I'm always full of hope and joy at the day of the Divine Mercy. I have propagated it throughout the years (at least 20) and given many talks and given many images to Parishes and priests. Every DM feast day it is tho I have to PULL TEETH to get my family to cooperate. They have NO MEMORY of what the feast entails. Why etc. I did the Novena with two of my children for the past nine days! I tell them on the way to Church that Father is going to have a Mass and the plenary indulgence prayers afterwards with confessions so we have to do the chaplet at home at 3pm. The Church service was wonderful, but Father talked about Jesus' Divine Mercy and confession--he didn't even explain what was REQUIRED to receive the graces of today! Then Mass ended and three of my children disappeared to the car! I finally found them and said, "What the heck are you doing! Get inside for the indulgence prayers!" I got in just in time for the END of the prayers and my kids come in and its like HO-HUM...and then one refuses to go to confession....i DON'T EVEN KNOW if we received the grace of the indulgence!! I swear, I wanted to scream! I got in the car and decided to read Mark Mallett's blog he wrote on Divine Mercy today. They all--including the husband--just blanked out...I didn't even finish it and they were glad. At 3pm- one kid was busy on the phone, the rest of us came together to pray the chaplet and it was if they couldn't get through it fast enough. SPEED PRAYING--oh how that makes me CRAZY! I covered my face and prayed and prayed and prayed. Then it was over as quickly as it was started. NO ONE was interested in going one more minute and I could not stay for the idle chatter that was happening. I got up and went upstairs in tears. I cried before the foot of the cross for a long time and fell asleep crying. I'm sure I'll hear tomorrow how 'at least we did it'.... I slept for 7 hours and now I'm up at 1am! uggg. I feel like such a failure as a mother and a wife. Somehow my family has missed the Great boat of Salvation today and all I can do is cry.
No, you are not a failure as a mother, Mothersuperior7. You do what you can, but everyone in your family is a separate person, separate soul who has to go their own road. You can pray for them to feel the way you do, but you can not make them that.
I think we,...many of us are suffering in this way,..big time...we have been given the grace to see and with it a great cross to bear. I had 7 children the youngest passed away when he was 7. Only one of my children attended DM services,..my husband doesn't believe and doesn't attend Mass at all. I think my boat has many holes,...all I can do is keep bailing through prayer and trust in Gods Mercy. I think when the warning happens many will be in for a rude awakening.
I know as you know that SO MANY things are going to happen this year...and I just wanted them to be prepared spiritually. Boo-hoo. It makes for sad feelings this morning and now I'm tired again! uggg.
Mother Superior, Insearch, Sunburst and for all else who may be worrying. Don't be worrying about your family. Our Lady promises that if we recite the rosary every day our family will be saved. That is one promise. Mother Mary has never and never will lie period. The other consolation is that God will never be outdone in generosity. Don't you worry about all His family finding their way back to Him? Do you ever stop and think about how God must grieve over His lost children and the wonderful consolations you bring Him when you pray for them? Well.... Rest Assured, not one member of your family will be forgotten. I have this assurance like a rock deep within my soul.
