Another Letter.

On fruit from my community.

❤️.. this morning you had me making poetry..

Properly so.. so let me state the proper context:

After Morning Prayer this morning and playing with our dog and gently waking up the children and fussing over my husband for his embrace that I hope would last me throughout the day..

While I was peeling freshly hard-boiled eggs for my lunch..

.. I thought of peeling planets.. beautifully silken yellow yolks hidden behind soft clouds of white. I wondered if there existed any gaseous planet with a density lighter than my little eggs centers. ..o, how I wondered..

This morning, you had me making poetry.. the mind is bright, the heart is full, the eyes refreshed, I See anew..

Feeling belonging is such a strange complexity. To sift through ideas with someone is stirring fertile soil once believed dormant. To open unlocked doors and see someone’s mind scatters seed thought impotent.

This morning I woke up with a Garden of Thought I saw from my kitchen window after emerging from our chamber. My friend.. Ordered.. what I have long-longed for in a writing life, where I lovingly, faithfully, dutifully fulfill my vocation, first¹, then once my loves are filled and satisfied, then, and only then do I turn to pursue my heart’s flight to write & wander — seek & explore the hidden, the un-uttered & the mysterious, the sacred & the veiled among friends.

These letters, these sharings, ‘tis the stuff of saints.

In no way can I claim to be one.. but I sure do want to be, I am destined to be (as are you).. and I want to bring everyone I can with me.

It all depends on subject and where the mind, heart, and soul to a writer wish to go, but there is very definitely something special about a story, a telling reaching someone’s ears. Words and ideas can be communiqués of the divine. Muddled at first, perhaps, but in sharing & relaying them back & forth, they become purified, like the distillation of fine wine.

This to me, is the beauty of a writing community.. this is why you’ve planted the seed of poetry in me.. of a clean, happy mind that can make delightful associations of the mundane. Because this letter-writer has read your letters.

This makes for holy, my friend.

Take St. Thérèse, for instance. We know she was raised in a very holy family: her parents Zelie and Louis are Saints and her sisters are on their way of becoming saints or Servants of God. Blessed, indeed, is the holy, happy household, but how many of us knew Thérèse’s family were devout letter-writers who loved writing to each other? and that they were passionate about writing holy ideas to encourage one another on the path to holiness? Their letters are full of holy reflections about God. In this light, it’s not a wonder Thérèse wrote Story of a Soul in one go without a single cross-out or line edit. Her manuscripts were simple letters to her sisters. You and I writing holy things on a form to each other and to our writing community can’t be much different. Have we the Faith? I do.

To me, the signs of good writing community are unmistakable:

- it is fellowship. Where two or more are gathered in His name, there is Jesus.

- it produces the virtues of Holy Courage & perseverance in the giver.

- it creates the virtue of charity & patience in the receiver (o, how you put up with me!)

- just look at the New Testament.. and all of history.

To me, it’s not a coincidence, that yesterday, on October 15 — St. Teresa de Jesus²’s Feast Day — Pope Francis published an apostolic exhortation³ on St. Thérèse⁴ entitled C’est la Confiance

The title of Pope Francis’ letter to the Faithful comes from Thérèse’s own letter to her sister —

C’est la confiance et rien que la confiance qui doit nous conduire à l’Amour

It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love.⁵

I love St. Thérèse. So much.⁶

What strikes me is Pope Francis’ emphasis on confident Love in Christ found in the form of a letter.

My friend, that’s why take away.

You will pardon my typos and my fanciful flights of love and rosy talk.. and I will follow wherever your mind wants to take you.. because together, we will grow as writers & thinker in confidence and our processes will gain speed and our writing will touch elegance.. and often, very often, they will touch Eternity.

And we will always thank God, in whatever way, for the grace of being Known by Him — and for coming to the full understanding that being known by a friend is really a mirroring of this grace.

o, to know we are known by the Father, and that we are intimately loved by Him.

I wish this for you, and whatever He has planned for you, to come to fruition, quickly. May there be no obstacle between you and He, may His Holy will be perfectly fulfilled in you.

Prayers and love, always, for you & yours..

❤️

in Love,
your veronica

—

In Spiritu Tuo, ad gloriam Patris. 10.16.2023, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

1. .. because I am the most spoiled & indulgent creature you will ever know.

2. Doctor of the Church and Foundress of the Discalced Carmelites

3. a letter to the Faithful

4. Doctor of the Church and Discalced Carmelite!

5. Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and rhe Holy Face, Letter 197 to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (17 September 1896): Letters II, p. 1000.

6. In Truth, she is my sister: I am forever & always bound to her order as a secular Discalced Carmelite, a Carmelite who isn’t cloistered, but who lives in the world. I know all of what she has to say and, at the same time, hardly anything she has to say. I’ve read all her works, but I know there isn’t enough time to contemplate her thoughts thoroughly in my lifetime, to see how they apply to my life. Conversely, because I know St. Thérèse’s simple message of Love in the Heart of the Church, because I know St. Thérèse’s love of Jesus, I know all I need to know about my dear sister.