He Never Misses

Category: Lectio Divina

The words of God that struck a chord today for me.

  • The Snow Storm Birthday

    My backyard on March 24, 2013
    My backyard on March 24, 2013

    Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.  –Carl Sandberg

    Yesterday, we set a record here in Central Indiana.  According to WTHR, our NBC affiliate, it was the largest snowfall ever recorded in March.  As of this morning, there were 8 inches in my backyard and the snow continues to fall.  The previous record of 5.8 inches was set on March 1, 1912. March ONE.  For goodness sakes, God, it’s March 24!!  On this day, my birthday, I usually plant pansies in my front porch flower pots.  What is going on here?

    It seemed to me as the forecasters continued to issue their “Winter Storm Warning” in advance of Palm Sunday 2013 that this was just going to be an utterly depressing weekend.   I was thinking like my friend Lauren who posted on her Facebook page, “You know that phrase – I’ll see you when hell freezes over?  Snow at the end of March makes you wonder.  Just sayin”

    I’m absolutely with you, Lauren.   You make me laugh because I was thinking this is what the first week of spring is supposed to look like…..maybe in Juneau, Alaska?

    Ever an optimist and determined to enjoy myself anyway, I remembered this little golden nugget.

    “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  (Ps 118:24)

    Ok, God, I will try to love this snow covered birthday.  I will.

    Being a lover of all celebrations of life, and with childlike enthusiasm for my own as well, I jokingly issue annual reminders to all who will listen about the upcoming “festival of Shelly” when it comes around exactly one week after St. Patrick’s Day each spring.  If that seems a tad childish and disturbingly narcissistic, then you have a clear and accurate picture.  A gal has got to do what a gal has got to do.

    I’ll not defend myself so much as ask that you allow me to explain.  First of all, I have the most amazing parents (no, really, mine are the best) who taught me birthdays are just plain “the greatest”.   We have some fairly terrific birthday memories from over the years and NO MATTER WHAT Mom and Dad always find a way to get us together to celebrate every birthday in the family WITHOUT FAIL.  Always.  This exercise is compulsory.

    God used them to teach me something about the value of every life.   I believe a birthday is a gift– it is one day set aside each year to celebrate life.  If your life intersects with mine on a regular basis, eventually I will seek out the date of your birth, add it to my calendar, and when it’s your day,  I will try to make sure sun shines all over you.  Some of you will resist and you will lose your battle.  On my day, I love the chance to celebrate my fantastic life, filled with gratefulness, with those I love.  All of us have been given that great gift of life, all of us are made in God’s image, and all of us have lives worth thanking God for with a little gusto on our special day!

    Secondly, a gal sometimes has to advertise the birthday just to hedge against the possibility the CPA husband could lose track of her fabulousness during these ugliest days of tax season.  My friend Lisa would call this my “charmingly abrasive” side.  However, 80 and 90 hour work weeks are brutal.  My guy is pretty well trained now and I could probably back down the advertising campaign, but now it’s kind of a treasured ritual of our family life! Right, honey?

    Stay with me now as I circle back to the snow covered birthday of 2013.

    My fabulous husband suggested, in advance of the snow, that our immediate family go for dinner to open up the festival.  We did that on Saturday night.  I chose “The Ram” in Fishers because I am a mom with 3 boys and a husband who love March Madness and I knew we could enjoy our family time AND see the games.  I even got to overrule the watching of Tiger Woods on the golf channel “because it’s my birthday” and watching golf on TV makes removing old wallpaper seem like fun.  We giggled, ate onion rings, and then came home, watched more basketball.  Later, they brought me a scoop of ice cream with 2 candles on top and sang, “Happy Birthday”.  In short, it was awesome!

    When I opened my eyes the next morning, yesterday, the snow was already falling.  We made it to mass and the grocery store.  My crazy parents drove down here in the snow.  Mom and I went shopping for Easter dresses while the snow came down.  Dad taught the kids a new card game.  We had pizza for dinner, we ate my favorite homemade angel food cake, and then the greatest thing happened!!

    THERE WAS SO MUCH SNOW.

    There was so much snow in fact that the boys got to stay up late because school was cancelled.

