Category: Blessings

When I close my eyes…

Here in this place a veil is drawn, there is so much we don’t see when our eyes are open, but what about when they are closed?

Oh my Lord, I pray that when I close my eyes the darkness surrounding me is the protective darkness of the hem of our Blessed Mother’s mantle.

For here, hidden in the hem of her mantle, Mary’s feet will crush the head of any serpent that ensnares me, Mary’s words and teachings will soak into my ears, my heart, my soul, and knowing that Mary remains lovingly and faithfully near her Son always, I too will be near her sweet and precious Son, our Savior – Jesus Christ!

Close your eyes and let us crawl to the feet of our Blessed Mother and hide in the protective darkness of her mantle!

Luke 1:45
Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!

Intersections

When two opposing lines, a vertical line and a horizontal line, intersect they create a cross – just like the cross our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was crucified on.  On that ancient cross, at that intersection, heaven and earth collided, yet we forget… opposites and intersections are a part of our everyday lives and I think heaven can be found at these intersections.

My friends – seek the intersections, seek the opposites and when you find them fall to your knees in worship, prayer and gratitude as if you were before that very first intersection, the cross carrying our sweet and precious Lord, Jesus.

Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
– Luke 23:46

Aligned

Isn’t it funny that when waves are perfectly aligned they become bigger, or when a mirror is aligned with a light source the light is doubled, or when a compass is correctly aligned it can be used to find the way.

Sweet Lord, please align the ripples flowing from my heart with the tsunami of Your love , please align my mirror so that I may reflect Your perfect light, and please align the compass of my heart with Your Will so that my path will be straight and clear!  Please let me be an infinitesimal addition to the Your infinite goodness!

Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.
Luke 3:5

A Perfect Prayer

Sometimes during my workout, I take the word “neighbor” literally as the person on the machine next to me.  Yesterday someone was there and as I was working out I started praying for him. I prayed for him, his family, his friends, and his job, but it felt jumbled and messy, and not quite right.

I stopped myself for a moment and thought…

Holy Spirit, please give me the words to pray for this man.

I think I was hoping for specifics about him to better pray for this one man, but the next thoughts that started flowing through my mind were…

Let him Glorify You with his life,
Let him Glorify You through his marriage,
Let him Glorify You through his children,
Let him Glorify You through his job,
Let him Glorify You through his family,
Let him Glorify You through his friends.
Let him Glorify You in all aspects of his life.
Let him Glorify You with his life.

Halfway through this prayer I realized that these words were not mine, they did not come from me. I realized this prayer had been given to me.

I am still in awe of this perfect prayer.   It’s beautiful simplicity and it’s perfect logic that both allow it to be prayed over everyone while keeping it always aligned with His will.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
– James 1:17

Encapsulate

Time goes on, never to return again. Whatever is enclosed in it will never change; it seals with a seal for eternity. 
– Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska

Each moment of our lives we are slowly building our own time capsules, sealing in each moment, every thought, every word with a seal for eternity that will not be broken until we stand trembling at the foot of His Glorious Throne.

Oh my Lord, all seems lost when I think of the muck I have encapsulated up to this point, but then I am reminded through Saint Maria Faustina’s beautiful dairy of Your infinite Divine Mercy!

Oh my Lord, I long for LOVE to pour forth from my capsule when You break the seal!  Please help me fill it with LOVE!

Come, come and see…

When I first began writing this blog, I didn’t realize I was searching for Jesus, but now that I have found Him (through His infinite Mercy and Grace alone) how I long to take EVERYONE by the hand and say,

“Come, come and see…”

And then in His infinite kindness and gentleness He whispers – patience my love, they are coming, they will see, they too will find me… theirs is a different path, just as painfully beautiful as yours, but different.  Keep praying, keep loving, and keep listening so that you know when the time is ripe for you to take someone by the hand and say ever so gently and full of My love,

“Come, come and see!!!”

Blessed are the eyes that truly see…

On New Year’s Eve we had dinner with our family.  I love going around the table and giving everyone a chance to give thanks for something from the year.

As always when it was my turn, my eyes welled up with tears, my throat became tight and my sweet girls lovingly said, “There she goes again… Mommy’s going to cry.”  We all started laughing and as I was wiping away my tears and getting ready to speak, my sweet husband quietly spoke and said, “Sarah is thankful for the wind as it blows through the trees, a leaf that falls in her path, a bird that soars past our kitchen window, a caterpillar she finds in the backyard… she is thankful for everything.”

Sweet Lord, I love the little reminders You place in our paths.  My sweet love truly sees me more than I realize and in that moment I felt so deeply understood and loved.  Oh my Lord… I am so blessed that he is mine, I am his and we are Yours!

Thank You, thank You, thank You… in every moment and in everything – Thank You sweet Jesus!

Opposites

I was talking with my daughter the other night before bed and she brought up heaven and hell.  She wondered why God would send anyone to hell?  It is such a simple question, and yet so deep that it has been debated by the greatest of minds.

It’s so interesting to me that in heaven there are no opposites.  The opposites of heaven exist only in hell.  For example, in heaven there is love, and the only way to describe the opposite of love in heaven is to say, “the absence of love”, because in heaven there is no word for hatred since it doesn’t exist there.

We live in a world where opposites co-exist, and yet our true home is in a world where opposites don’t exist.

I don’t think God sends anyone to hell, but it is almost as if heaven can’t hold us while we still contain the opposites of heaven within ourselves.  Maybe it is the great weight of these opposites within that cause us to fall from heaven as Lucifer did so long ago.  Maybe as we release them to Jesus we become light…

  • Free of physical weight
  • Electromagnetic radiation – some of which (waves within a certain portion of the spectrum) make things visible

And once we have become light (in both definitions) – there is no place that can hold us but heaven.

Oh my Love, my Lord, my sweet Jesus – the mysteries you have buried around every corner amaze me, excite me and fill me with great joy as I stumble upon them time and time again.

Faithful in the little things

“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.
Luke 16:10

When I think of being faithful in the little things, I am reminded of “The Little Way” of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.  I am reminded of the image of seeking holiness of life in the ordinary and the everyday.

Recently I have been trying to be faithful in the little things by acknowledging that He is guiding me, directing me and teaching me through the little moments of my everyday.  As music plays in the background of my day and a specific song catches my attention, I acknowledge that He chose this song for me in this specific moment  and I thank Him and quietly listen for His message.  When my soul is pricked by a moment that has passed or something that has been said, I immediately turn inward to thank Him and attempt to understand the lesson buried within.  These faithful little moments have been such a blessing to me as I find myself thinking of Him, turning towards Him, leaning on Him, loving Him more and more throughout my everyday life.

I pray to continue growing in faithfulness in very little things so that someday He will grant me the grace to be faithful in much!

Know thyself…

I have been back in the gym for four years.  I have lovingly come to call my time spent there my worshipful workout.  Today as I was climbing my never ending imaginary mountain I realized that my workout has become even more, He has helped me turn this time into a time of self reflection, of self knowledge and confession as He so gently reminds me of my mistakes, failures and sprinkles in the few triumphs when I have truly let Him work through and in me.

Over the past few years I have climbed about 2500 miles on the elliptical at the gym, but the strides He has given me the grace to take down the path of knowing thyself are infinitely more meaningful.

Sweet Lord, as I dig deeper into knowing myself the demons within surround me… You alone are my refuge and I beg you to please let every sorrow filled tear that falls be full of pure and true contrition, and every joy filled tear that falls be full of pure and true praise and gratitude for You!