Pursuing love

I spent the last few days exceptionally grumpy, and I'm still not exactly sure why. This grumpiness culminated in a temper tantrum, during which I de-cluttered my house over and over again, grumbling about the endlessness of it all and my seeming inability to complete basic tasks.

The postcard on my fridge fell off for the hundredth time, one with a paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13 ("Love is patient, love is kind, etc."), which I swept up off the floor and~~with a flourish~~deliberately crumpled and threw in the trash.

(In my defense, it was getting pretty beat up and didn't get much attention anymore~~clearly, as demonstrated by my behavior.)

Thankfully, this all happened on a Saturday~~Confession day! I love Confession. This sacrament has a terrible reputation~~as though it is some sort of guilt-induced, self-inflicted punishment or get-out-of-hell-free card. On the contrary, I see it as an opportunity to acknowledge and repent of one's failings, receive an action plan (in the form of penance), and be reconciled with the Lord who calls for us to be perfect. It is an encounter with Christ and an invisible yet tangible cleansing of the soul.

I entered the Confessional with little clarity...I carried such weight in me, angry but not really clear about why...confused and longing for peace. In spite of all this, my intimacy with Christ has been intensely felt recently, adding further to my confusion and causing me to suspect I was being escapist in my daily life.

The priest and I discussed all this for awhile, and I can't say that any major clarity came out of the conversation except that big question he asked from Genesis~~"Why are you so angry?" which began a rooting-out process. And then the funny part~~"For your penance, I want you to go back to the Mass readings from two Sundays ago and read the selection from 1 Corinthians 13."

Hee, ha, ho. The Holy Spirit is NOT without a sense of humor. "Why, funny you mention that. I threw that very passage out today!" (blush)

Thus, when I noticed a meme circulating the blog world which got started a couple weeks ago, I decided to participate. It is called "Pursuing Love" (hosted by Marsha's Musings) and will focus on this passage from 1 Corinthians 13. Clearly, this passage is following me around and I'm looking forward to spending more time with it~~refrigerator card notwithstanding.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.