The Sacred Space of the Mind

Memory, Imagination, Anticipation

Moma MIA

 

 

Sanctity depends on an attentive presence to people, things and events.  Placing the every day moments before Jesus and Re-membering that Jesus wants to be my filter eludes me, most of the time.   I can begin recalling and then re-membering my life in Christ to the every day moments of life by reverencing the reality that time and space is desecrated or made Sacred by habits of maintenance such as maintaining the Sacred Space in a room, by keeping it beautiful.  On exiting a room I can ask myself , "Is there something I can do to leave this room more beautiful than when I came." 

 Today I have an occasion to reflect on the imagination.  The same applies.  If I can not think well of someone, then Jesus is the one I should fill my mind with. If I am worried about an event or a combination of persons, events and things and or circumstances.... Jesus is the ONLY one who can save a situation, a heart, He restores all our 'stores'. Our store of patience, compassion, forgiveness, etc.  


Fr. Adrian van Kaam gifted us with the articulation of MIA.  The purpose of our Memory is to serve our salvation. We remember where we have been, we remember salvation history for all humanity.  Our memory should serve the virtues of Faith and Hope.   Imagination can serve the virtue of compassion and future opportunities for grace, and avoidance of sin.  For instance, remembering a certain situation tends to illicit anger in my heart and my imagination tends to go where it shouldn't go.  If I expect a similar situation in my future, I can Anticipate making a conscious effort to call on the Holy Trinity to adjust my behavior, "SAVE ME, Jesus give me a new perspective." or avoiding all together occasions of sin. 


So how do I apply the MIA of my mind?  Jesus come with me and transform my interior to be sacred!   Christopher West, scholar of the JPII Theology of the Body, expanded my view of what Jesus meant when he told us that He came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Christopher tells us that it would be insane to make a specific law "thou shalt not murder your wife." most people don't need that law, because they have no desire to murder their wife.  So too, Jesus came to FILL our hearts with Him, that we have no desire to lust, or steal or break any commandment!   What a beautiful thought.  I know this to be true for me for many of the commandments.  There are some things I do not desire to do at ALL!  I never feel the need to steal.  I believe God will provide all my needs. But I do have to be very careful with time and events.  I have to check myself, am I trying to steal time or attention from moment to moment from others. 

MIA comes to the rescue. Jesus call to mind when my imagination running wild, leaving me in fear and doubt, anxious and afraid?  What, when and where, Jesus,  am I not allowing you to fill my heart?  Where do I live in doubt of your providence, your love, and your mercy? Let me see where I need to clean/ surrendering to you the interior of my soul and allow you to remain there transforming it to Sacred Space in which you wish to dwell.  Make it my habit Jesus that you dwell in my imagination in Faith Hope and Love.



Death: Potential for Living

The pictures I post here are a sampling of souls who have gone on before us.  With every "See you in a while." I have been profoundly reminded how Spiritually wealthy we would all be if we surrendered to the formative graces offered us in each passing. Saints and saints, and angels surround us always, but when someone dies, in our vulnerable grief we turn our thoughts and hopes toward the window of eternity, in many cases the turning toward that window infuses us with hope.  

Dave's Aunt Doris and Uncle Kelsey

Several years ago we went to the memorial celebration of Dave's Uncle Kelsey.  We did NOT know this family very well.  We went to visit them one weekend around 1993 and only saw Doris and her son once again when Dave's Mother passed. We knew this family was VERY special and didn't want to miss Kelsey's memorial celebration.  Doris was still alive when Kelsey passed, though she was experiencing some dimentia.  I will never forget gathering with Kelsey's family and friends.  It was beautiful!  Heaven is tangible in moments like these family gatherings when everyone takes a a few hours of "Awe" in honor of the image of God; in this case it was Kelsey, who goes before us into Eternity!

When Larry Salvatore died October 18, 1982, his daughter was on her knees praying and he appeared to her outside the window in a brown robe as if a Franciscan.  He told her to go tell her Mother, Ramona, that he was risen.  Later the Lillies outside that window bloomed.. in late fall.

All of us felt renewed with hope, our loss was turned to rejoicing.

When family members are materialist, it can get ugly and various deformative ways.  Charles Dickens portrays ugly in A Christmas Carol.; the women are discussing the fine bed linens that have been stripped off Scrooges bed, still warm.    I have suffered that kind of death too.  Not that I have known a Scrooge, I knew those women.  One cousin I will leave un-named, spent the time the family was at the funeral and reception, stripping my Grandmother's apartment.  She had begun while Grandma was still alive in the hospital.  Things that she didn't have time to cart away, she stripped of the name written on the bottom of the item my grandmother wished the item to go to.  Funny that my other Grandmother wrote names on things too.  I guess it is a tradition or something.

