*Five Minute Friday is an initiative set up by Lisa-Jo Baker over at Surprised by Motherhood. It has now been taken over by Kate over at Heading Home. The basic premise is to take the word Kate gives and write, non-stop for 5 minutes. Then you stop and post. Read more about it here. This October, I am taking part in a series based on this called “31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes”, in which we commit to writing from the prompt as usual, but everyday rather than just on a Friday. Read more here.
Fly
GO
There are some unbelievably amazing stories in the lives of the saints. Padre Pio alone has endless witnesses, many still alive, to tell of the incredible things God did through him, from bilocation to knowing people’s sins before they confessed to him, to miraculous healing and needing neither sleep nor food beyond the Eucharist.
But my husband always tells me fondly of one story in particular, a wistful look in his eye. He speaks of a saint, a certain Brother Bernard, who was reputed to regularly go flying. And I don’t mean in an aeroplane! While there have been a number of saints who were seen to levitate or fly, for some reason this particular story captured the heart of my husband, as he heard that the saint used to fly with God through nature.
And I understand why he is enthralled. Because there is something so beautiful about the thought of being lifted by God to the point of flying through the air, totally trusting in the grace of God to carry you. I am not sure I can think of a more freeing image.
I hope and pray for the grace to be a saint, but I know I am a long way from it. Still, as Nelson Mandela reminded us:
“A saint is a sinner that keeps on trying.”
There is hope for me in that…
I have been privileged to witness many miracles in my life, part of the grace of growing up in the Catholic Charismatic movement. But something resounds in me in my husband’s words that he utters to me every now and then:
“One day, I will fly like Brother Bernard. If not in this life, then in the next.”
So when I think on heaven, when I imagine what it may be like one day, I see many different things. Love, community, feast, joy, peace, glorified nature. And flying. Because I, too, hope one day to soar on God’s love as the saints have. To be utterly confident in God’s protection and grace, and to simply let Him carry me.
Maybe I won’t physically do this before I leave this earth, but I could certainly learn this lesson in my daily life. God asks me to lean into Him daily and take a leap of faith, knowing that He will catch and carry me in all things.
He asks me to fly.
STOP
