I love walking away pictures... especially when it is my son, John, home from college walking with his 2 year old Godson, little Davey... After John being gone for a while and seeing him with "new eyes" - not the day to day hopeful eyes of mom and dad wanting to see improvement with his walking and injury as a result of the brain biopsy that he had... His dad and I were shaken to realize just how much he lost and continues to have a "handicap!" He spoke with sadness of how he loved to play sports like broom ball in the winter and now that is not possible... HE has come a long way from not being able to balance enough to walk, but we still see that there is a huge difference from where he was before cancer struck him 16 months ago!
I appologize for rambling... but the saints were waking me and causing me to get up way before I am clear in the head... after working all night at the NH... After I shared the other day about the Thankful mysteries and got into the Church part of it... I was deeply reminded of the "heart burning with love" that Our Lord has for us individually and as part of the Body of the Church! I had a special walk with St Faustina as I read her diary a year ago, while I stayed with my two daughters and drove John to radiation every day in Mayo. Nancy had ordered a bunch of books.... being a strong Catholic plus an English teacher.. she has a hunger for books and had just ordered the dairy of ST Faustina. I picked it up and took it to read... she assured me that she had no plans to read it anytime soon!
John had helped his dad pick up all these bales the day before! Davey is more interested in the tractor than the bales..
In their home... Maria, husband, Joe with their two children, and another daughter, Nancy... had no internet or TV... they felt that the expense was not something they wanted nor the distractions.... So John and I would return to their quiet home and I would pick up my book and with wonder and awe... come to see the deep communion that St Faustina had with Our Lord and his mother! They talked to her directly and pleaded with her to share the many ways that they wanted to help individuals to come to them and find mercy as their lives were coming to an end! Her own health very poor.... she would be awakened at all hours of the night to pray the divine mercy chaplet for a soul that was in trouble. She saw the host - Christ speak to her! She was put down and criticized as being strange and probably mentally sick... she suffered much both physically with TB but also emotionally with the back talking and back stabbing she experienced from some in her community. She had not an easy road, but the LOVE was intense and so deeply personal between her and Christ!
I just went to a website of ST Faustina - http://www.faustina.ch/index_en.htm ...
"I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection, O Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul to my neighbor.
Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearences, but look for what is beautiful in my neighbors' souls and come to their rescue.
Help me, that my ears may be merciful, so that I may give heed to my neighbors' needs and not be indifferent to their pains and moanings.
Help me, O Lord, that my tongue may be merciful, so that I should never speak negatively of my nieghbor, but have a word of comfort and forgiveness for all.
Help me, O Lord, that my hands may be merciful and filled with good deeds, so that I may do only good to my neighbors and take upon myself the more difficult and toilsome tasks.
Help me, that my feet may be merciful, so that I may hurry to assist my neighbor, overcoming my own fatigue and weariness. My true rest is in the service of my neighbor.
Help me, O Lord, that my heart may be merciful so that I myself may feel all the sufferings of my neighbor. I will refuse my heart to no one. I will be sincere even with those who, I know, will abuse my kindness. And I will lock myself up in the most merciful Heart of Jesus. I will bear my own suffering in silence. May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me (...).
O my Jesus, transform me into Yourself , for you can do all things. (163)
A good prayer for all of us to ask the Lord to use us in this way! How terrifyingly amazing to hear the Lord speak to her and beseech her to show souls His Mercy for them and the desperate LOVE that He has for every soul! He wants to save every soul and bring them into His Church and into Heaven - Happiness with Him! His heart is burning with love and mercy for each and every one of us! How we all know those that are oblivious to the LIFE that He is holding out to them. They seem to live in a world that has not been touched by the Truth and the Good... they have been led down the wide path of lies that the world has led them to believe as the way that life should be...they are not happy and are confused! I feel so helpless in the face of this ... Where do you start? It is like we are speaking a different language! Prayer can intercede! Jesus, I trust in you!