    There was so much snow that their grandparents decided to spend the night.

    So, the party continued.  There was a long, loud card game won by Tom, a lesson on what exactly is “The Harlem Shake” for the grandparents, there was late night hot chocolate, NCAA basketball bracket updates, more giggling, and bacon and eggs this morning for breakfast followed by a game of euchre.

    “We know that all things work for good for those who love God- who are called according to his purpose.”  Romans 8:28

    Thanks to Tom, Nick, Drew, Zach, Mom and Dad for ringing in my 42nd birthday with me during the snow covered weekend.   It was fantastic.  I love you.  You all are the most amazing blessing.

    And God?  You just get me.  The snow storm birthday of 2013—nice.  THANKS.

    “Be happy in the moment, that’s enough.  Each moment is all we need, not more.”  Mother Teresa

  • On Pope Alarms, Adopted Cardinals and the Secret of Happiness

    Well, I’ve adopted my cardinal.  I’m following @PapalSmokeStack on Twitter, and I’ve signed up for the “Pope Alarm”.  I mean, it’s time to rock and roll on this whole matter of the conclave, right?  I mean no disrespect to the men in black (and red) when I say, “Let’s get ‘er done fellas!”

    My adopted Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Brazil
    My “adopted” Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Brazil

    I was with some Jesus gals this morning.  We took a few minutes to pray for our Holy Mother Church and the Cardinals in Rome now.  We all expressed our fervent hope that the Holy Spirit will be powerfully present.  We prayed that pride would be set aside and God’s choice would be made powerfully clear to the College of Cardinals by His grace.

    As history is made, it’s pretty exciting to be a witness.  My oldest, a 15-yr old, reminded me of this fact the morning that we heard about Pope Benedict’s resignation.  As we watched Matt Lauer interview Cardinal Dolan last month, my son recalled vividly being a 2nd grader during the last conclave and described in fairly impressive detail the exuberant reaction of his classmates when the new Pope Benedict stepped out onto the “loggia”.  He clearly felt that as a defining moment in his Catholic journey when he said, “I think I got it for the first time then that I am part of something really big.  Being Catholic I mean.”

    Still, as much as we have heard about the “papabile” the last few weeks, participated in prayer and guessed about who our new leader will be, ultimately, a large part of my internal thought process was in sync with a friend who wrote me today to say that it’s simply all in the hands of the “important people” or the “elite” of the Church.

    Then, moments later I heard the following.  It was written by Fr. Mattias Scheeban, a relatively obscure German theologian from the mid 1800s.  In this I heard God speaking to me.  I hope you will too.

    “The soul adorned with grace becomes a new reality, an ennobled tree which is always green, always in bloom, always bearing fruit.  If you knew yourself, Christian soul, how you would treasure and esteem yourself!  If you but knew yourself, O saintly soul lived and dwelt in by God…lovely paradise of your Creator, splendid tabernacle of the Holy Trinity…if you but knew yourself daughter of the Father, Sister of the son, (spouse) of the Holy Ghost, Associate and companion of the whole blessed Trinity!  If you only knew yourself, how highly you would prize yourself, not because of what you are (in and of) yourself, but because of the dignity that Grace brings to you!”

    Is not God reminding me through Fr. Scheeban of how highly God prizes each of us, hearing us and our prayers clearly even despite how invisible or sinful we may feel?  Are you and I impossibly unimportant in the big picture here?  Or, are we all terribly vital and equally valued and loved in the sight of God at this moment and always?

    Dig into the memory banks for a moment and remember with me a parable….. the tax collector who stood at a distance and would not even dare raise his eyes to heaven?  Perhaps you recall him too?  He’s the publican in Luke 18 who says “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”  Little and despised though he was in the eyes of men, God heard him and he was justified.

    Where am I going with all this? Though we may feel of little consequence, though we may feel invisible, our task is to become more like Mary, especially now during this important time for our Church universal.  A faithful soul that magnifies the Lord can ask anything and it will be given.   We have to know who we are in Christ.   If we pray often, give all the praise and honor to Him, He will continue to bless us and guide us on our journey to Him, serving Him in ways big and small– though we may not ever realize what He has accomplished through us—or what He plans still.

