Amy Schisler

A Little Plaything

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Today is the feast day of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Last year, I was blessed to lead forty-four pilgrims to France to learn about women saints, including St. Thérèse, also known as the Little Flower. This past month, I was again blessed to lead a group of thirty-five pilgrims to the National Shrine of St. Thérèse in Darien, Illinois. I read her memoir, The Story of a Soul, in preparation for the France pilgrimage but failed to appreciate her story until we visited Lisieux.

Good Soil

Thérèse was raised on good soil. Her parents were both saints, the first married couple to be canonized together. All five of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin’s surviving daughters became nuns. That’s quite a track record! What struck me most about the saints was their quiet but powerful faith. They didn’t push their daughters to become religious sisters or flaunt their religiosity. They lived as humble servants of God and greatly influenced their children. Though Thérèse’s mother died when Thérèse was only four, the child’s memories of her mother were of true love and commitment to God and family.

Bearing Grain

Thérèse watched her sisters become nuns and saw her father lead a pious life. She learned to be obedient to God, to be patient and loving, and to place all her trust in the Lord. As important as her family’s effect on Thérèse was, Thérèse’s effect on the world was equally important.

I often find myself going back to a passage in Thérèse’s book in which she likens herself to a little ball, a mere plaything of the Child Jesus, whom He could pick up or throw down at His choosing. Thérèse was content to be there when the Lord needed or wanted her and to lie in wait when He chose to lift others up or give them better health or easier lives. She understood, far beyond her years and education, that we are all here to serve the Lord in whatever capacity He has in mind, no matter how big or small.

The Little Flower died at twenty-four, a young, sickly girl with little worldly knowledge and none of the sophistication of today’s twenty-somethings. Yet within twenty-eight years of her death, she was canonized, and soon afterward the grand Basilica of St. Thérèse, one of the world’s most breathtaking and awe-inspiring churches, began to rise in Lisieux. The love and admiration the world has for Thérèse is unfathomable. The impact this unknown child and cloistered nun still has on the entire world speaks volumes about the seeds she sowed and the plants she cultivated.

One Hundred Grains

Each of us can learn what Thérèse knew: “What matters in life is not great deeds, but great love.” When we follow her example, we, too, can bear one hundred grains or more.

We must “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

St. Thérèse, help me to always believe as you did in God’s great love for me, so that I might imitate your Little Way each day. Amen.

©2026 Amy Schisler

Images: Amy Schisler

Edited by: PV Babadi

It’s Not Me, It’s the Lord in Me

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It’s Not Me, It’s the Lord in Me

As my mother lay in the hospital just weeks before she left us, my sisters and I faced the reality that an undetected brain tumor had been causing her symptoms for the last five years. 

It was a heartbreaking moment for all of us as we realized the culprit behind her years of struggle, and perhaps some guilt at not knowing the cause of her underlying issue. Not that we hadn’t taken her to numerous specialists (besides the ones she already had for her heart, eyes, and paralyzed digestive system), trying to figure out why she had head pain, “not headaches,” and had gradually begun hallucinating along with a myriad other daily disturbances.

The nursing staff loved visiting with my mother while she was there. Despite her pain, issues with her feeding tube (a constant companion for the previous 30 years), and pervasive arthritis, she always had a smile and kind words for all who came to her bedside. When they marveled at what an inspiration she was, she quickly quipped back, “It’s not me, it’s the Lord in me.”

Next to the Lord, her family, and her friends, tea was her great love.

Every day that I can remember, my mother would begin her morning with a cup of tea in bed, reading from a small meditation book at her bedside. After, she would walk to the dining room den area to her little altar with a small Pietà statue, a rosebud vase, and a small crucifix, all resting on a shelf beneath the large Sacred Heart image with a family dedication inscribed at the bottom. Then she would have another cup of tea and sit in her special chair to read more daily meditation books. Whenever I spent a few weeks visiting with her, I would read the meditations out loud, and we’d spend time and another “cuppa” tea talking about the readings.

This morning ritual with Jesus, my mother’s friend, was one that sustained her when she was no longer able to drive and go to daily Mass. It was what made her acutely attuned to the Lord that she could so easily credit her faith-filled disposition and let the words roll off her tongue: “It’s not me, it’s the Lord in me.”

I wrote this poem in honor of and in memory of my mother.

 

Embracing Tea

Dreamt of her — 

 

Clear as the steaming Earl Grey

I sip from her bequeathed 

“Keep Calm and Drink Tea” mug.

