Since the girls are in school longer in the afternoons, I am FINALLY able to catch up on some reading. Since most books in the home are either the kids (read as junior novels kinda of books) or Bert's (mostly spiritual ones), I end up reading Bert's books. Not that they are not good reading material, they are indeed "chickensoup for the soul".
I had read the "condense" version of St Theresa, courtesy of my sis-in-law who also happens to bear the same name as me, and am currently reading 1 of several books on St Bernadette. I'm about half way through St Bernadette now.
Bert and I sometimes grouse about life on earth...when things go wrong or as hoped or planned for, and especially when people are so political and mean, we wonder if heaven is perfect...without hieracheries, without politicking and bickering. I was amazed to have had the chance to have a "glimpse" of what heaven will be like from an inccident recorded in the book. When a sick nun asked St Bernadette to pray to the Virgin Mary to help her get better, St Bernadette did so, but in front of St Joseph instead of the statue of our Lady. When the sick nun pointed her mistake out to her, St Bernadette replied that "In heaven, there is NO JEALOUSY!"
I don't know about you, but when I read that, I felt so overjoyed! Can you imagine what that means? Even if there is a hierachery in heaven, the highest will go all out to serve the least, everyone is trying their best to get more souls to heaven (that's the gist of the message to all the saints so far as I can discern, like St Theresa...her mission is to pray for souls, and she still does so in heaven!! And St Bernadette understands that she needs to suffer for the sake of our souls so that more may be saved!). What a blissful place heaven would be! No politicking, no mean people around, everyone trying to serve each other, and no one is jealous of each other!!
Our Catholic faith is so rich with evidence of God's immense love for us. Even to this recent century (only 100+ years ago) we have such great saints, ordinary folks like us, only that God had chosen them to be the Light for all to see. God is really living amongst us today. Before Pope John Paul II passed away, he had pathed the way and canonised numerous saints, and most of them are now from Asia. God's love is so strong and pervasive that it has reached us who live in Asia. Besides the bible, we are so blessed to have our Church to guide us, and to have them autheticate visions of saints so that we are inspired and converted to God.
Sometimes, after a bad or even good day, I like to pause for a while and look out of the window. I see the sky, still a cheery blue whether I'm having a bad day or a good day. Even as the old year passes and the new year comes, the sky is still the same, the birds are still singing the same tune. Like what the bible says, "Heaven and Earth may pass away, but My Word will always remain". Our economy may be in the dumps and prices of stocks and houses are falling and our jobs may be at stake and everywhere we turn is gloom and doom...that's when we realise how passing things of this world is, and what really matters are our family, our friends, and people, NOT things. And what we can rely on and cling to is God. Afterall, when we leave this world, we bring nothing with us, not even the clothes on our back.
Love Theresa
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