What is the Office of Consoling? [224]

August 7, 2019
One month anniversary of (my) Mom's passing

"She who gave birth to you is no longer here. The closest tie you can have on this earth has been broken."
deep sadness, time of grief, grieving.

These are the thoughts that come to me today.

Prayer

Thank you Lord, for the gift of my mother.

Thank you for her love and her grace.

Thank you for all that she has done for me, and for all now that she will do for me in her place in heaven.

I ask you to bless her, and to hear her prayers for us.

Keep her strong in your eternal Kingdom, with Dad and all who are with her.

I love you, Lord.  I love you.

My heart is full; there is both love and pain there, living side by side.

I give you my heart Lord, I give you my pain, my sorrow, my sadness.

Never have I felt such sadness as now.  It weighs heavy upon me, upon my soul, yes, but also upon my body.

I give you this Lord, all of it.

And I wait.  I wait for your strength, your joy, your solace, your comfort.

And when it is my time, I pray for your comfort for those I love, those I too will leave behind.  Give them your Love now Lord, that they may bear it in due time.

For your sake Lord, not for mine. That they will turn to you, and love you, not for what you will do, but for who you are, our loving and caring God.

In Jesus' Name

I pray. Amen.

Thank you Lord, for this time, for this prayer. Amen.

(Reflection today on the Canaanite woman, who shouted to the Lord for her daughter)

Matthew 15:21-28

I have been feeling exhausted, heavy in body, mind, spirit.

As I spoke to the Lord about my child, praying for him, the Lord gave me to understand that I was still grieving.  It has only been one month since mom passed.  Today is the first month anniversary.

Each day I think of calling her, so I miss this.  My sister too has mentioned this to me, and I am sure that we are all feeling this.

As I read the Scripture, I asked the Lord to speak to me. "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening."

Here and there in this journal (that I am writing in now) which I had given her years ago for Mother's Day, are Mom's notes from her garden thoughts, her plans, what she has done, her wishes and instructions.

My grieving is interspersed with garden wisdom.  This is also how she fed our bodies, our thoughts, our souls, our spirits - even to the end - with words of wisdom, love, encouragement.

Thank you Lord. Thank you.

I hear these words in my heart,

"The Canaanite woman came to me with all the desires of her heart for her child, and I heard her and answered her prayer - Shall I not also hear and answer your prayers for those you love?

Trust in me my child; Trust in me."

Thank you, Lord God.

Encouraging words in my persevering prayers for my children, and for all for whom I pray.  The Canaanite woman shouted; my prayers are like this.

She kept shouting.

I keep praying.

Thank you for this encouragement, Lord.

Amen.

I read the French meditation for today, August 7, 2019, in Prions en église,

"Welcoming takes two!  On her part, the Canaanite woman welcomes Jesus with her mentality and the hope that she nourishes in her heart.  For his part, Jesus listens attentively and with respect. and he discovers that, as pagan as she is, a deep faith lives in her, which opens her up to his work in her life."

I sit in the quiet, as I feel a filling in my heart, Peace and Comfort, a bubbling feeling in my heart, my breastbone area.  I welcome you, Lord. I welcome you. Amen.

And I feel peaceful and rested now, a smile coming from within is now on my face.

Thank you Lord. Thank you.

A beautiful healing has taken place, a lightening, a lifting of  heaviness, a sadness, a pain. Thank you Lord Jesus.

Thank you.  Amen.

[224] Fifth Point. The fifth is to consider the office of consoling which Christ our Lord bears, and to compare how friends are accustomed to console friends.

In contrast to the passion, I should note how much the divinity shines through the person of Jesus in all his appearances. The peace and the joy which he wants to share with me can only be a gift of God.  To realize that the role of consoler which Jesus performs in each of his resurrection appearances is the same role he performs now in my life is a faith insight into why I can live my life in a true Christian optimism.

DRAW ME INTO YOUR FRIENDSHIP by David L. Fleming, S.J.

The Spiritual Exercises

A Literal Translation & a Contemporary Reading.

[218] The First Contemplation
How Christ our Lord appeared to Our Lady
[224] Fifth Point (as above)

What does it mean to 'consider' for oneself?

May 10, 2019
"The Jews disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
John 6:52-59

As I reflected on this Scripture, the Lord spoke to my heart, saying that many do not accept this truth, that they hear it, but they reject it.  He said, "You believe, and so you have life in you."

I was reminded of the words the Lord brought to me on August 11, 2011, when I prayed about being a Minister of Communion.  He had said to me, "There is nothing more desirable in this world, than to offer my Body to eat to another. There is nothing more desirable."

I was filled with gratitude that I have this privilege of being a Minister of Communion.
And I thanked the Lord.

Today, in my devotional, Mary Day by Day, Saint John Eudes speaks of Mary's heart being "a book", and the Prayer speaks of "the science of salvation" found in Mary's Immaculate Heart.

I thought - the Lord took flesh from Mary and this flesh is also part of Jesus.  This unity of human flesh and Holy Spirit, Divinity in Jesus, constitutes truly the science of salvation we have in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully divine.
It is truly the gratitude of the Easter Vigil's Exsultet
"O happy fault
that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!"

Filled with peace and gratitude, I  read the Exsultet in my Triduum booklet...
O truly blessed night
when things of heaven are wed
to those of earth
and divine to the human...

and I prayed...

O Mary most wise, help me to contemplate the science of salvation found in your Immaculate Heart.  Grant that I may imitate you in all things, for you were the perfect follower of Jesus.
Amen.