Now that the novena is done I want to share a DM story. There is a high school teacher in our DM ( I'll call her J ) cenacle group who told us this story,..she had a young girl come and sit alone in her class and the principal came in to hand this girl a suspension slip. It was this teachers job to do a refection on why this child was being suspended. She asked the young girl why she was being suspended and the young girl said she had slapped a boy,.. when J inquired as to why she slapped the boy,..this is what the girl told her. We were standing in the hallway and this boy was standing in the hall with the Bible,..he started tearing pages out of the Bible and throwing them up into the air,..the kids were telling him he shouldn't be doing that and he just continued as he laughed it off. This girl went right up to him and said "stop it" that is when he blasphemed at her and she slapped him. This teacher J took this girl aside and told her,..I want to thank you for what you did in standing up for Jesus during one of the Holiest weeks. It was Holy Thursday. The boy had no penalty for what he had done,..and she again thanked this student for bearing the punishment in defense of Jesus. Teacher J then asked the girl what the boys name was so she could pray for him. She always prays for her students,..especially with the DM chaplet. J told us why is it that kids with the name Jezus or Emmanuel always seem to get into the most trouble.. Imagine a teacher telling a student,..it was a good thing to slap another student,..but I do think it was for a good cause
OK, I feel better. I just read Mark Mallett's blog today... Thank you all for your kindness... Raise Your Sails (Preparing for Chastisement) As I leave California this morning, the winds are blowing hard. The following writing came to mind… When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. (Acts 2:1-2) THROUGHOUT salvation history, God has not only used the wind in his divine action, but He Himself comes like the wind (cf. Jn 3:8). The Greek word pneuma as well as the Hebrew ruahmeans both “wind” and “spirit.” God comes as a wind to empower, purify, or procure judgment (see The Winds of Change). I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on land or sea or against any tree… “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” (Rev 7:1, 3)At Pentecost, we pray: …send your Spirit into our lives with the power of a mighty wind… —Liturgy of the Hours, Morning Prayer, Vol II SHAKEN BY THE WINDS Whether they are the winds of a personal trial or The Great Storm gathering over the earth, many of you are afraid—shaken by the circumstances in your own life, by the astounding decline in morals, or by what our Lady has warned will come upon an unrepentant world. Discouragement is setting in, if not despair. As I prayed about this, I sensed in my heart: Each moment—and the Divine Will contained in it—are the wind of the Holy Spirit. In order to sail forward toward your goal: union with God—one must always raise the sail of faith mounted upon the mast of one’s will. Don’t be afraid to catch this Wind! Never be afraid where the winds of God’s Will take you or the world. At each and every moment, trust the Holy Spirit who blows where He wills according to My plan. Even though these Divine Winds may carry you into a great tempest, they will always carry you safely where you need to go for the good and sanctification of your soul or the correction of the world.This is a beautiful word of assurance! For one, the Spirit is in the wind, even if it bears chastisement. It is the will of God, for the present moment is where God is living, acting, guiding, dwelling, intersecting with the activity of men.Whatever it is, whether it is a great consolation or trial, good health or sickness, peace or temptation, living or dying, all is permitted by the hand of God and ordered to the sanctification of your soul. Each and every moment the Divine Will of God blows in your life within the present moment. All that is required of you is to simply raise the sails of trust into the Winds of the moment and, turning the rudder of obedience, do that which the moment requires, the duty of the moment. Just as the wind is invisible, so too, hiddenwithin this moment is the power of God to transform, sanctify, and make you holy—yes, hidden behind the mundane, the ordinary, the unglamorous; behind crosses and consolations, the will of God is always there, always working, always active. The soul must pull up the anchor of rebellion, and this Holy wind will blow it towards the harbor for which it is destined. Jesus said, The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)
