In morning prayer today the pslam was 84 and they related it to Our Blessed Mother. As we walked into St Peters in Rome some years back there was in the floor the saying - Totus Tuus (totally yours).... the Papal moto of Blessed John Paul II. "This statement of Trust in the Blessed Virgin Mary is not an unimportant factor in reflecting on the life of this great pope, John Paul, following the Marian piety of St Louis de Montfort, entrusted all his prayers and works to the Blessed Virgin Mary. We would do well to entrust all our cares and our very lives to her, for she is the 'safest, easiest, shortest, and most perfect way' to Jesus and to sanctity." St Louis de Montfort Today being the feast day of The Blessed Virgin Mary - Saturdays are devoted to her - it is so very true that her rosary is what I cling to in the midst of the "Bitter Valley." I don't need to think about the words - they are just there and keep me focused on His life and death and resurrection for me!
Watching Patrick's heart rate drop and then unable to find it... and the minutes seemed like hours before they took Maria to the OR... all I could do in my agony of fear in the Bitter Valley was tearfully and desperately cry to Our Lady in her "Hail Mary!" A few days later St Paul expressed it in Romans 8..."We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves , who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait..." Romans 8:22 The wait was agonizing and a kind hospital worker took it upon herself to go between what was going on with Maria and Patrick and give me what little news she could get. In the meantime I sat paralyzed in the Bitter Valley and could only repeat the "Hail Mary" and "The Our Father" in groans of pain and blind faith! I tried not to entertain the worst fears, but I was surrounded by darkness until little by little the Light came in as with the slow coming of daylight with the beginning of each day. The darkness becomes less and less, and the world lightens enough to Trust that daybreak will come!
As I was looking at this picture of Patrick with his hands folded in prayer... I saw this small Cross of light below him reflected on the plastic of his bed! Patrick teaches us to embrace our Most Cherished Cross - he is the little Lamb! Lord, going back to that dark place in the Bitter Valley reminds us of how much we have come into the daylight with each day of healing! Starting with his baptism in the middle of NICU filled with nurses and your tiny little Lambs with all the beeping and alarm sounds that is the background music of their young battles for life... The Bitter Valley becomes a "place of springs, the autumn rains cover it with blessings." Psalm 84 We feel drenched with the waters of LIFE and LOVE and LIGHT! We fall before you, Lord, may we be humble Lambs giving our all with not a single sound of complaint! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
"Standing by the Cross of Jesus were his mother... When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, 'Woman behold , your son.' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother.' And from that hour the disciple took her into his home." John 19: 25-27
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