Across the Ocean

"The youth of today are not as superficial as some think. They want to know what life is really all about.”  -Pope Benedict XVI

I'm off to Europe for 2 weeks!  Poland first.  France second.  Spain third.

It promises to be an incredible journey.

I am excited to see my Polish "motherland."  I am half Polish by descent and grew up eating Polish food, hearing Polish phrases, getting Polish trinkets from my grandparents and being called "Katarzyna" by my grandmother.

Southern France is beautiful, or so everyone tells me.  I look forward to relishing the French countryside, and visiting Lourdes.

Going to Madrid will almost feel like going home.  I did live in the city for over three months and in that time became very comfortable and familiar with it.  It will, however, be a little bit different since nearly one million young people and the Pope will be there as well.  I say to my peers -- We're the hope.  We're the future.  But we're also the present.  So let's make it great.

"I have a sweet tooth for song and music. This is my Polish sin. "  -John Paul II

The Good Way

I really just want to share this passage with you.  It was recently sent to me by a friend, and it is too good not to share with the world.  Enjoy!

"Here is the priniciple: Not only must we be careful to want and desire good things for their own sake, but also to want and desire them in a way that is good. To be attentive not only to that which we want, but also to the way in which we want them. In effect, we frequently sin in this fashion: we want something which is good, and even very good, but we want it in a way that is bad. In order to understand, let us take one of the examples mentioned above. It is normal that the superior of a community should watch over the sanctity of those in his care. It’s an excellent thing and conforms to the will of God. But if this superior gets angry, irritated or loses his peace over the imperfections or the lack of fervor of his brothers, it is certainly not the Holy Spirit that is animating him. And we often have this tendency. Because the thing that we want is good, even seen as desired by God, we feel justified in wanting it with that much more impatience and displeasure if it is not realized. The more a thing seems good to us, the more we are agitated and preoccupied to realize it!

We should, therefore, as I have said, not only verify that the things we want are good in themselves, but also that the manner in which we want them, the disposition of heart in which we want them, are good. That is to say that our wanting must always be caring, peaceful, patient, detached, and abandoned to God. It should not be an impatient wanting, hurried, restless, irritated, etc. In the spiritual life it is often there that our attitude is defective. We are no longer among those who want bad things that are contrary to God. Instead, from now on we want only those things that are good, in conformity with the will of God. But, we want them in a manner that is still not “God’s way”, that is to say the way of the Holy Spirit, which is caring, peaceful and patient. We want them in a human way, tense, hurried and discouraged if we do not immediately achieve the desired goal.

All of the saints insist on telling us that we must moderate our desires, even the best of them, because, if we desire in the human way that we have described, that will trouble the soul, make it uneasy, destroy its peace and thereby disturb God’s actions in it and in others.

This applies to all things, even to our own sanctification. How many times do we lose our peace because we find that our sanctification is not progressing rapidly enough, that we still have too many faults? But this does nothing but delay things! Saint Francis de Sales goes so far as to say that “nothing retards progress in virtue so much as wanting to acquire it with too much haste!” But we will come back to this point at a later chapter.

To conclude, let us keep this is mind: As far as all our desires and our wishes are concerned, the sign that we are in accordance with truth, that our desire is in accord with the Holy Spirit, is not only that the thing desired is good, it is also that we are at peace. A desire that causes us to lose peace, even if the thing desired is excellent in itself, is not of God. It is necessary to want and desire, but in a free and detached way, in abandoning to God the realiziation of these desires, as He desires and when He wishes. To educated our own heart in this sense is of great importance for our spiritual progress. It is God Who converts us and causes us to grow, not our nervousness, our impetuosity and our impatience."

-Searching For and Maintaining Peace by Jacques Philippe

Love is Looking For You

"Maybe you're just jaded from some nobody's unforgotten words / Maybe you're just faded, a little gray from every time that you've been hurt / So you're lookin for your skin that you never did fit in / You can't hide when you're turned inside out / Love is looking for you now"  -Miranda Lambert

Love, sweet love.  I avoid writing about it because it sounds cliché and pouring out my heart on the Internet doesn't seem like the best decision for me, the men in my past, present and future, or future job opportunities.

Today, however, I was reminded of a great idea by a simple post on a friend's blog.  The entry stated: "The world would be a different place if every man knew that he has what it takes and every woman knew that she is worth it."

Truth, people!  Simple truth.  