    So, as the dental hygienist worked on my teeth this afternoon,  I never dreamed we would be talking about the conclave.  She quizzed me about prayer as we chatted about THE smokestack and I confessed about my morning and my prayers and then she said,  “Can I ask you something?  How do you know what to do, what to say?  I just really feel weird about prayer.”   

     I said, “Don’t worry about how to do it.  Just be who you are.  Try to be patient with yourself. God knows you.  Just talk to him.  Just be you.”

    Then, I smiled and I dug in my purse to give her a copy of some terrific wisdom from Cardinal Mercier.  You may have seen this before, but it’s worth reading again and again.  One of the Jesus gals gave it to me this morning, and since I had seen it before, I almost said “thanks, anyway.”  I felt nudged to grab it, and I’m so pleased this time I listened. 

    PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

    I am going to reveal to you the secret of sanctity and happiness.  Every day for five minutes control your imagination and close your eyes to the things of sense and your ears to all the noises of the world, in order to enter into yourself.  Then, in the sanctity of your baptized soul (which is the temple of the Holy Spirit) speak to that Divine Spirit saying to Him:

    O, Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore You.  Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me.  Tell me what I should do….give me your orders.  I promise to submit myself to all that you desire of me and to accept all that You permit to happen to me.  Let me only know Your will.

    If you do this, your life will flow along happily, serenely, and full of consolation, even in  the midst of trials.  Grace will be proportioned to the trial, giving you the strength to carry it and you will arrive at the gate of Paradise, laden with merit.  This submission to the Holy Spirit is the secret of sanctity.  –Card. Mercier

    Note to self:  Silly woman, when someone offers you the secret of sanctity and happiness, take 2 copies.

  • Lent: A Little Morbid?

    LentYesterday, I was chatting it up with the CVS store clerk as I waited for the pharmacist.  I remarked about her truly cute haircut and bemoaned my own overly gray “situation”.  The sweet young gal said “Nobody will even notice your bad hair day because we are all thinking about your dirty forehead.”

    I began to giggle at her honesty and I said, “Ashes?”  She truly looked at me like I needed to put down the crack pipe.  It was then I explained, “It’s Ash Wednesday.  Today’s the start of Lent.  It’s a Catholic thing.”

    “Oh!”

    It wasn’t the most impressive evangelization effort, that’s for sure.

    We find ourselves in the midst of those 40 days which began with us each being literally marked as sinners.  To dust we shall return.   If that seems a wee bit morbid, well, I think that’s the point.

    Shouldn’t we be interiorly restless as it relates to the fundamental question of sin—especially as it speaks to eternity?  How likely are we to use our freedom to choose God if our minds are focused on the question of our own salvation?

    “Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.”  (Mt. 7:13)

    Yikes.

    Lent is an excellent time to reflect on the reality of our own mortality and ask to be filled plentifully with grace, loving Him enough to repent for sins large and small.

    Bishop Fulton Sheen said “Conscience tells us when we do wrong so we feel on the inside as if we have broken a bone.  The bone hurts because it is not where it ought to be.”

    In this increasingly secular world, it’s easy to forget about salvation and focus on what is of this earth, what is finite.  During Lent, the Church wisely suggests we take a pause from those things which cause us to drown out that voice of God within.

    I know what some of them are for me and what I am going to work on.  What about you?

    “Seek eagerly after love.  Set your hearts on spiritual gifts.”  (1 Cor 14:1)

    I move that we all embrace the austerities of Lent, find our way to a confessional, and pray for properly formed consciences, through which (with our cooperation) the Holy Spirit will encourage us after each mistake to turn towards our God and walk in His light once more.

    P.S.

    Oh, and don’t forget to use some of that prayer time to ask the Holy Spirit to be powerfully present for our Cardinals too as they choose our new Pope!

     

  • News Flash: God is NOT a Bully

    “Souls do not wish to be bullied, but gently brought back; such is the nature of man.”

