I have being having with my parking pass at work, it won't let me in. This morning I prayed to the Lord about this and heard him say quite clearly, ' I so love it when you bring me these little things to me in prayer'. I found this very touching that God takes an interest in such small things, that He can be touched. But then again I suppose we have to be very small ourselves to bring Him the small things.
I hope and believe the Lord hears my imperceptible pleas in prayer--------because even I do not know what they are! My mind has been consumed with the whirlwind of dissention that currently faces My Holy Catholic Faith and this faith now seems to be cornered/snookered /checkmated within a vortex of competing virtues! The cry from my core to understand is not answered and my ability to withstand such onslaught is minuscule, so I hand the whole kit and caboodle over to Jesus! I rearly get a glimpse of how I am fairing in the sad sagas that surround me in the faith in general or in my life personally! [ Maybe this is a good thing?] I trust that Jesus knows what is needed and that He will give me the tools/virtues to handle the many and varied complexities in my life! As it's way over my head! I do not have the energy nor the time to try to analyse any of it! But yes when the Lord answers our small wee prayers and they are miraculously answered it gives one hope!
Yes Josephite! Exactly! Me too. Lately I don’t even spell out my prayers. I just say to the Lord “ you know what to do. Please do it.” This covers everything! From the Pope and the church down to my unbelieving family. But I admit I am constantly asking Him for help with the little things. A running dialog.
Today is the Feast Day of St John Vianney, the Patron Saint of Parish Priests. When he was a young man , just out of Seminary his Bishop sent him to the wvery orst Parish in the whole Diocese, a real cesspit of impurity. But the Cure of Ars changed it by his very,very penitential life and prayer. I suppose when he entered what was really a filthy little dump for the first time he must have been tempted to despair but he rolled his sleeved up and prayed, prayed prayed. Eventually it became a heaven on Earth, a light to France and the entire world. Perhaps we might do the same in our own little way. At communion I said to the Eucharistic Lord, 'Great the Cure of Ars for me'. ..and then, turning to the little saint I said, "St John greet the Lord for me! I was picturing this little priest in heaven. He was such a wonderful child like soul. I pictured him racing about talking with animation to loads of people. If he is as busy in heaven as he was while on Earth , he is a good perosn to turn to for help. St John Vianney pray for us!!
Yes it seems very true to his actual life. The vast majority of the French abandoned the Faith generations ago, but when you get a good French Catholic they are real jewels. Like the ones who made this film.
When I was a young teen my mom had a big biography of St John Vianney that she would read out loud to us (kids) every day. It really touched me, and to this day whenever I hear his name or see his feast on the calendar I smile and think of the amazing priest who loved his flock so much that he fasted and endured physical abuse from the devil for them.
They say when he used to teach the little children from the orphange their lessons in the faith adults used to pile into the Church to listne to him. I think the key to his talks/ sermons was his great Faith and Love it just shone in him. My favorite quote on him was from an English Protestant clergyman who travelled to France to see him. He was asked wht he thought to which the minister replied, 'I have seen God in a man!' There is a wonderful statue of him in France which shows this inner holiness so clearly I must see if I can find a picture of it.....
http://www.miraclesofthesaints.com/2010/09/mystical-knowledge-in-saints-reading.html Mystical knowledge in the Saints -Reading into the heart and souls of men Mystical knowledge in the lives of the Saints –The gift of reading into hearts By: Glenn Dallaire A facet of Mystical knowledge is a supernatural gift of God whereby a Saint is able to read into the heart and conscience of an individual to then be able to guide and direct the person towards a greater union with God. Over the centuries, this gift of reading into souls has often been given to Priests that they may better guide penitents in the Sacrament of Confession. Some of the Priests famous for the gift of reading souls are St Padre Pio (d. 1968), St Anthony of Padua (d. 1231), St John Bosco (d. 1888), St Philip Neri (d.1595), St Francis of Paola (d. 1507), St Joseph of Cupertino (d. 1663) and St Paul of the Cross (d. 1775) to name just a few. There have also been many mystics who have received this gift of reading into hearts, such as St Gerard Majella (d. 1755), St Catherine of Siena (d. 1380), St Lydwine of Schiedam (d. 1433), St Hedwig (d. 1243) and in modern times the mystics Blessed Alexandrina da Costa (d. 1955) and Servant of God Marthe Robin (d. 1981), and the American mystic Marie-Rose Ferron (d. 1936) to name just a few. Perhaps one of the greatest and most documented examples of the gift of reading into souls can be found in the extraordinary life of St. John Vianney (1786-1859), affectionately known across the world as “The Cure of Ars”. St John Vianney was a most zealous priest who spent his whole life for the conversion of sinners. Sainte Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney as he is known in France was a country priest in the small town of Ars, France. He spent literally 16-18 hours a day in the confessional, and people from all over France and abroad made pilgrimages to Ars to visit the “Holy Cure”, and to go to him in Confession. For God, who was pleased with the love and devotion of this holy priest gave him the gift of reading hearts, so as to be able to lead sinners closer to God, and St John Vianney certainly possessed this gift in a most extraordinary way. The gift of reading hearts in the life of St John Vianney [Primary source: “The Cure D’ Ars” by Abbe Franicis Trochu, The Newman Press, 1953] Because of his gift of reading souls, people came from all over France to go to Confession to the holy Cure of Ars, and although he spent from 16-18 hours a day in the Confessional, there were always long lines of people waiting to seek advice and counsel from him, for he truly was a “alter Christus”, that is, another Christ. He are some true stories about his amazing gift of seeing into the heart of men. A woman who was the mother of sixteen children had succeeded in getting a place in line in the middle of the nave, because with so many children to care for, she could not afford to be away from home for too long. Suddenly the saint appeared outside his confessional, and, pointing his finger towards her, he said: "You, madame, you are in a hurry- Come at once!" In 1833, or thereabouts, Marguerite Humbert, of Ecully, now Madame Fayolle, paid a visit-the first in fifteen years -to her cousin, Jean-Marie Vianney. He had asked the daughters of the Providence to treat her well, because she had taken good care of him during the time of his studies. "Now, before leaving," Marguerite tells us, "I returned to the church, and I asked myself whether I should go to confession to my cousin. At that very moment someone came to tell me that he was waiting for me. I was greatly surprised because he could not see me where I was. . . . I left Ars full of a great interior joy" One day the servant of God was hearing confessions in the sacristy. M. Oriol records: "All of a sudden he appeared on the threshold, and, addressing me, he said: 'My friend, ask that lady who is towards the back of the church to come to me.' And he told me how I should know her. Now, I could not find the lady at the place to which he had directed me, so I returned and told him. He replied, 'Go quickly; she is in front of such a house.' I ran and overtook the lady, who was going away, grievously disappointed, for she could wait no longer.'"
