"It is true there is an ebb and flow, but the sea remains the sea.’ You are the sea. Although I experience many ups and downs in my emotions and often feel great shifts and changes in my inner life, you remain the same."
Vincent Van Gogh
Grace turned outward is more a statement regarding the true nature of
grace than anything we do or put on - as if you could receive grace and
not give it out. Grace turned outward is part of the definition of
grace. It's a sign that one understands the work of grace in their own
life. Grace given is grace received. You can't have one without the
other.
You
don't go out and try to muster up enough grace to share with someone.
You merely extend what you have received. If you can't give it, you
probably didn't get it, at least you didn't recognize it as grace.
Again, turning grace outward is not something that is hard to do. It is
the natural outflow of truly understanding and receiving the grace being
extended to us by God.
God's
grace humbles us; it levels the playing field. We are all equally
undeserving. We are all equally needy. So that when we get it, grace
changes us.
Courage is connected with taking risks. Jumping the Grand Canyon on
a motorbike, coming over Niagara Falls in a barrel, or crossing the
ocean in a rowboat are called courageous acts because people risk their
lives by doing these things. But none of these daredevil acts comes from
the centre of our being. They all come from the desire to test our
physical limits and to become famous and popular.
Spiritual courage is something completely different. It is
following the deepest desires of our hearts at the risk of losing fame
and popularity. It asks of us the willingness to lose our temporal lives
in order to gain eternal life.
Words are important. Without them our actions lose meaning. And
without meaning we cannot live. Words can offer perspective, insight,
understanding, and vision. Words can bring consolation, comfort,
encouragement and hope. Words can take away fear, isolation, shame, and
guilt. Words can reconcile, unite, forgive, and heal. Words can bring
peace and joy, inner freedom and deep gratitude. Words, in short, can
carry love on their wings. A word of love can be the greatest act of
love. That is because when our words become flesh in our own lives and
the lives of others, we can change the world. Jesus is the word made flesh. In him speaking and acting were one.
Being
a father is difficult. You’re supposed to do everything: earn a good
living, fix everything that breaks around the house, help with homework,
have a close relationship with your kids… and still see mothers get
most of the props for parenting!
by Jeannette de Beauvoir
It’s
difficult to find the time to be the kind of father you’d like to be,
but there are things you can do to make it clearer, if not easier! Here
are five ways you can increase your interactions with your kids and
enrich both your lives:
Schedule dad-time. The things we make priorities
in our lives are the things that actually happen. We schedule meetings,
appointments, and visits with friends; so pull out that calendar now and
schedule dad-time… and make it a regular feature. The occasional
baseball game doesn’t cut it. Kids are most comfortable with predictable
events, so find a schedule and stick to it. You can change up how you spend the time—just make sure that it’s as important as everything else on your calendar.
Read all about it. Mothers seem to spend
a lot of time reading articles and books about being a good mother;
fathers seem often to believe they’ll get the knowledge they need by
osmosis. Wrong! There are some great online sites for fathers. Make a
commitment to enrich your parenting skills by reading something every
week.
Make every day Father’s Day. Yes,
Father’s Day is about celebrating you, and usually entails cards and
gifts and maybe a special meal together. But what it really celebrates
is a relationship. When you get up in the morning, every
morning, remind yourself that this is another precious day you can be a
father to somebody. That’s a tremendous gift in itself!
Don’t give advice, be advice.
Your children watch you, every day. They observe how you handle
challenges and crises. They look at your decision-making, your work
ethic, and your relationships. You are their first and primary
role-model, and so be sure you rise to the privilege. Live the kind of
life you want your kids to see. Make the sacraments a major part of your
life: go to Mass and reconciliation weekly, and there’s a better chance
that your kids will, too.
Listen, listen, listen. As parents, we
“know” what’s best for our kids, and we often don’t consider their point
of view. Even if ultimately you’re still going to say no to that party
or piercing, listen to your kids’ requests, desires, dreams. Don’t begin
interactions with a lecture. The more you listen to them, the more
they’ll listen to you.
Perhaps the most important thing to do as a father is to pray. You’re not in this alone, and you can’t do
it alone. You have monumental pressures on you, and you need to share
your burdens. Consider using Father’s Day as a time to start a novena to
St. Joseph… who knew all about the ins and outs of parenting!
