We thank You, God our Father, for those who have responded to Your call to priestly ministry. Accept this prayer we offer on their behalf: Fill Your priests with the sure knowledge of Your Love. Open their hearts to the power and consolation of the Holy Spirit. Lead them to new depths of union with Your Son. Increase in them profound faith in the Sacraments they celebrate as they nourish, strengthen and heal us.
Lord Jesus Christ, grant that these, Your priests, may inspire us to strive for holiness by the power of their example, as men of prayer who ponder Your Word and follow Your Will.
O Mary, Mother of Christ and our Mother, guard with your maternal care these chosen ones, so dear to the Heart of your Son. Intercede for our priests that, offering the Sacrifice of your Son, they may be conformed more each day to the image of your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
St. John Vianney, pray for us and for our priests.
So thankful for our priests!
Friday, August 31, 2012
Saturday, August 18, 2012
This is Beauty, You O Lord, have ravished my heart
+JMJ+
Tonight as I was praying in the Chapel with Jesus in the tabernacle, beauty is what was on my heart, only it felt heavy, thinking of how beauty is distorted and ignored and discarded and degraded in our world right now. I had just read Marc Barnes' post, Dappled Things My Dear Readers. True Beauty elevates our hearts and minds to God and His Glory.
In my facebook newsfeed this afternoon, one right after another was first a picture posted by Endow on the Dignity of Women and Feminine Genius and then another picture from a feminist group whose name I do not even want to type here, shared by a friend. The contrast was so startling that it jarred me into realizing how the beauty of feminine dignity is so much under attack, even by those who profess to be all about giving voice to women. It makes me so sad for my sisters that do not know their true dignity as beloved daughters of God. Another quote that that was on my newsfeed was from Dignitas Magazine:
"True beauty emanates from a woman who boldly and unabashedly knows who she is in Christ."~Jen Smidt
True beauty is shown in these women making their Final Profession of Vows with the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles. They sing, "The joy I feel in my soul comes from knowing You." That is Beauty.
But, I am human, and my heart became heavy once again thinking of how, I, myself, do not feel beautiful. Right there in quiet, peace, and tranquility, I forgot myself the dignity I have as a daughter of God. So I began focusing on myself, rather than Christ and the beauty emanating from women who boldly and unabashedly know who they are in Christ.
I feel spiritually beat up, bruised, tired, worn out, and just plain not beautiful. It has been a difficult week, and I am probably too hard on myself, but really, being a wife and mother is hard work, and just plain messy. This is especially true with young children that all have minds of their own along with a mom who is trying to figure it all out herself and often forgets who she is in Christ. My heart has a long way to go to find healing and I just found myself thinking how can I ever be beautiful, how can spiritually beat up, bruised, tired, worn out ever be beautiful? I feel more like a worn out wife, and definitely not a bride. How could that be beautiful?
And then something miraculous happened. I looked up from the tabernacle to the Crucifix, and then I realized that beat up, bruised, tired, and worn out is Beautiful, but only on the Cross. I often contemplate the Cross when I come to pray, but I think that there must be some new lighting on the Cross in our Chapel. It seemed brighter, and even the shadow cast by Christ hanging on the Cross, pouring out His life for me was beautiful. Beautiful beyond words. And He poured Himself out like that, took on the ugliness and harshness of the Cross, out of Love for me, to reconcile me to Our Father. That is true Beauty.
From a poem I wrote a few years ago:
We weep here at His Cross, we cry out in anguish.
He has overcome all by His Love and Mercy.
This is Beauty, You O Lord, have ravished my heart
by Your Love and Mercy. Your Cross has set me free.
Amen.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Forgiveness Again
God is asking me to forgive, and I have said I forgive, but it seems as though my heart is not there yet. Recently, I was hurt by a friend. It really should not have been such a big deal, but for reasons I cannot quite understand, it hurt me deeply, and I am having a hard time with the whole situation. Forgiveness keeps coming up over and over in one form or another, but really, I just want to run away and never trust anyone. I really think the sadness I have probably has less to do with this particular situation and more to do with hurts from my childhood. Like I said, it shouldn't be such a big deal, but it is, and God is laboring in my heart over this in ways that are very painful. The good news is that God does not ever abandon me, even if it feels like He has. I trust that He is laboring in Love over me, His beloved daughter, even if I feel desolate. And I am trying not to let my past govern my present, but being human, I often fail at this. Perhaps God is asking me to trust Him more.
A few years ago, I read Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI and posted our Holy Father's thoughts on forgiveness back then, but wanted to post it again today because it resonates once again with my heart today, especially in regards to our petition for forgiveness in the Our Father:
"while we must acknowledge day by day how little our capacities suffice for that task, and how often we ourselves keep falling into guilt, this petition gives us the great consolation that our prayer is held safe within the power of his love- with which, through which, and in which it can still become a power of healing."
