Reflections on the Daily Reflection...

Looking at today's reflection with the words of St. Faustina, it reminds me how important our Lord's Divine Mercy is to all of us.

Divine Mercy is something we as humans can't fathom.

It truly is one of God's mysteries that hopefully we'll be able to understand once we are able to take part in the beatific vision.

I will not pretend to understand this myself at all~ I can only trust and thank our dear Lord for any Mercy He shows me.

As we grow closer to our Lord and in holiness, a natural thing that happens is the awareness of our unworthiness before our Lord.

This serves one purpose of recognizing our own sinfulness especially in areas we did not before realize our sin so we can grow in virtue.

But please do not fall into a cycle of guilt.

Guilt should be felt on some level for our sins and in true contrition for our sins to be reconciled with God.

However, the enemy wants us to despair in our guilt thus believing that we are not worthy of God's Divine Mercy.

This is a sort of a slap in the face to God. Paraphrasing Mother Angelica.... It is a way of saying that our sins are greater than God's Mercy!

Oh My! Think about this for a minute....

I would not for once want to think that any sin of mine was greater than God! This I'm sure falls under Pride!

It's human to think we don't deserve God's Mercy and I'm sure we don't! But this is the beautiful
mystery of God's promise of Divine Mercy!

We cannot begin to fathom the depths of His love so why should we question the depths of His Mercy?

We are not capable of understanding it because our hearts were not made big enough to contain such love and mercy!

But our Lord asks us to trust in His Mercy for us, and to not despair!

The enemy wants us to despair and lose all hope so we can wollow in our own filth!

Christ will never turn away a penitent heart, in fact His Mercy penetrates even the most broken of hearts.

Remember the only difference between a sinner and a saint is a saint is a sinner who gets up and tries again!

Perseverence and Trust in God!

If you cannot make it to confession, do a true Act of Contrition and visit our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, kneel next to the Tabernacle and be Silent. It's amazing what you'll hear in the silence!

You will be reconciled with our Lord! His mercy can do that! But still go to Confession when it is next available to you, so you can receive all the graces He wishes to bestow upon you and your family!

Speaking of Divine Mercy, please pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for all of the Holy Souls (Those Souls in Purgatory) and all those who are sick and dying. This is one of the greatest spiritual works of mercy you can perform!

Even more wonderful, once those holy souls are released into heaven....You will have angels praying for you in heaven! Can it get any better than that?

I don't know about you, but I could use all the prayers I can get just to be sure I make it into Purgatory!


So with this I will close with :

"For the sake of His sorrowful Passion have mercy on us and on the whole world....

O' Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us,

I trust in You!"

His Divine Love~

Nothing is sweeter than His silence.
Burning so sweetly without consuming
Victim and offering are united.
The pain is felt with a sweet joy ~
a sort of rapture only heaven can employ.
This joyful pain within my soul
where thorns, honey and God take control.
How sweet to sit and watch the master
create His craft ~
He stays beside me with infatuation
No Lord, it is I who should be so flattered.
You created gold out of a vessel tattered
with sin and scorn and all sort of rubbish.
Then He said, " Shh, be docile to my workings..."
"you are merely the Master's instrument...a tool...for the harvest."
Jesus I beg ...make me the most humble tool
the one that no one sees.
The kind of tool no one knows they need.
"But you already are..." He said,
"a tool so humble no one will know it was here until far after it crumbles .."
"then it will make the world anew, looking on from heaven in a pew."
Thank you Jesus, Thank you!
Not for making me a tool ~but for keeping me in heaven and humble in a pew!

Inspired by God and written by His tool.

Jesus, I love you so much it hurts, You loved us so much you died.
Help me to die to myself to repay my debt of love.
Jesus, I love you....but help me to love you more!

Praised be God in all and for all in all the tabernacles of the world even unto the end of time!

How does God reveal His will for us in our lives?

This question is not as perplexing as some may think. In my experience, especially the last few years, I have come to know our Lord through life's everyday circumstances. It's quite amazing if there is an inner balance between what is going on inside your soul versus staying attentive to what is happening around you.

God very rarely will reveal His Will for you as if reading it out of a book. His will is revealed in the small inspirations He inplants into your heart and mind. Look at the circumstances around you every minute of everyday.

If we all took the time and realized the opportunities to grow in almost every virtue throughout the day, we would surely realize that God calls us all to be Saints. Not just saints but great saints!

If someone is difficult to deal with today, there is your opportunity to grow in the virtue of patience.

If you have a headache or are very ill, there is your opportunity to embrace your cross and offer your suffering for others (or a certain cause )and unite it to Christ's suffering on the cross.

When someone asks for help but you are already busy yourself, there is your opportunity to be selfless and help someone else in need.

Sometimes it comes in our humiliations. Surrender to these humiliations because nothing can be more freeing to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit than a spirit of total surrender to our Lord.

I'm sure you get the picture. I don't wish to be preachy, I only share this with you because if someone had shared this with me a few years ago I think I would've understand my life circumstances so much better than I did at the time.

I feel I should also warn you about not being too selfish even in your own prayer life. Be very careful of not being too self-involved in prayer. As someone who struggles with this daily, I know now that God answers my prayers in a most perfect way when I am praying for others.