It seems that so many men these days falter when it comes to taking simple action.  All it takes is a question: "Would you like to go on a date with me?"  (Please note that this does not mean Ruth's Chris or $100 symphony tickets.  It could delightfully mean a picnic or a free concert -- c'mon, we live in the Nash.)  Rejection is scary, I know.  But if you never, ever ask, you're never going to get rejected, sure, but you're also never going to get a date!  Take the risk.  The worst she can say is no, which means there is someone better.  The best she can say is yes and then you get to hang out with a super cool girl.  (Please also note I am speaking generally and not just about myself.  I'm not that vain.)

It also seems that women falter when it comes to evaluating their self-worth.  How many times have we asked ourselves, "Why is she with him?"  Or perhaps, on a more personal note, we've asked ourselves after breaking-up and cooling down, "What did I ever see in him?"  Women get caught up in flattery and often settle for attention when what they really want is companionship.  Deep down women want a true friend not just a lover.  But so many women don't think they're worth waiting for -- and I'm not just talking about sex.  I'm talking about finding the guy who really does complement you.  A guy who makes you laugh, holds the door, treats you with respect and dignity in conversation and in front of his friends.  A guy who wants you to meet his family, wants to listen to your dreams and wants to help you achieve them.  Women deserve that.

Two great Christian examples?  St. Joseph and Mary.  St. Joseph had to take an unwed pregnant woman as his wife and travel all over the place with her.  Talk about a challenge.  But did he ever rise to it!  St. Joseph buckled down and trusted in God that he had what it took to survive the pregnancy scandal, care for Mary and then care for Jesus too!  Courage, bravery, dedication, leadership, hard work -- Very manly qualities!  St. Joseph shows men that they can "have what it takes" in the face of adversity, no matter how big or small.  Mary was entrusted with bearing the Son of God.  Even though she probably asked herself, "Really, God chose me?" she responded in trust and confidence proclaiming that she was the handmaid of the Lord -- That God had made her worthy to accomplish His will.  So God makes all women beautiful and worthy to accomplish His will for their lives.

We've all been hurt, been "jaded" like Miranda Lambert sings, but we can rise above it.  Men -- You can step up and be true men.  You can not only ask a woman out on a date, but you can provide for her, you can protect her, you can be gentle and strong.  You can.  Women -- You're worth so much more than precious stones.  You have inherent dignity and beauty, and you deserve a man who will treat you as a daughter of God.  In return, you must remember to treat your man as a son of God.  Remind him often that he can do it!  And his actions and words should always say to you that you're worth it.

Sure, it involves risk, but what doesn't?  Doesn't that risk, that vulnerability, make it more worth it in the end?

Love is looking for each of us.  Most of us have an earthly companion -- husband or wife -- waiting for us.  But in the bigger scheme of things, Love -- God -- is forever looking for us, always searching for our hearts and drawing us closer to Himself.  Let's not forget that, for it is perhaps the biggest risk of all that we take -- Being vulnerable with God.  We're supposed to give everything -- not just a lot -- to Him.  And He will give everything back.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless -- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.” -CS Lewis

Ready, Set, Lent!

"We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."  -C.S. Lewis


It's that time of year again... people are filling up church pews to get their foreheads crossed with ashes.  That can only mean one thing: Lent 2011 has begun!  We are 46 days away from Easter, and people are twiddling their thumbs thinking, can I really stay away from sweets, meat, television, or Facebook for the next 46 days?  Can I?  Can I?


Well, hopefully we can all stay true to our Lenten promises (at least truer to them than to our New Year's resolutions) and appreciate the time to cleanse ourselves of some of our "favorite" distractions, obsessions and downright addictions.  I've given up Facebook.  I've removed the bookmark link from my browser page and disabled all email notifications.  Throughout today I've had to catch myself when trying to automatically click on the link after checking my email.  That's one HUGE distraction, obsession and addiction cut out for me.  The majority of my online time is spent on Facebook... but not for the next 46 days.  I hope when Facebook is available to me again, it won't be as big of a deal and I will be able to manage my time better.


I've included two good Lenten "reflections" below.  The first is a humorous video that gives you the "skinny" on fasting.  It's a parody, but can you find yourself thinking or saying some of the things in the video?  I definitely could... oops!  The second is an excerpt from C.S. Lewis' classic, The Great Divorce.  I encourage you to read the entire thing, even though it is long... it is very good.


