March 31, 2025 // Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12a, 13b
Reflect on the Word //
*trigger warning of pregnancy loss*
I sat on our bathroom floor wondering how one body could hold so much pain within it—both emotional and physical. It had been a handful of years since we'd experienced our first miscarriage and even more since we'd been able to conceive again. The physical pain of endometriosis and the emotional pain of the season we were in sat heavily within me that afternoon—one of many afternoons on which I'd wondered if He saw me, heard me, or understood me at all.
“Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;
O LORD, be my helper” (Psalm 30:11).
I'd prayed and begged ceaselessly for healing. I was at my wit’s end. In that moment, a tiny bit of openness was the result—honestly, out of pure desperation and sheer exhaustion.
His response? I felt Him, in my prayer, come to me that day and sit with me there on that bathroom floor and catch each and every tear that left my weeping eyes. It was my personal pain paired with broken-openness to His presence that drew Him all the more near.
The Psalmist today praises the Lord for having rescued him (see Psalm 30:2). Sometimes it seems like the Lord is not actively answering any of our prayers, but He is—in fact—doing so in ways we can't articulate for ourselves.
I look back and see clearly how God continues to answer my prayers for healing. Not because I no longer struggle with bouts of physical or emotional pain. Not because we've welcomed a sweet new life into our family. Not because my prayer requests are granted exactly as I want. But because He—in my struggle—embraces my weakest parts. My deepest hopes. My tight-gripped dreams. And invites me to exchange my will for His Own.
The Lord turns “mourning into dancing” (Psalm 30:12). He brings us “up from the nether world” (Psalm 30:4) of our crushed dreams and the depths of our pain. With each new day dawning, He takes our pain and transforms it into a deeper knowledge of His grand plan for us and it is this: eternity.
Relate to the Lord // How has He turned your mourning into dancing? What mourning would you like Him to turn into dancing?
Shalini Blubaugh is a Minnesota transplant living in Coppell, Texas. She served with NET Ministries and went on to graduate with her J.D., though happily left all things law behind. Along with her roles as wife and mom, she now runs her own company, Pray. Train. Grow., as a Certified Fitness Trainer and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. Her mission is to help Catholic women grow STRONG in mind, body, and heart through the integration of Faith, fitness and food.
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