A Fly on the Wall

Okay, I'm going to try something different this week.

My post about the Wedding Feast in Cana got me thinking... If I could go back and watch any hour in Christ's life, what hour would I choose?

After about two weeks of debating with myself (I won, by the way), I finally decided on my answer. Of course, then I started wondering what hour all of you would choose.

So I decided that this week, I will create my very first Meme. (I know some of you are probably Meme-d out, but how many actually help you spend time with God?)

Here's the question:
If you could go back and watch any hour of Christ's life, which hour would you choose and why?

Here are the rules:

• To make this a bit easier, you can choose 3 one-hour time periods. (Your "top 3", if you will)
• To make things harder, you cannot choose His birth or any time period from the Last Supper on.
• If you have a blog, post this question and rules and answer it there. If you would rather not spend a post quenching my curiosity, or if you do not have a blog, feel free to post your answer in the comments section here.
• Put a link to your post in the comments section of this post so we can all share.
• Tag 3 other people to do the same.

Ok, now that we covered all of that, here are mine:

1. That miraculous hour at the Wedding in Cana. Aside from wanting to witness His first public miracle, I would love to witness the conversation between Jesus and Mary. They both must have known what that act would lead to down the road. And yet, they both showed great strength. I wonder if that moment was a solemn one, despite the miraculous act and the festive environment.
2. The Sermon on the Mount. I imagine a sunny day. A grassy field. And hundreds of people surprised at the words coming out of our Lord's mouth. Blessed are the poor? The humble? I imagine people's eyes being opened for the first time after hearing these words.
3. Peter gets it. I was going to choose another hour here, but I heard Matthew 16 this week and it really moved me. Peter is inspired by God. The Disciples have their answer. The keys to Heaven are handed out. And Jesus starts to show the blueprint for His Church. Talk about a jam packed hour!
   

So there you have it. I'll admit, it wasn't an easy exercise. And truth be told, I'll probably change my mind 10 times over the next year. But it was fun, and it did make me spend a lot of time thinking about the life of our Savior.

Hope you enjoy.

God Bless.

P.S. If you have made it this far, consider yourself tagged!

A Chance

I owe my parents a world of thanks.

They gave me a wonderful childhood, filled with love, security, and encouragement.

They provided for me.

They taught me and gave me perspective.

And they gave me a great foundation for my faith today.

But ironically, it's the one thing they did NOT do that I am most thankful for.

They did not kill me.

Over 42 million children in the world were not so lucky last year. They were killed before they even took their first breath.

42 million.

If that group were a state in the U.S., it would be the largest.

If that group were a country it would be the world's 30th most populous ... larger than countries like Canada, Argentina, and Poland.

If that group all grew up to be followers of Christ ... imagine how much better our planet would be.

God has a plan for all of us. From the minute we are conceived (and probably even before that) to the minute He calls us back.

Today, my prayers are for all of those who do not get the chance to accept that plan.

And even more so, for those who think their plan is better.

God Bless.

But What Table Should We Sit Him At?

Ahhh ... the Wedding Feast at Cana.

Easily one of my favorite passages in the New Testament.

I've read it a hundred times, but today, God gave me a new perspective on it.

I've always looked at this wonderful miracle through the eyes of two people - Our Savior's and Our Blessed Mother's. His first public miracle. Her confident direction. The significance of that hour never ceases to move me.

But today, for the first time, I looked at this Blessed event through the eyes of the Bride and Bridegroom. And I asked myself one question:

Do you think they knew that God was their wedding guest?

The answer, of course, is most likely no. After all, He had just started His public ministry. In fact, I bet the bridegroom, after being told about the "choice wine", went back to the celebration without much thought.

Imagine how different things would have been had they known! The celebration that day would have been for His presence - not just for their union. He would have been at the head table, not the one to the side near the band. And they would have probably spent the night listening to His word, not dancing and drinking.

But, alas, they may have glanced over their Most Favored guest. Perhaps shook his hand and thanked Him for attending as they moved around from one guest to another. (Do you think they did that back then?)

As I pondered this, slightly depressed, I realized that I do the same thing every day.

After all, He is present in every mass. He is present when people gather in His name. And He is present in all of us.

He is here.

And yet, I wonder how many times I've glanced over Him?

Lord, please help me to realize Your Presence, to hear Your Word, to see Your Works, and to feel Your Love - today and every day.