"The Skinny on Fasting" by The Skit Guys

"The Red Lizard of Lust" from The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis  (The passage specifically talks about the sin of lust, but it is applicable to any "pet" sin, addiction or abused pleasure.)

The Great Divorce

I saw coming towards us a Ghost who carried something on his shoulder. Like all the Ghosts, he was unsubstantial, but they differed from one another as smokes differ. Some had been whitish; this one was dark and oily. What sat on his shoulder was a little red lizard, and it was twitching its tail like a whip and whispering things in his ear. As we caught sight of him he turned his head to the reptile with a snarl of impatience. "Shut up, I tell you!" he said. It wagged its tail and continued to whisper to him. He ceased snarling, and presently began to smile. Then be turned and started to limp westward, away from the mountains.

"Off so soon?" said a voice.

The speaker was more or less human in shape but larger than a man, and so bright that I could hardly look at him. His presence smote on my eyes and on my body too (for there was heat coming from him as well as light) like the morning sun at the beginning of a tyrannous summer day.

"Yes. I'm off," said the Ghost. "Thanks for all your hospitality. But it's no good, you see. I told this little chap," (here he indicated the lizard), "that he'd have to be quiet if he came -which he insisted on doing. Of course his stuff won't do here: I realise that. But he won't stop. I shall just have to go home."

'Would you like me to make him quiet?" said the flaming Spirit-an angel, as I now understood.

"Of course I would," said the Ghost.

"Then I will kill him," said the Angel, taking a step forward.

"Oh-ah-look out! You're burning me. Keep away," said the Ghost, retreating.

"Don't you want him killed?"

"You didn't say anything about killing him at first. I hardly meant to bother you with anything so drastic as that."

"It's the only way," said the Angel, whose burning hands were now very close to the lizard. "Shall I kill it?"

"Well, that's a further question. I'm quite open to consider it, but it's a new point, isn't it? I mean, for the moment I was only thinking about silencing it because up here-well, it's so damned embarrassing."

"May I kill it?"

"Well, there's time to discuss that later."

"There is no time. May I kill it?"

"Please, I never meant to be such a nuisance. Please-really-don't bother. Look! It's gone to sleep of its own accord. I'm sure it'll be all right now. Thanks ever so much."

"May I kill it?"

"Honestly, I don't think there's the slightest necessity for that. I'm sure I shall be able to keep it in order now. I think the gradual process would be far better than killing it."

"The gradual process is of no use at all."

"Don't you think so? Well, I'll think over what you've said very carefully. I honestly will. In fact I'd let you kill it now, but as a matter of fact I'm not feeling frightfully well to-day. It would be silly to do it now. I'd need to be in good health for the operation. Some other day, perhaps."

"There is no other day. All days are present now."

"Get back! You're burning me. How can I tell you to kill it? You'd kill me if you did."

"It is not so."

"Why, you're hurting me now."

"I never said it wouldn't hurt you. I said it wouldn't kill you."

"Oh, I know. You think I'm a coward. But it isn't that. Really it isn't. I say! Let me run back by tonight's bus and get an opinion from my own doctor. I'll come again the first moment I can."

"This moment contains all moments."

"Why are you torturing me? You are jeering at me. How can I let you tear me to pieces? If you wanted to help me, why didn't you kill the damned thing without asking me--before I knew? It would be all over by now if you had."

"I cannot kill it against your will. It is impossible. Have I your permission?"

The Angel's hands were almost closed on the Lizard, but not quite. Then the Lizard began chattering to the Ghost so loud that even I could hear what it was saying.

"Be careful," it said. "He can do what he says. He can kill me. One fatal word from you and he will! Then you'll be without me for ever and ever. It's not natural. How could you live? You'd be only a sort of ghost, not a real man as you are now. He doesn't understand. He's only a cold, bloodless abstract thing. It may be natural for him, but it isn't for us. Yes, yes. I know there are no real pleasures now, only dreams. But aren't they better than nothing? And I'll be so good. I admit I've sometimes gone too far in the past, but I promise I won't do it again. I'll give you nothing but really nice dreams--all sweet and fresh and almost innocent. You might say, quite innocent .... "

"Have I your permission?" said the Angel to the Ghost.

"I know it will kill me."

"It won't. But supposing it did?"

"You're right. It would be better to be dead than to live with this creature."

"Then I may?"

