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Saturday, April 7, 2012

The Amazing Walk!!!

Even though the sun was shining, it was a cool morning and there was enough of a wind for a wind chill.

Brrrrrrr! That was cold. Yet, our Amazing Walk went on as scheduled.

We began in the Narthex of the Church.

We gathered for our opening prayer.

We began the Way of the Cross in front of the church.

Yes, throughout our walk, people knelt down on the cold ground to pray.

Our walk began. There were at least 50 of us there today.

We stopped to pray the Stations of the Cross 14 times along the way.

Since our church has a large Hispanic population, 5 of the Stations were prayed in Spanish.

As we walked, we prayed the Rosary and sang hymns until we reached our next stop.

People took turns carrying the cross.

The day was soft and beautiful as we walked.

The children joined in carrying the cross.

The teens also joined in carrying the cross.

Another church where we stopped to pray.

We walked through a wooded area in town.

We walked across the bridge.

We walked over the Minnesota River.

Father Joseph led us in prayer at the end of the bridge.

We walked under the bridge as we headed towards our last stop.

More joined in carrying the cross as we ended our walk and our prayer at another Catholic Church.

Our prayer was over.

Even though my feet ached and my legs hurt, this walk was grace filled and Amazing.

As long as I am mobile, I hope to walk this Amazing Walk!

Friday, April 6, 2012

Today, as a Catholic Christian, I join other Christians in the world remembering the death of Jesus on the cross. Last night, a friend sent me an email describing Jesus' last hours on earth. This email will help you, as it did me, to understand how much love He had for us to endure this agonizing suffering..

At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to die on a cross.
At the time crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst criminals were condemned to be crucified. Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet.
Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long.
The nails were driven into His wrist, not into His palms as is commonly portrayed.There's a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist, that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support himself so that He could breathe.
Both of His feet were nailed together. Jesus was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could not support himself with His legs because of the pain, so He was forced to alternate between arching His back then using his legs just to continue to breathe. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage.

Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours.
Although this was a short time for someone to die after being crucified,
Jesus had been beaten so fiercely, He could only last that "short" time.
Can you imagine this kind of suffering? A few minutes before He died,
Jesus stopped bleeding. Water poured out from His wounds.

From common images, we see wounds to His hands
and feet and even the spear wound to His side... A hammer drove the large nails through His wrists.
His feet were overlapped then a large nail was hammered through His arches. To ensure that Jesus had died, a Roman guard pierced His side with a spear.
Before His Agony on the Cross began, Jesus had been whipped and beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the flesh from His body. The beating so horrific that His face was torn
and his beard ripped from His face.
Jesus was crowned Kin of the Jews with a crown of thorns. The crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most men would not have survived this torture.

Jesus, like other "criminals" facing death on a cross,
was forced to carry His cross, approximately 2 kilometers, to His death.
Jesus was so weak that the soldiers were afraid that He would die before reaching Golgotha.
A man in the crowd, Simon if Cyrene, was then forced into service to help Jesus carry
His cross to His death.

When Jesus died on the cross,
He had no more blood in His Body. When His side was pierced, only water flowed from His wounds. (The human adult body contains about 3.5 liters
(just less than a gallon) of blood.)
Jesus lost all 3.5 liters of his blood.
Jesus had three nails hammered into His body. Jesus had been crowned with a crown of thorns. The last act of violence against Jesus happened when Roman soldier pierced His side with a sword to guarantee that Jesus had already died.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Thinking Outside the Box or Letting the Creativity Flow

I'd like to demonstrate the concept of thinking creatively using this box. The only problems were that this box was too small for me to sit in and contemplate creative thinking. The box was too big to fit on my head so it sort of floated around when I tried to use it to think. The box was too fragile to hold my weight if I sat on it. So, it was time to think outside of the box, literally. I put the box down on the floor, an I sat next to it. Creative solution? Yes, because I realized I could put in some of the smaller items I was taking to the thrift store. They were more fragile and needed some protection. Creativity in action.

I define creativity as the flow of ideas and actions that happens when trying to solve problems or develop new concepts. Usually in the arts, these two ideas are one in the same. Innovation comes from creativity. Creativity flows outside of the box. Sometimes it bounces inside the box and out again. Sometimes the flow of new ideas or ways of doing things circles the box and never goes inside that box. Sometimes the creative flow takes the old ideas and meshes them together to see the problem in a new way. Wouldn't it have been fun if I could have developed a way to sit on the box and have it on top of my head at the same time?

Creative ideas lead to action. Actions lead to innovation. Then the cycle begins again, and it doesn't matter what you do. You might not make glass beads, but you love to cook. Do you always follow the recipe or do you add your own touches to your family's favorite dish? Do you play golf? You have to develop certain skills in this game, but creativity flows when you have to decide where and how hard to hit that ball so that you can get that ball in the hole with the fewest strokes. Getting dressed each day can be a creative challenge for a 4 year old. Look at some of the wonderful outfits a child can find in their closets and drawers.

See? Creativity is everywhere. The best thing is that everyone is creative. Most of the time, we just don't recognize our gift. Every time you solve a problem. Every time you make a change in what you do or how you see life. This is creativity. Now go sit next to that box. Let the creativity flow.