God Bless.

P.S. If you would like to read about the Wedding Feast from a guest's point of view, Karinann has a nice post here.

What Happened to the Other 11+ Years?

I've been thinking a lot about the gospel reading we read just after Christmas - Luke 2:41-52, where we learn about the Finding in the Temple.

You know I enjoy Luke's gospel, but I'm also someone who wishes he had every detail about Christ's life. And the fact that Luke's gospel skips from an 8-day-old Jesus to a 12-year-old Jesus leaves me wondering what happened in between?

What was Jesus like as a little boy? Did He run around outside with the other children? Was He always advanced compared to them? Did He ever get in trouble? Did He cry a lot?

And most importantly ... at what point did he go from speechless baby to a boy who could carry on conversations with temple teachers?

We may never know until we hopefully meet Him in Paradise, but I'm guessing that Jesus spent those years growing and learning .... setting the foundation to what would become a Blessed Life. (Make that the most Blessed Life.)

The more I meditated on this, the more it inspired me.

You see, this time of year is always a struggle for me. Religiously, it sometimes feels "just ordinary" because it falls between Christmas and Lent. Emotionally, it is a letdown after the Christmas/New Year's celebrations. And weather-wise, it is cold and dark here in the Northeast. (No wisecracks from my friends in Texas please.)

Which makes it easy to feel like these days are detours in the road until Ash Wednesday. Or Spring. Or a day where 30 degrees isn't considered a heat wave.

But this year, St. Luke has provided me with some motivation. He skips over those 11+ years in our Savior's life, but that certainly doesn't mean they were insignificant.

And neither are these days in January.

Like I imagine Jesus did, I will use them to continue building my foundation and grow closer to Our Father.

A Happy New Year to all of you, and prayers that it will be your most Blessed one yet.

Groundhog Year

Do you remember that movie Groundhog Day? The one where Bill Murray repeats the same day over and over again?

That is the way I always felt this time of year. Except mine went like this:

1) Eat lots of cookies, cakes, pastries.
2) Wash that down with eggnog.
3) Repeat until there isn't so much as a sprinkle left.
4) Make New Year's Resolution to exercise and lose all of the new-found weight.

Every year it was the same thing. And every year I had the same New Year's Resolution.

Until last year.

Last year I decided that I needed to start exercising my soul, and resolved to read the Bible. I am proud to say that, thanks to the Daily Audio Bible, I kept that promise. (For those of you new to my blog, I listen to it in my car every day.)

Empowered by this very small victory, I've decided that every New Year's Resolution from now on will include a religious component.

Every year I want to grow closer to God. To do something more for Him in the upcoming year than I did in the past one.

I guess you can say that I never want to have a spiritual "Groundhog Year" again.

I'd love your help as I look to write mine for 2010.

Any ideas? Are you making any Spiritual Resolutions for the New Year?

Merry Christmas

"Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy
which will come to all the people.
For to you is born this day in the city of David
a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
(Luke 2:10-11)


May we all welcome Him into our lives and into our hearts!

Merry Christmas,
And may God bless all of you.

Return to Tree

I was going to take a break from my usual reflective-type posts this week, and leave you with a picture of the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center.

For those of you that aren't in the NY area, I thought this would be a nice way to bring the tree to you.

But I feel like God wanted me to do more than that and go through the normal reflection.

So here goes ...

As you can see from the picture, I made my annual trek to the tree on a night full of rain and light snow. Part of me was disappointed at the less-than-ideal weather, while the other part was hoping some of that snow would stick to the tree. After all, what could be prettier than a 65-foot lighted tree with snow glistening from each branch?

Alas, the snow did not stick. And while the tree was as beautiful as always, I feel like my experience was less than optimal.

The more I thought about that experience, the more it reminded me of some Catholics this time of year. Like me to Rockefeller Center, they return to the Church year after year at Christmas-time.

And that's it.

Three hundred and sixty four days between visits (unless they also go for Easter).

Like that snow, it just doesn't stick. And while that day is probably beautiful for them, their overall experience with our Lord is less than optimal.

So I decided to start praying for those people this week. I pray for all those who only come to the Church a few times a year, and even more for those who have left the Church entirely. I pray that God guides them back regularly, so they can start living their lives more fully - the way He intended them to.

God Bless.