"Damn and blast you! Go on can't you? Get it over. Do what you like," bellowed the Ghost: but ended, whimpering, "God help me. God help me."

Next moment the Ghost gave a scream of agony such as I never heard on Earth. The Burning One closed his crimson grip on the reptile: twisted it, while it bit and writhed, and then flung it, broken backed, on the turf.

"Ow! That's done for me," gasped the Ghost, reeling backwards.

For a moment I could make out nothing distinctly. Then I saw, between me and the nearest bush, unmistakably solid but growing every moment solider, the upper arm and the shoulder of a man. Then, brighter still and stronger, the legs and hands. The neck and golden head materialised while I watched, and if my attention had not wavered I should have seen the actual completing of a man--an immense man, naked, not much smaller than the Angel. What distracted me was the fact that at the same moment something seemed to be happening to the Lizard. At first I thought the operation had failed. So far from dying, the creature was still struggling and even growing bigger as it struggled. And as it grew it changed. Its hinder parts grew rounder. The tail, still flickering, became a tail of hair that flickered between huge and glossy buttocks. Suddenly I started back, rubbing my eyes. What stood before me was the greatest stallion I have ever seen, silvery white but with mane and tail of gold. It was smooth and shining, rippled with swells of flesh and muscle, whinneying and stamping with its hoofs. At each stamp the land shook and the trees dindled.

The new-made man turned and clapped the new horse's neck. It nosed his bright body. Horse and master breathed each into the other's nostrils. The man turned from it, flung himself at the feet of the Burning One, and embraced them. When he rose I thought his face shone with tears, but it may have been only the liquid love and brightness (one cannot distinguish them in that country) which flowed from him. I had not long to think about it. In joyous haste the young man leaped upon the horse's back. Turning in his seat he waved a farewell, then nudged the stallion with his heels. They were off before I well knew what was happening. There was riding if you like! I came out as quickly as I could from among the bushes to follow them with my eyes; but already they were only like a shooting star far off on the green plain, and soon among the foothills of the mountains. Then, still like a star, I saw them winding up, scaling what seemed impossible steeps, and quicker every moment, till near the dim brow of the landscape, so high that I must strain my neck to see them, they vanished, bright themselves, into the rose-brightness of that everlasting morning.


"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."  -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

A New Thing

"Remember not the former things,
       nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
       now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
       and rivers in the desert."
-Isaiah 43:18-19

Beautiful poetry from Scripture.

This is one of my favorite passages (I even named my blog after it) because of its focus on renewal.  Every moment is new--every moment is an opportunity to begin again and again and again.

As Macbeth says, "What's done is done."

So, let's go forward.

Here is to another week!  May I live every minute of it.

Laughter

"For I saw that finny goblin
       Hidden in the abyss untrod;
And I knew there can be laughter
       On the secret face of God."
-G.K. Chesterton, "The Fish"

If there is one thing I love about those I am closest to, it is their fabulous senses of humor.  My friends and family are funny people.  They make me laugh, to the point of tears sometimes.  And how beautiful is a good, hearty laugh!  Afterward, I feel full.  There is a sense of completion that I think comes from experiencing an external expression of inward happiness.  Just letting it all out makes me feel full.  A paradox?  Yes, but don't paradoxes reveal so much truth?  Sharing inward happiness with others externally through laughter is a great gift.

There is someone who has a perfect sense of humor... God.  One of my friends and I constantly say, "God is funny!  All the time!"  If I look at how my crazy life somehow falls into place, I cannot help but think God is chuckling to Himself up in Heaven.  As G.K. Chesterton's poem, "The Fish," proposes, if we look at all the funny lookin' animals, how can we not believe in God's sense of humor?  Have you ever seen an axolotl?  That is one freaky fish...

If we look at the Bible, though, there are no instances of Jesus laughing.  The Gospels record the important miracles, the important sermons, the Passion and the Resurrection.  There are no quirky narratives.  One of my favorite scenes from The Passion of the Christ is a flashback showing Jesus and Mary teasing each other.  It's so human, so loving.  Why not record these instances in the Gospels?  Maybe because they were irrelevant to the big picture.  Or maybe...

"There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray.  There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation.  There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth." -G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Maybe because God's joy is so complete and perfect and big, it would have been too much for us to handle.  Maybe He simply enjoys weaving His humor into the subtleties of our lives.  Maybe it's a better adventure that way.

In any case, I am sure He loves hearing us laugh.