PLANS

All that is hidden will be made clear,
all that is dark now will be revealed.
What you have heard in the dark
proclaim in the light;
what you hear in whispers
proclaim from the housetops.  Bernadette Farrell

Though in the form of God, Jesus did not claim equality with God but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, human like one of us.  Flesh and blood, he humbled himself, obeying to the death, death on a cross.  For this very reason God lifted him high and gave him the name above all names.  So at the name of Jesus every knee will bend in heaven, on earth, in the world below, and every tongue exclaim to the glory of God the Father, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”  Phil. 2:6-11

The best-laid plans of mice and men /often go awry.  Robert Burns

Man proposes but God disposes.  Prov. 16:9

God writes straight with crooked lines.

Moira                                10/2014

Nothing goes smoothly according to plan.  “I had a plan to…”   You fill in the blank.    Disrupted plans are not unusual.  This is just one of the struggles of everyday life we all experience.  Still we ask, “Why it is our plans are always frustrated?”      Because we are the ‘created’ and not the ‘Creator.’ And we are not in heaven, yet, where all things will be revealed.  We are called to use our creativity here in the kingdom of God right now.

There is another saying that will help us put things in perspective and give us some peace of mind: Pray as if everything depended on God.  Work as though everything depended on you.    St. Augustine  

Through our prayer and work we are participants in God’s plan.  Ven. Celeste described this participation in ‘The Design of the Father,’ and it is summed up in our Const. #3 quoting Lumen Gentium, From all eternity, by virtue of a plan born of His mysterious and utterly gratuitous love for us, God wishes to call us to live in communion with Him, to give us His Spirit of love so that He might constantly live with us and in us.  

That being said, even Celeste had times when her plans felt like they were falling apart.  She was at her lowest while the new rule was being established; even Alphonsus wrote letters to chastise her: “It is always profitable to humiliate a soul overwhelmed with favors from God.” 

Celeste took this all to prayer and her Beloved re-assured her saying, “Live your life of constant dying to yourself, living crucified in My holy Flesh...always united to the joy of My Divine Spirit.”  And, “All that they shall do to you with regard to this work I shall consider as done to Myself and not to you.  But be assured that you shall see this work established.  Hope in Me."  These words strengthened Celeste, gave her peace of heart and she continued her work for the Lord.

This calls for much self-emptying.  Jesus is our model of self-emptying as we heard in the letter to the Philippians.  No one can say for sure that Jesus, being fully human, knew how his life would end on earth.  But with a loving and open heart he walked the path laid out by God the Father always united in joy with the Divine Spirit.   After Jesus died on the cross he rose again and brought us all the promise of new life.

Remembering our call to live in communion with God by means of being Christ in the world today, we walk the path laid out for us.  We cannot see the road ahead.    Our plans in life may feel like they go awry but they really may be blessings in disguise.  In looking back, we see how God has been with us every step of the way where growth and hidden grace is revealed as we receive unexpected new life. 

So with prayer, work, hope in God, a healthy dose of self-emptying and an open, loving heart we can proclaim, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”