Finding hope

 

We were finishing up our rosary when a bird's nest came floating out of the tree near our deck.  We watched as its builder (a robin) came back to the nest and attempted to rebuild it, picking up several small pieces of grass. It looked like a futile project.

"A house not built on a solid foundation," my husband said, spontaneously quoting Matthew 7:24.

As I thought about the determination of this bird, I started thinking about all of the people who lose their homes during floods and year after year go back to rebuild them. Such perseverance!

I thought about how many of us, when faced with what seems like an impossible task, have to take a deep breath and get to it. Sometimes it's the seemingly ordinary things in life that can be so hard.

I was talking to a dear priest friend of mine years ago and I asked him how he keeps going in the face of so many struggles and he responded, "What am I going to do? Give up? Let the bad guy win?"

Indeed, we can never give up. Even in the face of hardship, unbearable trials, or outright evil.

This week I watched as our first home, where we spent the first ten years of our married life, was shown on the news, riddled with over 200 bullets. Probably gang or drug related.

A child died there. In my old house, where we lived with our children in peace. 

Outright evil has taken hold of whoever does things like that, but God is always victorious over evil.

Hope is imagining that a little robin can rebuild its fallen nest. Hope is that the world in which we live will come to praise God's name and follow his ways. 

Cling tight to hope in God's love and mercy.

Pray for peace and an end to war.

Janet Cassidy
Email me at:  jmctm2@gmail.com

janetcassidy.com
https://www.facebook.com/reflectionsinfaith/
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A Slippery Path?

 

We went to a Chinese restaurant and the next day I decided to eat one of the fortune cookies.

As I took out the slip of paper with my fortune on it, it said, "Read the moment. It is speaking to you." 

Then I looked at the other side.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered an advertisement for a show on Prime where people battle for a million dollars!

Whaaat?

The last thing you expect to see on a fortune is an advertisement for a streaming show.

I never take my fortune seriously, but it feels like somebody sold out by selling advertising on it. Of course, everything is a business and maybe times are tough for fortune printers, I don't know.

When I was a kid I used to read my horoscopes in the paper. I never took those seriously either, of course, but it was just something fun to read. It's never a good idea to put your faith in something like a horoscope or a fortune, so I never did.

I know this will make you gasp, but we played with a Ouija board, too. 

Before you call me a heathen, we were kids and it was just a game to us. In fact, we tried to figure out which one of us was actually moving the piece to get the answer they wanted, which tells you something about our level of belief in it.

Oh, and I had a Magic 8 Ball, too. I just thought the floaty thing was kind of cool.

As I'm writing this, you might think my parents were unhinged, but they weren't. I'm sure they just thought of them as toys for kids at the time, especially since they were probably advertised to kids next to regular games. 

We didn't put any stock in their supposed connection to the occult.

But, with today's environment, I would think parents would stay away from this stuff because young people might tend to take it seriously and it could lead them away from faith down a path they should not be following.

Not to mention, we certainly don't want to open any opportunity for kids to entertain bad things. We've got enough of that already. 

I think kids are much too susceptible to spiritualism today. In our culture it would be best to find more wholesome family games in which to engage.

Pray for peace and an end to war.

Janet Cassidy
Email me at:  jmctm2@gmail.com

janetcassidy.com
https://www.facebook.com/reflectionsinfaith/
https://www.youtube.com/@janetcassidy 

 

 

 

 

Being forgotten, overlooked

 

"It [is] hard to be forgotten."

I am in the middle of a book ("The Woman They Could Not Silence") about a woman that was committed to an insane asylum in 1860 because her husband needed to silence her growing activism. She felt abandoned because correspondence to her had been confiscated, leaving her feeling forgotten.

Even today, a broader application of her statement remains true. 

The reality is that those who live in poverty, the suffering innocent, victims of war and abuse, are often overlooked, forgotten, unseen. Invisible.

The gospel mandate to care for the marginalized is clear. Our morality test rests on how we respond to those in need and like a doctor's oath, we must be careful to "Do no harm."

Jesus, the great physician, calls us to put others first. To see those in need and take care of them.

If we do nothing else, we need to at least start there.

Pray for peace and an end to war.

Janet Cassidy
Email me at:  jmctm2@gmail.com

janetcassidy.com
https://www.facebook.com/reflectionsinfaith/
https://www.youtube.com/@janetcassidy