The appointment was on a Friday. The rosary I said the night before was on the Luminous Mysteries. I like that set an awful lot because of the fourth mystery: the Transfiguration. That was the subject of my first exegesis paper and it blew my mind. I was taught how to look through these gargantuan Theological Word dictionaries and Greek became a little more... who am I kidding? It was a bunch of squiggly lines before and after that class. Even if the paper wasn't so fun, I learned so much from it. Subsequently, the Transfiguration became one of my more favorite Gospel stories.
As I prayed the rosary the night before our appointment, the underlying purpose of the Transfiguration came to mind. I'd heard someone else say that Jesus gave an amazingly great gift to Peter, James, and John on that mountaintop. He knew ahead of time how great of a trial that His Passion would be for the apostles. For that brief moment, Jesus let them slip behind the curtain of heaven. We'll never know this side of heaven, but what if the experience of the Transfiguration was what helped John walk with Mary to Calvary? A glimpse of glory to strengthen for the suffering ahead. An oasis in a desert.
While I was praying that mystery, I started to ask for the same thing. Why can't we have a transfiguration moment? I started praying for a sign, which is abnormal for me. For whatever reason, I don't like asking for signs. I'm extremely comfortable with intercessory prayer, just not in asking for signs. And, in our case, we're in the middle of Calvary, not looking ahead to it. We had some hope for this new doctor, our first NaPro visit, but we'd let our hopes swell before... only to be crushed on day 28.
On our drive home, we were treated to about two hours of sunset. The picture below is proof, I believe, of "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7)
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| There was a mountain and bright light involved, He thought of everything... |
(From Maureen's husband Tom)
ReplyDeleteAnother Luminous mystery is the wedding feast at Cana, where Mary saw that the bride and groom were about to be mortiifed by running out of wine. "They have no wine" was all she said to her Son. Jesus took it from there. So I have taken to asking Mary to do the same thing for my children who were/are experiencing infertility. My request is that she substitute, "they have no child," and ask Jesus to take it from there. What we pray for is to lovingly accept what He has planned for us. Our Lady of Cana, pray for us (and put in a good word for us).