOCUS Conference in 2010, I opted to attend a talk on fighting relativism rather than pro-life (it might even have been Abby Johnson giving the talk I passed up). Frankly, I see a larger battle than just the pro-life movement; a battle of love for human beings; a battle of good and evil, right and wrong, kindness and aggression. I'm not saying I won't ever stand on the front line of a March for Life. I'm not saying I don't pray for an end to abortion. I'm saying there is a deeper call to loving the whole person. To quote the book about the Coalition for Life: "They cared about each woman as a whole person - an eternal person - in the context of her family, her spiritual needs, her long-range physical and emotional health. They offered solutions that would enhance a woman's life over the long term." 

I'm realize that I face this battle of tough love with my students. I'm not there to solve situational crises with my students. I'm there to help them as whole persons - eternal persons. Pray, Lord, that I can be your instrument in their lives. 

I don't yet see why God called me to spend a majority of my day reading this book, or why this post has taken the direction it has. Perhaps He will shed more light on this topic in the coming days and weeks. Perhaps it is to grow me as a whole person - an eternal person. 

- Ever in aww of our awesome God.