Meeting Christ 2,000 Years Later
Gratitude Challenge - Week 26 - Someone You Got To Meet
This post marks the halfway point of my 52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge. I cannot believe I have been blogging for a little over 6 months. This started as a side project that seemed more like a chore than anything, but I have fallen in love with writing all over again.
That being said, this week has been a week of little gratitude. I thought that I would be mastering gratitude after 26 weeks, but I have realized it is a lifelong task. After a particularly rough week, I was anxious to move on to the next. Normally, I ruminate on the theme of gratitude the whole week, but when I looked at this post, I could not come up with anything to write.
I have not met any actors or singers or celebrities. But I have met one man, and He may be the greatest one of all.
My relationship with Jesus is an ever-evolving one, and I do not think being Catholic gets easier over time. In fact, it often becomes more difficult to follow the teachings of the Church as I lose my childhood innocence.
Lately, I have been feeling very lost. Between the stresses of senior year, evolving friendships, the loom of college, and the ever-changing social dynamics of high school, it seems that the road I am on crumbles behind me as I walk, leaving me with nothing to do but move forward. I am in a race against time to just stay afloat.
In the middle of this crazy week, in my religion class, we practiced a prayer called Lectio Divina (Latin for Sacred Reading). This structured prayer is not my usual type as I prefer conversational prayer, and we were praying as a class, which greatly inhibits my focus.
The prayer has 5 steps:
1. Lectio - Reading
Read a Biblical passage, examining the surface meaning (the who, what, when, where, why, how).
2. Meditatio - Meditation
Seek a deeper understanding of the reading, focusing on the true underlying meaning.
3. Oratio - Prayer
Ask God how this passage fits into the context of the present day.
4. Contemplatio - Contemplation
Bask in God's greatness with a gaze of love.
5. Operatio - Action
Take what was learned in the prayer and bring it to daily life.
It is a beautiful prayer with a great potential to be both powerful and moving, but one can see how it could be tedious.
The passage we read in class came from The Gospel of John. Here is the text:
We read the passage of the story of the Wedding at Cana twice during Lectio before we began the deeper, personal parts of the prayer. During Oratio, I begged God to relate this reading to me in a new way, desperate for answers in a difficult time. My mind settled on the moment when the man proclaims that the married couple has saved the best wine for last, the very wine changed from water by Jesus.
It suddenly hit me. Jesus is doing the very same thing for me. I have to endure the cheap wine - the failures, the breakups, the moments of complete uncertainty - to reach the real aged wine, the wine that Jesus creates for me from mere water.
However, this transformation will not result from passivity on my part. Mary's last line in this story happens to be the last line she ever speaks in the Bible. It is all the more meaningful when I realized the gravity of her quote, "Do whatever he tells you." I have to trust in Jesus and follow his ways to allow him to change water to wine.
The path is narrow, but the reward is great. This aged wine culminates in true friendships, true love, true purpose, and true living of the abundant life. Jesus will make all other aspects of my life pale in comparison to this. I have to hang on because I trust and I know that Jesus will change water to wine for me.
This post marks the halfway point of my 52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge. I cannot believe I have been blogging for a little over 6 months. This started as a side project that seemed more like a chore than anything, but I have fallen in love with writing all over again.
That being said, this week has been a week of little gratitude. I thought that I would be mastering gratitude after 26 weeks, but I have realized it is a lifelong task. After a particularly rough week, I was anxious to move on to the next. Normally, I ruminate on the theme of gratitude the whole week, but when I looked at this post, I could not come up with anything to write.
I have not met any actors or singers or celebrities. But I have met one man, and He may be the greatest one of all.
My relationship with Jesus is an ever-evolving one, and I do not think being Catholic gets easier over time. In fact, it often becomes more difficult to follow the teachings of the Church as I lose my childhood innocence.
Lately, I have been feeling very lost. Between the stresses of senior year, evolving friendships, the loom of college, and the ever-changing social dynamics of high school, it seems that the road I am on crumbles behind me as I walk, leaving me with nothing to do but move forward. I am in a race against time to just stay afloat.
In the middle of this crazy week, in my religion class, we practiced a prayer called Lectio Divina (Latin for Sacred Reading). This structured prayer is not my usual type as I prefer conversational prayer, and we were praying as a class, which greatly inhibits my focus.
The prayer has 5 steps:
1. Lectio - Reading
Read a Biblical passage, examining the surface meaning (the who, what, when, where, why, how).
2. Meditatio - Meditation
Seek a deeper understanding of the reading, focusing on the true underlying meaning.
3. Oratio - Prayer
Ask God how this passage fits into the context of the present day.
4. Contemplatio - Contemplation
Bask in God's greatness with a gaze of love.
5. Operatio - Action
Take what was learned in the prayer and bring it to daily life.
It is a beautiful prayer with a great potential to be both powerful and moving, but one can see how it could be tedious.
The passage we read in class came from The Gospel of John. Here is the text:
"Now on the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine left.” Jesus replied, “Woman, why are you saying this to me? My time has not yet come.” His mother told the servants, “Whatever he tells you, do it.”
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washing, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.Jesus told the servants, “Fill the water jars with water.” So they filled them up to the very top. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the head steward,” and they did. When the head steward tasted the water that had been turned to wine, not knowing where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), he called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the cheaper wine when the guests are drunk. You have kept the good wine until now!” Jesus did this as the first of his miraculous signs, in Cana of Galilee. In this way he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him" (John 2:1-12).
It suddenly hit me. Jesus is doing the very same thing for me. I have to endure the cheap wine - the failures, the breakups, the moments of complete uncertainty - to reach the real aged wine, the wine that Jesus creates for me from mere water.
However, this transformation will not result from passivity on my part. Mary's last line in this story happens to be the last line she ever speaks in the Bible. It is all the more meaningful when I realized the gravity of her quote, "Do whatever he tells you." I have to trust in Jesus and follow his ways to allow him to change water to wine.
The path is narrow, but the reward is great. This aged wine culminates in true friendships, true love, true purpose, and true living of the abundant life. Jesus will make all other aspects of my life pale in comparison to this. I have to hang on because I trust and I know that Jesus will change water to wine for me.
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