Movements in the Journey

Reflecting on the past week of life, there is a lot that runs though my mind.

I journeyed to the Novitiate House last week for a workshop and to check out the place that will be home for Part 2 of the journey (which begins in August 2014).

I went with an open heart and mind.
I went excited and a bit anxious.
I went with questions and searching.

While I was there, I encounter a wide range of emotions and thoughts. Through them all I know that God is working in my life and opening me up to joys, challenges and hopes that will strengthen me.

There was great excitement in seeing the place and meeting the novices.
There was a sense of peace in understanding the routine and flow of the Friary.
There was joy in discovering others on the journey.   
It was awesome to meet 2 other Postulants my age and share stories and laughter. It was amazing to hear the amazing range of walks of life we come from: Broadway Dresser, Nuclear Scientist, Police Officer, Parish Minister, Environmental Engineer and Students. It was also amazing from where we come from: Vietnam, Iraq, Australia, Haiti, Singapore, USA and Canada and we range in age from 19 - 55.
There was energy around a group in formation and discernment.

Front Row: Novices, Middle and Back Row: Postulants from across North America

At one point in the week, when I had some time for myself, I just stopped and pondered, "what is going through you at this moment?" As I pondered that a few things crossed through my thoughts...
"can you do this?", "there will be some more changes in the journey", "there is hope and a desire", "I know I am called to this" "okay there is a little bit of fear!"

As I stop and look back at all these thoughts, I have processed them a bit more and as I have shared them in conversation with my guides, I continue to discover the journey will offer many twists and turns. In these twists and turns I remember Jesus said, "I am with you always until the end of time" and that allows me to journey on and open myself up to ongoing formation, discernment and endless hope.

I came back with my heart and mind still open.
I came back still excited and much less anxious.
I came back with more answers and less searching about the Novitiate House,
but a deeper searching of myself and how I must continually trust God's awesome
love and plan for me.

Life is about the movement of the Holy Spirit, falling deeper in love with Jesus Christ and having a life-long conversation with God. Religious life amplifies this and calls us to remind the Church what it is about: what it can be, longs to be and must be. Now that speaks to my heart and my desire to enter more deeply into the journey.

Please continue to pray for me and all the Postulants.

Love is in the Air?

How does a Postulant celebrate Valentine's Day?

Well I'm sure every Postulant celebrates it differently, as does every couple, single person, Friar, community and home.

Let me tell you how I celebrated the day.

My day began with prayer, where I held family and friends in prayer and gave thanks for the gift of their love. Then I went to Mass, where we celebrate the greatest love of all - the love of our God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

After Mass I helped to host a Valentine's Coffee Party for our regular Mass crowd. Fresh muffins, strawberries and chocolates. Thanks to my awesome nephews and nieces for the window clings that decorated the room nicely.

When the clean up was done I packed up and headed out with my Director. We headed out on a four hour hike around a lake and through a wooded area. Talk about God's awesome creation, talk about how God's love shines through in creation. It was a beautiful day, some rain, some cloud, some sun, and a great workout! It was awesome. We hiked, talked, listened, gave thanks and laughed. It was a great way to celebrate Valentine's Day in this year of formation.

 

 

The day ended with prayer, supper, enjoying some greetings from some very special kids and me very tired. What a blessed day.

I ask for your prayers this week in a very special way, as I will spend the week at the Novitiate House, in a workshop and checking out the next part of the journey. I'm looking forward to it.

Know of my prayers for you.

Love is...
In order to love simply, it is necessary to know how to show love. - F. Dostoyevsky

Kindness in words creates confidence; kindness in thinking creates profoundness;  kindness in feeling creates love. - L. Tzu

Love lights more fires than hate can extinguish. - E. Wheeler-Wilcox

Gold Silver & Bronze

The Winter Olympics have been something I have enjoyed since I have been 11 years old. The Calgary Winter Olympics took place in 1988 and as an 11 year old I was captivated by everything Olympics. I remember getting up early in the dark of winter to watch highlights and then watching them again when I returned home from school. There is something special about the Olympics that draws one in.  Over the years I have watched the Olympics and have been amazed and wowed over and over again. I have enjoyed Olympic parties, great conversations around the sports, I have been part of Olympic events (2010) and in fact I have even led a retreat with an Olympic theme. The good of the Olympics needs to be celebrated.