 

Bright as the sun

beaming through her bay window,

vintage Queen Elizabeth plates on the wall.

 

Crisp as her London lilt.

Firm as her mother’s hug.

 

I saw her —

 

Years before home hospice,

before her hands could no longer clasp a cup,

before her skeletal shape slipped away,

 

in the youth of her 80s —

face crinkled with laughter

as she made tea for me.

 

Copyright 2026 Paula Veloso Babadi

Edited by Gabriella Batel

Photo credit: Author’s family album

Making Peace with the Sea Oats

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Making Peace with the Sea Oats

by Paula Veloso Babadi

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”—John 14:27

Letting go isn’t always easy. I know because I’ve been holding on to a dilapidated container housing sea oats that are at least sixty years removed from the Pensacola dunes where our family picked them. Every time I look at them, I am reminded of a happy childhood, where every Sunday after Mass, my parents, sisters, and I would trek to paradise in our yellow station wagon, packed with a picnic, beach gear, and lots of laughter and singing.

Two years ago, I wrote a poem about those sea oats after realizing that every time I passed by them in my office/library a few more oats would fall to the ground. I questioned why I couldn’t just throw them out. They weren’t just sea oats to me—they were the sun and smile of my parents, the kindness of my sisters who spent their allowances to buy the wicker urn. They were the warmth of our home, the memory of gatherings in the family room (where they sat for years), a lovely complement to the wavy blue colors of the carpet. I knew they were a daily reminder of my wonderful parents and sisters, and I wasn’t ready to let go.

When I complained about the mess the sea oats were making, my sister, Virginia, recommended a couple of years ago that I should take a picture and then dispose of them in a dignified manner. I never did. But after talking with Virginia today, I told her I was ready to let them go and would bury them in my garden in a nice spot where they will enrich the earth. I’ll hold on to my memories, and I am at peace with that gift.

 

Sea Oats

by Paula Veloso Babadi

 

More than half a century ago,

they stood tall in a white wicker urn,

salty grain dipping towards the ocean

of my parents’ multi-blue Sears and Roebuck carpet.

 

Before storms Camille, Opal, and Ivan,

before the erosion of sugar-fine dunes,

before laws forbidding their plucking,

we watched our treasures sway in the air-conditioned breeze

and smiled with memories of their harvest,

on lazy Gulf days by surf, sun, and sea life.

 

Today, my parents are gone.

The sea oats are withered and sparse

drooping over now-grayed wicker walls,

resting against my crisp white library shelves.

Any breeze might rob them of the last browned seeds,

But parting is not yet an option.

 

Copyright 2025 Paula Veloso Babadi

Edited by Gabriella Batel

Photo Credit Pexels

Ut in Deo Sit

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Ut in Deo Sit

If one of the key elements of loving another person is to will that person’s good, what exactly does that mean? Well, of course, willing their good can include willing that they be happy; that they be healthy and well; that good things will happen to them; that good things will come their way; etc. But the deepest love you can have for someone is to will their ultimate good. And what is their ultimate good? What is every single human being’s ultimate good? Ut in Deo sit: that they may be in God. To will someone’s ultimate good is to will that they might reach their intended destiny, the destiny for which they were made: to be in God, to share forever in the eternal circulation of love that is the divine life. Thus, to will someone’s ultimate good is to will that they might choose Love. To will someone’s ultimate good is to will that they might say Yes to their God-given mission of love and fulfill that mission in their lives. To will someone’s ultimate good is to will that they might excel in the school of love, continuing to grow in their ability to love selflessly as their life progresses. To will someone’s ultimate good is to will that they might grow into God’s “bright image” of them.

Keeping the beloved’s ultimate good in mind and heart will guide you as you strive to will the good for them at specific times and in specific circumstances of their lives. To will their good at any point in time is to will whatever will help them learn to love God and neighbor more deeply. To will their good is to will whatever will help them to say Yes to their mission of love. To will their good is to will whatever will help them fulfill that mission. To will their good is to will whatever will help them to excel in the school of love, to will whatever will help them to grow in their ability to selflessly give and receive the gift of self in love. To will their good is to will whatever will help them take another step toward becoming the loving person God created them to be. To will their good is to will whatever will help them be in God.

In a happy coincidence (actually, it’s not a coincidence at all), to will all of that for the beloved is simultaneously to will their ultimate happiness, and to will that they find a profound sense of meaning and purpose in life, and to will that they be free, and to will that they be at peace. For the fulfillment of all of those deepest desires of their heart is ultimately to be found in Love.

