Stay calm...don't...p-panic...

You are out to sea and a storm brews up. You can't do anything except call out: "Lord, save me!" (Mt 14,30). May he who walks fearlessly over the waves stretch out his hand, may he relieve you of your fear, may he set your confidence in him, may he speak to your heart, saying to you: "Think of what I have borne. Do you have something to bear from a false brother or from enemies outside? Didn't I have mine, too? Those who gnashed their teeth outside; the disciple who betrayed me inside." True enough, the storm is raging. But Christ saves us from "smallness of soul and the tempest" (Ps 55[54],9 LXX).

Is your boat tossed about? Perhaps it is because Christ is asleep in you. The boat in which the disciples were sailing was being tossed by a raging sea and yet Christ was sleeping. But in time these men realized at last that they had the lord and creator of the wind with them. They drew near to Christ and woke him: Christ commanded the wind and there was a great calm. Your heart is very rightly troubled if you have forgotten him in whom you have believed. And your anguish becomes unbearable when all that Christ suffered for you remains far from your mind. If you don't think of Christ, he sleeps. Wake Christ; call on your faith. For Christ sleeps in you if you have forgotten his Passion; and if you remember his Passion, then Christ awakes in you. When, with all your heart, you have reflected over what Christ suffered, won't you bear your trials steadfastly in your turn? And maybe with joy you will find yourself a little more like your King through your suffering.

Yes indeed, when these thoughts start to comfort you and give you joy, then know that Christ has stood up and commanded the wind; from this comes to pass the calm within you. As one of the Psalms says: "I was awaiting the one who would save me from smallness of soul and the tempest". ~ Saint Augustine

One of my favorite paintings is Rembrandt's Christ in the Storm in the Sea of Galilee. Whenever my boat is tossed about, I remember a homily that I once heard: Christ is sleeping at the stern, the part of the boat that sinks first. He watches over us even in His 'sleep'.

"Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you." ~God

How (not) to pray! ...just listen.

How's your Lenten journey so far, friends? ^_^

For me, it seems like the closer I try to get to God, the more I see how swiss-cheesy I am. Too many holes in various places, so much so that I wonder how the saints became so holy instead of "hole-y".
This Lent I'm trying to patch up all those holes, especially when it comes to praying. Of course, I do like praying! When I actually get around to it and concentrate, it such an amazing and humbling experience knowing that you're in the presence of God, talking with Him (you talk with Him because, contrary to popular belief, He has much more to say to you, than you do Him). I'd quite literally die if I didn't make time to pray.

"Ok, Miss Cy-Cy, so if you like praying so much, how come you're not such a good job?"

Hmm, good question.

First off, you'll have to read this completely hilarious (and unfortunately, completely true in my case!) post: 7 Reasons Why I Stink at Praying

Soooo....how many reasons did you put a check mark beside? Don't worry, I put one beside all seven of them, so there's no way you could possibly beat my perfect score. Now you know why I need to work on praying, haha...

To me, praying is often like attending a symphony event. At first, you are enraptured by the sheer beauty and excitement of the music. Your entire self thrills with the woodwinds, shouts with the brass, breathes with the strings, and your heart thumps to the rhythm of the percussion. It's almost as if you become a part of the music. Yet somewhere along the music's story your seat gets unnaturally hard, you zip up your jacket and grumble at the overenthusiastic AC, you notice your seat neighbor has an annoyingly off sense of rhythm, and you wonder why the composer would add so many notes and where on earth the music is going. It's difficult to appreciate the music when you're so distracted, and you find that you lost focus of that beautiful sound with which you were so enamored.

The music never left, you simply forgot that it was there, having noticed all the little selfish things that you unintentionally gave a front seat to. The music is still there, waiting for you to fall in love with it again. It takes much for you to re-shift your focus like a camera, forever zooming in and out to find that right setting. No one said that tuning an instrument (musical, a camera, or yourself) was easy to do at first. It takes attending many, many concerts to become a listener - an audience.

It's worth it, though. When you quiet your heart and fall back into the music, AKA that "still, small Voice" and let it fill your soul, you forget all the effort it took and become lost in sweet melody.

