Blog Post 10/18/2021

                                             Day 9

                                                 

 

                                                                                                                                                                         

Think about your sins.

 

“What is the cross but humanity’s rejection of God?  By sin, you [and I] reject God …. Embrace him as he hangs on the Cross.  Allow him to tell you, heart to heart, what he told Mother Teresa:’ ‘You did it for me.’  Let him tell you that he submitted to it all … because he loves you and he wants to save you from your sins.”

[Burns, p.60-61]

 

 

                                                                                       Painting by Marc Chagall

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

St. Andre Bessette, intercede for us. 

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

“Tune my spirit to the music of heaven.”  [St. Brendan the Navigator]

 

May God Be Praised your day be Blessed.

Blog Post 10/17/2021

                                                                  Day 8

 

Today spend some time reflecting on your prayer life.  St. Francis de Sales advises us, “If possible [pray] in the morning, which is the best time for spiritual exercises, and think of them during the rest of the day.”  [McClernon, p.133]

 

de Sales, also, offers us his Direction of Intention to help start our day:

“My God, I give you this day.

I offer you, now, all of the good that I shall do …

and I promise to accept, for love of you,

all of the difficulty that I shall meet.

Help me to conduct myself during this day

In a manner pleasing to you.”  Amen.

 

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

St. Andre Bessette, intercede for us. 

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

“Tune my spirit to the music of heaven.”  [St. Brendan the Navigator]

 

May God Be Praised your day be Blessed.

Blog Post 10/16/2021

 

                                                                    Day 7

 

Cultivating the Garden of the Soul [Wright. pp.62-64]. “A garden is meant to be beautiful and fruitful, filled with life and fragrance, but a garden must be maintained.”  [Ibid., p.62]

 

In a little town outside of Dublin, Ireland, a man named O’Toole found a messy plot of land.  He spent weeks cleaning out the debris, racking and fertilizing the soil.  Then he planted flowers, carefully watered them.  After a few months his garden was a thing of beauty.

 

One day as he was admiring his garden, Fr. O’Reilly walked past and said to him.  What a fine garden you & the Lord have made.  O’Toole said Father you should have seen it when the Lord had it by Himself!

 

The Lord doesn’t make messes, but He helps clean them up after we make them.  You and I are called by Jesus – to listen to HIS WORD and allow it to guide our lives.  God wants us to find, clean, cultivate and maintain the garden, the garden of our soul.  We do that through God’s grace, in particular the graces offered in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

St. Andre Bessette, intercede for us. 

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

“Tune my spirit to the music of heaven.”  [St. Brendan the Navigator]

 

May God Be Praised your day be Blessed.

 

Blog Post 10/15/2021

 

                                                                       Day 6

 

Today thank God for your spiritual friends.  St. Francis de Sales wrote, in his “… Introduction to the Devout Life … that true spiritual friends – the intimate company and communication of those who share a love of God and a love of one another in God – were utterly necessary for those who wished to live a devout life.”  [Wright, p.77]

 

 

End this day with a prayer of gratitude for God and for your spiritual friends.

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

Saint Andre Bessette, intercede for us.

 

May God Be Praised and you be blessed.

Blog Post 10/14/2021 - Day 5

  

 

                                                                    Day 5

 

“As long as we live we will bear the burden of ourselves, the limitations of our humanity.”  [Kirvan, p.7]

As you find a flaw, a bad habit, that you want to overcome, begin today; but be patient.  As you work on a good habit to replace the bad one, remember to begin again and again.

God loves you as you are, and as you work to become.  God loves you, your resolve and your efforts.

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

St. Andre Bessette, intercede for us. 

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

“Tune my spirit to the music of heaven.”  [St. Brendan the Navigator]

 

May God Be Praised your day be Blessed.

 

Blog Post 10/13/2021 – Day 4

                                                                    Day 4

 

Today, “Be who you are ….”  [Kirvan, p.68]

 

St. Francis de Sales wrote, “Be who you are and be that well as a witness to the mastercraftsman who created you.”

 

You may be the only glimpse of God that someone sees, allow the light of God to shine through you.

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

St. Andre Bessette, intercede for us. 

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

“Tune my spirit to the music of heaven.”  [St. Brendan the Navigator]

 

May God Be Praised your day be Blessed.

 

Blog Post 10/12/2021 - Day 3

 

                                                                    Day 3

 

“[Love children] with a reverential love, as a sacred deposit from God.”   [McClernon, p.163]

Reflect on one of Pope John Paul I’s favorite stories, the Michelangelo Story, one day when Michelangelo was working in his studio (with his hammer and chisel) a friend walked into his work area and admired his work. 

He said, “Michelangelo what a great gift to be able to carve a statue from that big chunk of marble”.   Michelangelo said, “No, the statue is already in the marble all I do is draw it out.” 

Today look for the good, the glimpse of God in each person you meet; if you don't see the good, the glimpse of God, pray that someone will see what you have missed. 

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

St. Andre Bessette, intercede for us. 

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

“Tune my spirit to the music of heaven.”  [St. Brendan the Navigator]

 

May God Be Praised your day be Blessed.