SNOW!!!!!!!
SO INSPIRED TO DO LEAGUEWORK but had to pray. Jewel wanted to weep. "Isn't using my talents a prayer?? You never let me use them, you always "have to pray instead"".
Compromised unexpectedly beautifully by imagining League scenes FOR the intercessions, and such "OCs" praying.
I am dead serious, this is the FIRST TIME WE WERE ABLE TO PRAY WITHOUT ANXIOUS EXHAUSTION & FEAR. We actually lost track of time!!! And we MEANT the prayers, too!
I SWEAR WE ONLY EVER FUNCTION PROPERLY IN "THIRD PERSON." And you can FEEL the spatial shifts inside, from League to Central to BODY.
Mom call the instant we began the rosary, to GIVE US THE CAR???
So we can drive OURSELF to MU for the Tree Lighting, which is GREAT Because NOW we can see IF CANNON AND/OR HER "SISTERS" DRIVE on the way up-- otherwise, being driven by mom, we would just go black-out Social Mode. But NOW we can POTENTIALLY GET MEMORY BACK.
And buddy, believe me, you're gonna get SLAMMED when you ACTUALLY WALK ONTO THE CAMPUS.
Genesis you are REQUIRED to keep us constant company; it's all empty without you.
Made a simple throwaway "business email" for the sake of selling our instruments, also for doctors & the like, as it's a MUCH shorter contact addess than what we've been using (which everyone misspells) and ALSO so there are NO PHONE NUMBERS INVOLVED in contacting us. We CANNOT "process a transaction" in social mode. We CANNOT THINK OR REASON over the phone!! This has been REPEATEDLY PROVEN.
...
BK prep was NIGHTMARISH. Eggs burnt, broccoli bag leaked, we kept dissociating from overwhelm, making extra dishes out of confused panic, etc.
Freaking out over frying pans, eventually gave up from stress & just decided to go "cheap & local." We ARE one of the "poor folk" now, and cannot be thinking fancy or entitled. Live like your grandparents.
CANNOT concentrate at ALL because of schedule shifts, especially the impending unpredictability & sheer amount of travel & planning with SUDDENLY HAVING TO DO ALL OUR GROCERY SHOPPING IN THE EVENING. Which is TERRIFYING.
Giving us that "screamcry & vomit" feeling of anxious disease. Why is it so severe??
BK LATE, 1215. SO RUSHED.
Still, God knew what He was doing. Those burnt eggs that we couldn't even cut? We were therefore able to eat them in HALF the time. That means, IF we get the broccoli done fast, we MIGHT BE ABLE TO LEAVE EARLY AND GET SOME GROCERIES BEFORE IT GETS DARK!! Thank You God, PLEASE help us to do that.
Evening update= HE SURE DID HELP US!!!
And honestly? THANK GOD FOR THE SOCIAL SUBSYSTEM.
I know we disparage them. That's cruel. THEY exist for a reason too, by GOD'S DESIGN. And today proved EXACTLY WHY.
We innerspace folks could NEVER do that sort of madrush business running about.
We left around 230, and went straight to Wegmans.
GOOGLE MAPS FAILURE. Trying to trust God's mysterious plan & be patient & open-minded.
Then we went to MARYWOOD!!
(Music building, Tree rosary )
(Drive through area. NO CANNON. We feel too different inside?? We've CHANGED TANGIBLY.)
(also we think she's ONLY triggered by the ART BUILDING and we didn't go there. Plus campus has ALSO CHANGED which disturbs or even destroys memory triggers??)
(Virtually NO MEMORY from the car at all btw)
(SAME WITH GROCERY SHOPPING??? Dude we were on BLACKOUT AUTOMATIC, is THAT how we survived the darkness & crowds???)
When we got home, as we rushed to unpack, José was SINGING AT FULL VOLUME. Honestly I love that guy, his existence gives me such joy. God bless him and his random Spanish karaoke nights.
DN at 720 WHAT EVEN DUDE. Can't be helped though, could've been worse!
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VOTD = 1 Peter 3:15.
