Divine Mercy
Unrequited Love
A mother’s heart knows nothing outside of love. What is love, then?
Holding Patterns
“The Lord upholds me.” As I reflect on the biblical passages that reveal God’s ultimate and divine protection, I do not fear the darkness.
Isaiah 41:10 “For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand, who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’”
How many times have I been helped by my own son? By my own daughter? Countless. Because sometimes I am wrong and sometimes I am still learning and sometimes time is limited and the noise of life takes over. Sometimes the exhaustion is so heavy that I no longer know what is up and what is down. And sometimes, I just don’t know any better. But even here, my words and actions become like living matter; I move myself outside myself in order to see myself. Every time I react to my children in ways that reflect something unresolved within me, rather than what they actually need from me, I am given an opportunity to see my own face. My hurt becomes theirs. I yell, and their eyes swell. And then, on a random—divinely inspired—occasion, they will curiously look at me and ask, “Mom, who holds you when you cry?”
Children exhibit no fear upon entering this world—only wonder. They are curious little creatures with a profound sense of instinctual and intuitive knowing that God is Boss. How, then, do innocent children grow into frightened adults? How do we—the human race—become so instilled with fear that we become still? And not in the way that God asks us to “Be Still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)
Love is a Madness
In John 3:16, we read that “For God so loved the world he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” In John 10:30, we read that “I and the Father are One.”
As Catholics, we celebrate August 15 as the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. In this, we believe that Mary—the Mother of God—was assumed, body and soul, into heaven.
For God so loved the world.