For me it is the fifth joyful mystery. Seek and ye shall find. Seek sorrowfully and your prayer will be heard. We will find The Child in the temple- the Indwelling Jesus - in the Church, the Body of Christ - and our selves, the individual temples of the Holy Spirit. We celebrate the body - Corpus Christi - the best temple. The year of Mercy ends on the feast of Corpus Christi. When we experience God's Mercy we find the Indwelling Jesus. Salvation is found in the Church. Only by the Mercy of God can we be saved and time is running out for the Year of Mercy. As Our Lady told Sister Sasagawa in 1973 Akita - "Due to the multiplication of sin, the time will come when forgiveness is no longer available." The sacraments will become a rare treasure. "Where your treasure is there will be your heart", The Indwelling Jesus. Many years ago when I was testing a vocation I wrote a poem for a young friend who had been diagnosed with cancer. It was entitled The Child Within. It ended with the affirmation that in the end we shall achieve the perfection of childhood: "Unless ye be as little chldren ye cannot enter the kingdom of God." In the end the indwelling Jesus will be fully discovered. Just a few thoughts before I head off to work.
Joe, the year of Mercy ends on the feast of Christ the King 20th November 2016. Corpus Christi has already past this year.
Joe, I would be concerned this type of prayer could be like putting God to the test. I think BrianK put it so well in saying we have to be careful when it comes to human emotions. Joy is the echo of God's life within us. Columba Marmion This Joy echo's somewhere deep within me even when I think of the Lord. And I am happy to believe without extra ordinary consolation. I also believe this will be one of the after affects from the 'Warning' experience when it happen. I am not too sure about the toothy smiling Jesus. I saw Him smiling and He did not bear His teeth. But who knows.
I used to pray a specific group of prayers asking for the intercession of the Blessed Mother under various titles, and specifically asking her help with difficulties in my own life, and for her to obtain the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, naming them by name - Wisdom, Knowledge, Counsel, Understanding, Fortitude, Piety, Fear of the Lord. It gradually grew, so I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget anything or the specific problems I needed help with. I don't always pray this now; God gives us certain forms of prayer for certain times in our life. But I found these prayers being answered in very specific ways, long after I had not prayed this prayer. It's good to know our Blessed Mother has a good, long memory, and faithfully continues to intercede for us even when we forget to pray for something specific even for ourselves: "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee!" 1. Immaculate Heart of Mary, Please obtain for me the Grace to be chaste and pure, to have custody of my eyes and my thoughts, both conscious and subconscious, of my mind and my imagination, of my passions and my emotions, of my tongue, my appetite and my senses, and most especially of my heart, so that I may be attached only to God, and not to the things or the creatures of this world. 2. Mary, Mother of God, Help me to practice the Presence of God. 3. Mary, Mother of Divine Providence, Obtain for me the Grace of living in heroic confidence in God and complete abandonment and total surrender to His Divine Providence. 4. Mary, Mother of Mercy, Obtain for me the Grace that I may be Merciful, as our Heavenly Father is Merciful. Mary, Mother of Divine Mercy, obtain for me the Grace to learn and embrace the Divine Mercy message and devotions. 5. Mary, Queen of Peace, Obtain for me the Grace of living in the Peace of Christ, in mind and soul. 6. Mary, Queen of Apostles, Angels and Saints, Please obtain for me the prayers of all the Apostles, Angels and Saints, most especially for our family, for Sue and my health and for our marriage, for Mike in his priestly formation, for Marie in her continuing education, and for Tim in his discernment 7. Mary, Our Lady of Good Help, Please intercede for us for the success of my practice and for our family's health and finances. 8. Mary, Our Lady of Good Success, Please obtain for me the Grace to understand, as far as it pleases the Lord, where we are in Salvation History and how to help myself, my family, my friends and those with whom I come in contact through these difficult days. 9. Mary, Our Lady Joy of the Sorrowing, Obtain for me the Grace of living in that Joy which comes from knowing, loving and serving God, and help me to share that Joy with God’s children. 10. Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows and Co-Redemtrix, Obtain for me the Grace that I may keep station with you at the foot of the Cross, and to bear whatever crosses Our Lord permits with magnanimity and equanimity. Teach me your Sorrows, and help me to know the Sufferings Christ endured for our Salvation. Obtain for me the Grace that the Passion of Jesus Christ may remain forever in my heart. 11. Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces Obtain for me the Grace I need this day to know, love and serve the Lord, and to know and do His Holy Will promptly, exactly and perseveringly. Help me to live in a state of Sanctifying Grace and obtain for me the Grace of final perseverance. Obtain for me the Grace that I may be meek, humble and obedient, kind and charitable, merciful, magnanimous and longsuffering. 12. Mary, Advocate Be my advocate before the judgment seat of the Blessed Trinity, now and at the hour of my death. Amen. Come Holy Spirit, come, by means of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, thy well beloved spouse. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
Point taken Julia but I thought the caveat I added was enough to avoid that temptation - the prayer of faith always relies on the will of God. It was Jesus who made the promise and it is always subject to God's will. Jesus himself encouraged us to agree on our prayer requests.