"We must live, not just confessing Jesus as Lord, but REVERING Jesus as the Lord of our Life. Do we live in awe of Jesus as the Lord of our lives, in such a way that we have a kind of hope in a world of discouragement, despair, and bad news, that people would see us and say, "you've got a hope, that sticks out in this world, a hope that conquers despair, overcomes discouragement-- you are looking to something beyond this world." Do we live in such a way that they would ask us, "how do you have this hope?" And we would be ready to tell them, "we have this hope because Jesus is our Lord, because Jesus is our Life, because Jesus died on a cross for our sins, He rose from the grave, He's conquered sin and death itself!" We have a hope that transcends anything this world throws at us, and we are ready to share that hope, gently & respectfully introducing the people around us to the hope that we have in Jesus."
1) Confessing vs REVERING.
2) "THE LORD" VS "OUR LORD", basically. That's a heavy conviction.
3) The idea of LIVING IN AWE-- not just feeling it here & there, but constantly breathing it as an atmosphere.
4) IS our hope VISIBLE? CAN people SEE, in our daily life, that we "are living for something beyond this world"?
5) WOULD THEY ASK YOU ABOUT IT?? That's a whole other level of witness, mind you! It means YOU'RE ALSO VISIBLY APPROACHABLE.
6) "Ready"
7) The jarringly "clichéd" response that IS STILL ABSOLUTELY TRUE. But if YOU can't grasp its depth, how can you witness at all? And if YOU hear it with a sigh, thinking its just a canned phrase, despite having faith, then what would you RATHER hear, and by extension SAY to jaded hearts? Because JESUS IS STILL MY HOPE. But I don't want to declare that vapidly. I'm thinking too much. If you're witnessing BY YOUR LIFE to such a profound extent, then giving the SOLE REASON for your supernatural hope as "because Jesus is my Lord," then if they really are serious about their inquiry, they'll TAKE THAT REPLY SERIOUSLY, even if they've "heard it" a hundred times before-- because THIS TIME, they can SEE how it AFFECTS YOUR LIFE. They're NOT "just words" anymore. THAT'S WITNESS!!!
8) You know what? REFLECT ON THAT RESPONSE. Seriously ponder WHY every word of it IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE.
+ "I have hope because Jesus is my Lord"=
+ "I have hope because Jesus is my Life"=
+ "I have hope because Jesus died for my sins"=
+ "I have hope because Jesus rose from the dead"=
+ "I have hope because Jesus conquered sin"=
+ "I have hope because Jesus conquered death"=
(THE HOPE IS ONE, BUT MULTIFACETED!! EACH TRUTH ENRICHES IT & EXTENDS IT MORE FULLY INTO ONE'S WHOLE LIFE)
(THE HOPE WE HAVE IS JESUS!!!!!! HIS VERY EXISTENCE AND PERSON IS HOPE; HE IS THE "EMBODIMENT" OF IT, AS HE IS ITS SOURCE AND PERFECTION. Everything we could possibly hope for IS FOUND IN HIS PERSON.)
9) Our hope TRANSCENDS everything in this world, because it is NOT OF THIS WORLD. Don't forget that, it's essential.
10) We SHARE our hope, we don't "preach" it or "give a speech on it." It's not a matter of "education," so to speak; It's that Christian virtue of ENCOUNTER, of experiencing truth with others rather than simply being monologued at.
11) "Gentleness and respect" are emphasized, because if someone is asking you about hope they probably don't have any, and might have let their poor heart become very bitter, cynical, hard, stubborn, and cold, even by closing it to the very thought of hope just to survive the daily beatdown of life. Be gentle with them. It's scary and painful to open up again, and it must happen slowly, carefully, and with great tenderness.
Likewise, respect wherever they're at, no exceptions. It's not for you to judge or criticize. Meet them wherever they are, because that's where the very God you hope in meets them, too.
12) Lastly, and most importantly, THIS HOPE ISN'T ABOUT YOU, and NEITHER IS YOUR WITNESS. When you share your hope, you're not just taking about Jesus; YOU'RE INTRODUCING THEM TO JESUS. YOUR HOPE IS A PERSON, AND ALSO GOD. THIS MEANS HE MUST BE TREATED IN A RELATIONSHIP CONTEXT, AND HE IS PRESENT WITH YOU, NOW.
