Kate – Page 4 – Daily Graces

Hidden Joys

Published on November 3, 2023November 5, 2023 by KateLeave a comment

I have been so pleasantly surprised by the fall colors here in Alabama. We lived in Mississippi 13 years ago and I honestly don’t recall what kind of fall foliage we had there. I didn’t know what to expect from Alabama.

While it’s not a Midwest fall color fest of course, we do have quite a few trees changes color. In a way, the trees that do change are extra special because they stand out so much more than when every single tree has changed over. I am trying to savor those colors instead of glossing over them.

I was sharing this observation with my writing group within the Word on Fire Institute. As I wrote to them, I elaborated about how not knowing what nature will do each season has become one of the hidden joys of this military life.

We moved to Kansas in the middle of winter. We had no idea what flowers were going to be in our front or back beds. Would we have a bunch of weeds? Nothing at all? A bunch of perennials? Around both large trees in the front was a very tangled underbrush type of plant. I was thoroughly surprised and delighted by the tulips that came up in early spring.

Moving often is difficult. There have definitely been seasons when I have sunk into the difficulty. But no matter where we are, the natural seasons continue to turn. As one season blends into the next, I find myself drawn out of my inner worries and concerns. I begin to look about in wonder and delight as a season I know well comes alive anew for me because of the new location we have found ourselves in.

Speaking of seasons turning, some seasonal change is happening here on the blog. As you have likely noticed, the weekly Gospel reflections have waned. If you aren’t a YouTube subscriber but you did enjoy the weekly reflection, I would humbly ask you to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I am continuing to post weekly Gospel reflections there. While sustainable and life-giving at first, writing at that frequency as well as recording and producing a weekly video has become too much to handle.

Due to the needed creative break, there will not be an updated Advent journal. Previous years’ journals are all still available and are organized by liturgical year (we will be starting Year B the First Sunday of Advent). You are more than welcome and encouraged to check out the previous journals. The days will not line up but the overall readings and content will.

As I said, I am continuing with the weekly YouTube videos and am hoping to include some additional Advent reflections. If you were hoping for new Advent specific content from me, YouTube is the place for it.

The seasons continue to shift and change. This blog has grown and evolved since I started it and I’m sure it will continue to do so. From the beginning, I have tried to use this space in such a way that is pleasing to the will of the Holy Spirit, to post when inspired to share and to share the good, beautiful, and hard things God is working in my life and the life of my family. Thank you for continuing to journey with me.

Angelus – Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Published on October 14, 2023 by KateLeave a comment

Matthew 22:1-14

As the weeks continue to march on, I am feeling stretched rather thin. At times like these, it is important to take the time to discern what God’s will is for this season, this moment. I have taken on quite a bit creatively, and Bilbo’s words from Fellowship keep coming back to me. This is from when he is talking to Gandalf about why he needs to go away from the Shire.

Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.
The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

I am not ready to say weekly Gospel reflections here need to be paused, but I don’t have the creative energy or time to do both a YouTube video and additional post. So for this week, I leave you in the most capable of hands, Pope Francis.

The link here is to an Angelus audience from Oct. 11, 2020.

Reality Check – Twenty-seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time 2023

Published on October 6, 2023October 5, 2023 by KateLeave a comment

Matthew 21:33-43

Well, we’ve had a week. And it’s ending with our dog needing to have one of his eyes removed. I’ll spare you the details.

But, even in all that, I still wanted to get a brief reflection out there about this Sunday’s Gospel reading. It even loosely ties into the dog business that has consumed so much of my waking and sleeping thoughts.

To boil it all down: None of this world actually belongs to us. Not my sweet dog, not my joyful (or not so joyful when certain math problems get tricky) children, not my home, not my husband, not even my own life. None of this big, wide, beautiful, messy world belongs to me. Nor, I’m sorry to say, does it belong to you. All of what we have belongs to God.

In this Gospel passage, Jesus lays out the whole of humanity’s reality in a few brief sentences.

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
Matthew 21:33

God created the world and everything in it. He then gave it to His most beautiful creations, humans, to be stewards over what He had made. And while the parable mentions a journey, we know that God has not walked away from His creation to leave us to struggle on our own. It is, after all, a parable and meant to illustrate a point. The point here is that God, the land owner, has given the tenants, aka us, the ability to freely choose how to live in the vineyard.

If we really, truly, take this to heart, it has some important implications in our relationships with others and with the wider world around us. It’s the whole, “With great power comes great responsibility,” moment. Both my husband and I have really felt the weight of these words as we have struggled in discerning how to best help our aging dog, Max.

Max is 13 and we discovered last week he was having eye concerns. Don’t worry, I’m not going to get detailed here. Suffice to say that after many, many different eye drops and antibiotics, he was still in a great deal of pain and even had to go to the vet emergency room. We found ourselves Thursday morning deciding between trying to save the eye (with a hefty price tag) at a pet hospital 1.5 hours away next week, or taking it out today and ending his misery. We have never had to make a decision like this before and I am still emotionally exhausted from the experience. All we wanted to do is to minimize his pain and maintain the highest quality of life he can have while also not going into debt. I desperately wanted for someone else to tell us what to do. But we are Max’s owners, and in bringing him into our family God had entrusted him to our care.

There is a delicate balance being played out here. Max belongs to us, we determine what care he receives. Yet at the end of the day, we have to be able to answer to God how we cared for His creature. The same logic can be applied to our children, to our bodies, and to anyone or anything we find under our earthy authority. God does not swoop in and lay out how each choice should be handled (wouldn’t it be nice sometimes though?). But He does give us the grace to make those decisions. At the end of time, or the end of our earthly life, we will need to be able to offer an accounting of how well we fulfilled our vocation as a steward over creation.

I’m happy to say Max is doing well and the kids are already planning pirate-themed costumes for Halloween. My favorite ideas so far are either: A. Max is the pirate captain and we are all his crew, or B. Max is the pirate and we dress Nathan (the 2 year old) up like a parrot to be his sidekick. Both options crack me up!