Spring Cleaning

by Elizabeth Howe

          If you happen to live in Georgia, pollen season is a bear!  The pollen from our lovely pine trees, while evergreen and lush, is a yellow, clingy powder dropped over the earth, sometimes in billowing clouds of yellow haze.  Cars are yellow, roads are yellow and screened porches are yellow!  After at least two weeks and prayerfully, a heavy rain, we can clean up our porches and patios and get ready for Spring. We get to enjoy the bright blue skies and warm breezes…just before the sweltering heat arrives!

          I have just finished cleaning the porch, replacing the dead flowers in our pots, and trimming up the ferns and cast iron plants, making them ready to grow again!  Spring cleaning is quite messy but very rewarding.  Weeds are pulled and fertilizer applied. We just need the grace of sunshine and rainwater! A good once over every year is always a good idea, even for our hearts!  Take a minute to assess where you are spiritually. Clean out any bad habits or excess sin and baggage and make your heart hospitable to your guest, the Holy Spirit!  Does holiness befit your house and your heart?  During the lazy days of Summer plan to examine your heart and tidy up. Chose some good spiritual books, begin praying and pondering with Scripture, go to confession or spend extra time in service. Maintain your heart as a peaceful home for Jesus and His Holy Spirit to dwell.

 And the WORD became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth;
we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son from the Father.  John 1:14

 

          Can imagine Jesus speaking to you something like this?

           I am here among you, in the Eucharist, in the Spirit, in the Holy Scriptures, in the kind smile of a friend or the gentle word of a neighbor. I am here among you in the warm embrace of a loved one and in the tender hug of a child. I am here among you.  Let me share your life – your dreams and hopes – your disappointments and sadness’s. Let me accompany you on life’s daily journey.  Aim for heaven.  I will walk you there – so my mother and father with all the saints and angels will welcome you to your heavenly home.

          But first, I need you to create a heavenly home here on earth – in your home – in your family – in your heart.  Use my strength and grace to sew love in your family, in your work, in your neighborhood, in your parish.  I came to dwell among you – but I want you to invite me in.  I want to love with your help.  You, as mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters, and friends are my caregivers – nurturing humanity every day with your kindness and selflessness.  Carry on, gain strength from me.  Take this time over the Summer to maintain your heart.  Take this time to reflect on the majesty of your God and your Creator, sending me, his Son, to love you home to Him.  Reflect on His immense love to choose a mother for me who was pure, humble, and so full of love for YOU, that she dedicated her life to bringing me into the world.

          I came to dwell among you; to save you by reconciling you with my Father, to help you know His love, to model holiness and to give you my body in Eucharist so you could also become more like me, a child of God. As his child, you are an heir to His kingdom, His promises, His love, and His mercy. Make a place for me in your heart so I can dwell there with you in peace.

I Love you, Jesus

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Prayer:

O LORD may my soul be flooded with your light so I can know you more and more profoundly!

Lord, give me so much love, love forever, serene, and generous that I will be united with you always!

Lord, let me serve you and serve you well, on the pathways that you wish to open to my existence here below.  In your holy name I pray, AMEN. (From the private prayers of St. Pope John Paul II)

 abide (v.) – to live, dwell

Holiness befits your house.  Psalms 93:5

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body. 2 Corinthians 6:19-20

 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. John 15:9

 Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. John 14:23

 So, we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 1 John 4:16

 All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us. 1 John 3:24

 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. John 6:35

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