My blog has a new name - All the Way to Heaven. It's a quote from St. Catherine of Sienna that Dorothy Day was fond of - "All the way to Heaven is heaven, because He said: "I am the way".
I like knowing that those words unite two women who, though they lived centuries apart and in very different circumstances, both dedicated themselves wholly to Christ. I tend to get lost in the big questions - What is my vocation? Am I making the right decisions? What is the meaning of my life?!? - so this quote is a reminder to me that the whole of the Christian life is about starting to live eternity here on Earth.
When I used to sit zazen in college, we would say "everything is a teacher". We meant that everything, from the creaking pipes to the rain on the roof to the fidgeting of the person next to you, was an opportunity to return to the present moment, to notice distractions without letting them actually distract from your practice. So now I say, "everything is a teacher", and mean that everything - from the traffic that appears on the drive to school at 7:59 am, to the seemingly endless stream of anatomy labs and case discussions, to the feelings of insecurity that come from having too much to learn in too little time - is an opportunity to surrender myself to the Lord, to keep Him at the center of my life. Without Him, I am lost in 'To Do' lists and the rote fulfillment of "professional responsibilities". Without Him, I start to define myself by the things I do and the things people think about me.
Dorothy Day
I like knowing that those words unite two women who, though they lived centuries apart and in very different circumstances, both dedicated themselves wholly to Christ. I tend to get lost in the big questions - What is my vocation? Am I making the right decisions? What is the meaning of my life?!? - so this quote is a reminder to me that the whole of the Christian life is about starting to live eternity here on Earth.
St. Catherine of Sienna
When I used to sit zazen in college, we would say "everything is a teacher". We meant that everything, from the creaking pipes to the rain on the roof to the fidgeting of the person next to you, was an opportunity to return to the present moment, to notice distractions without letting them actually distract from your practice. So now I say, "everything is a teacher", and mean that everything - from the traffic that appears on the drive to school at 7:59 am, to the seemingly endless stream of anatomy labs and case discussions, to the feelings of insecurity that come from having too much to learn in too little time - is an opportunity to surrender myself to the Lord, to keep Him at the center of my life. Without Him, I am lost in 'To Do' lists and the rote fulfillment of "professional responsibilities". Without Him, I start to define myself by the things I do and the things people think about me.
Lately I've been feeling like time is moving in fast-forward, which I suppose is a natural consequence of being an over-committed medical student. I'm grateful that Lent falls when it does this year, because I'm in need of some desert time with God. Last night I was reflecting on this week's Gospel reading (Mk 1:12-15) with some other students at the Newman Center. We were talking about fasting and sacrifices during Lent, and someone mentioned that at the end of our lives, everything is going to be taken away from us. It's not that the pleasures of this life aren't good, it's that they are transient, and have to pass away in order to make room for the greatest joy any of us will ever know - eternity with our God, Whose entire being is Love.
Fasting and sacrifices, however small, give us the chance to empty ourselves to make room for that Love. So this Lent, I'm trying to give up some of the things that I use for recreation (like watching hours of sitcoms on Netflix) that actually serve less to "re-create" me after a long day than to just dull my mind and senses. I'm trying to spend more time with Scripture, devotions, and prayer, to let God re-create me in His image.
Here's the Gospel for this Sunday - it's a good one to start off these 40 days.
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him. After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:12-15)
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