I know there are many people out there who are anti-Olympics and do not support them. Yes there is corruption within the IOC and yes there is way too much money spent on frivolous things, when that money could go to supporting the poor. We need to remember that the IOC and Olympic planners are human beings and that doesn’t make them perfect, it makes them like you and I: seekers, sinners, neighbors, Children of God; seeking to build the kingdom and let go of what leaves us in the dark.

I look to the good of the Olympics. The power of nations both large and small marching in and sitting together reminds us our cultural family. The beauty of art, cultural, history, creativity, and sport brought together showing forth God-given talents. The striving to be ones very best. The respect that is given and shown for each other, the pride in doing ones very best. The great stories of family support, of athletes reaching out to each other in times of crisis and celebrating the good in others. All these goods of the Olympics remind me of the Kingdom of God we are a part of are called to help shape and build.

May the golden moments remind us of the crown we will receive when we climb the podium to our heavenly home. May the silver moments remind us that we are on the right path. May the bronze moments remind us that we must continue to work at building the Kingdom. May all the excitement and joys, the challenges and hard-work, the disappoints and special moments truly remind us that God walks with us, trains with us, journeys with us and is with us always through this life time.

I may never wear a gold medal, but my name and all our names are golden in the heart of God. Now that is worth celebrating!

In honor of the Olympics some of my Top Lists: (none of these are in a particular order)

My Top 7 Favorite Feast Days:

1.       Epiphany  – have loved it since a child, one last hurrah and reminder of the gift of the Christ Child.

2.       St. Michael Day – pretty self-explanatory a great Saint, but I also celebrate my Grandpa’s B-day that day.

3.       Feast of the Presentation of the Lord – maybe it’s the candles, maybe it’s Simeon and Anna, maybe it’s because it’s about Tradition but I love it.

4.       St. Kateri, St. Brother Andre & Canadian Martyrs (technically these are 3 separate days but all equal to me) – some true Canadian Heroes with fascinating stories.

5.       St. Nicholas – the reminder to give and serve and share and the bonus little treats too!

6.       St. Anne & Joachim – Jesus had Grandparents – I love that! Let’s celebrate the goodness of Grandparents.

7.       St. Francis – when you are walking in this man’s footsteps he better make the top list, and I have been fascinated by him for a long time.

My Top 7 Canadian Winter Olympic Athletes I Would like to meet:

1.       Kurt Browning

2.       Alexandre Bilodeau

3.       Catriona Le May Doan

4.       Clara Hughes

5.       Scott Moir & Tessa Virtue

6.       Sandra Schmiler

7.       Scott Perras – oh wait I have – so cool to have a cousin who is an Olympic Athelete!

My Top 7 Winter Olympic Sports:

1.       Figure Skating

2.       Ski Jumping

3.       Curling

4.       Bobsled & Luge

5.       Aerial Freestyle Skiing

6.       Biathlon

7.       Short Track – Relay Speed Skating

My Top 7 Canadian Places I like to Visit or would Visit again:

1.       Home

2.       Newfoundland & Labrador

3.       Northern Canada – all 3 Territories

4.       Maritimes – all 3 provinces again

5.       St. Joseph’s Oratory

6.       Northern Saskatchewan

7.       Any place with a good deck to relax on in the summer or great fireplace and view in the winter

The Color Pages my nephews & nieces sent to me to color to celebrate! Go Canada Go!

