Category: awareness

Grasping For Air

by rejoiceandpraise, posted in Art Therapy, awareness, Bible, Catholic Faith, Catholic Journey, Catholicism, Christianity, creativity, Depression, Faith, God, Jesus, My journey with Jesus, Personal Reflection, Poetry, Poetry/Lyric, Praise, sketching, Spirituality

smog covers the sky

like a blanket of despair

Grasping for air

to see beyond the stratosphere

I offer a silent prayer to all the firefighters battling the flames

For those forced to move out of its fiery path

There are things and situations that are literally out of our control, when all we can do is take the time to breathe. To see beyond the smoggy din that surround our lives and grasp for air.

Breathing Space (June 6, 2023)

Looking out into the ominous sky, I look beyond it and look deeply at its implications for my own well being. I can let it drag my mood down, or look beyond it to see hope. Within my magnified space, I offer up a silent prayer to God for all the firefighters working vigorously to put out the flames. I pray for all those who have been displaced by the gravity of the forest fires (Quebec). I let God do his job.

breathing space

just to breathe. i am alive

grasping for air

my magnified space

allowing myself to go with the flow

Don’t forget Jesus too often withdraw from his disciples to pray: 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16

Philippians 4:6 reminds us to take the time and offer up our angst and worries to God:

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

God Bless 💖🙏

Compass

by rejoiceandpraise, posted in art, Art Therapy, awareness, Christian Blogger, Christianity, inspiration, Spiritual Direction, Spiritual Journey, Testimony

The Rhythm of My Life (2021)

Looking into the blue. The deep reaches to you layered by the hazy translucent clouds and wisp of white clouds moving to life’s beat – the rhythm of my life.

Into the stratosphere I think to myself – how beautiful is your creation. My soul longs to reach out to you.

I rejoice and sing songs of praise to your beauty. My heart explodes in love as I think how wonderful it is to have you in my life.

I imagine I have wings to fly high to you. But I can. My soul can swirl up high towards you.

Funeral March Sketches (April/May 2023)

Much of this new body of work arises out of a many weeks meditation and prayer on Luke 24.

My son calls this phase of my life my “Funeral March.” He said this as a joke as we reflected on his photographs of me, but it gave me pause for thought.

Hence, I coin this body of work and reflection Funeral March.

Grieving

Yes, there is definitely grieving as I let go – of all the “isms” that have molded and shaped my life. Now is the time to return to my authentic self – the person I was created to be before all the baggage was piled up upon me to the point where I was no longer recognizable – to myself. Grace awareness is what I call this journey.

What is reflected back at me?

Looking towards the light – peace and joy can only exist when I let go.

Working with an Art Therapist and a Spiritual Director goes hand in hand (for me). Healing is not only about self care, but also within – the soul. My body is temporal, my soul is eternal.

Thanks to my readers for letting you share this process with you.

Blessings and I pray your path is filled with joy and peace in your spiritual journey. 💖🙏

Visionary Priest And Reading The Signs Of Our Time

Featured by rejoiceandpraise, posted in awareness, Chastisement, Christian Blogger, Christianity, Illumination of Conscience, prophecy, Prophetic, Revelations, Xavier Reyes-Ayral

I post this talk with Fr. Rodrigue, and Xavier Reyes-Ayral on the John Henry Show for my readers to get a glimpse of our world outside our normal tunnel vision. It is reading the signs of the times we live in with consolation and desolation – with discernment. It is seeking for graced awareness and the lifting of our veils.

There are many who have been gifted with personal prophecies and visions, and oftentimes they are warnings and graced awareness of our world and where it’s heading. Visions and understanding the signs of our time helps us prepare and tighten our spiritual belt less we get seduced by the things in our world.

Listen with a discerning heart and always asking for God’s grace and guidance:

God Bless 💕🙏

Aside:

On December 30th, 2022 I was praying the Rosary for Benedict XVI’s health at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto. While praying, an unspoken voice told me to pray instead for the arms of Jesus to lift him up into heaven. I was also told it is an end of an era. Pope Benedict XVI died the next day.

Finding Awareness

by rejoiceandpraise, posted in awareness, Catholic Faith, Catholic Journey, Catholicism, Christian Blogger, Christianity, grace, inspiration, Personal Reflection

Finding myself is a theme that shows up in my Daily Examen this Lenten. This is part of stripping away the many layers of me as I draw nearer to God. All the distractions that I have placed upon myself believing they will bring me closer to God, are being peeled off.

A part of my journey in life is seeking happiness, love and saintliness (holiness). These are graces I have prayed for the past few months – graced awareness.

What is graced awareness?

Happiness is not an achievement; love is not an achievement; holiness is not an achievement. They are each a grace—a grace called awareness, a grace called looking, observing, and understanding.

https://www.demellospirituality.com/a-grace-called-awareness/:

In our daily walk as a Christian/Catholic, it’s so easy to get blogged down by life. Taking the time to be mindful, watchful, alert and awake takes practice and time. In asking God for the grace of awareness, one can see everything in our daily lives reflected back. With the help of His divine grace one can see the authentic self without the distortions of layers upon layers of our world piled upon us.

“Set free from human judgment, we should count as true only what God sees in us, what he knows, and what he judges. God does not judge as man does. Man sees only the countenance, only the exterior. God penetrates to the depths of our hearts. God does not change as man does. His judgment is in no way inconstant. He is the only one upon whom we should rely. How happy we are then, and how peaceful! We are no longer dazzled by appearances, or stirred up by opinions; we are united to the truth and depend upon it alone. I am praised, blamed, treated with indifference, disdained, ignored, or forgotten; none of this can touch me. I will be no less than I am. Men and women want to play at being a creator. They want to give me existence in their opinion, but this existence that they want to give me is nothingness. It is an illusion, a shadow, an appearance, that is, at bottom, nothingness. What is this shadow, always following me, behind me, at my side? Is it me, or something that belongs to me? No. Yet does not this shadow seem to move with me? No matter: it is not me. So it is with the judgements of men: they would follow me everywhere, paint me, sketch me, make me move according to their whim, and, in the end, give me some sort of existence … but I am disabused of this error. I am content with a hidden life. How peaceful it is! Whether I truly live this Christian life of which St. Paul speaks, I do not know, nor can I know with certainty. But I hope that I do, and I trust in God’s goodness to help me.”

—Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet, Meditation For Lent, p. 99-101

May God Bless each of us as we journey towards the cross with humbleness and love🙏💕