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"Question: Where do you often find yourself restless or discontent? Why do you think that is? How can you practice the gift of presence and contentment this season?"
1) We are ALWAYS restless around other people, shamefully so. They are too often cruelly labeled as "unexpected interruptions to the schedule," and we zoom through conversations on autopilot just to "get done and catch up on time lost." But it WASN'T LOST, you buffoon, it was ACTUALLY WELL SPENT FOR ONCE. Even better, it arguably wasn't "spent" at all, but given as a GIFT. And that's HOW you SHOULD spend more of your obsessive time!!
...
2) As for discontentment? THE INTERNET. There is SO MUCH HELLISH GARBAGE on there, and it sucks the soul hollow.
...
3) How to practice PRESENCE= Actually? HAVE PEOPLE QUIETLY FRONT MORE OFTEN. Don't let the kakofonic Socials run the show so tyrannically.
4) How to practice CONTENTMENT = SEE EVERY MOMENT AS COMING FROM GOD'S LOVING HAND, IN HIS PERFECT WILL, FOR YOUR SALVATION. That's really the bottom line. "Thy Will be done."
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Universalis=
"The love of Christ ought to reach such a spiritual pitch in his shepherds that it overcomes the natural fear of death which makes us shrink from the thought of dying even though we desire to live with Christ. However distressful death may be, the strength of love ought to master the distress. I mean the love we have for Christ who, although he is our life, consented to suffer death for our sake. Consider this: if death held little or no distress for us, the glory of martyrdom would be less... how much more ought Christ’s shepherds to fight for the truth even to death and to shed their blood in opposing sin? With his passion for their example, Christ’s shepherds are most certainly bound to cling to the pattern of his suffering, since even the lambs have so often followed that pattern of the chief shepherd in whose one flock the shepherds themselves are lambs. For the Good Shepherd who suffered for all mankind has made all mankind his lambs, since in order to suffer for them all he made himself a lamb."
1) Hearing that the love of Christ and the "natural fear of death" CAN EXIST SIMULTANEOUSLY is such a relief; we were so terrified that it could only be EITHER "one or the other." But no, this is saying that the natural fear will remain-- it did in Christ, in the Garden!!-- but it will be overcome by Love. And that is FAR more beautiful than "destroying" the fear.
2) I just... this makes me think of Laurie, of course, of what she was meant to be, of what she is at her very core, and what her mere existence always reminds me of. Love is stronger than fear. Love is stronger than distress. It doesn't erase it, but it is infinitely more powerful.
3) DEATH IS SUPPOSED TO BE DISTRESSFUL. THAT'S WHERE VIRTUE IS FORGED.
4)
5)
"We know that the coming of the Lord is threefold: the third coming is between the other two and it is not visible in the way they are... In the middle, the hidden coming, only the chosen see him, and they see him within themselves; and so their souls are saved... the middle coming is in spirit and power... This middle coming is like a road that leads from the first coming to the last. At the first, Christ was our redemption; at the last, he will become manifest as our life; but in this middle way he is our rest and our consolation.""
1) The seeing God IN OURSELVES is CONNECTED TO OUR SALVATION!!! This is because ONLY THE HOLY SPIRIT can give us such sight & recognition.
2) The redemption is why we can rest, and the coming manifestation is what comforts us, as Christ comes to us now. We rest because we are free from death, free of fear, free of sin, and the battle is won by the Lord.
...
"Prepare our hearts, Lord, by the power of Your grace. When Christ comes, may He find us worthy to receive from His hand the bread of heaven at the feast of eternal life."
This is an obvious Eucharistic parallel, but STILL-- the very idea of Christ FEEDING US BY HAND is staggering. It's such a parental, spousal, intimately caring and affectionate action. But the phrase is deepened further in meaning by the fact that Christ IS the Bread of Heaven, and for us to "receive from His hands" makes me think of the scars left by the nails.
...
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