Food for souls

Today's Gospel reading is the feeding of the 5000 with five barley loaves and two fishes.
The people were amazed at this and who wouldn't be interested in following someone with such power?
There is so much more to this story, however, that bears reflection.
Ultimately a story about the Eucharist and how Christ feeds us with his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity each time we receive Him in the Eucharist, I am puzzled about why men and women who would follow so readily someone who feeds their bodies often balk at following someone who feeds their souls.
Thank you for giving us Your body as spiritual food to nourish us. Amen.

The Gift of Confirmation

Tonight I joined with other members of our parish as we celebrated the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament some of our younger parishioners.

Thank you, my Lord and God for calling these young people deeper into the light of your life, your glorious life.

Please bless them eith the outpouring of your most Holy Spirit and keep them in the way they should go.

Update: I should mention that because our newly appointed Bishop has not yet been installed and because the Dean could not make it to our small community, our parish priest was granted the authority to bestow the Sacrament of Confirmation on these young people.
Thank you, Almighty God and Father, for giving us the gift of priests and bishops to minister and shepherd to us on all our life journeys. Bless them with your protection and strengthen them to withstand the assaults of the devil as they witness to the life of Jesus in word and deed.
Amen.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

Praise and Thanksgiving

I will bless the Lord at all times. (Psalm 34:2)

There are such blessings being poured out upon mankind during this Easter season, and I thank you, Lord, for the many blessings you grant to me and also to the whole world.

I am fascinated with prophecy, especially end times prophecy. While I don't know if we are nearing the end times, it certainly seems that things are coming to a point where "something's got to give." 

The number of blasphemous attacks upon our Lord and His Blessed Mother as well as the Body of Christ--His disciples--grows daily it seems. 

With each new attack, our consciences become just a little more numb to the atrocities and it seems we slip further into the abyss.

Yet, there are still causes and reasons for praise to our Almighty God. We trust that You are able to bring good out of even the most horrible atrocity, Lord. And we thank and praise you for that.

Oh my Jesus! Please save us as things grow increasingly godless and demented. Please don't allow us to slip away from Your loving mercy and grace. Amen.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

Gifts of Divine Mercy

The thought occurred to me today that blind obedience as I understood it the other day, complete trust, is similar to trusting Our Lord or Our Lady to know what's best.

For example, I often offer prayers for my specific intentions or for the intentions that Our Lady deems most important, trusting her to apply whatever value there is in them to where the need is greatest.

Of course, I think the real value in doing so is that she then takes my puny offering and dresses it up, so to speak, so that it is more worthy.

In this light, I am able to view blind obedience as something good rather than something horrifying as it first sounded to me.

I consider this insight to have been a gift of Divine Mercy as well as the gift of spotting the blooms on the cactus. The gift of the Blessed Virgin Mary is also a gift of Divine Mercy.
The Lord is so good to me and I give Him thanks and praise for everything He allows in my life.
Thank you, my Lord. Amen.

Divine Mercy

I am longing for the sweetness of realizing God's Divine Mercy tomorrow on Divine Mercy Sunday.
I have eagerly prayed the Divine Mercy novena and know that God has oceans of mercy awaiting those most in need of His merciful, generous and bounteous love.
Oh, thank you my Lord.
You are so wonderful and I can't wait to celebrate tomorrow's Mass with, in and for You.
Amen.

Trust

As I was pondering the question I had yesterday regarding blind obedience, it came to me that one is able to blindly obey someone whom you trust completely.
So blind obedience goes hand in hand with trust.
That is both an answer and a personal failing, at least at this point. Because I am able to obey and trust in certain matters, yet I fall short in that I do not obey nor trust totally.
For that, my Lord, I ask that you might grant me the graces I need to do both..trust You so completely that I completely and totally would obey you in whatever situation arises.
I think there might be more to blind obedience that hasn't yet occurred to me, but for now I am hoping that I can learn total trust so that I might be able to obey, blindly or otherwise.
Thank you. I love you, Jesus and Blessed Mother. Amen.

Blind Obedience

"True devotion to Our Lady is holy; that is to say, it leads the soul to avoid sin and to imitate the virtues of the Blessed Virgin, particularly her profound humility, her lively faith, her blind obedience, her continual prayer, her universal mortification, her divine purity, her ardent charity, her heroic patience, her angelic sweetness and her divine wisdom. These are the ten principal virtues of the most holy Virgin."

—

 St. Louis De Montfort

Blind Obedience. That was the attribute of Our Lady that gave me pause today as I pondered upon the above quote by a

St. Louis De Montfort

I must consider it more because it is one of those things that initially fills me with horror.

Being blindly obedient is not something I am culturally inclined to want to imitate. So, please Blessed Mother and Dear God, one God in three divine persons...please show to me what this means to each of you. 

