Trust

I was with a friend yesterday and we talked about what she calls the "spirituality of trust". I think it is what I need especially when the difficult times become more frequent and much longer. Sometimes the scenario is just so overwhelming, options either too limited or totally absent, and change isn't so near the horizon, so hope becomes a little more difficult, or even impossible.

It is then that I am called to trust, that at this particular moment, with this particular experience of incapacity and of void, God is present.

Crossroads

so there's no need for turning back coz all roads lead to where we stand.

Part of growing up spiritually is learning to be grateful for all things, even our difficulties, disappointments, failures, humiliations. (from Minute meditations)

Life goes on

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on. (Robert Frost)

I am in a very reflective mood nowadays. I listen to old music and Barbra Streisand's voice echoes what is inside me "no matter how we try some good things never last". Yeah, why can't they last?

Two friends of mine end their emails with this quote: One of the reasons why people hold on to memories so tight is because memories are the only things that don’t change when everything else does …

In the Transfiguration narrative, the three apostles witnessed something extraordinary and they wanted it to stay forever. "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah", said Peter, James and John. If these three people had expressed it so, I guess it's normal to feel this way.

But change is the most constant thing in life. We are never the same person. Isn't there a saying that goes: you don't cross the same river twice. You change, the river changes.

Each day, each person, each experience is a gift. They are not to be hoarded. They are to be enjoyed, to be received as a gift, then to be let go. Yet, something of it remains with us: in our thoughts, our hearts, in the way we speak, in our gaze, in the way we see, in the gesture of our hands, in our gait. We are never the same person. Life goes on.

An imperfect life

Our world on earth, of course, is not perfect though we strive to do the right things. We make human mistakes which cannot be undone; they can only hope to be rectified at best. We must trust that the Lord understands our sincere intentions for good and forgives us when our feet stray from the path. When we have lived a meaningful, though not perfect life, we may go to our maker in joy.

(Beverly Elaine Eanes)

Joy

Today is my birthday. As is our usual practice, a prayer was offered for my intentions. The sisters thanked God for the gift of my life and for my simple and joyful presence. I was keeping myself from crying as the prayer was said. What an irony. Joy.

I am in a rough time right now that I find myself uttering this prayer several times a day: Lord, just let me get through this moment.

I do not ask God to take away the suffering, but just to give me a little respite or I will break.

Joy. What is joy, after all?

From death to life

Pain, joy, life are the recurring notes in this Easter tide. They unlock a scenario that, while not ignoring the harshness of certain moments, urges us to read into them by seeing them in the light of the Paschal Mystery. The final solution for the perennial battle between life and death is found on the cross. Here is the blossoming of a newness that touches every experience and transfigures it.
Sadness arises as we face the inevitability of death, but it is only so that life may explode. It is the necessary pains of childbirth that announce the coming of new life. It is the Easter event that returns in our today, in our suffering. Trying to stop the seed from rotting in the ground, trying to omit this phase in order to reap the mature grain without it, is foolish and detrimental. There is no birth that is not preceded by a lengthy time of waiting and by the pangs of childbirth. And there is no sunset that does not announce the triumph of a new sunrise.
Christian joy is rooted in this certainty. What’s more, it is precisely the joy that arises from hope which renders the announcement of the Resurrection credible and reaches a humanity resigned to a destiny of death. It is life. It is this triumph that Christ asks us to sing and to spread around us in joy, full joy, lasting joy.

(From Friends and Servants of the Word)

Still on Friendship

A true friend reaches for your hand and touches your heart.

The love of friendship is the highest form of love. It is arrived only through a deep and serious process of de-centralization and giving all without expecting anything in return. It is more than maternal and paternal love, because those are from a sense of duty and of responsibility for a small and fragile life. The love of friendship instead is an adult love where the gift is free from possessiveness, jealousy, pretensions, and vindications. It is when self-oblation and humble and silent freedom are expressed in a thousand daily gestures.The love of friendship introduces us in the mystical experience of the other! It becomes empathy, intuition, silent and discreet presence and a gratuitous gift. This is God’s life in us! (From Friends and Servants of the Word)