You have the most important job in the world: preparing your children
to become adults that they—and you—can be proud of. Celebrate the
mysteries of fatherhood, embrace its joys, and ask for help when you
need it. Happy Father’s Day!
We learn compassion from allowing our
lives to be influenced by compassionate people, by seeing life from
their perspectives, and reconsidering our own values.
Born in Varennes, Canada, Marie
Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais had to interrupt her schooling at the
age of 12 to help her widowed mother. Eight years later
she married François d’Youville; they had six children, four of whom
died young. Despite the fact that her husband gambled, sold liquor
illegally to Native Americans, and treated her indifferently, she cared
for him compassionately until his death in 1730.
Even though she was caring for two
small children and running a store to help pay off her husband’s debts,
Marguerite still helped the poor. Once her children were grown, she and
several companions rescued a Quebec hospital that was in danger of
failing. She called her community the Institute of the Sisters of
Charity of Montreal; the people called them the “Grey Nuns” because of
the color of their habits. In time, a proverb arose among the poor
people of Montreal, “Go to the Grey Nuns; they never refuse to serve.”
In time, five other religious communities traced their roots to the Grey
Nuns.
The General Hospital in Montreal
became known as the Hôtel Dieu (House of God) and set a standard for
medical care and Christian compassion. When the hospital was destroyed
by fire in 1766, Mère Marguerite knelt in the ashes, led the Te Deum—a hymn to God’s providence in all circumstances—and
began the rebuilding process. She fought the attempts of government
officials to restrain her charity, and established the first foundling
home in North America.
Pope Saint John XXIII, who beatified
Mère Marguerite in 1959, called her the “Mother of Universal Charity.”
She was canonized in 1990. Her Liturgical Feast Day is October 16.
Reflection
Saints deal with plenty of
discouragement, plenty of reasons to say, “Life isn’t fair” and wonder
where God is in the rubble of their lives. We honor saints like
Marguerite because they show us that with God’s grace and our
cooperation, suffering can lead to compassion rather than bitterness.
“When the foundations of life are undermined, what can a righteous person do?” (Psalm 11:3 GW)
What
we believe
about the world around us shapes everything about our lives. I’ve shared
this with you many times in these devotionals. What you believe
determines
your behavior. Your behavior then determines what you become, and that
has a direct effect on the direction of your life.
The same is true of a country or the world. They are largely shaped by
the values we believe.
The problem is, we’ve bought into three very destructive philosophies
that have replaced truth in our lives.
1) Individualism: We buy into the lie that we’re the only standard for our lives. A few years back I read a Wall Street
Journal article that said 44 percent of executives consult first with themselves in an ethical crisis. That’s really nothing new. The
Israelites went through this in the book of Judges when the Bible says, “In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed
right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25 NLT). It didn’t work well then, and it doesn’t work well today.
2) Secularism: You can summarize this in three words: God is unnecessary.
In the past half-century, we’ve been
systematically removing God from all areas of our lives — from schools
to the government to the media. We’ve basically relegated God to Sunday
mornings, if we even consider him then.
3) Relativism: That’s when we’re told that there are no
absolutes — what’s true for you may not be true for me. It’s a
great way to live if you don’t want any guilt. If you don’t measure up
to God’s standard, you just change the standard. It’s both illogical
and irrational, but it’s highly prevalent in our world today.
Don’t be conned by individualism (love for yourself), secularism (God is
unnecessary), or relativism (there are no absolutes).
The consequences as a society and for us as individuals for falling for
these cons is staggering. Without a commitment to truth and a commitment
to
the authority of God, our culture is crumbling.
The
Spirit that Jesus gives us empowers us to speak. Often when we are
expected to speak in front of people who intimidate us, we are nervous
and self-conscious. But if we live in the Spirit, we don't have to worry
about what to say. We will find ourselves ready to speak when the need
is there. "When they take you before ... authorities, do not worry about
how to defend yourselves or what to say, because when the time comes,
the Holy Spirit will teach you what you should say" (Luke 12:11-12).
We waste much of our time in anxious preparation. Let's claim
the truth that the Spirit that Jesus gave us will speak in us and speak
convincingly.
