and you will set the world ablaze.
– St Catherine of Siena
I put this sticker on the back of my phone case, with some hesitation, hoping it wouldn’t interfere with the magnetic ring that allows it to attach to the phone stand in the car. It doesn’t, so that’s good. The formation director for the Lay Dominican Chapter I’m pursuing gave us the option of reading one of the following books:
Catherine of Siena by Sigred Undset
Saint Catherine of Siena Mystic of Fire Preacher of Freedom – Paul Murray OP
The Life of Saint Catherine of Siena – Blessed Raymond of Capua
each one giving us a little more of this fiery Saint.
With that little bit of Saint Therese in me I chose (almost) all, discovering way late in the game that Blessed Raymond’s book was only $0.99 it then becomes a must have, right! You won’t be surprised to learn that I flitted between the first two and got the last one too late for our formation day to spend any real time in it.
A few years ago after offering a lecture on Color, Thread & Free-Motion Quilting a quilter approached me saying, “I want to be you when I grow up!” It is a delightful complement for sure. Yet, my response pointed to something deeper, “Incorporate what I do into your work, and become the best you, that you can be.” She loved this so much as it affirmed, in one sentence, the truth of her own beauty and capabilities! There’s also the whole, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” One way to get to know ourselves, to begin to get to know who we are as quiltmakers, artists, authors, humans attempting in another person’s style is a good thing. We get to hone our skills while beginning to distinguish our work from their work. Our writing style from their writing style, my quilting style from anyone else’s quilting style. I can tell you in several areas of life I imitated others until that moment when prayer, or quilting, or knitting or whatever became my own. One very big part of free-motion machine quilting becoming my own had to do with trying to use stencils way back in the day. It didn’t matter what I used to mark the quilt top; the markings would come off because my hands are hot. Without markings I was on my own and with some practice, a lot of experimentation, and a willingness to see what happened when I tried this a personal style started developing. And I can say that as the quilting became my own I grew more confident in who I am as a person.
The same thing happens in the practice of the relationship that is prayer. The more practice, the more prayer becomes like breathing. There are days when prayer is a hard slog and in that there is a moment when that moves from, “what am I doing wrong?” “why don’t I hear God?” and “Why Lord??!?” to something akin to “I’m showing up, I want to be here with you, it’s awful and I trust that there is something going on here.” “Lord, I got nuthin’ and I trust that in this nothing that the Holy Spirit is praying on my behalf.” Each of us, as unique persons have the potential to have a vibrant relationship with God through prayer, one that can deepen as we respond to the Blessed Trinity’s ever-present invitation.
Just like I have favorite quilting motifs there are favorite prayers for those times when *I* need to chatter to the Trinity and just say all the things on my heart. The imaginative prayer in me often sees this as though I’m five and had a big day and have to share in exquisite detail all the Things. And sometimes prayer is like that old married couple (looking at my Sweetie and me) and those moments when we just don’t have to say anything, we can be present to one another in companionable silence.
How does this set the world ablaze? There is a throwing off of the “old man” and that “becoming new.” The kindling and spark of this is the shedding of what doesn’t really belong to me, it is burned through the Grace of the Holy Spirit. Let the Fire Fall. The living into this then, whether quilting or prayer, burns me up and renews my heart, rather than burning me out and defeating me, or you.
Come Holy Spirit!
God bless,
Teri
A Quilter's Heart 