Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork“.
Yes, the title is not entirely click bate, there is a tried and true method, to acquire real, ever lasting richness.
But first let’s talk about what richness is not. That huge pile of money in your bank account, that big house, fancy car, or exotic vacation… nope… they’re not it. I’m sure they can provide a certain amount of temporary pleasure… so I hear. But here’s what they can’t give you… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control nor wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, nor fear of the Lord.
Does that mean that owning things is in itself bad? Of course not, they are just things… it’s your attachment to them that can catapult your life into a very bad place, and make you a slave to them. So it’s not what you own, but what owns you.
In today’s gospel we read.
“How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
” – Mark 10:24-25
So many want to manipulate the above message so badly wanting to change its meaning… saying the ‘eye of a needle’ was actually a gate… yada, yada… just to say that it’s not impossible, only difficult.
In the next couple of verses He tells us just that it’s not just hard…it’s impossible for men!
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.
So STOP it! It’s impossible to get to heaven with soul ATTACHMENTS… aka ‘being rich’, trusting and depending on your own sustenance.
So here’s the key to real richness as promised in the title … put God and His Kingdom first … and then, and only then will everything else be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)
“Oh Lord, make haste to help me! As for me I am poor and needy; but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not tarry, O my God.“ -Psalm 40:17
It will be I myself, living in these littlest children of mine, who will bring to completion the work, which the Most Holy Trinity has entrusted to me, that its greatest glory may shine forth over the world.
So we are told here that Our Mother’s job, as entrusted to her by the Holy Trinity… Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is that God’s glory may shine forth over the world. It’s not her own glory, it’s God’s glory.
Some people, of the non Catholic persuasion, may get flustered when they read that she’s wanting to live in us. Let me tell you something… anything and anyone that you give your self to, now lives within you to a certain degree.
This is most vividly seen in this earthly realm in the sacrament of marriage, we ‘consecrate ourselves’ to each other, and are told that the two shall become one. Well, when we consecrate ourselves to Our Blessed Mother, that too is a marriage of sorts… the two becoming one.
So now this mission of hers, to reveal God’s glory, so that it may shine over the entire world, now becomes our work too.
But what is God’s glory actually? What is this job that we’ve been assigned?
Well, St. Irenaous, I think said it best. “The glory of God is man fully alive.”
Fully alive in holiness…loving and serving Him here and now, and living with Him forever in Heaven!
Blue Book sec. c-e
The love of the Father and the Son has been given you by them that you may fulfill here below the plan which God, in His eternal wisdom, has already determined for you.
That’s the plan… you don’t need to be rich, powerful, or incredibly eloquent, or have a huge following on social media. It’s not what you do, but how you do it.
In today’s Gospel we read
While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
Again, many want to take this passage and twist it into something that it’s not. Jesus is NOT dissing His Mother… He kept all the commandments, including honoring His parents. He’s actually bestowing a great honor on her, telling us that her blessedness comes from her obedience to the Father… her ‘Fiat’… her great YES.
Psalm 57: 9-11
I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
I will sing your praises among the nations.
For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens.
When I feel the Lord’s call asking something new of me, I eagerly leap to it (that’s one of my adhd super powers. ;)) However, when I don’t see immediate results or it isn’t received as I had imagined, my spirit feels dejected, and my unwillingness to go forward is strong. He’s reminding me today that I need a new outlook… a clean heart, a soul cleansing. That it’s all about Him, not me and my feelings. That the joy of accomplishment that I’m seeking, comes only from Him.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; And take not thy holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; And uphold me with a willing spirit.” – Psalm 51:10-12
St Therese put it similarly.
“If through weakness, I sometimes fall, may your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself.”
Why? Why keep going? What’s the point?
Psalm 51: 13,15… tells us as it continues.
Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; And sinners shall be converted unto thee.
O Lord, open thou my lips; And my mouth shall show forth thy praise.
And St Therese again reiterates these words…
Oh my God! Most Blessed Trinity , I desire to love you and make you Loved... I desire to accomplish Your Will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory you have prepared for me in your kingdom.
The reason is because it’s ALL about Him and His Will, and that I’m too little to know the final outcome. He has other people out there, doing big things for Him… as for me, I need to be satisfied with the little before me. One person is reading this? One other soul resonates with what He is teaching ME?! Maybe that one soul will be the one to go on to bigger things. That is miraculous and it’s all Him, I didn’t do it, He did.
If you are that one soul. Thank you! You are in my prayers.
I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Yesterday we delved into the purpose of our being, what went wrong and the purification process still required.
Today we go a little deeper…
#150 h, of the Blue Book states.
Seduced by Satan, how many of them have lost the light which enables them to walk along the right path: that of truth, of fidelity, of the life of grace, of love, of prayer, of good example, of holiness.