The Divine Winds can suddenly change, blowing this way one moment, and that way the next. Today, I am sailing in sunshine, tomorrow, I am thrown into a terrible storm. But whether the seas of your life are calm or whether great waves assail your from every side, the response for you is always the same: to keep your sail raised by an act of the will; to do the duty of the moment whether it is a gentle breeze or a harsh spray of sea salt passing over your soul. For within this divine action is the grace to transform you. My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. (John 4:34)The Divine Wind is the necessary force to move your life toward the Harbor of Holiness. What God asks of you is to be docile to this Will, with the trust of a child. Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 18:3) AND THE FRUIT WILL COME Do you lack peace in these times? Joy? Love? Kindness? I asked the Lord once, “Why? Why have all my efforts in prayer, daily Mass, regular confession, spiritual reading, and incessant begging not born the fruit of conversion I so desire? I still struggle with the same sins, the same weaknesses!” Because you have not embraced Me in the distressing disguises of My Holy Will. You have embraced Me in My Word, in My Eucharistic Presence, and in My Mercy, but not in the disguise of trials, troubles, contradictions, and crosses. You do not bear the fruit of My Spirit, because you do not remain in my commandments. Is this not what my Word says? Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. (John 15:4) How do you remain in Me? If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love… Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. (15:10, 5) My commandments are My Holy Will for you hidden each day in the present moment. But when My Will is not agreeable to your flesh, you refuse to remain in it. Instead, you begin to look for Me in the more agreeable forms of My presence, rather than remain in My love, in My commandments. You adore Me in one form, but you despise Me in the other. When I walked the earth, many followed Me when I presented Myself in the form which was agreeable to them: as healer, teacher, miracle-maker, and triumphant leader. But when they saw their Messiah in the disguise of His poverty, meekness, and gentleness, they walked away, looking instead for a powerful political leader. When they saw their Messiah presented to them as a sign of contradiction to their lifestyles, a sign of light and truth and conviction, they would not remain, and looked for one who would applaud their decadence. When they saw their Messiah in the distressing disguise of a sacrificial lamb, bloodied, bruised, scourged, and pierced through as the embodiment of a trial and a Cross, they not only refused to remain with Me, but many became angry, mocked and spit upon Me. They wanted the Man of Wonders, not the Man of Sorrows. So too, you love Me when My will is agreeable to you, but when My Will appears in the disguise of the Cross, you abandon me. Listen carefully again to My Word if you wish to unlock the fruit of holiness in your life: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness… Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life (James 1:2,-3, 12) Just as the Lily of Life sprung from the Tomb, so too, the fruit of My Spirit, the crown of life, will spring from the soul who embraces My Holy Will in all its disguises.Do not be afraid, my dear brother! Do not be anxious, dear sister! The Will of God is blowing this very moment in your life and in the world, and it carries within it all that you need. His Holy Will is your sacred refuge. It is your hiding place. It is the wellspring of grace, the tomb of transformation, and the rock upon which your life will stand when the Storms, which are here and coming, plunge the world into its hour of purification. At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. (Heb 12:11) First published June 2, 2009.
Just before Our Lady appeared to Bernadette at Lourdes she said she felt a sudden wind. One of the Curates in the parish said that inclined him to believe her as it reminded him of Pentecost.
Marti it occurs to me that your sufferings on behalf of your children will be at least as efficacious as your prayers. ahhhh a mothers prayers, even the angels must stop and listen with a tender heart.
The Blessed Virgin said at Medjugorje that the wind was her sign. She is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit...
Dear MS7, I have had soooo many similar experiences - the ugliest time in our house used to be the last 10 minutes on a Sunday morning before we would get out for Mass, and I've had some really ugly family rosaries too. For me the problem is the disconnect between my aspirations and the reality that surrounds me. Once my toddler was doing an impression of a dying fly on the steps of the Altar during Mass. I brought her back to our seat, me all red faced, and a good man said to me "Are you so proud as a parent..." There was more but those few words stuck with me. Is it my pride that is affected by the behavior of my children??? The prodigal father let the renegade son go. He knew what the son would get up to, but he still gave him the fortune and he let him go. I want the consolation of the picture perfect family, but consolations in this life aren't to be sought after. I have to try to live expecting little or no consolation here, but confident that God will reap the reward of my spiritual sowing. My mother, God rest her soul, did plenty of great sowing but I gave her little consolation during her life. But one of the greatest moments of my life was when I invited her to say the Chaplet of Mercy with me when I realized she was dying. A blessed moment after such a long desert... MS7 God bless you and your family - I took the lazy way out yesterday - didn't bring the family but asked them to pick me up at the time I expected Mass to be over. We had a visiting priest whose sermon was longer than most of our Masses and I ended up having to leave at the end of the sermon... seems to be a recurring theme of dashed hopes on Mercy Sunday... but at least I remembered to pray for the Pope this year!
I bet if the kid's mother or father knew he did that they would have beat him senseless! Just my 2 cents...lol
