Jun 9 – Memorial for St. Ephrem of Syria, deacon and Doctor of the Church
St. Ephrem (306-373) was baptized at age 18. He helped to evangelize Nisibis, Mesopotamia. He may have attended the Council of Nicaea in 325. He was a deacon and preacher, and had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In 363, Nisibis was ceded to Persia, and great persecution of Christians began. St. Ephrem led an exodus of the faithful to Edessa, where he founded a theological school. He helped introduce the use of hymns in public worship, wrote poems and hymns, and used them to fight Gnosticism and Arianism. In 1920, St. Ephrem was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church.
- Patron Saint Index
1 Kgs 17:7-16
Mt 5:13-16
“…it shines for everyone in the house.”
I’ve worked with a Spiritual Director monthly for over ten years, and it continues to be an experience that makes a significant impact in maintaining and building my relationship with God, and myself. The tiny, simple things my Spiritual Director mentions and suggests have helped me immensely in more fully coming to know and walk with the Holy Trinity in more minutes of my days. I am grateful for the joy of this journey – but it hasn’t always been easy, or joyful for that matter!
More than once, my Spiritual Director has ‘shed light’ and suggested I approach something in my routine prayer life, or my daily life, differently. I love the ADDING; but the subtracting, the putting down, the letting go, doesn’t usually go over easy. Put down one thing so I can truly pick up another. I want both, so my immediate reaction is ALWAYS resisting. ALWAYS. Initially, I would ‘add’ but not let go of _________. I’m not sure what that is called, but I have seen it in many aspects of my life once I was able to see it. My SD has been able to guide and support me through this ‘setting down’ process. Once I have actually done it — and sometimes, most of the time, it’s taken months and months — I see that the ‘thing’ that I was holding onto was blocking the LIGHT that I needed to see more clearly.
God often uses others to point the light so that we can see more clearly. And sometimes, He uses us to do the same for others.
I have a friend who recently asked me and two of her other friends for an honest opinion of a timed, specific pre-job interview video. She is a warm, inviting, lovely, generous, brilliant and engaging woman, who is tech savvy, so I couldn’t wait to see it. I simply adore her, so of course I loved it. Her personality and warmth and acumen came through. Brilliant. Perfect. Don’t change a thing!
Then, I watched it again and realised there was one train of thought that she stayed with a little too long. I then reviewed the questions she was to answer in the video and realised that she really didn’t answer the second of five questions. I hesitated to bring light to this, as I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, and I did the love video. Plus, I’m not in her field, so what did I know? But she did ask me for my opinion, and I know she seriously is interested in this company. So, I gave her my opinion, affirming so much that was perfect and then I shared what I hoped would be perceived as LIGHT, the two things I thought she would want to button up and redo. Trust me, it wasn’t easy for me to shed the light, as she’d asked me to do. Who am I to tell her that her video could be better, that it wasn’t perfect? I prayed I was doing the right thing and wouldn’t hurt her feelings.
And in less than 24 hours she posted this:
Today reminded me that growth doesn’t always feel like winning. It stings. Sometimes, it feels like hearing, “This isn’t quite there yet.”
I spent all day creating a video for a pre-job interview…something I thought was really good. Solid. I was proud of it. Then I received constructive feedback from several people I trust that challenged my perspective.
My first reaction? Defensiveness. (Typical of me)
My subsequent reactions? Reflection. Marination. Understanding. Gratefulness. Doubt. I can.
And that’s where the growth happened.
One of the hardest lessons to learn is that feedback is not failure. It’s information. It’s another set of eyes helping us see what we can’t see ourselves. It’s someone loving you tough-ly.
The truth is, growth requires ultra humility. It requires setting down our pride long enough to ask, “What if they’re seeing something I’m missing?” “What if God is using them to tell me what He wants from me to level up”???
Not every piece of feedback is right. But the willingness to listen, evaluate, adjust, and improve is where real progress happens.
Today wasn’t a victory because I got it perfect the first time. This was my “dress rehearsal.”
It was a victory because I stayed teachable. I decided to put pride aside and be humble.
At this stage of life, I’ve learned that success isn’t about proving how much you know. It’s about remaining open to learning more. I have amazingly smart people in my circle who love me and only want the best for me and of me. They see potential where and when I do not.
Growth rarely happens inside our comfort zone.
But when we embrace it, that’s where the breakthroughs live.
God has given each of us our own unique LIGHT, and we are meant to use it in this world, for this world. Even — most certainly, when we are called to shine it in places when it doesn’t feel comfortable, or places where we think it will be laughed at or attacked. The LIGHT of those in our circle (and even those who are not in our actual circle) serves a purpose. Rarely will we humans move forward without some light; and when a friend sheds light, we can see the next few steps or the directional sign, the pothole in the road and the washed out road… and the end of the road. The LIGHT of God lessens the darkness in our world, in our very self. The light reminds us that we are not – ever – alone. God has given us friends, family, mentors and even strangers, whose lights He has placed around us.
In today’s first reading, we realised that God used a widow, a lowly uneducated poor simple widow, as a light to save a prophet. He can use anyone to be His light. To help anyone in matters small, even trivial, and most certainly in matters that are big, that are life-altering, we are called to be a light.
God uses those who we know are lights in our life – including those who challenge our way of thinking, and even those we don’t necessarily care for or even like – or even know.
Brothers and sisters, you are a light to others – it is written in your DNA – don’t hide under a bushel.
Who has been a light to you? Remind God, today, that you are grateful. And be like the sunflowers, open to the light of the Son!
(Today’s OXYGEN by Gina Ulicny)
Prayer: Father God, give me the grace to be the light that I am because You are in me. Help me to not hold back, to not wait till a more perfect time to share truth in word and deed. Give me the grace to recognise and speak words of gratitude to all those in my life who are trying to help me as I manoeuver the treacherous roads of this world, to point out the directional signs that You have placed all around me.
Thanksgiving: Father God, for all the light you have brought to me — for those who You have used to guide and support and challenge and correct me — thank You.
OXYGEN 
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