How many of these poor sons of mine are even now abandoning the Church, either criticizing and challenging her, or even going so far to betray her and deliver her into the hands of her Adversary!
This great and necessary Light comes from the Holy Spirit, we first receive it at Baptism, we get it fully activated at our Confirmation, and we get it amped up each time we receive the Sacraments and then put them to use… to serve God, by allowing Him to use us anyway He sees fit. We receive grace, to pass it on.
In today’s Mass readings we hear…
the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. – Luke 1:73-75
In 33Days to Merciful Love it’s put in another way.
To live the Little Way, we must be merciful to others. We must strive to show mercy. We must strive to forgive. Otherwise we cannot hope for mercy.
Q. Why did God make you? A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.
Then why all the struggling, why can’t we get down to business of doing just that? Well…that whole little business of sin entering in, with the intent purpose of keeping us from that state of being.
It blocks our vision, distorts our goal and throws meaningless distractions at us at every conceivable moment. So what to do?
I’m speaking to practicing Catholics here, who are already taking part in the Sacraments but still find themselves struggling through life.
In the blue book 149 a, we read…
Beloved sons, look to your Mother. Enter into the refuge which her love has prepared for you. Rest in my immaculate heart.
While searching different versions of my reading this morning from Psalms 131, I found this beauty that gave me such peace.
“But I have learned to feel safe and satisfied, like a young child in its mother’s arms.” Contemporary English Version (CEV)
This state of rest and satisfaction isn’t a numbed, passive state though. Our Blessed Mother’s Heart is pierced with a dagger and burning in love , she very clearly sees the condition of things around us and the perils that are a constant threat to her children, just as clearly as she saw all that her Son had to endure for us. She is our Mother of Mercy, and she aches to bring us all into the refuge of her Heart where her Beloved Son reigns.
But for us to even get to this point, she must help us to release all that we can’t bring with us. This can be very painful depending on how many worldly attachments and sinful tendencies we still cling to. But we must continue forward.
Continuing on in sections c and d, of the blue book, she says.
Often you are tempted to stop because of weariness, aridity, and the obstacles you encounter. Never must you stop. Let yourselves be led always by the hand of your heavenly Mother. You are journeying along the difficult path of purification.
The the reflection of Day 18 of the Merciful Love prep, agrees.
So when we keep trying and keep trusting, God “purifies” us every moment in His love, and He lets no sin remain.
A result of this purifying process is our heart becomes more like Our Mother’s, with heightened sensitivity and greater compassion for other’s suffering, and that too is painful, especially as it leads us for a greater longing for God.
Fr. Gaitley goes on to write…
All right, so does the Offering to Merciful Love make this life into purgatory? Well, in a certain sense, yes, because it increases our longing for God. But don’t worry. In this life, it’s a sweet longing and a particularly good thing. It’s especially good because it’s not only opens our hearts to deeper prayer and can make life more joyful, but it also keeps us from having to go to the real purgatory in the next life. In fact, St. Therese believed that for little souls who live the Little Way and make the Offering to Merciful Love, purgatory can easily be avoided”.
So the point I take from this is aim for Heaven, (know Him, love Him and serve Him NOW) then if you miss, you still have Purgatory, it’s there as a back up plan because of Our Father’s great merciful love for us, not as a destination point.
Although it’s true that God may ask different things from each person… typically all He asks of us is to live fully each moment with Him.
In today’s Gospel we read about Martha and Mary, two sisters seemingly carrying out two different ways of serving the Lord. But then we hear that Martha isn’t altogether satisfied. The Bible tells us that she was ‘distracted with much serving’.
“But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.””- Luke 10:40
She wasn’t asking for solutions because she wasn’t owning up to her own faults… she didn’t think there were any. She saw work to be done and was off completing it on her own devices. So no opening for grace to seep in.
And Jesus’ response goes right to the heart of it.
“But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful.* Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.””- Luke 10:41-42
Only one thing is needed… to listen to the Lord, and do the duty of the moment. It’s not to say that we are to lay back with our rosaries in hand all day long, all the while everyone else serves us hand and foot…that would be nice…lol… but no. There’s a time for everything … and when the Lord is speaking… that’s a time for listening… no worries, there will definitely come a time for doing.
But Martha did what most of us do when we pray, we go to Jesus with requests filled with our own solutions. We give Jesus a honey-do list and then get frustrated, or are tempted to lose faith When it’s not completed to our specification.
But He doesn’t want to provide a quick fix … He’s not a people pleaser… He’s a healer. He instead asks us to look at all the things getting in the way of us living fully in the present moment with Him, and offer them up. Just give it over to Him, He’ll provide the solution Himself and it’s often different than what we were thinking. Our Blessed Mother can help us do this.