Here is the post from September 2010:
Having recently read Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth, these words of the Holy Father still resonate deeply in my heart, and I want to share them with you. This is the part of the chapter where our Holy Father discusses the petition of "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" and how we encounter the mystery of the Cross of Christ in this petition (from Ch5 - The Lord's Prayer, pp 158-160, emphasis mine):
"If we want to understand the petition fully and make it our own, we must go one step further and ask: What is forgiveness, really? What happens when forgiveness takes place? Guilt is a reality, an objective force; it has caused destruction that must be repaired. For this reason, forgiveness must be more than a matter of ignoring, of merely trying to forget. Guilt must be worked through, healed, and thus overcome. Forgiveness exacts a price- first of all from the person who forgives. He must overcome within himself the evil done to him; he must, as it were, burn it interiorly and in so doing renew himself. As a result, he also involves the other, the trespasser, in this process of transformation, of inner purification, and both parties, suffering all the way through and overcoming evil, are made new. At this point, we encounter the mystery of Christ's Cross. But the very first thing we encounter is the limit of our power to heal and to overcome evil. We encounter the superior power of evil, which we cannot master with our unaided powers. Reinhold Schneider says apropos of this that "evil lives in a thousand forms; it occupies the pinnacles of power...it bubbles up from the abyss. Love has just one form- your Son" (Das Vaterunser, p. 68).
"The idea that God allowed the forgiveness of guilt, the healing of man from within, to cost him the death of his Son has come to seem quite alien to us today. That the Lord has "borne our diseases and taken upon himself sorrows," that"he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities," and that "with his wounds we are healed" (Is 53:4-6) no longer seems plausible
to us today. Militating against this, on one side, is the trivialization of evil in which we take refuge, despite the fact that at the very same time we treat the horrors of human history, especially of the most recent human history as an irrefutable pretext for denying the existence of a good God and slandering his creature man. But the understanding of the great mystery of expiation is also blocked by our individualistic image of man. We can no longer grasp substitution because we think that every man is ensconced in himself alone. The fact that all individual beings are deeply interwoven and that all are encompassed in turn by the being of the One, the Incarnate Son, is something we are no longer capable of seeing. When we come to speak of Christ's Crucifixion, we will have to take up these issues again.
"In the meantime, the idea of Cardinal John Henry Newman may suffice. Newman once said that while God could create the whole world out of nothing with just one word, he could overcome men's guilt and suffering only by bringing himself into play, by becoming in his Son a sufferer who carried this burden and overcame it through his self-surrender. The overcoming of guilt has a price: We must put our heart- or, better, our whole existence- on the line. And even this act is insufficient; it can become effective only through communion with the One who bore the burdens of us all.
"The petition for forgiveness is more than a moral exhortation- though it is that as well, and as such it challenges us anew every day. But, at its deepest core, it is- like the other petitions- a Christological prayer. It reminds us of he who allowed forgiveness to cost him descent into the hardship of human existence and death on the Cross. It calls us first and foremost to thankfulness for that, and then, with him, to work through and suffer through evil by means of love. And while we must acknowledge day by day how little our capacities suffice for that task, and how often we ourselves keep falling into guilt, this petition gives us the great consolation that our prayer is held safe within the power of his love- with which, through which, and in which it can still become a power of healing."
God, thank You for these words of the Holy Father. Please watch over him and protect him in his travels. Thank You for giving us a wise and holy shepherd. Jesus, thank You for Your Love and Mercy. Open our hearts to receive You and all You give us. Open our hearts to forgive as You forgive and to Love as You Love. In Your Holy Name, Amen.
A few years ago, I read Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI and posted our Holy Father's thoughts on forgiveness back then, but wanted to post it again today because it resonates once again with my heart today, especially in regards to our petition for forgiveness in the Our Father:
"while we must acknowledge day by day how little our capacities suffice for that task, and how often we ourselves keep falling into guilt, this petition gives us the great consolation that our prayer is held safe within the power of his love- with which, through which, and in which it can still become a power of healing."
Here is the post from September 2010:
Having recently read Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth, these words of the Holy Father still resonate deeply in my heart, and I want to share them with you. This is the part of the chapter where our Holy Father discusses the petition of "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" and how we encounter the mystery of the Cross of Christ in this petition (from Ch5 - The Lord's Prayer, pp 158-160, emphasis mine):
"If we want to understand the petition fully and make it our own, we must go one step further and ask: What is forgiveness, really? What happens when forgiveness takes place? Guilt is a reality, an objective force; it has caused destruction that must be repaired. For this reason, forgiveness must be more than a matter of ignoring, of merely trying to forget. Guilt must be worked through, healed, and thus overcome. Forgiveness exacts a price- first of all from the person who forgives. He must overcome within himself the evil done to him; he must, as it were, burn it interiorly and in so doing renew himself. As a result, he also involves the other, the trespasser, in this process of transformation, of inner purification, and both parties, suffering all the way through and overcoming evil, are made new. At this point, we encounter the mystery of Christ's Cross. But the very first thing we encounter is the limit of our power to heal and to overcome evil. We encounter the superior power of evil, which we cannot master with our unaided powers. Reinhold Schneider says apropos of this that "evil lives in a thousand forms; it occupies the pinnacles of power...it bubbles up from the abyss. Love has just one form- your Son" (Das Vaterunser, p. 68).
