Author: Essy Dias

The reason for my tears, for the Mother’s tears, is my children who, in great numbers, live unmindful of God, immersed in the pleasures of the flesh, and are hastening irreparably to their per-dition.

Blue Book #4c

All across the world people find time to enter into solitude, fasting, and prayer in order to meet Christ. Prayer must become an integrated part of our daily lives, the most important part. Then will our house of sanctity rise high and be well built on the rock of faith. Then will our fields be fertile in the Lord, bringing forth a good harvest.

Grace in Every Season (January 18)

We are living a great part of our lives unmindful of Him… yes ‘WE’, not just ‘THEM’… because I for sure have moments of straying…of forgetting.

So what happens in those moments? The world gets in, that’s what. The enemy knows how to best get at us, so if he can’t get at us with comforts and ‘riches’ then he’ll throw some problems our way to make us feel like we need to step in and handle this on our own. Get us to busily spin our tails, and use up our own strength. Then ultimately give in to overwhelm and hopelessness. That’s the enemy’s game plan.

But God has a different plan… for us to live life WITH Him… all of it, the good and the not so good. The way we accomplish that is through constantly seeking to have Him before our eyes… do the opposite of what the world is beckoning…solitude, fasting and prayer… these get to the heart of self denial, of emptying ourselves, so that He can now fill us the way that only He can. Then to keep growing in our spiritual life.

You will have to suffer more, but courage! I will always be with you, and you will delight as no one else in the sweetness of my motherly Heart.”

Blue Book # 3d

The duty of the moment done for God is glamorous, exciting, wondrous- if only we can see it for what it truly is! But we are human. And it takes a long time, my dearly beloved ones, to see reality through God’s eyes. Unless we pray exceedingly hard, it takes a long time. But -with prayer we see an entirely different world about us! Sorting clothes becomes a joy. Washing dishes becomes an exciting challenge. Careful, repetitious tasks of creating take on new meaning.

Grace in Every Season (January 17)

As we all prayerfully and patiently wait for the ‘Triumph of the Immaculate Heart’ in the world, we can ourselves be ‘stepping into it’, right here and right now and be experiencing small glimpses of it on a daily basis.

As Catholics we are called to live out the Sacraments that we are regularly receiving, and fully live a life of prayer… not just by words that we recite, but by being authentically who we are called to be at each moment.

Learn to let yourself be possessed by me, so that, in everything you do, it will be I who am doing it through you. It is so necessary now that it be the Mother who acts: and I want to act through you…

Blue Book #3c

In the marketplace of the world, we must be preachers of the Gospel with our lives as well as (when required) with words. We must be preachers without compromise. We are people called by God to give him birth in a particular Nazareth setting, namely, in the modern marketplaces of the world. We are to show him to those who dwell around us, and we do this by how we live.

Grace in Every Season (January 16)

Jesus was fully God and fully man! He has a Divine Father and a Human Mother. Most people can fully appreciate His Divine side and aspire to follow Him in uniting with His Father, but either totally ignore or denigrate His human side. But Jesus, who is God the Son, chose to be born of a human woman. This birth, and his early childhood existence was filled with meaning even if it wasn’t public. In fact it was precisely its hiddenness and normality that gave it so much value.

This great event of birthing Jesus into the world in a physical sense was specifically given to Mary. But now in turn we are to follow her lead in a spiritual sense. The world needs Jesus more than ever… and that means it needs those of us willing to ‘birth Him’ to our little corners of the world. Especially as we prepare for and approach His Second Coming. This is Mary’s time…

Today I’m really happy with you. You have remained close to my Heart.

Blue Book #3a

Why, then, do I feel hopeful? I feel hopeful because the Lord has plowed a field, harrowed, and seeded it. I feel hopeful because green shoots of prayer are rising from the hearts of people every-where, not only in those dedicated to religious life, but in men and women of all vocations. People are praying in their hearts, and they are taking time to go to quiet places to reflect. They are being drawn inwardly toward him who poured himself out in the service of others.

Grace in Every Season (January 15)

We are familiar with the images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and any devout Catholic knows that they are truly united. In todays Gospel in the Latin rite we hear the words “quodcumque dixerit vobis facite” … do whatever He tells you. Mary’s command to us is never separate from her Son’s Will.

What we may not be living out in full awareness, is our place in this Union of Hearts.

Yet these messages today are so full of hope. Yesterday we were asked to stop focusing on the all the crazy making around us that is taking place via social media, and there is a very good reason for that. We are being called deeper into the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary and this requires ‘going to a quiet place to reflect’.

This ‘quiet place’ isn’t necessarily outside of our current environments … although it could be… but it is actually possible anywhere, even the busiest mall … it begins with an interior change… metanoia. Where we are then pulled in closer and closer to Him, to the point where it is no longer us living, but Him living through us.

In the video below we see how a union of hearts is a union of Will. ❤️🙏

Look at neither the newspaper nor television…

Blue Book: #2a

Our Blessed Mother gave the above message to Fr. Gobbi on July 8th, 1973, well before the mayhem of social media. If television and newspapers were a concern then, how much more so are these new technological advances that have popped up in recent years.

…in our strange technological loneliness that has separated us so thoroughly not only from our neighbors, but from our fathers, mothers, grandparents, in short from our relations. Yes, our technological age has begotten a terrible loneliness! We must begin to give the hospitality of the heart. In other words, we must open ourselves to a sharing of friendship that is rooted in the very heart of Christ whom we call our friend. We have to shed our “stiff upper lips”. We have to be open to the other, share with the other, express our love for the other. This can only be done if we open the doors of our hearts. Let us do that now, before the doors of our hearts are frozen shut by some new technological achievement!

