Just Faith, Everyday

  Just returned from a retirement party, and finding myself wistful about what I do and who I work with and all the memory that comes with that. This rumination has taught me a lesson of late: never underestimate what the power of waiting can yield in your life, in your perspective. There’s not a need to be right, or the best in the room, or accomplished in a way that takes anything away from anyone else—just a need to be who you are and give what you do to those who surround you, in the sure knowledge that in some way you have made a mark in their lives that may stand the test of time.  The party came on the heels of reflecting on the passages of my current study for the 19th Annotation, the passage about Simeon and Anna, waiting in the temple for what had been a long time, after much experience and daily striving in their own lives, to faithfully meet the Christ-child entering in nestled in his mother’s arms. Simeon gets a worded statement, and Anna does not, but both, clear...

“Blessed are they who are poor in Spirit; theirs is the kingdom of God.” This start to Jesus’ Magna Carta, a reminder to us that the natural laws of humanity built into creation by the Creator have significance. That we are some and at times poor in Spirit; we mourn; there are the weak, the hungry and thirsty for righteousness, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers. There will always be those persecuted. Jesus acknowledges FIRST that these souls exist—he sees people where they are—and he blesses them, giving them hope that one day the world may see them in these blessings, but for now, God DOES.  To start it, Jesus acknowledges the presence of those poor in Spirit and gives them the Kingdom for it. These are the poor he knew or got to know, because he was in the habit of befriending, approaching, or being with. Magdalene is a prime example, as well as numerous others. Theirs is the kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven, as Jesus expands for our sake in his formulation a...