Monday, November 22, 2010

Saints and Searchers!

November ... ahhh ...
a month
filled with celebrating All Saints on November 1st, the faithful departed with All Souls Day on the 2nd and many wonderful men and women canonized in our Church as Saints and role models of the faith, including St. Elizabeth of Hungary (Nov. 17th), a patron of the Third Order Regular Secular Franciscans (...Elizabeth of Hungary who fed the hungry!) And then, yesterday (November 21), the wonderful Feast of Christ the King. Whew! I got to celebrate part of that beautiful feast with over 500 teenagers of the Archdiocese of Portland at the Archdiocesan Youth Convention, but more about that later...

I have probably written at least four blog entries in my head over the past couple of weeks (as I traversed from one coast to the other and other points in between) ... needless to say the fingers never got to the keypads! So, today, I am trying
.....and now another day (sigh ~ it is now Nov. 24 and the day before Thanksgiving) ... I am trying again to finish this post....
I am not quite sure what happens to time - the hands on that clock
tick by so fast. I guess one thing that I have learned over the years as good intentions often get buried (ie. trying to write this entry), is that God appreciates our intentions - I hope! It is also very important though, that we keep trying! The saints are wonderful models for us of ordinary people who kept trying... trusting that God was with them even when attempts at something got sidetracked. I admire people with perseverance!

So, with all of that said, I mentioned above that I was w
ith the youth of the Archdiocese over the weekend. How wonderful it was to be with so many young people taking a weekend to celebrate their faith and join other young searchers in learning more about their Church. I applaud Youth Directors in the parishes that have the grace and stamina to walk with these teenagers! I was at the Convention with five other Sisters and one Benedictine Brother... we were privileged enough to give two optional workshops - one on Prayer in Everyday Living and the other entitled, Where Am I Going? and How Will I Get There? on decision making/discernment skills. We had a packed house for both workshops! That says to me that they want to grow in their spiritual lives and are seeking some concrete aids to that. Those young people gave me hope for our Church and for the future of our world!
Anyway, I offer you a peek into the youth conference and a couple of nice nature photos from the weekend. We didn't have too much time to roam around, but what can I say - we were at the Oregon coast and I HAD to check the ocean out a couple of times! The kids had some free time Saturday, so I did too ...
1.) Early morning moon... 2.) The youth gathered at the Seaside Convention Center 3.) Late afternoon sunset at the beach ~ no rain that afternoon, thank goodness!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Grabbing God Moments When We Can

God is Good!

Greetings from the east coast! I am sending this post from the Motherhouse of my Community in Aston, PA. I flew back here yesterday on a two week trip away (whew!) for meetings and a National Conference for vocation directors in Ohio. It is getting quite late and I hope I can get out a few coherent lines .... It is election night and I am trying to keep myself awake so I can check in on some early election results from Oregon before I go to bed since they are three hours behind in time than the east coast. Last night I stayed up later than I planned to see if the San Francisco Giants were going to win the World Series and now tonight, the election. The night before that I was up late packing. My track record for rest isn't very good lately - oh my!

As I come to the end of this day/night and think of all the busy-ness of the past couple days and the past couple of weeks, I realize how important it is to step back and step into God's loving presence ... to take time to rest in God! Yes, I know I need more physical rest than I have had lately, but I sure better fill up my tank in the prayer department too. Some times we don't have hours to spend in prayer like on retreat, but I am grateful for the the many God moments I do have like the gift of a beautiful day like today ... the graced solitude of time on the airplane yesterday where the "direct flight" trip went smoothly with nobody in the middle seat which gave me some extra time and space. God is good and is present with us ~ to us if only we open ourselves up to each moment! Peace and All Good!