What happened, shouldn’t have happened indeed. So there were bitter words on the part of the customer, expressing his disappointment and dissatisfaction. There were also my sincere words of apology expressing how really sorry I was, and admitting my fault.
I remembered this situation after I’d read the comment made by Fr. Mariusz, ending with his wishes for us: “may there be only beautiful words between you.” Beautiful words are truthful words. I think the words of apology belong to that category. Let’s be able to admit our fault and say “sorry”, even though it is sometimes very difficult.
In the end, the customer called me again after some time to apologize for his words, if they’d hurt me. It’s also important to know how to accept apology.
I would like to thank Fr. Mariusz for his beautiful words.
Michał
*the reply do “remain in Me” (in Polish)
I wrote the other day about waiting for the Easter Sunday. That great festive day is gone. But I’m still as if waiting for my own, small Easter Sunday, linked with my present experience.
I arrived at the conclusion that this is not so, though. That day has come, it’s happening now. I haven’t noticed it yet. A bit like the Apostles. Disoriented, scared, they dispersed and got back to their everyday chores. And the Lord had risen from the dead! Only after they’d met Jesus, did they understand.
I don’t want to stay motionless and wait I don’t know for what. Even though it’s difficult, I want to move on in my life, day by day.
Maybe I’ll meet Him on the way… like the Apostles on their way to Emmaus? Maybe He’ll surprise me, as He did for Mary Magdalene at the tomb? Maybe I’ll meet Him at work, as the disciples while they were fishing? Maybe He’ll have a meal with me? Maybe the community will be the meeting place, as when He came to the Apostles? Maybe He’ll help me overcome my unbelief, as He helped Thomas when He let him touch His wounds?
He’s already waiting for me in all those situations and places. And in hundreds of others. So it’s time I was going. I want to be there. With Him.
Michał
Dear God,
It is so difficult to employ three women, be so much of a pro-life activist and hear that all three of them are expecting babies! But I AM so HAPPY about each human being that You have cared for and loved from the very beginning of their existence!
If – as they say – when You give a couple a baby, You’ll also provide for it, please, let me – from the crumbs of your generosity – be able to maintain my vet’s office…
Michał
I’ve seen a film* in which suffering and evil was compared to an embroidery, but the one seen from below. The tangle of multicolored threads does not give you even the slightest idea of the beautiful picture you’d see from the other side.
Wasn’t it a piece of such embroidery “seen from below” that the apostles were looking at – crushed by the events of the Good Friday? Our “Holy” Saturday for them was the time filled with darkness, nonsense and painful incomprehension.
I would love to grasp the meaning of everything that happens around me. I experience fascination and disgust, beauty and ugliness, love and rejection, joy and suffering. Day after day. Whenever I think I’m beginning to understand, all my enlightenment comes to nothing in the next moment.
But it is God who is the embroiderer. He gets the proper picture. He knows the point of this all, because He arranges the threads of life. All I can do is accept today’s „now”, let Him lead me. I won’t be able to grasp the full meaning. His perspective is unknown to me. All I can do is to find the sense in Him. When I trust the Master, I’ll be able to help create the work.
And in the end, this is what I want: not to disturb the creation of this part of the masterpiece of Love which has been assigned to me.
Michał
*Padre Pio, directed by Carlo Carlei
I feel knocked to the ground, beaten. Sweat is pouring into my eyes. Life has just crushed me again. Fortunately, the Sunday of Resurrection is soon. A great feast day for everybody, but I’m also expecting this small one to come. The resurrection in my own life.
Before it comes, I’ll have this special meeting with the Lord. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He will wipe the sweat from my forehead, He’ll bring back hope, He will heal me with His love. Then I’ll be able to have a great Easter Sunday, and I won’t miss the small one – either.
Michał
Time seemed to be passing much too fast last Sunday. Our Community had its monthly meeting, but I also had my after-hours call duty. So while the others were adoring our Lord Jesus in the Holy Sacrament, I was stitching up a dog’s paw. Fortunately, the fate was on my side later and I could take part in the Eucharist together with the others. Such is life: you have to fight to secure time for God.
I spent the evening with my wife taking the opportunity to reflect on my life. We watched “Courageous” by Alex Kendrick. The movie was great, we enjoyed it a lot. And I could reconsider, for another time, what kind of father I am. Because the film is addressed to the men called to fatherhood.
In one of the first scenes we’re given data which account for a direct link between the quality of the father-child relationship and the juvenile crime rate. “I know your shift work’s hard (…), but when you clock out, go home and love your families” – one of the characters says.
There is no coincidence – it was the Feast of St Joseph the next day. Being a father is not easy, but the guardian of Jesus sets the example. Just like me, he worked hard to earn his family’s living – but he never forgot he was a husband and a father. And he chose to be obedient to God in whatever he did.
As he was silent on the pages of the Gospel, so does he remain in his support for our family. He is silent, but very effective.