So while I can't exactly tell you how to pray (because everyone is different when it comes to prayer life) I can say that if you come to God with a humble, quiet, and repentant heart, there's a good chance that you'll hear a couple of notes...and maybe you'll end up hearing the entire symphony.

Fish and Lent

"P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney!"

Dory, that fun, perky little fish from Finding Nemo is one of our favorite movie characters. We can even recite her lines better than the rest of the characters', more than any other character from any other movie for that matter! (If only you could hear recordings of my siblings and friends recite Dory from start to finish! It's hilarious!)
Poor Dory has one fatal flaw, though. She has short-term memory loss and "forgets things almost instantly." Things would be going along just swimmingly...until she forgets what she was doing or where she was going.

You're probably wondering whether this has anything to do with Lent, or whether the poor blogger has ended up like Dory and forgot what the correlation was. (Or maybe it has something to do with Catholics and fish on fridays, but...yeah...let's not get into that. Poor Dory.) Actually, Dory has much in common with the Israelites about whom we read during the latter parts of Lent, but more specifically, she has much in common with us.
Doesn't it seem to you that the Israelites had everything going for them until they "forgot" how loving God was? Doesn't it seem to you that we tend to become so complacent in our faith? We get so comfortable staying where we are in our lives so much so that we forget what we're really supposed to be doing, and it takes a tsunami to shove us off our beach chair and do something to solidly live out our Christianity.

That's what Lent can do. It's a reminder of what we were supposed to be doing in the first place; it brings us back to the basics through our denying ourselves of things we don't really need.
Do I really need to watch all the TV shows that I give so much time for? Do I really need to go shopping for things that will make me look glamourous? Do I really need to be on Facebook so long? (Yeeesss!!.....uhmmm...no. *buries face in arms*)
Take a step back. Are these things doing anything to help us focus our lives around God? Are these going to help us fit through the narrow gate? By refocusing the time we use for these things - ironically, by dropping these and taking up our Crosses - we can end up living lives that are more worth living.

Like Dory, we need that reminder to stay focused on our "P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney." AKA, Heaven.

So have a blessed Lent, everyone! And stay focused! =)

Sometimes Cy is a lot like *sigh*

"My son, when you come to serve the LORD, prepare yourself for trials.
Be sincere of heart and steadfast, undisturbed in time of adversity.
Cling to him, forsake him not; thus will your future be great.
Accept whatever befalls you, in crushing misfortune be patient;
For in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation.
Trust God and he will help you; make straight your ways and hope in him.
You who fear the LORD, wait for his mercy, turn not away lest you fall.
You who fear the LORD, trust him, and your reward will not be lost.
You who fear the LORD, hope for good things, for lasting joy and mercy.
Study the generations long past and understand; has anyone hoped in the LORD and been disappointed? Has anyone persevered in his fear and been forsaken? has anyone called upon him and been rebuffed?
Compassionate and merciful is the LORD; he forgives sins, he saves in time of trouble."
~Sirach 2:1-11"

Sometimes it feels like you're walking in the pouring rain without an umbrella, cold and shivering while several cars pass you by. You look balefully to the sky and wonder when the rain is ever going to give out and a stop...and when it doesn't, you yourself begin to reflect the overcast weather. Now you could choose to wear your inner frown and hunch your shoulders in depression, but let's say you swallow your disappointment and carry on as bravely as you can.
Yeah. It sounds a lot like martyrdom. Even if it isn't actual martyrdom (or it's only a small one in reality) it can feel like it's your entire world at the moment.

As a young Catholic girl, I'm beginning to realize many things that I never experienced before. Like living in a world that pretty much sees me as some freaky alien and keeps reaching for the Raid spray (an exaggerating exaggeration, but it comes close). There's so much that we young Catholics have to deal with that it almost seems like we're going to drown. Almost, were it not for our strong foundation. That strong foundation that Father read from the Gospel this morning...suddenly, when the rains are coming down and the floods are coming up, I have a greater appreciation for my faith. So as long as that firm Rock is there, it doesn't matter if I can't see past the rain to what's up ahead. I know He can.

So now it's just the attitude you decide to live by. It's one thing to trust God, but can you trust Him with a hopeful smile on your face? Like Saint Therese said, you can suffer, but the difference is when you suffer well.