I agree with you, Joe, else why would it be in Scripture? And that prayer is asking for a closer walk with the Lord, which seems to be what He would want for us. However, be reminded that most of the time when we pray to have our petitions granted, we do not foresee how it will happen, and often He sends the answer with a cross. That is why you hear the saying, be careful what you pray for, you just might get it. Right now, in this Storm, many of the faithful have heavy crosses, or in my case, many small ones. I hate to complain to God about them, because he knows I am a coward and can only handle so much. But when things go wrong during my days, and it gets difficult to get things done, and stuff breaks down, and I get cut off on the road, well, let's just say He needs me to offer those vexations of spirit to Him. I hope you had a wonderful birthday.
Thanks HH - it was a wonderful birthday Every day in my clinic I see people in great pain and hear stories of great suffering. For the most part they just get on with it. I am so blessed in their trust. I apply my hands to their poor bodies and for the most part their suffering is lessened. I still complain to God even about my little crosses but I start the day off with my morning offering and I would never retract this offering. So I reckon I am covered. I think about the crap of the day at night and sometimes say somewhat bitterly - "Well I hope that made You happy" I am slowly learning to be more gracious and hallow His Name. But I also have thanked him for His care. There's a song "Love needs expression". I forget to express mine. "I love thee with all my heart and for thy sake I love my neighbour as myself." No wonder my marriage did not last long! Here's the text of that link referring to my old instructor in contemplation Fr Matthew McGettrick. Let's Keep Jesus Company this Lent Pam Aherne Some years ago a Carmelite priest, Fr. Matthew McGettrick, RIP, came to Manchester to give us very helpful talks on prayer. In one of his talks, he describes something he read in a travel book which moved him. A whale had become beached on an island, with part of its body on the sand and part in the shallows and it was thrashing about desperately trying to get back into the sea. All the villagers came to see it but were unable to do anything, it was so big. A little girl came forward and sat down next to the whale, out of sympathy for it. Gradually the creature stilled, as if comforted by the awareness that another living being was keeping it company. After some considerable time it died peacefully. We too can think of those times in our lives when we have been consoled by the presence of one who is in empathy with us, even if they can do or say little to really help us. Indeed how wonderful it is to feel that we don't even need to speak when we are with someone who we know loves and understands us. The amazing thing is that God allows Himself to be somehow affected by us in a similar way. There are so many examples of this in the Bible. We need only read the account of Jesus with the woman at the well to see this. He is tired, thirsty and hungry when He meets the woman but after she has responded by faith and trust to what He said to her, His disciples are surprised to see that He is no longer tired and hungry. Fr. Matthew taught that we can learn how to 'keep Jesus company' in our prayer. He said that the essence of prayer is the contact of the heart with Jesus and that Grace flows from Him to you in this loving attentiveness. If we are at home, we can picture Jesus in front of us, or gaze at a favourite picture of His Sacred Heart and let 'heart speak to heart' or say little or nothing, just love and be loved. Of course if we can go into Church and just be with Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, this is even better. Or we can choose a scene from the Gospels and, after we have driven off our distractions by imagining the details, we can just focus on the Person of Jesus in that scene. We can gently repeat a phrase to keep our mind from distractions as we stay with Him and try to understand what Jesus is feeling and just love Him, in that scene. He may be weeping over Jerusalem, weeping for the souls who will not turn to Him and be helped and redeemed by Him. He may be in agony about our sins in Gethsemene. Here our phrase may be 'will you not watch one hour with Me?' He may be awake at night in the mountains, praying to His Father or fasting in the desert for forty days and nights. We can't take it away but we can console Him by our simple loving presence. And we are doing that in the present even though we are picturing an event of the past for Jesus is living now in our souls. Also, being God, Jesus is outside of time. What we do NOW affected Him THEN. All the events of His life are timeless. I am often aware of my inadequacies and think how could Jesus want me to keep Him company when He has much better and more exalted followers to do this. But then I remember how I felt when I was teaching children with severe learning difficulties, including autistc children. Any little response from any one of them, even just a fleeting look in their eyes that showed