​The last time I wrote I focused on the basics of marriage: order of priority God-spouse-children; marriage is a partnership of mutual submission and responsibility; availing of the sacraments of the Church for a stronger marriage; seeking the good of the other.
 
In my 30th year of marriage, having raised five children with my husband and now enjoying life as grandparents, I look back and am seeing the hand of God working amidst joy and pain, abundance and scarcity, health and sickness—all of which give strength to the marriage.
 
Struggles are a beautiful part of marriage. Each struggle provides an opportunity for the couple to deposit into the bank of relationship greater patience and forgiveness of each other. The ability of the couple to cope with marital challenges is sharpened. Joy is readily experienced.
 
Easter joy is not possible without welcoming struggles and going through them. With God present in marriage there is no struggle bigger than God that God cannot provide an abundance of grace for. Struggles lead to an Easter experience where God becomes a presence of constant providence and a solid source of strength.

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The beauty of the teaching of the Church on marriage can be seen in the image of a married man and woman walking side by side and hand in hand. They walk in the same direction towards Christ.
 
In that image, we see friendship and love. In that image, we see partnership and a mutual self-giving of each to the other. In that image, we see a nurturing of the two as one, watered by grace through the sacraments of the Church.
 
This image is not far from what the Church teaches us.
 
“Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21).
 
The scriptures “Wives be submissive to their husbands as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22) and “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her” (Ephesians 5:25) create a balance of “mutual submission.”
 
In the partnership of a married man and woman (Canon Law 1055 §1, 1057 §2), friendship blossoms as each spouse learns to move in a unique complementary way of giving and receiving, keeping in mind the good of the other (CCC #2333). As in a tango, marriage becomes a set of beautiful movements.
 
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The sacraments of the Church give strength to the mind, body and soul. Known as grace, it helps us to function with the life of God, enabling us to run our lives with greater zeal and unconditional love.
 
For those of us who are married, the sacraments far outweigh the honeymoon and challenges  of daily marriage life. It is the sacraments that stimulate the inner us to move in a fashion that seek God first and seek the good of the spouse.
 
Partaking of the sacraments of the Church, we are recreated in Christ Jesus, he, in whom we are continually restored to life.
 
The sacrament of Baptism continuously ignites the couple to love and serve God and others as much as they love themselves; Confirmation makes into reality love and service; Holy Eucharist transforms so that the two become more and more like Jesus.
 
In marriage filled with sacramental grace, the man learns to love his spouse the way Christ loves his bride the Church: dying and rising for her. With love patterned after Christ’s love, the woman receives the love of her spouse, enabling her to respond the same way, also even unto death. Love becomes mutual. 
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To be fruitful and have order in life, it is necessary to observe moral guidelines and God’s natural order for us. In marriage and family, it is essential to put one’s relationship with God first, relationship with the spouse second, and children next. God-spouse-children.
 
God first. Why we have to make God first in life lies in our being God’s children created and adopted by him through Jesus Christ. We owe it to God to know, love, and serve him. We are bound to connect with him through prayer, reading his word, and acting upon his word with love.
 
Spouse second. The sacrament of Matrimony binds the man and woman to love each other for better or worse, for richer or poorer, and in sickness or health until death do them part. The divine presence of God provides grace to tackle marital challenges and to love each other based on commitment and not on feelings.
 
Children next. Grace sustains the parents to work as a team, raising the children in the love of God, preparing them for their future, so they too may be equipped to know, love and serve God. In that cycle, strong marriages and families are formed.

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It's a sunny day today!           Photo  by Easter Okalani. All rights reserved.
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The howling winds dance in unharmonious beat
its entrance soft and serene then gushes out its fury
The trees standing like soldiers in battle confounded
in the lower grounds the floras diminish their poise
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Where the faunas meet to play appears barren 
in recluse they find solace and a time for rest
The streets now display a calmer ambiance
Familiar faces on the sidewalks are less in sight

Blotches of gray are being drizzled from above;
without a keen ear, or stillness even for a second,
the merriment of a distant echo is heard amiss, for,
in howling and grayness, there is a playful smile

In my own space I find comfort in that playful smile
Life and joy never leave my Master's stature
For beyond what seems a chaos and dissymmetry 
Is a God quite possibly amused, yet always a savior

Copyright © 2016 Easter Almuena
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September 1, 2016
7:50 a.m.

Simply, I give thanks for
the tree that drinks from the swaying water
from the light that comes from above
the stones that add to its majestic stance
the air so light and crisp
brushing through my feeble skin
making a subtle entrance into my bones
and finding its way to my inner chamber
where, there, it comes face to face
with its Creator and Lord
bowing to his grandness
to his Kingship
for it too was created 
by HIM


Copyright © 2016 Easter Almuena
7.26.16
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Teresa LG

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That life may abound
By Easter Almuena

That life may abound
 
It is nearly impossible to miss you when you break
The silence of the night, lighting my path with
The brightness of a new day, springing forth
For me your newness and ever freshness of the day
 
How can I miss the vibrancy of your colors in the petals
You brushed with your fingertips with purple, gold, orange
Capping the wideness of greens just to make me look 
A second time to realize it is you there waiting, gazing

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I look at my husband sleeping so soundly. I smile. Today we celebrate our 29th year of marriage, not counting the ten years of friendship prior to wedding day; we were high school sweethearts. Thirty-nine years of friendship and love! I ponder, thinking of Mary in how she pondered things in her heart (Luke 2:19). "My soul magnifies the Lord": Mary's prayer resounds into the depths and realities of my marriage and friendship with my husband Joe.
 
