Bumps and Rough Road Ahead!

In  early July, this year, we were notified as a neighborhood that parking on the roadside in front of our homes, would not be permitted in early August. The  State authority on the Road Maintenance was letting us know way in advance  on what was about to happen. They were repaving our roads! Yeay!  We were happy! We started looking around, planned, tried to fit all cars in the driveway  and finally figured that out well. We were happy to be all panned and ready to see the road paved! After all,  it had now been a while that our little neighborhood's road was scraped, washed and paved. We were expecting visitors in the third week of the August and we could not wait to  have them, share with them our home and why not brag a  bit on how cute and quiet  this neighborhood is and how peaceful is and also how smooth our (soon to be paved ) road is.

Well as time passed, and as with any government project, it took a while.

Our guests came and went , only to see and experience the badly shaped road, which had been scraped by then. They were all stopped and detoured, went through all the cones, all unmarked pavements and all the working signs. They did not mind it,  it seemed, and we pretended to be okay with it,  though I wished it had been a smoother road for them.

After they had gone , every day I drove around our neighborhood, I could not help but experience the impatience, the inconvenience, the effects of the bumps, the uneven roads and the long wait of "stop"- "slow" signs. I always felt bad that our guests whom we  had not seen for more than ten years had to experience that as well. I felt pain, a bit of anger, impatience and of course my vanity was having a feast. As I tried to rid myself off these feelings, I decided to add a prayer so I could  shorten my chain of  my inner complaints about the scrapped roads , the bumps, the delays, the inconvenience, the impatience associated with it. It then occurred to me that the road would not be well paved afterwards if it didn't go through all this "cleansing" process.  It needed the signs, the scrapping, the washing, the sealing....

And then I thought about the  soul, our human soul. Our soul goes through the same process too. All those bumps that we encounter in our spiritual life,  are to slow us down to make us consider the road ahead of us. All of those "stop" and "slow" signs  in our life are to remind us to navigate carefully in what we do and how we do it.  All that scraping and the discomfort that comes with it, is the  examination of conscience and the anxiety in the long line at confession. All that uncomfortable shaking  during a rough road is like our lifelong sacrifices. And our visitors witnessing our messy road  but our cheerful home it is the perfect symbol of friends seeing you when you are at your lowest point, because it is in "when I am weak that I am strong "(ct from 2 Cor. 12)

Finally our road was paved and it is a pleasure  now to drive....

That I thought in the spiritual life is  like the grace we receive as a reward of all those sacrifices, all those bumps and detours, all those moments of feeling bad and  especially the grace  we receive after a good confession. It is indeed powerful and beautiful, we become brand new, just like my neighborhood road, it is brand new !

So any time we see "Stop", "Bump", " Rough Road Ahead" "Slow down"
Let us not forget:

"Newly Paved Road",  "Reconciliation and Grace" is  also waiting ahead of us if we navigate those other signs correctly and patiently.

By Merita B. McCormack
August 29, 2015

Merita

Blessed Mother Teresa- The Catholic Nun of Albanian blood

Five years ago to this day, though the house we were moving in was not ready,  we decided to spent that night at this new home for us. We were tired of traveling and moving stuff and since we  had just installed the new phone line, we thought we would be okay to stay here.

My husband and I, both wanted  to use the new phone  to call call our  parents and  share the news. But we decided to have some coffee first and were sitting down enjoying the children playing with each other in the back yard

The week before that  day there were many issues we were facing  with and among other prayers, one I chose, there  was the one which I  kind of made myself, asking  Bl.Mother Teresa to intercede for us. The words were all in Albanian,  and in a way I felt like I was pestering my own granny  for a favor which I thought we needed  to be  given.....

It was that evening of August 26,  and  while in the morning I knew, by evening I was almost  forgetting that it was Bl.Mother Teresa birthday.....I was  very busy right...?!!

As we sat down to sip that first coffee in the new house , to our surprise the phone rang and I picked it up.

The accent of the man's voice was clearly Indian. I was wondering who that might be...

In a very gentle voice he said: "Hello  Merita,  this is a phone call from the Catholic ......(he mentioned the organization name)  in India. We wanted to thank you for your help (I have never donated anything to  that organization) and we wanted to say : Enjoy your evening with your family and have a good time throughout the year!"

My jaw dropped , as I recalled my prayer and that on that day it was what would had been Mother Teresa 's Centennial birthday.  I also recalled that I had prayed and had asked Mother Teresa to help us....  Call it coincidence or  call it God's wink :-) , call it whatever you may like, but to me, it was very unique and meaningful! Still to this day is and will remain so.

 I will definitely not forget the gift we received on the first night of our new house
oh, and by the way...those prayers were answered , too :-)   ...

Let us never forget to ask our saints in heaven....they are there to help and aid us....Let us never be afraid to ask for the their intercession...and if we have some one close to our hearts, like we Albanians are so fortunate to have Blessed Mother Teresa, let us double those requests to them. Just ask.....She , like many others,  after all,  is a close friend and beloved child of God,  as she really took care of  Jesus' many wounds.
Blessed Mother Teresa,  our saint and beloved sister in blood, as we  gratefully remember you today, we  invoke your name and ask you  to please pray for the Albanians  and for the  people of the whole world! Amen!