St Joseph, the head of the Holy Family, protect us!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKtO_yAYEQM?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
Michał
That’s it. How to take care of our love? Among other ways, by taking care of the time for us. But how is it possible to find that time, if you leave for work at dawn and come back home at dusk? Of course, you are left with the proverbial „5 minutes” in the evening. Unfortunately, after a day that leaves you exhausted and seeking for a fast way to unwind, those 5 minutes are easily – almost automatically – wasted.
And yet I’ve found a way. I started to protect the time for my beloved wife in my heart. It is enough if you direct your thoughts – in the middle of the hustle and bustle – to that person. Even though she’s at some physical distance, she’s also close to your heart. What would all this mean, all our work, efforts, confronting challenges, if we weren’t given the chance to be received by the arms waiting there for us? And those returns home are totally different, if you let yourself “feel” your mutual love, and become conscious of it for a couple of seconds during the day. Such “mental text message” will be received by your wife. Especially if you add your smile, kind word and gesture when you come home. Then it turns out that those 5 minutes that you’re left with at the end of another hard day are far more difficult to waste.
Out of those text messages and unwasted 5 minutes a day, I get, in turn, the strength to save maybe one whole evening a week, or maybe one day a month… that we may have just for us, to nurture our love.
Michał
The day starts with a phone call from some Internet company.
– I’m not interested – I reply.
– But why, it really won’t take…
– No, thank you.
A moment later I find a leaflet about some courses in our post box. Time flies, I’ve got to hurry to work. And there I am greeted by a loan offer from a very insistent bank. As I take care of my customers, I’m being nagged – also on the phone – by a mobile Internet provider. Time passes by very quickly, as usual. I manage to refuse to buy surgical suture. Then I tidy up my mailbox by deleting adverts of watches, pills the name of which I shall leave unsaid, and women’s underwear. I’m ready to go home.
One leaflet is waiting stuck on the gate, the second one – on the ground and the third one in the post box. They all enable me to go through the shelves of hypermarkets in the vicinity. Quite upset with this obvious anti-ecological attitude, I enter the house, and what do I find on the shoe cupboard? A leaflet, of course! Meaning: the kids managed to collect some of the papers from the path in front of our house. This time I learn how to get a really quick loan and a quick pizza delivery.
I’m enjoying the hearth and home. We’re just having supper together when someone rings:
– Excuse me, am I talking to the owner of the phone line?
– Thank you very much.
– But why, you haven’t even listened…
– I am really not interested, thank you very much.
I think the Reader may imagine the feelings that overwhelm me as I start bathing our playful kids. Afterwards, I hope to have some time to sit together with my wife, when:
– Good evening, I would like to invite you for a presentation of our excellent bedding…
And He is waiting. In each minute of the day, He wants to meet me. But He does not intrude himself on. He is waiting patiently, because He loves me. And He’s not mercenary.
Michał
Don’t think I forgot basic maths. That’s not the case. The title results straight from the experience of the last weekend. As my wife left to join post-graduate course, I had two days and a half of pure „being a Dad”. Contrary to popular belief, the four of our children were clean (almost), neatly dressed (I think so) and fed (that’s what they were saying). In short: we made it – even though the love of my life was four hundred kilometers away.
And yet, I could see and sense something different about the whole situation. What was missing was this thing we contribute to – day by day, from hour to hour – when we are TOGETHER.
Because marriage is not just the sum of what two people are and what they bring into a relationship, but the entirely new reality of WE. In many other relationships we can help each other, replace each other, but the sacrament of marriage enables us to do something totally extraordinary – to go beyond the simple maths of 1 person + 1 person and create something new. That can be easily missed in everyday life, but the moments we’re left alone are a perfect opportunity to realize the great potential of „WE”.
Gentlemen, if you haven’t tried that one yet, I encourage you: give your beloved wives a weekend off. It’s mutually beneficial.
Michał
The room is crowded with children and their parents, the latter are present but unresponsive. The kids are playing, the volume of murmur goes up. It turns into incredible noise when first conflicts occur. Crying and weeping, some children run to their parents and quieten down. The noise changes its nature, it comes from several places and its goal is mainly to inform the whole world about the pain, suffering and injustice. In the end, all the children land in their parents’ arms, and fall silent.
Adoration. He is in front of me in the Holy Sacrament. It is so tough to find the silence within. All that there is is the noise of the “world”: thoughts with conclusions missing, unsolved problems, a radio broadcast recently heard, a child romping in the Chapel, etc., etc. Noise, and once again noise of thoughts in my head. And He is in front of me. His love is radiating on me. At last I manage to calm down and the noise is replaced with the content of deeper resorts of the heart: uncured pain, old wounds, bitter memories of being misunderstood. Overall suffering.
And He is still in front of me. Time slowly passes by. And in the end there is nothnig between us. He and me. And Silence.
How fortunate I am, being an adult, to have the arms I can nestle into like a child. And meet Him. In Silence. The Silence of Love.
Michał