The Annunciation - Happy Feast Day!

This video is veeeerrrrry POWERFUL.
Thank you, Blessed Mother.  Thank you for saying YES.

Let it be done according to Your Word.

Fiat!

JOY not OY! :-)

Peace.  Pax.  Pacem.  No matter what you call it, I am feelin' it and sooooo happy to have a respite from the struggle!

I was on team for the Diocese of Scranton Women's Cursillo last weekend and it was absolutely a gift from God for me.  The very moment I arrived at St Gabriel's monastery, I could feel the tangible presence of Christ.  I went immediately to the chapel to say hello to Him and spend some time in front of the tabernacle before the weekend festivities began, and I was instantly filled with an intense peace and feeling of great love.  It was clearly a gift of divine grace, as I had been so stressed that I did not think I would have anything at all to offer to the team and candidates. 

God gave me respite.  He gave me strength.  He gave me everything I needed to be able to do His will for the weekend.  Isn't He just like that?  Always giving us exactly what we need?  The key is to trust and to conform my will to His will.

He gives me whatever I want, because I want whatever He gives. 
                   ~ St. Therese 

Persevere. 
Trust. 
Decrease so that He may increase.

Fiat! 

The Power of the Sacraments by Sister Briege

I just finished reading a little book by Sister Briege McKenna called The Power of the Sacraments.  It is only 64 pages long and not really meant for someone who has an understanding of the sacraments already.  The length of it precludes any in depth theological discourse.  It is, however, perfect for someone who may be sitting in the pews, unaware of the basic meanings and power that the sacraments have in the lives of those who receive them with faith.

Sr. Briege devotes a few pages to each and every sacrament, sharing common insights and a few of her own thoughts.  She shares stories of her own encouters with people in the sacraments and the healing they bring.  The story she told in the chapter on marriage was especially poignant and brought me to tears, thankful for the tremendous grace God continues to shower on His children through these supernatural treasures.

I think that people who don't even know what they are missing are not likely to pick up a regular book on a topic such as sacraments, but if given a little one like this, might be more apt to take a peek. 

I think I will put this little book somewhere it will get picked up and peeked at.  My hope is that this little taste of the truth will inspire a greater desire for more knowledge and further study.

P.S.  As many of you know, I enjoy reviewing books for The Catholic Company in exchange for free books.  They have asked me to share with you that Catholic Company is also a great source for serenity prayer and baptism gifts.  If you are interested in signing up for the reviewer program, let me know, and I will give you the information.

Padre Pio to Padre Agostino

I am oppressed by the uncertainty of my future, but I cherish the lively hope of seeing my dreams fulfilled, because the Lord cannot place thoughts and desires in a person's soul if he does not really intend to fulfill them, to gratify these longings, which he alone has caused.

~ Letter to P. Agostino from P. Pio

October 4, 1915

Oh, how I pray that this is true!

oy.  fiat.

Oy

I have failed miserably this month at being the person I know God is calling me to be. I have been stressed beyond belief and am being tested time and time and TIME again. I have never failed a single test in my academic career, but in the spiritual realms, I would be kicked out of school if it was not for the mercy of our Beloved Teacher.


I have no choice but to rely on Him for everything. The very millisecond I think I have things all figured out, I fall flat on my face. This time, I fell extra hard, and I simply have had very little strength to get back up again. It has been much easier for me to just lay down and argue with God, trying to manipulate Him into giving me what i want---what I THOUGHT He wanted. And in case you have ever wondered, reverse psychology does NOT work on Him. Trust me. Don't waste your breath. :-)

Sooooo....I am beaten down. I am tired and worn out. I can do nothing on my own--NOTHING. I have no choice but to give it to Him all over again, and always AGAIN.

Will I ever learn?

I have heard it said that we should not beat ourselves up about our shortcomings as we journey on this path to holiness. Would the loving father of a toddler be mad at his child who falls when he is learning to walk? Of course not! He would pick him back up and help him to try again. And the same is true with our Father in heaven. All of this falling and failing is part of the learning process if we permit Him to help us to continue to move forward on the journey. When He sees us fall, it is with the eyes of a loving parent who sees us progressing forward as we grow in our love for Him and align ourselves to His will. All is well......it just does not feel well right now.....But it will again.....just need to keep getting up.

fiat.

