Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak...St. Pio

Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak and I need Your strength, that I may not fall so often. St. Pio of Pietrelcina

A recent post on Stay with me, Lord covered the first sentence of St. Pio’s prayer. The above sentence is the second part. Plus my last post was on The Cross and Humility. This second sentence fits nicely with recognizing humility. At times, it seems as if we only realize we are weak when we fall. We’ve all heard the phrase, “I hit rock bottom.” When we fall, sometimes we chastise ourselves to the point of insulting God’s infinite mercy. All we have to do is open our arms to Him. His love for us is so great; He cannot help but reach for us, His wounded child. He lifts us up with strength to move forward, He will even carry us.

The weight of our sins caused Our Lord to fall on His way to Calvary. But the weight did not cause Him to remain on the ground. Alone we cannot carry our cross, but with Him we are able to stand each time and continue the journey.

Lord, when we acknowledge our weakness, You pour Grace upon us. Help us to remember to open our arms in response to Your love, and to fall unabashedly into Your merciful Heart. Amen

Passing on the Faith

My mother is Protestant so when I was small going to Mass consisted of my Dad, two brothers and me. Mom was there for the special occasions, but for the most part it was the four of us. Being the baby and the only girl, I usually ended up next to my Father. People would laugh and say during the homily they would see my Dad and me both asleep. To this day when his eyes are closed at the homily my Dad says he is praying. We all get a good chuckle out of it.

This morning during Mass a young couple with a small child sat in front of us. The little girl looked to be about two years old. When Father was ready to read the Gospel, and we all made the small cross on our forehead, lips and chest, I saw the little one’s Dad make the crosses on her too. I thought that was so sweet. After Father started the homily, I noticed the little girl was making the crosses herself. Towards the end of Mass when we made the sign of the cross, she was doing her best to make it also. I saw her Dad smile at her Mom, and I smiled too. Sometimes our Lord sends us the nicest blessings. Today he sent the wonder of watching two parents pass their Faith to their little girl!


Note: Before the Gospel we make a small cross on our forehead as a remembrance to keep God’s Word in our thoughts. We make a small cross on our lips as a remembrance to keep God’s Word in our speech. We make a small cross on our chest as a remembrance to keep God’s Word in our hearts.