Joy of the Lord

I love when you can tell in a speaker's face and tone of voice that they have the "Joy of the Lord".  Fr. Barron recently had a video response to someone asking about how to get joy and he said it comes from the beauty and truth of the Catholic faith.

I don't disagree with him, but think more so it comes from the Holy Spirit active in one's soul such that one is aware how much God the Father loves us, to have not spared his Beloved Son, and how much Jesus the Son of God loves us so as to become our ransom.

Can't understand why or how it had to be this way, but the love is clear, and the mercy as well.  The Catholic faith, founded by Jesus, upon the rock that is Peter teaches us the Gospel truth that "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  John 3:16

What else does the Catholic faith teach us?  What do we learn from our saints?

I think we learn that the joy of the Lord comes from relationship.

Relationship.

Lent is about the three disciplines - prayer, fasting, and almsgiving . . . but the reason for them, what is it?  Is it reparation for our sins and the sins of others that were the reason Jesus had to leave the glory of heaven and become incarnate, suffer the cruelty and the most painful torments and death?  Yes, but more so it is reparation in love of God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit that creates us anew and transforms us with divine love to more closely resemble our Savior.

Love because we are loved more than we can grasp.  Love because the one who loves us is closer than our breath.  He is near.  He is here.

Love Him!  Hear the saints, angels, prophets, martyrs . . . hear his Holy Mother tell you to love Him.  Love Him and love him in others, because he is pretty clear about that in Matthew 25: 31-46, but also because Blessed Mother Teresa has taught us that he is there in the poorest of the poor.

Please pray with me that God's grace would be in abundance during these 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting and Almsgiving, that we might all grow closer in communion with God, that our relationship with God would deepen.  Our love for Christ would be more tender, and our gratitude and service directed toward serving Him, and that we would leave anxiety behind and replace it, through the grace of God, with trust in God's Providence and Power.  May we find Him often in scripture, in the Sacraments of Holy Eucharist, and Confession, and in prayer unceasing.  May we converse and listen.  May we show love to Him by showing love to those in our homes and in our workplaces and churches.

Jesus says that one who welcomes a child welcomes him.
"Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me." Mark 9:37

Pray also that many women, many parents whether their child is planned or unplanned, a perceived blessing,  or a frightening crisis, that they will welcome the child on Christ's behalf, welcoming Him, and depending on God in his Providence to provide for them and the child.

If you are going to be praying anyway, why not join us one day a month, or more often praying outside an abortion clinic.  Join us now during the 40 Days Campaign, but consider joining us even after it concludes as well.  We know from Abby Johnson, former Planned Parenthood manager, that the number of no-show appointments increases by 75% when there are people outside the clinics praying.  So please, pray!  Sometimes you hear about "saves" but we won't know until heaven the number of mothers who drove by when they saw people outside praying, and what the Holy Spirit's grace did inside of her heart to help her find an alternative -  to either find God's help through a crisis pregnancy center, or if she felt so led, to give her child for adoption.

Personally I didn't plan to be out there it just "kind of happened".  I feel really compelled to be out there now.  It has an intensity to it.  Other things I do are intense - my job, coaching high school basketball  . . . but this intensity seems more focused, more in line with what God wants me to be doing on a given Saturday morning.  Sometimes I regret getting so worked up about a basketball game or a blown call inside of a basketball game, but I never regret the intensity of emotion, prayer and simple presence outside of a clinic, even though someone recently told me it was "an incredibly cruel thing to do".

The irony is not hard to find on that one, is it?

The Holy Spirit and 40 Days for Life

Been pro-life for as long as I remember, but never attended a Washington, D.C. or San Francisco march, never prayed in front of an abortion clinic, before today.  I've attended late night adoration and prayer vigils before, I recently did a pro-life post, and I regularly pray on my own for this intention, but today was the first day I actually went to an abortion center and prayed on sidewalk beside the center's parking lot.

The announcement was made at Church the last two weeks, and I was worried we wouldn't have a big contingent, not because the majority of us aren't pro-life.  I wouldn't be surprised if all of us that attend Divine Liturgy there are pro-life, because both our priests are unabashedly pro-life from the pulpit, so if you weren't you probably wouldn't attend there.  We are a very small parish.  We don't have a Respect Life committee (well before today), we have a Respect Life - Guy.  He is probably in his 70s, retired, and he's Irish like I am, but married a Ukrainian, and went with his wife's rite--Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic (full union with Rome, and the Pope is our Pope too!), although he's also a Knight of Columbus.

Several times a year he has a battery operated megaphone going in the basement around elections or when there are pro-abortion bills going through the Illinois state legislature so we can do phone and letter campaigns.

This same gentleman also has the sign-up to ensure we have one parishioner offering a holy hour in church every day of the month in front of the Blessed Sacrament, with the primary intention being an end to abortion, although I tend to add, "through the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus!"  

