This morning, I woke up and did not hear God tell me that He wanted me to live Through Him, With Him, and In Him. Or maybe I wanted to hear Him tell me He wanted to live through me, with me and in me. :(
After practicing some French...in bed. A trip to Facebook, and then the store, the washing machine and outside to hang things....breakfast with Dave...and then I remembered and went back to bed.
I looked at the Crucifix on our wall.....and the ceiling made of 2 inch wide boards I sanded over 6 times to prepare for installation. Then the Crucifix again. I opened my Magnificat , and began to say my morning prayers. I find it is St. Benedicts feast day. The man of Prayer, Work and Study. His Rule says "get up in the morning when you open your eyes". Among other things. Oh.....I look at the crucifix again. Jesus was available for me at 6:30, and again at 8:00. The 8:00 appointment could have happened at three different parishes all within a 5 minutes of my home. Not only would I have heard it, I would have been given the physical means for accomplishing this Great Mystery.
Last summer, a priest told me I needed to believe that God loves me. How does one do that? It isn't a doing thing. It is a being very interior and in fact I think Quiet! I lay there now looking at the boards I sanded full length one summer, only to have to do it again the next, after they wintered outside. How do I really love you God. By being available? ...being with?....saying so?.....giving service to others?....gifting others with time talent and needed, and not so needed material goods?
Faith....Hope...Love.... I don't feel loved right now. I don't feel important or needed. I feel "in the way". It doesn't matter what I feel.
I would like David to believe me when I tell him he needs to eat. I would like him to believe me so much that he can stomach things he believes to be icky to him.
I would like it if only..... Oh there is the "IF ONLY..." Fallacy! Caught you Satan.
"I can TRUST YOU Jesus!" "I Can quietly believe that you love me and that all things will work out!" Not to, would be foolish, it is a beautiful day in the neighborhood!!
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Intimacy Part II
The Communication of the Five Love Languages
Introvert/ Extrovert
Gifting Receiving Formation
Quiet
Seeking and Finding
In early 2011 I ordered a CD of a talk given at the Northwest Catholic home School conference of 2010. Sculpting Your Communication Muscles given by Tina Crosby. I listened and then gave away her talk to my two college attending daughters who in turn shared with friends resulting in lively discussions and practice of the communication muscles.
Here are the "Communication Muscles"
1. Direct: says what is clear and directly. Example: the child in "the Emperors New Clothes".
2. Narrative: Narration is formation, Narratives tell stories and drive direct and logical communicators crazy because they take so long to get to the point, and sometimes forget the point.
3. Logic: from point a. to b. to c.
4. Empathetic: listeners.
When I filter Tina's talk through all the other wisdom I have been hearing lately I hear her say that intimacy can be found when we employ, not one, but all the communication muscles, exercising them regularly, hearing how others communicate, and the practice of appreciation for others' strengths.
Susan Cain Author of "Quiet"
My daughter Karen attended St. Thomas the Apostle parish in Grand Rapids . In 2012 she heard these homilies on Intimacy. A persons understanding of intimacy can really mess up the ability to communicate with others effectively. In the same way that a bad prescription in a pr. of glasses must be corrected by an optometrist, our understanding of intimacy must be transformed and transfigured by Christ. In the intimacy of my union with Christ, every relationship I have can be brought to the Holy Trinity. The practice of bringing my relationships to God gives me faith, hope and Love for those persons, the event-ual results are unimportant to me, outside of the fact that EVERY relationship we have with others, is a means of Sanctity, our friends, our family, those we like and those we have no affinity for.
Fr. Chelich and Tina Crosby inspire this petition: "God, give me the grace to know and give ear to you, speaking to the best Man in me, even when the person delivering the message, is not skilled at communicating, for so often, communciation is not MY best skill!"
Like Dr. Susan Muto in the quote below, our seeking and finding intimacy with the Lord, He transforms and transfigures not only my own heart but the heart of beloved friends and relatives (and maybe an enemy or two ). I must entrust to him in the context of my intimate prayer and surrender; an acknowledgment of not understanding God's ways, and admitting to "not knowing what is in a persons heart", receiving the consolation from God, that he 'thirsts for (my) expressions of Faith Hope and Love'. In that entrusting, I become more clearly the person he has created me to be, from all eternity. The hidden Jesus comes courageously in view. Friendships and marriages and all other relationships have the potential for transformation in that kind of light.
Here are the "Communication Muscles"
1. Direct: says what is clear and directly. Example: the child in "the Emperors New Clothes".
2. Narrative: Narration is formation, Narratives tell stories and drive direct and logical communicators crazy because they take so long to get to the point, and sometimes forget the point.
3. Logic: from point a. to b. to c.
4. Empathetic: listeners.
When I filter Tina's talk through all the other wisdom I have been hearing lately I hear her say that intimacy can be found when we employ, not one, but all the communication muscles, exercising them regularly, hearing how others communicate, and the practice of appreciation for others' strengths.
Susan Cain Author of "Quiet"
My daughter Karen attended St. Thomas the Apostle parish in Grand Rapids . In 2012 she heard these homilies on Intimacy. A persons understanding of intimacy can really mess up the ability to communicate with others effectively. In the same way that a bad prescription in a pr. of glasses must be corrected by an optometrist, our understanding of intimacy must be transformed and transfigured by Christ. In the intimacy of my union with Christ, every relationship I have can be brought to the Holy Trinity. The practice of bringing my relationships to God gives me faith, hope and Love for those persons, the event-ual results are unimportant to me, outside of the fact that EVERY relationship we have with others, is a means of Sanctity, our friends, our family, those we like and those we have no affinity for.
Fr. Chelich and Tina Crosby inspire this petition: "God, give me the grace to know and give ear to you, speaking to the best Man in me, even when the person delivering the message, is not skilled at communicating, for so often, communciation is not MY best skill!"
Like Dr. Susan Muto in the quote below, our seeking and finding intimacy with the Lord, He transforms and transfigures not only my own heart but the heart of beloved friends and relatives (and maybe an enemy or two ). I must entrust to him in the context of my intimate prayer and surrender; an acknowledgment of not understanding God's ways, and admitting to "not knowing what is in a persons heart", receiving the consolation from God, that he 'thirsts for (my) expressions of Faith Hope and Love'. In that entrusting, I become more clearly the person he has created me to be, from all eternity. The hidden Jesus comes courageously in view. Friendships and marriages and all other relationships have the potential for transformation in that kind of light.
Have a joyous Ash Wednesday, and praying for your faithful perseverance.
What matters is the deepening of our relationship with our Lord and in the light of that mysterious intimacy all else eventually works itself out. ~~Susan Muto~~
What matters is the deepening of our relationship with our Lord and in the light of that mysterious intimacy all else eventually works itself out. ~~Susan Muto~~
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