Some reflections on February Snow

By Jeannette Doran



God’s mercy reflects in the pristine snow

With the dawn comes the radiant light,

Glistening diamonds thru the window pane,

Boughs of snow clothed branches hang everywhere,

My Beloved showers me with gifts of beauty,

The creation of God fills me with wonder.

“As God sends forth the rain and the snow to water the earth

And makes it bud and flourish so Your Word, O God comes to nourish our

souls and will not return to You empty. But will accomplish Your

desires” (cf Is.55 v: 10-11)

“You send the snow like white wool; and scatter frost upon the ground like

ashes, hurl the hail like stones. Who can stand against Your freezing cold?
Then, at Your command, it all melts. You send Your winds, and the ice

thaws. You have revealed Your words to Jacob...” {and to us} (cf Psalm 147 v:15-19)
God graces us with an abundance of gifts to fill our hearts with wonder

Your Word calls us to respond to Your unconditional love with our whole

minds and hearts and thoughts. May our hearts be filled with loving

gratitude for all God's gracious gifts each day in Word, beauty of


Creation and loving mercy which never ends.

Summer’s Beauty

By Jeannette Doran

In Iowa, the corn grows, and the fields green.  Summer’s beauty enfolds us in God’s love.  We breathe in our Creator’s presence which surrounds us.  By mid-July, the corn reaches to the sky straight and tall as it stretches for the light. After the long days of  relentless heat leave the land parched, the summer storms are welcomed with their streaks of lightning which stir up the necessary nitrogen to nourish the roots. The corn’s roots sink deep down searching for life-giving water and nourishment in the rich black Iowan soil.  The leafy stalks gain strength swaying in the wind.

Just as the light and rain storms grow and beautify the corn, so our souls need the light of God’s grace and waters of daily compassion.  As our Creator cares for the corn, we, too, are provided for abundantly.  All of creation grows in the balance of sunlight and darkness, summer’s heat and thunderstorms to water the parched land.  In our busy lives, we also thirst for intervals of deep silence and listening .  We crave the space to sink into that silence of our inner being to listen to the whisper of God’s presence, letting the light spill over the shadows of yesterday’s tears.   The warmth of God’s love intensifies our experience of our Creator, which deepens and expands as we spend more time in quiet prayer.

When we sit still in the warmth and light of the divine presence, we nurture a deeper confidence and intimacy with our Creator, who is always with us, calming our fears.  Light, warmth and rain storms are needed to cultivate the corn in summer, and we need the warmth, light and rains of the Holy Spirit to wash over and envelop us each moment.    God’s compassion is new each morning and is always there for us.  Take time to hold onto God who waits in silent spaces, and joy and peace will pervade your day.  Breathe in Jesus and breathe out mercy.  In contemplating the rich beauty of the cornfields in summer, recall the necessary stages of growth it has experienced along the way, and the care it has received. 

Believe in the divine tender love and mercy surrounding you.  Live in the consciousness of this tender presence through your own experience of God’s unconditional love for each one of us.   May we all grow in grace, washed in the Spirit and bathed in God’s everlasting and compassionate love.

Solitary Spaces in the Wild

By Jeannette Doran

  I have always loved the wild of nature. As a small child I would run off to an empty space surrounded with lush foliage to my secret hiding place and would occupy myself for long stretches returning with a heart filled with joy and peace.

This sacred space amidst the greening filled me with a serenity I’ve never forgotten.

My last year of college I listened with awe as my roommate described the in creditable beauty of the Chiapas jungle where she had spent the previous summer. My desire to go there grew over the coming year and I overcame many obstacles to track over hills created by jungle growth the coming summer. I went seeking God’s presence in the vast cathedral-like splendor of the tropical jungle.

I was not disappointed in my time spent there; it truly prepared me for my life choices.

The wilderness in the wild centers one guiding us to make wise decisions.

