Give me hope, Lord

I am tired, tired, tired...

It's 8:30 in the night and I am still in my office hole. I must have put in more than 10 hours of work at no extra charge and I am famished...

That's not all. I was also caught up in the biggest downpour of the year, in a city that's nearing drought estimates in precipitation and when I finally reached home nearing 11 PM, I was too tired to sleep. I was up at an unearthly hour next morning thanks to my insomnia.

But strangely enough, I am also grateful that it gives me an opportunity to offer my suffering for a greater good. It makes it almost sweet...my suffering that is, though it does not make it any easier. 

It certainly hasn't dimmed my ardent desire to run away from this place. It is so hard to look up and acknowledge something beautiful is at work already. 

Grant me hope for tomorrow, Lord

So, I pray for hope and I pray for fortitude. I cannot have one without the other, for without hope, fortitude calls for ruthlessness, a hard stone-man; and without fortitude, hope has no substance.

 St. Teresa of Avila's Bookmark

Let nothing disturb you,

Let nothing frighten you,

All things are passing

God never changes.

Patience obtains all things.

He who has God

finds he lacks nothing;

God alone suffices.

And the end of all things, GOD ALONE SUFFICES...

Presenting.....

Caution: the below image and content may result in severe disruption of your system's performance due to hydration of the circuitboard by human saliva!

 

JRR Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' in Latin

 

Yes, my dear people, one of the greatet literary wonders of the 20th century by one of the greatest Catholic writers of the 20th century in the language of the Church.

Need I say more?

I wonder if they have a chant to go with it...

Cry, the little people!

I confess, I purloined this post title from one of my favourite books, 'Cry, the Beloved Country' by Alan Paton. I love this book because of the humanity that binds the two protagonists and Christian spirit that unites them beyond grief, race and situation. It is truly a Spirit-filled novel!

But this post, is not about a novella, a character or even a story. It is about human experience...

Have you ever found yourselves floundering in a huge cauldron of boiling emotions and nobody around you seems to understand what you are going through? 

It is this nameless, faceless, fear and hopelessness. It stretches it's fingers like a dark menace above your soul, a silent oppression. You cannot describe it nor define it. It seeps into your existence so that the days on end seem to meld into each other and there seems to be no escape. 

I had suffered this malady for nearly a month on end...till at last, the merciful Father broke through the night. He sent a dream to a friend who woke up at 3 AM to my screaming in her dreams. Agony in the night! Sorrow in the morning! She prayed for my solace and called me the next morning to tell me of it and comfort me that help was at hand.

That weekend I attended a convention for Christian working professionals only because I was a part of the gospel band invited to lead worship there. One of the key speakers spoke of Spiritual Warfare at the workplace. He spoke of heaviness in his spirit and inside his head. And if that was not all, everything at work seemed to be going asunder.

Then it all came home to me. I understood where the Devil had taken a tiny foothold and then moved to wreck havoc into my place of calling (if the Lord has placed you in the corporate world then he has done it because it is a part of your calling.) It was the simplest of lapses and yet it was enough...

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

- 1 Peter 5:8

My work is cut out for me now. To be alert and to hold captive every thought, no matter how innocent but every thought which does not bring Glory to my God and surrender it to him (2 Cor 10:5). It took an small, innocuous beginning to bring me to this brokenness. But I believe, that the Redeemer will turn even this to his purpose and for my salvation.

So, cry, ye little people and the Lord will surely answer your plea. His ears are turned to the helpless and the orphaned, to those whom understand has bereft alone. 

Cry, unto to him who feeds the hungry ravens as they call. Will he not answer thee? How can he not answer thee? His soul beats for his own.

Cry, O beloved ones, the Lord has his loving ear turned towards you. 
Cry, to him with heart rending and hope. He does not abandon! 
Cry, to him from the pits of your darkness, he has heard your voice even before you had opened your mouth. 
Cry, to Him little people, the Lord has not forgotten thee. He will answer, He will come.

 But for you who obey me, my saving power will rise on you like the sun and bring healing like the sun's rays.- Malachi 4:2 

The Saint-maker

I found this amazing story of Elizabeth Leseur, the wife of one Dr. Felix Leseur, who was the spiritual guide of another Peter John Sheen, who was called 'Servant of God'...

Elisabeth was born in Paris to a wealthy bourgeois French family of Corsican descent. She met Félix Leseur, also from an affluent, Catholic family in 1887. Shortly before they married on July 31, 1889, Elisabeth discovered that Félix was no longer a practicing Catholic. Though he continued to practice medicine, Dr. Félix Leseur soon became well known as the editor of an anti-clerical, atheistic newspaper in Paris.

 Elisabeth and Felix Leseur during happier times

Despite his pledge to respect Elisabeth's religious beliefs, as his hatred of the Catholic faith grew he soon began to question, undermine, and ridicule Elisabeth's faith. In his memoirs, Félix describes how his efforts to "enlighten" Elisabeth nearly succeeded. He had persuaded Elisabeth to read Ernest Renan's Life of Jesus with the expectation that it would finally shatter her last remaining loyalties to Catholicism. Instead, he records that she was "struck by the poverty of substance" on which the arguments were based and was inspired to devote herself to her own religious education. Soon, their home was filled with two libraries. One, a library devoted to the justifications of atheism and the second to the lives of the saints and the intellectual arguments in favor of Christ and Catholic Church. Félix was frustrated to discover that his challenges to her faith had actually led her to become not only more grounded in her beliefs, but more fervent and determined to become holy.

In 1905, she was taken ill and tossed on a bed of constant pain until August 1914. When she was dying, she said to her husband, "Felix, when I am dead, you will become a Catholic and a Dominican priest." To this he responded: "Elizabeth, you know my sentiments. I've sworn hatred of God, I shall live in the hatred and I shall die in it."

She repeated her words and passed away. She died in her husband's arms at the early age of 47. Rummaging through her papers, Felix found her will. She wrote: "In 1905, I asked almighty God to send me sufficient sufferings to purchase your soul. On the day that I die, the price will have been paid. Greater love than this no woman has than she who lay down her life for her husband." Dr. Leseur, the atheist, dismissed her will as the fancies of a pious woman.

He decided to write a book against Lourdes. When he went down to Lourdes however and he looked up into the face of the statue of Mary, he received the great gift of faith. He saw it all. At once.

In the year 1924, during Lent, Fulton J. Sheen (born Peter John Sheen), made a retreat in the Dominican monastery in Belgium under the spiritual guidance of Father Felix Leseur of the Order of Preachers, Catholic Dominican priest, who told him this story.

Saints are never made in isolation. 


Remember your place in God's plan.

It is true that you may never meet the person you helped become a saint, but you may be sure you will be blessed for it.

Elisabeth Leseur's cause for canonization is under consideration. Her current status in the process of canonization is that of a 'Servant of God'.