Tag Archives: Holy Will

The Belly of the Whale

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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

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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

Hail Mary

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About two years ago I started feeling called to pray the Rosary.  I was excited to pray it and wanted to spread the call. I asked a friend to pray with me.  I bought Rosaries to give to the homeless and asked them to pray with me, and I bought a book about the Rosary, The Secret of the Rosary by Saint Louis de Montfort.

And then the time came to pray… every time I would begin to pray, I lacked patience, the desire to complete it left me as soon as I began and honestly I kept falling asleep in the middle of saying it.  My attempts became fewer and fewer and my excitement waned.

Then about six months ago I had an interesting discussion regarding the strong connection between our physical actions and our prayers, and I decided to begin trying to pray the Rosary again, but in action this time.

I decided to connect praying the Rosary with an exercise I love, yoga. Below is how I have been been praying the Rosary of our sweet and wonderful Mother, and I hope that if you struggle to pray the Rosary this will help you.  Use this as a guide to pray with me, or as a spark to ignite a new idea within you to honor and pray the Rosary of our sweet Mother Mary!

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I begin the Rosary by praying the Apostle’s Creed in the humble position of prayer on my knees with my hands together in prayer.

I then pray the Our Father with my arms spread wide and my face tilted upward open to both receiving and giving according to His Holy Will.

For each Hail Mary I go through a vinyasa yoga flow.

I begin in the downward-facing dog pose, a humble position showing Mary that I desire to learn from her.

Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.

I then flow into a plank pose, a position of strength acknowledging the great and unimaginable strength required by her to FULLY surrender to our Lord.

Blessed art thou among women,

I then lower into a prostrate position and spread my arms wide to form a cross as I speak of her Holy and Blessed Son, Jesus.  I desire to be one with the dust of the ground when speaking of our Lord.

And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God

I then bring my hands in and press up into a cobra pose, the pose of a snake acknowledging that I have sinned and I have caused others to sin just as the snake in the Garden of Eden did so long ago.

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Pressing back into downward dog pose, I continue this flow for each Hail Mary.

Then at the end of the first 3 Hail Mary’s or at the end of each decade I sit back into a child’s pose, a pose of rest and humility, honoring the Trinity, begging for forgiveness and mercy and once again acknowledging that Mary is my mother, and I long to learn from her as I pray.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.

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Acts 1:14
They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

A New Clear Eye

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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.