Published on VineLeavesPress.com (“50 Words Give or Take”).
I’m four years old. Dad is scrubbing my face with a washcloth. He keeps scrubbing just under my lower lip, just above my chin. “It won’t come off,” he says. I giggle because I know why. “It’s a freckle, not a dirt spot!” It’s still there, along with the memory.
Everything inspires me. Everyone inspires me. Everything and everyone come from God. Therefore, God inspires me.
It’s inspiring to know that there are many ways to think about inspiration.
In physical terms, “inspiration” is part of “respiration”, the breathing process that sustains life. Without inspiration, there would be no “exhalation,” the other half of that vital process. Inspiration nourishes me with oxygen, exhalation cleanses me of carbon dioxide. Inspiration and exhalation cannot exist without each other.
In imaginative terms, inspiration draws God’s essence into my essence, into my very being. Exhalation sends our co-mingled essences out into the world, where they can act in concert to bring about … oh, all manner of things that are full of truth, beauty and goodness.
In spiritual terms, inspiration points me towards God, who does not need to be drawn into, or depend on, anything. God is in and of everything. Even so, the respiration process I have just described reminds me that I am a co-creator with God, a role I try to cultivate, in everything I do, in how I live and why I live.
In creative terms, inspiration gives me the impetus to fulfill the ideas that come to me through every experience in my life. Inspiration helps me turn my ideas into realities.
***
A few weeks after the March 2023 elementary school shooting in Nashville, I was at Sunday Mass. In the pew in front of me was a family with four children who looked to be the age of those dead children in Tennessee or even younger. I was stricken, not for the first time but somehow as if for the first time, by the horror of what has become epidemic in our country. Those innocent little children.
But what could I do? Over the years, I had angst-ed with my friends, I had prayed, I had educated myself. I had signed petitions, I had marched, I had written to my congresspeople, I had mailed postcards to voters when gun-control measures were on the ballot. I thought I had gone as far as I could. But my good works were intellectual, performed at a distance. “Think global, act local” goes the saying. Again, what could I do?
Clear as a ringing bell, it came to me. “Gradually and then suddenly,” to borrow a phrase from Hemingway. The inspiration was sudden, but also the culmination of much rumination and reflection. I had held the lock in my hands for a long time, but now I had the key that would allow me to “act local”: my lifelong love of reading.
Fast forward. I joined a program of adults trained to be “reading friends” in our community’s elementary schools. Once a week now, I spend 90 minutes at “my” assigned school; a half-hour in the library reading aloud with each of “my” three students — two first-grade girls and a second-grade boy. These children all like to read but just need a little extra one-on-one attention. With literacy at grade three being a marker for future success in almost all aspects of life, “my” kids are at a vulnerable stage … maybe I can make a bit of difference. Maybe I can inspire them.
***
Each year, three days after Christmas, the Catholic Church observes the Feast of the Holy Innocents … those children murdered by King Herod in an attempt to eliminate the Baby Jesus, the “newborn King of the Jews”. This past Christmas season, such “ancient history” became relevant to me, because “holy innocents” were murdered in that Tennessee school last spring.
That ironically inspirational event is never far from my mind these days. When I make my weekly reading trip to school, I need to be buzzed through two locked doors to gain entry … and then sign in … and then get the badge that says I’ve passed a background check and am a trusted visitor. Finally, I can head to the library to meet up with my three “holy innocents”. On the way, I offer a little prayer for our safety.
Writing class exercise, 10 minutes, no revisions, to the prompt “flat tire”.
Any nail or screw in any road will find its way into any one of my car’s tires. Thank God, I have never had a blow-out. But I know well that sinking feeling of coming into the garage in the morning, prepared to rush off somewhere, and seeing my car literally sinking slightly in one direction or another. The tell-tale signs of a slow leak … phphphph … We don’t live far from a Les Schwab place, so I scrap my morning’s plans, drive carefully to the tire shop and … wait … while a repair is made. The guys there are always so cheerful and accommodating, which makes up for my spoiled plans.
This piece appeared on March 11, 2024 on CatholicArtistConnection.com, as part of that website’s Lenten Reflections series.
Mid-way through the penitential season of Lent came yesterday’s bright spot of hope and joy: Laetare Sunday. The liturgical color of the day — rose — shone like a beacon against the unrelenting purple of Lent, a visual sign to the faithful that Easter is within our sight.
Today, as we embark on the fourth week of our Lenten journey, donning purple once again, we remain heartened. As always, God’s grace, mercy and unconditional love surround us. New energy underlies our seasonal practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We sharpen our focus on how to live in right relationship with God, ourselves and others.
In the First Reading for today’s Mass, Isaiah (65:17-21) speaks of the joy, happiness and delight of God’s creation, and assures us that “no longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there, or the sound of crying”. The Responsorial Psalm (30) continues the theme: “You changed my mourning into dancing.” And the royal official in the Gospel (John 4:43-54) could be any one of us, “who believed what Jesus said to him”, after he pleaded with Jesus and then experienced the healing of his son.
Yes, the sorrow of Christ’s suffering, crucifixion and death loom ahead of us. And yes, we are living in a great big world seemingly drowning in war, violence, tragedy, discord, uncertainty, grief and gloom. In our smaller personal world, we may be living with circumstances that are deeply troubling.
But the hope and the joy of Laetare Sunday are still fresh for us this day. We are reminded that sorrow is not the end of the story. From sorrow will rise the salvific reality of Christ’s Resurrection, with the assurance that we all share in the miracle of eternal life and light, of redemption.
With our faith thus strengthened, we can resume our Lenten observances over the next three weeks with renewed commitment. By leavening sorrow with the gifts of hope and joy that God bestows so generously, we can face any challenges that the world and our individual lives bring us.
***
As a Benedictine Oblate, I (try to) live according to the Rule of St. Benedict. Chapter 49 of the Rule begins with this instruction: “The life of a monk ought to be a continuous Lent.” I (try to) reach that state by allowing the meaning of Lent, with its intertwined sorrow and joy and its promise of redemption, to remain relevant throughout the year, in every liturgical season.
Here is a practice that helps me: Often, daily if I can, I compose two litanies — two prayerful lists — on the facing pages of a notebook so I can easily toggle back and forth between them. One page is headed “Blessings Noted” and the other “Prayers Needed”. I bring these litanies to God, giving thanks and praise and asking for help. Every time I compose my litanies, I start fresh on new pages with new blessings and needs. This practice helps me appreciate the sacred rhythms of my life, fosters my growth in prayer and brings me closer to God.