This doesn't mean He answers my prayers the way I wish He would, but still He answers them perfectly as only He can. It can be very frustrating as humans to wait for everything to happen in God's time and not our own. But in the waiting comes the wisdom of Divine love.

So for today, Ask our Lord to reveal His will for you in your life. "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened unto you....."

Go with the flow of the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, (hopefully not sounding too corny).
You'll know they come from the Holy Spirit if you don't listen or act and He is persistent with His inspirations.

I'd like to leave you with a favorite prayer of mine to the Holy Spirit:

Sighing for the Holy Spirit

O Mildest Comforter, Holy Spirit, come to me.

My Soul sighs for You! My heart thirsts for You!

You alone can satisfy my longing;You alone can make me happy.

Despise not, O Divine Bridegroom, the dwelling of my heart.

My heart is unclean, but You can purify it.

My heart is dark, but You can illuminate it.

My heart is wicked, but You can penetrat it with love.

My heart is sad, but You can comfort it.

My heart is weak, but You can strengthen it.

My heart is cold, but You can inflame it.

My heart clings to earth, but You can fill it with heavenly desires.

My heart is full of sin, but You can adorn it with all virtues.

My heart is inconstant and wayward, but You can make it docile.

Come then, O Holy Spirit, the Father of the poor, come and fill me with Your love.

Amen.

Father, Father, send us the promised Paraclete, through Jesus Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

* Taken from the prayer book called "Devotion to the Holy Spirit".

God bless you today and forever more~

Erin

A Prayer for Spiritual Courage...

You know it's a wonderful thing to witness people stepping out of themselves to notice the needs of others. Whether these needs are spiritual, physical, emotional, etc. it is an inspiring thing to see. This reminds me of Christ's call to us to look for Him in everyone we meet and it got me thinking...how often do we really do that?

I know I look for Him in people I love all the time, but what about the strangers, the people I don't necessarily like or want to like. This is the call of the Lord, maybe more in my life today than in your own but that doesn't mean we can't all try.

I feel inspired to try and be kind to everyone no matter what the cost. This conquering of our own will in our lives means so much to Christ. The reason is because none of us can be truly happy in this world or the next unless we are doing the will of God in our own lives.

Recently, I found a quote by who I can't remember now but it said: "Love is the Greatest Educational Institution on Earth" I wonder what Christ would say about this quote?
Afterall He died on the cross for us and miracles happen everyday whether we witness them or not, but yet how many of us actually visit this so-called great educational institution?

Love is not an emotion or a feeling but a willingness to love. It's easy to love someone when they are in a good mood or love you back. But what about when we are not in good moods or it seems everyone we run into during the day is having their worst day on earth? In the words of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton: "Remember Christ crucified and remain silent".

My point is you never know what someone else is going through at any point in time. So why add to someone else's troubles by being selfish or moody? Challenge yourself to look for Christ even in the most angry or wretched people. He is still there! Remember Christ's words to us : "Whatever you did to the least of my people, you did it to ME."

I don't know about you, but I do not want to answer to the Lord for treating Him so terribly. It is not for us to understand everything that happens to us or others but to TRUST that the LORD KNOWS WHAT IS BEST FOR US!

So smile at a passing stranger, give your last dollar to someone who needs it, visit someone who is sick or lonely, be kind to those who are rude, and don't judge! Instead turn that judgement upon yourself and ask our Lord for His Guidance!

One person can make a difference in our everyday world, so start something contagious and choose to love without limits!

God bless you and reward you in everything you do and say!

~Erin

Stop to smell the flowers.......

Well here goes....I'm joining this weird wonderful world of the web!

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and drained today after finishing two finals this weekend, only to wake up this morning to two new classes, yeah! But who's complaining? I'm getting a top-notch education, right?

I'm trying to slow time down as much as possible because before I realize it, I know that school will start once again and I will be back at work as well as school! So as I'm typing this I'm enjoying the beautiful summer day that it is and wondering how long it's been since I've looked out this window because there are beautiful pink flowers growing on the trees outside. So when did that happen?

So I encourage and challenge you today to stop and look around at all the blessings that surround you in your daily chaos. God truly is everywhere even in the midst of our deepest tragedy.

For those of you that know me....I have a handful of what I like to call my "Patron Saints". These are the saints that show up in my life time and time again to help me out of the mud I create for myself. I affectionately like to refer to them as "my crew".

Being the wonderful "crew" that they are, they love to leave me with sometimes daily messages.
This one comes from one of my favorite spiritual books. It is compiled with portions of Padre Pio's letters to his Spiritual Director and his spiritual children. It is called "Words of Light".

I like to randomly open it and see what passage I open up to, (this is also a great thing to do with the bible). Whether I realize it at the time or not, it is always relevant to that day or week.

Passage 313:

Jesus wants you to know that the various Spiritual sorrows that upset you so much, are willed
directly by Him to test you and not to castigate you, to purify you even more and render you,
as far as is possible, like Him. He is the prototype of every soul that has chosen the best part ,
of divine service. He wants you, as a sign of gratitude, to be more docile to these divine workings
he is performing. (643).

~Padre Pio "Words of Light"

Make it a Great Day!