The SPIRITUAL EXERCISES of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
[2] Second Annotation 
DRAW ME INTO YOUR FRIENDSHIP, David L. Fleming, S.J.
... 1 The second is that the person who gives to another the way and order in which to meditate or contemplate, ought to relate faithfully the events of such contemplation or meditation, going over the points with only a short or summary development. 2 For, if the person who is making the contemplation takes the true groundwork of the narrative and, discussing and considering for himself, finds something which makes the events a little clearer or brings them a little more home to him - whether this comes through his own reasoning, or because his intellect is enlightened by the divine power - he will get more spiritual relish and fruit, than if he who is giving the Exercises had much explained and amplified the meaning of the events. For it is not knowing much, but realizing and relishing things interiourly, that contents and satisfies the soul.

The Exsultet in song, Proclamation of the Easter Vigil

excerpt from Exsultet, found in the Triduum for Easter Vigil liturgy
"This is the night
when Christ rose victorious from the underworld.
Our birth would have been no gain,
had we not been redeemed.

O wonder of your humble care for us!
O love, O charity beyond all telling,
to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!

O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!

O happy fault
that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!

O truly blessed night,
worthy alone to know the time and hour
when Christ rose from the underworld!

This is the night
of which it is written:
The night shall be bright as day,
dazzling is the night for me,
and full of gladness.

The sanctifying power of this night,
dispels wickedness, wastes faults away,
restores innocence to the fallen,
and joy to mourning,

O truly blessed night
when things of heaven are wed
to those of earth
and divine to the human.

On this night of grace,
O Holy Father,
accept this candle, a solemn offering,
the work of bees and of your servants' hands,
an evening sacrifice of praise,
this gift from your most holy church.

Therefore, O Lord,
we pray you that this candle,
hallowed to the honour of your name,
may persevere undimmed,
to overcome the darkness of this night.

Receive it as a pleasing fragrance,
and let it mingle with the lights of heaven.
May this flame be found still burning
by the Morning Star:
the One Morning Star who never sets,
Christ your Son,
who, coming back from death's domain,
has shed his peaceful light on humanity,
and lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen"

This is the Easter Candle, seen now in a new way, thanks be to God!

What is a meditation with the three powers?

February 12, 2019

Scripture readings for the day:
Genesis 1:20-2:4a Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath; In the beginning...
Psalm 8 'What are human beings that you are mindful of them?'
Mark 7:1-13 'You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.'

As I reflected, this came to me;
'God has given you everything, yet you put in place rules for men, for whom everything was created, and to whom also everything has been given.'

In my Mary Day by Day book of meditations, I was struck that in my state of life, as wife, as mother, I ask Mary to obtain all the graces I need, and to help me to cooperate with them faithfully.

The Lord has given me a task, the Go Fund Me project for my son, and I put rules and requirements in place for him in my mind, and I do not do anything because I am anxious.

I am no different than the Pharisees in this Gospel reading of Mark.  Thank you, Lord. I shall move forward now in this. Please help me to be obedient to your will. Amen.

Go Fund Me project for my son Devon:
Help Single Dad Heal From Violent Attack

[50] First Point. The first point will be to bring the memory on (the Scriptures in this case), and then to bring the intellect on the same, discussing it, considering it; and then to move the feelings more with the will (and then to prayer).  (Paraphrased)
Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.  First Week
[45] It is a meditation with the three powers.

Book: Mary Day by Day
Minute Marian meditations for every day of the year, including a Scriptural passage, a quotation from the saints, and a concluding prayer.  With an introduction by Rev. Charles G. Fehrenbach, C.SS.R.
ISBN 9781937913076

What is the First Colloquy in the Triple Colloquy?

Poem
Encounter with Mary in the Three Part Colloquy [62]

I get all wrapped up
in the veils
of my Mother's presence.
I hear the swooshing
of her garments
As she passes me by.
I feel the hems
of her garments
brushing over my feet.
She also is near
and comes to help me,
puts her hand
on my breastbone,
and speaks gently to my heart.
I am her child
And she is my mother.
Thanks be to God
for this indescribable gift.
Amen

"I went out by night...and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down..." 
Nehemiah 2:13a

May 23, 2016, excerpt from my spiritual journal

'What is the Wall of Mary like in your life?'   'The Wall of Mary.'
These words kept coming to me this past week.
I felt led to read Nehemiah's story of his scrutiny of the walls of Jerusalem, by examination of them by night.  The Book of Nehemiah is about the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, but it is also a story about the walls that need to be in place, or rebuilt, around our hearts.

I am in the midst of a family crisis.
I prayed the Rosary all night. I prayed all the mysteries of the Rosary:
Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious, Luminous.  The true Rosary, before culture got so busy.

'You have rebuilt your Wall of Mary.'
'You have rebuilt the Wall of Mary in your life.'
I heard these words...then...

'Just as a mother holds as treasures in her heart,
the memories of her child's life,
so too my Mother holds in her life,
the Mysteries of my life.

When you hold the treasure of the Mysteries of my life
in your life,
you have rebuilt The Wall of Mary
in your life.

The Wall of Mary consists of the Mysteries
of my life and hers.
These are the Mysteries of my life.
When you contemplate my life,
you see your life in mine.'

'This is the Wall of Mary that must be built into the life of every believer.' 

[147] First Colloquy. One colloquy to Our Lady, that she may get me grace from her Son and Lord that I may be received under his standard; and first in the highest spiritual poverty, and - if his Divine Majesty would be served and would want to choose and receive me - not less in actual poverty; second, in suffering contumely and injuries, to imitate Him more in them, if only I can suffer them without the sin of any person, or displeasure of his Divine Majesty; and with that a Hail Mary.

The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Second Week; The Fourth Day: Meditation on Two Standards.