* This article is based on an excerpt from Rick’s latest book, The Book of Love: Brief Meditations. Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

Copyright 2024 Rick Clements

 

The Creative Power of Love

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The Creative Power of Love

Love is creative. Love is transformative. Love can create something good that was not there before. Love can take what is there and transform it into something better.

The Christian faith teaches that God created the universe ex nihilo: out of nothing. Not out of some pre-existing primordial matter, but out of nothing. The entire cosmos, everything that exists in the universe, all created out of nothingness. How could that be? How could God possibly have created everything that exists, including ourselves, out of nothingness? By the creative power of love. That is why the Christian faith also teaches that God created the universe ex amore: out of love. Love can make be. Love can bring something into existence that did not exist before. Finding and approving of the good in other people (and ourselves) is actually a form of participation in creation, in God’s creative power, because it is a participation in God’s creative love.

Purely human love can be transformative (as exemplified, at a simple level, by what has been referred to as the “Pygmalion effect”), but just think of what love can do when it is the divine love flowing through us, the divine love that created everything that exists and sustains everything in being from moment to moment! If we take the time and effort to look carefully, we can see goodness in other people that we may never have noticed before. In fact, we can sometimes see goodness in them that they have never noticed before! We may even be able to see goodness in them that is not actually there yet! When we look at another person with an open mind and an open heart, we can see into the possible future. We can catch a glimpse of God’s bright image of that person. We can catch sight of the God-given potential for goodness in that person, a vision of who and what God created that person to be. We can see that person, at least partially, through God’s eyes. And when we communicate that goodness to the person in whom we see it, when we convey our approval of the goodness we see in that person, that approval can transform them. That approval, that encouragement of the good and the potential for good in the other person, can cause them to blossom and thrive like never before. Some parents know this. Some teachers know this. Some coaches know this. They have seen it happen firsthand. In fact, one of the most rewarding experiences one can ever have as a parent, as a teacher, or as a coach, is to watch something good and beautiful appear in your child, in your student, in your athlete, that was not there before, or that was at best partial and undeveloped, in response to your approval and your encouragement of that person.

God has given each of us the incredible privilege, and the serious responsibility, of participating in the creative, transformative power of love. Take the time today to stop and notice the goodness in at least one person, and to praise them for that goodness. You just might transform someone’s life.

 

* This article is based on an excerpt from Rick’s latest book, The Book of Love: Brief Meditations. Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Copyright 2024 Rick Clements

 

Lord, I Want to See

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Lord, I Want to See

Most of us are not physically blind, but we all suffer from at least some degree of spiritual blindness. And one of the most common types of spiritual blindness is not being able (or willing) to see the good in other people. Striving to open our hearts and minds to see the good in every other human being is an important first step, but it’s generally not enough. We need some help. Divine help. We need God’s help to love in the deepest sense of the word. We need God’s help to love as God loves. We need God to instill the divine love in us, to infuse us with the divine love, so that we can then love others with the divine love. And being able to love others as God loves them requires first and foremost that we be able to find and focus upon the good in each and every person.

We all need to pray on a regular basis for that grace, especially with regard to the most difficult people and the most difficult situations in our lives. We need to pray for God to transform our way of looking at, and thinking about, other people. We need to pray for a God’s-eye view, so to speak. We need to pray to be able to see with the eyes of Christ, who during his earthly life always saw the potential for good in people even when others could not. We need to pray for our hearts and minds to be transformed into the heart and mind of Christ. We all need to join with the blind beggar who repeatedly asked Jesus to help him as Jesus was passing by him on his way to Jericho. Touched by the man’s persistence, Jesus stopped and asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man immediately replied, “Lord, I want to see” (Luke 18:41; NIV). As people who are so often blind, whether willfully or inadvertently, to the good in others, let us join in the blind man’s entreaty: Lord, help us to see!

Copyright 2024 Rick Clements

* This article is based on an excerpt from Rick’s latest book, The Book of Love: Brief Meditations.

Photo by David Travis on Unsplash

There Are No Ordinary People

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There’s an old saying: Ubi amor, ibi oculus—where love is, there is the eye. Love helps us see. Love helps us see the good in others, especially when that goodness is not so easy to see at first. Love helps us find, and approve of, the goodness in other people. Seeing that goodness is, in part, a matter of will—we have to want to find the goodness in other people. But seeing goodness in others is also a matter of developing a particular mindset, a particular attitude, toward other people.