"The idea that God allowed the forgiveness of guilt, the healing of man from within, to cost him the death of his Son has come to seem quite alien to us today. That the Lord has "borne our diseases and taken upon himself sorrows," that"he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities," and that "with his wounds we are healed" (Is 53:4-6) no longer seems plausible
to us today. Militating against this, on one side, is the trivialization of evil in which we take refuge, despite the fact that at the very same time we treat the horrors of human history, especially of the most recent human history as an irrefutable pretext for denying the existence of a good God and slandering his creature man. But the understanding of the great mystery of expiation is also blocked by our individualistic image of man. We can no longer grasp substitution because we think that every man is ensconced in himself alone. The fact that all individual beings are deeply interwoven and that all are encompassed in turn by the being of the One, the Incarnate Son, is something we are no longer capable of seeing. When we come to speak of Christ's Crucifixion, we will have to take up these issues again.
"In the meantime, the idea of Cardinal John Henry Newman may suffice. Newman once said that while God could create the whole world out of nothing with just one word, he could overcome men's guilt and suffering only by bringing himself into play, by becoming in his Son a sufferer who carried this burden and overcame it through his self-surrender. The overcoming of guilt has a price: We must put our heart- or, better, our whole existence- on the line. And even this act is insufficient; it can become effective only through communion with the One who bore the burdens of us all.
"The petition for forgiveness is more than a moral exhortation- though it is that as well, and as such it challenges us anew every day. But, at its deepest core, it is- like the other petitions- a Christological prayer. It reminds us of he who allowed forgiveness to cost him descent into the hardship of human existence and death on the Cross. It calls us first and foremost to thankfulness for that, and then, with him, to work through and suffer through evil by means of love. And while we must acknowledge day by day how little our capacities suffice for that task, and how often we ourselves keep falling into guilt, this petition gives us the great consolation that our prayer is held safe within the power of his love- with which, through which, and in which it can still become a power of healing."
God, thank You for these words of the Holy Father. Please watch over him and protect him in his travels. Thank You for giving us a wise and holy shepherd. Jesus, thank You for Your Love and Mercy. Open our hearts to receive You and all You give us. Open our hearts to forgive as You forgive and to Love as You Love. In Your Holy Name, Amen.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
My Mother Mary
+JMJ+
Purity whole and Love to welcome
All Love in Love, your heart awaits.
Your yes heaven awaits.
His Love He gives and you receive.
Proceeding in haste to where He calls,
His Glory magnified by your willing heart.
To hold His hand Divine while
Pondering His sweet face.
You give Him all of your mother’s heart
As you await the Cross Divine.
And you give your sorrowful heart
To him who knows his Love’s heartbeat.
And in His grace Divine,
Make our hearts like unto thine.
All Grace in Grace
That we may ponder His sweet face.
And He brings you home
To dwell with Him.
~KS
My Mother Mary
Conceived by Grace,
All Grace in Grace.Purity whole and Love to welcome
All Love in Love, your heart awaits.
To you, all innocence and beauty,
God’s messenger beckons, andYour yes heaven awaits.
His Love He gives and you receive.
All Beauty while Incarnation rests,
You give yourself complete to Love.Proceeding in haste to where He calls,
His Glory magnified by your willing heart.
Oh, the gift of His life,
As you await His sweet embraceTo hold His hand Divine while
Pondering His sweet face.
He depends on you,
His mother He trusts.You give Him all of your mother’s heart
As you await the Cross Divine.
By your consent
His Heart opens to mine.And you give your sorrowful heart
To him who knows his Love’s heartbeat.
By your yes again, you invite His bride
To rest in your Motherly LoveAnd in His grace Divine,
Make our hearts like unto thine.
His Fire in you, He gives us too.
All Love in Love, All Grace in Grace
That we may ponder His sweet face.
And when your earthly walk dims
You surrender yourself whollyAnd He brings you home
To dwell with Him.
~KS
Friday, August 3, 2012
Mere Orthodoxy: When Your Social Media Feed Gets You Down
Great post from Brett McCracken at Mere Orthodoxy! Here's an excerpt:
h/t Tina Korbe
It’s just that in everything we do in this Christian life, humility makes things better. Try it. Christ increases when we decrease. He becomes greater when we become lesser. The world opens up in glorious new ways when we diminish; when we relinquish our insistence on being at the center of it. The jasmine smells sweeter and the wine tastes smoother; the faces of strangers across from us in Starbucks–or behind the avatars to which we tweet–become more real and beloved. The cadences of Emily Dickinson poems and summer rainstorms take on greater beauty.Read it all here.
h/t Tina Korbe
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)