It turns out I'm going to stay here at the Redwood City Catholic Worker House. A few months ago the other Catholic Workers here told me they'd been more pleased with my work than when we'd previously spoken months earlier about my work and about whether or not I'd stay here. Consequently, they said I could keep living and working here long-term.
Larry, who founded the Redwood City Catholic Worker House dozens of years ago, wondered if I'd been throwing myself more into the work simply because I'd become more comfortable and because I had relaxed. In our work, we pick up donations, including of food and clothing and toiletries, and people come here to the Catholic Worker House and get what they need. Apparently I have been immersing myself more in this work, although I haven't been aware of any change in myself.
Susan noted how I've been connecting with homeless folks and other persons who are especially in need here in Redwood City. She talked about how homeless folks come to our front porch to get items that are donated and left there, and how they know me.
Both Larry and Susan were receptive to my continuing to live and work here at the Catholic Worker House. They expressed how they felt it could be beneficial if I were to stay.
I've felt and heard the gratitude my homeless friends and my other impoverished friends have shown to us Catholic Workers here. I enjoy when they give thanks, and I feel their thankfulness is a reward, but their gratitude is not the reason I do this work. We are to serve our neighbor because we are to love our neighbor as ourselves,* as Jesus has instructed us to do.
In the love I feel for them, and in their appreciation of our presence and our ministry, I find indications that love is blooming in their hearts. Love can bloom in our hearts if we welcome every little chance we get to plant little seeds of love in our lives. Saint Therese of Lisieux was named The Little Flower, for she had this little way of doing little loving acts for others. In the little acts of love we can strive to perform for others, and in joyous gestures of thanks people give us in return, we can see the fruits of love flowering out of the little seeds of love that have been planted in each others' hearts.
And so I cannot help but suspect that I am where God wishes me to be. God calls us to the duty of the present moment. Thus the Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade counsels us to open our hearts to what we are being called to do in the present. Indeed, when you embrace the duty of the present moment, and love your neighbor who is right in front of you, you please God.
Sometimes in various ways we can find surprising this duty that has been placed in front of us. We can become blinded to what God is asking us to do if we become too attached to our own notions of ourselves. If we are not detached from our own conceptions of ourselves, we are not opening ourselves up to God to allow ourselves to conceive what God wants to bring to birth through us.
We can come to overvalue realizations we've had about ourselves in the midst of discernment, such that we can unwittingly let such knowledge about ourselves come to dominate us and unduly influence our decisions. We do well to temper our self-knowledge against the backdrop of our current circumstances, in the context of where we currently find ourselves. Right now, who are we being asked to love? As we love our neighbor, we witness the fruits of that love in the joy we feel. Love and joy are two signs that we are accurately discerning our vocation, which is what God is calling each of us to do.
We do well to try to cultivate gardens of love in our hearts. We can evaluate the health of what is growing in our hearts by means of the joy we feel.
Thus we can check our relying too much on our self-knowledge, and we can prevent ourselves from letting it drive our actions too strongly, by looking at the love and joy in our hearts. The love and joy in our hearts is threatened by the selfishness that our egos tend to inflict upon ourselves and on others. We should not discard our self-knowledge, but also we should not let it control our discernment so much that we use it as an excuse to ignore what God is calling us to do right now.
As I'd mentioned in a previous blog post, I'd come to find that I do better where there is more structure, and when I am specifically directed what to do. Yet I've also found that we do well when we don't cling rigidly to our expectations of what we think our ministry is supposed to look like. Yes, I do well with structure and direction; yet even though I know I have these tendencies, I don't have to be closely directed in a highly structured environment. Yet I should be conscious of these tendencies, and let these insights influence how I structure my day. If I am obedient to the duty of the present moment, then I can find the direction I crave by lovingly serving my neighbor when she asks me to do so.
So, in time, I have been coming to discover that I find the direction I seek coming directly from my neighbor. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through others. When we love and serve our neighbor, we submit to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. As we embrace the duty to give lovingly what our neighbor needs right now, we obey the will of God.
And so, submitting to the demands of the present, and obediently acquiescing to what God is asking me to do now, I find the direction I seek. As I open my heart to give the love that my neighbor requests of me, my day becomes structured by what I find the Holy Spirit asking me, through my neighbor, to do for my neighbor.
And so I am here. I do not know how long I will be here. Indefinitely I will be here. There is no clear indication that the Holy Spirit is guiding me elsewhere. In contrast, I feel community and connection and warmth and love with these homeless and other needy people here. I am grateful to God that I can be with them here. And so I embrace these lovely opportunities with these people in need right now, who are right in front of me. Amen.
* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
Larry, who founded the Redwood City Catholic Worker House dozens of years ago, wondered if I'd been throwing myself more into the work simply because I'd become more comfortable and because I had relaxed. In our work, we pick up donations, including of food and clothing and toiletries, and people come here to the Catholic Worker House and get what they need. Apparently I have been immersing myself more in this work, although I haven't been aware of any change in myself.
Susan noted how I've been connecting with homeless folks and other persons who are especially in need here in Redwood City. She talked about how homeless folks come to our front porch to get items that are donated and left there, and how they know me.
Both Larry and Susan were receptive to my continuing to live and work here at the Catholic Worker House. They expressed how they felt it could be beneficial if I were to stay.
I've felt and heard the gratitude my homeless friends and my other impoverished friends have shown to us Catholic Workers here. I enjoy when they give thanks, and I feel their thankfulness is a reward, but their gratitude is not the reason I do this work. We are to serve our neighbor because we are to love our neighbor as ourselves,* as Jesus has instructed us to do.
In the love I feel for them, and in their appreciation of our presence and our ministry, I find indications that love is blooming in their hearts. Love can bloom in our hearts if we welcome every little chance we get to plant little seeds of love in our lives. Saint Therese of Lisieux was named The Little Flower, for she had this little way of doing little loving acts for others. In the little acts of love we can strive to perform for others, and in joyous gestures of thanks people give us in return, we can see the fruits of love flowering out of the little seeds of love that have been planted in each others' hearts.
And so I cannot help but suspect that I am where God wishes me to be. God calls us to the duty of the present moment. Thus the Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade counsels us to open our hearts to what we are being called to do in the present. Indeed, when you embrace the duty of the present moment, and love your neighbor who is right in front of you, you please God.
Sometimes in various ways we can find surprising this duty that has been placed in front of us. We can become blinded to what God is asking us to do if we become too attached to our own notions of ourselves. If we are not detached from our own conceptions of ourselves, we are not opening ourselves up to God to allow ourselves to conceive what God wants to bring to birth through us.
We can come to overvalue realizations we've had about ourselves in the midst of discernment, such that we can unwittingly let such knowledge about ourselves come to dominate us and unduly influence our decisions. We do well to temper our self-knowledge against the backdrop of our current circumstances, in the context of where we currently find ourselves. Right now, who are we being asked to love? As we love our neighbor, we witness the fruits of that love in the joy we feel. Love and joy are two signs that we are accurately discerning our vocation, which is what God is calling each of us to do.
We do well to try to cultivate gardens of love in our hearts. We can evaluate the health of what is growing in our hearts by means of the joy we feel.
Thus we can check our relying too much on our self-knowledge, and we can prevent ourselves from letting it drive our actions too strongly, by looking at the love and joy in our hearts. The love and joy in our hearts is threatened by the selfishness that our egos tend to inflict upon ourselves and on others. We should not discard our self-knowledge, but also we should not let it control our discernment so much that we use it as an excuse to ignore what God is calling us to do right now.
As I'd mentioned in a previous blog post, I'd come to find that I do better where there is more structure, and when I am specifically directed what to do. Yet I've also found that we do well when we don't cling rigidly to our expectations of what we think our ministry is supposed to look like. Yes, I do well with structure and direction; yet even though I know I have these tendencies, I don't have to be closely directed in a highly structured environment. Yet I should be conscious of these tendencies, and let these insights influence how I structure my day. If I am obedient to the duty of the present moment, then I can find the direction I crave by lovingly serving my neighbor when she asks me to do so.
So, in time, I have been coming to discover that I find the direction I seek coming directly from my neighbor. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through others. When we love and serve our neighbor, we submit to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. As we embrace the duty to give lovingly what our neighbor needs right now, we obey the will of God.
And so, submitting to the demands of the present, and obediently acquiescing to what God is asking me to do now, I find the direction I seek. As I open my heart to give the love that my neighbor requests of me, my day becomes structured by what I find the Holy Spirit asking me, through my neighbor, to do for my neighbor.
And so I am here. I do not know how long I will be here. Indefinitely I will be here. There is no clear indication that the Holy Spirit is guiding me elsewhere. In contrast, I feel community and connection and warmth and love with these homeless and other needy people here. I am grateful to God that I can be with them here. And so I embrace these lovely opportunities with these people in need right now, who are right in front of me. Amen.
* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
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