Sabbath Moments – Day by Day

Posted in Catholic, spirituality

Sabbath moments are a way of taking time to rest in God, to enjoy God in silence or in nature. The word sabbath comes from a Hebrew word meaning “cease.” And that is what we need to do sometimes, cease our activity and live in the moment and breathe in God.
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The only way we can encounter God is day by day, moment by moment, in the present. He is all in all, in everything, in everybody and everything and everybody is in Him.
Beauty will spring up  when I am open to the Holy Spirit, receiving  the water of His Spirit daily even though I leak like a cracked pot. I have put together two stories, one from the Desert Fathers and one poem about a Chinese woman carrying water in a cracked pot. The result is an analogy of the spiritual life.
A novice sought out a well-known holy man to mentor him. In return he offered  to do most of the heavy chores for the elderly monk. Everyday this novice was directed to haul water from a creek nearby with a yoke across his shoulders. On each end hung large clay pots at the ends of a pole.

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the novice bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

After two years of what he perceived as a waste of water, he finally asked the monk if he could walk into town to beg for another pot.
” I feel so frustrated. I to do all this heavy work, only to lose half of the water by the time I return home.  This crack in the side causes water to leak out all the way back to our house.’
The old monk smiled,path-of-flower-petals-jeanette-oberholtzer

 ‘Did you notice that there are flowers on one side of the path, but not on the other side? That’s because I have always known about this flaw, so I planted flower seeds on one side of the path, and every day while you walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without this broken pot there would not be this beauty to grace the house.’

Of course, the path of wild flowers from the creek to the hermitage are  a symbol the beauty that springs up on our journey to God when we allow Jesus to fill us with His Spirit everyday, especially when we remain humble and  accept our cracks.


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Published by melanie jean juneau

Melanie Jean Juneau serves as the Editor in Chief of Catholic Stand. She is a mother of nine children who has edited her kid's university term papers for over a decade. She blogs at joy of nine9 and mother of nine9. Her writing is humorous and heart warming; thoughtful and thought-provoking. Part of her call and her witness is to write the truth about children, family, marriage and the sacredness of life. Melanie is the administrator of ACWB, a columnist at CatholicLane, CatholicStand, Catholic365 , CAPC, author of Echoes of the Divine and Oopsy Daisy, and coauthor of Love Rebel: Reclaiming Motherhood.

16 thoughts on “Sabbath Moments – Day by Day”

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  6. The flowers are lovely. We are all cracked pots, or “crackpots” if you will. But God still uses us in His grand scheme of things. Fortunately, He patches us often with His grace.

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  8. Thanks for joining me in this meme. Love that story of cracked pots. I used it once on a retreat talk but had forgotten about it. God bless!

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  9. Reblogged this on Lessons by Heart and commented:
    Joy of nine9 also wrote a beautiful story about cracked pots. While you’re on her blog, be sure to check out her many wonderful posts. She serves meat, potatoes and Living Water on a regular basis…follow her, you’ll see what I mean in no time. 🙂

    \o/

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