Quite A Journey

In the bookstore, I was checking in some women who were about to share a room.  On one of our maps of the grounds here, I had circled their room to help them find it.  

They were standing in front of the counter in the bookstore.  Behind the counter, I took out the map, but I was covering their room when I showed the map to them.  

"Now," I remarked in a serious tone, the expression on my face falling, "you've got quite a journey ahead of you to get to your room, but I'm sure that if you pay close attention, you won't get lost."  Still covering their room on the map, I pointed to the store, noting, "We're here.  Go out the front door of the store," then, moving my finger, I continued, "Go two doors to the left, and you'll be at your room."  

Realizing how much less complicated it was than I had led them to believe, they burst out laughing.  Glad that my gag had gone so over so well, I started laughing too.  "Thanks," I explained, "I'll be here all week."  

Thank God Constantly For The Love God Shows Us Through Our Faith

Abundance flows in all our steps.  Thank God in all circumstances,* since God's blessings endlessly proliferate.  

On Thanksgiving Day, in his homily Father Cyprian noted that we can be thankful in various ways.  We can be grateful that worse circumstances have not befallen us.  Right now, thanks be to God that the coronavirus is before us and not anything more devastating, nor an additional, much more threatening challenge; this spiritual dynamic is easy to perceive here at the hermitage, given how, thanks be to God, no one here was injured during the recent wildfire, nor how any structures were damaged in that fire which erupted in the midst of the coronavirus.  

In his homily, Father Cyprian also noted that in a much more profound sense we can thank God for the spiritual blessings He bestows on us.  Thanks be to God that He gives us faith in Him.  Through this faith, God strengthens us in the hope we have in His promise of what is to come.  God motivates us through this faith to love Him** and to love one another.***  Having faith, we are empowered by God to open our hearts to receive His love He pours into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.****

As we open our hearts to God, we are grateful to God that our hearts are open.  Although current circumstances may feel challenging, thank God for what is happening right now.  Often we are not able to see the good that God is working through all that is happening right now, the good that He works for all who love Him.*****  Trust is an indispensable bulwark to going forward in faith in God.  

What do we think is happening right now?  There is what is happening that we cannot see.  There is what we do, in which we can make seen the unseen.  In our choices, we can be the pathways through which God makes manifest that which could not be seen, yet which can be seen if we consent to cooperate.  If we embrace the faith God has given us, God makes His love manifest through us, and thus we give constant thanks to God.  

* 1 Thessalonians 5:18 

** Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 

*** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

**** Romans 5:5 

***** Romans 8:28 

In All Things God Loves Us, So Give Thanks

We can always be receiving, if our hearts are open to love.  If we open our hearts, we can see the love being extended to us.  

A woman came into the bookstore this month.  She helps to see the light.  She noted if the coronavirus hadn't forced us into lockdown, she and her husband would not have been around their daughter to notice her mental health struggles.  With the virus come what seem like restrictions.  Maybe they are more like guideposts and life preservers.  

This woman has been guided into gratitude.  She is grateful for the additional time with her husband and her daughter.  She is even more thankful that this additional time has led her and her husband to help their daughter, perhaps averting a tragedy.  

Give thanks for a virus, for a fire, and for all things.*  Perhaps some people find it difficult to always thank God for all God sends us.  Sometimes we will see benefits God is giving us.  Sometimes we will not see how, if we but love God, God is working a virus, a fire, and all for our good.**  

God is always giving to us, since God is love.***  If we truly believe God is love, we will thank God for all things.  

* 1 Thessalonians 5:18 

** Romans 8:28 

*** 1 John 4:8,16

Enjoying The Lyrid Meteor Shower Under Humbling Monastic Skies

Last night the Lyrid meteor shower was expected to peak around 10:30 p.m.  A little after 10 p.m., I headed out of my cell to see if I could spot any shooting stars.  As I was closing the gate to the garden of my cell, I looked up and saw a meteor streaking across the sky.  Given the narrow bit of sky that's in range of sight from that path between the rows of monastic cells, I figured something like, "Wow, if I saw one right away, in that small bit of sky, maybe there are a lot of them."  

I continued and went off the path, and in the direction of the driveway.  After a couple hundred feet, I stopped and looked up.  The sky was quite clear.  As I was standing there facing the firmament, I considered that we're tiny human beings, on only one planet, orbiting a relatively small star amidst hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy, amongst hundreds of billions of galaxies.  Recalling our insignificance, the challenges we face are brought into perspective.

Witnessing the unfathomably large expanse above, I witnessed a meteor racing through the darkness.  As is the case the vast majority of the time, it streaked out and disappeared.  However, it called to mind a previous instance when I was watching a meteor shower and a dot suddenly appeared, not moving, but getting much brighter, and then suddenly winking out.  Back then I realized that what I had seen was a meteor heading right at me.

Recalling that memory of merciful deliverance from utter annihilation, once again I received several nourishing reminders.  Whatever we are presently enduring, it could be worse.  Right now the coronavirus threatens our physical health, is killing some of us, putting others of us in intensive care units, depriving us of financial income, and restricting us from traveling.  Yet, thanks be to God, a giant meteor has not hurtled into our atmosphere and wreaked widespread carnage.  Earlier this year there were multiple instances when very large meteors came relatively close to us but sped by with no physical impacts.

However, if we so choose, we can let these reminders of our littleness, fragility and precariousness have significant spiritual impacts upon us.  We can welcome these messengers from the wider realm of the universe so that they may teach us humility.  If they help us to be humble, then we can take a further step and turn toward God.  If we meditate on these matters, we can come to find that, in the midst of what we currently see as misfortune, we have limitless reason to thank, adore and praise God.  Amen.