Give Drink to the Thirsty

This week's Corporal Works of Mercy is "Give drink to the thirsty."

I thought I would start by getting a better understanding of why we as humans need water.  In my research I learned that our bodies are made up of 60% of water.  And our bodies use water in many ways - regulates our temperature, protects our nervous system, cushions our joints, along with ridding our body of waste and keeping our skin moist.  Without water, our body does not make enough blood and causes our heart to beat harder; it also effects our brain functions.   We can only survive one week without water.

So, why is this important to my Corporal Works of Mercy this week?  I wanted to be able to understand what is really happening when we are thirsty.  I know many times when we think we are hungry, we are actually thirsty.

When we say we are thirsty, we are communicating the need of something that is important to our existence, it is something that without, we would surely die.  So, when Jesus said from the cross "I thirst" (John 19:28) he was calling our his powerful thirst for us.  St. Mother Teresa heard Jesus' cry and made it her mission to satiate Jesus' thirst for souls.

Now with this understanding, I began to pray as to what I could do to give drink to the thirsty.  Two things kept coming to mind - help those who are fiscally thirsty and to pray for those about to receive the living waters of Baptism.  I am buying a few cases of water to give to our parish's food pantry and I've begun to pray for the Catecumens; and not just the ones at our parish, but all the Catecumens who will experience the Living Waters at the Easter Vigil.  I searched for a prayer and did find one that met what I wanted to pray - so I made my own prayer:

O' Holy Father,

I pray for all the Catecumens who will soon

experience your love and mercy throught

the living waters of Baptism.

May they continually thirst for your

love and find their hearts yearning

for your mercy.

Amen

I know this is not as eloquent as the works of our Saints, but it is from the heart.  So I ask you to consider donating a case of water to a local food pantry and to pray for our Catecumens.  It is in our joining of work and prayer that we can partner with St. Mother Teresa in helping to satisfy Jesus' thirst.

Up next week, shelter the homeless.

Are you Hungry?

Lent has begun!  Did you know that the count for the 40 days actually doesn't start till the first Sunday of Lent?  I didn't either -- you learn something every day.  Ok, enough trivia - time to get busy.

I had shared my Lenten plan in an earlier post - My focus will be on the Corporal Works of Mercy.  This week I am working on "Feed the Hungry."

I started to think about all the ways people are hungry - there is the actual hunger for good nutritious food - even in this country there are people who are hungry let alone all the people in this world.  So, for this, I am donating food to my Parish's Food Pantry and for the first time in many, many years - I picked up a Rice Bowl by  Catholic Relief Services (CRS) at Church last Sunday.  The idea of the rice bowl is that you put your loose change in them and then return the bowl to Church on Good Friday - for example, if you chose to give up gourmet coffee this Lent  - you would put the money you would have spent on the coffee into the bowl - this takes your sacrifice to another level by helping to feed others.

As I continued to ponder hunger - it came to me Jesus' instructions to Peter "Feed my Sheep" (John 21:17.)  We all hunger (or should be) for God - for his word, his love, and for his mercy.  And it's the Priest and religious (Sisters, Nuns, Brothers, etc) who help guide us to God - but the numbers of Priests and religious are quickly diminishing.  I found this 2017 Vocation Report from the Vatican - it also shows that there is reducing numbers of the faithful.  I had heard the numbers were dwindling, but this report put it in cold hard facts.  My question was - are the numbers of the faithful going down because the reduced number of priest and religious or are the number of priest and religious reducing because of the diminishing numbers of faithful (it's the chicken and egg thing?)  God has placed it upon my heart to pray this Lent for Vocations - we are in dire need.

In my research I found this wonderful prayer by Pope Francis:

Lord of the Harvest,

BLESS young people with the gift of courage to respond to your call.  

Open their hearts to great ideas, to great things.

INSPIRE all of your disciples to mutual love and giving - 

for vocations blossom in the good soil of the faithful people.

INSTILL those in religious life, parish ministries, and families with the 

confidence and grace to invite others to embrace the 

bold and noble path of a life consecrated to you.

UNITE us to Jesus through prayer and sacrament, 

so that we may cooperate with you in building your 

reign of mercy and truth, of justice and peace.

Amen.

Isn't that such a lovely prayer?  I am asking you to join me this Lent - to pray for Vocations so that those who hunger for God's love will have good, holy shepherds to lead us to the Lord.

What to do about Lent?

Lent is fast approaching, and it's time to decide what we want to "do" for Lent.  You notice I said "do" instead of "give-up" -- I think as good Catholic children - we were always counseled we had to give-up something tangle-able for the Lenten season -- dessert, pop, candy, etc.  And as a good Catholic child, that is exactly what I did - I would hate to count how many years, I gave up chocolate.  This was fine when we were children - we needed to learn the lesson of sacrifice - but now as adults - we need to dig a little deeper.  Lent should be a time of growth - growing in our relationship with Christ.  Yes, we need to acknowledge that he died for our sins - he gave the greatest sacrifice - his own life - but by simply just giving up dessert - are we really honoring Jesus' sacrifice are we really learning from his example?  Does Jesus want our desserts or our love?