The rain can only last for so long. There's only so much water in the world. Someday soon, the clouds will have to give up. So I'm looking up with a deep breath and a Hail Mary, waiting for that first glimpse of Marian blue....

God said: "Let there be Light!!"

Ok, so I didn't make up the idea behind the picture. ^^ It's pretty awesome though!

Christians are like lights for others, for everyone in all the world. If we are christians then we must become like Christ. If you want to learn how, then the art of foresight will make you more and more like Christ, for he was humble of heart and always attentive to people's needs. Great sanctity begins with this attention to others. If it is to be beautiful then our vocation must be wholly filled with this attention. Wherever Jesus passed, he did good. And the Virgin Mary at Cana only thought of the needs of others and passed them on to Jesus. A Christian is a tabernacle of the living God. He created me, chose me, came to live in me because he needed me. Now you have learned how much God loves you, what could be more natural than for you to spend the rest of your life spreading this love? To be truly a Christian is truly to welcome Christ and become another Christ. It is to love as we are loved, as Christ loved us on the cross.
~Mother Teresa

Love Is...

Over the weekend, CT, my brother, and I had a discussion about what a relationship means. (We were kind of supposed to be part of a monthly discussion group, but couldn't make it. So we held our own ^^) Ok, so we pretty much skirted around the usual fairytale kinds of relationships. We were looking for what REAL love is, not the romanticized version, not the kind that lasts only when the sun is shining.
We all agreed that a relationship, no matter which kind or vocation we are called to, needs to be rooted in God, because God is the source of all love.
The next step was to discuss relationships/friendships with other people. What does it mean to love someone? Well, here's something I learned from a local youth group: read 1 Corinthians 13. Take the word "love" and replace it with your name. Now see how far you get....

Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not jealous, love is not pompous, love is not inflated, love is not rude, love does not seek its own interests, love is not quick-tempered, love does not brood over injury, love does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
~ Saint Paul, 1 Corinthians 13

Did it match? If it does, then, wow. Congrats to you! Pray for the rest of us, k?
If not, well, nobody expects you to get it right away. In fact, probably the only place we can really have that kind of pure love is in Heaven. This little exercise, by the way, is a good guideline for us not just as a lifetime goal, but as a daily one.

Love hurts. Love after all, is a sacrifice. Just look at the most perfect acts of Love: Jesus in the Eucharist...Jesus dying on the Cross. Love says that we must not keep things for ourselves, but instead give them all away. Love takes a part of us and gives it to someone else. In a relationship (or friendship, or marriage, or any kind of communication we have with another), we need to be this love for the other person, even if that love is not returned.
But Love also endures all things. True Love is always worth it.
As my sister says, it's hard. But it's not impossible.
Let's pray that we attain this kind of love...


And can I say? Saint Paul rocks.

“So we do not lose heart.

Though our outer self is wasting away...

...our inner self is being renewed day by day.

For this light momentary affliction...

...is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison...

....as we look not to the things that are seen but to things that are unseen…”

~2 Corinthians 4:16-18

~*~*~*~*~

"What it means to stay awake"

This is actually yesterday's meditation from the Magnificat, but it's too good to keep to myself. Just had to post it! =)

What does progress mean? Progress means diligence, application, and discretion. More, it means concentration to its depths on the work we are doing - for that is where God is for us - without worrying about the past or the future. That is the only way to banish all tension, all anxiety, all those useless imaginations which are so much more tiring than the work itself.
There are two dispositions you must never lose sight of if you would make progress and at the same time remain at peace. For the moment, be content with what you are, and you will find joy and peace, since you already possess God, although maybe imperfectly. Bear with yourself as you are; give simply, but fully, what you have.
As regards the future, never say: "What I am today is good enough for tomorrow." Strive always to become better; to advance towards a closer union with God. Let the present serve as a starting point for the future. Thus you will go from God to God.
Life progresses slowly, and it is only what endures that counts.
~ Dom Agustin Guillerand, O.Cart.
(1945) French Cathusian monk and revered spiritual author.

As a certain member of the Pauline Family would say, "A little progress every day!"