Talking about Spiders!

There was some discussion on Plurk this evening about Spiders! Spiders are not my favorite among God's creatures; in fact, the larger ones always give me a start. Anyway, the discussion reminded me of the spider that once stalked me!

I was staying with cousins in Germany some years ago, when I encountered this nightmare. It was night and I was reading before going to sleep. I was propped up in my bed with my book. Across the room was a tall wardrobe with a large mirror on its door.

I was musing about what I had just read and so I happened to glance up from my book. There on the wall across the room was a humongous spider! Its body was the size of a quarter and with its long legs, this frightful vision looked as large as the palm of my hand! Yech!

Of course, not one to leave such a spider running loose in the bedroom, I immediately got up and looked for something with which to attack it. I think I picked up one of my shoes and almost on tiptoe, I swatted it on the wall! And missed! I finally hit it and it fell. I couldn't move the furniture to make certain I had killed it, but I guessed I had at least wounded it critically. So back to bed I went and continued reading.

A short while later, I happened to glance up again and much to my dismay, there crawling across the wall was the same humongous spider! Yuck! I hadn't killed it after all! This time I got up and really gave it a whack! Again, it fell behind the furniture; and again, I figured I had killed it for sure. So, back to my book I went.

A few minutes later, I glanced up for the third time; and this time I nearly froze with horror! For there in the reflection of the mirror on the wardrobe door, I saw this horrible spider directly behind me on the wall next to the bed! I jumped out of that bed like a bat out of hell! Thank God for that mirror! It still gives me the shivers to think that I could have had such a huge spider taking a walk across my face during the night...

This time, I slammed that spider everything I had and it's remains on the wall and on my shoe proved to me that I had finally disposed of it! Whew!

I had no trouble sleeping that night...

The next morning I told my cousin about my battle with the spider. My cousin said. "Oh we see a lot of them this time of year. They won't hurt you." Right!

Our Lady of Grace

Several of us from the Catholic Community of Plurk decided to blog an article in honor of Mary since May is dedicated to her. There are many different directions one can take in writing such an article. Here is mine...

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Somewhere in an old picture album is a photograph of a little girl of about five or six with long straight brown hair, all dressed in white. Her arms are filled with hydrangeas and she is marching with a group of other little girls... and boys too... as they process up the sidewalk beside the church in our annual May Procession.

When I was a little girl, our parish membership was several times larger than it is today. We had many families with young children and many activities for both young and old.

Today, my parish is a shadow of its former self. People, long ago, moved out to the suburbs and built new churches and thus, the membership of my inner city parish declined. Now, we have become a parish of older people with fewer young families with children to fill the pews.

I got to thinking about Mary and her place in the life of our parish community. What immediately came to mind was the annual May procession and the crowning of the statue of Our Lady of Grace, which once stood in the sanctuary to the left of the altar. This statue and several others are long gone; sold off during the 1970's when the church was renovated to accommodate the Vatican II changes.

My thoughts went back to that annual procession with boys dressed in their Sunday best and the girls in their white dresses. My arms were filled with blue hydrangeas from my parents' garden at home; other girls carried roses or whatever else was blooming in their family's gardens. I doubt if anyone had any formal bouquets.

As we climbed the steps to the church, mothers would herd us along to keep everyone moving as we fervently sang the Marian hymns that all of us knew from years past. One of the older girls would be selected to crown Our Lady of Grace, a high honor for the one chosen. The rest of us must have gathered around Our Lady of Grace there in the front of the church, watching the May Queen climb the ladder with the crown made of fresh flowers. I don't remember what we did with our own flowers... perhaps we left them at the foot of the statue and later someone placed them in water.

This is a pleasant memory for me because the tradition of a May procession has been lost in our parish. However, the neighborhood is in the beginnings of a resurgence. The beautiful old Victorian homes are being renovated and affordable housing is also on the drawing board, so there is hope for my parish too. In the years to come, young families with children may once again grace the church... Perhaps, these families will bring along their own May traditions. Who knows, a May procession may one day wind its way up the sidewalk again. And inside, Our Lady of Grace may await her earthly crown once more.

I wish I had written this - An excerpt from St. Anselm's Proslogion

I was given this excerpt to reflect on... It really touched me deeply because it reminded me so much of the search for God in my own life. It expressed that yearning that God places in our hearts and souls that only He can fill.


A portion of Chapter 1 of Proslogion by St. Anselm:


Come now, you poor creature, turn your back on your busyness for a little while. For a few moments leave the tumult of your thoughts; throw off the burden of your cares and put aside your wearisome occupations. Make some time for God; rest in God for a while. Enter into the chamber of your mind, exclude everything but God, and what will help you find God; shut the door and search for God. Now say how you long to see God's face. Say to God: Lord, it is your face that I seek. Say it with your whole heart.

Come then, Lord my God, come and instruct my heart where and how to search for you, where and how to find you. Where shall I look for you, Lord, if you are absent and not here? And if you are everywhere, why are you not visible to me? But of course, your dwelling is in light inaccessible. Then where is this light inaccessible, and how can I approach it? Who will guide me and conduct me into it so that I may see you? And then, by what signs, by what visible form shall I know you? I have never seen you; I do not know what you look like, Lord my God. What am I, this exile of yours, to do in a far off land, O most high God, what am I to do? Banished far from your presence and distressed by my love for you, what shall your servant do? With burning desire I strive to see you, and your face is very far from me. I long to come to you, and your dwelling is inaccessible. I wish to find you, and have no idea where you live. I want to search for you and I do not know your face...

O Lord how long? How long, Lord, will you forget us? How long will you avert your face from us?... Look upon us, Lord, listen to us, enlighten us, show yourself to us. Give yourself to us again so that all may be well with us, for without you everything goes wrong for us. Look kindly upon our labors, our strivings to come to you, for apart from you, we can do nothing.

Teach me to seek you, and to the searcher show yourself; for I can neither seek you unless you teach me how, nor find you unless you make yourself known. Let me seek you by my desire and grow in desire by seeking you. Let me find you by loving and grow in love by finding you.


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There is so much to reflect on in these few paragraphs. I hope it will be helpful for you also.