My family and I chatted a while, uttered a prayer to dispel the darkness and then parted company. I hurried to get my bloods taken in Docter’s surgery (routine checkup). In the waiting room wonderful conversation took place between the elderly gentleman, woman and me.
Woman, noticing my cross and chain asked if I believed in ‘prayer’, she herself ‘wasn’t so sure’. After some time and much gentle open sharing I offered them both my prayer. Gentleman asked if I would read it aloud to him as he did not have his glasses with him, afterwards placing it in his pocket. Lady too accepted my prayer joyfully.
Holy Mass next and young man came and sat near me. Yes, you guessed it! he accepted my prayer too, laughingly halfheartedly. ‘Keep it for now’, I suggested ‘and who knows, some fine day you might even pray it’. He placed it in his pocket too.
Thing is! Had I permitted unpleasantness which had occurred earlier, settle in my bones, had I ferried rude lady along in my heart as I went about my day, all joy would be dried up and I would have been too addled to notice or care about the beautiful people I had the privilege of encountering.
My afternoon with dear Sheila who bravely endures Alzheimers would have been ruined too while instead, our time together joyful, prayerful and fun filled.
‘When you are really agitated and angry, don’t do what you are thinking of doing because you are being counselled by demons’. (St. Ignatius of Loyola)
I know of course that without gentle strength of Jesus Christ as He walks beside me every inch of my life journey I would fail abysmally every time, of that I am quite certain. Gazing on the always merciful Holy Face of Jesus, resting in my deepest heart, before making one false move, asking: ‘What would you do Jesus?’, grants me pause, shifts my gaze and changes everything. ‘I know my Redeemer lives’. (Job 19:25)
Wiping the dust off my feet I then walk on unhindered in the Gladsome Light of Jesus Christ.
‘Let us show that we are Christians! Let us live the Gospel so that others can touch it. We are weak, sinful and unimportant. We must try to live the Gospel with our lives’. (Servant of God Catherine Doherty)
I am reminded right now of a lady I met one time on retreat. I noticed written on her charming shoes plainly for all to see; ‘Peace in the world’. She told me that she dwelled beside an extremely unreasonable neighbour and things had gotten so bad that she had no choice but consult her solicitor re what her options might be. The lady worked in a Charity Shop and very soon after that, one day someone dropped in a pair of shoes to be resold. The lady looked at what was written on the shoes (Peace in the world), purchased them for herself and there and then rang her solicitor calling off all plans of retribution. Her neighbour did not change but the lady’s heart softened. Wonderful Holy Spirit intervened.🕊
‘Oh Jesus, You who suffer, grant that today and every day I may be able to see you in the person of your sick ones, and that by offering them my care, I may serve you. Grant that, even if you are hidden under the unattractive disguise of anger, of crime, or of mental illness, I may recognise you and say; ‘Jesus, you who suffer, how sweet it is to serve you....Lord increase my faith. Bless my efforts and my work, now and forever. Amen’. (St. Mother Teresa)
‘Charity is the form, mover, mother and root of all the virtues’. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
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