Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The Marking of a Remarkable Time

My thoughts turn to Europe... and how precarious and precious every connection is, turning us from an insularity to a global reach in our daily work—the calling of others to Christ and to see beyond ourselves. These things and their machinations do play great roles within our lives as individuals and as community.

Retracing thoughts and childhood, I can see clearly the markers our Lord has placed, and the desire for the travel to come kindles this appreciation even more. My thoughts and concerns stretch to this area, in its individuality of touchstones in my life. That of England, the Netherlands, Rome, and Germany—namely, Munich.

If one wishes to learn about history, start by investigating the stubs one has in one's life. Not only will it broaden horizons, but it will allow one to appreciate the culture of a place one hasn't yet experienced. It also makes for good writing and perhaps the beginnings of good storytelling.

Perhaps this blog of these most compelling times, for me at least, will help to give light to a world so troubled and to find further the Gaze of the One Who Is. I go on pilgrimage not expecting some mountaintop experience or awe-inspiring result, for in reality I am more anxious I might forget something. Rather, I go in search of His will. I go to search, to look in the small things where He has placed my heart.

I have put off travel to do good, though imperfectly. I go on pilgrimage to see where He is and to inform myself more of where He is back in the Ordinary, to see where He has placed my heart.

I am off in now just hours to pray for my spouse, my beloved, the one He is preparing for me and I for her. There is a great desire to pull away the layers that have grown over my heart these hectic three years but to not grow hesitant in the upcoming thirtieth. There is a ring, a fear that any delay is a resignation. It is not.

He is refining me... He is refining my heart for the furnace of His love... of the love I wish to give... but I cannot give what I do not have. That is why I go on pilgrimage... to find again the desire to love more purely.

Pray for me, and I will pray for you. Will you?

St. Peter's Square

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