Today, I want to thank Jesus for trusting me with these sufferings. Even though it brings pain to my body, it is a sweet joy for my soul. I think because like St. Therese,(not that I am anything like her) I realize that I am a very simple soul who cannot offer anything worthy or great to our Dear Lord.
With this in mind, I pray everyday to be able to carry out my duties and obligations to the best of my ability and to do it with a grateful heart. Even in this prayer, my self-will is my constant enemy. The Lord knows how weak my will is and so I must constantly pray throughout the day through every task to be able to do His will.
He has allowed my focus to move from this earthly existence to my eternal existence, and becauase of this every choice has eternal consequences. I do not wish to sound so final but I am just writing how I feel.
So thank you Jesus for trusting me with these small sufferings and pains compared with your agony on the cross. Help me to never complain about them but to embrace them and thank you for them daily. They have turned into a sort of payment and living prayer for my debt of love for You.
I also thank you for these sufferings because they keep me humble and constantly remind me just how little I am and how much I depend on you for everything! Please take these small sufferings throughout the day and use them how You see fit my Lord, for only You know how to best use them and who am I to tell You how to use them?
Finally, keep my heart imflamed for love of You so that I never lose perseverance!
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You!
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroy, nor theives break in and steal. For where you treasure is, there also will your heart be."
Matthew 6: 19-21
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
God's theme for my Retreat...
Well, I just returned home yesterday from my retreat at Prince of Peace Abbey in Oceanside. This is the home of The Benedictine Monks who are filled with the spirit of Prayer, Peace, Perseverence and Penance.
I went on a private "somewhat silent" retreat with my mom and was a little nervous before leaving because this is the first retreat I've been on that wasn't planned or structured. Although we did have the opportunity to go to daily Mass and join the monks in prayer up to five times a day, there was no designated speaker for us to listen to.
So we went to daily Mass and took ample amounts of quiet time for spiritual reading, prayer, and walking the stations of the cross and enjoying nature. It was wonderful!
I felt I received a lot of peace on this retreat and that God spoke to me in the silence of my heart.
Since this is private, I will not reveal anymore but I would like to leave you with the running theme for the last few days for both me and mother that somehow the Lord wanted to stress this importance to us.
Perhaps it is because I am not as grateful for all the gifts He has so generously given to me or that I can be selfish and not give as freely as I would like to.
So I will take the opportunity now of admitting this to myself and to you before God and ask Him for His forgiveness.
I love you Lord, but help me to love you more in all the things I do, say, and think.
Theme of this Retreat:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear.
For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.
Notice the ravens:
they do not sow or reap; they have neither storehouse or barn, yet God feeds them.
How much more important are you than birds!
Can any of you by worrying add a moment to your lifespan?
If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest?
Notice how the flowers grow. They do not toil or spin.
But I tell you not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass in the field that grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow , will He not provide much more for you, O you of little faith?
As for you, do not seek what you are to eat or what you are to drink, and do not worry anymore.
All the nations of the world seek for these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.
Sell your belongings and give alms.
Provide moneybags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustable treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.
~Luke 12:22-34
May God bless and reward you!
I went on a private "somewhat silent" retreat with my mom and was a little nervous before leaving because this is the first retreat I've been on that wasn't planned or structured. Although we did have the opportunity to go to daily Mass and join the monks in prayer up to five times a day, there was no designated speaker for us to listen to.
So we went to daily Mass and took ample amounts of quiet time for spiritual reading, prayer, and walking the stations of the cross and enjoying nature. It was wonderful!
I felt I received a lot of peace on this retreat and that God spoke to me in the silence of my heart.
Since this is private, I will not reveal anymore but I would like to leave you with the running theme for the last few days for both me and mother that somehow the Lord wanted to stress this importance to us.
Perhaps it is because I am not as grateful for all the gifts He has so generously given to me or that I can be selfish and not give as freely as I would like to.
So I will take the opportunity now of admitting this to myself and to you before God and ask Him for His forgiveness.
I love you Lord, but help me to love you more in all the things I do, say, and think.
Theme of this Retreat:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear.
For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.
Notice the ravens:
they do not sow or reap; they have neither storehouse or barn, yet God feeds them.
How much more important are you than birds!
Can any of you by worrying add a moment to your lifespan?
If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest?
Notice how the flowers grow. They do not toil or spin.
But I tell you not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass in the field that grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow , will He not provide much more for you, O you of little faith?
As for you, do not seek what you are to eat or what you are to drink, and do not worry anymore.
All the nations of the world seek for these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.
Sell your belongings and give alms.
Provide moneybags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustable treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.
~Luke 12:22-34
May God bless and reward you!
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