Fathers, Daughters and St. Thérèse

By Nancy Ward

 

An interview with Connie Rossini, author of Trusting God with St. Thérèse.

Connie gives practical advice for overcoming fears and frustrations that hamper our relationship with God. I asked her about her father-daughter relationship as compared to that of Louis Martin and his daughter St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

Nancy: Thérèse was blessed with parents who were “more worthy of heaven than of earth.” Thérèse had a special relationship with her father, who called her, “my Queen.” She formed her image of God from her father who never denied her love, affection and care. How did your father-daughter relationship compare to this?

Connie: In some ways, my relationship with my father when I was growing up was miles apart from the relationship between Thérèse and Louis. I am very quiet and reserved. As a child, I was also timid. My dad, in contrast, was outgoing and frank. He was also the primary disciplinarian. My mom often said, "Wait till your dad gets home!" I grew nervous around him. I avoided talking to him about any serious subjects.

In my book, I tell how my dad left me home alone when I was about five. When he returned about an hour later, he didn't show any sympathy for my fears. So that didn't help my relationship with him or God.

Read the entire interview at JOYAlive.net

Swept up by the Spirit, Journey of Transformation by Gary Garner

By Nancy Ward

Art: The Ideal by Louis Janmot

“I have lived two vastly different lives—one spent exalting materialism and filled with spiritual darkness, the other spent exalting Jesus the Lord and filled with light and hope.” Because Gary’s conversion was so “life and death,” he sees it that way for everyone.

He recounts how the Spirit plainly revealed some of the traps he and his family narrowly avoided. He credits angels, signposts and appointed helpers, “pinpoints of light in the darkness, placed there for us to discover and to show us the way—without them we couldn’t possibly have made it to where we are now. There is hardly an hour that I don’t feel an urgency toward others of the impending dangers and perils that await them, much like someone who barely avoided a collapsing bridge.”

His journey of transformation eventually brought him from his agnostic-pro-Catholic religious view into the Catholic Church by way of the charismatic renewal. His conversion began with a voice telling him to buckle his seatbelt, saving his life. Then Fr. Walt, a young, motorcycle-riding priest invited him and his wife Nancy to a parish prayer meeting. The people shared their Spirit-led encounters with unbelievable praise reports. They spoke as if the Holy Spirit was telling them what to do and enabling them to do it.

In Swept Up by the Spirit, Gary tells story after story of how he opened everything in this life to the Holy Spirit who indeed did tell him what to do and enabled him to do it. Much of his leadings from “the Voice” involved ministries with groups of Protestant and Catholic men praying and evangelizing together in street ministry in rough neighborhoods or at abortion clinics. Often this involved marches with a handful or hundreds of people singing and carrying large crosses, or praying behind bars or gambling houses. He prayed with strangers for physical healings, deliverance and conversion.“It was only after I stopped worrying about what other people thought of me out there that I could begin to be effective at all,” he says of his sidewalk ministry at Planned Parenthood.

Read more about Gary's journey of transformation on JOYAlive.net  

How significant are you?

By Nancy Ward

Christ and Child by Bloch (Wikimedia Commons)

Disappointment crept into my heart when I failed to land a plum writing assignment. This came after I visualized my writing glorifying God and my work becoming significant. I thought that would help me become significant.  It got me thinking about how we become significant and how we judge the significance of others in our life.

I remember hearing someone say, “The more you love, the more significant you become.” God is Love, and he is huge compared to me. Not because he is bigger, stronger and more powerful, but because he gave his Son for love of me.


How significant is God in your life?

Measure that by how much he loves you. Can you measure God’s infinite love for humanity and specifically for you? The cross points out how much.

Don’t wait until you grow into that charming, loveable person that you visualize everyone can love. God created you the person you are right now, his beloved child. You are already that loveable person because he already loves you unconditionally. You can’t earn God’s love by trying to acquire more holiness.  You can only allow his holiness to come forth through all the clutter of your fears and self-expectations by embracing his love for you.


Continue reading at Nancy's blog JOY Alive.

The Splendor of the Ocean

By Nancy Ward

The Beach at Trouville by Boudin

More powerful than the roar of many waters, more powerful than the breakers of the sea, powerful in the heavens is the LORD. (Psalm 93:4)

My first glimpse of the ocean was at crowded Mission Beach in San Diego as a young bride. Once I saw the breathtaking splendor and power of God’s creation where waves meet sky, I was hooked. Now I look for every possible opportunity to relax on any beach, anywhere. In Maui, the most gorgeous native natural habitat surrounds the almost endless beaches. I have even seen this panorama from a parasail 500 feet above Kauai, Maui and Molokai.

In Hawaii or Texas, I enjoy the waves pounding the sand and the circling gulls awaiting my every crumb. Walking on the beaches from Coronado Island to Cape Cod thrills me. Even January in Oregon, the foggy skies overhead, gusty wind on my face and freezing water lapping on my timid toes, bring me incredible joy.

A recent day on familiar Vanderbilt Beach on the Florida Gulf Coast recalled many exciting experiences in our sunshine times playing with our children and young grandchildren. I can’t forget those winter times of consolation and comfort when we came here to soften our heartbreak and find acceptance of our tragedies.

Read how God beckons us at JoyAlive.net

Tobit’s Dog, A Novel by Michael Nicholas Richard (Reviewed by Nancy Ward)

By Nancy Ward

Tobit’s Dog is a love story amid the battle between heaven and hell  for the souls of the good guys as well as the racists, murderers, rapists, thieves and connivers not portrayed in the biblical version of the Book of Tobit. In this imaginary take on the Book of Tobit, exciting enough a tale, Richard skillfully uses the characters, symbols, and scriptural principles. All the vital elements are there: Tobit’s sudden blindness and miraculous healing. Prejudice and bravery — this time, involving a lynching and Tobiah’s arrest for his compassion toward the boy hanging from a tree.
 
Richard sets this, his first professionally published novel, in North Carolina during the depression. The Jim Crow era provides the tension between the black characters (Tobiah and family) and the white businessmen and law enforcement determined to keep the Negros in their place. And they are Catholics. Is this how the enemies of the Jews treated the chosen people during their exile?

I relate to this language, landscape, food, music and culture, having been raised in the south, although a few decades later. The scenery, described so beautifully and succinctly, is somewhat familiar to me. More like my Texas than the biblical Nineva.


Continue reading at Nancy's blog JOY Alive in our hearts.