Prayer to Our Lady

My community sent me a beautiful card that I suspect was given out at the wake of the mother of one of our Religious in the Miami area. There is a picture of her mother on the cover and inside a large picture of Mater on one side and a prayer to Our Lady on the other. It is long for me to copy on this I-pad, but I have grown to love this prayer so will summerize the first part and copy the rest. It begins "OWonderful Mother, the road of our life is hard at times. It is not easy to...(you can fill in the things that are not easy for you). But You, O Admirable Mother, You make everything easy.. .

O Mary, may your example be my strength. Make everything easy in my life, not by taking trouble away, but by giving me love, a love always greater than the trouble.

O Mother most gentle, make my heart very strong; and if you see that my love is getting exhausted too soon, I implore you to give 
your child some of your love and teach her again the lesson of true 
love.

The God of Surprises

Yesterday after posting my blog about the three simple attitudes to cultivate, I decided to look for ways to let God surprise me. I had not waited ten minutos  before God gave me a huge surprise! I was told I would need to continue with this new antibiotic for 18 days, but that I was no longer in isolation. What a welcome surprise!

I am so used to not talking that I was exhausted after our five o'clock supper but need to wait until eight for my pills and then they wake me at 4:00 AM. I am grateful that I usually have no trouble sleeping.
Love and prayer,
Helen

Three Simple Attitudes

I am reading a new life of Pope Francis on my I-pad and like it. It is by a woman journalist, Elizebetta Pique.

What I want to share with you today are three attitudes I have been working on myself. When in Brazil for the World Youth Day, the Pope said: "I would like to recall three simple attitudes:hopefulness, letting oneself be surprised by God, and living in joy."
It is good, I find, to see how I am living these attitudes each day. I am surprised by God more than ever since I have reflected on letting myself be surprised by Him. I am also keeping a journal which is a way of practicing my handwriting as all my muscles are so weak after the long stay in the hospital. I am trying to do two hours of exercise now each day.

The Good Seed

When I was in Chile, I had a holy, prophetic and courageous priest for my spiritual director. One of the wise things he told me was about today's Gospel. It was easy for me to identify with the seed 
that did not fall on good ground. But what was the good seed that fell on good ground and took root? 
He said that those who recognized themselves in the seed that fell on the path, on rocky ground, and among the thorns, they are the ones who are able to hear the word and accept it and bear fruit!
The seed is always good since it is God's word and we are the ground it falls upon.

Sharing How I Pray

One of the questions I usually ask anyone who comes for spiritual direction is "how do you pray.?"

I do not remember most of my superiors asking me that same question; they were always there to help me if I did have a problem, but I probably did not know how to talk about positive experiences in prayer. When I went to the Motherhouse in Rome to prepare for final profession, I was sent with another American to ask Reverend Mother Benziger, the assistant General in charge of the English speaking Houses in the Society of the Sacred Heart, if she wanted to see all the Americans as we were free . She said yes but to let the French Moher who watched over the entire international group know that the Americans would be with her now. As we both started to leave, she said, " Well, don't both of you go" and she motioned for me to stay as she did not know me. I went over and said that her sister, who was also a Sacred Heart nun, had sent her a big hug. I proceeded to deliver it. She hugged me back and told me that her sister always sent her a hug with every group on their way to Rome but I was the first to deliver one to her. Then she looked me in the eye and said "Come, tell me about your prayer" and so I did. When I told her I just entered the Heart of Jesus she said, "Yes, I understand" and I knew she did. It was the beginning of a deep and valued friendship for me. I wish now that I had kept the notes she wrote me.
Now, I still pray in the Heart of Jesus but would admit that my prayer is something of a "hodge-podge " (strange expression) : I like to look at the readings of the day and often stay with a line from the Gospel. I just sit with it or talk to Jesus about it. It leads me into my own way of Centering Prayer where I rest in the Heart of Jesus.

Here are three things the Pope said yesterday : The Pope spoke of three conditions at the core of the search for Christian unity – firstly, there’s no unity without conversion of heart, which includes forgiving and asking for forgiveness.

Secondly he said there is no unity without prayer and therefore men and women religious who pray for unity are like ‘an invisible monastery’ bringing together Christians of different denominations from different countries around the world.

Thirdly, the Pope said, there is no unity without holiness of daily life. so the more we put our search for unity into practise in our relations with others, the more we will be modelling our lives on the message of the Gospel.

Jesus intercedes for us.

Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.” The Pope is quoting from Hebrews and saying the most important thing is to know that Jesus is always able to save us.

I am reading a recent life of Pope Francis and was struck by the way he would sit down with his priests in Argentina and ask them how they prayed. It is not an easy question to answer but one that opens our interior life to another and helps us to be known more deeply.  I had an experience that led to this kind of knowing in depth when I was in Rome. I will try sharing it tomorrow.

There are situations . . .

In #115 of our Constitutions we read

"There are situations, whatever our age, when a special call of God may come to us through the experience of certain deprivations such as illness, decline of physical energy or the lessening of responsibilities. Our response to such situations cannot be improvised, but is prepared throughout our whole life; in prayer we discover that the fidelity of God dwells at the very core of our weakness."

