Tag: Jesus

Deadlines – An Advent Reflection

Published on by KateLeave a comment

I have a love/hate relationship with deadlines. 

Deadlines are highly motivating. There is a clear project, direction, and end in sight. Deadlines can often spark creativity. Time instantly becomes more precious and there comes a moment when I just have to commit to a plan and go with it so that the deadline can be met. 

However, deadlines can also be hugely stressful. Deadlines apply pressure to finish a specific project in a specific window of time, even if there are other things I am more interested in focusing on. They can be unrealistic for the scope of a project, especially if a project has evolved to something larger than originally planned. Deadlines can feel defeating when they arrive before I am really ready to present what I’ve been working on. The project is finished in a rush and hasn’t had time to grow to it’s full potential, if it gets completed at all. 

I am a stay at home mom with a love of crafting and gift giving, so my deadlines are mostly self-imposed. The biggest deadline of them all is rapidly drawing upon us – Christmas. There are so many crafters in the world who are right now, in this very moment, scrambling to complete the projects they decided would make excellent Christmas gifts. Maybe they started early, but have so many gifts to make they still aren’t finished yet. Maybe they didn’t realize how long their project would take. Some only just began their crafting in the past few weeks because life and timing got away from them. They woke up on Dec. 1 and realized how many hats they wanted to knit for their co-workers and have been knitting non-stop since then. 

I have been in all of these circumstances. There was even one year I completed a pair of knitted socks for a loved one while we were driving to their house. I have made grand plans only to run out of time. This year, thankfully, my gift making required a large loom that will definitely not fit in the car, so I knew that back up plan would not work. I’m so happy to say that as of Dec. 12, my gift crafting is done (well, for now. There’s always the car ride to whip something else up) (Joke’s on me, I wrote that last line before we left. Guess what I’m doing while we drive…). 

As it does every Advent, the Church asks us to consider another deadline, a rather final one – the Second Coming of Christ. It actually brings a whole new meaning to this compound word we use so frequently – Dead. Line. A line which beyond is death. Christ’s return to earth is difficult for us to grapple with. It is a deadline, to be sure. Yet Jesus told us that we would not know the timing of it’s arrival. How are we supposed to prepare for a deadline that we don’t know the time or location of?

First and foremost, we listen to and pray with Scripture. We listen to John the Baptist, crying out in the desert for repentance. We listen to Jesus in His parables that teach us to stay awake and alert. We listen to St. Paul when he tells us to pray without ceasing, and to rejoice in the faith and salvation we have from Jesus Christ.

Second, we continue to seek out God in our everyday ordinary existence. This means looking for opportunities to love our neighbor. If we can go to bed every day thinking about the ways we helped others, served others, died to our own selfishness, and extended God’s love to those we met (be they new people or the same people we share each day with), we will be well on our way to heaven.  

Just because we don’t know when Jesus will come back does not mean the project of salvation isn’t the highest priority. Of all the things on your to-do list today, of all the projects and plans you would like to accomplish by a certain deadline, where does God’s plan for your sainthood fall?

Habits – Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Published on by KateLeave a comment

On this week’s video, I talk about how Jesus is teaching His disciples that forgiveness is more than an action, it is a habit. If you were to do something 77 times, you would be well on your way to forming a habit. Jesus’ use of the the double 7 in 77 is symbolic as well as practical. 7 is a perfect number in the biblical sense (think the 7 days of creation) and the repetitive use here can indicate a certain abundance of the ideal. The commentary given by the USCCB website offers this beautiful phase, “limitless forgiveness.” What a world we could create if we each had a habit of limitless forgiveness.

In raising my children and getting to know each of them as unique individuals, I’ve come to discover that everyone comes into their habits differently. What works for one kid doesn’t always work for another. I have always known our oldest tends to learn one thing at a time well. He was like that even as a baby, I may have even shared this here before so excuse the repetitive story. It felt like it took John forever to walk, he actually didn’t let go of furniture until after his sister was born. He got everywhere he wanted to go by holding hands, cruising along the couches and chairs, or by pushing a laundry basket. But, once he decided he was ready to let go, he could run across the room without falling. The same story goes for talking. Hardly any words and then full sentences in a matter of weeks.

John is 12 now and we are working on building good habits that he can carry into adulthood. There are so many things I would like to teach him, to help him understand that life would be so much easier if just remembered his chores instead of me pestering him about them. There are even a few habits I thought we had down already, only to discover this new pre-teen lackadaisical attitude toward things like brushed teeth and listening skills really need to be recalled ASAP. I’m sure I’m not the only parent with these kinds of feelings.

As I think back on how John has grown, it should not be surprising to me that when I try to force a number of new habits on him at once, it isn’t going to go well. However, encouraging him to focus on one thing at a time, here we make some real progress. As his mom, I then have the opportunity to praise him for those efforts in this one specific area and really build him up in his ability to grow and mature while transitioning to the next good habit he needs in order to thrive as a teen and adult. Small success, small steps in the overall direction forward. It is also encouraging him to learn more about himself and how he best learns and grows which will ultimately help him in his relationships throughout life.