My feelings are muddled and fatigued... so I will let the saints themselves reveal to us this intense burning unending love the He has for each one of us! They in their sacrifice of living their lives for Him could know this LOVE, and this desire that HE had for them to witness and convert and give their lives in all ways to make it happen for those that do not know Him!
St Francis : "May I feel in my heart, as far as possible, that abundance of love with which you, Son of God, were inflamed."
ST Catherine of Siena: "When we love something we don't care what sort of abuse or injury or pain we might have to endure to get it; we are concerned only with satisfying the desire for the thing we love."
St Robert of Southwell: "Jesus, possess my mind with your presence and ravish it with your love, that my delight may be to be embraced in the arms of your protection."
ST Claude de la Colombiere: "My Jesus, let me live in your heart and pour all my bitterness into it where it will be utterly consumed."
St Margaret Mary Alacoque: "All my pleasure in this land of exile is that of having every kind of suffering found on the cross, deprived of every other consolation except that of the Sacred Heart."
St Alphonsus Liguori: "We must love God in the way that pleases him, and not in a way that suits ourselves. God wishes people to empty themselves of everything and to be filled with his divine love."
St Elizabeth Ann Seton: "O Jesus, sure joy of my soul, give me but a true love of you. Let me seek you as my only good."
St John Vianney: "The soul can feed only on God, only God can suffice it; only God can fill it; only God can satiate its hunger. Its God is absolutely necessary to it."
ST John Neumann: "Though God hates sin more than any other thing, HE loves poor miserable sinners. He ardently desires the welfare of our souls as if his own happiness depended on it."
As you read the words of the saints... there is no doubt of the burning LOVE they experienced as they followed HIM!
St John Bosco: "What tenderness there is in Jesus' love for man! In his infinite goodness, he established with each of us, bonds of sublime love! His love has no limits."
ST Therese of Lissieux: "You alone, O Jesus, could satisfy a soul that needed to love even to the infinite."
St Maximillian Kolbe: "Shall the urge for complete and total happiness, inherent to human nature, be the only need to remain unfulfilled and unsatisfied? No, even this longing can be fulfilled by the infinite and eternal God."
ST Pio of Pietrelcina: "If the soul longs for nothing else than to love its God, then don't worry and be quite sure that this soul possesses everything, that it possesses God himself."
Saying goodbye to Johnnie... Our prayers go with him, and the Love of Christ has touched him deeply through his cancer journey and his handicap as a result... Part of the deeper journey that the saints are all a part of... takes them into the furnace of His Love and the purifying that takes place! Jesus, we trust in you!
The Gospel for today is the amazing Beatitudes! That which the saints stived to live their lives in Him and to embody the Beatitudes! Pope Benedict says: " Nothing can bring us into close contact with the beauty of Christ himself other than the world of beauty created by faith and light that shines out from the faces of the saints, through whom his own light becomes visible." Pope Benedict XVI
"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied."
"Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." Matt 5: 1-12
Jesus, Your Love for us overwhelms us and fills us with the desire to throw off all that comes between us and to be purified by your burning love and desire for us to follow you and serve you and honor you with our lives and all that we do! We are yours... Thank you for the saints that while on earth strived to reveal your love for us and now from heaven are interceding and continuing to help us reach a clean and pure heart! Your love is overwhelming and wonderful... may we drown in it and never come up for air! Now that would take total trust! Jesus, we trust in you! Armed with the many lives of the saints to show us how to love and to serve you with our lives! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb"Happy are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Happy the peacemakers; they shall be called sons of God. Happy are they who suffer persecution for justice' sake; the kingdom of heaven is theirs."
Matt 5: 8-10
A warm greeting to a mother of 11, and her 6 daughters from Woundsocket that are following daily! As Pat said to your son at the funeral; "You must be Catholic!" Thank you! Knowing you are following and supporting means so much! Bless-bless, Barb and family
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