Disposed of and Put in its Proper Place

You know those times that you have a plan?

You can visualize it. It’s a done deal. Dude, you can even TASTE IT!

Well, tonight I was going to share with you about the Saint of the Day, St. Marguerite Bourgeoys.

I do not want to do her injustice, thus, I will just share with you that Canada owes MUCH to her. More specifically French-Speaking Canada. She started a School for Children of both European and Native American backgrounds and eventually established a school for Native Girls in Ville-Marie, present day Montreal.

Quebec_flag — Flag of the Province of Quebec

She was a Saint who knew what she wanted to be.

A Cloistered Nun.

She knew it. She applied to the Carmelites and Poor Clares and…Nothing.

God had other plans…she was to become an Educator!

In Spanish we have a saying, “Uno pone, Dios dispone, y llega el Diablo y TODO lo DES-compone.” Meaning, that we make our plans. We Pose them. God Disposes those plans. He puts them in their proper order or place. And then the Devil comes and Ruins or Breaks EVERYTHING!

Fitting for tonight, I think 🙂

Anyway…Before I began my post tonight, I realized I had not checked on any of the comments in a long, long time. So, I did.

There were a few Comments posted by an Anonymous Individual. Wonderful, Insightful, quite Helpful comments! Funny, too!

I was especially taken with this Excerpt this Individual shared:

On Children

An excerpt from “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said,
“Speak to us of Children”.
And he said:

Your children are not your children,
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but are not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and
He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
So he loves also the bow that is stable.

Kahlil Gibran’s book, published in 1923 is especially relevant and helpful for these times and is a wonderful gift for yourself or a loved one.

“The Prophet”

Beautiful, isn’t it? I made a note to myself to share it in the future with those of you that may not have seen it. Note, I said in the future. Well, it was not to be my will.

But before I continue with this strand, allow me to share something else that is “Coincidental” about this Anonymous Commentator. 😉 Anonymous, in another comment recommends 2 books to yours truly, The 7 Love Agreements by Douglas Weiss, PhD. and Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom : Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing by Christiane Northrup, M.D.

Well…I was away for about 2 months, as I’m sure you may have noticed. Well, I hope that you would have noticed, since I wasn’t writing ANYTHING 😕 Point being, that I was not at my Parish for Christmas or the Christmas Season. My Husband was.

One day, he calls me and tells me that our Wonderful and Amazing Pastoral Assistant told him that there was a Gift for us under the tree!?! My Husband further tells me that this gift is from Anonymous.

At that point in time I thought it peculiar and yet very Sweet. Especially when he tells me what the Gift is…some Turtles, the Pecan kind, YUM and two books.

He tells me that they are Marriage Help Books. At that point I realized how Extremely thoughtful the gift was! And I figured that the Person or Persons didn’t want to make it too obvious that they knew about our Marriage Troubles and possibly embarrass us, which by the way, would not happen! We have problems! We share it with those who care to read about them or read about how we are trying to work at our Marriage so that others can Hopefully Benefit from our Failings. Learn from our mistakes and take advantage and make use of the Resources that have helped us, RETROUVAILLE! He then mentions the titles of the books. They sound interesting. He tells me that the one about women is really thick.

At this point I am going over in my head who the Anonymous gift-giver could be. I think of the Wonderful couples we know, and decide that it really couldn’t be them because they know that we know that they know, you know? So it just didn’t make sense. Then I think it could possibly be our Debonaire Pastoral Assistant. Or possibly our Beautiful, Patient, Kind and Extremely Helpful Secretary, Mary. I tell my Husband that it was quite possibly one of the two, but that we wouldn’t know for sure. That whoever Anonymous is or are, that we are very Blessed to have such Caring people in our lives.

You’d think that was the end, right? I did too. Until tonight.

As I am reading the comments I see the titles of the books in a comment! In a comment from….TA TA TA TAN…I do hope you can hear that little tune in your heads 😉 From no other than, yup, ANONYMOUS!

So, Thank You, Anonymous. We are Truly, Truly Grateful for your Gift, your Time and your Caring. We are very Blessed. Thank you.

NOW…

Here is the other coincidence having to do with Anonymous. I shared the Excerpt with you. As I stated, I was going to share it in the future. Right? Right.

After reading and responding to Anonymous, I check my emails real quick and I see that I have received one from El Padre Roman titled, “Los Hijos. Gibran Khalil.”

The name looks familiar to me, therefore I come back here and sure enough, Anonymous’ excerpt is from Khalil!

I laugh because at that point I know that tonight, not some time in the future, is when I am to share this with you.

Please, obtain this book! El Profeta. In English, The Prophet. It is said to be his Masterpiece. And from what I have read, it truly is Inspired. He has chapters on Love, Marriage, Giving, Joy and Sorrow, Freedom, Reason and Passion, Beauty, Religion, Death and so many more.

Thank you again Anonymous…

Gracias, Padre Roman…

Gracias, Khalil Gibran…

Se dice que en cierta ocasión, una mujer que llevaba un niño en sus brazos, le dijo:

“Maestro, háblanos de los hijos” y él respondió:

“Sus hijos no son sus hijos.
Son los hijos y las hijas de los anhelos
que la vida tiene de si misma.

Vienen a través de ustedes,
mas no de ustedes.
Y aunque vivan con ustedes,
no les pertenecen.

Pueden darles su amor,
mas no sus pensamientos.
Pues ellos tienen sus propios pensamientos.

Pueden albergar sus cuerpos,
mas no sus almas.
Porque sus almas moran en la casa del mañana,
que ni aun en sueños les será dado visitar.

Pueden esforzarse por ser como ellos,
mas no intenten hacerlos como ustedes.
Porque la vida no marcha hacia atrás,
ni se detiene en el ayer.

Ustedes son el arco por medio del cual sus hijos son disparados como flechas vivas.

El arquero ve el blanco sobre el camino del infinito,
y las dobla con toda su fuerza
a fin de que sus flechas vayan veloces y lejos.

Que el hecho de estar en manos del arquero
sea para su dicha, por que así como
Él ama la flecha que dispara,
ama también el arco que permanece firme.

Por eso ustedes tuvieron la oportunidad de vivir su vida
y la libertad de amar y hacer su vida.
Dejen que sus hijos vuelen solos del nido cuando llegue la hora
y no les reclamen para que vuelan.

Ellos los querrán por siempre
Y tendrán también su nido,
del cual algún día, ellos solos quedarán,
pero fue su nido y su vida,
déjenlos libres.

Ámenlos con libertad
no apaguen el fuego de su hogar,
vivan y dejen vivir.

Así ellos siempre los querrán.