What is our attitude toward other people? Are people basically good, or basically bad? Do all people have intrinsic value and dignity, or are they only valuable if they are in some way useful to us—to the extent that they serve our purposes or needs, approve of us, agree with us on important issues, etc.? Being able to find, and to continue to see, the good in other people may require that we begin to think about people (all people) differently than we have in the past. It may require that we adopt a new attitude toward people. What kind of attitude? God’s attitude. And what is God’s attitude toward people? That people are very good (Genesis 1:31). God’s proclamation that the first human beings were very good was, in part, God’s way of saying “How good that you exist!” And God says that about each of us. Every one of us. Or else we wouldn’t exist. It is God’s love which created us, and it is God’s love which sustains us in existence. All of us—even that person we find to be so cantankerous, so petty, so annoying, etc. If God can exclaim about every person he created, “How good that you exist!”, we should be able to find a way to do that, too.

God proclaims human beings to be very good because he made us imago Dei, in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). God made us like himself in our ability to think and reason, but he also made us like himself in our ability to love. Everything that God created is good because it shares in God’s being, the being of the Infinite Good. But human beings are very good because we share in God’s capacity to love. Every single human being has intrinsic value and dignity because God loves them. Every single human being has intrinsic value and dignity because they were made imago Dei. Every single human being has intrinsic value and dignity because they were created to be a child of God. Every single human being has intrinsic value and dignity because Jesus died and rose for them so that they could share in, and contribute to, the eternal circulation of love that constitutes the divine life. Keeping these truths in mind will make it much more possible for us to find and approve of the good in other people.

Admittedly, some people, although made imago Dei in their capacity to love, don’t seem to be exercising that capacity very much. But maybe part of our mission in this life is to help draw the capacity for love out of people who are like that, to draw the capacity for love out of that difficult person whom no one else seems to like very much, by first loving them. Loving them starts with finding some good in them, and finding some good in them starts with seeing them as being children of God. All of them. As C. S. Lewis put it, “There are no ordinary people.” We need to adopt that attitude toward every person who crosses our path in life.

* This article is based on an excerpt from Rick’s latest book, The Book of Love: Brief Meditations.

Copyright 2024 Rick Clements

Photo by RODRIGO GONZALEZ on Unsplash

Where Love Is, There Is the Eye

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How do you find, and then continue to see, the good in other people? Especially those people in your life who are particularly difficult to get along with, much less love? How does one love even the seemingly unlovable person? Well, first of all, you have to want to find some good in them. Finding and approving the good in other people is an act of your will. You have to choose to look for the good rather than the bad in others; you have to choose to focus on the good rather than the bad. As fallen creatures, we all tend to be a mixture of the good and the bad. To will to focus on the good more than the not-so-good in others is to open your heart more fully to love. Genuine love cannot take root when you are quicker to see the faults and shortcomings in others than you are to see the good in them.

There is a Latin phrase that applies here: Ubi amor, ibi oculus — “Where love is, there is the eye.” Love enables us to see. Love enables us to see the good more clearly: in other people, in ourselves, and in life itself. Love enables us to see beauty and truth more clearly as well. Adopting a predisposition toward love by consciously willing to find the good in others makes it easier for you actually to see the good that is there — the good that otherwise might have escaped your notice. Adopting a predisposition toward love opens up our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to other people.

There’s another old saying that is also relevant here: “People see what they want to see.” Well, that’s often true. Old sayings don’t tend to become “old sayings” unless they have at least a grain (and often much more than a grain) of truth in them. People do tend to see what they want to see. If people choose to focus on the faults and shortcomings of other people, that’s mostly what they will see in them. But thankfully, this phenomenon works in the other direction as well: if people choose to focus on the good in others, then they will mostly see the good. Resolve to focus on the good in others rather than the not-so-good, and to keep yourself focused on the good you do find in them. When you notice your attention drifting toward their faults, consciously re-direct your attention to the good. Obviously, we need to exert extra effort to focus our attention on the good in the other person when we’re dealing with people we find to be more difficult to love. But like most things in the school of love that is this earthly life, this becomes easier with practice. One of the reasons God places those difficult people in our lives is precisely to help us grow in our ability to love.

* This article is an excerpt from Rick’s latest book, The Book of Love: Brief Meditations

Photo by Marc Schulte on Unsplash

Copyright 2024 Rick Clements

Finding Treasures in Pockets of Time

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Finding Treasures in Pockets of Time

When I run into other moms at church, in the neighborhood, or at the grocery store, I find that I am having the same conversation over and over. I say, “Hi! How are you?” and she replies, “Busy!” and then delves into her litany of appointments and tasks that fill her schedule, and I reply in kind by agreeing and sharing my own over-scheduled obligations. We end our rushed conversation and run off to get something else done.

