Abandonment

The Crucifixion, Diego Velazquez

I am reading (as one of my current stack of books) the book I Believe in Love, which is a series of retreat talks on the Little Way of St. Therese of Lisieux. What a beautiful book to begin the New Year with, full of meditations on the deep and abiding love of Jesus for each one of us.  I would like to share this quote on abandonment, which has so spoken to my heart:

"Abandonment, rightly understood, includes everything.  It requires a great humility, since it is submission of oneself to creatures and events, seeing Jesus himself in them.  It requires an immense faith, confidence every moment, to tear open the veil of secondary causes, to break through the screen of creatures which too often prevents us from seeing Jesus behind them, who governs everything, since nothing, nothing happens without his having willed or permitted it.

"Abandonment is nothing but obedience pushed to its extreme, since it consists of submission to everything within the limits of the possible and the reasonable, in order to obey God who has foreseen and willed it all.

"Finally, it is in abandonment that our great desires find their perfect fulfillment...

"To live with abandonment is to rediscover a perfect harmony in God; for, after all, it is God, it is Jesus, who writes all the lines, all the words, and all the letters of our lives..."  I Believe in Love, Pere Jean D'Elbee

Thinking About Mary, the Mother of God

Pieta, Michaelangelo

She holds Him first in the stable, keeping Him warm and safe in the darkness of the star-lit night.


Then, a scant eight days later, He experiences the first pain, the first tiny loss of the saving blood, His circumsion.  United to us in helplessness, in smallness, in suffering, she holds Him tightly in her arms.


Soon, Mary will carry Him up to the Temple, where Simon will tell her to expect great suffering, both for herself and for Him.


Then, one dark night soon after, Herod's soldiers set out to kill this threat.  A threat to Herod and his power, to us and our self-will.  Mary carries Jesus as she and Joseph flee in the night to Egypt, but behind her she hears the terrifying cries of mothers, screaming as their sons die for His sake.  The first of the martyrs testifying to His coming.


Does she hold Him close, afraid to let Him go, when He comes to her and tells her He is setting out on His own path, fulfilling His destiny, beginning His mission of teaching and healing?  Does she see the cross at the end of that road? Opening her arms, letting go, is it another sword of sorrow?


At the end, she holds His dead body in her arms, carrying the pain of His crucifixion like a sword in her heart.


Then, comes a morning when all the suffering, all the sorrow, all the loss is swept aside and her heart nearly explodes with joy--He is alive!  


Motherhood.  The greatest joy, the greatest sorrow.  Mary lived it daily; she lived it deeply.  All the rejoicing, all the grief  she experienced were contained within the Will of God, the Will she embraced and remained in perfectly throughout her life.  When we walk in the Will of God, we will share in her joys and her sorrows; we, too, will have a place in the work of Redemption.

Madonna and Child, Marianne Stokes

Dear Lord, by the intercession of your Blessed Mother, give me the strength to hold my children close and the courage to let them go.  May Your Spirit fill me with enough wisdom to guide their steps and enough faith to let them follow their own path.  Guide them when they are far away,  turn their hearts and minds to You.  Through the prayers of Mary, may each of us, humbling ourselves to conform to Your Will as she did, come finally home to You.

A Reminder to Myself

Berry Picking, William Magrath

  "  ...Undertake then all your affairs with a calm and peaceable mind, and endeavor to despatch them in order, one after another-for if you make an effort to do them all at once or in disorder, your spirit will be so overcharged and depressed that it will probably sink under the burden without effecting anything.
     In all your affairs rely wholly on divine Providence, through which alone you must look for success; labor, nevertheless, quietly on your part to cooperate with its designs, and then you may be assured, if you trust as you ought in God; the success which shall come to you shall be always that which is the most profitable for you, whether it appear good or bad according to your private judgment. Imitate little children who, as they with one hand hold fast by their father, and with the other gather strawberries or blackberries along the hedges; so you, gathering and handling the goods of this world with one hand, must with the other always hold fast the hand of your heavenly Father, turning yourself towards him from time to time to see if your actions or occupations be pleasing to him; but above all things take heed that you never leave his protecting hand nor think to gather more, for should he forsake you, you will not be able to go a step further without falling to the ground."--Introduction to the Devout Life, St. Frances de Sales