While discussing with my Spiritual Director about Lent - we came up with something I believe that will be perfect for me.  During Advent - I completed a Consecration to Merciful Love - so it would make sense that I now put my consecration into action by focusing on the Corporal Works of Mercy for Lent.

For those who are not sure of the Corporal Works of Mercy they are:  Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Shelter the Homeless, Visit the Sick, Visit the Prisoner, Bury the Dead, and Give Alms to the Poor (I had to look them up too.)

My personality type is to map it all out - what I will do and when I will do it - so I began to plan out the weeks (I've decided to actually start the Sunday before Ash Wednesday so that I can have 7 full weeks plus Holy Week.) Then I began to write out some ideas - but I stopped myself - I really need to allow God to lead this - not my pencil.  So, I do have some ideas - though I'm not planning a day by day schedule.  This will be a challenge for me, I like to be in charge - but this is what Lent is about - learning to trust God each and everyday and follow His will and not my own.

Up first will be "Feed the Hungry" -- this will be interesting - I've found God already speaking to my heart.  I will blog about my progress each week.

My prayer is that you too will be inspired to use this Lent as a time of growth -- allowing God to speak to you.  Take this time before Lent begins for prayer and ask Him - what can you do to improve your relationship - where does He want you to go or do ?  You just may be surprised by the answer.

Helping Us to Better Understand the Gopels

Father (the Pastor at my Parish) recently shared with us some tips on helping us to better understand the Gospels.  He said to pay attention to names, locations and numbers identified by the Gospel writer - for these are clues to help understanding their message.  So I decided to put this to the test with one of this week’s Gospels.  In Mark 5:1-20 we hear of Jesus and his disciples coming to Gerasenes where he casted out the many unclean spirits (Legion) from a man who had been so terrorized over the many years to madness.  When Jesus approached the man - the unclean spirits begged Jesus to send them into the near by herd of 2000 swines - but when this happened the herd ran into the sea and drown.  Now people from the near by town came and saw the man sitting quietly, clothed and in his right mind. But instead of praising God, they begged Jesus to leave them.

Ok, with Father’s hints, I started by looking at the location - Gerasenes was on the farthest side of the sea where Jesus had been at - he had really gone out of his way to help this man.  In fact the passage right before this Gospels was where Jesus and the disciples were in a boat and a terrible storm came up and in fear the disciples woke Jesus who quieted the sea.  Next, there is the number 2000 - I remember the first time I read this many years ago - I thought what a large herd, it must be worth a lot of money and was wasted when the swine ran into the sea - but this is exactly what the town people saw too - they did not see the miracle which just happened, they only saw dollar signs.  The towns people would have rather kept the unclean spirits within their mist and torturing this man/their brother - instead of loosing the value of the herd.  Also we heard the name of Legion - which to me means a large group supported by the number of 2000 - so this poor man was being possessed not by one unclean spirit — but many - no wonder he had gone mad.

So, what does this all tell me - God’s love for us is great, he is willing to travel across dangerous seas, and go out of his way to save us — even if it is only one of us.  He is also there always to defend us from evil.  Now, instead of thinking about the cost of the swine, I am sadden how the town’s people allowed earthly materials to deny them the Lord, they sent him off before he could cost them any more money. They put their own material needs over the well-being of their brother - this is a good cautionary tale for all of us. We can see how easy it would be to put money and other world positions over the lives of God's people to the determent of them and of ourselves.  And finally, evils can be bigger than what it first appears, it can effect more than just the person it possesses (here it took hold of a full town) - but the Lord’s power is even greater and that he will always use it to defend us.

The true message here - is one of LOVE — God’s love for us is greater than anything on this earth.  It can cross dangerous seas, cast out the evil in our lives and be there for us, even if others are not. 

God loves us all the time - all the time God loves us!

They Abandoned Their Nets

I am on the RCIA team at my parish - and for this second half of the program we start each week breaking open the Word for the upcoming weekend readings.  This past weekend we heard of Jesus calling Simon and Andrew who immediately abandoned their nets and James and John who left their father Zebedee in the boat alone. (Mark 1:14-20)

The discussion last week at RCIA centered around what would it had been like for these men - Jesus must had been very convincing for them to abandon their work and families in such a way, and would we ourselves we able to do the same today.  I have to admit, this really got me thinking about my own life and my own relationship with the Lord. Perhaps the disciples thought they were simply taking a break, and would listen to Jesus for a few hours and then return to their work, perhaps they did not know they were making a choice that would completely change their lives.  This we will never know.

