For a Woman

Remember, Daughter of Eve
Do not forget, O Woman –
Many are the years that have passed upon the earth
Flowers faded, forests grown, mountains crumbled
And memories become like mist.
The stories told are often tales
Of darkness or even soulless gray,
But it was not always so.
And now the Light has dawned,
Life is come, the gift is giv’n.
The Morningstar rises,
Eden glimpsed again.

Who is this that rages now?
He with empty, burning gaze,
That dragon, mankind’s bitter foe.
He desires your ruin, the ruin of your soul.
O Daughter of Eve, keep your guard!
O Woman, with such wonder were you made!
Crowning beauty of God’s creation!
Though you fell into death’s dark grasp,
The weight of sin upon your soul –

Look! Your Savior comes!
Conqu’ring death itself, he storms the darkened keep
And wakes his Sleeping Beauty with a tender kiss.
And now you, O Princess,
You whose name is Precious One, Beloved,
Daughter of the King,
Remember!

Remember who you are.
Heed not the dragon’s lies.
Do not listen to his clever tales.
He will try to enchant you,
To put you under his spell of darkness,
To cause your soul to sleep
And slip away into death,
To forget the One who created you,
The One who claims you as his own,
To fill your eyes with deep shadows
That you might forget the light,
Or, still rememb’ring, to despair of seeing it again.
He does not want you to know, nor to understand
That you were created for life, for love
That God has endued you with beauty
Beauty that radiates from your soul –
You are a reflection of the glory of God.

Written 7/13/04 Rev. 10/27/04

Darkened Glimpse of Splendor

O Lord, who adorns the sky with galaxies
and fills the heavens with golden moon and stars,
"What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?"
The earth is yours, and everything in it;
nothing was made apart from you.
Truly, all of creation declares your glory
and the heavens sing your praise.
Yet neither the rising and setting of the sun
nor the waxing and waning of the moon
nor the glistening of the dew at dawn's first light
nor the gleaming jewels formed by winter's breath --
none of these reflections of your beauty can compare with the radiance of your glory;
they are but a darkened glimpse of your splendor.

O Mangum Mysterium

†
O great mystery of Love! I possess the one who possesses me.
I possess all, for I am possessed by the Blessed Trinity
†

Longing

The sight of the silver moon entranced my heart, inspiring thoughts of devotion. In my joy I almost failed to see that her beautiful light was but a dim reflection of the radiance of another. I sought the moon, but the moon showed me that her beauty was but a glimpse of a far greater glory. If I can rejoice in seeing her, how much more can I rejoice in the rising of the sun?

†

Psalm 27:4
One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple

Psalm 42:1-2
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?

Psalm 63:1
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

†

Little Flowers

I am just one of many little flowers which have sprung up from the seed of grace planted in the garden of God, watered by streams and showers of grace. In short, everything I am is pure grace. . .

May it please God that I might remain in the company of the other little flowers, and in the company of the little flower. . .

The grass withers, and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. Only those flowers planted firmly in the Word of God shall grow more bright and beautiful with the dawning of each new day. . .

Thérèse, pray for us.

Loving your sister

Based on an email I wrote to a friend:

In further explanation of my position, my firm belief is that, in the words of St. Thérèse, there is really only one vocation: to Love. The other vocations - priesthood, "religious life", marriage - are but temporary manifestations of that one vocation. They are temporary in the sense that they exist for this earthly life as an anticipation of the life that is to be revealed at the end of time.

"Treat. . . younger women as sisters, with absolute purity." In a way, if I am married to a woman, I need to keep in mind that above all, she is my sister in Christ. The bonds of marriage end with death, but she is my sister in Christ for eternity. I could phrase it in an analgous way to how I explained vocations above: marriage is a temporary manifestation of the call to love a particular woman as my sister in Christ.

So, in regards to any sister in Christ, the question is not whether or not to love her, but how does God want me to love her.

"Treat. . . younger women as sisters, with absolute purity." I must have a "passion for purity." By God's grace, I am to keep in the forefront of my mind that she is my sister, and that the goal is to see her fall more deeply in love with Jesus. True love must want what God wants, and the one who truly loves desires that the other should follow Jesus wherever he leads them.

And really, should that not be my goal with everyone I meet? May God help me to do so.

Prepare your minds for action

†

From the Gospel of Luke:

The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. (8:14-15. All Scripture references are NIV)

The parallel account in the Gospel of Mark talks about "the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things" (4:19).