Sometimes there are things in our lives that we need to purge. It may not always be easy to remove it, but often, we are aware of the things that consume our time and give us nothing in return. I find, in my life, those things are typically self-centered, and when I choose to live the way Christ wants me to, I am given the strength to remove those things that take up too much of my life.

As mothers, though, so much of our life is spent in service to others. We are chefs, nurses, house cleaners, and chauffeurs, not to mention boo-boo kissers, story time tellers, snuggle buddies, and behavior correctors. Then our mother-in-law comes to visit, and we must be the perfect hostesses. The list goes on indefinitely, but the hours in the day do not.

How do we find time for Christ when we are pulled in so many different directions? It is especially difficult when these many different directions are for good things for our families. From time to time, I have found myself wishing for the seemingly simple life of a nun, especially when I am craving time and intimacy with our Lord but finding the demands of my vocation of motherhood to be standing in my way. But then I remember the beautiful gift of my calling, and I have worked to grow in my relationship with Christ within the demands of my schedule.

I rarely have large blocks of time, but I am regularly gifted with what I call “pockets of time” throughout the day. I have five minutes here or there, often while I am waiting for something, that I used to spend scrolling on my phone or otherwise distracting myself. Now, I try to be purposeful with these pockets of time and turn to God in prayer, even if I don’t have time to read the daily readings or journal in my Bible study workbook.

I used to get stuck in my growth toward Jesus because if I didn’t have 20–30 minutes to sit down, read, pray, and reflect, I wouldn’t do anything at all. Then, by the end of the day, I would feel like a failure because my spiritual time was just something else that I didn’t get done today (along with a shower or getting that laundry from a week ago folded). Somewhere along the way, I realized that God never gave me a set of expectations for how and when I have to pray. That came from my own unrealistic expectations, compounded by comparing myself to other women who seem to have it all together in their faith journeys.

Now, instead of dedicating 20–30 minutes to God in the morning, I turn to Him for a minute or two 20—30 times per day. Before I get out of bed in the morning, I say hello to the Lord, offer my day to Him, and ask Him to show me His will. When I begin a household chore, I offer it for someone in need. I pray for a moment before I start a workout, thanking God for the gift of my body, the temple which houses my soul and the Holy Spirit. I have learned that just a few moments is all it takes to recenter my day and draw closer to Christ.

The best part about approaching my prayer life in this way is how my spiritual life has deepened and grown. Previously, once I had completed my morning prayer time and reflection, I would check the “Time for God” box and then go on with my day. Now, by regularly recentering myself and refocusing on God many times throughout the day, I am able to let Him work in me and through me all day long. It is such a gift that God has helped transform my life so that my entire day has become a prayer.

© Maria Riley 2024

How Good That You Exist!

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How Good That You Exist!

Everyone wants approval from other people. Some people are more desirous of approval than others, and some people are more aware than others of the existence of this desire within themselves. But the fact is, we all want to be approved of by others. Even gang members want to be approved of (at least by other members of their gang). In fact, that’s one of the main reasons that some adolescents seek out gang membership in the first place: to gain a sense of approval from their fellow gang members, to experience a sense of belonging and acceptance. Kids who experience approval at home, and who have a sense of belonging to a solid family, are far less likely to seek out a gang to join, and are far less likely to respond to a gang’s efforts to recruit them.

So what does it mean to “approve” of someone? Literally, it means to judge that person to be good, in the sense of having value or worth.[i] We all want to be judged to be valuable. We all want to be judged as being worth something. Josef Pieper, the insightful Roman Catholic philosopher from Germany, described the type of approval we seek, and the type of approval that others seek from us, as being captured by the exclamation, “How good that you exist!” We want other people to be glad that we exist, and other people want us to be glad that they exist. We all want to feel like we matter, that the world would be diminished by our absence.

You cannot truly love another person if you cannot honestly proclaim that it is good that they exist. You cannot truly love another person if you cannot first see some good in them. Finding some good in the other person is the first essential step toward being able to love them. And once you have found that good, you then have to continue to see the good in them, even at times when you may find that very difficult to do. Otherwise, love dies.

* This article is an excerpt from Rick’s latest book, The Book of Love: Brief Meditations

[i] Pieper, Faith, Hope, Love, 164.

Copyright 2023 Rick Clements

Photo by Annette Sousa on Unsplash

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