With Franciscan Eyes

Finding Strength in Life's Knots

Boy scouts can rattle off the types and manner of tying all sorts of knots. Even though we may not have their knowledge and expertise, we do have experience with knots. Think about the tangles in your hair, about thread knotting just as it is being pulled through a stitch, or the twisted mess resulting from the washing machine weaving clothes together. However, there is an altogether different category of knots in life. Consider one’s losing a position, confronting an angry individual, getting a traffic ticket, running into a brick wall of discrimination, realizing one’s mortality, moving to an undesired location, dealing with unfairness, or becoming aware of a lump in one’s body. Those knots can really tie us up!    

The question “why?” such knots appear in life is often asked. Sister Joan Chittister believes that such a question is foolish, brings no resolution, and that there are more important questions. “The fact is that it is not what happens but what I do about it, and how I deal with it, that counts. The answer to, "Why did God do this to me?" may simply be so that I could become more than I was before it happened.” Sister also said, while quoting the mystic Rumi, that, “Under every agonizing, painful, irritating, worrisome thing… is the blessing that needs to be discovered….”

Sometimes we need the binoculars of time in order to appropriately distance ourselves so that we can discern what has knocked us off our feet. We need a long view in order to see the knots clearly, to appreciate the unknown blessings we have received, and especially to remove the disguises that hid them from view in the first place.

What are some of the disguised undesired blessings that have come your way? How have you grown because of them?

Holding on to Hope

“The New Year is a painting not yet painted; a path not yet stepped on; a wing not yet taken off!
Things haven’t happened as yet! Remember that you are blessed with the ability to reshape your life!”
―Mehmet Murat Ildan

This is a powerful quote comparing the New Year to a painting, a path, and a wing. As I reflected on this, it brought to mind what will happen under the guidance of the Holy Spirit during the Chapter. Hopefully, our painting will be a masterpiece, our path will become known, and our wings will allow us to fly into our future! God is good and as scary as the unknown future and reshaping our life can be, God is with us throughout our painting, path finding and taking off, all in God’s name.

Every New Year begins with the hope that it will be better than the year before and as the year goes on that hope seems to wax and wane like the moon. It does not have to happen that way. We need to remember God is with and within us This gives us the grace to let go of our concerns and let God be in charge. Our entire world needs to choose this path to put an end to war, hunger, poverty, hatred, etc. It needs to be mindful of God’s love and care for us. In 1965 there was a song that was not only appropriate back then, but for the present and future!  Remember “What the World Needs Now”? The song begins: “What the world needs now is love, sweet love… It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.” Other words in the song address the Lord saying we don’t need any more mountains, or rivers, etc. but what we need is LOVE. May we be God’s instruments of love in our wounded world!

Living Advent Joy

We are fast approaching the third week of Advent which has JOY as its theme. What exactly is joy? I looked up the definition and it says, “joy is a feeling of great pleasure or happiness.” In the full definition it uses the words elation and delight to further describe joy. Digging even a little further I found that there is a Biblical meaning for joy. St. Paul understood that joy does not depend on what is happening, or what we have, or who is in our life or not in our lives. Letting go of all of that makes room for God. Joy is an attitude of the heart determined by confidence in God. Real, genuine joy is a result of having a strong and intimate relationship with Christ. To truly know Christ is to truly have joy. So, to have true joy we need to spend time with God. Thus, the more time we spend with God, the more joyful we will be! Not exactly the true joy that St. Francis talked about where he was not welcome at the monastery in the dead of winter at night. Just picturing Francis with icicles on the bottom of his habit and ice on his beard makes me shiver! He would agree that spending time with the Lord is true joy. During the remaining days of this short Advent may we take time to be with God so when Christmas comes we can experience joy in our world! It would be wonderful if instead of war, hunger, depression, poverty, homelessness, etc. our world would experience elation and delight in God and one another. What is the attitude of your HEART?