Harvest of Souls!!!

Harvest of Souls - All Souls day 2012!  Yesterday morning at All Saints day mass in the introduction there was a mention that with the Saints it was a "harvest of Holiness."  Last night I finally finished Story of a Soul by St Therese, and after she was too ill to write... as she slowly and with great suffering suffocated to death due to her tuberculosis.  Her sisters, 3 of which were her actual sisters, sat by her and recorded her few painful words as she yearned for the end and to be united with her Spouse!  I felt that it was quite a terrible death... I have said often in my work with hospice and now with the elderly towards the end of their lives, that being unable to breath is a terrible and terrifying PAIN!  Yet, Therese, at only 24, was called upon to die surrounded by her community, and with each agonizing breath she did not curse or cry out for the end...she simply prayed through it and yes - yearned to be with her LOVE, Christ.  She had also promised us that she would spend her heaven doing good here on earth, and she had a very deep conviction to souls and helping them.  This is true also of St Faustina, and her deeply personal call from her Spouse to promote to the world that He is more Merciful than we can ever imagine, and that he thrists for our Souls to come to HIM and find peace and release from sin!  I know, without a doubt,that these two great saints are constantly at work for all souls that are in purgatory, and are in harm's way here on earth!  We can enlist them to minister to those in our lives that we are the most concerned about.  Also united with our own relentless prayers for all those of our dead that we have to pray to heaven.  When I do the chaplet of Divine Mercy - I always first dedicate it to all those that have no one to pray for them that are dying or have died.   There is such a great need for this, and it just seems like a very right thing to do!  I would love to know that when I die... #1 that my family continues to pray for me.  #2 that those that are of faith and are loyally lifting up all those that have gone before, like me, and still need some purification before they can stand in the bright LIGHT Of GOD! 

Beautiful sunrise this morning reminding us of how glorious is our God and His creation - us!  Yet, we only can find our place close to HIM and his Heart burning with LOVE for us, if we leave behind our selfishness and give our all to HIM!  Why do we fight doing this so much?  Praying morning prayer with Pat this morning, and praising him for all our blessings... it was hard to think of all the lies that Satan has fills the world with.  The way that all we look at sin as relative and gray instead of the black and white - good vs evil - that is the Truth!  With the election just days away, and the attack on the sanctity of marriage in our state.  So disheartening to know that the Truth has been lost and trampled upon as judgemental and hateful!  How can a loving embracing of the Truth become so evil and ugly in the eyes of the world?  How can the ugliness of sin become the beauty of LOVE?  How can a call to a life of prayer and penance and the resulting LIFE and True LOVE of the Cross be rejected as denying the pleasure of sinfulness and the end result of death and the culture of death once again wins?  The Church is there as a shining beacon on the hill, and it is showing us the way to Heaven!  Do not turn away or listen to the lies of Satan!!!

Lord, we lay our lives at your feet!  We are so distrubed by the evil that just is accepted and promoted in our world.  We strive to protect and educate all those we are put in charge of to the Truth!  We are forever grateful to have our wise and glorious True Catholic Church always there to help us "see" with eyes of Faith!  The Path of LIFE and LOVE is laid out before us as we carry forth our Most Cherished Cross!  You are with us and when we are weak - you carry us in your arms! 

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shll not want.

In verdant pastures he gives me repose;

beside restful waters he leads me;

he refreshes my soul." 

Yes, Lord, the psalm from mass today - Psalm 23 - is the reality of how we are ministered to you in our times of need.  There is no wonder that the trials come to us in life, because that is when we realize that we truly need you!  "For is we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection."  Romans 6  This was the second reading today from mass, and yes, Lord, we need to go through the Cross the find the resurrection! No, the Cross is not fun, and we die to self, and that is miserable and humbling... but then we find YOU more fully and completely within our inner temple of the Holy Spirit!  We can then go forth to share your LOVE, LIFE, and LIGHT with those closest to us in our domestic Church/family, and may we see your face in all those we come in contact with this day!  Jesus, we lift up all our dead and pray for them without ceasing!  May they do the same for us.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"And this is the will of the One who sent me, that I should not lose anything that He gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day.  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day."  John 6: 37-40 Gospel for today!

"I am the Resurrection and the Life", says the Lord.  "Whoever believes in me, even though he dies,will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will not die for ever."  John 11: 25-26

The Tenth Station:

Jesus is Stripped of His Garments - Reflections by Mother Angelica to the Stations of the Cross - http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/stations/stat10.htm

"It seems that every step to Calvary brought You fresh humiliation, my Jesus. How Your sensitive nature recoiled at being stripped before a crowd of people. You desired to leave this life as You entered it - completely detached from all the comforts of this world. You want me to know without a doubt that you loved me with an unselfish love. Your love for me caused You nothing but pain and sorrow. You gave everything and received nothing in return. Why do I find it so hard to be detached?

In your loving mind, dear Jesus, did You look up to the Father as You stood there on that windy hill, shivering from cold and shame and trembling from fear, and ask Him to have mercy on those who would violate their purity and make love a mockery? Did you ask forgiveness for those whose greed would make them lie, cheat and steal for a few pieces of cold silver?

Forgive us all, dear Jesus. Look upon the world with pity, for mankind has lost its way and the principles of this world make lust a fun game and luxury a necessity. Detachment has become merely another hardship of the poor and obedience the fault of the weak. Have mercy on us and grant the people of this day the courage to see and know themselves and the light to change.

Amen "