Perspective

I've been thinking a lot lately about this life I've been given.  Overall, I've been pretty happy about it ... there's plenty to be grateful for, lots of good things, good kids, good husband ...house, car ...GOD ...the most critical element, really.  Perspective is important ...keeping life in focus maintains balance, nurtures wholeness ...growth.  There are days when I find that hard, some days ...terribly hard, if not impossible.  I've lost Phoebe ...but I still have her.  She'll never leave me, I know this now.  Yet, she did choose to leave me, and I don't mean in a 'considered' way ...impulsively she left.  What if it were reversed?  What if I left her, left any of my kids ...what would happen to them?  How would they fare?  You know I trust God, His plan ...so I know they would be alright.  But it would be pretty hard for them in many ways.  I don't want to leave them.  I'm grateful I don't have anything that prompts me to worry about that.  But, sadly, some moms do worry have that worry ... they hang on to every vital moment, every pulsing activity they have with their kids ...because their time may run out ...not by choice.  So as I read this today, it helped me with my own perspective ...helped me be glad for what I had ...and what I didn't.
http://www.incourage.me/2011/02/how-to-mend-all-your-broken-places.html

Pray for this mother ...this incredibly courageous and outrageously grateful woman.  I don't know anyone who would choose such a walk, but from the little glimpse we get here ...she walks with grace and gratitude.  What a blessing her example is to me ...a witness of pure love ...
I'll offer my own struggle for her this weekend, as she makes her way not knowing the ending, but still loving, still striving and fighting to live her motherhood for her children.  And I will pray hard for her ...and I so hope you will too.

Tonight I will offer the fourth Sorrowful mystery, the Carrying of the Cross, for all of your intentions.

Carrying the Cross: John 19:12-18
And from henceforth Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying: If thou release this man, thou art not Caesar's friend. For whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Caesar. Now when Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat, in the place that is called Lithostrotos, and in Hebrew Gabbatha. And it was the parasceve of the pasch, about the sixth hour, and he saith to the Jews: Behold your king. But they cried out: Away with him; away with him; crucify him. Pilate saith to them: Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered: We have no king but Caesar. Then therefore he delivered him to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him forth. And bearing his own cross, he went forth to that place which is called Calvary, but in Hebrew Golgotha. Where they crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side, and Jesus in the midst.

Let us meditate upon Jesus Christ on the way to Calvary laden with His cross. He falls under the weight of this burden. To expiate sin, He wills to experience in His own flesh the oppression of sin. Fearing that Jesus will not reach the place of crucifixion alive, the Jews force Simon of Cyrene to help Christ to carry His cross, and Jesus accepts this assistance.

In this Simon represents all of us. As members of the Mystical Body of Christ, we should all help Jesus to carry His Cross. This is the one sure sign that we belong to Christ--if we carry our cross with Him.

But while Jesus carried His cross, He merited for us the strength to bear our trials with generosity. He has placed in His cross a sweetness which makes ours bearable, for when we carry our cross it is really His that we receive. For Christ unites with His own the sufferings, sorrows, pains and burdens which we accept with love from His hand, and by this union He gives them an inestimable value, and they become a source of great merit for us.

It is above all His love for His Father which impels Christ to accept the sufferings of His Passion, but it is also the love which He bears us.  


Eternal rest grant unto Phoebe and may perpetual light shine upon her.  May she rest in peace.  Amen