Thank you. Amen.

4

Alleluia

Alleluia Alleluia, hearts to heaven and voices raised
Alleluia Alleluia sing a song of joyful praise.
Thank you, God almighty for all the blessings you bestow.
You are my true love, my life, my salvation
Thank you! Alleluia, Amen!

Being Loved

I had an epiphany today about change.
I have struggled with many things over the years; smoking, drinking, eating, procrastination. But, when I  want to get past one of my addictions, it has always come much easier when I want to get beyond it because of love.
When I feel the love of God in my life and in my actions, the struggle to overcome seems so much easier.
I want to be free of things that separate me from the love of God and I do so much better in practicing disciplines that help me to overcome when I feel the love of God.
Thank you, my Lord and my God for loving me and filling me with such joy.

The one difficulty I seem to have is in maintaining the level of certain knowledge of Your love and how to get past the things that separate me from You.
It can be so easy to fall back into old ways and old habits and lose the sense of being loved and cherished by You.
Please grant to me the grace to keep this sense of love and joy.
Thank you.
Amen.

Easter Joy

"My brothers, one can confidently say to you about the patriarch David that he died and was buried, and his tomb is in our midst to this day." ~ Acts 2:29

It is precisely because there is no tomb for Christ...at least no tomb with bones...that I find makes a compelling argument for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We know of His temporary resting place but there is no body, no bones, and there hasn't been since three days after His death.

Moreover, He was seen by eyewitnesses. Lots of eyewitnesses. Alive and glorified. Alleluia!

Experiencing the sweetness of the fully alive and resurrected Christ in my life; meeting Jesus in the Eucharist; meeting Jesus in others; seeing Him and experiencing the sweetness of His love for me is something I want my children and grandchildren to know and cherish.
It is true love and it is "the hidden pearl" of great and stupendous value.

Oh my Jesus. Thank you so much for revealing Yourself to me in many varied and wonderful ways.
Thank you for this Easter joy.
Amen.

The Resurrection of Our Lord

The gift you gave me so many years ago on Easter, sweet Jesus was the following verse: John 17:20-21

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me." NIV

You renewed that gift on this Easter, my Lord and I am so delighted and filled with Easter joy. Thank you, thank you.

Oh, the sweetness of knowing Your love us so much that You want to be one with us. How incredible this is, my Lord. 

I was stewing about an insult that You and I both also received this day by someone we both love-my daughter. 

She has been resisting Your love for her for some time. Today she was trying to give away a gift I gave her..the book "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young.

As I was praying for her and also seeking Your mercy for those who have held fast to the faith, the intentions specified for the third day of the Divine Mercy novena, I was filled with peace and joy.

You will give me the answers I must bequeath to my daughter and the grace to speak as You would speak to her. Thank you, sweet Jesus.

It was about this time that You granted to me the remembrance of our past Easters and renewed the commitment we have to love one another in You. You gave me the sign You have ever given to me when reminding me of this promise.

It is such a sweet gift my Jesus. Thank you. Thank you.

 

Holy Saturday

Today is a day of preparation for tbose of us who celebrate Easter tomorrow and that is how I have spent this day.
Working with my precious daughter to prepare a meal for our family, cleaning and cooking, we discussed our differing views on how things should be done.
It was sometimes tense because we seemed to be butting heads on everything, but it ultimately doesn't matter because I love her with the love of Christ and I pray daily for her salvation.
As I do all my children and grandchildren. I pray for them because I fear they do not realize how serious a matter it is that they have left the church and God for their worldly concerns.
Ah, my sweet Jesus, as you redeemed the souls from Hades this day, please grant to my children and grandchuldren the grace to live in Your love and find their way to You through the blessings and mercies offered through the Catholic Church.
Amen

Good Friday

"Yet it was our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed." ~ Isaiah 53: 4-5

Thank you, my Lord and my God for loving me so much that You willingly suffered the chastisement I should bear for my sins.
Help me Lord, my God to draw ever closer to You and to live as You would have me live.

3:00

The hour when blood and water gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for the whole world.

Wow. Just wow. Think about that for a minute. Mercy for the entire world, including all those we deem "enemies." Such sweet and powerful mercy that it is able to redeem the entire world and all of its inhabitants, past, present and future. Mercy that covers the entire gamut of our sins, failures, excesses and selfishness. Mercy.

Thank You for the extended period of mercy You have granted to us for the salvation of our souls. I pray that many souls will accept the gift of Your great mercy so they don't have to experience Your divine justice.

Thank You, sweet Jesus for giving us the gift of Your Mother, Blessed Mary, from the cross to be our mother. Help me to accord to her the respect, love and obedience that I cherish receiving as a mother myself and that I should always grant to her and to my mother and mother-in-law. Forgive me for the times I have neglected to do so.