The first time I signed up for a Holy Hour I asked if I could offer it in the Catholic parish close to my home, and he said it was much preferred to offer it there in our Church.  He gave me the secret numeric code to the side door (it is secret but also amazingly easy to remember) so I could come in to pray for my holy hour, or any time I need to pray.  I am a bit indebted to him for this, as are my family and friends, whether they know it or not!  They can thank him in heaven!  I love praying alone in an empty church in front of the tabernacle!  I posted about that in Prostrate before God.

I talked with him the past two Sundays about what date might work for the vigil participation.  I even told him Wednesday might work well, because my husband is off on Wednesday. So guess what day he picks, Wednesday, today, 11/2/11.

I've been way, way sleep deprived this week.  I have the usual full-time job, the 4 kids, the homework--quite intense from the private Christian school, and now I have a head coaching job for the JV and Varsity Girls High School basketball teams.  As I mentioned in my post about the Jabez prayer, I saw this as the Lord answering my prayer to expand my territories, and bless me indeed, but it is really stretching me!  I've had insomnia last couple of nights--the kind when you are praying the rosary, the Jesus prayer, and just praying not to see the clock have the 3 in the hour slot the next time you look at it.  

This morning was the day of our Parish's prayer vigil at the clinic.  I thought it would be a several hour appointment.  I was going into work late, and would be leaving work early to lead the basketball practice.  There really wasn't time in the day to shoot off for a few hours in downtown Chicago to pray at a clinic, or was there?

I prayed, "Lord, if you want me to go, please let me know.  You could say it if you want, or have my guardian angel tell me if you like.  I don't know how I can do it.  I don't want to let you down, or the Respect Life guy down either."

When I was in work for about 20 minutes, my husband called.  He wasn't at home like he usually is on Wednesday.  I told him about the vigil in front of the clinic.

His response, "I'm at work today.  I've got to get some stuff done.  This is just another example of us not having enough time to do the things we really should do."

Five minutes later, the head of the Parish Council, another, second Irish man in his 70s, who married a Ukrainian woman and now attends the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic rite church, calls me.

"Colleen are you going down there with us today?"

He's called me one time before in the almost 5 years I've been going to this parish.

"We are going to leave right before 11, stay for an hour and then come back."

Turns out he had insomnia last night too, so any thought I might have that I don't need extra errands the second day after not sleeping well went away.

There was another married couple there who was going in a separate car.  So it was the two Irish guys in the front and me behind.  Isn't that something three Irish people from Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church?

Second amazing thing, I have a bipolar Mom that was abusive toward my Father during her manic periods, and one of the gentlemen has a bipolar wife that is abusive toward him right now, and that is where the insomnia came from.  I suspected this, as in a small parish there aren't really secrets as far as home situations, but I mentioned about my Dad when they pointed out the refuge center for abused women.  I asked, "Where is the center for the abused husbands?"  My Dad would sneak out and sleep in his mini-van behind the local strip mall during some of the bad nights.

We got to the center and parked.  There is a Catholic center across the street from the "Family Planning Associates" center on Elston Avenue in Chicago where abortions are carried out up to "23.5 weeks".

There was a lady there from another Immaculate Conception Parish in Chicago.  She was staying until 2.  We were only staying an hour, until 12:30.

We prayed the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, the Chaplet, and then some of the prayers, scripture passages, and Litany of the Sacred Heart in the prayer book they had there in a waterproof bin for our use.  One of the neighbors came out and was praying around the corner from us.  

It was beautiful!  The sun came out shortly after we prayed the 2nd Glorious Mystery, The Ascension, and the temperature was about 65°.

There were a couple of women across the street from us that were singing something in a way that seemed like it was combative, but I don't think they were familiar with how long it takes to pray a rosary, because their singing only lasted for 2 or 3 mysteries.

It was sad to be so close to where so many innocent children are killed.  I have no taste for looking at pictures of aborted babies, with heightened sensitivites to being so close to where some of the abortions occurred today.  When I started this post and looked up the center, I went looking for an ultrasound for a baby at 23.5 weeks.  I found the blog of a Mom who gave birth to a baby at 23.5 weeks with comments from other parents of premies.  I was even less wanting to find some 3D ultrasound showing a baby in utero at that age.

We finished by singing "Immaculate Mary" because I wanted to, despite one of our number saying immediately beforehand, "I'll pray but I WON'T sing!"  Turns out she did sing, but who could not sing that song?  To get her to sing I mentioned since we were from two parishes named in honor of the Immaculate Conception, so we pretty much needed to end by singing that song.

After hugging our new friend, who liked the Respect Life group from our Parish, that we didn't know we had, we made it back to our church parking lot, 2 minutes before my 1 p.m. conference call that I took from our Church's basement (recreation hall).  

The Lord spoke to me, it was audible, through my husband and my friends from Church.  It was actually pretty clear.  As I reflect on the number of things that strike me today, it is clear the Holy Spirit was at work leading me.  My prayer in the car was answered.  I had no time, but the Lord made time for me to do what he wanted me to do, and things went well once I returned to work and also at the basketball practice.

Please keep praying as part of the 40 Days Campaign, which is wrapping up this Sunday, November 6, 2011.