Winter

By Jeannetter Doran

Winter comes with a deep sleep of the land when all possibility of life seems bleak and barren. Darkness and cold settle over all. Bare branches give no hope of future growth. Yet soon we see how lovingly the gentle snow blankets the fields, giving needed protection. Later we watch melting snow providing the wanted water. As the necessary winter of the land prepares for the future abundance our soul’s fruition depends on its own winters.
In our soul’s winter it’s a time of solitude and waiting, a time of prayer. Yes, God is hidden in the darkness but the stars do shine more the darker the sky. Our winters can be long and intense. Just as the land’s bleakness and sleep seem long and severe so, too in our soul this is felt. In our heart we seem to find no joy or meaning. It appears to be a time of emptiness, and absence. This is also a precious time for secret soul growth when one nurtures the seeds of hope and faith. Holding on in the darkness and nothingness we believe God is with us and will carry us through our winter to the joys of a heavenly spring. We grasp with all our hearts our God, who is near in the dark. We trust and believe we will never be abandoned but someday will hear our Beloved call our name with great tenderness. Our winters are times when we learn to live in the light of faith while feeling surrounded by darkness. How necessary it is to wait in our spiritual journey, to wait in silence, to try to turn off all external stimuli and search with all one’s being for interior silence. To penetrate into the silence as the seed enters the womb of the soil. As we come to listen to and to taste the silence we find rest in the silence and becoming more enfolded in the silence a light will shine from our innermost being. This light will eventually radiate out to all about us as the spring blossoms diffuse their delicate fragrance. May we all know the vast beauty of this radiant fragrance.

Empty Spaces

By Jeannette Doran

There is a longing in the human heart that only God can fill. Yes, we often spend time and energy trying to fill this space with things other than God, which cannot satisfy. This can take us time traveling through dark places, clouded with sadness, to learn that our hearts were made for God alone and only in God will one find a lasting joy beyond understanding.

       I find a certain beauty in empty spaces, in simplicity of design, such as in the clean lines in architecture and furniture and in the beauty in a Japanese floral arrangement of three flowers, where less is often better than more. As my eyes look over the December fields, I find a resting place in this vast stretch of land in the loveliness of the empty field clothed in white snow.

        Advent speaks to me of empty hearts waiting for the coming of God. It’s a quiet time of longing and desire for God alone; a time to let go of all the clutter and the whatnot that does not fill us or bring joy. Days, when we learn to seek God in the empty spaces and moments of our daily life. This time prepares one to attentively watch and wait in silence for the quiet coming of God into our empty heart.

     God’s presence will be found by the seeking heart. The heart that understands God hides in the moments of our day. We find God in the grace of the moment as we continue to look and seek in faith.  All of our advent days can be focused on seeing God in these moments with new eyes of faith.

    When the soul enters into a deep stillness, God’s image is imprinted in the innermost center. Just as the sun is reflected on the pure white snow, deep within our souls we are called to reflect the image of God. As when the sun shines on still waters a mirror is created of the sun, so when our soul rests in stillness, God enters undisturbed. As Wisdom tells us “When peaceful silence lay over all, and night had run the half of her swift course, down from the heavens, from the royal throne, leapt Your all-powerful Word.” (18:15).  When any annoyance is allowed to penetrate one’s being, the soul’s experience of God is obscured. The psalmist invites us ‘to be still’ so that we will behold God. We see in the natural world that a pure crystal pool of water will mirror the beauty around it only in stillness. If even a tiny pebble drops into the water, the ripples will hinder this image from appearing.

        In the human soul, when any commotion is allowed to enter the center of our being, the face of God is covered and one will not know God’s presence. Our God dwells in peace. When we allow negative thoughts to linger in our minds we cloud the image of God in our hearts. God’s image is formed in the depths of our being in profound stillness. “Be still and know that I am God”, Psalm 46 invites us.

        In the empty spaces of our day, of our lives we can search for and cultivate intimacy with our God, Who is always with us present in our inner being. When our days become too crowded, it is time to take a moment to look at our inner desires, our longings. What am I really seeking? What will bring me inner quiet and peace?

        Advent is a time for seeking and waiting for God to be birthed in our inner being. Only God present in our lives can bring us the true joy of Christmas. May we each learn to deepen our search for intimacy with the God of our desires and be clothed with the joy God so longs to fill us with this Christmas and always.