The Conversion of St. Paul and Me

Thirteen years ago today, on the feast day of the Conversion of Saint Paul and Super Bowl Sunday, a man broke into my home and brutally assaulted me in my bed at a few minutes after 3:00 a.m..  I was lucky to be alive, and a judge I knew at the time told me, "God must have something very special planned for you."

The truth is that God does have something special planned for me.  But I am not unique, as the reality is that He has something special planned for each and every person on our planet.  The question is, are we able to accept His special and unique plans for us?  Are we able to love His will more than we love our own will?

I suffered in seeming darkness for a number of years after I was attacked by this still unknown stranger.  But when I ultimately gave up trying to heal my own mind, I finally relented, and gave my mind and my whole self, to God.  It is a long story of great grace and great love and miraculous healing, but the happy ending is that instead of living my life in darkness, seeing no need for God, He used this attack to bring about a greater good.  HE ALWAYS DOES THAT IF WE LET HIM.  He used the attack to knock me off my horse, in much the same way He did to Paul.  Of course Paul had a real horse, God spoke out loud to Him and he became blind for awhile, but my horse was just as real to me.  It was the pride and the arrogance of believing that I was in control of everything and did not need anyone but myself.  I had no need for God until I fell on my butt and needed help to get up. 

Now let there be no confusion:  GOD DID NOT CAUSE THIS MAN TO ATTACK ME.  He does not cause drunk people to kill people in car accidents, nor does He cause people to be mugged, or raped or murdered or husbands to beat their wives or anything at all that is evil.  He may permit these things as a consequence of the Fall and our own free will, but He will always use them to bring about a greater good---ALWAYS.

I hate when well-meaning people say that 'bad things always happen for a reason.'  That is simply not true, not helpful, and waaaayyy too new-agey for me.  The only reason evil things happen is because people make bad decisions that bring about bad actions and bad consequences.  So while things do not happen for a good reason,  God uses those bad things to bring about a good result if we let Him.  There is a big difference in this.  Maybe I am not explaining this well, but it is like saying that God wants or makes these bad things to happen so He can use them for a greater good.  NOT TRUE.  God does not want these bad things to happen, nor does He make them happen.  He is pure good and perfection and incapable of evil.  He may not always stop them from happenning, but He always gives us the grace to handle them and bring about a greater conversion or greater love or greater forgiveness or whatever it is that is lacking in our own spiritual (and sometimes physical) well-being.  A good can never be diminshed by an evil.  Case in point:  The greatest evil in history---DEICIDE--The murder of Jesus, our GOD.  And yet this seemingly abject failure of a mission, brought about the redemption and salvation of countless souls, past, present and future.  There can be no greater gift than this.  God permitted the worst evil known to mankind to be committed against Himself, and He used it to bring about the greatest good of all time--Eternal life for us, with Him, in paradise.

God, our Father, is calling each of us to Himself through Jesus, His only begotten Son.  No one should ever believe that they can not 'get over' this or that traumatic event.  With Christ, all things are possible, and all evil can be made good by Him who is all good, all knowing, all powerul and all loving.

Let it be done according to Your Will, Lord.  Fiat.

Mysteries of the Virgin Mary, Living Our Lady's Graces - by Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P.

In Father Cameron's own words, his mission in writing the book, Mysteries of the Virgin Mary, Living Our Lady’s Graces, "is to present the real life of the Blessed Virgin Mary as it is commemorated in the Marian liturgical feasts of the Church," pointing out the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, where it states, "the Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship." But really, this description only touches the surface. The fullness to which he captures the depth of Mary, Mother of God and Our Mother, and the depth to which my heart is moved by his words, goes beyond any other book on Mary that I have read thus far.

I love St. Louis de Monfort. His love for the Blessed Mother and his True Devotion and 33-Day Preparation for Consecration are classics which should be read by everyone. I personally renew my 33-day consecration annually, and every year, I find myself growing closer to Jesus, through Mary, through the 33-day preparation written by St Louis. I must admit, however, that to this day, after having begun this annual tradition about 5 or 6 years ago, I am still mystified by some of it. Oh, I know that the Holy Spirit reveals these things to us, sometimes over a lifetime and rarely all at once, but I have longed for something that would explain, in depth, the mysteries of Mary, and why she is so important to our faith. Don’t get me wrong---I feel it. But I want to be able to verbalize it....to share it. Father Cameron has done just that.

