Anna is one of the most beautiful and mysterious figures of the Gospels about whom I always wish I knew more. She was a prophetess who lived in the temple for almost her entire life after she became a widow at a young age, there is even some tradition that suggests she taught Mary as a child (source). What a life to imagine: living within the temple, never leaving, fasting and praying for what was probably over sixty years. Did she know in her heart that she would see the Savior in her lifetime? Did she spend all those years hidden in the temple waiting? Waiting is something we have all experienced, maybe to get married, move on to a dream job, waiting for a child to return to the Faith. Waiting clearly shows us we are not in control. We cannot speed up how God answers our prayers; we cannot change aspects of our life circumstances or the actions of other people; we can’t make the man of our dreams appear as scheduled in our calendars. Waiting on the Lord to work in our lives also does not carry a guarantee. We aren’t guaranteed answers to our prayers in ways that are clear to us. We may be waiting our entire earthly lives to see the result of what we prayed for; we may need to meet God face to face to see and understand His plans that we could not make sense of in the waiting. But sometimes our prayers are answered. And, just like Anna, we can be faithful in waiting through continued prayer despite not knowing what the result may be. We can also praise God when our prayers are answered, to tell of Jesus Who has acted and worked in our lives just as Anna shared to everyone after she saw the Christ Child, God’s Son sent to earth. [bctt tweet="Praise God. // Christy Isinger" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion Please join us in our annual prayer pledge to grow deeper in your own prayer life.

I think most of us can read today’s Second Reading from Saint Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 5:1-6) and easily admit that it hits differently in the year 2020 than any time previous. I think we can all look back on this year and realize that even though we thought we were ready for difficult times and tragic seasons because we had a strong personal faith, to live through difficult times has been a bracing shock. Our world has been upended and what we previously thought would never cause us pain, frustration, decision fatigue, and grief has surprised us and brought along with it doubt and anxiety. Saint Paul was speaking to Christians who had already chosen the new path of Christianity. A path that was anything but easy, one that often brought along the threat of death or severe punishment. These Christians had already had their worlds upended when their eyes were opened to the fact that the Son of God was really a man from Galilee, and their faith took hold. They now knew that the promises of the world, of its structures, and its level of comfort were not where true peace and security came from. We are experiencing a life-changing series of events in this area of a global pandemic and its fallout. The anxiety, grief, and doubt you feel isn’t wrong because you profess faith. These emotions are normal steps on the human path. What we may be feeling on any given day, at any given hour, does not change the reality that by our Baptism we are children of the light. God has given us this gift of faith not to take away our sufferings, but to unite ourselves and our sufferings to Him. This time of uncertainty and difficulty is still time that God has given to us. We can accept both its struggles and anxieties while also knowing that our security is found in our relationship with God, and that one day we will hear Him say, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23) when we meet Him face to face and hear His words about the year 2020. [bctt tweet="God has given us this gift of faith not to take away our sufferings, but to unite ourselves and our sufferings to Him. // Christy Isinger " username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion See how these monks have gone deeper in prayer during the pandemic.

I often think about how much I loved friends who are no longer in my life. The friendships have ended years ago but I still feel how much I miss them in my life. I miss hearing their funny sayings, their daily anecdotes about their day, sharing our mutual love of the same movies and sharing quotes when we need to be cheered up. I miss who they are, what makes them unique; I miss what they brought to my life simply by being themselves and living life alongside me. Today’s First Reading in Philippians 1:1-11 can be read as a beautiful love letter to friendship. I think Saint Paul appreciated his friends. I think he valued them for who they were. I think he also urged and encouraged his friends to foster relationships built on the truth of how Christ called them to live and in the truth of who and how they were created by God. Saint Paul mentions the joy he shares with these friends, his affection for them, the love and grace of Christ that they share. This is what friendship should bring to all our lives, and yet we all know that it’s easy for friendships to fall victim to personal sin, for friendships to break. I know my failed friendships have been the result of some failure to love. A failure to understand the other, a failure to forgive the other, a failure to see Christ in the other, to pray for the other. And now I feel the pain of that separation from these people that I loved; it’s a pain I don’t want to happen to the friendships in my life today. I think we would all be well reminded to take to heart Saint Paul’s call to friendship today. Are we appreciating the friends in our lives? Are we growing in the love of Christ? Are we praying for our friends? Let's begin today. [bctt tweet="Let's begin today. // Christy Isinger" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion Go deeper on finding and rooting earthly friendships in Christ.

