Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Creativity and Anxiety

Creativity comes from a refusal to run, a “willing encounter with anxiety and what lies beyond it. It is an opening up to the unknown, the unconscious. And it can be terrifying. The real trick is learning to use the anxiety to work rather than escape. And all of this requires immense courage, the courage to create.”

-Stephen A. Diamond

Daughter of Thunder considers Envy

Envy

  • Envy is sorrow at another person’s good.
  • God wants us to stop looking at what everyone else has and to notice the good he gave YOU.
  • Life is naturally unfair because every person has a different mission.
  • God has given, is giving and will give us everything we need for the adventure of our particular life.
  • Fight envy with the practice of admiring others and letting them know.

Daughter Of Thunder: on Wrath

Wrath

  • Anger is an emotion caused by being emotionally hurt.
  • Wrath is a vice caused by your pride being hurt and your will encouraging or allowing that emotion to become destructive.
  • Emotions don’t become sins unless you fail to restrain them from getting out of control.
  • Combat anger with a habit of forgiveness.
  • Forgiveness doesn’t change the past, but enlarges the future.

Friday, March 18, 2011

"If you want it Jesus, so do I"

"Everyone has sufficient grace to become saints." -Archbishop Angelo Amato

Blessed Chiara Luce Badano, pray for us!

By Christopher Stefanick.

Sometimes we’d prefer that our lives be a different story than the one God seems to be writing. In our fragile existence it doesn’t take much to turn a romance into a drama, or an adventure into a tragedy. At a glance, the story of Chiara Badano—an only child conceived after 11 years of marriage, who died at 18 after a bout with a painful form of bone cancer—looks like an empty tragedy, but not from the perspective of the Divine Author.

Chiara seemed to have everything going for her as a teen. She had a loving, holy family and a rock solid faith that was nurtured by retreats and youth ministry programs. She was popular amongst her friends and was liked by boys. It’s not hard to see why. She was beautiful. Chiara loved to hang out in coffee shops. She was great at tennis, swimming and mountain climbing. Her outgoing personality and adventurous spirit made her dream of becoming a flight attendant. Chiara had a bright life ahead of her.

One day while playing tennis, Chiara experienced excruciating pain in her shoulder. Shortly afterwards she was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma. She watched her bright future slip away. But it’s here that the real story of her life begins—the story of heroic virtue.

Chiara’s joy was explosive and it only increased with her suffering. After one very pain-filled night she said, “I suffered a lot, but my soul was singing.” Google pictures of her on her death bed. Her eyes look like pools reflecting the glory of heaven. One of her doctors remarked, “Through her smile, and through her eyes full of light, she showed us that death doesn’t exist; only life exists.” Cardinal Saldarini heard of this amazing teen and visited her in the hospital. Awestruck, he said, “The light in your eyes is splendid. Where does it come from?” Chiara’s reply was simple: “I try to love Jesus as much as I can.”

Chiara had a profound sense of redemptive suffering. She often repeated the phrase, “If this is what you want, Jesus, so do I.” Like any teenage girl, she loved her hair, but with each lock that fell out she’d pray, “For you, Jesus.” She frequently refused morphine, saying, “I want to share as much as possible in His suffering on the cross.”

During one of her many hospital stays Chiara took walks with a depressed, drug-dependent girl, despite the pain of walking from the huge growth on her spine. When she was encouraged to stop and rest she said, “I’ll have time to rest later.” Ever thinking of others, she said, “I have nothing left, but I still have my heart, and with that I can always love.”

Chiara requested to be buried in a wedding gown. As the end of her short life drew near she told her mother, “When you’re getting me ready, Mum, you have to keep saying to yourself, ‘Chiara Luce is now seeing Jesus.’” She died on Oct. 7, 1990. Her parents and friends were with her. Her last words were: “Goodbye. Be happy because I’m happy.”

Thanks to her local bishop, Chiara was declared “Servant of God.” For anyone wondering if Chiara’s cause for canonization was only opened to comfort grieving parents and friends, God recently put his stamp of approval on her story. A young boy in Italy was dying from meningitis. His organs were shutting down. There was no way to save his life. His parents learned of Chiara’s story and sought her intercession. He was fully healed. A panel of doctors has ruled that there was no medical explanation for this turn of events. Rome’s approval of this miracle and Chiara’s beatification are expected soon.

Reflecting on her pending death, Chiara said: “Previously I felt … the most I could do was to let go. Instead, now I feel enfolded in a marvelous plan of God, which is slowly being unveiled to me.” The story of our lives with all its riveting twists and painful turns is written by an author who loves us very much, and for him, even death is only a comma, not a period. The greatest protagonists in life’s story are the saints. They shared the eternal perspective of the Author. That’s why not even the most profound pain could take away their hope.

Here’s to yet another teen saint! Pardon my preemptive prayer, “Blessed Chiara Luce Badano, pray for us!


LINK

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Daughter of Thunder: Spiritual Hazards Part 1


Spiritual Poison: PRIDE

Pride is the deadliest sin.

All sins are a form of pride.

Pride doubts the wisdom and love of God and makes you self-centered.

Pride makes you act on the belief that you know better than God

and that you are not going to do things his way.


Antidote:

Humility counters pride.

Humility is self forgetfulness.

Thomas Aquinas said that “Humility is Truth.”

Humility can be developed by being immersed and interested

in the goodness of others and the world around you.



Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Daughter of Thunder on "Virtues"

Why confession?

When we fail to identify our false gods as false gods,

they gain power in our life.

Practicing virtue helps strengthen our will to say no to our selfish ego

Sin makes us boring and predictable. It separates us from God and the gifts he wants to give us.

We are each responsible alone for our choices, but we are not alone in making them.

The surest path to holiness is through the sacraments.

To understand what the virtues are you have to identify what they aren’t.

That's why we learn about the deadly sins.



Monday, March 14, 2011

Remind Yourself of Your Gifts

Now and then we come across something unexpectedly that reminds us of the extraordinary gifts God has given to us. This Lent let us remind ourselves of how blessed we are.
This is a photo of a painting I did in college. We were supposed to attempt to copy a master painting from the DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts). I shocked myself at how well I was able to do. I gave this painting away and so I don't think of it very often. However, when I run across the photo or it's memory comes to mind it takes my breath away and I remember that I am blessed and that blessings are not to be feared. This is harder than it seems. :)

Sunday, March 13, 2011