Broken? – Introduction and Poem

Posted on April 6th, 2012 by Becky Ward

I am an average, middle-aged wife and homemaker, mom and grandmother, from a small town in the Pacific Northwest who has been blessed to receive a spiritual conversion that truly changed my life.  I was raised Catholic and didn’t know that Catholics could have conversions. (Isn’t that just for those converting to Catholicism?)  I also didn’t know that God still speaks to His people. He does; and to each of us in ways that we can learn to understand.  Not only that, but we can talk with Him like we do a friend, and most amazingly, we can learn why He created us and what our purpose for being here is, according to the ‘plan’ He has for each of us as unique individuals.

Part of this process for me was discovering a wonderful faith formation program, or course of study (Disciples of Jesus & Mary), where I did learn to hear and talk with God.  It is based on the teaching of the Church along with the lives of the saints and is one of the most valuable things I have ever done.  Toward the end of the program I began having these insights that showed me how crazy ‘the world’ is because of secular influences, and because many of us live and behave as if God doesn’t exist.  I was also granted the huge grace of seeing how, in my own life, I had been walking on the path to destruction, and how, through a sincere change of heart I was able to say “Yes.”, to the Lord and allow Him to show me and guide me along the narrow path, the path to salvation.

The following poem is the result of these insights.  Truly the work of the Holy Spirit, the words simply bubbled up into my heart.  I offer it in the hope that it will speak to your heart.  I shared the poem with my spiritual director and he told me that poetry is ‘experience crystallized’.  I had not heard that before, but it was certainly true about this poem.  After reflecting on this for a while the idea came to me that I could explain each stanza of the poem, kind of like St. John of the Cross does.  My insights have more to do with ‘the signs of the times’ and how, although we seem to be so advanced, in many ways we are farther from God than ever, and also what we need in order to get on, and stay on, the right path.

For the next year I will explain one stanza at a time sharing the gifts and lessons the Lord has packed into them, and what I see from the perspective of a woman who is in love with Jesus and on a deliberate path to serve Him according to my Plan Of Life (POL).  The goal is to post these on the 1^st and 3^rd Friday of each month.

I am a Catholic who is faithful to the magisterial teaching of the Holy Catholic Church, I write from this perspective and share my own experiences in the hope that they may be of help to others on the journey……for the Greater Glory of God and the salvation of souls!

 

Broken?                                                                           Explanations

In a world of broken people                                          Stanza I – Part I
You alone can make us whole.
Wounded hearts and minds and spirits,                       Stanza I – Part II
broken bodies, battered souls.

Come Lord Jesus to repair us,
with Your gift of healing love.
Send Your Spirit to prepare us,
for our home in heaven above.

For the earth is not our homeland,
but a testing ground of faith.
Ever onward You implore us,
as You fill us with Your Grace.

Give us strength to meet the challenge,
that the world does but provide.
Let us see the spiritual battle,
and from TRUTH, let us not hide.

Flesh will tell us to seek comfort.
“We deserve it!  We work hard!”
Yet our spirits truly suffer,
when the ‘self’ gets high regard.

Broken, to ‘The World’ means useless.
“We must be strong, and never weak!”
But in contrast to this vision,
brokenness is what You seek.

For when our human strength prevails,
Pride and self-reliance grow.
We then forget that we are creatures,
whom to God, due worship owe.

Blinded by success and praises,
of our fellow man trek we.
Developing more innovations,
from pain and death to be set free.

But peace cannot be found this way,
nor will lasting joy be had.
Only temporary pleasures,
self put first in a world gone mad.

Your call Dear Lord, is to something better,
where peace and love and grace abound.
The soul united with its Master,
this is where true joy is found.

You never said it would be easy,
following Your footsteps here.
In fact You promised pain and sorrow;
much suffering for those who persevere.

“No pain, No gain!”  You led the way,
and showed the path we too must find.
Your saints remind us through example,
on what to set our heart and mind.

“Take up your cross” You tell us still,
in this is our salvation won.
Not by strength or mighty actions,
but little things, done with great love.

For hidden in each loving gesture,
and act of kindness done for you.
lie grace and healing; Divine compassion,
and soon we see they help us too.

It’s through our service to one another
that we be-come like You Lord.
Turning strangers into family,
hearts and minds with one accord.

Building up our Father’s Kingdom,
strengthening Christ’s Body too,
heart-to-heart, one soul to another,
living as God tells us to.

Loving obedience to Your law Lord,
submission to Your Holy Will,
this is where we discover freedom,
in You we find our hearts are still.

True peace and love we find at last,
and now we see with clarity.
You take us broken and make us whole,
so shall we be, for all eternity!

Love & Prayers,
Becky

Dan’s Journey Home – Here’s the Video

Posted on November 9th, 2011 by Dan Burke

Dear Friends, thank you for the outpouring of encouragement from those of you who were able to watch the Journey Home show on EWTN on Monday! It is incredibly moving to hear how a simple telling of the testimony of God’s work in our lives can have such an amazing impact. For the sake of those who missed it, I have included it below. Let me know what you think.

Also, for the many who have asked, this is a good example of some of what I speak about on a monthly basis. If you know of a Catholic group in your area looking for a speaker, send a note to me at rcspiritualdirection@gmail.com. I would be grateful if you would forward this post along to anyone you know who might be interested or blessed by it. The peace of Christ be with you.

From hatred to hope – one man’s journey into the Catholic Church…

Posted on July 26th, 2011 by Dan Burke

Between beating my mother into the emergency room and firing a handgun in our home, my stepfather attempted to convince me that Catholicism was the one true faith. As you might imagine, his approach wasn’t very effective. Recently I was able to share a short version of my conversion story (on an Evangelical/Protestant radio station of all places) with the audience of Focus on Life Radio in Birmingham Alabama. If you find it interesting and need a speaker for your parish or Catholic group, send me an email at RCSpiritualDirection@gmail.com. Presently I am booked up for most of the next year but I still have a few slots left. Please keep me in your prayers. I will be speaking for a private group in Montana next month. My prayer is that I am nothing and that Christ be exalted.

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