Today the Carmelite Monastery in Jackson, MS is celebrating Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The actual ceremony will be held Sunday evening, July 19th. For many years I attended Mass on Saturday morning in the beautiful chapel located there. The stain glass, Stations of the Cross, and statues are older and reminiscent of churches of my youth. I miss the stunning trappings of God's house, decorated with stories of His love and family members. When my children were small and we walked into the chapel, they would look around in awe. You could see it on their face. It always seemed to be a holier, quieter and safe place.
Today in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, I am linking to my first post here on this blog, because she always tells us to look to Jesus and Heaven!
Showing posts with label St. Therese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Therese. Show all posts
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Casting Our Net and Trusting God
Lately I keep having the recurring thought of even if something is good it still does not mean it is God’s will for us. The reading for today, in the book Divine Intimacy, hit this thought on the head again. “…for it is the consciousness of our nothingness which leads us to put all our confidence in God, and the greater this confidence becomes in us, the more convinced we are of our nothingness.”
The reading goes on to highlight the story of Peter as the fisherman, not catching anything, and our Lord coming along to tell him to lower his nets. The parallel is, we try to force things or hold on to things and find our own hands empty. The point being Our Lord gives with divine generosity, but insists on humility of heart. (St. Therese of the Child Jesus)
Finally the colloquy ends with, “As soon as You see me fully convinced of my nothingness, You stretch out Your hand to me; but if I should try to do something great, even under the pretext of zeal, You desert me. So all I have to do is to humble myself, to bear with meekness my imperfections. Herein lies, for me, true holiness.”
Do you ever feel like God is trying to drive something home with you? As some of you have read in my posts, I feel like I’m waiting on what to do? The message I received today is empty yourself of your ideas of what you want, and if you do this and trust God, He will fill your net. So that is where I am, casting my net, and leaving it there until Our Lord tells me to haul it in. And I have to be willing to leave it there for days, weeks, months or years, whatever it takes.
The reading goes on to highlight the story of Peter as the fisherman, not catching anything, and our Lord coming along to tell him to lower his nets. The parallel is, we try to force things or hold on to things and find our own hands empty. The point being Our Lord gives with divine generosity, but insists on humility of heart. (St. Therese of the Child Jesus)
Finally the colloquy ends with, “As soon as You see me fully convinced of my nothingness, You stretch out Your hand to me; but if I should try to do something great, even under the pretext of zeal, You desert me. So all I have to do is to humble myself, to bear with meekness my imperfections. Herein lies, for me, true holiness.”
Do you ever feel like God is trying to drive something home with you? As some of you have read in my posts, I feel like I’m waiting on what to do? The message I received today is empty yourself of your ideas of what you want, and if you do this and trust God, He will fill your net. So that is where I am, casting my net, and leaving it there until Our Lord tells me to haul it in. And I have to be willing to leave it there for days, weeks, months or years, whatever it takes.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
What is your Gift?
This morning at Mass, our priest was giving the homily on St. John the Baptist. He spoke of how John’s gift was the prophecy of Jesus. He went on to say that we all have gifts, and God created us for a reason, a purpose.
I started thinking about how most of us have or had grand ideas of being or doing something magnificent. We feel like if we’re supposed to do something for God it must be big! Because we sense the grandeur of God we are compelled to believe we are a part of something big. No matter what we accomplish here on earth, we eventually realize we are a small part of His might.
St. Therese, the Little Flower is a good example for us when it comes to doing our part. Her Little Way was to do small things with love. While she was living on earth did she know that one day her writings and life would have an impact for generations?
The lesson I learned today is if we sin in the dark and our sin affects the Body of Christ, if we do some small goodness, it also affects His Body. It helps accomplish His plan whether it is a smile, kind word or prayer. Also as evident in some blogs I read, people who suffer or suffered abuse and injustice contribute to His Body, by sharing their struggles, growth and triumph. Do they realize how many people they touch? Some may tell them how their words helped them, but others will quietly absorb their message never relaying how it changed their life.
St. John the Baptist had the gift of prophecy. What is our gift? Each day, each opportunity we have to spread the goodness of God is our gift, by the work of our hands, the words from our lips and the action of our hearts. What gift did you share today?
I started thinking about how most of us have or had grand ideas of being or doing something magnificent. We feel like if we’re supposed to do something for God it must be big! Because we sense the grandeur of God we are compelled to believe we are a part of something big. No matter what we accomplish here on earth, we eventually realize we are a small part of His might.
St. Therese, the Little Flower is a good example for us when it comes to doing our part. Her Little Way was to do small things with love. While she was living on earth did she know that one day her writings and life would have an impact for generations?
The lesson I learned today is if we sin in the dark and our sin affects the Body of Christ, if we do some small goodness, it also affects His Body. It helps accomplish His plan whether it is a smile, kind word or prayer. Also as evident in some blogs I read, people who suffer or suffered abuse and injustice contribute to His Body, by sharing their struggles, growth and triumph. Do they realize how many people they touch? Some may tell them how their words helped them, but others will quietly absorb their message never relaying how it changed their life.
St. John the Baptist had the gift of prophecy. What is our gift? Each day, each opportunity we have to spread the goodness of God is our gift, by the work of our hands, the words from our lips and the action of our hearts. What gift did you share today?
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
First Post
Not really knowing what I'm going to write each time, I want to start with a partial quote from St. Therese of Lisieux. This is actually where I found part of my blog name.
...for me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven. It is a cry of recognition and of love...
...for me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven. It is a cry of recognition and of love...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
abc.jpg)