me they knew I loved them and was trying to understand them could make me feel a million dollars. This or some little useless thing one of them would give me would mean as much to me as whatever a good understanding friend did for me. Any parent knows this. Well surely it's the same with God. I often think I'm autistic with Him. Sometimes when I try to keep Him company, I can't have the right feelings or thoughts or say anything that sounds holy. Then we always have our set prayers and the rosary to help us. Or. Being in the company of the One we trust loves us, we can just be silent and join our dryness to His agony in the garden. It is so important to remember that no-one else can take your place in the Heart of Jesus. He loves every single one of us as if there were no other and each of us has a unique relationship with Him and our own way of praying or communicating with Him. Jesus wants us to be ourselves, doesn't He, and never mind if we feel we're 'not much'. Mary, His mother and ours, will help us as we try to keep her Son company this Lent, for she has His love for each of us and she is the one person who always loved Him and let Him be Himself, even if this was not the way people expected the Messiah to be. All her life she strove to understand Him and His ways and she wants to help us do this too. Fr Matthew wrote this poem: Oh Jesus let me live always in Your company. In your love for the Father I keep You company In Your nights of prayer I keep You company In Your sorrow for sin in Gethsemene I keep You company In Your search for souls through towns and villages I keep You company In Your pain of rejection, weeping over Jerusalem I keep You company In Your saving death I keep You company In Your final victory I keep You company Oh Jesus let me live always in Your company. By a legionary of Mary.
Hi Julia This is a prayer of Faith not feelings. The desert fathers called the heart the great traitor so Brian is right in his opinion. Only it does not apply to the Faith that Jesus taught us to apply in the prayer of agreement.
I think a good image of the human heart wherein lies Jesus , the fire of the Holy Spirit is like a crystal jar from which beams n incredible light and if we stare at it we see the Blessed Trinity within . Sometimes when I pass people without thinking I bow my head to time slightly. For two reasons. The Guardian angel who walks by their side but also the indwelling of God in their hearts. I blieve if we were to see this fiery heart of a person in a state of grace we would die of joy and admiration. It seemed to me last night considering this that this indwelling is very similiar to the twon hearts, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immacualte Heart of Mary.
I can't help notcing on both hearts is the strong makrs of the passion. It is the same for our own hearts . The fire within never bruns broghter than when we share in the Passion. The natural place of the Christina is to hang on the Cross with Jesus. We have lost this in modern times. We run screaming from any thoughts of pain, of any incovenience ,even. But the minds and heart ofGods saints were never far from the Cross. Our own hearts never imitate Christ more than when marked by the Passion. http://www.passioiesus.org/en/santos/citas_santos.htm 'It is extremely important to know that there is no saint who has ever reached the heights of the spiritual life without having meditated frequently on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of them attributed to the meditation of the Passion of Our Lord, the beginning of that stage in the spiritual life in which they decided to give themselves entirely to God, to His Most Holy Will. Over and over again we find in their writings that they move faster toward holiness with the help of this meditation than through any other. Obviously, we cannot say that they surpass the great means provided by the Sacraments, but we can say that the sacraments alone cannot reach all their effectiveness without the help of the meditation of the Passion of Our lord. That is because the Sacraments are the most precious fruits of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.' St. Maximus of Turin,Sermons 53, 1-2. 4 Our Savior's passion raises men and women from the depths, lifts them up from the earth, and sets them in the heights.
Have you heard this mornings awful news Padraig. Bishop Daly, passed a few hours ago... Such a loss..
Yes he must have been quite old http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/bloody-sunday-handkerchief-1972-1.4646
I feel Jesus the most at adoration. I also felt Him very deeply when I read the hours of the passion (divine will devotion).
Heh. I've been taking a medication originally prescribed for Narcolepsy because of severe fatigue from the strokes; strokes hitting the areas affected in my case are notorious for causing fatigue and sleepiness. I had to stop taking it because I developed a widespread rash on Sunday, and I've found that this is a great medicine but skin problems are common and it has to be stopped immediately. Now I'm sleeping 12 hours at night and 2 hours in the afternoon and I feel like I just ran a marathon. Ugh.