     –St.  Francis de Sales

    After carpool dropoff this morning, I made a trek to Northside Radiology.  Being an expert, I had worn the sports bra and a pair of pants without a zipper.  All this would save time and a little naked humiliation I reasoned as I carefully chose my wardrobe this morning.  Once there, I shed all my gear that coulFinal-Analysis-poem-Anyway-mother-teresad possibly contain metal, and I found myself once again laying down on the X-ray table.  As I did the “breathe in…now hold it” routine, I was pondering about how long the doctor’s appointment would last because after that I needed to get to the lab to draw 2 blood samples today for the endocrinologist, Dr. Baker.  On my mind, too, were my in-laws and my own parents who have had more than their share of waiting rooms over the last year.  I wish things had been easier for them all.  It’s easy to take good health for granted.

    The X-ray tech waved goodbye, and within just a few minutes I was inside the office of my urologist, Dr. Dave Hollensbe.  The doc is a good Catholic guy and terrific at what he does.  He has a dry and sarcastic sense of humor.  Hollensbe strikes me as rather a smart ass, if I’m completely honest.  Since most the men in my family share that trait, I feel right at home with him.  I have gotten to know him better than many docs I’ve seen over the years because he’s performed 3 or 4 kidney stone procedures on me.   I have a special gift for churning out stones.  Try not to be too jealous.

    We chatted and he gave me some input and a question to ask the other specialist when I see her next week.   As we were finishing up the doctor said to me, “Are you okay?  You seem agitated.”

    The truth is I was agitated, and perhaps even a bit despondent.  However, I was really surprised to be called out.  I thought I was cloaking those feelings with cheerfulness pretty well.  Clearly I was not.   I could defend myself by giving you a few decent sounding reasons why I woke up on the wrong side of the pillow.  I will spare you.

    The truth is I should be living in joyful awareness of God–instead of dragging my cross behind me so everyone can choke on the dust.

    Mother Teresa said this, “When I see someone sad I always think, she is refusing something to Jesus.”  It was in giving Jesus whatever He asked that she found her deepest and lasting joy. She said, “Cheerfulness is a sign of a generous and mortified person who forgetting all things, even herself, tries to please God in all she does for souls…for God loves a cheerful giver.”

    I want to live in joy.  So rather than depending on something to change so that I can be joyful, I choose joy right now.  Greeting others warmly, speaking encouragement and affirmation, my own joy will increase as I share positivity and focus on positivity.  This is not new news.  Oftentimes, I simply forget.

    Have you ever read the book of Job?  I hadn’t until this week.  It’s worth a look if you aren’t familiar– or even if you are.  This poor guy’s life went from incredibly abundant to complete depravity nearly overnight.  He lost everyone and everything.  Knowing his own righteousness, he cried out to God in long pathetic speeches.  The Lord ultimately replied, “Will one who argues with the Almighty be corrected?  Let him who would instruct God give answer!”  The Lord seems to challenge Job to play God.  When Job realizes what he has done and to whom he has been railing, he says to God, “I have spoken but did not understand; things too marvelous for me, which I did not know…therefore I disown what I have said and repent in dust and ashes.”

    The message I hear is the one Mother Teresa shares which is:   God loves us and wants us to trust His will for us will always be an expression of that perfect love, however impossible it is for us to comprehend His marvelous designs.

    “Be glad in the Lord and rejoice.” (Ps 32:11).

    Thanks, God, for gently bringing me back to reality today through the good Doc.  I wasn’t giving the world my best this morning.

    I am issuing a challenge to myself and to anyone else out there who might feel called.  Do something today to share joy, INTENTIONALLY, with another.  It’s an act that really is also a prayer– something beautiful for God.  It’s really all between you and Him anyway.  Then, repeat tomorrow.

  • Yeah, Z…You’re Absolutely Right

    This weekend I went to a first reconciliation retreat with my youngest, which at our parish is the first step of sacramental preparation which culminates in receipt of the Eucharist next spring.  Although it’s not my first or even my second rodeo on this retreat, I knew still that it would be a unique experience, because Zach is my pistol.

    Allow me to digress for a moment and explain about the Z-man.

