Yesterday I did a silly post on FB on having to run an errand, adding how I never go anyplace, and so on. It was meant as a joke. Later, when I thought about it, I was a little embarrassed, since it was kind of true. I really do live a rather quiet, withdrawn life.
Since I couldn't be a proper pilgrim-recluse like Benedict Joseph Labre, and since I wasn't able to be a Carthusian, I still always wanted to live that sort of life as closely as possible. So I live an ordinary life, as if my house and yard is a little hermitage. I pray as much as I can - especially now since I am retired, and in imitation of the desert fathers, I paint. They made baskets of course, but it's similar - work with my hands joined to prayer. Likewise, I garden. Now I take care of a friend as well - which is a great gift. So in a way, I'm living my dream, as odd and imperfect as it is. It is a surprising grace.
I love the Immaculate Conception, and want to live here ... in her ... forever. She is my paradise upon earth. I have no need to go elsewhere.
Isn't she lovely?!
ReplyDeleteI think your life sounds pretty good, too, in a very Franciscan way (even if you wanted to be a Carthusian!) My good St. Francis was an outgoing, charismatic man, but he also spent half his time alone with God, quietly. He loved Assisi very much. I feel certain he took time to beautify his space with a peaceful Italian garden, maybe with herbs like lavender and rosemary to honor Our Lady, lemon, orange, and olive trees, and medicinal plants to aid his poor lepers. And he was certainly an artist and worker when he sang so beautifully and rebuilt chapels. I think my good St. Francis would be at home with you, and so would Jesus and His Mother.
Warmest Franciscan blessings and peace to you, dear Terry - Susan, OFS
Thanks very much. Blessings upon you too.
Deletewww.divineoffice.org
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteYou are blessed indeed. I look forward to retirement soon. My hope and prayer is to attend daily Mass, volunteer with the Carmelites once again (like I once did so many years ago), have more time to help my mom and plan for long visits with family to Arizona and Mexico.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I owe! I owe! So off to work I go!
San Jose, keep me strong and keep me close so I may live to seek the Lord's will in all I do. Amen
Good St. Joseph be with Yaya!
DeleteI think of you as an Urban Hermit, your penance includes living in the city.
ReplyDeleteI used to think of myself like that too, but now I don't.
DeleteZhou are though, showing us that its possible to focus on God, even in a modern city, with all of its corresponding distractions.
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ReplyDeleteFrom Msr Pope twitter
Enjoyable to watch, Traditionialists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=269&v=viyGvM3jObk
Just read The Secret of Mary for the second time, preceding my first actual go at total consecration - the big day is coming up soon. St Montfort describes Mary as a world.
ReplyDelete"Mary is God's garden of Paradise, his own unspeakable world, into which his Son entered to do wonderful things, to tend it and to take his delight in it. He created a world for the wayfarer, that is, the one we are living in. He created a second world - Paradise - for the Blessed. He created a third for himself, which he named Mary. She is a world unknown to most mortals here on earth. Even the angels and saints in heaven find her incomprehensible, and are lost in admiration of a God who is so exalted and so far above them, so distant from them, and so enclosed in Mary, his chosen world, that they exclaim: "Holy, holy, holy" unceasingly."
I want to live in Mary too!
I was just reading about Venerable Anne de Guigné, a saintly child who died around age 11 in 1922. There were no extraordinary manifestations in her life, just a powerful resolve, after her father died, to draw closer to God - ever more each day, it seems. Jesus is so good.