me, too, m2

and it hangs on my fridge next to another from souza.

Here. Now. ... Right now.

Earlier today, Julie D of Happy Catholic posted a little something about her daily prayer time. She had been quite obnoxious in her twenty minutes with the Lord but inspite of herself, God taught her a little something new. In response to this post, Will Duquette of The View From the Foothills posted an excerpt from Letter 8 of The Screwtape Letters. Here is that excert:

He leaves the creature to stand on its own two legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that he is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered to Him in the state of dryness are those which please him best….Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.

Do you ever feel as though God is so far away you can hardly recognize His presence in your life? Perhaps you feel a separation so great He is not able to felt in your life at all? Even still, we know He is with us. Even in the times of greatest darkness, He is there. Let's always remember to offer God our present moment because even when we don't feel Him (or we'd rather not be with Him), He is always there. He is always there and He will always be there waiting for us to give Him our hearts.

Gone Once More

I am not the most consistent blogger. Anyone who has been here for more than a few weeks knows that well by now. It's not that I'm not interested in writing, or that I have lost all interest in blogging, but rather that I have not found the time to write as often as I used to. I'm not one of those people who has time to sit and write each and every day and I have not discerned, thus far, that it is good for me to make time.

I know I have written about this a number of times in the past and as the days and weeks pass, it only becomes more true. My priorities are being "ironed out" and blogging just isn't at the top of the list.

There is a calendar hanging in one of the offices at work. It belongs to a co-worker who also happens to be Catholic and is the one published for her parish. At the top of each month is a picture, the month, and a quote. This month's quote reads:

"Our gifts from God include the spiritual treasures of faith, hope and love.

They also include all we cherish: our health, our human genius, our skills, our families, and our friendships.

When asked, stewards will give a faithful accounting of how each gift was nurtured."

How fitting! Each of us will indeed be called to give an account of our lives when we meet our Maker. When I stand before Him, I want to tell Him all of the wonderful things I did with His gifts to me.

This is not to say that blogging is not an expression of love and a fitting use of God's gifts by any means. This is only to say that I, in my life, am not called, I do not feel, to blog so much as I am to do other things.

I sometimes feel very overwhelmed by the number of "things" I have taken upon myself. From my work with the apostolate to my day job to my babysitting to choir to theatre to finding time to spend with my family and friends, I often find myself tired and strung out. I worry too much about doing that I often lose sight of the doing well.

If this blog is to continue, it will most likely continue with posts about the things that I am doing and not so much my thoughts on issues. I do not imagine this will disappoint as I do not have too many visitors anyway. ;) If it does not continue, however, I thank each person who has taken a moment or two to read what I have written. Those moments have helped to assure me that my efforts were not in vain.

May the Lord bless each of you abundantly and keep you always. Pax!

Scullions

"It is the mark of a mean, vulgar and ignoble spirit to dwell on the thought of food before meal times or worse to dwell on it afterwards, to discuss it and wallow in the remembered pleasures of every mouthful. Those whose minds dwell before dinner on the spit, and after on the dishes, are fit only to be scullions. "
-St Francis de Sales

It's a quote that has come to mind several times in the past few days. Many people, when I show them this quote, are very taken aback. They don't like it. But after reading a couple of things here and there (and listening to the book discussion tonight), it strikes me as an important message, especially in today's world. It is quotes like this that brought me to read more of Saint Francis de Sales and I'm so glad I did. He is SO wise.