The power of ONE

I like calendars where you can turn the page every month. There is something sort of a ritual as I turn one page to another and see the number one. It means a new beginning, a possibility to change, to get out of a rut. It is like God telling me "hey, enough with the self-pity and self-recrimination, see, I am making something new. I am renewing you".

Hope

The beginning of the year gives us hope that we can always start anew.
As I retire my old calendar and hang a new one, it is as if God is giving me the gift of a fresh start. It is not really a back-to-zero thing, because I believe that everything that happens to us, especially our most significant experiences, will always be a part of us. Just as the resurrection did not erase the marks of the Passion, our wounds will always be a part of us; but so do our joys and triumphs.
A new beginning is a call to forgive, to give thanks, to dance to life's melody.

God, thank you

As we end this year, let us look back at what was accomplished and discover in them God's footprints, His faithful presence. Let us thank God for the gift of persons whom we have met on our journey this year.
May each one of us give thanks to God for the lessons learned, for the strength to persevere during difficult moments, for the joy found in everyday life. With Mary, let us sing the Magnificat for the wondrous deeds God has accomplished in our lives, in our families, in our communities, in each sister, in our Provinces, in the Institute, in the world. A heart that loves always finds a reason to give thanks.
Let us welcome the New Year with trust and with eyes of stupor, believing that God makes things new every day, at every moment.

Happy rebirthday

Since 2010 I celebrate every 16th of October as my rebirthday.
Four years ago on this day I woke up in the morning with a great certainty in my heart that the time for weeping is over, that I have given due respect to my pain and from now on I can truly smile again.
God calls me. God has plans for me. God has a dream for me and that dream is to be unified in all the dimensions of my being. When I allow myself to fully enter into this adventure I will realize little by little that nothing happens by chance. No detail is insignificant. Even the darkest moments of my life have a place.
And everyday is a call and an invitation to this journey of transformation.
Happy rebirthday to me!!!

Changes

 

There are experiences in life that totally change us. The price to pay is higher when we think that up until that moment our life has been going well or was nearly perfect. So we resist change.
We ask ourselves so many "whys".
Why can't things stay forever the same?
Why did this happen to me?
Why is life unfair?
We may repeat these questions again and again. Well-meaning people may try to give us the answers. But in reality there are no easy and clear-cut answers.
It is then that we are called to just stay and live with the questions.
And when we reach the point of having even a little opening in our hearts to welcome the new, little by little we will realize that the "new" has something to offer us.
We may not arrive at the answers to our whys, but they won't matter anymore because something new has sprouted and is growing in our lives. We are at peace.

Never the same

Every person, at one time or another, goes through a "Humpty Dumpty" experience, when the world, as it is known, suddenly crashes and "all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again".
This experience normally catches one by surprise, though, as one looks back, there may have already been signs along the way.
When the Humpty Dumpty experience happens, the first reaction is to ask oneself: Where did I go wrong? What didn't I do right? Why did this happen to me?
Then follows the frantic attempt to re-create the lost world, to try to put back things as they were. But, somehow, one finds out that the pieces of the puzzle don't fit anymore. You suddenly get the insight that, no matter how hard you try, it won't work, that any attempt is futile.
But your heart is afraid to surrender because, after all, the old world, despite its imperfections, is the only world you know.
Then daily life becomes a battleground:
between resistance and abandonment;
between holding on and letting go;
between self-blame and compassion;
between resentment and gratitude;
between despair and moving on.
It will take time before one finally reaches a certain level of equilibrium, when you start to see life in a realistic way, but with hope.
And there will still be moments of uncertainty, but that is okay because they remind you that this life is not our permanent home.
Yes, you will heal, but you're never the same.

The Wine of our life

John's story of the wedding at Cana invites us to consider seriously whether we think that the master of the feast who gives the command: "Fill the jars with water" can make all things new in our own lives. One's hour comes -- the kairos moment itself -- at the intersection of frustrated plans and openness to the Divine. Cana teaches us that the Messiah of the world had to adjust his schedule when events took a surprising turn. The story of Jesus' coming-out event as told by John demonstrates his spiritual flexibility. How can our "cronos" time be transformed into "kairos" -- a real moment of breakthrough and hope, of promise and new possibility?

Today let us beg the Lord and his Mother to make us faithful stewards, ready to do whatever Jesus tells us and eager to share with others the wine he provides. When we listen to the Lord and do whatever he tells us, the ordinariness of our lives becomes extraordinary, the empty jugs of water become filled with new wine, our cronos moments are transformed into kairos moments, and we become the feast for one another.

(Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB)