Tag: grace

Perseverance

Day 9

Today is the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Rosary, very meaningful as we focus on Perseverance. I often like to speak about God’s beautiful and intelligent plan for creation. Well, Mary was a big part of that plan. Not only did she give birth to the Savior, but she’s now united with Him as we hope to be one day and can assist us on our wellness journey and help us to persevere.

There’s a story that I read about some time after the Lord gave me the insights on the circular staircase, it really confirmed things for me. It’s attributed to Saint Francis’ spiritual director…Fra Leo. He had a dream of two ladders, a red one of legalism and the white one of grace. At the top of the red one stood this solemn Jesus that appeared demanding and harsh. As hard as the friars tried to climb this ladder, they would only make it up a few steps and they would back slide and have to continuously restart. Then St. Francis told them to come to the white ladder instead. At the top of the white ladder stood Mary, who is full of grace herself and a loving, encouraging Mother to each of us who are in Christ. And they were able to persevere and make it to the top. Remember, Jesus IS the way! He doesn’t stand from afar calling us…He is there with us for every step and brings in all the help we may need.

I took this photo when I visited Portugal back in 2013. This white circular staircase is located at the parish church of the shepherd Children of Fatima.

You can read about my circular staircase HERE.

This week’s Marian Consecration video is on the Rosary. Coincidence? I don’t think so! 😀

  • St. Adelaide’s
Hail Mary, Full of Grace, The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death.
IntroductionStepping into it, series intro.video
Week 1 intro*Core intro
ThanksgivingDay 1*Attentiveness to God’s blessings
CommitmentDay 2*To be all in for whatever the Lord wants of us on this journey.
LoveDay 3*To love God with our whole heart, mind and soul…and others as ourselves. It’s at the core of who we are, not simply what we do.
TrustDay 4*Childlike confidence that He leads us step by step.
KindnessDay 5*Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks.
*Focus on the Kingdom
TenacityDay 6* Setting up a specific prayer time
Week 1 recapLOVING GOD WITH OUR WHOLE MIND
*What is health and wellness
* The Mind’s purpose is to envision God and Heaven (to see the unseen).
EnduranceDay 7*Our feelings and emotions
* Consecrating them to the Lord for His purposes
ForgivenessDay 8*Effect of unforgiveness
* ph balance
PerseveranceDay 9*Mary’s help for the journey
*The Rosary
*The white ladder
*consecration video 2 (the rosary)
AcceptanceDay 10
PatienceDay 11
HumilityDay 12
Week 2 RecapLOVING GOD WITH OUR WHOLE HEART AND MIND

Called into the Great Silence!

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I had the pleasure of being on retreat last week. I went in on Monday afternoon and left Friday morning after breakfast. I’m still trying to process all that I experienced and learned there. These blog posts are about that…my own processing…I hope that they make some sense to you who may be reading and possibly even afford some inspiration…but I’ll leave that to the Holy Spirit.

Let me start at the beginning. I was supposed to be going on a long weekend get away trip with some girl friends the second weekend of September. My husband scheduled a few days off from work, to watch the kids.  I was looking forward to some time to myself to recharge my batteries and spend some time with some awesome people. It didn’t work out. One thing after another happened, and the weekend plans were eventually cancelled. To say I was disappointed was putting it mildly. But I had to trust in God’s plan.

However, part of the reason that I had so wanted to get away was my current struggles with severe depression. The week before my retreat, it had hit me again. For any of you who may struggle with this, you know that it comes in waves…you never really know when or how intensely it will hit you. So when it does, I retreat to my chair (or sometimes to my bed) and just let it pass. Shortly after crying to the Lord demanding to know why I had even been born, I got ‘the call’. A dear friend had been at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer that morning and the Holy Spirit had put me in their heart…the feeling was strong that I had to be there. I was left with no doubt that I had to obey. So I placed a call to the Abbey right away. In their website they say that retreats need to be booked six months ahead of time. Ok…it’s in God’s hands…whatever He wants…shall be. I left a message and hoped for the best.

A bit later someone from the Abbey called me back. The following week would be the women’s retreat (it’s the third week of each month) and they still had rooms available…would that be ok with me? Ha! Yes…that sounds just about perfect…especially considering that the week in question began on the 15th with the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows (right after the Exaltation of the Cross on Sunday which was my 29th wedding anniversary) and ended on the  19th…the day before my birthday. 😀

I think God had a plan, don’t you? Please stay tuned…