I reminisce the day when I gave a retreat to six young married couples. The wonderment of being with them is evidenced by love in the air through the couples' words and gestures. The ambiance is intoxicating but as the facilitator of the retreat, I am faced with the challenge of balancing diversity and a sense of quiet where each of them can meet God and commune as a couple. My theme is "Mutual Loving" based on the Pauline theology of mutual submission, where the Catholic Church unfolds the deeper meaning of unity found in Ephesians 5:21-33. I designed it so much so that the first husband-wife speakers who know the theology would have to paint in the present time the message of St. Paul as it was preached to the early Christians.
 
A Bit of History
 
We know this, that when Ephesians 5:21-33 is read in the pulpit during our time, what stands out is “Wives be submissive to their husbands as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22), leaving an unpleasant feeling on the hearts of women. People may think that it has a sexual bearing of male dominance over women, but in actuality not a single tinge of it has relevance.
 
At the time Paul was writing to the Ephesians, household codes were a norm established by Christian leaders for familial and social order in the Mediterranean, where a number of cultures existed: Jewish, Gentile, Greco, Roman, etc. In the household codes, each person in the family and society has a place; the father is head of the family. The ascribed submissiveness of the wife to the husband is descriptive of daily conduct, the culture in progress of the time. Meant to bring balance to egalitarianism, it served as a reminder for wealthy and educated women to remain respectful of their husbands’ authority.
 
What is Paul’s message?
 
Sadly, after the line where the wife is admonished to be submissive, the congregation loses the interest of listening to the next several sentences that carry a heavy weight of Paul’s message. In actuality, the scripture passage that sets the tone of the whole scripture is the very first line: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21).
 
Paul cleverly explains to us the unity between Christ and the Church who is his bride through the union of a man and woman in marriage (Ephesians 5:31). Lumen Gentium, the primary document of Vatican II, provides a great length of text in explaining the importance of Christ’s unity to the Church. I urge you to check out Lumen Gentium #6, where metaphors of tending the sheep, cleansing and nourishing of the body, and cultivating of the land all relate to Christ’s having suffered, died, and resurrected into new life for his beloved Church. In much the same way, the husband is called to do the same for his wife—to die for her, for her cleansing and re-creation into new life in Christ—which, in essence, is the way to love her as he loves himself (Ephesians 5:28). It does appear that the husband has a greater role in marriage.
 
However, such is the message Paul sets for the married Christians in his time: As Christ loves his church, so must the husband love his wife as much as he loves himself and the wife is to be submissive to the husband; “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21), is where mutuality in marriage lies. Thus, in marriage in the Catholic Church, it is about self-giving of each spouse—to the other, for the sake of the other. Each is to give to the other unreservedly all for the nourishment and building of the spouse.
 
In my own space

Thinking of the six couples who attended my retreat, I am glad to have shared the Pauline theology of mutual submission to them. I wish I had understood this in the early stage of my marriage. I am, however, grateful because our Church is filled with many treasures from which my husband and I can draw the grace necessary to make our marriage work—out of reverence for Christ.
 
As a married couple Joe and I walk with Mary the Mother of Christ, who happens to be one of the treasures in marriage, but she covers many areas that I may have to write about next time. For now…
 
I wait for my husband to wake to my anniversary greeting and then to pray, as a couple, the Liturgy of the Hours. It sounds like a good place to start the day.

This article is also found at Association of Pauline Cooperators.

Easter Almuena, MPT
Copyright © 2016 Easter Almuena

Snowflake dances to the gentle force of gravity
Its little glitters speak a joyful melody
Cascading down it goes, taking its time,
Lost in the merriment of soft jingle bells
 
I pause to see it chime its own tune,
Unmindful of my presence, I couldn’t care less
My eyes refuse to blink for its beauty so encompassing
In my heart are many tiny voices of cheer
 
Please, oh please, keep dancing!
Your gentleness is soothing, your gracefulness caresses
The bubbles brewing within me have dissipated
I am enthralled; thoughts of my lover and friend come
 
I fold my hands to thank my Companion
And smile over His gentle touch on my soul
Renewed I have become, blessed, and taken
Goodbye, Snowflake. I know I shall see you again.

By Easter Almuena
Copyright © 2015 Easter Almuena

The time of waiting for Christmas day assures us of the joy of anticipating the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. During Christmas hope in our hearts grows, reigniting our faith as we journey on in this life to the next. Let us be ready for the celebration of the birth of the One who came to love, even unto death (Philippians 2:8), that final glory at his second coming may be ours.