Poetry

I really never ever have gotten into poetry, I always felt that it was indirect, flowery language that was just sort of distant from my own thoughts.

However, I have really found a richness in reading poetry lately. Hearing poetry (at least some poetry) kind of reminds me of seeing a beautiful picture with my ears...if that makes sense...all I'm saying is... I'm more fond of it these days.

I think this is new interest in poetry has started for a few reasons. I have to give some credit to this wonderful friend in my life. Her name is Colleen and she has many gifts, but one of them is her gift for writing, specifically, writing poetry. Check out her collection of poems. May I also mention that she is quite a beautiful soul, as you will see expressed in her poetry. If you ever get the chance to have a conversation with her, I can tell you it will be worth your time. May I also mention that she is going to change the world? ...because she is. With her incredible passion for enjoying life and her desire to feel alive and use her specific gifts, she will continue to change the world around her.

Another poet who has really captured my interest is Mary Oliver. She has some beautiful works that are all about living fully, loving intensely, and taking advantage of each moment in life. When I read her poetry, it makes me want to look at beautiful things, create, dream, and imagine. This kind of reading is what I like to consider, good for me reading, like eating a peace of chocolate, curled on my couch, while wearing sweatpants, and chatting with a good friend.

Maybe one of these beautiful poets will speak to your heart as well...or maybe you have a favorite poet to share...and maybe, just maybe, this new love of fanciful language will make me more open to your suggestions.

Wild Geese
By Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Sing songs as you go and hold close together

I just returned from a trip to New Orleans, LA with a group of 7 beautiful students. We met people, heard stories, sang songs, listened, prayed, learned, got uncomfortable with the unjust systems in our country, and grew... a lot.

We started out the week with the passage below and it has been the most helpful passage for me to pray with this week while I am returning to campus with an unsettled, uncomfortable, and with a deep desire to abandon things that keep me from knowing God and myself most fully.

This Lenten season is a time to really evaluate what is bringing me close to God. This experience in NOLA has given me the chance to really think over those things that are keeping me from Christ, the Christ that is in prison, the Christ that is hungry on the street, the Christ that has been hit by a hurricane... and let me tell you, just giving up meat on Fridays isn't doing enough for my relationship with God this Lent.

I pray that I never forget the things I learned or the people I met this past week. I pray for the desire and strength to know God most fully.

feeling the discomfort of social injustice,

Briana

Pack nothing.

Bring only your determination to serve and your willingness to be free.

Don't wait for the bread to rise.

Take nourishment for the journey, but eat standing, be ready to move at a moments notice.

Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind - fear, silence, submission.

Only surrender to the need of the time - to love tenderly, act justly, and walk humbly with your God.

Do not take time to explain to the neighbors. Tell only a few trusted friends and family members - then begin quickly, before you have time to sink back into the old slavery.

Set out in the dark. I will send fire to warm and encourage you. I will be with you in the fire and I will be with you in the cloud.

You will learn to eat new food and find refuge in new places. I will give you dreams in the desert to guide you safely home to that place you have not yet seen.

The stories you tell one another around the fires in the dark will make you strong and wise.

Outsiders will attack you, and some will follow you, and at times you will get weary and turn on each other from fear and fatigue and blind forgetfulness.

You have been preparing for this for hundreds of years.

I am sending you into the wilderness to make a new way and to learn my ways more deeply.

Some of you will be so changed by weathers and wanderings that even your closest friends will have to learn your features as though for the first time

Some of you will not change at all.

Some will be abandoned by your dearest loves and misunderstood by those who have known you since birth and feel abandoned by you.

Some will find new friendships in unlikely faces, and old friends as faithful and true as the pillar of God's flame.

Sing songs as you go, and hold close together

You may at times grow confused and lose your way.

Continue to call each other by the names I've given you, to help remember who you are.

Touch each other and keep telling the stories.

Make maps as you go remembering the way back from before you were born.

So you will be only the first of many waves of deliverance on these desert seas.

It is the first of many beginnings - your Paschaltide. Remain true to this mystery.

Pass on the whole story

Come run with Peace In Every Step!

To answer your questions about number 14 from the last post- the new thing that I'm starting for my job with Campus Ministry is called PIES (pronounciation).

Sorry Bridget, PIES isn't "Yoga in jammies while you use your beautiful voice to sing to and encourage the people laying on the floor in weird doggie alligator contortions" like you guessed.

I'm really excited about this program...here's what it is:

PIES, aside from meaning "feet" in Spanish, is an acronym for "Peace in Every Step." This group is an opportunity to gather as a community to praise God with our bodies through physical exercise. More specifically, we will explore how running can enrich our spirituality. PIES is an effort to find peace in this very simple, challenging, and invigorating activity! We'll talk about what running (or walking) does for our relationship with God and how we can praise using our physical bodies as well as how we can lift up our prayers ("offer it up" as many say) during our run.Some people feel most close to God when they sing, others feel closest to God when they sit in Eucharistic Adoration, even others feel spiritually fulfilled when they are painting a picture, this group is an opportunity to experience the Holy Spirit's presence closely when we lace up our running shoes and hit the road!

All are welcome- including those who have never run before to our expert runners and marathoners!

We will gather every Friday at 3:30pm starting AFTER fall break. Our first gathering will be on October 22nd.

