Gather Up the Crumbs - X - Some surprising crumbs....that bless....

Thank you, Sister O'Mine!


Matthew West, what a way to begin a Friday morning!





But you're the one who looks at me

and sees what I was meant to be

more than just a beautiful mess

Where would I be without someone to save me , someone who won't let me fall? And all God's Children say, "AMEN!!"

So far, Macrina has offered me eight examples of things and places that bless her with nourishing crumbs:

• My love for trees.
• Moments of beauty.
• Sin and weakness in my life.
• Being able to recognize and admit that I am wrong.
• Loneliness.
• People.
• Criticism.



To many times, things and places that Macrina
identifies as blessings, have stopped me........

• Sitting at someone's feet.

Seeing these things and places listed, without the reading in between...for the most part, just reading this list, I would be stretched and challenged to see these as nourishing crumbs! I, and probably many others, would fail to recognize the blessing within sin and weakness, admitting wrong, loneliness, and criticism.  But, reading Macrina's insights to these things and places, I do appreciate how they feed her soul AND how I can look at these same things and discover blessings.

AND, Macrina continues to stretch my thinking as she continues with her list!

• Sorrow:



Holy resignation has to
be different than "quitting".

• In the midst of sorrow, there's nothing to do but be there and celebrate the hurt.
• We celebrate the hurt through holy screams.
• Holy screams come from the heart.
• They are screams that people often, in their ignorance, try to smother.
• Holy resignation comes only after holy screams.
• Don't let them tell you it's God's will, unless they are saying that life is God's.
• Much of the news you see on television each evening is not God's will.
• It is the will of the human race.
• Why blame the One who wills nothing for you except that you be divinzed?
• Ask...one question when...in sorrow: Am I being divinzed? Am I becoming like God?
• Listen to the scream of Jesus on the cross, 'My God, my God...
• only then did Jesus bow his head in holy resignation.
• Sorrow makes it impossible for us to be absent [from life], and so, blesses us with real presence.
• In the midst of our sorrow, distractions fall away...[we become] vulnerable, little and great.
• ...they [people who have walked great sorrow]...seem to wear the face of God.

This morning, a FB Friend suggested that Macrina's book needs to be read from a Catholic perspective.  I agree, yet, there are some things that are more difficult for me to get my protestant head around. Such as...

• Fasting: 



Standing before God, knowing
who and whose I am...

• Fasting makes me vulnerable and reminds me of frailty.
• Fasting nourishes me and gets me in touch with a deeper hunger.
• All deep hunger nourish me.
• I am nourished because I am brought to a place where I can live in denial no longer.
• Standing before God hungry, I ...know who I am.
• ...one who is poor, called to be rich...
• ...one who is empty, called to be filled with the fullness of God.
• ...one who is hungry, called to taste all the goodness...in Christ.
• ...helps me know deeply my own need.
• Fasting is cleansing. It lays bare our souls.
• Most of us are not nearly hungry enough for the things that really matter.
• Fasting can lead us to the core of our being and make us more nourishing for others.

I can "get this", but I'm not sure I really get this.  Does that make sense?

I understand her words, yet, I wonder if there is something missing from these thoughts and insights on Fasting, that I would not have an awareness of...or an appreciation...

I know fasting is a spiritual discipline.  Possibly it is a discipline I may want to become better versed in at some point.

• Words:



This is so very not true!!!

• [Words] are a source of healing, consolation and joy, hope and encouragement...
• People can die for lack of words.
• A word of kindness is a Word made Flesh!
• Our response to all words, if we want them to feed us, is to listen and connect them to our lives.
• Words can also intimidate and stifle growth.
• Words are powerful.

• Silence:
• The secret of a well-trained tongue is found not in speaking bur in silence.
• Silence gently draws us to our depth.
• Silence and Words have been at war within my soul for as long as I can remember.
• ...the world affirms me more for my words than for my silence. How could the world affirm what it does not understand?

Wow.  You know, I completely missed that silence immediately followed words when I read through this book the first time.

This morning, I typed the words of "In the Bulb There is a Flower" in the graduation bulletin for Sunday.  Sometimes, when typing the words in silence, I notice the words differently.  This morning I was struck by verse 2, 

There's a song in every silence....

"There's a song in every silence, seeking word and melody; there's a dawn in every darkness bringing hope to you and me. From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see."

Does this not sound like many of the thoughts and insights of both Macrina and Joyce Rupp over these many weeks!

• Prayer:

What a week this is turning out to be!

My mom just called.  She and Dad have left one doctor and are headed for the ER at the Heart Hospital, north of Indianapolis.  

So....I'm leaving without writing about this most important crumb, Prayer.  I will carry one thought of Macrina's with me, "To pray is to touch God and let God touch us."  AMEN!!!

Turn your speakers up.....

Many Blessings ~ Sandi