Witnesses to Hope is close to its 1000th post. This is the first post I ever put up. I think the reasons are obvious.
BE NOT AFRAID! (John Paul II, October 16, 1978 and many, many times afterward . . .)
“We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his son, Jesus.” (WYD 2002, Toronto)
I have been thinking of this Elizabeth of the Trinity quote a lot the last couple of days, so I thought I would repost this piece from a few years ago. It’s still relevant:
I haven’t posted in the past two days because life has been full of more important things. As many of you know, we run two Emmanuel Houses: homes for older adults who are no longer capable of living alone and have limited support and no resources. This week three of the residents have been in the hospital and one at home passed on to be with the Lord. Two of our Sisters who work there are on vacation. It’s times like these when life can feel like it’s a bit too much. Yet we know that all is in God’s Providence. I meditate often on these words from Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity: “Everything that happens is for me a message of the excessive love of God for my soul.” And as Amy Carmichael would say: “Everything means everything.”
I love thinking about the words: “excessive love.” Wow.
Adrienne von Speyr has something insightful to offer regarding prayer and contemplation:
Whoever wishes to accommodate oneself to a new, living relationship to the Lord should consider that the Lord always spent a great deal of time reflecting upon the Father, but none in reflecting upon himself. The object of contemplation is always God, never oneself.
I would propose that we would gain what we really seek in prayer if we followed this advice.
from St. Louis de Montfort:
Lastly, you never think of Mary without Mary thinking of God for you. You never praise of honor Mary without Mary joining you in praising and honoring God. Mary is entirely relative to God. Indeed I would say that she was relative only to God, because she exists uniquely in reference to him.
She is an echo of God, speaking and repeating only God. If you say ‘Mary’ she says ‘God’. When St. Elizabeth praised Mary calling her blessed because she had believed, Mary, the faithful echo of God responded with her canticle, ‘My soul glorifies the Lord.’ What Mary did on that day, she does every day. When we praise her, when we love and honor her, when we present anything to her, then God is praised, honored and loved and receives our gift through Mary and in Mary.
If you need a pick me up or are discouraged, take a minute–well, four minutes and 15 seconds–to listen to this: The Long Way Home (Steven Curtis Chapman)
During his homily at Mass in the chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae this morning, Pope Francis reflected on the action of God in one’s life.
The Holy Father compared the experiences of the protagonists of the two readings of the day. The first reading recounted God’s promise of a son to Abraham and Sarah while the Gospel recounted Jesus’ curing of a leper.
“The Lord slowly enters the life of Abraham, who is 99 years old when He promises him a son. Instead He immediately enters the life of the leper; Jesus listens to his prayer, touches him and performs a miracle,” the Holy Father said.
“When the Lord intervenes, He does not always do so in the same way. There is no ‘set protocol’ of action of God in our life”, “it does not exist “. Once he intervenes in one way, another time in a different way but He always intervenes. There is always this meeting between us and the Lord.”
The Pope went on to say that the Lord always chooses what way is best to enter our lives. For some, God may act slowly; sometimes so slowly that “we are in danger of losing our patience.”
“Other times, when we think of what the Lord has promised us, that it such a huge thing, we don’t believe it, we are a little skeptical, like Abraham – and we smile a little to ourselves … This is what it says in the First Reading, Abraham hid his face and smiled … A bit ‘of skepticism:’ What? Me? I am almost a hundred years old, I will have a son and my wife at 90 will have a son?”
The Holy Father also noted Sarah’s skepticism, when the three angels visited Abraham and promised a son, saying that we also become impatient or skeptical when God doesn’t intervene or perform a miracle when we want to.
“But He does not, He cannot for skeptics,” the Pope said. “The Lord takes his time. But even He, in this relationship with us, has a lot of patience. Not only do we have to have patience: He has! He waits for us! And He waits for us until the end of life! Think of the good thief, right at the end, at the very end, he acknowledged God. The Lord walks with us, but often does not reveal Himself, as in the case of the disciples of Emmaus. The Lord is involved in our lives – that’s for sure! – But often we do not see. This demands our patience. But the Lord who walks with us, He also has a lot of patience with us.”
Contemplating on the mystery of God’s patience, the Holy Father stated that God “walks at our pace.” Life’s troubles, he said, at times become so dark that it makes us want to come down from the cross.”
“This is the precise moment: the night is at its darkest, when dawn is about to break. And when we come down from the Cross, we always do so just five minutes before our liberation comes, at the very moment when our impatience is greatest “.
“Jesus on the Cross, heard them challenging him: ‘Come down, come down! Come ‘. Patience until the end, because He has patient with us. He always enters, He is involved with us, but He does so in His own way and when He thinks it’s best,” the Pope concluded.
“He tells us exactly what He told Abraham: Walk in my presence and be blameless’, be above reproach, this is exactly the right word. Walk in my presence and try to be above reproach. This is the journey with the Lord and He intervenes, but we have to wait, wait for the moment, walking always in His presence and trying to be beyond reproach. We ask this grace from the Lord, to always walk in His presence, trying to be blameless’.”
And one more . . .
More from Richard Wurmbrand:
In Florence, Italy, the Red Brigade leader Furbelone planned a bank robbery–what the Brigade (a Marxist-Leninist group) terms an “expropriation.” Two revolutionaries disguised as policemen stood at the entrance to the building, while two others entered to force the teller to give up the money. A car with a false license number waited in front of the bank to ensure the escape. Disguised as a beggar, Furbelone sat on the steps of the Santa Maria Church opposite the bank where he was to give the signals controlling the operation.
Just as he was about to signal the start of the robbery, a little girl who was on her way to school with her mother ascended the steps for a short prayer. Seeing the beggar, she took her lunch out of her bag, broke off a part for herself, and gave him the remainder.
Irritated by this…
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Still reblogging from Wonder and Beauty.
Continuing from Richard Wurmbrand. (This kind of beauty makes me weep.)
In Romania’s Jilava prison, several prisoners were placed in a cell naked without beds, without blankets and without a barrel to serve as a lavatory. They were never allowed to leave their cell to fulfill their bodily needs. Imagine passing the night, completely naked, in such a stinking cell.
One of the prisoners was sick with pulmonary tuberculosis. Late one night, he could not bear to stand on his feet any longer. He fell and would have frozen to death on the cold concrete had not the Christian Mircea Vulcanescu stretched himself out on the concrete so the sick man could seat himself on his body and have the protection of his body’s warmth.
Vulcanescu remained stretched out naked on the concrete while the sick man slept for a few hours. He too fell asleep. When they awoke, Vulcanescu…
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