As I pondered my own response, I wondered if this is practice for our final calling; when death claims our bodies and we are asked to choose between being in God’s presence or not being with God for eternity.  As humans we have grown attachments to this world; the things and people who surround us.  And the thought of completely walking away from everyone and everything can be a little mind blowing.  So the Lord asks us to make small but continual steps towards him. Turning the TV off to spend time in prayer, giving up some free time to volunteer somewhere where we can serve others, or making a choice to spend time in Adoration instead of lunch with friends; these are all examples of us “abandoning our nets”.  Whenever we choose God first we are strengthening our relationship with Him, we are deeping our faith and we are setting examples for others around us to do the same.  Just think, if we would all move our focus from the attachments of this world to the Father, all war would stop, hunger would not be known, all life would be respected.  For we cannot focus on God without following His commandment to love Him, and love our neighbor.

I know this is a little deep for a Monday morning, blame it on the large amount of coffee I’ve consumed already today.  But I believe this is a question we all should start our week with — “Where will I abandon my nets to follow Christ this week?”

New Fabric

I will admit, I’ve read today’s Gospel (Mark  2:18-22) several times over the years and have not given it much thought.  Yes, we understand that the disciples did not fast because Jesus was with them - and since we know the “rest of the story” we know Jesus will die and at that time the disciples will fast.  But today it struck me, what in the world does this have to do with new fabric or old wine skins? What is Jesus trying to tell us today?

I don’t know much about ancient wine skins, but I do understand a little about fabric.  I like to do a little sewing now and then, and I know before I start a project such as a quilt, all the fabric needs to be washed.  Cotton is commonly used for quilting, it is a natural fiber and it can respond to washing and drying differently from one piece of fabric to another.  This is due to the fibers themselves - the location of where the cotton was grown, the growing condition, the processing; all of these can have an effect and so when the fabric is washed, it can shrink differently. If you waited until after the sewing is completed, the quilt pieces can pucker and tear away from each other and simply destroy your quilting.

Now, what does all of this have to do with fasting? Well, as I pondered this, it hit me - everyone who sews know about how to treat new fabric - it’s just common sense.  Aw, now I see - Jesus was saying - it’s just common sense - of course the disciples would not fast for he was there among them - he was trying once again to tell them (and us) who he was/is - he is the Son God and is standing in their midst.

Okay, we get that - but what does this mean to us today?  I believe it means we need to approach our faith with a better understanding of who Jesus is.  He gave them two  metaphors, putting his message into something they would understand;  if Jesus was saying this today, he might would say something like - you would not put two quarterbacks on the field at the same time - common sense says you only play one at a time, otherwise you would have chaos on the field. 

So, I believe, the message for us today is; if it's is true about the quarterbacks and Jesus is comparing it to why his disciples did not fast - then it must be true - Jesus is the Son of God and it is true - he is standing right in our midst.

I Saw You

As children we loved to have secret codes with our friends, notes we passed in school with coded messages.  We knew the note or message was from our friend based on the password. Sometimes this would get us in trouble for passing notes during class time, other times we were crushed when we learn that our friend had shared with someone else our secret.

 As we grew older we would still share intimate thoughts or secrets with an extremely close friends or loved ones. We would tell our spouses things no one else would know - of our dreams, our fears, our desires, our anguish.  It is one of the elements of the bond between a husband and a wife, your trust in them.

Last week we heard when Jesus called  Nathaniel (John 1:43-51). Nathaniel was skeptical of Jesus “for nothing good could come from  Nazareth,” he said.  But then Jesus said something to him that had Nathaniel proclaimed that Jesus was the “Son of God.”  Jesus simple said “I saw you under the fig tree.”  I wonder why would this matter - I see people every day - they are not falling down proclaiming me the savior (if they did, I would wonder about their mental capacity.)

What I believe is that under that infamous fig tree Nathaniel was in prayer, perhaps asking why God does not see him and his people's struggles. And when Jesus said he “saw him” - this was the answer to Nathaniel's prayers - for only God would know what he was praying - and God answered "YES" I see you- and I have answered your prayers in the form of my beloved son Jesus.  For Jesus was not referring to his physical sight — but that Jesus saw Nathaniel’s true prayer - he saw Nathaniel’s struggles - he “SAW” Nathaniel.

This revelation encourages me immensely.  I am inspired to tell the Lord more of my hopes, dreams, struggles, disappointments.  To build my bond between the Lord and myself even stronger.  Now does this mean all my prayers will be answered just as I have asked - of course not - if that was so, I would have won the lottery last week, but there is satisfaction in the knowledge that God is listening — and who knows someday (most likely at my death)  - Jesus may be standing in front of me saying “Theresa, I SAW you.”