#ADVENT – Patience, Patience, Patience!

Posted on December 11, 2019 by

On this 11th day of Advent, Virginia is contemplating patience as a discipline (not an easy thing for impatient redheads…)

“Patience is a hard discipline. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control: the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the return of a friend, the resolution of a conflict. Patience is not a waiting passivity until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow; later and somewhere else. Let’s be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.” Henri Nouwen

grace, peace & PATIENCE

Virginia : )

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#ADVENT – Revolutions of Love

Posted on December 10, 2019 by

On this 10th day of Advent that is also Human Rights Day, Virginia is contemplating revolutions of love…

“This is the choice before us: either try to revolutionize the world and break under it, or revolutionize ourselves and remake the world.” Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen

 “The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution that has to start with each one of us?”  Dorothy Day

“Like a voice crying in the desert, we must continually say ‘No’ to violence and ‘Yes’ to peace. Let us not tire of preaching Love; it is the force that will overcome the world.” Saint Óscar Romero

grace, peace & revolutions (of LOVE!)

Virginia : )

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#Advent – Mary, Mary, Mary

Posted on December 9, 2019 by

Today as Catholics around the world honor Mary, the mother of Jesus, Virginia is contemplating her “yes” to God, her openness to be for God and letting God in her be for others…

“How much we can learn from Our Lady.  She was so humble because she was all for God.  She was full of grace and she made use of the almighty power that was in her – the grace of God.  The most beautiful part of Our Lady was that, when Jesus came into her life, immediately she went in haste to Elizabeth to give Jesus to her and her son.  And we read in the Gospel that the child ‘leapt with joy’ at this first contact with Christ.  Our Lady was the most wonderful wire.  She allowed God to fill her to the brim, so by her surrender, ‘be it unto me according to thy word,’ she became full of grace which she went to pass on to John.  So let us ask God to use us now to go round the world, especially in our own communities, and continue connecting the wires of the hearts of men to the current, Jesus.” Mother Teresa (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta)

grace, peace & faithfulness

Virginia : )

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#Advent – Waiting and Wonder

Posted on December 8, 2019 by

On this Second Sunday of Advent, Virginia is contemplating waiting and wonder (being open to wonder while waiting for something?)

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” Greek proverb

“Teach us to wait, as we hang in the balance of the past and the possible.” Thomas Merton

“All life is a gift, a gift to be celebrated, a gift to be shared.” Henri Nouwen

grace, peace & wonder-filled waiting

Virginia : )

Photos: Chihuly Exhibit @ Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (October 2012)

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#ADVENT – An Irrational Season of Blooming Love

Posted on December 7, 2019 by

On this 7th day of Advent, Virginia is contemplating blooming love (the impossible, irrational kind…)

“To the impossible: Yes!
Enter and penetrate
O Spirit. Come and bless
This hour: the star is late.
Only the absurdity of love
Can break the bonds of hate.

This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
There’d have been no room for the child.”

Madeleine L’Engle  (from Glimpses of Grace)

grace, peace & irrational blooms (of Love!)

Virginia : )

Photos: December blooms @ Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

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#Advent – Gifting (St. Nicholas-style)

Posted on December 6, 2019 by

On this 6th day of Advent (and St. Nicholas Day in many parts of the globe) Virginia is contemplating gifts and giftedness…

“The Giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic His giving, by grace, through faith, and this is not of ourselves.” Saint Nicholas of Myra

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” Pablo Picasso

grace, peace & giftedness

Virginia : )

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#Advent – Hidden Treasures (of Light)

Posted on December 5, 2019 by

On this 5th day of Advent, Virginia is contemplating openness to the Light:  “Treasures lie hidden in darkness. Only those who walk in the night ever see the stars.” Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen

“There might be less spiritual blindness in the world if those who had the light obeyed the Divine injunction: ‘Let your light shine before all.’” Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen

grace, peace & courageous Lights

Virginia : )

Photo: Lake Garda, Italy

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