When family members refuse to grant the wishes of the deceased, it is an act of unlove, disrespecting the freedom God gave the person in life, in their death.  It aborts a good will that could have been extended to make up for something unknown in life.  It hurts the whole community, that one good will could have led to many others.    In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Jane's Aunt almost went to her grave with a lie that would have prevented the Will of an Uncle of Jane's to be carried out.  The Aunt fessing up, united Jane to her cousins through Jane's generosity.  Her Aunt was so willful in life, it was a miracle that she let go of the secret near death. 

My Dad took us by the hand and showed us how to behave when we were close to death.  My mother had leukemia and he gathered us together to pray the rosary for several weeks on Friday nights.  It brought our family together in a way we had not known since we were very young. My parents divorced when I was five.  Dad was awesome and gave us life and hope with the gift of prayer.

My mother died with a lot of collections that ended up being dispersed amongst the family.  And then passed around over the years. A lot of it was a burden that we had to unload to charity, I was young and didn't know how to plan for the future.   It was a time consuming project.  I don't want my children to go through that process when I die. 

When my mother in-law was very sick, I wanted to be with her as she died, but I had a 9 week old child and didn't think I could get away for that event.  I had a premonition of when I should return after a visit, and I wish I had begun to plan for it right then. She did indeed die two weeks after we had visited her. For the family left behind we were so happy to be gathering together.  It was a beautiful time.  Many of us took advantage of the Confessional that Fr. Rory Pitstick opened up before Mass.  It was wonderful to see so many make use of it before receiving communion.   A few months later much of the family gathered to say goodbye to Dada.  The same love, and mercy surrounded us then.

After the death of one of my Maternal Uncles, the last remaining Aunt of the family suggested we stay for the reading of the will.  I didn't think we needed to do that, but my sister felt we should.  The lawyer who read it to us told us that she had only seen a reading of the will done in movies.  It felt like a movie.  My Uncle had no children of his own but loved the nieces and nephews that he was able to get to know, and left them each a generous gift.  My sister, brother, I and 7 other cousins were gifted.

I have a lot of stories...I am thinking of them because the recent death in the paternal side, we will be gathering as a family again for a Rosary and funeral Mass.  I am looking forward to another view into the window of eternity.  Joy!



Fr. Adrian van Kaam Spring 2007 with partial class of 2008.



French Children Eat EVERYTHING! 
Manners in the Mannino House vs. Attachment Parenting

 

We have been struggling with manners for a long time.  Last weekend a visiting, beloved family member got the "What are you doing here?" usually saved for the (feigned unwelcome) male visitor in the convent, but had become an ugly habit.  I have been telling myself "I have no control over their free will." Love and logic doesn't work if you don't have a reasonable measure of either.  I am now picking myself off the floor of shame and dusting myself off with the help of Karen Le Billon, who  has experienced her share of embarrassment over her attachment to emotion based parenting.

Karen Le Billon's book showed up in our library probably a year ago when her book was first published.  I ignored it on the "new shelf", thinking as I passed it, "I am so done discussing food, or thinking of ways to get the family to eat it all."   After Sunday night I went to the library via the Internet and one  of the "manners" books that came up on my subject search was this one.  I put it on hold just to look.

Karen and her husband Phillipe moved their family to France for a year.  Her daughters; Sophie and Claire are picky eaters.  Karen is committed to 'attachment parenting', which gives more value to a child's inquisitiveness and choices than to the practicality of eating what is put in front of you.   I have been in this category of parenting styles since Clara was born, 22 years ago. 

She journals her movement from indulgent/authoritarian, to firm, gentle, authoritative EATER, then parent.   My story is not her story, but I was raised in "North America" as well.  She hails from Vancouver BC, and posits that our culture in North America is obsessed with food.  Either fighting to control our eating habits or indulging them; using food as a toy, entertainment, reward or emotional consolation.  I was raised this way!   In France, it seems that Parents find their ground in the culture of food.  It is sacramental, nourishing the body and the soul by the rhythm by which it is received;  when, where, how and why, dictate the rules in the training of the stomach. We discover relaxation, joy, and communion with one another through the practice of respecting this rhythm. The celebration of life at the table inspires civility in the family, naturally.     Tonight we have my favorite meal, (Tai Turkey burgers)  I don't know how everyone else is going to behave, or enjoy, but I am looking forward to the experience and the practice of being a firm, gentle, authoritive parent at the dinner table and beyond!  Thank you very much Karen.  I will post more on this later.