Prayer...

So for the last few weeks, months, whatever...I have been feeling like I have been praying inadequately. Not so much that I don't spend time in prayer. Throughout each day I offer up all my prayers as the days go by, but I haven't been spending enough prayer time just listening. Because of this, and the craziness of my life lately, I felt called to get "order" back into my home and spend more time with just He and I. That would be great if that were His plan as well. I spent all weekend rereading A Mother's Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot. First things first are to get your prayer life scheduled and one for your children. Well I got right to it and was doing wonderfully working around the schedule and then my father had to have surgery. We brought him home from the hospital and my children collapsed into their beds and fell right to sleep and I thought, for a brief second, "oh no, they didn't say good night prayers." Then it hit me. My whole day had been in prayer. I was the one there sacrificing all to be there for my mother and father. My children had given up their mother for the day so that I could be there to love and support my parents. What an incredible lesson for us to all learn. So even though I didn't get to say my "prayers," I was in prayer all day. By living the life He has called me to and by saying yes when He asks. My wants have been to be alone with Him, but He is obviously saving that for another time. Once again calling me to self abandonment. What peace I had that night going to bed and surprisingly enough, I had time to be alone with Him. Even if it was brief as I fell off to sleep.

Pray where you are, don't wait for it to be the right time. Right now IS the right time. It doesn't have to be formal or ornate. Just spend time with Him where you are, wherever that may be. God bless!!

Finding what you need in the Eucharist

All of us who are still in shock are wondering "What now?" We need to have faith! When we question something in life, we can find ALL the answers we need in one place here on earth. It is THE place where Heaven joins us all lowly and brings us the ONLY thing we truly need. So go to Him when you are weary and week. Go to Him for nourishment and support. Go to Him whenever you can, just Go to Him. He sits there waiting for us daily and is so happy to see us come. Our priest today at Holy Mass was a visiting priest and he made such an honest thought of him as a child. He said he worked so hard to earn money for a pair of pants that he wanted, but would he have ever worked so hard to get to mass? Why is it that we take the greatest gift ever given for granted? What would we do without it? What if we run out of priests because we don't want to give up the thought of grandchildren, or because we wouldn't want our son to give up so much in life?

Find the gift that is the Eucharist and go, go, go! Spend time with Christ as often as you can. Pray with Him, plead with Him, thank Him for all you have. For without Him it wouldn't be yours!!!

While reading about Mother Angelica and the amazing journey she went through to build EWTN, I read about how she would sit in adoration and ask for the conversion of all those souls driving by the church. Many people would stop, not knowing why. They would just come in and say "something made me pull in here." What an amazing power He has when we are willing to listen!

Now, I also need to spend more time with Him, so these thoughts are as much for me as for anyone else who is reading this. Peace be with you all and may you find it in the Eucharist!

Suffering with Christ

Our country elected a new president tonight and although history has been made and "change" is inevitable I am so disheartened by the news. The president that has been chosen does not see the true value of life. How sad it is that we live in the greatest country in the world who founded itself on God's love, and now we have steered so far from His love that we can ignore this painstakingly brunt force of evil. When will people see how much harm we are doing when we say it's okay to make the other "issues" more important than life. Life which was created to be good. Everything He creates is good! He doesn't make mistakes and with that being said, He is allowing this. He must have reasons that I cannot understand and it is my faith that is helping me to be at peace with what He has allowed to happen. All the prayers, sacrifices and fasting that we all did (and continue to do) were all still heard and answered, just maybe not the answer we wanted it to be.

We are all called to suffer with Christ. How many of us are under attack when we finally say yes to something He has called us to for awhile. He never gives up on us. What we have to realize is that His plan is not something we are to understand. We are all called to give Him our "self-abandonment." I have finished reading a book (finally) that a friend gave me called Saints and Other Powerful Women in the Church by Bob and Penny Lord. What I realized about each of these women is that they all had "ideas" of what God's plan was for their lives and they fought hard for it, but it truly wasn't part of His plan at all. Some of them even needed clear signs sent straight from Heaven to realize that the self abandonment was what they needed. St. Therese, to whom I credit this blog (among other beautiful gifts in my life) received the message from a baby Jesus on a boat in her room after meeting with the Pope. She fought so long and hard to join the monastary, but it wasn't part of His plan until she realized the self abandonment.

Once her Spiritual Director told her "I forbid you in the the name of God to quesiton your state of soul. The Devil is laughting heartily. I protest against this willful distrust. Believe, come what may, that God loves you!" Please know that your struggling is just a way for you to join in this self abandonment. To join fully with Him on the cross. Know that if He has called you to this journey then He will get you through it and if you just keep in mind that it might not be for us to understand, yet, it will bring us closer to joining Him fully in Heaven. Find courage in all that He asks of us, because there is a reason. Try not to get in His way, but let Him be your yoke and you just follow along peacefully. It's amazing what can be done when we step out of the way and let Him lead us.

Please continue to pray for our country and our new president so that he may come to fully appreciate the value of life and lead our country to become a civilization of life and not death!