“Offer me also your sufferings:
your interior sufferings, which are so humiliating to you, because they come from the experience of your limitations, your defects and your numerous attachments. The smaller and the more hidden the sufferings which you offer me, the greater is the joy which my Immaculate Heart experiences.” Blue Book #148 q,r
Once this interior process has taken place, then we can hear His voice more clearly. Less of us… of our worries, anxieties, sins, defects… more of Him.
The great Saints of Mercy, Therese and Faustina. (St. Adelaide Parish)
“Make your vows to the LORD your God and perform them; let all around him bring gifts to him who is to be feared.” -Psalm 76:11
So what are we to give Him exactly? If you are a parent, I think you know. You may have done this when your kids were little too, we buy gifts for our kids to give to the other parent. Or when they are a little bit older, we give them money to buy us gifts. It’s not because we need things, but because we are training them in the school of love and showing them the joy of giving. Well…God is a good Father and does the same with us.
But what if God wanted to do all that for you… wanted to give you everything you needed for you to love Him beyond your wildest expectation, and others in turn, but you either outright rejected His gift, or were too distracted with all the shiny things to even notice?
In the Merciful Love prep, we read St. Therese’s words.
On every side this love is unknown, rejected, those hearts upon whom you would lavish it turn to creatures, seeking happiness from them with their miserable affection; they do this instead of throwing themselves into Your arms and accepting Your infinite Love.
and to St. Faustina, Jesus said…
“I desire to bestow My graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them. You, at least, come to Me as often as possible and take these graces they do not want to accept. In this way you will console My Heart. Oh, how indifferent are souls to so much goodness, to so many proofs of love! My heart drinks only of the ingratitude and forgetfulness of souls living in the world. They have time for everything, but they have no time to come to Me for graces… The flames of mercy are burning Me. I desire to pour them out upon human souls. Oh what pain they cause me when they do not want to accept them!… I am looking for souls who would like to receive My grace.”
Those of us who have consecrated ourselves to Jesus through Mary have an obligation. We must not only utter words with our lips but must live out our consecration, by first accepting the gifts He wants to bestow on us and then gathering together with Our Blessed Mother and all of our brothers and sisters, to bring to Him the great gift of our hearts aflame with His love.
In #147b of the Blue Book
“I have accepted the gift of your love and gave wrapped it around my Heart as splendid crown which you are making for me with the priests whom you are gathering from all parts of the world. Thank you for the joy which you give me!”
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103
Yesterday God granted me the blessing of completing my fifth First Saturday. Definitely not tooting my own horn here. Anyone with ADHD knows how impossible the completion of any long term task can seem at times. I had tried many times before, but something always came up on one of the Saturdays to intervene. Something shinier? Perhaps… I can’t fully recall. Novenas too were hard… but the Lord in His great Mercy saw my littleness, my inability to get it done… and right at that spot of my brokenness, He healed it and gave me the strength to do it. I’m not claiming that my executive functions have been healed… just that each job that is required of me, can be handed over to Him and together we’ll accomplish it… of that I am confident.
Anyway, when I got home after Mass and Confession, I got on my treadmill (yay me), turned on YouTube, so I could listen while walking… the song ‘The Goodness of God’ was on my recommended list. It blew me away! I hope it blesses you as much as it did me.
I love You, Lord Oh, Your mercy never fails me All my days, I’ve been held in Your hands From the moment that I wake up Until I lay my head Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God
And all my life You have been faithful And all my life You have been so, so good With every breath that I am able Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God
I love Your voice You have led me through the fire And in darkest night You are close like no other I’ve known You as a Father I’ve known You as a Friend And I have lived in the goodness of God, yeah
And all my life You have been faithful, oh And all my life You have been so, so good With every breath that I am able Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God, yeah
‘Cause Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me With my life laid down, I’m surrendered now I give You everything ‘Cause Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me, oh-oh ‘Cause Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me With my life laid down, I’m surrendered now I give You everything ‘Cause Your goodness is running after, it keeps running after me
And all my life You have been faithful And all my life You have been so, so good With every breath that I am able Oh, I’m gonna sing of the goodness of God I’m gonna sing, I’m gonna sing Oh, ’cause ‘Cause all my life You have been faithful And all my life You have been so, so good With every breath that I am able Oh, I’m gonna sing of the goodness of God Oh, I’m gonna sing of the goodness of God
We love You for that One for all my days
Oh how these words speak to me …“With my life laid down, I’m surrendered now I give You everything ‘Cause Your goodness is running after, it keeps running after me..”
This surrendering is a requirement for the Kingdom, to let go of all the striving and desiring for more and just rest in Him. It’s what spiritual childhood is all about. And He gives us Our Blessed Mother to help us with this too… that’s her Motherly role in the Body of Christ.
#146 b-e of the Blue Book. “ And this is the measure of your littleness: that of Jesus who, 40 days after his birth, is carried to the temple in the arms of his mother. His eyes looking into mine, and He feels at peace. He sees nothing else, and he sleeps cradled on my heart, while the joy of giving peace, repose and love to the Child grows within me.