I thought that you all may be interested, but this is by no means an exclusive invitation. Please feel free to spread the word to those who you think may want to join us. Attached is the flyer.

Running with you on the way :)

"Our inner running definitely helps us in our outer running. Through prayer and meditation, we can develop intense will power, and this will power can help us do extremely well in our outer running. Meditation is stillness, calmness and quietness, while the running consciousness is all dynamism. Again, the runner's outer speed has a special kind of poise or stillness at its very heart. An airplane travels very fast, yet inside the plane we feel no movement at all. It is all tranquility, all peace; and this inner tranquility we can bring to our outer life. In fact, the outer life, the outer movement, can be successful only when it comes from the inner poise. If there is no poise, then there can be no successful outer movement. Poise is an unseen power, and this unseen power is always ready to come to the aid of the outer runner...physical fitness and spirituality must go together. It is like having two legs. With one leg I cannot walk; I need two legs to reach the destination." -Sri Chinmoy

So Many Things Are Going On!

Some exciting, some not so exciting- and since one of those "not so exciting" things was getting a take home midterm handed to me about an hour ago, I have decided to blog about one of the "exciting" things.....my "job".

I wouldn't actually define it as a "job" but more of a formative experience that pays. I on campus for Campus Ministry as the Graduate Student Intern for Faith Development and Catechesis, (breath, wew-glad I don't have to say the title out loud very often).

In the spirit of staying positive and keeping it readable, I'm only going to list only awesome things about my job right now, because I need to be a little positive at the moment:

1. I work with amazingly intelligent, spiritual, and compassionate people. They have wonderful things to share- and they share them in a beautiful way.

2. These people help me to GROW.

3. I feel supported.

4. I am learning about myself.

5. There are people who know God and share their image of God with me.

6. This department works really hard for really GOOD reasons.

7. There is always food at work (and a bowl full of candy on the way to my office) and there are always people to eat it with.

8. I feel challenged to do good.

9. I am able to share my image of God freely, without judgement.

10. I am learning.

11. I get to work with programs that are really cool (for lack of a better term).

12. I am reminded of my own life's journey when I go to Campus Ministry, walk into Gries, and walk around campus.

13. People notice things (Fr. Pat) and help me to be more aware.

14. I get to start a new program in Gries that I'm STOKED about. Stay posted- I will share more.
Little hint: It involves comfortable clothes, appreciation of our ability to be active (get up get up put the body in motion), positivity, encouragement, and cura personalis, prayer, and good people. :)

Welp, that little list sure did help me to fee better about my day.

Feeling energized by my job but still not excited about starting this midterm....

They call this being human

So I wouldn't classify myself as "addicted" to this blogging thing and seeing as it's been like three months since I posted, I bet you wouldn't either. However, I have not given up. I will continue to (try) to share my thoughts.

I'm considering starting a blog topics jar... so if you have any suggestions for topics: PLEASE TELL ME! mmk, thanks.

For this post... I'm feeling inspired by *drumroll please* ehem...... bronchitis!

yup, you heard it, inflammation of the bronchial tree, yummy. It's what I've been suffering from, I mean... experiencing, over the past week.

I don't mean to be overdramatic and I'm not looking for pity, but it's been quite an experience. Since I'm not really one to come down with infections very often, this has been a shocking experience, for me, yes, for my family (who I have been crashing with for the week), yes, but also for my daily planner. I’ve had to miss so much, including a CLC (Christian Life Community) thing that I’ve been looking forward to, planning, and praying about all semester. But, such is life. Yea, I’ve missed a few classes, cancelled more meetings, lunches, and even clinic, but life went on….

How self centered am I to think that life wouldn’t continue without me? I’m embarrassed to say that it’s all too common for me to think that I’m am an essential part of something, what can I say, I like to play a role, I like to make a difference, or convince myself that I am...

And as I think about all of this stuff that I’m missing and how crappy I feel on this lazy boy, I’m trying (really, just trying right now) to convince myself that by feeling sick- I am given the opportunity to feel more human. This is one of the parts of being a living, breathing, aching, breakable, human….just like CHRIST. Christ was not without belly aches and his brochial tree was just as likely to become inflamed.

So, I’m going to keep hydrating, try not to milk the pity for all its worth, and pop the appropriate amount of antibiotics, but if I don’t feel fabulous by the morning, I still know that being sick can serve as a reminder of my humanity.

So, Lord who became human - who made himself with susceptibility to bacterial infections – remind me that I am not above this infection, but that I am able to relate to your son through this cough and fever. Thank you for your healing presence through medicines and a loving family and beautiful friends who have brought me chicken soup and many fluids, Help me to remember that when this passes, good health is an incredible blessing. Amen.

Resting for a while longer,
Briana

An Irish Prayer

Take time to work, it is the price of success.
Take time to think, it is the source of power.
Take time to play, it is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take time to read, it is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to be friendly, it is the road to happiness.
Take time to dream, it is hitching your wagon to a star.
Take time to love and be loved, it is the privilege of the Gods.
Take time to look around, the day is too short to be selfish.
Take time to laugh, it is the music of the soul.

This is my body, given up for you.

I really enjoyed this article from the perspective of a mom. Enjoy!

Click here to read :)

You, your mom, your grandpa, Justin Beiber, Mother Teresa, Hitler, Obama, T. Swift, Fr. Biondi,- we are all part of the Body of Christ, beautiful, right?