Listening to a teaching by Fr. Robert Altier, I was struck by how Elijah and the ancient hermits were praying for the virgin mother of the Messiah to come. This devotion and dedication of one’s whole life to prayer for the virgin to come is striking. These hermits had the foresight to pray for the mother to bring their redeemer. I reflected on how blessed I am to already have her with me…
June is the month in which most graduations are held. As Catholics, we have another type of ‘graduation’ that typically takes place this month: priestly ordinations. The ‘accomplishment’ we celebrate is God’s work in their soul and their response to that. We look with awe at Him in them, knowing He did this for us. Our ‘graduation’ will be celebrated in Heaven and God has given us an amazing ‘program’ to get there: the sacraments and the spiritual life. However, our graduating is indeed gradual!
I sometimes have parts of a favorite litany rolling around in the back of my mind. One of those prayers is the Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. The entire litany pounds into my heart how much the Father and the Son personally love me: fully, unconditionally, and without limits. Consecration and enthronement in the home of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a natural response to that.
In business, we measure the costs of lost opportunities. In life, the cost of some lost opportunities are immeasurable.
We entered the pandemic a world of consumerism, materialism, with all things disposable. Every means was available to have what we wanted, when we wanted, and no cost too high. The old norm of saving for a raining day became ‘buy now and pay for it later’. Yet we may possess something, but it isn’t ours until we pay the price for it.
Jesus paid the price for us so that God could possess us by us possessing more of Him within us. As He transforms us into Himself, we become vessels of Peace.
We think of peace as an adjective. Peace is a noun. It is a person, God. By our Baptism, we are daughters and sons of Peace. Mary, Mother of Peace, teach us to be receptive of Him so that, through us, Peace may reside in this world once again.
In an 1885 biography of Servant of God Mary Ward, Sr. Chambers writes of how she was filled with Grace. In the early 1600’s, women were not to be in public without a man’s escort, nor were they to speak unless spoken to. But Mary Ward could walk into a room of men in great dispute, and the entire room would still and calm in her presence. She was a vessel of Grace.
Can you imagine how life would change carrying that Grace into your family’s dinner table? Your workplace?