Erin's Observations: The Sweet Joy of Suffering and Love!

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Sweet Joy of Suffering and Love!

It seems strange but the more little crosses I bear throughout the day, the more I realize just how much our Lord is there to help us if only we stop and ask! How many times do we try to take things on ourselves!? How can anyone expect to control the universe around them nevertheless their own life?

Surrender everything to our Lord and let Him turn those thorns into roses. The beauty and fragrance of the rose cannot be enjoyed without the ugliness and sting of the thorn. The more one suffers well the more one will thank our Lord for the opportunities to suffer well!

Only in this way will our hearts be able to make more room to love our Lord! Think about other instances of suffering and love. The pain and suffering a mother feels bringing her child into the world, The pain and torture our Lord went through on the cross, The pain and heartache marriages can cause, The pain of suffering our Lord sends, but in the end the Love always grows!

It's as if pain,suffering and love form a template for a spiritual masterpiece! How good our God is!

I also want to publicly thank my dear Patron, St. Padre Pio for his wonderful intercession as always and to ask for his perpetual prayers for us all!
Also, Happy Feast Day to St.Therese tomorrow, please pray for us! You are my bookends in this life as is my Guardian Angel towards my Lord! Never cease praying for us!

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Daily Prayer for Priests....

Lord Jesus, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, and living perpetually among us through Your Priests, grant that the words of Your priests may be only Your words, that their gestures be only Your gestures, and that their lives be a true reflection of Your life. Grant that they may be men who speak to God on behalf of His people, and speak to His people of God. Grant that they may be courageous in service, serving the church as she asks to be served. Grant that they may be men who witness eternity in our time, traveling on the paths of history in Your steps, and doing good for all. Grant that they may be faithful to their commitments, zealous in their vocation and mission, clear mirrors of their own identity, and living the joy of the gift they have received. We pray the Your Holy Mother Mary, present throughout Your life, may be ever present in the life of Your priests.

All heavenly angels and saints...pray for us! Amen.

Prayer to Release 1,000 souls from Purgatory!

Put Your Spouse First!

"Be Subject to one another out of reverence for Christ"

~Ephesians 5:21

" May the Holy Family never withdraw its loving gaze from you and your family. Model yourselves on it, and you will have peace and spiritual and temporal well-being."

-Taken from St. Padre Pio's Letters, Vol. 4,1000

Lord, when I think in terms of power and control, I do not want to be subordinate to anybody! But when I think in terms of your love, which calls us to our highest and our best, I feel differently. As Paul says, each of a couple must put the other's welfare first and must do so in light of being both Christ's disciples and God's precious Children. Only then can marriage follow Your design.
Fill Your world Lord, with holy marriages! And give Your grace to all those who are struggling to create them!

* This entire text was taken from "Through the Year with Padre Pio" by Patricia Treece.

Importance of True Piety

Importance of True Piety

Padre Pio understood very well the centrality of the gift of piety in the spiritual life of the Christian and priest. His religious name Pio or Pius is a telling sign...He was pious to the last detail and until the last moment of his life on earth. Padre Pio prayed, adored and contemplated with a profound sentiment of sincere piety. He transformed his whole life into an offering and sacrificial gift that began from love of the Father and extended to loving reverence of his neighbor. His piety inspired his hospital the Home for the Relief of Suffering; his piety inspired his Prayer Groups. "Practice piety...piety is useful for everything. It holds promises for the present and future life." Timothy 4:8 These words of St. Paul to Timothy, Padre Pio made his own. We should do the same.

Wisdom from Mother Teresa

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you.
Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway."
Mother Teresa

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

"Joy is not the same as pleasure or happiness. A wicked and evil man may have pleasure, while any ordinary mortal is capable of being happy. Pleasure generally comes from things, and always through the senses; happiness comes from humans through fellowship. Joy comes from loving God and neighbor. Pleasure is quick and violent, like a flash of lightning. Joy is steady and abiding, like a fixed star. Pleasure depends on external circumstances, such as money, food, travel, etc. Joy is independent of them, for it comes from a good conscience and love of God."

Prayer for the Intercession of John Paul II

O Holy Trinity,
we thank you for having given to the Church Pope John Paul II, and for having made him shine with your fatherly tenderness, the glory of the Cross of Christ and the splendor of the Spirit of love He trusting completely in your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, has shown himself in the likeness of Jesus the Good Shepherdand has pointed out to us holinessas the path to reach eternal communion with You.

Grant us, through his intercession,according to your will, the grace that we implore,in the hope that he will soon be numbered among your saints.

Amen.