December 5

I was reminded today that I hadn't blogged in a while... and asked why not....
I responded with "not feeling very inspired".

Well, that was not strictly true.  There are sparks of inspiration rolling around in my brain. The issue is more that I have been busy, and sick.  I spent a lot of free time recently creating digital scrapbook pages of my fabulous family.... a lot of love to enjoy there.

I did read something recently and saved it.  I'll share it with you now.

MODELS OF SURRENDER

St. Catherine of Siena in her Dialogues pictures the spiritual life as a large tree: The trunk of the tree is love. The core of the tree, that middle part that must be alive for the rest of the tree to be alive, is patience. The roots of the tree are self-knowledge. The many branches, reaching out into the air, are discernment. In other words, says Catherine, love does not happen without patience, self-knowledge, and discernment. Today we have little encouragement toward honest self-knowledge or training in spiritual discernment from our churches. By nature, most of us are not very patient. All of which means that love is not going to be very common. We need St. Catherine’s tree again. For more on this theme, please consider The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of St. Francis with Fr. Richard Rohr (CD) Aloha, Emily