Monday, September 14, 2009

The wooing of the soul


It is almost as if God were wooing the human soul..Blessed Angela de Foligno..as quoted in one of the books I am reading, The Nun . A fictionalised biography of St Margaret Mary Alacoque.

Today is the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Some of us went to Mass this morning; some will go this evening, when I am at work...

We remember that the cross is our hope; our lifeline; our salvation. Today's table centrepiece serves as a visual prompt for this thought.


Yesterday, at Mass, Fr talked about carrying our cross. Not whinging or whining. Not judging others; for who knows the private life of the person in the next pew, the next house, the next street? Who knows their cross?

And so last night found us discussing our crosses, while watching Battlestar Galactica (sob! the last season!) and seeing the cross that individuals in the series had to bear, upon their discovery of earth, of their true identity. The different reactions of the characters in the episode. The different reactions of family members to thoughts on our own personal crosses.
Do we even have a cross? Maybe just getting up each day and doing what has to be done faithfully, cheerfully, is what we are called to carry?
It was then that the quote above came back to me.
It is almost as if God were wooing the human soul..

God never asks more from us than what we can give. The fact is, he asks, with integrity, with respect for free will.

As the discussions in our house go, we meandered off topic. Talked about names we would take, names of saints, as religious names. If we were joining a religious order. And why. Looked up saints in the saints encyclopedia. Debated the value of changing your name, upon joining a religious order. And several felt very strongly about the importance of this...Finally, we returned to our DVD!
And finally, I come back to today in the liturgical calendar and to today's unschooling. One of today's projects?
Researching and making posters of the types of crosses used in Christian symbolism; the types of crucifixes.
.......Thomas has made a start..

3 comments:

Chris said...

Great work Thomas. It is a very interesting subject to investigate.

Beate said...

Papa Ben reminded us the other day that if we love Christ, we must love the cross. That's sooooo hard... I want life to be easy!

Hopewell said...

I love the cross project!