Beloved sons, you should let yourselves be carried by me. Only in this way will you become my perfect joy. Only in this way, can you feel secure.
And so in the cold, which more and more is chilling everything, you feel the warmth of my motherly affection; midst the insecurity which is now taking hold of everyone, you feel the shelter which my arms are for you. In the darkness which is becoming deeper, here for you is my light.
You too should look into my eyes, at the light which God gives you through your Mother.”
And to top it off, here’s a bit from today’s Gospel readings…
““Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.” – Mark 10:15-16
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.Psalm 42:5
My absolute biggest lesson these days has been all about ‘embracing my littleness’, not in a looking to others and saying, ‘I am what I am, so just deal with it’ way. But in the ‘I am what I am… Lord, You help me deal with it’, sense. To hand all those things about myself that bug the heck out of me, back to Him. To totally walk in child like Trust, knowing that He’ll guide me and provide the strength for my obedience.
On Day 14 of the Merciful Love consecration prep, we read a bit from a letter that St. Thérèse wrote to her sister in which she writes…
“…what pleases Him is that He sees me loving my littleness and my poverty, the blind hope that I have in His mercy… That is my only treasure… why would this treasure not be yours?”
This is very different from what the world dictates to us. It would have us focusing on all the exterior and superficial manifestations of success. Looking around to see who has it, and breeding jealousy and contempt… or perhaps airs of superiority if it’s an area you excel that others don’t.
And that persistent, nagging littleness, what does the world want us do with that? Well hide it, numb it… or work yourself ragged to get rid of it at any cost, of course.
So what are we to do? Those of us who feel our littleness so strongly? Further in that same letter, St. Thérèse has some advice for us.
“Let us remain then very far from all that sparkles, let us love our littleness, let us love to feel nothing, then we shall be poor in spirit, and Jesus will come to look for us and He will transform us in flames of love.”
Again, it feel like she’s speaking directly to us adhd folks here… all that sparkles? Let us love to feel nothing? You see, by going after all the shiny things, is how we get our dopamine hits, our purported joy in life. But here she is giving us the key we’ve been looking for. She’s saying, STOP it! Stop grabbing and let Jesus feed you. It’ll be SO much better than those fake shiny objects that you’ve been enthralled with. She says that He’ll come look for us and transform us! He will do it. Yes… you must cooperate … but it’ll be by His guidance, His strength, His grace.
In today’s Gospel we read more about the advantage of being childlike…
“At that very moment he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.”
“And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” -Romans 5:20
In yesterday’s readings, the Lord was relaying our mission to us, that each of us were being called into His fold (the Community of Saints) because there was work to be done NOW! This persistence that the time is Now, continues today.
On Day 13 of 33Days to Merciful Love it says…
“God wants to work some of his greatest miracles of mercy in the whole history of the church today. In other words, right now, he wants to take some of the littlest of souls and make them into some of the greatest of saints.”
Speaking of the littlest of souls. In a previous post, An Invitation to the Neurodivergent Among Us, we see how this large group of people… and it is large… (many of us were born this way, but this dopamine driven society we live in is increasing our numbers even more…to the point where most people would probably claim to be a little ADHD)…are struggling so much in this world, in so many ways.
From a spiritual perspective, the negative side of being distracted, is we get our focus taken away from who we are and what we are meant to be doing. Sounds downright diabolical to me. However the good news, is that in God’s Mercy, He can use our littleness.
On Day 4 of “You Shall Not Want”, we read…
“Incline my heart away from any evil, from busying myself with wicked deeds in the company of evildoers.”
We may claim we’re not out here doing evil works… but there are only two sides in this battle. If we aren’t doing God’s work… then we are most definitely working for the other guy…the one that wants us distracted, addicted, depressed and feeling worthless. I don’t know about you, but I want nothing to do with him. Yet every time we self medicate and rush to get another artificial dopamine hit. It’s the other guy we’re turning to.
So what to do?
#114c (Blue Book)
“Cast everything into the burning furnace of his Heart, and everything will be burned up in his merciful love: your sins, your weaknesses, your defects.”
The best way to accomplish this is first of all through the Sacraments, most especially Confession and the Eucharist. Then be attentive… pray and obey. What is He asking of you?
I may have mentioned before how I love doing consecration preps. My adhd mind needs the organized focused time to pull my thoughts in. And then each prep journey becomes a very particular stepping stone on the path of His design.
I’ll end today’s reflection with the words from ‘Merciful Love’.
“I want us to see our present preparation for making an offering to Merciful Love, not as an exercise in learning spiritual theology, but rather as a response to God‘s gift of mercy in this time of mercy. I want us to see our preparation to consecrate ourselves to Divine Mercy as a way of letting God work a great miracle of mercy in us and for our time.“