When you look back to times in your life, do you only remember the good times? The joy of your youth? Your glory days of high school or the fun you had at college? Sometimes when I think back to those times of my life, I don't remember the suffering. I don't remember the homesickness, the pain that the voices of others caused to my heart, the hours of work I put into projects that ultimately didn't succeed and the accompanying disappointment. These painful memories do arise on occasion, oftentimes when I'm suffering from new pains. But these sufferings come as I'm celebrating the birthday of my child, while I share in the marking of accomplishments with friends, or while I watch my garden spring to life. I suffer while seeing the goodness of God. I suffer while experiencing His blessing and goodness. It's strange how closely intertwined joy and suffering can be, entwined not only in my heart in the present moment, but both pain and joy entwined as we remember our past and look towards the future. Both the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes and Jesus in today's Gospel (see Luke 9:43b-45) remind us to remember suffering. Ecclesiastes throbs with the reality that life is quickly fleeting, that joy should be savored because suffering is unavoidable. Jesus reminds His disciples that He would face suffering unto death. His joy of being with His disciples came with knowing He would soon suffer. It's the mystery of the Christian life that we live with both joy and suffering together, not only for a moment or a time, but for the entirety of our lives, just as Christ lived His life. [bctt tweet="It's the mystery of the Christian life that we live with both joy and suffering together, not only for a moment or a time, but for the entirety of our lives, just as Christ lived His life. // Christy Isinger" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion This professor's insights on suffering are profound.

One of the hardest things in the spiritual life that I keep coming up against is how I measure the faithfulness of God that Saint Paul talked about in the First Reading by my faithfulness that Jesus spoke about in the parable in the Gospel. I’m not faithful. I continually mess up, sin, and more often than not completely forget prayer or understanding my call to serve others. I have to try and try again after these failures. I have to start over from what feels like scratch so many times, and yet this is my personal way of expressing faithfulness to God. My way is very, very human. Because that’s what I am—human! And so it’s extremely difficult to understand the faithfulness of God. Just as His ways are higher than our ways, His faithfulness is so much greater and better than our expression of faithfulness. God is faithful to us at every moment. From before we were born He has been present to us, guided us, protected us, and wanted every good thing for us. He has never stopped being faithful even though we have experienced difficulty, struggle, pain, and what feels like separation from Him. Knowing that God’s faithfulness is so much greater and more perfect than mine is a relief to me. I know that His faithfulness doesn’t leave me when I need to begin again, that He is always calling me to come back to Him, to listen to Him, to sit at His feet. It’s this continual returning to Him that God calls us to live out in preparation for His return. To recognize when we stumble and need to begin again and to stay awake to His presence in our lives at all times. Our reliance on and relationship with the Lord is what staying awake is, to not let the richness of a life lived with Him leave us unprepared for when we meet Him face-to-face. listen to today’s devotion [bctt tweet="Come back to Him. // Christy Isinger" username="blessedisshe__"] Are you already in the practice of making a spiritual communion? Try it out!

I’m sure I’m not alone in the struggle of not feeling grace. Of course there are extraordinary moments when the veil between Heaven and earth seems to part and a divine answer comes that I instantly recognize. But there are often more days than not where I don’t feel grace. I struggle with my daily responsibilities, with my own attitude and woundedness, with trying to pray, without a noticeable balm to my feelings. Grace doesn’t seem to appear and give me superpowers or a perennially sunny disposition. Saint Paul experienced this too, to a much greater degree in fact. He was persecuted in most places he traveled, endured torture, and terrible burdens for the sake of sharing the Gospel and the Sacraments. In today’s First Reading, Saint Paul acknowledges that even though we may feel affliction in every way, we are not crushed (see 2 Corinthians 4:7-15). Grace is at work even when we feel dejected and hurt, and also when we feel nothing special in particular, neither forsaken nor ecstatic. Grace maintains us, shields us, carries us, no matter what our feelings may be today because we are united to Jesus. We are united to Jesus not only in His life but also His death. Grace does not erase the difficult or the pain of life just as Christ’s life was not free from pain, but grace does give us the transcendent ability to live knowing our lives are meant for greater than what this world offers. Grace, the very thing that allows us to live with God, is the treasure contained in the very normal, very earthen vessels of our ordinary lives. listen to today’s devotion [bctt tweet="Grace is at work. // @christyisinger" username="blessedisshe__"] Ask for an increase in grace, God's life within us, today in your prayer. He is always so generous.

As I open my eyes each morning letting the milky light come through my curtains pull me awake: do I think of the Most Holy Trinity? As I cook and wash, clean and hug: do I think of the Most Holy Trinity? As I converse with a friend, as I listen to my husband: do I think of the Most Holy Trinity? As I try to muddle through prayers with a busy mind that darts in different directions other than worship: do I think of the Most Holy Trinity? As I think of how I live my life, as I ponder my death, as I contemplate eternal life: do I think of the Most Holy Trinity? These questions are meant not to be flippant. There is so much of life that passes by without acknowledging the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I can go days and weeks without the thought that I was created by Love. We live in a reality wherein we have our very breath, our hearts and their capacities to love, our hands and their abilities to serve because we have been created through the love of the Most Holy Trinity. Our whole world, each image of beauty, each unique human being is in existence due to the Most Holy Trinity. Without the divine relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the physical world would not exist, nor would the life of our soul and the hope of eternal life either. We owe everything to the Trinity. We owe our lives, our world, but also the ability to feel and experience love; because the Trinity is the source of all love. [bctt tweet="Do I think of the Most Holy Trinity? // @christyisinger" username="blessedisshe__"] listen to today’s devotion Enjoy a deep dive into the nature of the Blessed Trinity by this Saint.