Is that me? Is the Word of God in my life choked by my worries and the deceitfulness of wealth? Is the working of the Holy Spirit in my life inhibited because I am filled with desires for other things? Does this letter I wrote in 2004 apply to me?

Ah, my friend! How long it has been since I have enjoyed your presence! I have seen you passing by and I have heard your voice from across the way, but, I've been too busy to stop and talk. We do talk in the morning at work everyday, but that's just business talk. Its important for me to focus on the upcoming project, so I can't afford to really listen to you unless your telling me something that relates to my project. People think that we're the best of friends 'cause I talk about you a lot. Most of the time though I talk about you when I get in discussions with other people. It's easier for me to convince people when I can tell you that you agree with me, and that way, when they don't listen to me, I can pass it off and tell them that really they aren't listening to you.

Or can this describe me?

Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers. (Ps 1:1-3)†

Over the past few months I have grown increasingly irritated with myself. I can make St. Paul's words fully my own: "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." What have I been doing, that I keep falling in the same way to the same temptations?

As I have struggled with this, God has slowly been revealing to me what I think is the root cause of this problem:

Without him, I can do nothing. It really isn't an issue of trying harder, or praying more, or cutting bad influences out of my life, although those actions can be very helpful. But the actions themselves, as performed by me, are powerless. Satan didn't need MTV and the internet to fall from heaven. And he didn't have a lack of significant interaction with God. He just had to turn away from God.

This Lent began with a call: "Repent and believe." In a narrow sense, I ought to repent of specific sins, and I should believe in the truths contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition. But I think I need to respond to that call in a broader sense. "To repent" means to turn away, and in Scripture it means to turn away from sin and back to God. "To believe" is not just an intellectual assent to a set of propositions, but to say "Yes!" to Jesus and to all that he wills for me.

Repenting is not a wistful looking back over the shoulder towards God. No, it is a turning to God with my whole being, with all that I am. And believing happens when Jesus calls me to jump into the ocean of God's Love and I do it, even though I don't know how to swim. I just let go and entrust myself to him.

Why am I not experiencing the total freedom that Scripture speaks about? Probably because I am not totally repenting and believing! I'm not letting go of the worries of this life, and the desire for other things, so it shouldn't be surprising that the Word doesn't bear as much fruit as it might otherwise.

†

What is it about the worries of this life and the desire for other things that cause them to choke out the Word?

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:57-62)

We can replace their words with many others:

"Lord, first let me go and finish school."
"Lord, first let me go and get married."
"Lord, first let me go and find a good job."

And even with very small things:

"Lord, first let me go and finish my homework."
"Lord, first let me go and check on my team at ESPN.com."
"Lord, first let me go and. . ."

None of those things are bad, in and of themselves. But we clutter our minds with all sorts of minor and major preoccupations, and there's no room for the Word to take root in our hearts and grow and flourish.

†

That brings me to the title of this post. I'm starting to think that I have a far more worldly mind than I ever realized. Ready for action? The only action I seem to be prepared for is falling asleep in the moment of temptation, or flat out running into the arms of sin. My mind often feels sluggish, or as if in a cloud, and it becomes hard to remember the things of God. I often care far more about purely earthly, temporary things than those things which will last forever.

That's mediocrity, and I've been settling for it.

In the midst of realizing this last week, a Scripture verse came to mind:

The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. (1 Peter 4:7)

How does one be "clear minded"? I don't know exactly, but I don't think it's anything I can do to myself. I have to let the Holy Spirit do that. But first I need to recognize that I need him to do that, and then I need to ask him to do that. As if to point out that this is important for me to consider this right now, several other Scripture passages were brought to my attention:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the patter of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom 12:1-2)

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Col 3:1-2)

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Pet 1:13)

I decided that 1 Peter was so filled with good things for me right now that I was going to memorize it. I started working on it Sunday and I think I've made good progress. There was, however, a surprising (though it shouldn't have been so) effect to this Scripture memorization.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers. (Ps 1:2-3)

The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes. (Ps. 19:8)

In rehearsing the words of 1 Peter in my mind, I was in turn meditating on it, and in meditating on it, it was filling my mind — it was giving light to my eyes. In this state, I went to school this morning and was surprised: both at all the distractions I hadn't noticed very much before and at how much easier it was to deal with temptation.

I want to have the mind of Christ. I want to walk in the Spirit. I want to free to love with all my heart and not be burdened by sin. And just as he is holy, so I want to be holy.

Holy Spirit, fill my heart and my mind with your presence. Teach me how to pray. Teach me how to love. Make me holy.

†