Both Pat and I got messages from Hallel a few weeks ago that she was going for a week's retreat in Poland. Yesterday we received this postcard from her displaying this icon - Our Lady of Czestochowa, and some very powerful words on the back of the postcard. John and I just read about this icon, which is hugely venerated in Poland! We read about the two scars on her face and they were inflicted in the 1400s by the Hussites that stole it - they slashed the painting and it bled! Even though they have tried to repair - they remain, and so powerfully now as I share Susan's insight to her family and "everybody."
Dearest mom, dad, and everybody, Jan 24, 2015 Poland
Today I went to Czestochowa and I prayed for each and everyone of you by name, for your joys but also for those things which are more difficult. I know that Our Lady heard this prayer and that she is with each one of you. When I was looking at this icon I saw those two wounds on her face and I think that Our Lady is trying to teach me, and all humanity, that our wounds can become a source of life; we do not need to hide our wounds, rather we need to let new life flow from them. Easy to say but to live.... Do this work in me, Lord, because this is the true way to find Life and joy and not to stay/remain in that which hurts and is difficult. Today it is "snowing" (it is more like flurries) but it is the first snow since I was in KC for Holy Week 2 years ago...(I posted a blog post about the her last time with snow while on her home visit on my blog last night... http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/2015/02/wake-up-world-pope-francis.html) The Lord heard my prayer!
I love you all and you are all very close to me!
God Bless,
Your little Sister Hallel
It has been a morning filled with birthday celebrating, prayer, lots of texts with Pat's family as his mom is spending a few days in the hospital here in town to get some heart issues taken care of, and reading and rereading these words of Hallel's as we learn of this amazing icon of Poland! The Gospel for today is most powerful, too. When it is read and shared 3 times between reading it the night before, with morning prayer with Pat and with John after sharing Lauds/the office... it is a form of Lectio Divino and really makes parts jump out at you and makes it sink in deep and life-changing! This is the way of Hallel's community to start the night before mendicating the Word - chanting and speaking each line over and over - up to 12 times each! I have shared how excited I get to read it the night before, and this one from Mark 5 did not disappoint! The raising from the dead of a 12 year old girl and the woman, who comes up behind him and touches his clothes to be healed of her 12 years of bleeding!
The first reading today is amazing also from St Paul to the Hebrews..."Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of Faith." Hebrews 12 St Paul is not saying that we won't have scars from our wounds, but that we take those wounds and bring forth LIFE from them! I am realizing that John's story of being allowed to have brain cancer to discover Faith is not one from which people run away... it is merely reminding us that no matter what we face, and there is hard/difficult wounds in all of our lives, that Jesus is there to give us LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT which He gave us through the Cross and He asks us to take up our Cross and follow after Him!
I have personally witnessed those that are able to reach out and touch the hem of his garment! I have shared being invited to come up to Cora Jesu - Heart of Jesus - gathering by Hallel/Susan about 7 years ago. It was a Church up on St Thomas campus filled with young people singing praise and worship to Jesus in the monstrance in the altar - around the base of the monstrance was a scarf/altar cloth. Two at atime people could come up and hold onto his robe and have that intimate contact with Jesus their lover and healer! So powerful! There were priests scattered throughout the Church hearing reconciliations - the sacrament of healing! Everytime I hear this Gospel it feels like I was there and witnessed this scene - I have!
Danielle Rose wrote a most amazing song about this Gospel - If I Touch Him
Then she reminds us that when we take him into ourselves through The Eucharist we are continuing to be touching him!
I think that it is obvious that I am so full today of so much that it is overflowing from within. I pray that there is some sense from all this!
Jesus, may the wounds we have not be hidden so that we may humbly share with all those around us. May it be revealed that we share this pain of life - the Cross which brings us to find LIFE/LOVE/LGIHT - not only to find it but to share your life through those wounds. Yes, Our Lady is truly there to show us those wounds and bonding us to her as we also have wounds to show! She brings us to LIFE and shows us how we are called to bear her Son, Jesus, to the world - most especially to those closest to us in our domestic Church/family! It is crazy to read her heartfelt words of ending saying that she is "very close to me." How can that be when we have not seen her for almost a year and a half? It is because of our shared Faith and she knows that we are touched by her prayers and sharing this beautiful insight she has received from this powerful icon. We share Jesus in His Word each day. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
Bless-bless, Barbara Luke
By his taking flesh and coming among us, and through the sacraments he continues to touch us even today; transforming our hearts, he unceasingly enables us to acknowledge and acclaim him as the Son of God. In faith, we can touch him and receive the power of his grace. Saint Augustine, commenting on the account of the woman suffering from hemorrhages who touched him and was cured, says: To touch him with our hearts: that is what it means to believe.
Pope Francis
We love you, John! Happy Birthday! Bless-bless
Newsboys - we Believe!
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