Eyes Have Not Seen

-
Advent is always a special time for me. The spirit of this season, expressed through the scriptures, deepens my sense of hope and living fully the present moment. For about a year now I have been practicing mindfulness. For me Advent is a call to live mindfully as we are encouraged to “Wake up!” It is a time of hopeful waiting.

This past Wednesday, I received a call from my brother that Dad was not doing well. I live in the Chicago area and Dad lives in the Minneapolis area.  Dad is 98 and living in assisted living with Hospice care. Naturally, I thought this was his special time for passing into life after life to join Mom and three of my siblings and many other loved ones.

That night I had a dream that had a significant message. In the dream I remember singing “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has ready for those who love him.” When I awoke the message in my heart was “Dad is experiencing a very important waiting and we cannot even imagine how magnificent it will be.”

Needless to say I travelled Thursday and arrived to be a part of his journey home. Many family members came to say “good bye, I love you.” About 8 p.m. on December 3 Dad’s waiting ended. The door to his new home opened and he peacefully walked into eternal life, welcomed by many loved ones.

This Advent will always be remembered. My heart is filled with both gratitude and sorrow. I have no doubt that Dad is realizing the grandeur of new life.

What is stirring in your heart this Advent?

Mary Therese Johnson, OP

Westchester, IL

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nuns can have nose rings? (and other frequently asked questions)

-
Image
One of my favorite things about being a young sister-in-formation is allowing people to ask me their burning (and sometimes silly) questions about religious life.   Questions like: Do nuns have jobs?   Can you still go dancing and swimming?   You mean you get to keep that nose ring? Becoming a sister right now is an interesting thing: religious life has changed drastically in the past fifty years, but many people’s stereotypes about it haven’t.   Many of these stereotypes seem superficial (ie- all nuns wear habits; nuns don’t dance) but they may reflect deeper misconceptions about religious life… like the idea that sisters are somehow more holy or less human than “normal” people.   For a long time, my own misconceptions kept me from really considering religious life. And so I enjoy the questions.   I love making people feel free to ask them, and I love surprising them with the answers.   After all, they aren’t really asking about my nose ring; they want to know about this way
Read more

Happiness and Joy in Religious Life?

-
Image
I never wanted to be a religious sister (nun) because I felt I would never be happy.     This calls me to reflect on what is happiness.     Some say that happiness is a feeling.     It is when you feel good and cheerful about something that happened or is happening in your life.     However, I think that true happiness comes from when you make others happy.     After I went out of my way to assist someone and they unexpectedly tell me how much my helping meant to them.     I experience an unexpected warm feeling inside.     True happiness I think is a sense of fulfilment you feel even if what you did was not acknowledged, yet you know that deep down inside you did and gave of your best to help someone without any conscious ulterior motive.     You did it because it was the right and necessary thing to do at the time. Everyone searches for happiness and many know that true happiness cannot be found in things, but in how we help others just because they need help.  Many sisters in religi
Read more

Where are my...(fill in the blank)?

-
Image
Okay, I’ve finally learned to put my car/home/office keys in the SAME place when I get home.  But I still haven’t learned to remember where I left my glasses or my latest crossword puzzle or the flyer about a concert I now think I missed or that needed phone number I jotted down on a piece of paper – and I have a LOT of pieces of paper sitting around.  Yes, I am one of those people.  But that litany of “forgets” got me thinking about the important things I forget about until I really need them – like prayer, quiet time, reading something challenging instead of easy, actually calling my elderly cousin instead of saying, “I should really call Ruth,” and never doing it, working through a situation instead of avoiding it.   I challenge myself this week – and you – to take action, one small action, to overcome this very human weakness of losing, forgetting, neglecting something that we know is really important.  Is this easy?  Is there a shortcut I can take?  I’m afraid not.  But if we trul
Read more