I was watching a video of the famous Sister Emmanuelle of Mediugorje. She quotes an apparition of Our Lady in which she gave the most beautiful message. Our lady said we should give her all our troubles and in return simply to pray for her intentions and she'll take care of the rest!! What a wonderful deal!! Of course this message is entirely scriptural too, in fact casting our troubles on the Lord, not to worry and trust is a constant theme: "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" Matthew 6 Isa 46:4 Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.' ~So those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. ~Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isa 46:4 She tells the story of Albert, a French guy who was converted in Medugorje and returned to the faith. Albert was worried about his wife, an unbeliever. For Our Lady had asked that families should pray together and there wasn't a hope hos wife would join him. However when he returned home he used to go into a quiet room and pray and eventually, lo and behold his wife joined him there and was converted. Matthew 6:5-8, NIV: And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. So Albert had done a deal with Our Lady he had prayed for her intentions and left worries about his wife in her hands and she had come through for him!! A lovely story and I am sure it happens again and again with converts, a bit like grace being like a stone dropped in quiet waters and spreading its ripples everywhere. When I was converted my biggest worry was for my brothers and sisters for my biggest fear was that they would end up in hell. contd
Questions. Padraig, I love your picture of the little cubbie-hole at the Church wuth the Cross and Bible. It's like having a little hideaway. When I was a young man I spent a year as a staff member at a retreat house in Binghamton, NY. My bedroom was on the second floor and just down the hall was a small, intimate chapel that held our Eucharistic Lord. I loved to get up at night and pray in that little chapel; it was like having Jesus all to myself. Of course, He brought the whole world with him! :shock: Interestingly, tonight my daughter Therese asked how one can keep from worrying. I suggested she speak the truth to her heart by asking herself the following questions. I am hoping she will respond accordingly. Did I cause myself to be conceived? ...No. Can I prevent myself from dying? ...No. If I'm not in control, who is? ...God. What does the first article of the Creed say about God? ...He is my Almighty Father. How does John the Evangelist describe God? ...God is love. So my God is both Love and Almighty; He is also my Abba, Father who is in control? ...Yes. What happens to worry when I surrender myself into God's care? ...It is vanquished! 1Pet 5:7 Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you.
I was just thinking yesterday morning , Terry, of all the very holy people I have known in my life, if there was anyone whom I can honestly say of, 'He/she is not a worrier'. I don't know, maybe there is but it would be hard for me to believe! I suppose there is a difference between being concerned about something {like a parent with a sick child} and worrying about something {like a dog with a bone}, but sometimes its hard to tell the difference. :roll: Sometimes you have to pay a lot more attention to stuff to get by and I don't think this is worrying. But I find sometimes my mind picks up on something and won't let go and I have to pray and ray and pray to get off the treadmill. Though I would not say I am naturally a great worrier, in fact the exact opposite I should get a lot more concerned about stuff and not have my head in the clouds. :lol: But I think, as your post implies a lot of worry has to do with the future. Its fine to be concerned when its things we can change by acting but I think most times we worry a lot of things we really can't do anything very much about, like the global economic melt down. My mother told me a nice thing one time when I told her I was worried about some debts. She said, 'Padraig, worry about many things in your life, but don't worry about money its not worth bothering about'. :shock: This really surprised me , coming from her. She brought up ten children and often there was just no money coming in a t all and I could see she meant what she said. I'd guess 90% of worry is about money and 100% of worry is about the future. :shock: :shock: :shock: Oh well I slept in this morning so have no time to write more. LlThe CLonard Novena starts today, you can see it here: [web]http://www.clonard.com/[/web]
Padraig, Our annual Novena to Our Mother of Good Counsel starts this Friday at the Redemptorist church in Limerick. I am looking forward to it. I must confess to being an aful worrier. I pray all the time when I get like this. I wish I had more trust in the Lord. All my worry really is for my family. I worry about their faith, do they pray? are they listening to Jesus and Mary? are they coping? how will they cope with the future? its never ending. I think its hard for a mother to distance herself. When they were younger I could protect them now I cant only by prayer. I am working on it. Mary
I've just returned from a week away and I've had some time to distance myself from the everyday life and I've found that my worry had changed. I am getting better at hiding myself in Our Lord and clinging to him like a little one sitting on her father's shoe and clinging to his leg as he tries to walk. I won't let go! I'm no good if I do and even thought things are rocky and scary they are a lot better clinging to his leg than winging it on my own. I pray like mad these days...some days it feels like every breath is filled with prayer and sometimes that doesn't even feel like enough. But I'm not worried like I used to be. I just had a little Bible Study this morning with David hiding in caves and waiting for God to come through with His Promises. David was patient and filled with faith and that faith pulled him through. It was exactly what I needed to read. That's where I am! Even though I can't see the end result of the Promise I have to cling even tighter than before to ensure the faith sustains me. Bumpy days but my dreams are filled with a fabric that lifts me up and protects me.
Oh and I have to add, that little Blue Book, ALL THROUGH MARY, cracks me up! This last few days I felt stranded and really as though I was fighting my way out of something terrible. I flipped open Our Lady's book and she talked to me about fear and said "sorry for showing up late" :shock: I laughed right out loud. She did show up!
Mary. I think it is in God's scheme of things that a mother heart grows bigger. I was walking about yesterday and decided to cast my little worries on Our Lady but suddenly did not want to do so as I felt sorry for her. She has all the worries of the world in there and I did not want to make them any bigger. But Our Lady explained to me that her Motherhood is a real motherhood its not just a word. God had made her heart so big that it can take on all the worries of the world and more. That her motherhood to us is real and she was well able to bear each and everyone of our burdens abd wants too. Because, well, really we are very,very small children and we need a Mother and God has given us her as our own Mother. I think mothers hearts naturally grow bigger to embrace their children as yours have to carry your own. I think this is the path of prayer, the path of love that it grows to encompass the whole world. Even when you die and go to heaven your heart grows further to encompass all the families of your generations your great, great, great grandchildren and the whole world. You see this in the life of someone like Padre Pio who exercised Spiritual Fatherhood to many, many thousands and said he would not enter heaven until the last one of his children had entered. How wonderful that our hearts grow so we are like Mary, holding Jesus in our arms!
Dail, I have always liked the description of life being like a tapestry. On this side of the veil we see life as a tapestry, but from the 'wrong side' because we are still working with the sowing needle of faith to sow it all up. However when we pass across to the other side we shall the true face of the tapestry and see a point to all that has gone on here. However as we pray we grow the wings of eagles and soar and so as we climb the winds of the Holy Spirit we see the tapestry more and more and all our worries and cares take on meaning and purpose. Not that they disappear, no , for i am afraid we are not angels. at least not yet, but they no take on meaning and purpose. Sometimes we have to wait many , many years and to look back to see a little meaning and purpose. But yes, prayer is a great caster off of worries we see a little more the tapestry of life as the angels do. This brings great, great, great peace in the hurly burley of life.....
I think this verse of Scriptures refers to saints like Padre Pio and St Therese of Liseux: MARK {10:29} In response, Jesus said: “Amen I say to you, There is no one who has left behind house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or land, for my sake and for the Gospel, {10:30} who will not receive one hundred times as much, now in this time: houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and land, with persecutions, and in the future age eternal life.
Mary and Padraig, thank you for the reminder of the upcoming Novena. I'm all set to start on Friday. I don't know what I would do without Our Blessed Mother. She has caught more tears than I care to mention, and held me up when I didn't think I was going to make it. I have a lovely statue of her in my side garden off the bedroom and she sits on a concrete pillar. I can just barely lift her from the pillar and it's in that hole that I stuff my love notes to her.
