Our Lady of Sorrows, Pray for us

 

 ~

"  Consider how love draws all the pains, 

all the torments, all the sufferings, all the sorrows,

the wounds, the passion, the cross, 

and even the death of our Redeemer

into the heart of his most holy Mother."

- St. Francis DeSales

~

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. I have developed a deeper devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows over the past several years, and this is probably my favorite Marian feast day. When I am suffering and consumed with great sorrow, I find such consolation in turning to Our Lady of Sorrows. After all, she bore the greatest sorrows in her heart; to stand by the side of the Cross and watch her Son and Savior be crucified. No one can even begin to fathom the depths of sorrow, sadness, and pain that she experienced. What human being could better understand the depths of our own unique suffering, then? Who could better know the special pain of our crosses, the ones that we pick up day in, and day out?

When I am going through a difficult time in my life, and experiencing a particular sorrow, I find a great comfort and strength in talking with others who are also enduring great suffering.  There is such solace found in uniting ourselves with others who are in the midst of pain, for they know in a deep, profound way that pain plagues our hearts. It is like this with Our Lady of Sorrows, too, except she understands our suffering much deeper than any other human being could. And her heart is more closely united with the Savior's heart than any other human heart. If we join our sorrow to her sorrows then, we join them together in the Savior's Sacred Heart to become purified, healed, and made new.

This weekend's cultural city excursions...Normal Rockwell exhibit

This weekend I was able to take advantage of some of the city's cultural opportunities, including going to a Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, entitled "Telling stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg ."

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing some of Norman Rockwell's sketches and paintings up close. My family owns at least one Norman Rockwell print which used to hang in our kitchen, and I remember seeing various other Norman Rockwell artwork on plates, mugs, and prints in the houses of my relatives when I was growing up. His style and depiction of American life is just so distinct, quaint, and iconic. Rockwell really did have a great gift for capturing the emotion, meaning, and values in scenes from normal, everyday American life. His ability to depict facial expressions was one of the things that I found most impressive. Some of the expressions on his subjects literally made me laugh out loud; the viewer truly enters into the emotion that each painting conveys.

My favorite work in the exhibit was actually a sketch entitled "Charwomen in Theater" The following image is a painting of the same composition.

Norman Rockwell, 1946.

The sentiments in the sketch were very sweet to me -- the sketch depicts two cleaning ladies that work within a theater who have stopped for a moment and look curiously at the theater bill, anxious to read about the latest performance. To me, it's a testament to the ability that art has to touch all people, rich or poor, manual laborer or aristocrat. All men and women have a thirst to experience art which adds beauty to their world and depth to their day to day work.

A few of the other works that I especially enjoyed were "Coming and Going" (depicts the scene of a family coming and going in the car from a family vacation), "Boy Reading Adventure Story (the librarian in me loves the way that this depicts the ability of books to widen one's imagination), "Couple in the Rumble Seat" (shows the excited woman and terrified man's reactions as they ride in the new fangled automobile), and "Happy Birthday Miss Jones" (depicts a teacher's reaction to her students' birthday surprises for her). All in all, it was certainly a delightful exhibit and made me want to learn more about Norman Rockwell's paintings and the stories behind them. Check out the online exhibit if you get the chance, here!

Mid-day reprieve

I had a very lovely lunch break today. Yes, my lunch (an antipasto salad from Potbellys) was delicious, but more importantly, the weather and my picnic spot was just glorious. It was a cool 70-something degree day, with an intermittent breeze. When the weather is nice I like to venture across the street from my work to this specific garden/park, which has a large rippling pond, lots of entertaining ducks, and a plethora of shady spots. I particularly love the weeping willow trees along the pond. They are so wispy and graceful, I love watching the long branches sway in the wind.

When I initially found a bench and sat down, I thought to myself, "I'll eat my lunch and then read some of my Magnificat." That would be very contemplative-in-the-city-esque of me, I thought. But alas, I realized that I had it left it on the desk in my office. Instead, after I finished my meal, I just spent a few minutes drinking in the beauty in front of me, enjoying the feeling of the crisp breeze that signals the coming of fall. I remembered how blessed I am to have this lovely spot where I can spend 20 minutes of my day and get refreshed and rejuvenated. I think it's really important for professionals to have their own oasis where they can get refreshed amidst their day. Although not everyone has the luxury of being able to walk to a green, picturesque park for their lunch break, something as simple as taking a walk outside the office can give one the opportunity to gather up our thoughts reflect on the day so far, and renew our purpose. That's what contemplation is really all about. Taking the time to step outside of the routine, in order to more clearly see the meaning, purpose and beauty in all that we do and are given.

Where do you find your reprieve in the midst of your day? Have you found a favorite spot that inspires and rejuvenates you?