Turning the tables, I have been pondering how I best instill a new habit in myself. I’ve come up with a few criteria that need to be in place before a new habit can be formed. Perhaps my list will inspire you as well.

  • Empty space – if I’m trying to squeeze in a new habit, you can bet it’s going to be squeezed right out of my life. I need time and space to dedicate to the new habit.
  • Consistency – if it’s not scheduled, it’s probably not going to happen. A habit doesn’t need to be a daily thing, but each person has some kind of limit for how far between occurrences the practice needs to happen (perhaps there’s science on this out there). If I’m not practicing my new habit at least once weekly, it’s probably not going to stick. Even then, I’ll need to be careful because I’ll forget one week and then by the 4th I’ll recall I had a habit I was trying to cultivate and have since left behind.
  • Has a home or place – In bible study today (hooray, Walking With Purpose is at our new parish!), a participant shared about how if she doesn’t leave her meditation books out by her coffee cup in the evening she will forget to read them with her coffee in the morning. This is so me. Out of sight, out of mind completely describes how habits can get lost, whether on purpose or not.

What about habits like Jesus is talking about, the inner, intangible habits. Things like forgiveness, patience, empathy, silence, joy. These are a harder, as they happen at random, aren’t usually tied to physical objects, and can take any number of minutes or hours to fully process. Here are some suggestions:

  • Pray for the grace to grow in your habit. But be careful, as most older grandmas will tell you, if you pray for patience you will be gifted a whole host of opportunities to practice the virtue.
  • Ask the Holy Spirit to inspire the habit in you during specific situations. We can’t always anticipate when we will need empathy or courage. But, there are definitely situations in your life where you have an inkling ahead of time what type of inner habit you will need. Take the time before embarking into that situation to ask the Holy Spirit to pour His eternal gifts out on you that you need for that specific moment.
  • Keep a gratitude journal. Cultivating a spirit of gratitude is an excellent way to grow in thankfulness. It also encourages you to review your day, which then draws your attention to the times things went well and when they didn’t. This survey of the day or week can highlight the times you practiced one of these inner habits well, or where you need to grow.
Daily Graces. kktaliaferro.wordpress.com

Identity – Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Published on by KateLeave a comment

“Who do you say that I am?”

These words have haunted followers of Jesus up and down the centuries. Each of us, at some point in our lives, comes face to face with this question. Is Jesus God, or not? We then have to grapple with the consequences of either answer and what they mean for our life.

So much of this question comes down to an understanding of who I am before I can really grapple with the question at hand. I think this is one reason why it is Peter who is able to so boldly profess, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” In Luke’s Gospel, we hear how Peter was called by Jesus. Peter at first protests, saying, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). Peter knew he was a sinner, he knew he had faults. Peter knew he needed a savior. Only someone who needs saving can be saved.

Do you think you need saving? This is a tough question in today’s “I can do it myself” type of atmosphere. We aren’t good at accepting help, much less saving. This is something I’ve had to consciously work hard at allowing in my life. I cannot do everything, I need help sometimes. To need help is vulnerable and humbling. These qualities can and often are uncomfortable. But what does St. Paul say Jesus revealed to him about weakness?

“My [Jesus’] grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

There are times in life when we try to do it all. If you’ve been around this blog or my YouTube channel, you know these last few months of moving have been challenging. So much of why they have been a struggle was because I fell into two traps: 1. I continued to hold onto my pride in that I wanted my plan to be better than God’s plan, and 2. If my plan really wasn’t going to happen, then by golly I was going to muscle through God’s on my own strength, grit, will power, and arrogance.

I didn’t surrender. I didn’t place my weakness before my Savior. I didn’t give Him room to move in my heart to soften it to see more clearly His desires for me and my family.

Have you ever watched little kids when they are first learning how to swim with floaties on? Our family has been doing a lot of swimming since we moved to Alabama and both Gabe, age 4, and Nathan, age 2, have been getting accustomed to their floaties. One day, maybe our third or fourth visit to the pool, when Gabe was swimming/scrambling to the edge of the pool. He desperately wanted to keep up with his siblings, but just can’t swim as fast as them. I call to him, “Put your feet down, you can stand there!” He didn’t believe me. He kept struggling and became very frustrated. I went over to him, looked him in the eyes, and said, “Gabe, just put your feet down.” His shock was immediate, he could stand and walk to where he wanted to go.

For most of this move, I was Gabe in the water. I struggled, kicked, and became overly frustrated with most things. My solid ground was right there, waiting for me, if I had just slowed down enough to recognize its presence. God is God, I am not. No amount of struggling will change this fact.

When I recall who Jesus is, and who I am, I can walk on that solid foundation. There will still be waves, things won’t always go to my plans, and I might find myself led out into deeper water. No matter what challenges come my way, that sure foundation will always be there. I just have to keep my feet flat on the path.

Who is Jesus? Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Messiah, the Savior of the World. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I have linked to this litany before, but I’ll do so again. The Litany of Praise goes through a myriad of titles for Jesus. Some of them will be familiar, some may be new. If you aren’t sure how to answer this question, or you feel your answer is somehow inadequate, or if you just want to spend some more time pondering who Jesus is, I highly recommend it.

Daily Graces. kktaliaferro.wordpress.com