10/12/2016 - Wednesday of the 28th week in Ordinary Time - Galatians 5:18-25

    Paul gives us a list of how the ways of the world can lead us away from the Gospel through things such as envy, idolatry, selfishness, and jealousy.  We can give way to temptation; we can give we to our humanness, our weaknesses, and our demons, going down a path that leads us to sin, a path that leads us away from God.  Yet, through God’s mercy and compassion, through the power of Christ’s cross and resurrection, we can come back to the faith, to conversion and repentance. I use a daily devotional called Give Us this Day, which has in it daily devotions, the readings for the day, a reflection on the Scripture readings, and a reflection called “Blessed Among Us.”  It could be the saint of the day such as St Ignatius of Antioch or St Jean de Brebeuf, a person of faith such as Flannery O’Connor or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or a non-Christian who exemplified the values of the Gospel in his life, such as Gandhi.  Today’s Blessed of the Day was someone I had not previously heard of: Caryll Houseland, a Catholic laywoman from Bath, England who died at the age of 53 of breast cancer back in 1954. She would describe her Christian calling as one of helping others to be aware of the presence of Christ in their lives.  She devoted herself to this vocation after a series of mystical experiences she had as an adult.  Mystics see the world through different eyes.  They experience God in a way that is beyond the sense perception of most human beings. Later in the week, we will celebrate the feast day of one of the great mystics of our Catholic faith, the Spanish Carmelite nun St Teresa of Avila from the 16th century.  Houselander wrote many books on Christian spirituality for both adults and children, some of which she illustrated.  Here is one quote of hers:  “To surrender all that we are, as we are, to the spirit of love in order that our lives may bear Christ into the world – that is what we shall be asked.”

      May all of us be open to the ways that Christ is present to us on our journey, especially in those ways that are a bit unconventional and off the beaten path.  May the Lord help us resist temptation and help us to follow the ways of our faith.