Examen Prayer
Jack and I had gone for a walk in Bois-de-Liesse. It was a clear, beautiful, sunshiny day. As we walked, the path was quite muddy at times, and we had to side-step puddles of mud, but we (in general) did not slow our pace. Then at one point we saw a woodpecker, with his head bright and fiery red, and another on the tree trunk just next to him. We stayed there watching them. So beautiful and peaceful.
The Lord said to me:
'Life can be messy, but as you walk and work together, it is also a very beautiful thing.'
And I felt Him telling me that we must accept these times together as a gift from Him, and not take each other for granted. These times are moments of Grace that He has given us.
(I pray for the Grace to truly appreciate these times as gift from God)
I can see that there is a thread of meaning to these examens lately: Jack and I, and that our times together are a gift from God.
Hallelujah! Amen.
May 30, 2012
I have been carrying a heavy cross. Too heavy.
A few mornings earlier, I had the thought: Do I need to go to the Accreditation Ceremony on May 24th? When I shared this with Jack, he encouraged me, and said that after these five years of taking courses at the Ignatian Centre, I needed to be there. I felt disheartened, but I did not have the energy to resist. I got ready and off we went.
Jack was driving, and as he drove, I prayed to the Lord, offering this cross to Him, truly giving it into His hands, and telling him that I could not bear to carry it any longer. I was on the verge of tears.
As we drove through the ribboned highways that are the Turcot Interchange, I remember looking off into the distance at the weaving bands of elevated highway - and having the sense of a great distance between myself and this concern - a difficult situation that I had been praying over in agony for so long.
As I continued to give it all into His hands, this sense of "distance" stayed with me, and the Lord spoke to my heart. He said to me that this is how I am to pray into this situation: as for a family that is outside of myself. 'You are not to live this situation. You are to pray for this family, as outside of yourself, just as you pray for so many others.' I felt a great sense of Peace come over me, that has remained with me.
The following morning, this burden that would come to me the moment I woke, was no longer with me...I had to work to remember the details of it, and even then they wouldn't come...
I have received a beautiful Grace from the Lord: I offered my cross to Jesus, and He has lifted it from me, and is carrying it Himself.
Thanks be to God for His immeasurable Love!
Thanks be to God for my husband Jack!
The gentle mastery of Christ
"Come to me, all you who are weary and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder your yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls! Yes, my yoke is easy, and my burden light."
Matthew 11:28-30
Loyola Press, a Jesuit Ministry - Finding God in All Things
The beauty of Bois-de-Liesse...
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