    My 2nd grade son has informed me that this will be the last year of his formal education.  He says he wants to go to school this year, because it’s first communion year and that is pretty cool, but he really knows everything he needs to know and so he thinks 3rd grade is a waste of time.

    When I suggested to him that his grandma, a teacher, thought he might want to “gut it out” for one more year, because multiplication comes in fairly handy, Zach replied, “Umm, iPhones have a calculator.”

    Good argument, I thought.  So, the follow up question I asked was about how he plans to spend all his free time.  His reply, “Well, I’m gonna race in the Tour de France.”

    This response mystified and disturbed Zach’s very bright and pragmatic cousin, Maddie, a 3rd grader.  As I explained the situation to her, she was immediately struck with the practical impossibilities.  First of all, Zach would need a race bike, which he doesn’t have, and additionally, he is way too young for the Tour de France.  Someone should alert him that he doesn’t have all the facts!

    I use this story to illustrate the rub we parents face.

    We know it’s our responsibility to impart to our children all sorts of important things.  For Zach, right now, my job is to help him understand God’s love and forgiveness is always available to us, and that receiving Jesus is the greatest gift God gives us.

    How can I possibly help my child grasp the enormity of all that when his creative and engaged little 8yr old mind has him quitting school after this year to ride a bike across France?   He can’t possibly understand these things which are so ethereal—can he?

    I decided I just have to let go and let God.

    Sunday at mass, Zach knelt next to me.  As Fr. Pat began his prayer of consecration, Zach waited anxiously for his brother, who was serving the mass, to ring the bell.  His eyes were on Nick like a hawk.  Then, he whispered to me, “Now’s when the miracle happens, right mom?”

    A wide smile came across my face.

    “Yeah, Z, you’re absolutely right.”

    “Mom?  How come I have to wait until April to make my first communion?  I think a lot of people don’t know Jesus is here right when consecration happens, but I do!”

    God’s grace rings the bell.  LET GOD.  Amen.  I do believe.

    O Sacred Banquet

    O Sacred banquet, in which Christ is received, the memory of His passion is renewed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.

  • You are Very Welcome!

    “I have stilled my soul, hushed it like a weaned child.  Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap, so is my soul within me.”  (Ps 131:2)

    I wish.  That sure sounds good, though.

    “Women’s Devotional” was the subject line of the email that contained this scripture passage, from my girlfriend, as I awoke to a gray day in Carmel, Indiana this morning.  Accompanying it there was a brief note that said, “Thanks for being my prayerful friend.”  It followed a lovely note from a second friend yesterday that struck me as ridiculously over the top in terms of gratefulness.  I quickly shot back, “Thanks are unnecessary.”  My instinctual response, interiorly, was one of rejection.  Oh, no, I haven’t done anything to warrant gratitude.  What’s wrong with these friends of mine?  I know they mean to be nice, but I just wish they wouldn’t.  There’s nothing special about me.”

    Then, knowing the priests of the diocese are on retreat this week and that I wouldn’t be attending mass this morning as normal, I looked up the readings for today.  It’s the feast of the Guardian Angels.  How sweet and sentimental, I thought.

    It wasn’t until I read the gospel that I woke up.  He called a child over, placed it in their midst and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven and whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.”  See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly father.” (Mt. 18)

    In the kingdom of God there exists complete, humble trust in the ways of the Lord.  That’s the path to holiness we are meant to notice this week.  First, there are the Archangels, then my beloved St. Therese of Lisieux with her “little way”, and then finally today the feast of the Guardian Angels.  They might seem all rather mild and sentimental, but I believe we are meant to realize that what they have to show us is at the heart of our faith tradition.

    In the eyes of the world, and yes, sometimes in even our own eyes, we are nothing.  Our contributions feel negligible.  But I realize this afternoon that whatever enhances life, whatever affirms goodness, is the Holy Spirit working in our world.  We are God’s children, and our every small act of love is a step on our path to Him.  We may feel small, in fact, we are….but the feasts of our Church these last few days remind me of Mother Teresa’s famous quote, “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”   We are not meant to deny the grace filled affirmation our friends bring to our lives any more than we are meant to loathe ourselves, denying His goodness and love in every small work done through us.  That line of thinking is arrogant, and lacks humility.  It’s false humility, and it is not of God.

