It's a rather quiet weekend here. Faith's fever is gone. Thank you for your prayers. Just a lingering cough now. I am hopeful she will be healthy to travel next weekend.
I was looking around Amazon this week for some Lenten reading. Nothing looked good -- all same-old-same- old. I finally came across Richard Maffeo's Lessons Along the Journey and it's good Lenten reading. Not too deep but real. Good real life situations in which the author shows how God works through us and with us. For some reason I am attracted to Jewish turned Catholic stories, like St. Teresea Benedicta, and Sister Rosalind Moss. It's not a long book, but something good to pick up every day, at least for a week or so. I got it for .99 on my Kindle -- certainly well worth the money.
Reading yesterday, I came across this story about one of my favorite spiritual songs, and I wanted to share. The author shared it himself on his blog, so I am not giving anything away for free. ;-) It's a very moving story of incredible faith in God.
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"Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on him while he is near (Isaiah 55:6).
Smoke swirled through the streets of Jerusalem. A woman shrieked as the Babylonian soldier pulled the blood-soaked sword from a man’s belly, and then thrust it into hers. Soldiers ripped babies from their mothers’ arms and flung them against stone walls. Devastation swallowed Jerusalem as Nebuchadnezzar’s army ravaged the city.
With grief clutching his throat, Jeremiah wrote what some might call lunacy: “The favors of the Lord are not exhausted, His mercies are not spent; they are renewed each morning, so great is His faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).
Anyone looking over Jeremiah's shoulder as he wrote would have screamed, “Are you mad? Look around you, Jeremiah! Blood covers our streets. Children lie dead with their parents, and you talk about God’s mercies?”
It would have been a reasonable accusation.
But was the Jeremiah mad, or did he have something that I – and perhaps you – need?
Horatio Spafford could answer that question. His faith in God persevered despite the tragedies that ripped into his soul. Early in 1871, he lost his only son to illness. Four months later, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed his business. Two years later, his wife, and daughters booked passage on a ship bound for England. During the voyage, the vessel collided with another ship and sank. Spafford’s daughters were among those drowned.
Spafford immediately booked passage for England to join his grieving wife. When the ship reached the vicinity of the accident, he stood on the deck and wrote a hymn Christians around the world still sing. You might recognize some of the lyrics: When peace, like a river, attendeth my way/when sorrows like sea billows roll/ whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say/‘It is well, it is well with my soul.’
Perseverance. Confidence in God. Devotion to our King despite tragedy. Mature men and women of God understand there are no shortcuts to the kind of spiritual strength that keep us faithful despite personal heartache. For that reason the Church teaches us such perseverance blossoms only through the grace of God as we seek Christ each day in the pages of Holy Scripture, listening for His voice in attentive prayer, worship, and -- if you are a Catholic -- regularly meeting Him at Mass and in the Sacraments. It is not an either-or thing. It is a combination of each, a combination which gave spiritual strength, for example, to St. Terese of Lisieux who wrote just before she died at the young age of 24: “Everything is a grace. Everything is the direct effect of our Father's love - difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul's miseries, her burdens, her needs - everything. Because through them she learns humility, realizes her weakness. Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events, to the heart that loves, all is well.”
That’s the kind of relationship we all need with God. And that’s the relationship God wants with us.
Isn't it only prudent that we learn to seek God now, and not when life is crumbling?"
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This song always makes me cry, but in a really good way.
Thank you for the lead. What a blessing it must be to see so clearly God's work in one's life and to have the ability to share that with others. I look forward to reading more of his blog and his book.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, I just discovered your comment about my blog and book. Thank you so much. It is always nice to know some of what we say is helpful to others.
ReplyDeleteRich
I am always driven to an examination of conscience when I hear that song. Thank you! --- Rosemary
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