City gardens in Pittsburgh

I went to visit my sister who is living in downtown Pittsburgh (just about a half an hour from the town I grew up in) yesterday. My sister is serving as a FOCUS missionary for University of Pittsburgh, and living on the bustling city campus in Oakland. She just moved there a few weeks ago from a small rural Michigan College, so I get the sense that she will be learning what it means to be a contemplative in the city very much over the next few months. The area of the city that she lives in, however, is swarming with college students, rather than professionals, politicians, diplomats, and tourists, so ministry has a much different vibe than it would in D.C. All the same, I am excited to hear about her city adventures.

I enjoyed touring the area where she lives, and especially enjoyed stopping by the eclectic coffee shop and used bookstore in the university district. I am looking forward to exploring more of my native city with her. It was a particularly beautiful day, and the landscaping looked very lovely. I love finding greenery and flowers within the city, and especially liked this garden in front of the Carnegie Free Library of Pittsburgh. If you look hard enough you can see some folks reading on benches in the background. Looks like a perfect late summer afternoon activity to me!

Changing the pace

flickr/ by laffy4k

I'm home for a few days for the long Labor Day weekend with my family in our small Western Pennsylvania town. I always notice the distinct change of pace when I go from the big metropolitan city back to my small town, but today this particularly struck me when I was out shopping for a few hours this morning. I went to an outlet mall about an hour north of my house and it was quite crowded because of the holiday sales. As I wove through the crowds on the sidewalk, I found myself thinking over and over again, "Why are these people walking so slow?" or "I wish they would pick up the pace!"

The DC girl in me was the driven girl on a mission, trying to get where I needed to go. It's funny though, because I have been in DC for so long now that the pace doesn't consiously strike me as "fast", anymore. At least, not until I leave the metropolitan and venture into the suburbs, or a small town, or the countryside. You get so used to the fast pace that you think it's normal. But yet, whenever I step away from it I am almost in awe of the fact that other people in other places are completely content to kick it down a few notches. And to be honest, I that once the residal fast paced perspective in me stops spinning, I am content to go slower too. Away from the hustle and bustle, crowds and traffic, I realize that my heart really is more at home in a less hectic place. Perhaps my gradual recognition of this is the stirring in my heart that a new adventure for me might be on the horizon. Who knows. But for the next day or two before I have to head back to the city I will enjoy the intimacy and slower pace of the place I call home.

Little dreamers

It's so easy as we seek to discern our vocations to get bogged with intellectual analysis of pros and cons. To get overwhelmed by "what ifs" "why nots" or "when then?" Even when making little life decisions, we often over analyze and over think. Not only that. We simply rely on being realistic and rational. We become skeptical and fearful that things will ever turn out the way we desire them to. We have lost our childhood dreams, our fresh optimism that used to warm our hearts and quicken our pace.

The other day I was listening to this delightful song by Priscilla Ahn, which always strikes a chord in me because of its sentimentality and honesty. It's best understood when you hear it with the music, but it goes like this...

I was a little girl
Alone in my little world
Who dreamed of a little home for me
I played pretend between the trees
And fed my houseguests bark and leaves
And laughed in my pretty bed of green

I had a dream
That I could fly
From the highest swing
I had a dream

flickr/ by Big C Harvey

Long walks in the dark
Through woods grown behind the park
I asked God who I'm supposed to be
The stars smiled down at me
God answered in silent reverie
I said a prayer and fell asleep

I had a dream
That I could fly
From the highest tree
I had a dream

oooo....

Now I'm old and feeling gray
I don't know what's left to say
About this life I'm willing to leave
I lived it full, I lived it well
As many tales I live to tell
I'm ready now, I'm ready now
I'm ready now
To fly from the highest wing
I had a dream

Anyways, as I listening to this song the other day, it brought back memories of my own childhood memories and dreams. Of playing house with my little sister, pretending we were all grown up with husbands and families. Of the optimism and faith that I envisioned my own journey would follow, in perfect timing and gracefulness, the succession from elementary school, to high school, to college, to marriage, to family, to grandmother and beyond. You have these naive little expectations in life when you are young, and you dream in grandiose visions. Of course you have all this opportunity ahead of you. Of course you have a beautiful world to explore.

It occurred to me when listening to this song, that amidst the chaos and complexities of life, I have lost touch with the true desires of my heart. I have lost much of the innocent, exuberant, audacious dreaming that is the hallmark of childhood. Imagination has been replaced with practicality and dealing with life's hard knocks. Perhaps, I thought to myself, discerning one's path in life is not simply achieved by lurching forward, trying to calculate every possible bend and bump in the road, but in reaching backward. In reclaiming the dreams your heart held in childhood, and rooting for those dreams anew. Perhaps those dreams will be more nuanced, more complex as they are woven into the inevitable path of our adult lives. But by their very nature they will give us that spark of joy and expectation to propel our resignation into hope.

A hard day's work

Lamb's Quarter Farm, August 2010