After experiencing chest pain again, and progressively worse,
I got checked into the emergency room of our local hospital. I went through the
standard protocol of EKG, heart monitor, blood work etc. At 59 years of age and
having several risk factors, they kept me overnight and I stayed hooked up to a
heart monitor. This was actually comforting, knowing that care was only a few
steps away. While resting in my hospital room, my blood pressure readings were
normal for the rest of the night. They were the lowest numbers I can ever
remember. The next day I was scheduled for a stress test. The next morning,
Dec. 12th , the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I was so happy
to have a visit from one of my parish priests who also has the hospital ministry. Father
Maurice prayed over me and with me. He also presented me with the sacrament of Communion
(the Eucharist) and the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. I was so much
filled with joy and feeling fearless in the palm of God’s hand. After having
that 1:1 time with the priest who is in the role of Jesus and receiving the sacraments
at my bedside, I felt I could not have been more ready to let go of this life and meet God. Now
the day before, prior to the chest pain and going to the ER, I attended mass, received
Communion and went to Confession after mass (total 3 Sacraments). I was ready to meet God, but He was not ready for me, so here I am writing about it, still on the potters wheel.
Thank you God that I passed the stress test, quite pitifully, but good enough to get released from the hospital. Thank you for the "taste of heaven" in receiving Your sacraments and TLC.
The Bible tells us to always be ready to meet God. Matthew
42-44,
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on
what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of
the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would
have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So
you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when
you do not expect him.
Whether it is Jesus’s
second coming or your death, we will all face God. I certainly want to be
ready, just as I felt ready Monday morning. More than anything I want to hang
on to that feeling of readiness, that closeness to God and stay fortified though the Eucharist and repentance. How does one keep that feeling of
readiness day in and day out, when faced with all kinds of trials? One thing I
know is to keep your eyes and mind on God.
God has blessed me so much in this past week with friends
who have prayed with me and for and sending Father Maurice to bless me in the hospital.
I truly feel like a beloved daughter of the King of the Universe.
I find Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church, a
source of strength and wisdom. The church at Corinth was struggling and St.
Paul’s words helped to set them on the right track and unify their church.
2 Corinthians 4:7-11 and 16-18
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to
show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We
are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not
in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down,
but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of
Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For
we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so
that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.
16 Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though
outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day
by day.17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an
eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not
on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal.
God Bless and Merry Christmas
Paula
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a
sacrament is “an efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted
to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us through the work of the
Holy Spirit”.