Thank you for this day and the sacrifice of Your Son that we might become Your Sons and Daughters and so enter into eternal life with You, Your Son, the Holy Spirit, Blessed Mary and all the Angels and Saints.
Amen.

Maundy Thursday

My first reaction when asked to be one of the people who would have their feet washed during tonight's Mass was "No, not me. Surely there are others who would be better to receive this gift."
But then everything I read today seemed to be God calling out to me to receive the gift of being washed clean, having my feet washed by the humble priest on his knees.
It is a humbling experience and I am so delighted that I listened to the voice of God and gave my "fiat" to this wonderful honor.
Thank you, my Lord and my God for washing my feet that I might have all of you, that I might go forth along whatever path you have chosen for me.
Thank you. I am humbled and honored at the same time.

Spy Wednesday

I had never heard the term "spy Wednesday"  for the Midweek day before the Triduum of Easter begins but it was referred to that way in one of my readings.
Wednesday is the day when the chief priests and elders "spied" on Jesus to find a way to arrest him.
I wondered, too, if it was the day when Judas Iscariot made his deal with them for the betrayal of Jesus.
Much to ponder.

Counting My Blessings

There is so much to be thankful for in my life.

God has blessed me greatly in where I live, in my spouse and children, my parents and siblings, my in-laws and all of my family, friends and co-workers.

Lord, I thank You so much for all of these blessings.

I thank You for calling me to the Catholic Church and for all the priests whose gift of Holy Orders has so enriched my life.

Thank you for Blessed Mother and all the brothers and sisters in the saints and angels that You have allowed to love and intercede for me in my times of trouble and sorrow.

Thank You for my country and for the many blessings of living here.

Oh, my Lord! When I think of all I have to be thankful for and of all the blessings You have bestowed on me, I wonder if I am so blessed because I am not capable of withstanding some of the sorrows that seem to afflict the rest of the world?

How does it happen that I seem to have so little trouble in this world that is filled with more trouble and sorrow each day?

Even so, I give You thanks and praise my Lord and my God for all of the blessings listed here and also for those blessings of which I am unaware or have forgotten.
Thank you! Thank you!

I would be remiss if I didn't thank You for the one thing of which I am most appreciative each day...hot and cold running water. But most especially, hot running water that I so appreciate each time I step into the shower.
Thank You, my Lord and My God.

Please bless me with the grace to give up any and all of these blessings if it be Your most holy will. Lord grant me whatever strength and graces I need to accomplish my life's mission.
Amen.

Washed Clean

As we head into Holy Week it felt right to go to a penance service and confession,
in order to prepare myself for the extraordinary honor of being saved by the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh to maintain the cleanness of being washed clean in the Sacrament of Confession.
Oh what a gift is the Church Christ gave us to administer His Sacraments and help fill us with His grace.
I thank you, Lord, for this precious gift which has cleaned my heart in preparation for Your resurrection.
Would that I could stay clean forever so that Your coming into my heart would be so much sweeter.

Another photo day

A photo of one of the sites from my home.

The Final Approach

We draw nearer to the culmination of the long journey through Lent to the joyous day of Resurrection and Life.
Ah, what happiness lies before us as we witness to the love of our Lord by living lives worthy of this last week of happiness and torment.
Tomorrow is the Feast Day of Palm Sunday, marked by happy hosannas as Jesus enters into the city of Jerusalem.
Then later during this Holy Week  comes the institution of the Eucharist as the Christ offers His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity for our salvation.
And the indescribable pain and suffering of Good Friday, when He pays the price for our sins and disobedience.
Then, the utter desolation of thinking Him gone only to awaken on Easter Sunday morning with such joy as we begin to grasp that life, eternal life is ours, bought and paid for by our Lord and brother.
Ah, sweet Jesus.  Thank you for your love for us.
Help me to make a good final approach to that glorious day. Amen.

Mission

"Do you believe that God wants to work powerfully through you? That he wants to use you to help build his kingdom? People need to know God’s love and power. So many are suffering from wounds, both physical and emotional, and God has called us to offer them his healing touch!" ~ The Word Among Us reflection on daily reading

I pray that I might fulfill my mission, Lord.
Amen.

Whispers of War

Today, the U. S. fired missiles at an airbase in Syria in retaliation for the chemical bomb unleashed by someone upon Syrian people.
Some allege that the was unleashed upon civilians by the Syrian leader himself.

More than 80 people were killed in this atrocity.

I am so sad that this has happened.


Although there are many who claim the attack today was necessary and just, it seems like an empty gesture, something designed merely to show that our current president is not as feckless as the last U.S. president.

