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Written by Chris Padgett
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Monday, 30 April 2007 |
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Who are you? Are you a student in high school or middle school? Maybe
you are in college now, or possibly you are doing graduate work in your
area of expertise. Who are you? Are you married, single, or an alien
from another planet? No matter what your state in life is, or how
difficult things have been, you are totally and entirely understood.
Isn't that amazing? Sometimes we feel like very few people can relate
with our situation. Many think that the burdens they carry are ones
that could never be understood by any other. The beauty our faith
offers to us is way more than just a place to go on Sundays. We are in
the family of God, and that matters! Our Mother Mary is reaching out
to us in all of our personal struggles and circumstances. She knows
who you are, and who you are becoming. Mary understands your
loneliness and insecurities, along with everything else that bothers
you within and without. She is interested in you. She really is! How
will this change you? Who are you? You are a child in the family of
God. Mary will show you more about yourself the more you depend upon
her. Do you want someone to really get you? Mary already does, and in
this place of acceptance you can relax and become that which you are
called to be: a saint! |
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Written by Chris Padgett
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Tuesday, 19 June 2007 |
Our Lady is right there with you as you read this sentence. I don't mean that in a figurative or super-spiritual way. I mean it in all actuality. Mary is with you as you wake up and get ready for your day. She is walking with you to your car, present with you at work, with your friends, while you are on the phone, and watching over you as you rest. At any moment you can cry out to her for assistance if you are troubled, or if you aren't sure what to do. You can call her name and know that not only will she hear your prayer, but she will intercede on your behalf for graces you don't even know to ask for. Mary is always with us, leading and guiding our lives towards holiness. You can follow her lead or ignore it.
Many times we don't recognize her presence with us because we don't feel her there. Because our age is so visually and technologically advanced we can have a tendency to belittle things that are not overt and confronting. Our Lady is not going to manipulate you into asking for her assistance, nor will she force you to depend upon her. She won't use special effects just to dazzle you into noticing her. She is waiting in a maternal way for you to ask her for great things. Think of the Prodigal Son's father and how he embraced the wayward child. Mary is there to embrace you if you have left the protection of the Father. She is right there for you, even if you don't feel her presence. This reality should impact the way that we live. I am praying you realize more and more that Mary is truly there with you in all aspects of your life. She is waiting for you to notice her loving presence.
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Written by Chris Padgett
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Monday, 16 July 2007 |
I just wanted to let you know that you are worth it! Sometimes we
feel that our life is so small and unimportant, but Christ has given
everything just to be with us. There have been wonderful reminders
about our worth by poets and authors, artists and musicians, and I
wanted to share a couple with you.
C.S. Lewis wrote:
The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid on
my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs
of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a
society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest
and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature
which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or
else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in
a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other
to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these
overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection
proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one
another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are
no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal … it is
with immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit –
immortal horrors or everlasting splendor. (p.18, 19. The Weight of
Glory)
Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. (p. 19 The Weight of Glory )
The Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote:
<tt><tt>As <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer; height: 1em;" id="lw_1184590393_0">Kingfishers Catch Fire</span><br/><br/>As <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; cursor: pointer; height: 1em; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" id="lw_1184590393_1">kingfishers catch fire</span>, dragonflies draw flame;<br/>As tumbled over rim in roundy wells<br/>Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's<br/>Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;<br/>Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:<br/>Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;<br/>Selves -- goes itself; _myself_ it speaks and spells,<br/>Crying _What I do is me: for that I came_.<br/><br/>I say more: the just man justices;<br/>Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;<br/>Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is --<br/>Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,<br/>Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his<br/>To the Father through the features of men's faces.<br/><br/>-- Gerard Manley Hopkins<br/><br/>Do not give up on yourself! <br/></tt></tt> |
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