It Is a Sideways Cross!

Peace evaporated soon after speaking with the priest this afternoon. Nothing followed what he said, agreed, and then later realized the issue was still not satisfied. And why?

Because the issue is a another SIDEWAYS CROSS!

Nothing desires it to be removed and needs it to be removed, once and for all. It is a hindering thread of weed root from the past that keeps popping up in the present. In all other aspects, forgiveness has occurred, vocation has been accepted and is being lived out, and time creeps forward from present moment. The past agonies and injustices were necessary to ensure nothing would be espoused to God alone. The mission is being fulfilled, and even more work is to be accomplished.

But not with this weed-root sideways cross. If it were a holy cross, such as physical suffering brought on by God's allowance, then nothing could accept that the Lord desired it to remain for earthly life as a means of humility. But this afternoon nothing comprehended that the Lord would not utilize a sideways cross, a dysfunctional and unholy cross, to promote a virtue such as humility. No, sideways crosses must be removed.

And, since nothing has done all in its power over time to not have those sensations stirred when that sector of past is brought to present, and it desires total acceptance and joy and love in the view of past, present and future, surely the Lord will remove the remnant root thread to this one.

Yes, if He does, there will be other struggles. But the Lord would surely not keep a soul in an unholy struggle, a cross brought on from human sin and then human reaction, hanging on, strangling soul progression. He removed St. Hugh's temptation to carnal lust, as he had done all he could as a man to fight against it.

Nothing has done all it could to overcome the occasional reminders which perhaps are more prevalent and just under soil surface than it has recognized. Many weeds' roots don't go that deep, but they branch out and cling to any soil, even clay, and meld into the ground like posts set in concrete. But even those can be removed, and as nothing a week ago had to get help to pull out an improperly set post, so it begs the Lord for help to yank this sideways cross out, for evermore.

The Da has been consulted, and he comprehends and agrees that this one can be removed and would be as well to be removed. The physical pain and who knows what other mortifying aspects of nothing provide thorns a'plenty. And the Lord has made clear the physical pain is here for the temporal duration.

Nothing is physically suffering much, yet heads to bed early with anticipation and faith that the particular, nagging, thread-root sideways cross is coming out, never to reappear. No idea how the Lord will do it, and it may require painful procedure, but nothing is desirous and willing, no matter the pain, for there will be such relief after it is out.

Thank you, Lord!

[The weeping white pine is terminal. The morning after tomorrow it is going to be pulled out of the ground. There is no sense in keeping it in the Mary Gardens any longer, for it looks even more brown and expiring than when this photo captured the once thriving tree's condition. An Eastern White Pine, variety "Golden Candles," is replacing the weeping white. Since a large house is now constructed next door to the hermitage, Golden Candles will provide more screen. That is the way with the removal of unhealthy crosses--other crosses come, crosses that are holy and from the Lord. Holy crosses are a proper and holy means of growing humility. Sideways crosses perpetuate unnatural humility, false and without enduring purpose.]