Yes, the missile attack today damaged the airbase and hopefully the chemical weapon depot as well. Perhaps that will be enough to discourage further attacks but I don’t know if it will because it purposefully was designed not to kill people.

I certainly do not wish for more people to be killed in this ugly war, but how do you stop a despot like the Syrisn leader by merely damaging his airfield? Will he not find a way to continue to lash out against anyone within reach?

Oh, my Lord Jesus. I pray for all the innocent people in Syria and the whole Middle East. I ask for your protection for them from all the forces of war arranged against them.
Lord, protect the world. I know we do not deserve your Mercy but I pray You will be merciful. Lord, spare us from your judgment. Amen.

Weakness

"Your weakness is not a deterrent to being filled with My Spirit; on the contrary, it provides an opportunity for My Power to shine forth more brightly." ~ Excerpt from April 5 reflection, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

After reading more prophecy today I was pondering just how often and how badly I have failed You, my Lord and My God.
In an attempt to satiate my hunger for You, I began poring through all the inspirational books I have, trying to come up with something to inspire and comfort me.
I finally read the above and it did just that. Thank you for guiding me to just exactly what I needed this day.
Help me also to strive to always be an instrument You can use to bring others to you. I love you.
Amen.

The Army of God

"O Holy Mary! My Mother; into thy blessed trust and special custody, and into the bosom of thy mercy, I this day, and every day, and in the hour of my death, commend my soul and body. To thee I commit all my anxieties and sorrows, my life and the end of my life, that by thy most holy intercession, and by thy merits, all my actions may be directed and governed by thy will and that of thy Son."

— St. Aloysius Gonzaga

It is such a wonderful thing, to know that the Mother of God is always there to help us get closer to her Son. 

What a wonderful commander we have to lead us into heaven.

Thank you, sweet and beautiful Mother.

Help me to do better tomorrow in my Lenten journey. Thank you for saying Yes to God. Amen.

Sadness and loss

Today my good friend heard from her son that his wife had lost her baby of 6 months. 

She didn't feel any movement from the 6 month baby she was expecting. A trip to the hospital and an ultrasound revealed that the child had died in the womb.

To make it worse, they now have to induce labor to deliver the dead baby.

Oh, my Sweet Jesus. How I long for the time when you will wipe the tears from our eyes. I don't know if events such as this will cease to happen, but knowing that God loves us and will mourn our loss, as You do now, is sweet solace for such sad times.

We are called to suffer during our sojourn here on earth. If we are blessed with the grace to offer it up for the salvation of souls, it becomes bearable.

But telling someone who is grieving that is often very difficult. And I think I lack tact in trying to comfort people with the "offer it up" mantra.

Lord, please bless my friend and her son and wife with your sweet comfort and solace. Let their pain somehow mean something and let their sorrow comfort another suffering soul. 

Please use this sad situation to help them find their way to You. Amen.

The final week of Lent

A reflection I read today said that from now until Easter we should double down on our Lenten sacrifices.

Because I have not done well to date during Lent, I hope that I will be able to do so for the next two weeks.

I will attempt to make it a real time of sacrifice, Blessed Mother, with your help that I might honot your Son in a fitting manner and give glory to God in the Trinity.

Thank you.

Charity

"If you truly want to help the soul of your neighbor, you should approach God first with all your heart. Ask him simply to fill you with charity, the greatest of all virtues; with it you can accomplish what you desire."

— St. Vincent Ferrer

This was the first thing I read today after yesterday's post regarding my difficulties with my cousin.

So I attempted to be charitable and gave her a list of some organizations that help people deal with post abortion stress syndrome.

When I heard back and she was insistent that I answer her questions on how I determine truth. So I told her and basically it's by researching and praying and listening to the Holy Spirit.

Of course this isn't sufficient for her. She does intensive research and is probably quite knowledgeable about how to do research. She also is quite arrogant about how superior she views her knowledge and outlook on life as compared to mine.

She claims to have a lock on facts and considers that to be truth. Even though she claims to be satisfied and fulfilled, I sense that she is missing something deep in her soul. Of course, she denies having one so she claims she can't be missing out on anything.

I wonder, though, because in spite of how angry she gets with me and how much my views seem to irritate her, she continues to seek to communicate with me. I suppose because she thinks she can eventually bully me into acknowledging that she is right or something.

Except I know she is wrong on the most important fact of all. God does exist and he loves us.

So, I am "quitting" my communications with her. At least for now. If I am inspired later to resume trying to communicate with her, then I will trust God to lead me in how to resume.

Of course, I will continue to offer prayers for her.

Thank You for this day and for the blessings You have bestowed on me.

Please bless my cousin according to Your most holy will. Amen.