Consecrated, Throats & Prayer: An Interesting Trio

Consecrated Life is another name for Religious Life and refers to nuns, monks, brothers, friars, sisters and priests who take the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and live in community with others (like Friars do). As I mentioned last week, February 2 is the annual date set aside to celebrate those who make these vows. We celebrated in a very simple but life giving way. Besides a large group of Sisters of Saint Anne joining us for Mass, we hosted prayer and supper for a group of sisters, and an Oblate priest. We gathered together for prayer, celebrating Jesus being presented in the temple (one of my top 5 favorite feasts) and then enjoyed a fantastic lasagna meal together. It was a privileged place to be to encounter great stories, and sharing and memories and hopes as this unique but connected group sat down at table together. It helped me to appreciate again the journey I am on and gave me hope the future.

Please continue to pray for sisters, brothers, monks, and religious priests and for vocations.

Throats are often blessed on February 3 – the Feast of Saint Blasé. The prayer that is used is: ‘through the intercession of Saint Blasé may you be freed from any ailment of the throat’. I have had my throat blessed before, it is a simple blessing, where 2 unlit candles that are crossed are held across your throat as the above prayer is said. It’s an intimate blessing and today to receive this blessing from my director, who is a great man of prayer was very powerful. He didn’t rush through the blessing with anyone, in fact he entered into prayer with each person who came forward. The presence of Christ was very evident. Another powerful moment was at the end of the blessing, he went to our Friar who is 98 and blessed his throat and then he knelt before him and had him bless his throat. Wow! Another moment that Christ was so very present. It truly showed what it means to be a humble servant.

Prayer is such a gift. I have begun a new course on ‘An Interfaith Journey: Exploring Prayer and Spirituality. It has been a very interesting start and the reading is quite fascinating. It is calling me to a deeper awareness of my prayer journey and how and where I encounter Christ. I love how our minds and hearts have heightened awareness of a topic that we are surrounded by it or study. A young friar whose blog I follow had this to say this week about prayer:

‘One friar in our house often says, "Prayer must always remain a priority. Like meals, school work, exercise, and fraternity time, it needs to be set in the schedule for thirty minutes each day so as to not be neglected." This is quite obvious and makes perfect sense: if time is set out during the day, no matter what, for something like exercise, shouldn't prayer be as well. But that's not the end of it: "And in times when you're busy, those times when you're overwhelmed and can't imagine how you're going to get through it all, make it an hour." How contradictory to the way most of us normally act! And yet, how true! What is it that's going to keep us going? What is it that nourishes us? What is it that gives us meaning and reminds us why? It is relationship with God. It is prayer.

There is always time for prayer. Always. I may be too busy to do everything I could ever dream of doing, but I know for sure that I am not too busy to pray.’

I value his insight on such a gift that frames my day and calls me to be more aware. Then I found the following by the priest Austin Fleming.

‘And that started me thinking about all the things
that all of us “show up” for every week, even every day.
We all show up:
to eat and drink
to sleep
to shower
to go to work or school
to go grocery shopping
to check our email
to read
to watch television
to exercise
to pay the bills
to text, FaceBook, Google, Tweet, Instagram and Snapchat
to call family and friends
for sports and games and dance class
for meetings of all kinds
to shop and run errands
and who knows how many other things we all “show up” for
every week and every day.

When will we begin to make more time to show up for God
every week and every day:
“Showing up” so that one day we might say with Simeon,
“Lord I’ve done my living: I’m ready to go…”
“Showing up” so that one day we, like Anna,
we might give praise and thanks to God and not be slow
to share our faith with family and friends as the greatest gift of all,
the love of God.

Whether we “show up” for the Lord or not,

he never fails to show up for us.
He showed up for us when it counted the most – and cost the most:
on the Cross, in his suffering, in the sacrifice he offered there.
And whether we show up on the Lord’s Day or not,
he never fails to show up for us,
to save us a seat and set a place for us at his table,
where he shows up, again and again for us,
in the Bread and Cup of Communion.’

 

That’s a lot to think about and I know I will be more aware that I need to ‘show up’, not just coast.

May the same be true for you.