Holiness: "an ordinary -- not exceptional -- word"

It is necessary to make the term "holiness" an ordinary -- not exceptional -- word, which does not designate only heroic states of Christian life, but which indicates in the reality of every day, a decisive answer and an openness to the action of the Holy Spirit. ~Pope Benedict XVI, Message to 14th General Assembly of Italian Catholic Action, May 6-8, 2011

Ave Maria! Oh, the wisdom of our dear Holy Father! Once again, he is right on target. Holiness is so within our reach! Think about it. Why would God ask anything of me that is not possible? He who says "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16), this loving, gracious God of ours gives me both the occasions and the means for holiness -- right here, right now!

Just look! The inclement weather, the aching joints, the daily grind, the pushy neighbor, the beautiful sky, the lovely flower, the loving friend, the daily Word and Sacrament -- all these things and so many others in my seemingly humdrum, everyday life are shining opportunities for holiness, for me to love God, to serve Him and adore Him, simply yet magnificently for His praise and glory. Oh, that I may not fail to see them, that I may never pass them by!

And the means for holiness? Oh, yes, they are there, too, and in such abundance, for from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace (John 1:16). These graces are endless! I thank God for each and every one -- the graces He gave me in the sacrament of Baptism, the graces He continues to give me in the sacraments of the church, and all the many graces He lavishes upon me day by day, moment by moment. These are what enable me to keep on making that decisive answer in openness to the Holy Spirit, who forever hovers over the world "with ah! bright wings" (G. M. Hopkins). Perhaps this is what heroism and holiness are all about.

Nondum

Nondum
“Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself.” -Isaiah xlv. 15

God, though to Thee our psalm we raise
No answering voice comes from the skies;
To Thee the trembling sinner prays
But no forgiving voice replies;
Our prayer seems lost in desert ways,
Our hymn in the vast silence dies.

We see the glories of the earth
But not the hand that wrought them all:
Night to a myriad worlds gives birth,
Yet like a lighted empty hall
Where stands no host at door or hearth
Vacant creation’s lamps appal.

We guess; we clothe Thee, unseen King,
With attributes we deem are meet;
Each in in his own imagining
Sets up a shadow in Thy seat;
Yet know not how our gifts to bring,
Where seek Thee with unsandalled feet.

And still th’unbroken silence broods
While ages and while aeons run,
As erst upon chaotic floods
The Spirit hovered ere the sun
Had called the seasons’ changeful moods
And life’s first germs from death had won.

And still th’abysses infinite
Surround the peak from which we gaze.
Deep calls to deep, and blackest night
Giddies the soul with blinding daze
That dares to cast its searching sight
On being’s dread and vacant maze.

And Thou art silent, whilst Thy world
Contends about its many creeds
And hosts confront with flags unfurled
And zeal is flushed and pity bleeds
And truth is heard, with tears impearled,
A moaning voice among the reeds.

My hand upon my lips I lay;
The breast’s desponding sob I quell;
I move along life’s tomb-decked way
And listen to the passing bell
Summoning men from speechless day
To death’s more silent, darker spell.

Oh! till Thou givest that sense beyond,
To shew Thee that Thou art, and near,
Let patience with her chastening wand
And lead me child-like by the hand
If still in darkness not in fear.

Speak! whisper to my watching heart
One word-as when a mother speaks
Soft, when she sees her infant start,
Till dimpled joy steals o’er its cheeks.
Then, to behold Thee as Thou art,
I’ll wait till morn eternal breaks.

~Gerard Manley Hopkins

Reading and pondering "Nondum" by Gerard Manley Hopkins reminds me once again that my real life is interior. It does not depend on the exterior. The true life of my soul has very little, if anything, to do with externals, though my heart exults when they give me a glimpse of the hidden God. Nature and art -- God's creation and man's -- are beautiful and glorious. They are, as Hopkins writes in another poem, "charged with the grandeur of God." But I seek God alone. The invisible pales in comparison to the invisible. "That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Cor 2:9). This world is lovely, but heaven is my home. Now, I "see through a glass, darkly" (1 Cor 13:11), longing for that endless day when I will finally see my Lord face-to-face. "If still in darkness not in fear...I’ll wait till morn eternal breaks."

Ah, spring!

What is spring?

Growth in everything!

~Gerard Manley Hopkins

Thank you, dear Lord, for "all this juice and all this joy"! Amen.

Autumn Glory!

Photography by Ann L. Krumrein

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change;

Praise him.

from "Pied Beauty"

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Eternal Loveliness

"Poppies" by Ann. L. Krumrein

How wonderful creation is,

The work which you did bless;

What then must you be like, dear God,

Eternal loveliness!

Father Frederick William Faber

"Have Mercy on us, God Most High"

Today's Responsorial Psalm from Mass -- "Heaven and earth are full of your glory!" -- brings to my mind the above verse of Fr. Faber. As I quoted the Holy Father in yesterday's post, "the world has been willed by God and bespeaks his glorious splendor." The Creator God who is "eternal loveliness" has made all things bright and beautiful for our enjoyment and delight. Through them He reveals to us a bit of Himself -- only a foreshadowing of His beauty and grandeur but just enough to entice and ravish us, until at last, utterly enchanted, we sigh:

Then, to behold Thee as Thou art,
I’ll wait till morn eternal breaks.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Nondum"