"I have seen the Lord!"

The words of Mary Magdalene in today's Gospel reading, Jn 20:1-2, 11-18. I am copying the reading below, because, I chose this passage at my retreat in June as my ideal image of the Lord for this year. Jesus who is as close to us as our breath, who is there, even when we do not recognize Him. Our best teacher. The only One to Whom we should listen. When we do experience His true Presence, He knows we want to cling to Him, yet, as real Love does, He sends us forth to "preach" repentence and new life.

On the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
"They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don't know where they put him."

Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb

and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
She said to them, "They have taken my Lord,
and I don't know where they laid him."
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?"
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
"Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary!"
She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
"Rabbouni," which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her,
"Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them,
'I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,
"I have seen the Lord,"
and then reported what he told her.

Would that we had no guile!

I had a few quiet moments to read the Gospel and to take a quick virtual tour of St. Bartholomew's church in Rome (via the Catholic Culture webpage). Our faith is so heartening! Which is a good thing because we are slam-0-rama over here with academics hitting us like the ocean waves. All the movement is fun and we are, overall, enjoying working hard. Our Catholic hybrid school is just what the doctor ordered for a good balance for our family.

Later today, I hope to get some photos off Facebook of the family party we hosted last Thurs as a belated bday celebration for my hubby.

A poem I wrote...

My Weak Heart

Wanting God more than comfort,
Wanting what our Father in Heaven,
desires in us and
for us...

God's Plan involves our willingness
to completely and utterly deny ourselves,
to look away from what we are looking at
and look at Him, pleading with
Him to kindle the fire of
Divine Love in our pitiful, weak hearts.

Thank you for continuing to heal me, Lord!

Healing is seldom as straightforward as some would have it seem. Here is a lovely depiction of the thankful leper of today's Gospel. I am drawn to it because it expresses a grateful humility. I want to try harder to be more prayerful, quieter and more humble. I pay alot of lip service to redemptive suffering, and am living proof that it is hard to really, truly offer up our sufferings for the salvation of souls. These words of our Lord, from Luke 17, are medicine to our world-weary souls:

Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.

So lovely here...

The weather here is glorious. I just took our dogs out because a tree hit our fence in the back, and I cannot just open the back door as I so often do. As I sat for a moment out front, I thought how glad I am that my husband and I are aging. Growing old together is sweet stuff. I have a personal history of being very high maintanence. I think my husband would agree that I have melted into him and acquired some amount of his ideal, low-maintanence approach to life, especially things material. The house we are "building" up in Cumming is coming along. Jerry snapped this photo yesterday and sent it to me via email.

I would love to just write and write, because my heart is so full of delight. I really need to go organize some things for our week...okay, maybe just a little...the homily today at Mass was all about love being in every little thing. Because of the many good things said, I felt deeply how much our Lord loves us. I often feel so inadequate in my love for Him, so distracted and prone to fault. This holy, Vietnamese father expressed so simply that it is really not so much about our love for Him, which will consistently fail to be adequate. If we are so proud to think we love God well, we often lie to ourselves and to Him, who is perfect in His Love. I am not doing the homily justice, but it is something to which I have given alot of thought, since I was 33 when I made my first Confession and Eucharist.

Possibly unlike some "cradle Catholics," I am acutely aware of how bad life can be with so little access to sanctifying grace. As I heard Christopher West put it, a person gets used to "eating from the garbage dump" and garbage begins to taste good. This, of course, is a deception, and is the spiritual poverty for which so many Americans have fallen. When we signed the contract on the Cumming house in July, I begged our Lord and His Mother to help keep my natural inclination to comfort and luxury in check. Funny thing, marriage -- what grace flows from this Sacrament. My prayer is answered in my husband and his good common sense. All's I have to do is listen. Lord, help us hear your words of life: "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind..."

Mending the Nets

We had such a good day; we really settled in and enjoyed each other and our studies. The sun is setting here in Georgia; and, even after two cups of coffee and two cups of tea, I am tired and achy. The title of today's post is from this coming Sunday's Gospel, which I read aloud for everyone today after our Morning Offering and before reading the saint from the Pauline series. Jay did "Medievel Battle Math", and we put it in his notebook. Joy-Beth and I put her "BIRTHDAY" acrostic poem in one of her notebooks, she looked up words in the dictionary, she finished a Calculadders sheet. Maggie did K-12 and more science. JB and J and I had an interesting time learning about the French and Indian War. We are really trying to journey our way to the "War Between the States." The girls cleaned their rooms and little man cleaned the family room. We are on target for "Friday Floors". My way of "mending the nets" before going out for another "catch" tomorrow is to jot down some learning notes:

*shoot for reading the upcoming Sunday Gospel with the children every Wed. morning (Thurs or Fri would work)

*do more acrostic poetry and poetry copywork for our notebooks

*make Jay's family fun with Faith notebook

*beef up Joy-Beth's math

*talk to Maggie about tidal learning and encourage her to "swim" with us more in the high tide

*plan an American History tea party for some friends: red, white and blue plus President's Day

*don't forget Classical Music for Kids that I bought through Adoremus

*look in "A Continual Feast" and "A Year with God" for some Lenten inspiration

*do not overshedule our weeks (today's blessed quiet time -- and, all the learning that went on -- was the fruit of having less to do this past three days, not more)