Quiet Pools

By Jeannette Doran

As spring comes, we begin to see the bare branches sprout and flower. We wait for the soft rains and watch the trees fill out with various shades of green. Rows of tiny green plants are seen amidst the fields of black soil. When the hot, humid days come, how refreshing the cooling rain becomes. Summertime and the action of creation display the splendor of pools, streams and rivers of living water. As in our prayer life, St. Teresa, who loved the gospel of the Samaritan woman, uses living water to teach us about the four stages of prayer. She begins with our struggle to pray and ends with the abundance of God’s grace drenching our very being.

Water is a powerful image. It is used in Scripture and in spiritual writings to illuminate mystery. Creation captures water's beauty; water weaves throughout our world. We delight in the rolling of the ocean waves as well as the rushing rivers. We experience serenity as we sit by the still lake. In desert land, there is a desire for water. During summer water quenches our thirst while we take pleasure in swimming away the heat of the day.

Spiritual waters permeate our souls as we take time to create quiet spaces. When we carve out a place of solitude and become a still pool, the Holy Spirit will fill our being with God’s living Presence. As still waters reflect the mountain peaks, the fragile blue cornflower and the various shades of green trees, so too, when one takes time for deep silence, God radiates within our souls, forming Christ’s image.

 

Scripture reminds us of how “the waters of Shiloh flow gently” (Is. 8: 6). In the eighth chapter of Isaiah, we learn the importance of remaining in tranquility. In Chapter 7 of St. John’s gospel, Jesus promises the believer that “rivers of living water shall flow” from within one’s heart. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman; “whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty; no, the water I give shall become a spring within (the heart of the believer), welling up to eternal life.” Water is often used throughout the psalms to denote longing for God. In Psalm 42, we pray: “As a deer longs for running streams, so longs my soul for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, the God of my life.” Water is a symbol of God’s grace used in our sacramental life. For example, we read “when the soldier pierced the heart of Jesus after his death immediately blood and water flowed out.” This blood and water could be a symbolic reference to the Eucharist and Baptism, as many believe.

Our loving God so longs to drench us with this living water. St. Augustine wrote that “we are the bread and Christ is the hunger”. May Christ’s hunger for our yearning for intimacy with God overflow into our hearts, and into all that we do. Eventually this becomes a gift to others. This is the ultimate goal of our lives.

Search for Serenity

Posted by Jeannette Doran

         Fear seems to surround us at every turn.  In print and on air, the message is fear. How can one be  free from fear and anxiety?  Recently, the news brought a glimmer of hope as the world rejoiced in the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners. In the simplicity of their lives their faith and prayer to God was their strength and confidence that God was able to perform this miracle and hope that God would. We watched as they prayed and offered thanksgiving to the God who saved them. Their faith and trust in God awed most. Perhaps their example of faith and hope shows us a way to find a serenity that will lead to freedom from fear.      

        In my search I have come to realize that our confidence in God's love expands as one experiences God's touch and our faith becomes more tangible. Spiritual growth and knowledge envelop one in peace and stave off fear. As we grow in understanding that God is truly our refuge and strength fear will not take hold of us. For fear and anxiety cannot exist in a heart that sees God’s touch on our daily lives.  I find God’s presence in scripture as well as the golden fields and the yellow orange sunsets of autumn. All these nurture my confidence and faith in God and expand God in my life.

       St Therese truly experienced that God “is occupied with each soul as though there were no others like it.” In Scripture we are urged not to fear, to trust always and “to pour out our hearts before God” Who is our refuge. (Psalm 62v8). We read of God’s tenderness and love telling us that we will never be forgotten, that God draws and leads us “with human cords, with bands of love like someone lifting an infant to their cheek.”  (Hosea 11v4) God delights in us and when we fail remembers us and deeply yearns for our return. In Jeremiah we read: “I am filled with tenderness towards [you].” (31v.20 NEB)  

       As we grow in intimacy with our beloved, God’s life flows into our being, we lose our fear and anxiety and we find God's loving Presence in every detail of our lives. We do at last find a lasting serenity.