Everyday Holiness. Carolyn Humphreys

models there is to show everyone the myriad of beauties along the road of holiness and most of all, the magnificent beauty of her son.

      Mary, help of Christians,

      Hasten to our aide:

      Pray for us in sickness

      To your Son who died:

      He who healed the lepers

      Will not fail to heed

      You, his honored mother,

      Bearer of our need.

      Mary, help of Christians,

      Hear our urgent pleas

      For your wounded children,

      Broken and diseased:

      He who bled to heal us

      Will not fail to heed

      You, beloved mother

      Bearer of our need.

      ~Magnificat magazine, February 2011

4. Pat Nyquist, OSB, in Spirit & Life magazine (Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Tucson, AZ), March/April 2007.

5. Ciszek, He Leadeth Me, 186.

6. Merton, Waters of Siloe, 13–14.

      Hope: Evergreen

      C. S. Lewis wrote:

My own experience is something like this. I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary, contentedly fallen, and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspaper that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down. At first, I am overwhelmed, and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then, slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps, by God’s grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys. I am even anxious, God forgive me, to banish from my mind the only thing that supported me under the threat because it is now associated with the misery of those few days. Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear. God has had me for but forty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me. Let him but sheathe that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over—I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed. And that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless.7

      Does this scenario remind us of someone? With today’s continual development of new technological toys, people can become destructively self-absorbed. They neglect, or do not believe in, God. They live for the here and now, and their hope ends at the grave.

      Hope is not wishful thinking or unfounded expectation. It embraces the plentitude of the present as well as the possibilities for the future. Hope is essential for taking appropriate risks that go beyond safety and security. Christian hope gives us confidence in the goodness and love of God, and in his ultimate triumph. Jesus suffered and we suffer; he died and we shall die; he struggled with good and evil in his forty days in the desert, and we struggle. So, despite the calamities the future holds, hope gives us the interior peace and strength to shoulder whatever comes our way. Christian hope is a blessed gift.

      One day a young sister was walking with an older, seasoned sister in the convent garden. Feeling insecure about what God wanted her to do; she was asking the older sister for some advice. The older sister walked up to a rosebush, handed the young sister a rosebud and told her to open it without tearing off any petals. The young sister looked in disbelief at the older sister as she was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with wanting to know the will of God regarding her ministry. Because of her great respect for the older sister, she proceeded to try to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact. She quickly realized how impossible this was to do. Noticing the younger sister’s inability to unfold the rosebud without tearing it, the older sister began to recite the following poem:

      It is only a tiny rosebud, a flower of God’s design. But I cannot unfold the petals with these clumsy hands of mine. The secret of unfolding flowers is not known to such as I. God opens this flower so easily, but in my hands they die. If I cannot unfold a rosebud, this flower of God’s design. Then how can I have the wisdom to unfold this life of mine? So I’ll trust in God for leading each moment of my day. I will look to God for guidance in each step of the way. The path that lies before me only my Lord knows. I’ll trust God to unfold the moments, just as he unfolds the rose.

      Hope helps us leave the flowers of our life in the hands of God. When Christians believe God is in control, hope springs eternal. There is an assurance that this is God’s world and he is more concerned about the people in it than they are. Hope is not a naive optimism, but rather a disposition that accepts challenges and suffering as a part of life. Although aware of character weaknesses and having no illusions about sin, a Christian is full of hope. The Christian way recognizes sin and does not despair because the Holy Spirit continues his work with each individual and leads him or her by the hand, very gently, toward the Father’s house.

      Candlelight

      A lighted candle often represents hope. When prayer seems as cold as ice or as dark as night, an individual can gaze at a candle flame. Candles come in different shapes and sizes. The large Paschal candle stands alight at Mass during the Easter season, at baptisms and at funerals. It represents the victorious Christ who leads his followers through their days and nights. There are Advent traditions of lighting a candle in the window to guide Mary and Joseph into one’s home, and lighting candles on the Advent wreath. Christmas candles celebrate Jesus’ birth and light the way for the wise men to come and see him. Lighted votive candles represent prayers. A simple candle flame is a brilliant symbol of hope. It keeps the chill of darkness at bay by giving us light and warmth. Like birds that sing in the dark before the dawn, flames are a reminder that the sun will rise. May these flames of hope always show the way to the flame in the Christian heart, which is a perpetual reminder of Christ the light.

      It is in that holy moment

      when the candlewick is snuffed

      and the yellow halo grows

      its black cord

      that the warm wax works its

      softness into us,

      wraps its way around our hearts, like the climbing smoke

      from the extinguished candlewick

      up the staircase of air—

      that moment of unmistakable nasality

      of candle scent in chapel dark

      that suffers us to realize

that we are to be trimmed to burn again.8

      Christ Our Light

Christians live in the light because of the reassurance that Christ is risen and is directing the world to its final destiny. With Jesus’ help, fears are recognized, but they no longer dominate the days since there is strength in believing in Jesus and his promises. Death is the testament to, and final expression of, hope. Without hope in God, humankind will not reach its