Answered Prayers

I have a story to share about something that happened to me at work last night and I figured that you were the best audience to share it with.

I have always loved dancing. I like to dance by myself, or, without a partner. I don’t feel very confident in my ‘partner dancing’ skills and I would prefer to do my own thing and not worry about someone else throwing off my groove. Recently I have had a strong urge to dance. I get these urges often, but for the first time, I’ve wanted to dance with someone else. I want to twirl around the dance floor in a guy’s arms. Over the past week or so, I’ve listened to my music while imagining myself dancing with a guy.

Tonight I was at work. I work at a country club as a banquet server. I was clearing tables while drunken rich people were dancing on the floor and I was in a very bitter mood for numerous reasons. One, these people have money and I don’t. Two, these people were drunk and having a good time while I was stuck at work. Three, the bartender was mean to me when I went to get drinks for the members. Four, my coworkers were busy flirting, leaving me all alone. I didn’t want to feel this way. I didn’t want to be bitter or jealous because I knew the Lord wouldn’t want that. So, I sent up a little pray asking for help, asking Him to take away my bitter feelings.

A few songs later I was clearing a glass from a table when a slow song came on and one of the members dragged me onto the dance floor.

I was dancing. It was a two-step. I was smiling, genuinely smiling for the first time that night. My prayers had been answered and my bitterness vanished as I learned to two-step on the dance floor.

Four Things which Bring Much Peace

I think one of the hardest things to do is give up the 'created things' of this world in order to be closer to God because our society puts so much emphasis on material things and instant gratification. But, as I have discovered the hard way, these things ultimately don't make people happy. So when I found this passage in The Imitation of Christ, it really spoke to me:

"Send forth Thy light and Thy truth, that they may shine upon the earth; for I am as earth that is empty and void till Thou enlighten me.
Pour forth Thy grace from above, water my heart with the dew of Heaven; send down the waters of devotion to wash the face of this earth, to bring forth good and perfect fruit.
Lift up my mind, oppressed wtih the load of sins, and raise my whole desires towards heavenly things, that, having tasted the sweetness of the happiness above, I may have no pleasure in thinking of the things of the earth.
Draw me away and deliver me from all unstable comfort of creatures; for no created thing can fully quiet and satisfy my desires.
Join me to Thyself by an inseparable bond of love; for Thou alone canst satisfy the lover, and without Thee all other things are frivolous."

On Remembering Our Profound Dignity As God's Children:

I often find it difficult to understand my dignity.  Whether we have knowingly consented or not, we often accept that our value lies in our successes, gifts, virtues, and strengths; in the degree to which we are intelligent, productive, good, faithful, beautiful, and strong.  While these things reflect the goodness the Lord has given us and often signifies the presence of the Lord's life within us, they do not dictate our worth.  The truth is that in our mere existence is our dignity.  We are made in the image of God, and Christ has reclaimed for us the inheritance  being God's children.  So I encourage you to meditate on the dignity in being God's son or daughter.  Remember your profound and inalienable dignity - that the Lord made you, unique and unrepeatable.  Never forget the greatness the Lord had in mind when He called you into existence.

“Know yourself, said the Church, that is to say, know your nobility and your dignity, 
understand the greatness of your being and your vocation, of that vocation which 
constitutes your being.  Learn how to see in yourself the spirit, which is a reflection 
of God, made for God. ‘Oh man, scorn not that which is admirable in you! You are 
a poor thing in your own eyes, but I would teach you that in reality you are a great 
thing!...Realize what you are!  Consider your royal dignity! The heavens have not 
been made in God’s image as you have, nor the moon, nor the sun, nor anything 
to be seen in creation… Behold, of all that exists there is nothing that can contain 
your greatness.”   
Henri de Lubac 

"Follow Me"

From faith springs that obedience to God in his Church and the merit accruing to your souls, for which you can never be sufficiently thankful. This filial obedience to which the apostle exhorts us, "Let us serve, pleasing God with fear and reverence," our Redeemer himself has made the crowning proof of all his disciples; the sure bond of membership with his mystical body, the Church; the witness of union with him who is our head, our life, our salvation. For he has said - and are there any words of the Holy Writ more worthy of being written in letters of gold, or which should be more familiar to Christians? - "If you love me, keep my commandments. He that has my comandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. And he that loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. If any man loves me, he will keep my words and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make an abode with him. He that loves me not, keeps not my words. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; as I also have kept my Father's commandments, and do remain in his love. You are my friends, if you do the things I command you" (Jn 14: 15-24; 15: 10-14).

Such was the language, such were the thoughts of Jesus Christ on that last evening, when as the God-Man turning once more to his heavenly Father with the words "that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has given me commandment, so I do: arise, let me go hence." He bent his steps to the garden of Gethsemane, there to pour forth his prayers, his tears, his blood; and the next day to die on the cross of Calvary. Oh! How profitably may man draw near and with all the powers of his soul attend and learn obedience from an Incarnate God who for our example is obedient unto death, even death of the cross.

-Saint John Neumann

On love as excess

Hi all. Came a cross this passage in a book I was reading that takes a closer look into the question of what would Jesus do. The section is on love, which in my present understanding, sits at the very center of everything Christ does and means. Hope you enjoy and would love to hear your thoughts on it.

"The opposite of love is not hate- I would not have you hot or cold- but to be mean spirited, nit picking, parsimonious, never straying from inside the safe borders of an economy or a set of rules, never taking the risk of excess. The only measure of love is love without measure. Love is not measured by a rule, but rather love expends itself without return on behalf of the other. Love will stop at nothing, which is the excess that is ingredient in love." - John Caputo.

Yours,

Mitch