Since I never really left school, I have honestly been grateful that I haven't had to send her a school portrait every year. You know, the kind where the background is a subdued blue dappled with brown/taupe splotches that represent nostalgia or something like that. Yeah. They still take those. Anywho. I've successfully avoided having to send those to be hung on the wall-o-memory. But Mom, at the end of our last conversation and in her most pleasant, reminder tone did say, "Make sure Rich takes your first-day-back-to-school picture." I could almost see her wagging her finger as she said it. After I hung up the phone, I laughed out loud. Like Rich was going to get up at five effing thirty in the morning just to take my back to school picture. HAHAHAHAHA.
But since I LOVE my mommy, I tried to do it myself.
Mom, this one's for you:
Happy Back to School, 2007-2008, Everybody!
11 comments:
That's funny!! I thought as I walked out the door this morning, I should take my picture being the first day of school and all!!
I also was always jealous of your I love notes in your lunch box!!
Hope your first day was a good one!!
Love you
Too funny! Hope the school year is absolutely amazing for you girl! Enjoy every moment, and torment those teenagers while you are at it. Which, in and of itself, is truly enjoyable! HA! Seriously, hope this school year is an incredible one for you.
Sorry it's a bit late but about Mother T: shame she didn't do more meditation or contemplative prayer, then she'd have felt the presence of the Mighty One, had less doubt and anguish etc
I think however she was a bit too busy to make the time
Enjoy being back at school
Xx
Thanks for the well wishes! So far, so good this year!
Hey Sparky,
It IS a shame that Mother T felt that horrifying anguish that comes with doubt.
BUT
I'm not sure that meditation and contemplative prayer can always be the sure proof way to relieve that sort of anguish. You are very lucky if you get to feel that connection on a daily basis. Very lucky, indeed.
Also, though, I think that doubt is a good thing. I think that if we do not question, it means we are stale or static. Even in school, I encourage my students to have an opinion - to question- and therefore learn. If we believe in something but don't know or question why we believe it, then we don't take ownership of it. Doubt is the beginning of the journey that leads to genuine faith.
Also, I hardly think we can say that Mother T was too busy to make the time for meditative prayer. How would we know? Plus, I much prefer acts of kindness to anything solitary. I think that is what makes the world good. I also believe that that is what God hopes for from those of us who are faithful. I believe that God would much rather us be like Mother Teresa and care for the broken and downtrodden rather than spending time perfecting our own souls. I think the miracle is she did God's work despite the anguish. And if she is to be criticized, then who am I?
There is something profound in suffering through our faith. This idea is very much present in Catholicism, as seen in the pilgrimages that generally end in blood and tears.
I can't think of any other purpose in life than to help people, even through self-sacrifice( Jesus on the cross). Everything else is exceedingly meaningless and selfish comparitively.
And please understand that when I say the words "meaningless" and "selfish" I'm talking about me.
Mark, what? It is saddening to know that Mother Theresa felt separated from the Divine Presence. But I think it’s an oversimplification to say she needed to meditate more. That just sounds like the typical Jesus-ese response of ‘Just pray more’. Mediation and contemplative prayer are powerful tools for inner peace, but there are some pains that can’t be alleviated with meditation, some struggles (like Paul’s thorn; 2 Corinthians 12:7) that can’t be purged through prayer. MT’s inner turmoil is being called a ‘loss of faith’ but her quotes and her actions don’t support that conclusion. She continued to follow the self-sacrificing doctrine of service, even in the midst of seemingly overwhelming doubts. What she mourned was not the loss of faith; she always retained faith in the right course of action. What she mourned was the loss of the feeling – the loss of that emotional joy of experiencing the presence of the Almighty. But faith is not a feeling – or an intellectual response – it is separate from either but inextricably entwined with both.
“Give God permission to use you without consulting you” - Mother Teresa
“My God, why have you forsaken me?” - Jesus Christ
Well without going into great detail I think yes it must be very difficult, though if we are to believe the Buddha not impossible to rid oneself of ALL anguish and pain, through a life lived in simplicity and renunciation: of me, myself and mine (including references to 'my' God even, as demonctrated by Jesus felt separation you refer to) and I certainly don't imagine that God has a preference for which one is best - there is a place for both (world redeemers, after all are notorious for their pre-mission periods of self-imposed solitary refinement) - but to go on at length about this will make my fingers sore with probably inversely proportional results in terms of persuading readers to take up a meditative practice
So instead here's another attack on Mother T:
"Christopher Hitchens, a British-born American author, journalist and literary critic, was the only witness called by the Vatican to give evidence against Mother Teresa's beatification and canonization process, as the Vatican had abolished the traditional "devil's advocate" role that filled a similar purpose. Hitchens has written that Mother Teresa's own words on poverty proved that "her intention was not to help people", and he alleged that she lied to donors about the use of their contributions. “It was by talking to her that I discovered, and she assured me, that she wasn't working to alleviate poverty,” says Hitchens. “She was working to expand the number of Catholics. She said, ‘I'm not a social worker. I don't do it for this reason. I do it for Christ. I do it for the church.’". In the process of examining Teresa's suitability for beatification and canonization, the Roman Curia (the Vatican) pored over a great deal of documentation of published and unpublished criticisms against her life and work. Vatican officials say Hitchens' allegations have been investigated by the agency charged with such matters, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and they found no obstacle to Mother Teresa's beatification. Due to the attacks she has received, some Catholic writers have called her a sign of contradiction."
Oh yes I so trust those Catholic Vatican types - SO trustworthy with the facts!
Solitude
Spiritual joys come only from solitude,
So the wise choose the bottom of the well,
For the darkness down there beats
The darkness up here.
He who follows at the heels of the world
Never saves his head.
Rumi
PS Just to be clear I am very glad that Mother T helped so many people . Also, I imagine the well known allegations of neglect and abuse at her orphanages may be unfounded.
Yet, even if this is so and that devil Hitchens is completely wrong (and he sometimes is, completely) I still cannot find it in my heart to feel happy that she is now a saint.
This is because of a basic revulsion at humans holding other humans in a position of untouchable virtue (when the reality of the human condition - who do you say is good? there is none good but God (Mark 10:18) - arrant guilt producing nonsense aswell as a near equal revulsion at the moral bankruptcy of the catholic church to which she dedicated her life's work.
All so called christians who believe that such an institution and all it has stood for (from the day it's parent organisation executed him to the day it restricted interpretation of what he stood for and what went in the bible to its disgusting alignment with the nazis to its homophobia and pro-HIV polices) in any way represents the teachings of the greatest man they call Christ are deeply deluded reactionaries!
Ahh - the joys of a good rant
Down with saints - up with sinners who never even got in the freakin history books!!!
:-)
"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."
E. Roosevelt
Darkness within darkness
The gateway to all understanding..
Lao Tzsu
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