A poor woman, whose timidity had evidently caused her to miss her turn for confession two or three times in succession, had been at Ars eight days without succeeding in seeing the holy Cure. Finally the saint himself summoned her; more than that, he went to fetch her, and led her through the crowd to the chapel of St John the Baptist. Quite happy now, she held on to his cassock and slipped through the passage he opened for her. The saint knew from personal experience that grace has its moments, and that it may go by without coming back. Hence, on occasion, he literally caught souls "on the wing." In the year 1853, a cheery band of young men set out from Lyons to go on pilgrimage to Ars. They were good Christians ; all except one, an old man who had joined the group, "solely to please the young people." They reached the village at about three o'clock in the afternoon. "Go to church, if you like," said the unbeliever on leaving the carriage; "as for me, I shall order dinner." He walked a few yards, then stopped. "No, on second thoughts, I will go with you," he said, "for you should not be that long!" So the whole band filed into the church. Now at that very moment Fr. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, came out of the sacristy and entered the chancel. He knelt down, stood up and turned round; his eyes were looking for someone in the direction of the holy water basin, and finally he signalled to someone to come up. "It is you he wants," the youths told the astonished unbeliever. So he walked up, obviously feeling very embarrassed, we are told by the nun to whom we owe this story. "As for us, we were chuckling inwardly, for we understood that the bird had been caught. The Cure shook his hand, saying: 'It is a long time since you were at confession?' 'My good Cure, it is something like thirty years, I believe.' 'Thirty years, my friend? Just think. . . . It is thirty-three years; you were then at such a place..." 'You are right, M. le Cure.' ‘Ah, well, so we are going to confession now, are we not?' The old man confessed afterwards that he was so taken aback by the invitation that he dared not say no; but he added: 'I at once experienced a sensation of indefinable comfort.' The confession took twenty minutes, and made a new man of him." The way in which another sinner was won over is quite typical. About the year 1840 a certain man named Rochette took his son, who was sick, to the wonder-worker of Ars. His wife accompanied him; she went to confession and received Holy Communion. As for Rochette, he had but one concern: namely, to obtain the cure of his boy. He paid, indeed, a few visits to the church, but he kept in the neighbourhood of the holy water font. There he was when the saint, coming from behind the altar where he was hearing the confessions of priests, began to call him. He refused to budge. At that moment his wife and his son were close to the altar rails. "Is he really that much an unbeliever?" Father Vianney asked the wife. At last, at the third summons, the man decided to walk up the nave. "After all," he thought, "the Cure d' Ars will not eat me!" He went with Father Vianney behind the altar. There was no time to lose. "This is for both of us, Rochette," said the Cure, and, pointing to the confessional: "Go into there," he said. "Oh!" the other replied, "I don't feel like it." "Well, begin here then." replied Father Vianney Incapable of offering resistance to so sudden an attack, Rochette had fallen on his knees. "My father," he stammered, "it is some time…ten years...." "Make it a little more." "Twelve years then. . . ." "Still yet a little more." replied the holy Cure. "Yes, since the great jubilee of 1826." "Ah! there we are! One finds it with a little bit of seeking." Rochette then made his confession like a child. The following day saw him kneeling by the side of his wife at the altar rails. Their boy, the faithful chronicler adds, left in the church of Ars his two crutches, for which he had no further use! Thus for countless souls the road to Ars became the road to Damascus, nor should anyone imagine that, in addition to his personal prayers and penances, the saint had recourse to any unusual means to bring about their conversion. They were moved, at first, by the fire of his preaching, so that, when he came to close quarters with them in the privacy of the confession; a few words were enough to deal them the blow that prostrates the spirit of man in order to raise it again.
I have a metal washing pole in my backyard shaped like a T cross. I sometimes pray under it, as it's fairly quiet, and the shape reminds me of a cross. I was praying about some things today, and not in a great place, but looked up at the metal pole cross and distinctly heard the words "I love you" come from it.
He “told” me once long ago in that still small voice: “ your desire for Me is really My desire for you.” And I got a kind of flash of knowledge about the scripture “not that we loved Him but that He loved us...”. Jesus pursues us like the Hound of Heaven. His love draws us and draws us until we finally stir awake and think we are pursuing Him. Quite lovely! And comforting.
How beautiful! Imagine the souls He pursues! All those that have dementia and who live in nursing homes, unable to move, unable to speak nor to yield to this love ! YET it is not their new found love for Him but rather His Love for them that they cannot escape! Thank You Jesus! Jesus, I trust in Your Mercy. Amen.
