I complain about cleaning.

"The conditions in which the poorest of the poor lived in Calcutta at that time, and still live today, are unimaginable.  The air in the city was so polluted that if you went out onto the street in the morning in a clean shirt to buy the Calcutta Herald Tribune, you returned with your sleeves and collar all dirty.  The heat, the humidity, the dust and the dirt stirred up by the passing cars were indescribable.  It was especially abd when there was no wind. Then the many, many burning garbage heaps produced smoke that hung over Calcutta as in a bell jar.
Cleaning was therefore part of the Sisters' daily life.  They cleaned not only their own house, but also the houses of the poorest of the poor when they went to visit them.  They cleaned ceaselessly.  When they came home after a "cleaning project", the first thing they had to do was wash their own saris.  All this dirt made it quite clear that cleaning can also be seen as the work of the Holy Spirit.  Why?  Because it preserves life.  In a city like Calcutta, life dies if you do not keep cleaning.  Life becomes sick and ugly - and dies.
Cleaning is life-sustaining.  And everything that sustains life comes from the Holy Spirit.  So by cleaning we encounter the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives!

Taken from the book:  Mother Teresa of Calcutta by Leo Maasburg

Opening my eyes

Matthew 21:6-11

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them;  they brought the ass and the colt, and put their garments on them, and he sat thereon.  Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  And the crowds that went before him and that followed him shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!"  And when he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, "Who is this?"  And the crowds said,  "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee."


Distracted. Looking around with tired eyes. Is she doing okay, I wondered?  I glanced at our 6 month old in her daddy's arms.  People hustle bustling around us to get a seat in the convention center.  My eyes looked this way and that at what everyone was wearing. Shifting my weight...wondering how late we would be up tonight.

And then my heart was stirred (Matthew 21:10).  My full attention was suddenly turned and my heart skipped a beat.  Walking right toward me was the Eucharistic Procession.  About 10 priests in two lines with the monstrance held high with Jesus being  carried for everyone to see.  I watched as everyone in the convention center, like a wave, lowered to their knees.  A silence followed and it seemed as all eyes were trained on the most precious host.   A lump formed in my throat.  THIS is Jesus! THIS is what we have been waiting for!  My thoughts turned to the story in the Bible. "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" 

As I participated in my first Eucharistic Procession I felt my spirit come alive for the first time in a long time.  Little girls with baskets were spreading flower petals all along the path....("most of the crowd spread their garments on the road and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Matthew 21:8)  Kneeling there in front of the Eucharist in the grass with hundreds of others singing worship songs to our Lord and Savior was uniting, freeing, strengthening. 

Lord, thank You for opening my eyes.  Please help me to continue to see You in every mass.