Jesus went to the desert before big events in His life. He found peace as he prayed for courage to face what was to come. He found enlightenment.
Several weeks ago, I had my own desert experience, though not by choice. I had COVID and was homebound. I had no big events to speak of, but I needed rest from stressful stuff.
I relinquished the responsibilities I had in my volunteer jobs. I let go of any thought that I had to follow what I thought I had to do when I did not have COVID. It felt good. I was not a slave to a should-do, must-do, had-to-do mentality. I just ate well relying on my newfound love for green smoothies and rediscovered the refreshing feeling from just walking around 1 mile in our neighborhood. I felt the two were enough to keep me healthy.
Surprisingly, my mind early in the morning was daring enough to write my thoughts and share them too in emails. For some reason, my guts had no filter.
The COVID was mild but took a long time of two weeks to show negative results. I was relieved but also grateful for the rest the virus afforded me. It was God speaking in whispers and I heard Him or Her in the silence. Slow down. Let go.
I come you to this evening to pray for your guidance as I discover more about who I am and trust in who You are molding me to be. I pray to be able to see me the way that You see me. Your word says that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your word says that everything created by You is good and that nothing is to be rejected. Help me to be 100% of who You made me to be. I am made in Your image. Help my eyes to see, Lord. Give me the courage to walk in the world as my true self. Help me to be honest, truthful, real, and authentic. Kill the spirit of comparison in me. Direct me away from trying to be like anyone else. Forgive me, God for comparing myself and mimicking after anyone else. I know You have specific gifts and a specific purpose just for me. Lord, show me my gifts. Reveal to me my purpose. Make it plain, God, so I can write it on the tablets and run with it.
Lord, as I’ve embarked on a journey to help others discover who they really are please order my steps. Help me to teach others how to have confident assurance of who they are and the gifts they possess. Let me be Your vessel to lead Your people to more fulfilling and purposeful lives. Help them heal where they need to heal and to grow where they need to grow. As people discover who they are, I pray that it leads them to You. I pray that they’d be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
Lord, in the quiet depths of my being, I seek your divine illumination. Illuminate the corridors of my soul, revealing the hidden parts of myself that yearn to be known. Guide me in uncovering the layers of my existence, removing the veils that hinder my self-discovery.
Grant me the wisdom to recognize my strengths, acknowledge my weaknesses, and embrace my true essence. May your light shine upon my path, leading me to the profound realization of who I am and the purpose I am destined to fulfill. In your grace, I find the courage to embark on this transformative journey of self-discovery. Amen
Bianca gave the handwritten note above to me during our last meeting. I asked her why and she said, "Because you are my favorite teacher" and gave me her signature hug, arms around my waist.
Lent is all about love. Jesus came to teach us how to live and love, even through pain and suffering.
Lent is a time to be better and to continue to learn from Jesus. It takes discipline. Thus, we fast (not only from food but also from hurtful attitudes and habits). We give alms (money or service). We pray.
As we do exercises to toughen our bodies, these three Lenten practices strengthen our souls.
Good things take effort including living and loving God, our neighbor, and ourselves. Let us together do our transformation.
Let nothing trouble you, nothing frighten you.All things are passing; God never changes.Patient endurance attains all things.Whoever possesses God lacks nothing: God alone suffices.
Father Richard finds the foundation for his teaching that everything belongs in the crucifixion itself:
The cross is a perfect metaphor for what we mean by “everything belongs.” The rational, calculating mind can never fully understand the mystery of the cross. These insights can only be discovered through contemplative seeing: God is to be found in all things, even and most especially in the painful, tragic, and sinful things, exactly where we do not want to look for God. The crucifixion of the God-Human is at the same moment the worst and best thing in human history.
Human existence is neither perfectly consistent, nor is it incoherent chaos. Instead, life has a cruciform pattern. All of life is a “coincidence of opposites” (St. Bonaventure), a collision of cross-purposes. We are all filled with contradictions needing to be reconciled. This is the precise burden and tug of all human existence.
The price that we pay for holding together these opposites is invariably some form of “crucifixion.” Jesus himself was archetypally hung between a good thief and a bad thief, between heaven and earth, holding together both his humanity and his divinity, a male body with a feminine soul. He was a Jewish believer who forgave and loved everyone else. He “reconciled all things in himself” (Ephesians 2:14–16). Jesus really is an icon of what Carl Jung called the holy and whole-making spirit. [1]
The demand for the perfect is the enemy of the possible good.Be peace and do justice, but let’s not expect perfection in ourselves or the world. Perfectionism contributes to intolerance and judgmentalism and makes ordinary love largely impossible. Jesus was an absolute realist, patient with the ordinary, the broken, the weak, and those who failed. Following him is not a “salvation scheme” or a means of creating some ideal social order as much as it is a vocation to share the fate of God for the life of the world, and to love the way that God loves—which we cannot do by ourselves.
The doctrine, folly, and image of the cross is the great clarifier and truth-speaker for all human history. We can rightly speak of being “saved” by it. Jesus crucified and resurrected is the whole pattern revealed, named, effected, and promised. Jesus did not come to found a separate or new religion as much as he came to present a universal message of vulnerability and foundational unity that is necessary for all religions, the human soul, and history itself to survive. Thus, Christians can rightly call Jesus “the savior of the world” (John 4:42), but no longer in the competitive and imperialistic way that they have usually presented him. By very definition, vulnerability and unity do not compete or dominate. The cosmic Christ is no threat to anything but separateness, illusion, domination, and the imperial ego.
