Haiku My Heart

Small flood plain creeps near

Clouds, aloft, threaten and scold

Green is my valley

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The Afterwards

It is the end of May and we are home from our long journey.  Starting out, it was a journey to Missouri and mission.  By the end, we had each, individually discovered that the journey wasn't so much to a physical place as to a spiritual place; to a place within our selves.

While we touched and were touched by many people in our mission experience, it was what we took away from the experience that was most valuable to us; it was with us for the rest of our travels and remains with us here, at home.

I feel a sense of openness, of patience, of calm awareness that is deeply expanded from what I felt prior to mission.  Mission improved these positives in my life.  Because of the deepened awareness, I also was forced to look at the things that I feared and was reluctant to get too close to.  There was a strong sense of shame attached to this feeling.  I was surprised at my reactions to poverty and not wanting, after all, to become intimately acquainted with it.  It shamed me.

I was also forced to face a particular fear/loathing that I've come to discover, is my primary battleground for battering down the barrier to God's command for us to give unconditional love and to expect and trust the good that is in all people.

Interior landscapes are as seasonal and changing as the world around us.  Sometimes, our seasons don't show us a great range of change but when one goes out of their comfort zone, oh how the landscape can change and become challenging, very, very challenging.

I live in a shifting interior landscape now and my winter is moving into a very hot summer.  It is here, in a time of reflection, examination, and most of all, prayer, that I can become clearer on the things I can change and accept that the good within me, has become, in all humility, better.  And the bad in me?  Expose it to the healing light and burn it away.

Haiku My Heart - National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows

Two  weeks ago, Don told me he had a surprise waiting for me in St. Louis.  It was to be my Mother's Day gift from him.  After we left Kawanee, IL this morning, we drove in the direction of St. Louis.  The plan was (and still is) to meet up with an old school friend of Don's one evening and to explore some of the Catholic Shrines and old Catholic Churches that abound in the St. Louis area.

I diligently entered the address for the Best Western Hotel we were to stay at for the weekend and we were on our way.  As we arrived at the turn off to the hotel, we were greeted with the welcome sign to the National Shrine of our Lady of the Snows.    

I remember saying something like, "Oh, look.  One of the shrines we plan to visit is right here.  How cool is that?"  I was also eyeing the road before us somewhat suspiciously.  It wasn't an ordinary paved road.  Naturally, I was paying attention to the GPS so I'm trying to send Don the GPS way and he's stopping, reading signage, going off in other directions and I'm becoming baffled and saying so.  We won't talk about the tired man's reaction to my attempts to navigate him back on course.  

I have to admit, I was a little slow on the uptake but I finally figured it out.  THIS was my surprise.  There WAS no Best Western at the end of the road.  We had arrived at our destination.  Don had gifted me with a weekend at the Shrine hotel which was part of the gorgeous grounds we had driven through.

I was so excited, so thrilled, so overwhelmed, that I had to share the moment here right away.  The pictures below are NOT mine.  I found them on the shrine site.  A haiku erupted from me and landed here at the knee of the wonderful Rebecca Brooks.    There will be another post filled with my pictures of the experience here.  In the meantime . . .

. . . I love you Don.  You never disappoint.

  

Offertory rose

Resplendent golden shelter

Leaf song, water's bell

Morning with Mary

One of the joys of traveling, for us, is visiting catholic shrines.  And this especially means seeing stained glass such as the one to the right.

This one was found at Christchurch Cathedral (Episcopal) in downtown Indianapolis. I especially like the glowing lamp that rises over her head and the clear background that throws her forward front and center calling attention to to the central image.S
Yesterday Iwas at the Basilica of the National shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Oh, do I have more beauty to share with you.

Mornings with Mary.

In my quest to be more prayerful, I've
added this prayer to my daily prayer intentions.

DAILY OFFERING TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and suffering of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sins, the reunion of all Christians; I offer them for the intentions of our Bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month.  AMEN.

Finding the Civil War in Unexpected Places

Saturday evening, after a maddening drive through the neighborhood surrounding and campus of Virginia State University, we finally found our way into the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and Mass.  What we saw there more than made up for the crazed emotions that battered at us as we tried to navigate the rats maze that is this area (even with a GPS).  

The organ at the cathedral is the most extraordinary one I've ever seen.  Information about its history can be found by following the link on the word, organ.

Tabernacle of our Lord

Holy Mother

St. Vincent dePaul

The Museum of Catholic History was an utter surprise and is generally open only by appointment or special occasions. What a blessing that we were invited within. The most astonishing thing to see in this striking collection of Catholic history in Virginia was the crypt which held the remains of Bishops, priests, and several lay people.  A spiral staircase brought us to the crypt in the basement.  The museum display focused quite a lot on those priests and religious who cared for the souls and bodies of the soldiers of the Civil War, no matter their side.  They were children of God and were one in love and care.

The Crypt

Rendering of a field hospital

Angels of Mercy

Warrior of Mercy

The uniforms they wore

The tools of the Warrior

Tools of the Angels

A Shrine honoring the Canonization of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II

Pope Francis will canonize

Pope John XXIII  and

Pope John Paul II

on

Divine Mercy Sunday

April 27, 2014

The Museum of Virginia Catholic History will be open after the Sunday morning Masses on April 27 and May 4 to celebrate the Catholic Church’s newest saints, Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II.

Come see the new canonization display to learn about the process for sainthood and about these holy men and their profound legacies that will continue to shape our Church for generations to come.

Postcards from Paradise - Unscheduled Serenity

After a short stop over to visit with friends in Waynesboro, we visited (at their suggestion) Our Lady of Angels Monastery.  

We spend a short and blessedly quiet visit here. 

We saw no one at all at this Trappist Monastery except for one man outside a barn far off in the distance.

The serenity of this place is all that you would expect to experience at a Trappist Monastery but that we saw absolutely no one was unexpected.  We DID arrive at a time when no one was scheduled in reception, but posted signs showed us the way to the chapel and, of course, for the traveler, the all important restroom.  Below is a little taste of the paradise we found.  There are no signs that we saw announcing its presence so, if you ever happen to be in the vicinity of Waynesboro, VA, do a google search and you will be shown the way.

Approaching through the rain