The Belly of the Whale

My sweet husband took me to Lourdes, France this summer. On our first morning we attended the International Mass in the Basilica of St. Pius X. The Basilica of St. Pius X is a huge underground cathedral with a maximum capacity of 25,000 people.

During the mass there were many times that I didn’t understand what was being said, because it was held in many different languages. In these moments, I took in my surroundings and was amazed to realize that I was sitting in what looked like the belly of a whale.

We were not there for 3 days and 3 nights, instead about 3 hours, but in that time I prayed and praised the Lord for inviting us, bringing us and preparing all of us, me, my family, everyone there (about 2000 people), to do His Holy and Good Will!

Jonah 2:1-10

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said:

“In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me.
From deep in realm of the dead, I called for help,
and You listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers swept over me.
I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight;
yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
brought my life up from the pit.
When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered You, Lord,
and my prayer rose to You,
to Your holy temple.
Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to You.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from Lord.'”

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.


Desiring His Will

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

All THINGS work towards fulfilling His Good and Holy Will, therefore all our words and actions are within His Will regardless of our intentions.  As we grow in desiring His Will, our intentions, words and actions ALL begin to beautifully align with His Will.

Oh my Lord, please plant a seed of Great Desire to align and surrender to Your Holy Will within my heart so that my intentions, thoughts, words and actions will ALL remain always within Your Will.

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done

Giving us Time

He who does not know TIME – came up with the idea for TIME.  This alone should awe us into silence and yet there is so much more.

He designed an amazingly wonderful plan for creating soul filled beings that could learn, change and grow within TIME.  It is in these few moments that we have here on this earth that we have an opportunity to grow.  Watching as we learn, change and grow, greatly pleases Him.  We amaze Him as we strive for and grow in Holiness, and we bring Him great sorrow when we don’t, yet He is always cheering us on, giving us many more chances and opportunities to grow by giving us TIME.

When the final bell tolls on our life, our opportunities for change and growth end too.  It is this final state of our soul that is grafted into His infinite, eternal moment, and determines the depth of joy and pleasure we will be able to hold as we dig deep and explore His infinite love and goodness.

Oh my sweet Lord – please let the rest of my life be a prayer for all of my brothers and sisters to fully surrender to Your Holy Will so we may all grow in love and holiness as we journey through TIME.  Please teach me how to be Your gardener!

John 9:4
As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.

Grafted

Every sin large or small hurts those we are sinning against, but I think our sweet Jesus stands in front every time taking the brunt of the damage, accepting one more lash from the whip.

We have all whipped Him.

Romans 3:23 …for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God…

Once we realize, accept and deeply mourn that some of the lacerations on His precious and holy body are from us, we can then thank our sweet and holy and precious Lord for accepting these lashes, because without these fresh wounds and openings we would not be able to climb inside and graft the dead twig of our life into the living root of Jesse, Jesus Christ!

Sweet Lord Jesus, please graft us to You so we might live in You and You may live and bear fruit through us!

Romans 15:12  And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.”

Mark 8:22-26  They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

The Golden Touch

If we could realize the merit concealed in the actions of each moment of the day… if we understood that surrender to the will of God is the true philosopher’s stone that changes into divine gold all our occupations, troubles, and sufferings, what great consolation would be ours!

I read this the other day in The Joy of Full Surrender by Jean-Pierre de Caussaude (chapter 9, Holy Made Easy) and I immediately thought of King Midas.

I’m sure you have heard of King Midas.  He was a king of great fortune who wished for – The Golden Touch, for everything he touched to be turned to gold.  Initially he received his wish with great joy, running through his castle turning everything to gold, but his joy quickly turn to fear as he realized even the food he tried to eat turned to gold before reaching his mouth, and finally his fear became true horror when he turned his own daughter to gold by giving her a hug.

Isn’t it crazy how quickly the desires of our flesh that seem good, can be twisted and turned into horrors?  Yet with the eyes of faith, a heart of love, and a true desire to fully surrender to the Will of God, we all gain The Golden Touch and everything we do is changed into divine gold in His Heavenly Realm.

Matthew 6:19-21
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done!

A New Clear Eye

One of my daughters is beginning to study the human body.  Last weekend we were studying some of the definitions.
Cell and Nucleus (pl. Nuclei) were two of the words.

Cell – The basic unit of all living things.
Nucleus – The central part of most cells that contains genetic material.

As we were studying, she started thinking about how she used believe that her body was full of little people doing all of the work inside.  When she was little used to talk about “Pooper pushers” and “Mrs. Wishy Washy” and the different jobs they did in her body.  She told me towards the end of studying that it was awesome to hear that all of these little people really existed, and now she knew that they were called cells.

After savoring this sweet and precious memory, I started thinking about all of our cells as people too.  I wondered about their individual wills within each nucleus, and I wondered if I ask all of the little people (cells) in my body to collectively turn their nuclei towards the Will of Our Heavenly Father – what might happen?

Obviously I don’t know the answer to this, but I think if every cell in my body is aligned with the Holy Will of Our Heavenly Father, it would be more difficult for me as a whole person to fall out of alignment with His Holy Will.

Sweet Lord, I pray to  surrender to You at the most basic level of my body, and I pray that as my inner nuclei align with Your Holy Will I am given a New Clear Eye allowing my whole body to be full of Your Light.

Matthew 6:22
The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

Holy

This morning I woke up struggling with a conversation I had yesterday regarding my belief and thoughts on a topic that I had prayed, read and thought about for quite some time.  I woke up wondering if I was being closed minded, hard hearted, and proud.  In search of an answer I prayed, “Sweet Lord, please align both of us with Your Holy Will and please lead me to what You would like me to read this morning.”

After this prayer, I looked aimlessly through the books scattered around our house, and then finally decided to complete a few questions in my Bible study.  After looking for my bag, I remembered that I had left it in the car.  When I opened the door to retrieve it, I found page 16 from my disintegrating copy of The Joy of Full Surrender by Jean-Pierre de Caussade laying beside my bag and Chapter 8 jumped out at me.

It read…

Who is the Most Holy?

The will of God gives a supernatural and divine value to everything of the soul that is submitted to it.  All the duties God’s will imposes, all those contained in it, all the matters it touches, become holy and perfect, because the will of God is unlimited in power and makes everything it touches divine.

Thank You my Sweet Lord – I submit myself again to You and pray to continually submit myself every day, every hour, every minute, every second for the rest of my life.

Thy Kingdom Come, They Will Be Done

The White Flag Comes First

Please my sweet Lord – let us not forget that we must first raise our white flags in full surrender of ourselves to YOU before we can be truly washed clean and made pure and white as snow.

Isaiah 1:16-18
Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil,
Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow.

“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.”