I think a special call from God has come to me during this frustrating illness. It is a call to live united to Jesus , trusting His Heart and forgetting self so that I may choose only what pleases Jesus.

Amazing the people Jesus chooses

Jesus prayed and then chose twelve to be formed by Him to work for the reign of God. He did not choose the wealthy or the learned; he did not choose those in authority, those with power, or fame. Jesus chose humble, human men to be his Apostles. They were to be with Him - He formed them by being with them. These poor, simple men are chosen by name. Luke tells us that Jesus spent the night in prayer before choosing he twelve.
We, too, have been chosen; Jesus still calls us by name to be with Him. He knows our weaknesses, but He loves us and exchanges our weakness for His strength, our misery for His mercy. He is the Good Shepherd who calls us by name, who is with us, who seeks the sheep who strays...

I think I am now loving my solitude with the Presence of Jesus permeating the entire day. It is an amazing experience that this extrovert usually has only in retreat.

We are a unique manifestation of the Divine.

In Philip Newell's "The Rebirthing of God", he tells us that ,Gerry Hughes, a Scottish Jesuit, liked to introduce himself by saying, " Hello. I'm Gerry, a unique manifestation of the Divine."
Each of us is a  unique manifestation of the Divine. Do I really believe this? How do I discover the Divine in others? Even more important, how do I realize that I am a unique manifestation of God?

God lives in me.     What a mystery!

I have been praying over our Constitutions. Number 21, which falls under the section on prayer, says:
"The Spirit dwelling within us gradually transforms us through His power to remove whatever hinders His action.
The spirit unites and conforms us to Jesus and makes us sensitive to His presence within ourselves, in
others and in all that happens. Thu we learn to contemplate reality and to experience it with His
Heart, to commit ourselves to the service of the Kingdom and to grow in love."
Come, Holy Spirit...

Exercise Does give Energy

When I was in high school I played on both the basketball and hockey varsity, rode my bike everywhere and then made the hockey varsity as a freshman in college. As a second year novice I coached all the sports for the high school and junior high. I loved coaching. However, I think the sixty-four years since my vows have not included exercise. When I retired, at age 80, I joined a gym and took a silver sneakers class. I was the only non-Hispanic in the class. Then I found Paradise Gym with a very active class where I actually managed to get down and (even more of a miracle) up from the mat. The gym became Club X but I stayed even though the class was now $40 a month but so much fun and convenient. I also made the 12:05 Mass everyday going straight from the gym. I found the exercise gave me more energy, at least until after lunch. Then, on sunny days, I spend a half hour in our pool.

Now, I am again allowed to exercise. Since I am still in isolation, I cannot go to the "armchair exercise" video at 2:30 each day, but I am allowed to go use the two machines that help strengthen my legs and arms. I try to do an hour of exercise each morning and I am finding it renews me in many ways. It is contemplative as I am alone. I watch the squirrels; we seem to have an entire colony of young ones who play tag and hide-and-go-seek and never seem to tire. I return to my room feeling at peace and content. After lunch I take a walk. Actually, I try for two 20 minute walks a day now that I am stronger. I am not a walker and would prefer to be swimming in our pool in Miami, but one adapts and the grounds are beautiful. I just am so grateful that I am able to walk.
This was not a spiritual blog but I guess one of the things I have learned in these months of isolation is the importance of exercise for mental health as well as physical. When I entered religious life at nineteen, one of my Jesuit cousins told me: "Eat well, sleep well, and play well and you will pray well."

Remain in silence . . .

In prayer we come to Him 

with everything that touches our life, 

with the sufferings and hopes of humanity. 

We learn to remain in silence

and poverty of heart before Him. 

In the free gift of ourselves 

we learn to adore and to abide in His love.

“Prayer,” #20, RSCJ 1982 Constitutions

I have been praying over the above passage from our Constitutions. I think I do take to prayer all that touches our life. Learning to remain in silence and poverty of heart before the Lord is something that He is still teaching me. These days of solitude are helping me. It is such a grace to adore, to abide in His Love by going deep into His Heart. His solitude is a crushing reality!

Several readers of my blog have given me positive feedback on the personal sharing I have been doing, especially on the topic of isolation. I think there are times in our lives when we all experience some sort of isolation.

Jesus is Lord so relax ...

When we realize that Jesus is Lord, we can relax. He loves each of us. He can do anything. We need only to trust His Heart.

Pope Francis said in his visit toTacloban in his homily:
"I have come to tell you that Jesus is Lord. And he never lets us down. Father, you might say to me, I was let down because I have lost so many things, my house, my livelihood. It’s true if you say that and I respect those sentiments. But Jesus is there, nailed to the cross, and from there he does not let us down. He was consecrated as Lord on that throne and there he experienced all the calamities that we experience. Jesus is Lord. And the Lord from the cross is there for you. In everything the same as us. That is why we have a Lord who cries with us and walks with us in the most difficult moments of life."

How wonderful to know that Jesus is Lord and He loves us!