A young teenage girl along with her mother and family sit alongside a good friend, a young teen man in his final moments of life she is realizing her first pangs of grief. The mother grieves alongside her daughter at the loss of this beautiful, young man. After at a spiritual group sharing the teen girl sees a deer in the yard and is told this may be a sign to ponder. Days later, the teen’s mother drives on a path she has driven many times before, with no sign ever of deer, stops the car as three deer block her path but she sets it aside as a coincidence. A day later the mother of the teen comes to a stop sign and sees a family of deer with mother and her children and her heart leaps and a glimmer of hope fills her. She is left wondering on the sign.
A young girl recently graduated from Nursing takes a celebratory trip to experience Europe for the first time, in Italy the birth place of her beloved Grandmother who has passed. She misses her grandmother dearly, as she strolls down the street something has brought her to this spot and she stops as she hears a familiar tune playing. She draws nearer and her heart is filled with awe and joy and her eyes with tears as she listens to the song the street musician is playing, A River Flows Through It. The same song she played on the piano at her Grandmother’s funeral. She is filled will love and hope. Her faith whispers, Everything happens for a reason. She shares this with her family and their presence is filled with love and hope. She ponders on the beautiful experience and is thankful beyond words.
I recall some time ago as a daughter I sat at my mother’s hospital bedside praying the Rosary as she lied in a deep sleep her body ready to pass. We were given a few more days with our mother. A few days later as I sat with my own daughters at her bedside, til the late hours of the night with my eyes on the heart monitor to my mother, somberly thinking of her last breath, a bright light shone through the window of the ICU room. I prayed deeply for my mother to be filled with peace and that her soul enter the kingdom of heaven and join her husband and beloved father and grandfather who passed away years prior. At that moment I heard a seemingly ornery lady being placed in the next room door saying, Where there’s a will there’s a way.. The same words my father shared time and time again with us. We smiled and it filled us with an awesome presence and peace. Filled with tears we felt God had His daughter in the palm of His hands.
At an Easter dinner a family and relatives gather and at the moment they pray for their loved ones in heaven the light flickers and all are filled with a sense of hope and love.
A daughter who pines and longs to hear her mother and father’s voice years after they passed, receives an a unexpected message. She yearns for their wisdom and guidance in her family’s life. She learns that when she was a young girl her parents took part in an Italian immigration project. On Holy Saturday she comes into possession of the audio tape of the interview with her parents, her heart leaps and tears fill her eyes as she hears her parents interview. At Easter Sunday dinner she shares it with family and siblings and the gathering is filled with love, hope and tears. The bond of the family is strengthened.
Messages of hope, love and faith are all around us. They can feed our soul on our journey and give us a renewed sense of hope on our faith journey. In God’s message all things happen for His specific purpose. It can be missed if we are too busy with things that detract our attention from God’s goodness. A faith filled heart, open and humble reaps the rewards of witnessing God’s love. The air is given oxygen that can awaken a spirit and guide the a way to God’s faith and hope. Of all the messages we can receive is God’s eternal love and hope for heaven. We witness in Mass as we gather as a community to hear God’s word and receive His body and blood, the powerful ways it moves us. In the Sacraments of marriage, baptism and so on, we witness God’s love blossom when hearts are pointed to God and having a relationship with Him together with the community of believers.
In the midst of all emotions and life, God is always calling us to His heart and to share in His life. In sorrow He is there. In loneliness he’s a life long companion. In joy he is love. When we place of pair of glasses of God’s goodness on our eyes and see Him in all, our life is illuminated. Things happen for His specific purpose as we follow His way. His plan and will. Discernment blossoms if we allow ourselves to become a river for God’s love to flow through us. When life points us to God to have faith in Him, we become open to experiencing great love. Like the gradual bloom of a rose, once roots and stem, change and transformation can happen. It’s priceless the life God has in store for us if we believe in Him and His ways.
Reflection: “Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10 In the silence of our hearts and in our life how we be open to God’s goodness?
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Let us pray. Gracious and loving Lord of our life may we share in your infinite goodness. May your word and Eucharist come alive in our our hearts, mind and soul in new ways as you draw us closer to you. May we share in the goodness of your love above all things. Amen
Peace,
Claudia
OurNourishedSoul