References:
[1] C. G. Jung, “A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity,” in Psychology and Religion: West and East, trans. R. F. C. Hull, 2nd ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969), 180.
Almighty God, through your Holy Spirit you created unity in the midst of diversity; We acknowledge that human diversity is an expression of your manifold love for your creation; We confess that in our brokenness as human beings we turn diversity into a source of alienation, injustice, oppression, and wounding. Empower us to recognize and celebrate differences as your great gift to the human family. Enable us to be the architects of understanding, of respect and love; Through the Lord, the ground of all unity, we pray.
This is an easy way to have your cupcake and eat it in less than 10 minutes which includes prep time. Only four ingredients are needed. One more thing, my picky husband liked it.
Microwave Pumpkin Cupcake from Cake Mix
Ingredients
8oz yellow cake mix
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp spice mix powder
Instructions
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
Transfer into 6 paper-lined microwave-safe muffin pan
I love this favorite Filipino sweet snack, turon. They are made from Filipino lumpia wrapper which is available in the freezer section of the Asian stores. I seldom get to the Asian store but I need to take care of my craving. One more thing, this snack is customarily made using ripened plantain Oh my it is getting to be formidable to satisfy my craving for my turon.
As usual, I found a way to make this snack. I used tortillas for the wrapper which I always have on hand. Instead of plantain I have substituted really ripe bananas so sweet I skipped adding brown sugar to the banana. I prefer to avoid oil frying so my air fryer came in handy Here is my modified version of turon. I have eaten this snack morning, noon, and night. My picky husband likes it too.
Easy Air Fryer Turon (Filipino Banana Egg Roll)
Ingredients
1 very ripe banana
4 small tortillas
Maple or date syrup or any syrup (optional)
Instructions
Cut the banana into strips
Microwave the tortillas for 20 seconds to soften them
Place the banana strips on the tortilla
Put the top edge of the tortilla over the banana fold over the left and right sides of tortilla and then roll it like a burrito
Air fry at 400 for 9 minutes.
Pour over syrup on top of air-fried turon if you wish.
If you are craving some umami filled noodles, this four ingredient dish is it. Everything can be done in the microwave too. It is a crowd pleaser. One more thing the ingredients can be purchased at a Dollar Tree Store. I chose not to use the seasoning that came with the Ramen noodles. It had msg as one of its ingredients. Other brands of ramen do not. Soy sauce from Dollar Tree has msg also. I used one from the grocery store.
Lazy Day Four Ingredient Noodle Dish
Ingredients
2 packages Ramen noodles (seasoning is not used)
Water
1 package frozen stir fry vegetables (I bought mine at the Dollar Tree)
Soy sauce to taste
Weber kick' n chicken seasoning to taste (or use everything bagel seasoning or just add garlic and onion powder and some source of heat)
Instructions
Unwrap ramen noodles, break them into smaller portions, and place them in a microwave-safe bowl Add enough water to cover the noodles.
Microwave for three to five minutes or till soft but not mushy
Set aside.
Microwave the frozen vegetables following the package instructions.
In a skillet, combine the noodles and vegetables. Season with soy sauce and kick'n chicken seasoning and heat through.
In last week’s post, I shared the writings of Richard Rohr on how recognizing our false selves can bring peace. This week, I wanted to share a follow up post in which he explains the benefits of taking the next step—releasing our false selves. This concept has been so helpful to me that I wanted to share it with you. I hope it aids you on your journey to Becoming Yourself.
Father Richard further clarifies what he means by the false self:
Our false self is not our bad self, our inherently deceitful self, the self that God does not like, or we should not like. Actually, our false self is good and necessary as far as it goes. It just doesn’t go far enough, and it often poses and thus substitutes for the real thing. That is its only problem, and that is why it’s called “false.”
Various false selves (temporary costumes) are necessary to get us all started, and they show their limitations when they stay around too long. If a person keeps growing, their various false selves usually die in exposure to greater light.
Our false self, which we might also call our “small self” or “separate self,” is our launching pad: our body image, our job, our education, our clothes, our money, our car, our success, and so on. These are the functional trappings of ego that we all use to get through an ordinary day. They are largely projections of our self-image and our attachment to it. [
Contemplation teaches us how to detach from this self-image. For example, I’m happy to dress as a priest at the appropriate time and place, but I don’t do it all the time, because then I get too attached to that image. Any self-image, positive or negative, held too tightly, reinforces our attachment to the false self. We don’t need to think of ourselves as better or worse than each other. I am who I am as the image of God and that levels the playing field. [2]
When we are able to move beyond our separate or false self—as we are invited to do over the course of our lives—it will eventually feel as if we have lost nothing.In fact, it will feel like freedom and liberation. When we are connected to the Whole, we no longer need to protect or defend the mere part. We no longer need to compare and compete. We are now connected to something
To not let go of our false self at the right time and in the right way is precisely what it means to be stuck, trapped, and addicted to our self. (The traditional word for that was sin, the result of feeling separate from the Whole.) Discovering our True Self is not just a matter of chronological age. Some spiritually precocious children see through the false self rather early. Some old men and old women are still dressing it up. If all we have at the end of our life is our separate or false self, there will not be much to eternalize. It is transitory and impermanent. These costumes are largely created by the mental ego. They were useful to us in our development. Our false self is what changes, passes, and dies when we die. Only our True Self lives forever. [3]
