Love is Patient; Love is Kind....

As regular readers know, I decided to meditate on 1 Corinthians 13, St. Paul's admonition on love, until the new year of 2025 (and perhaps beyond). The focus on patience has gone on for about two weeks. I'll be working on being patient until I die, of course, but last Sunday my husband and I had to practice patience big time and we did it fairly well.

Sunday Meditation: Still Working on Patience

Surprise! I'm still working on patience and, as I wrote in a previous post, it's essential to be patient with ourselves as well as others. Practicing patience with myself can increase my patience with others. I'll give a concrete example. Once when I was praying for patience, I caught a spoon in the garbage disposal and had to call a repairman to come and get it out. That spoon was jammed so tight I couldn't budge it and neither could my husband. I was embarrassed, but the kind repairman showed me how to use a broom handle as a lever to turn the disposal. Fortunately, I've never needed to use that strategy again and we are now on a septic system with no garbage disposal, so I'm safe from that mistake. But I still make plenty of others, new opportunities to be patient with myself.

Thought for the Day from the The Life and Glories of Saint Joseph

Part of my morning prayer time lately is reading from The Life and Glories of Saint Joseph. I'm on the chapter on the Journey to Bethlehem. Two short passages really struck me this morning. The first related to scripture about the birth of the Messiah. 

Mary was reared in the temple and must have known the prophecies well. She and Joseph both must have realized that Bethlehem was going to be the birthplace of Jesus. And yet, they stayed in Nazareth waiting to see how God would bring it about. 

...we find them remaining on at Nazareth without doubt or question. If this surprises us, it is only because the strength of their faith and their complete abandonment to the leadings of God's Providence are beyond our shallow perception. God would know how to bring about His will in the manner He pleased, and they left all in His hands.

And, of course, we know God used Caesar Augustus to bring about His will.

Remembering Fr. Hardon, S.J. and the Four Types of People

I had breakfast with a good friend this morning, a sister of the heart. How blessed we are if we have a few of those outside our biological family. We were talking about relationships and my friend reminded me of something Father said about the people in our lives. (I think this comes from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius). There are four types of relationships: