Forgiveness of Sins Prefigured

As I was praying Zechariah’s Canticle this morning the Holy Spirit was showing me the care, love and continuity of Our Heavenly Father.  Zechariah a Levite priest of the Temple in Jerusalem is speaking after many months of muteness due to his lack of faith.  On the occasion of the birth of his son, John the Baptist, and his consent to the name John, his mouth is reopened and he prophesizes.

Here is the area that caught my interest this morning:

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.  

I’m sure many theologians over the millennia have seen the prefigurement that I am exploring here, but it struck me with such force this morning that I wanted to write down my thoughts.

First, as Zechariah’s son, John the Baptist is also a priest.  In fact, he’s the last priest of the old covenant.  Zechariah is acknowledging what John’s role will be; to prepare God’s people for the new covenant sacrament of reconciliation.

But I see that John the Baptist’s priesthood as two dimensions: baptism and forgiveness of sins.

How great is our God to foreshadow the new in the old. 

Priesthood

Baptism

Confession

Through John the Baptist, God was preparing His people for the coming of His Son Jesus to accept the gift of mercy.  The good people being baptized in the Jordan were publically confessing their sins and seeking a washing away of their disfigurement.  Although God, being a loving Father was pleased by this show of contrition, it wasn’t enough to open the heavens.  But, it did prepare His people for the new covenant truths yet to come.

Catholicism has amazing consistency to our Jewish roots.  The priesthood is a gift of the Father to His people.  Then of course we have symbolic washing away of sins in the Jordan pointing to baptism which is the true washing away of original sin.  Finally, the most startling gift of all, the confessing of sins to a priest that now truly has the power to restore us to communion with the Lord and eachother.

I am filled with so much LOVE for a Father who has ‘saved us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us’….satan and his demons.

Simple thoughts, but sometimes He works the most profound things in my soul through such things.

GOD IS MY FATHER

Dear Sisters,

Tonight in prayer I was given so much insight and love.  I'd like to share with you what is essentially a stream of consciousness...see if this describes you too.

I am the daughter of the King of the Universe

He has given me a dignity I can in no way attain myself

I love my Father and He loves me

He loved me first

He thinks of me always

He wants me to have the best; which is Himself

His kingdom is here, inside of me and yet also in the person of Jesus.

All that my Father has He wishes to give me

Love

Truth

Wisdom

Mercy

Justice

Gifts that are precious and grow with time

He wants me to be obedient out of love for Him

I want to be obedient out of love for Him

He is completely interested in all of me

There is nothing I can hide from Him

He knows me through and through

And yet...He still LOVES ME!

My home is with Him

He welcomes me there

I am me there

I walk in the dignity in which He cloaks me

Not lost, but found

Flawed and Sinful yet still loved and redeemed

God is my Father

He loves me

I am overwhelmed and so full of hope

See me... see Him

Love me...love Him

Hurt me...hurt Him

I forgive because He does

I love because He does

I live because He does

God my Father

Jesus my Lord

Holy Spirit my wisdom

So many gifts...

God...who is all in all

NINEVEH90

Dear Friends in Christ,

Several years ago I attended an evening mass where the celebrant looked right at me and said "What if this is your last lent?"  This direct question to me freaked me out...I thought well is it my last lent? And if it is my last lent, what exactly does that mean for me?

It's been many years since then, but the question still lingers...what if this is my last lent?  In that case, I want it to be the most prayerful, reflective, restorative, blessed and well 'deep' experience that it can be.  Each year the ideal lent in my head doesn't quite evolve into reality, but I do try to go deeper into the passion and death of Our Lord.

This year ladies my sweet husband and I are going into battle and not just for lent, but right on through until May 13.  Some of you will immediately understand that it is on that day that 100 years exactly will have passed since the last Marian apparition in Fatima.

Fatima-the city in Portugal where Mary appeared to the 3 peasant children is also the name of Mohammed's favorite daughter.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.  I think it's a God-moment.

https://www.romancatholicman.com/100th-anniversary-fatima-approaches-time-nineveh-thing/   has all the information about a special program that many of us have begun in order to prepare for whatever might be coming our way.  And make no mistake, something is headed for us. Will it be a blessing our a curse?  We're hoping for a blessing, but I understand completely that we deserve a curse.  And yet, the tide is turning...at least politically for now...pro-life is winning.

In our church there is so much clarity right now, but there's also the death throws of the 'spirit of Vatican II'.  It won't go out without a fight, but no matter how much the beast yowls, the Holy Spirit will win that fight.

Nineveh 90 is asking us to go deeper than I've ever gone.  The program is for 90 days until the May 13 anniversary of Fatima.  I'll be blogging about our progress here...if you are planning to join the challenge, let me know and we can help keep each other accountable.  The Ninevites were able to turn from their wickedness and their contrition pleased the Lord...can we do the same?

Going deep this Lent ladies...pray that I might be able to sustain this intensity.  All for love of the Lord!

Here are the basics of the the challenge:

THE NINEVEH 90 CHALLENGE BEGINS FEBRUARY 13

“Consecration Day” will be on May 13, the 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima.

Nineveh 90 – Ten Elements

1. For these 90 days, resolve to let go of repetitive sin you struggle with (e.g., masturbation, over-eating, alcohol, etc.)
2. Wear Brown Scapular (Scapular Medal allowed) – Akin to Sackcloth
3. Confession (at least once a month … immediately following grave sin)
4. Support System: Create or join a “Nineveh 90 Squad” of 3-8 people. Meet 1-3 times per week (in person or online). Join together with an “Accountability Buddy.” Meet daily or, at least, 3 times a week.
5. Join Angelic Warfare Confraternity
6. Daily Prayer
   • Morning Offering
   • Angelus (6,Noon,6)
   • Rosary
   • Holy Hour (or at least 20 minutes)
   • Bedtime Prayers
7. For 90 Days, Commit to …
   • Regular and intense exercise (this may be one of the greater challenges for many)
   • Seven hours of sleep is essential
   • No alcohol
   • No desserts & sweets
   • No eating between meals
   • No soda or sweetened drinks
   • No television or movies (news allowed)
   • Only music that lifts the soul to God
   • No televised sports (one per week allowed)
   • Limit computer time (only use for personal needs and fulfillment. May be needed for Nineveh 90 too)
8. 54 Day Rosary Novena (Basic Training in Holiness) – February 13 to April 7
9. 33 Day Preparation for Consecration – April 10 (Monday of Holy Week) to May 12
10. Marian Consecration – May 13, 2017. 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima

Prayer Intention for 54 Day Rosary Novena: Personal Holiness and for the Roman Catholic Church.

Sundays and Solemnities: may be a day of relaxed discipline, but not abandoned. (Sleep in an extra hour, cream in your coffee, a dessert, a beer, a warmer shower, etc.)

Fasting: Wednesdays and Fridays (Water and Juice and bread only, if medically allowed)

NOW, is a wonderful time to, in essence, “warm up” for Nineveh 90. For example, maybe take this time to ease into your exercise program that will begin on February 13.

Please join our “Special Forces Training” FB group to receive instructions and form Nineveh 90 squads and buddies: SPECIAL FORCES TRAINING

UPDATE: From Michelle Linn Fallon: “I want to encourage everyone thinking about this to do it. I did this in a way without calling it this beginning in September when we did the first novena for our nation. I got up before 6am and worked up to 11 workouts a week. I’ve lost 40 pounds. I look great. I feel great. I’ve lost my taste for sweets. Broken my addiction to soft drinks from childhood. I have little sugar, little dairy and don’t want it. I am no longer considered obese and only slightly overweight according to my doctor. In 10 pounds my BMI will be normal again. My prayer life is more consistent. I hardly miss a day on this second novena so I rarely have days to make up prayers. I’ve joined a lay apostolate. Amazing things happen when you offer the discipline to God. Amazing prayers have been answered for me and I’ve witnessed miracles in my life. I can’t fast on bread because I can’t eat bread. But I can deny myself other things. I have health issues that keep me from some of the fasting things. But I can deny myself sleeping in when I want to and pray instead. It’s all habits. Do what you can do and focus on that. Let God do the rest. He will!”

Taken from :https://www.romancatholicman.com/100th-anniversary-fatima-approaches-time-nineveh-thing/

In the Tender Compassion of Our God

Dear Sisters,

I know that each of us has had this experience...you read or pray a phrase that you've read a hundred times before and suddenly the words hit you like a two by four.  For me these words came from the Canticle of Zechariah.

Luke 1:68-79

In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us, 
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

I've been working on quieting my mind after a whirlwind of activity in my life.  God is with me in the chaos and busy-ness, but I have a difficult time being with Him when my mind is whirling.  My heart has been full,  but my mind has been racing for so long that I can't seem to catch a thought.

So much to do...and since I've been in this hyper-activity mode for so long, it now seems like the norm.  So I do, do, do until I lay exhausted in my bed wondering where the day went.  A quick prayer of contrition, thanks, praise and then oblivion until the next morning. Repeat.

Then something happens...I nearly pull the nail off my big toe.  Yes friends, ouch!  But guess what? God in his genius has given me the perfect opportunity to slow down.  No morning walk before it gets too hot.  No pool activity for a week.  In fact the toe throbs quite a bit if it's not elevated.  He knows me so well...I'm a doer.  But God wants me to have the better part which is Him and He wants me to stop thinking about so many other things.  He knows that I needed something to put a stop to all the activity.  He knows that before too long I would feel empty, alone, needy...because the one thing necessary was not front and center in my life.

So this morning I hobbled out to my yard with a glass of water and opened the Magnificat and started my day in prayer...which is really the BEST way to start the day.  This was a habit of mine before all the recent chaos and I've missed it so much.  The weather turning to summer heat changed up my schedule so that I tried to sneak a walk in first.  I say the rosary while I walk, but somehow that centering moment first thing in the morning where I'm still and just loving on God and He's loving on me was missing.

I felt myself start to settle into the familiar rhythm of prayer in the morning.  No news show, no list making in my head, just God.  It's like waking up after a long sleep.  He's been with me every step of the way, but now I'm with Him too.  I feel myself awaken, I feel full of love and purpose.  This purpose has nothing to do with doing and everything to do with being.

In these moments of being in the Lord, Zechariah's words hit me so very hard.  Tender Compassion. Tender like a mother with a child.  Tender like a lover with a beloved.  Tender like grandparent with a grandchild.  He loves us tenderly.  How those words impacted me today!  What love is this that loves so tenderly?  We are called to love tenderly too.

Compassion comes from the Latin compati, which means 'to suffer with'.  He loves us so tenderly that he has come to suffer with us and for us.  How dark are our times?  How much do we need the 'dawn from on high' to break upon us again and to shine on all of us that are dwelling in this present darkness and in the culture (shadow) of death.  We so need the God that loves us tenderly and suffers with us in His compassion to guide our feet into the way of peace.  We yearn for His peace in our hearts, our relationships, our families, our communities, our churches, our cities, our country, our world.

The United States will some day be a chapter in a history book, but God and His church will still be there...shining the light from on high into the darkness, tenderly walking in compassion with the suffering humanity, shining light into all the shadows of death in human hearts and guiding again our feet into the way of peace.

My prayer for each of you dear sisters is peace in your hearts.  With that peace from Christ, we can transform the world.

God's Gift; Family

Dear Sisters,

It occurs to me that so much of society doesn't understand the treasure we have in our families.  I read a comment to a pro-life article the other day that made me sad.  The young woman wrote that she had no interest in stretch marks or in the sacrificing necessary to be a mother.  She wants abortion on demand, any time for any reason without apology.  I applaud her honesty, but can you imagine anything sadder than a woman who denies her biology, her Feminine Genius and her vocation as a mother?  For surely someone with this view wouldn't 'mother' anyone under any circumstances.  The emphasis is all on her wants, her desires and how her body looks.  Her selfishness will never allow her the intimacy of any relationship other than a physical one.  Can you imagine her bewilderment when someday she finds herself alone in an assisted living facility?  No one will visit her, no one will care if she lives or dies.  Maybe with her world view, once her physical attributes start to go, she'll simply 'check-out' and commit suicide.

So many of our dearest sisters for one reason or another do not have children.  Yet, these sisters are some of the most loving, understanding and motherly ladies I know.  They mother each of us with their concern for our well-being.  They pray for each of us and give of themselves to offer what they can for our comfort.  These ladies understand their role as Spiritual Mothers to those they know. They are aware of their Feminine Genius and have rejected the societal view that the perfect human is a male one.

In so many ways, these ladies have become extended family members in a world that really doesn't understand the truth family.

For those of us with children and grandchildren.  How rich are our lives?  How full of a million little deaths-to-self to reveal to us the goodness of a God who truly died for us.  In our children we see the future, in their children we can see into eternity.  Doing for others, putting another's comfort and dreams first comes so naturally for women who understand our precious and pivotal role in society. We see a whole person and we can see their journey.  We rejoice in another's triumphs and cry with them in their despair.  We look to do what we can to keep peace in our families, at work, in all of our pursuits.

Selfishness in either gender is sad, but particularly so in a woman.  It denies at such a fundamental level that call to 'help mate'.  From our Endow studies we understand with great clarity that this call is not one to washing dishes or cleaning the house, but a call to help others see the transcendent light of God.  This is lived most truly in each of our families, whether they are in blood-relative relationships or the ones we form in love.

The very sadly misguided young woman who doesn't want to give up her selfishness and body image will one day find herself looking back at a life lacking in intimacy. Only a denial of the self can truly lead to that level of knowing another and through that knowing, understanding ourselves.

Pray for the women ladies!  We need to follow Our Lady in bringing our societies back to God.  And dare I say...it all starts in the family.

Blessings to all!

He's Carrying MY Cross

Dear Sisters,

Blessings to each of you in Christ Jesus our Savior!
After receiving the Eucharist this Sunday, I felt the Holy Spirit move powerfully within me.  My mediation started with an imagine of little-girl me sitting on Jesus' lap.  I could hear his heart beating in his chest and thought about how much that poor heart had endured for us.

Next I could see a narrow windy path strewn with rocks, brambles on the side of the road.  Jesus was leading me by the hand up the path.  My Guardian Angel was all around me, healing the rips in my skin caused by the brambles with a wave of his translucent hand.  Our Lady had a hand on my shoulder as she urged me forward and up the difficult climb.  Off to the side of the road on my left, beyond the thorny bushes I could see white-robed martyrs of our faith urging me forward, imploring me not to give up.  On the right the angels were silent yet so present in their witness of my journey.

My breath was coming heavily from the effort of the arduous climb. The air felt thin and my heart beat fast in my chest.  Jesus turned to me with sad eyes that burned a whole in my heart and handed me an enormous cross to carry up the path.  The cross was huge, many feet taller than my height with the horizontal arms of the cross reaching far out. The weight of the wood took me to my knees and nearly doubled me over.  My right shoulder took the brunt of the weight and I felt great pain.  I cried out to Jesus... "How Lord can I carry this all the way up the path...it is too much!"  In less than a second the weight had been lifted from me.  I stood before Jesus as he took MY cross onto his shoulder.  He handed me a smaller cross, about two feet tall.  It fit comfortably in the crook of my arm.

Before me Jesus carried the huge cross that was meant for me.  He took the pain, He took the punishing weight of that cross up the path.  In my arms I held the small cross that He'd given me instead. It was a cross that I could handle.  It didn't slow me down in my climb although it sometimes made me awkward as I tried to find my balance on the path.

I realized that He carried all our crosses on His way to Golgotha.  He took our sins and washed them clean with His own blood.  How good is our God!

It also occurs to me that He gives us the crosses we can carry, while He shoulders the real weight of our sins, sorrows and disappointments.  Some great saints can carry very large crosses, but little souls like mine would wither away under the suffering.  He knows this and adjusts things so that I can climb the windy, narrow path to eternal life.  Along the way we have our dear Guardian Angels, the great saints, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and of course Our Lady.  We also have each other for encouragement. Praise Be!

When I finally joined the mass again, I realized that I hadn't moved a muscle in a long time. It was time to take the knowledge of His immense LOVE and MERCY for each of us out to the world.

He cares so much.  He loves so much. He suffers so much.
Jesus I love you and trust you!  Thank you for taking my sufferings and making them your own. Thank you for your mercy.

Ladies if you hear me complaining about my little cross sometime, please remind me that He is the one carrying the full weight of my cross.

To God the Glory!

Faithful Servant

Dear Sisters,
At the St. Steven's Book Club we are undertaking consecration to Mary using 33 Days to Morning Glory by Micheal E. Gaitley, MIC. as our conduit. With a crazy holiday schedule, I've only been able to make one meeting. Keeping up with the readings while challenging during this busy time leading up to Christmas was rewarding too.

I blogged about my last experience with consecration.  I was very ill throughout most of the consecration.  I didn't get well in fact until I made the last vow at an evening mass.  Even the ride to the church was ominous as the clouds were gathering and the sky became very threatening with the winds blowing. We've discussed among ourselves how suffering usually comes with the consecration. Our Deacon fell down a flight of stairs and was hurting mightily, one sister had leg pain, another had sciatica pain that was excruciating, one sister almost lost her beloved pet.  During this consecration it seemed that obstacles were constantly in my way of being able to join the group and as the days of completing the journey were approaching, I was hit with a debilitating bout of allergies that made it nearly impossible to breath or sleep.  One day in particular I coughed so violently I thought I had cracked a rib.

How the devil must hate when we commit ourselves to the Immaculata.  Imagine how much he hates Our Blessed Mother; this lowly creature that gave birth to the son of God! She a queen?  He could never serve her so he hates all of us that commit to doing just that!  As we commit ourselves to her, he makes our life a misery.  He hopes that we will stop the journey.  He doesn't want us under her mantle of protection and doing her will.  I've noticed that even the weather has once more reacted to the fact that we are nearly at the end of the journey.  The skies are once more grey and it looks like it will be raining for days.  Coincidence?  Although it does rain in Phoenix, it doesn't usually rain this many days in a row at this time of year.  But what can he do to keep us from saying YES to Our Lady?  Yes!  I'll be your faithful servant!

A reflection in Week 4 of the consecration in our books struck me mightily.  It came from Saint Pope John Paul II...of course!  In the bible account of the wedding feast in Cana, Mary as the ultimate mother is the very first person to notice that there is no wine.  Such a small detail really, but she's alert to the needs of others and notices this situation.  Her "Do whatever He tells you..." is directed at the servants.  As a result of their faithful obedience to Jesus, to fill the jars with water...they were the very first humans to see the power of God manifested in his Son!

Mary needs servants who obey her and thereby obey Jesus!  If we can do this concretely, every day of our lives, we WILL see the power of Jesus manifested in our lives and the lives of all we love.

Dear Mother,
I will be your faithful servant. I will do as you ask as I know that this will always lead me to Jesus. And I will become a conduit of the Lord's love in this small little patch of the Earth that I inhabit.  I accept you as my Queen and my Mother!  Do with me what you will!

Yours!