Summertime brings summer reading, and the Catholic saints of the underground English Church give us a model for struggling with joy today in our own lives. Mary Ward is a saint for our times.
For the Christian seeking to grow closer to God, the difficulty in decision making isn’t in choosing something good. It is in making the right choice, the better-good choice. Part of the discernment process should be a test to find where love is in your heart vs. where focus is on yourself and your needs…
It is said that a mother is only as happy as her least-happy child. But no mother sorrows alone; Mary suffers with us. The sword that pierced your heart also pierces hers. And when Mary holds your child, she holds Jesus in your child’s heart. Just as nothing can separate her heart from His, neither can her heart be separated from your child.
The beauty and majesty of spring weather remind us of the power and might of God. This is the spiritual reality within which we live, survive, and thrive. In the sky and in our heart, dark clouds beckoning to threaten our existence play a sort of tug-o-war with the sun, of whom we catch glimpses just often enough to give hope for the calm to come.