Grace in Every Season

I must admit that I’m a techy nerd at heart, I just love new gadgets, and all things computer related. But I’m not blind to its darker side, the well controlled stream of information handed down to us by those with too much power on their hands and not much of a moral compass to guide them. Whose main goal seems to be to stir our emotions in order to gain clicks, and go about fiercely separating us at every turn in order to gain more control of the masses.

The addictive nature of social media is of great concern as well, huge amounts of time are being wasted without any real accomplishments. Time that in past generations was going to creating lasting and beautiful things, and to building strong families and communities. In other words, what was once going towards fulfilling the duty of the moment… is now wasted away in mere distractions.

I’m not dissing it completely, I know that good can come out of it, if used well. So the message that I’m garnering here is to set good boundaries. Social media is a powerful tool that can indeed be used for the good but we need to tread carefully.

The Spiritual Value of Fasting from the Internet!

Look at neither the newspaper nor television; remain ever closer to my heart in prayer.

Blue Book #2a

How do we stay close to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary in this crazy world of ours that is constantly trying to pull us away, enticing us with a myriad of distractions?

Well the Lord has been pressing ‘the duty of the moment’ into my own heart. Part of that duty is awareness… and following through on what needs to be done within my own surroundings. As a stay at home mom, my duties are drastically different than someone else with a different calling.

In todays reading of Grace in Every Season, Catherine Doherty proposes another duty yet, one to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Our search is for God. But God isn’t easily found if he isn’t reflected in the eyes of men and women. It is time that we Christians began to take notice of each person we meet. Each person is a brother or sister in Christ. Each person must be “recognized”. Each person must be given a token of friendship and love, be it only a smile, a nod of the head…

Grace in Every Season

So when the Lord commands us to pray always, or like in todays First reading, to remain in His rest. The Sacraments and formal prayer is only the beginning point. The duty of the moment, to our responsibilities and to each other, is where the metal hits the road.

We started in our own home, now let’s continue into our own parishes. Watch the following video with Colleen Hammond. So good!

I am now preparing you for great things, but little by little as a mother does with her child…

Blue Book: # 1c

When we think of ‘great things’ we may be tempted to think as the world thinks, even the world’s “religion” is all about ‘manifesting’ riches and other worldly goods. So we can be pretty confident that this isn’t what Our Blessed Mother is referring to here. These ‘great things’ will be according to God’s economy, not the worlds. Let’s see what else the Lord has for us today…

Awareness of little things, done well for the love of God, is daily living lifted up into the heart of Christ.

Grace in Every Season

Ok… now we are starting to see that being lifted up into ‘the heart of Christ’, which is fully united, with the ‘heart’ of Mary, is the goal. The Baltimore Catechism tells us that we were created to ‘know, love and serve God.’

For instance, wash the dishes for the love of God. When you serve the family, do it quietly and efficiently. If you learn to connect serving to the supernatural order, you will grow greatly in wisdom and love, and you will be a light shining in the darkness of the world. The light of your loving service will lead people to God.

Grace in Every Season

And we get there by ‘serving others’ well, so in other words not by being the greatest but by being the least ( in the world’s eyes anyway). Hmm… starting to sound familiar. 🙂 Yesterday’s Gospel expounds on this ‘created for His service’ theory.

Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

Gospel reading

We too are strengthened and healed for service. The blessings, graces and talents that we receive, are not meant to remain stagnant. We are to become a conduit of God’s love and goodness, and it begins with those He entrusts to us.

I will always be near you.

Blue Book #1

How are you going to restore the world to Christ, if you are doing the minimum required the letter of the law and never plunge into its spirit? Christ is waiting for you to become aware of him and the work he has given you, by becoming aware of the connection between brooms, dishwater, letter writing, tidiness, and the restoration of the world.

Grace in Every Season

So much of what we struggle with in life is a distraction from this Divine Calling in our lives… the calling to live out our lives with Him.

I think back on the lives of my parents and ancestors back in the Azores islands and think they were all better at this than I am, than what our current society seems to be.

Yes, their lives were more difficult in so many ways. But it was also filled with joy and grace. I don’t recall anyone suffering with depression. It was fully lived in the little moments of raising families, and the hard labor that came with that in those days, as well as caring for and praying with neighbors, and partaking in the local church celebrations. They also took time to develop their talents and artistry, whether in music or handy crafts and everyone benefited from it.

So many distractions today and we’re losing our very soul. We are all suffering from Attention Disorder, whether organic or otherwise.

This is where the ‘Marian dimension’ comes in… this pondering that needs to take place for awareness to grow is her specialty. She is always with us.

Do not be afraid.

Blue Book #1

No commentary from me is required. I’m just posting the various readings I encountered today and how they all embraced a single topic… embracing the cross! 🙏

What can a person do who tries to love God tremendously? Everything, from turning the lights off, to refraining from changing clothes every five minutes, to being indifferent to food, to going where God calls you. Once I know God’s will I am going to try to do it perfectly. My heart swells and I say, “This also, Lord, for love of you.’ ” I know verv well its redemptive value.

Grace in Every Season

Suffering which comes to us from God is best; and that comes to us through our circumstances, our surroundings, ourselves, and those we live with: these come from God, being permitted by Him. They are the warp and woof of our spiritual life.
People forget to sanctify the daily little crosses of life; they must be big and marked with a red cross, that we may recognize they come from God. But we can’t get away from these little crosses and mortifications, they are woven into our life – a clear sign they come from God. -Fr. Daniel Considine, 1950’s

He made the one who leads them to their salvation perfect through suffering.

From Todays First Reading