    Fr. Robert Barron, the soon to be installed rector at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois, and creator of the amazing series “Catholicism” (which I recommend every Catholic see), has spoken periodically about the devil.  He eloquently explains that the devil tempts us, afflicts us, and wounds our world often indirectly.  He reminds us to check ourselves.  The Holy Spirit affirms someone in their personhood, says Fr. Barron, while the influence of the devil will wound us with untruth.

    Who have you wounded with untruth, gossip or insinuation?  Are you listening to archangels or fallen ones?

    The next time a friend says “Thanks, Shelly, you’re the bomb” I plan to change my response.  “Thanks aren’t necessary” will henceforth be amended to “You are so very welcome!”

    When I do that, it’s a prayer of thanksgiving to my love and my savior, for choosing to use me for His purpose, and for the grace that caused my “Yes, Lord!”

    This afternoon, I am praying gratefulness for the attitude adjustment and the peaceful spirit I seem to have acquired.   That’s weird.  Gratefulness to God brings me to calmer waters?  As my 8-yr old son would say, “WELL, DUH!”

    Somewhere in heaven there is a beautiful, but exhausted guardian angel assigned to me who deserves a nap.

    “I have stilled my soul, hushed it like a weaned child.  Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap, so is my soul within me.”  (Ps 131:2)

    Now, I’m off to make some turkey soup– small thing, great love.  Yum.

  • What’s in a Name?

    NULA.  It’s a name that stands on its own, her son eulogized this week.  Think “Cher” or “Beyonce”.  Her son, Joe, couldn’t have been more accurate in his description of his larger than life mother during her funeral mass Monday afternoon.  She lived her life with passion, where slackers need not apply.  Her battle with pancreatic cancer scarcely changed a thing.  She wouldn’t allow any child or grandchild of hers to get away with standing in the batter’s box watching strikes go by, and she went down swinging!

    Some people just have a way of making our lives sunnier, our hearts warmer.  They show up when the chips are down, or stop by with a diet coke, or make you laugh until your sides ache.  They just keep putting love out there.  They latch on to the affirmative.

    When Fr. Farrell gave the most beautiful funeral homily I have ever heard this week, that’s part of what he said made Nula such a genuine person.  But the most important thing he shared was a reminder.  He reminded the packed house at St. Pius X Catholic Church that God doesn’t want us to be the next St. Catherine of Siena, or Francis of Assisi.  He wants us to live our lives with zeal being authentically US, from start to finish, just like Nula did.

    Virtually every great accomplishment, program, or movement about which I have ever read or learned firsthand was started by someone who believed and lived passionately.  It’s painfully easy to decide one “cannot”.  It’s a simple path to nowhere living with a pocketful of excuses and the sense that we surely cannot acquire the capacity to do it.   Is there a single saint who spent their time glorifying God on this planet, on their path to canonization, preaching by word or example the idea of loving as moderately as possible?

    So, today, I am writing about loving my Catholic faith, again.  Writing about God doesn’t help me pay any bills.  It’s something I’d told myself I shouldn’t waste my time doing anymore.  I should be matching socks, or helping someone practice their spelling words, or making something slightly fancier than boiled noodles for dinner.  I am madly in love with my family, and I would like it to appear to them that these are not merely words.

    Here’s the thing.  I love writing and I love Jesus.  Those two things are my passions as well.   So, I acquired this crazy idea at Nula’s funeral that being Shelly, really living genuinely and passionately as the Shelly God means me to be, well, it means I am going to have to step confidently in the direction of passion.   I think I am just supposed to keep putting love out there, even though Blogging, and Twitter, and all social media seem incredibly narcissistic to me, and despite the fact that there seems to be no reason to believe my homemaking skills have any hope of improving.

    It’s all an effort at living who He created me to be, to the fullest extent I can endeavor to try, and with the help of His grace—that’s what He wants for all of us, and He Never Misses.

    Visit me at www.HeNeverMisses.wordpress.com or on Twitter at @shellythieme

    #PrayersforNula