Father Cameron begins by asking the question, Why Pray to Mary? He gives seven compelling answers, including quote after quote from numerous saints, as to why God gives us graces through Mary. Father Cameron gives an explanation that does not rely on mere pronouncement, but is backed up with insight that can only come from the Holy Spirit Himself. Father writes beautifully and clearly, without debate, and gives the reader a hunger to know our Lady and her Beloved Son all the better.

After taking the time to answer some of the basic questions, Father Cameron devotes the remaining chapters of his book to specific events and titles of our Blessed Mother, offering compelling quotes that literally brought me to my knees. For instance, I have never heard of St Amadeus of Lausanne before, but this quote of his struck me in a special way, given the context in the chapter, and the place I am in my own life right now:

        Mary suffers delay that she may advance, she advances through her perseverance. Perseverance, joined to love and work, creates fullness, brings forth perfection.

Mary suffered separation from her Divine Son when He died for our salvation. The delay of years before she could see Him again must have seemed like an eternity for her maternal and immaculate heart. But we can be assured that her remaining earthly life was of great value to the early Church and to us. In this separation and delay, is great mercy for all the world. Read this book and you will be inspired to love more, and to know the Lord in the fullness of His Mother’s own memory.

I will treasure this book and read it over and over and over again.

FIAT!

P.S.  As many of you know, I enjoy reviewing books for The Catholic Company in exchange for free books.  They have asked me to share with you that Catholic Company is also a great source for serenity prayer and baptism gifts.  If you are interested in signing up for the reviewer program, let me know, and I will give you the information.

Advent: Training for the Final Coming of Christ

"The liturgy of Advent…helps us to understand fully the value and meaning of the mystery of Christmas. It is not just about commemorating the historical event, which occurred some 2,000 years ago in a little village of Judea. Instead, it is necessary to understand that the whole of our life must be an ‘advent,’ a vigilant awaiting of the final coming of Christ. To predispose our mind to welcome the Lord who, as we say in the Creed, one day will come to judge the living and the dead, we must learn to recognize him as present in the events of daily life. Therefore, Advent is, so to speak, an intense training that directs us decisively toward him who already came, who will come, and who comes continuously."

~ Pope John Paul II
            Dec. 18, 2002

The Advent of Our King

This has been the BEST Advent EVER!  More so than any other year, this has been a time of real preparation for the birth of our Lord.  I think it was two years ago that I prayed that I would understand the significance of Christmas better.....that I would find a particular closeness to and love for Jesus as the Divine Infant.  I must admit, that it often seemed just too sentimental for me, especially in light of how many people see Christmas merely as a season for shopping and partying, giving and receiving gifts bought on credit.....That after all of the craziness of the preparations, it was over in a day.  How empty that must be for people who don't know God.  We are lucky to have Him in our hearts, but we must never be happy with the degree to which we know, love and serve Him.  We must always strive for more, praying and begging that He will increase our desire for Him, increase our Love for Him.......

In a world where so many parents increasingly fail to put their children at the center of their lives, it is not surprising that they would forget about the baby Jesus unless they happened to glance at a manger scene for a moment.  But this is our Savior!  This is our God!  This is the King of Universe, who permitted Himself to become a virtual prisoner in the virginal womb of His holy and blessed Mother.  He permitted Himself to become powerless to see to his own human needs.  As it was recently pointed out to me, He allowed Himself to be put into a position of having to sit in a poopy diaper, waiting to be noticed and surrender His will to that of His parents.  He suffered hunger until He was fed and cold until He was clothed.  Don't be deceived into thinking this is no big deal for a baby.  THIS particular baby was GOD.  What a humble gift we have in Him!  Jesus surrendered every bit of Himself for the will of our Father.

How many people in our lives or in our world have no choice but to surrender everything to God because they have virtually nothing to care for themselves, either by poverty or by illness or infirmity of some kind?  Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 5:3

Are we as blessed?  Are we surrendering everything to God out of necessity, or must we make an active decision to do it? 

During this Advent, I have made an effort to deepen my surrender and dependence on God.  It is easier some days than others, that is for sure.  But we must try again, and always try again and again.  He deserves nothing less.  Let us give Him our loved ones and our hearts.  Let us give Him our hopes, dreams, pain and suffering.  All of it is pure gift to Him.

What will YOU give Him for Christmas this year?

Let it be done according to Your will. 
FIAT.