Bringing Peace to Your Soul

~~~ Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary ~~~

Alternate Readings were used today

from Acts and the Gospel of Luke.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, 

my spirit rejoices in God my savior, 

for He has looked with favor on His lowly servant.

Today we are reminded to pray the Rosary.

There are many people around the world who find 

comfort in praying the Rosary.

The Rosary consists of simple prayers that are repeated 

on each of the beads.

This repetitive prayer allows one to 

meditate upon the mystery for that decade.

The mysteries of the Rosary are...

Monday - Joyful

Tuesday - Sorrowful

Wednesday - Glorious

Thursday - Luminous

Friday - Sorrowful

Saturday - Joyful

Sunday - Glorious

This is a suggested order to pray the Rosary.

This allows you to use all of the mysteries 

of the the life of Jesus for reflection.

I offer to you this lovely prayer to the Blessed Mother.

Lord Jesus Christ,

you chose the Virgin Mary to be your mother,

a worthy home in which to dwell.

By her prayers keep us from danger

and bring us to the joy of heaven,

where you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, 

one God, for ever and ever. 

As the Holy Father stated in his remarks to the families...

God sent Jesus into a family.

God sent Jesus into the womb of the 

Blessed Mother, Mary.

A mother is always receptive to the needs of her children.

The Blessed Mother is available to intercede 

on your behalf to her son, Jesus.

Praying the Rosary can bring peace into your heart.

Praying the Rosary allows one's soul to rest in the Lord.

Praying the Rosary keeps you in relationship with Mary.

If it were not for Mary's 'yes' 

we might be living a very different life...

in a very different world.

I invite you to pray the Rosary as often as you can

so as to call to mind the great mysteries...

to affirm your faith in the greatness of God.

Truly nothing is impossible for God...

Mary is just one of the most visible realities of this greatness.

Mary, Mother of the Rosary,

pray for us...

keep us safe...protect us from evil.

~~~Peace~~~

With Beads in Hand

~~~ Our Lady of the Rosary ~~~

~~~ Galatians 1:13-24 ~~~ Psalm 139 ~~~ Luke 10:38-42 ~~~

O LORD, you have probed me and you know me...

Words taken from the most beautiful psalm describing
 here the inner holiness of Mary.

God had indeed probed her inner most being
 as he formed her from her mother's womb.
God carefully knit her together cell by cell until she was perfectly made.

...you have formed my inmost being...

My soul also you knew full well;

nor was my frame unknown to you

When I was made in secret,

when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.

With his precious breath God breathed life
into the body of the one he had chosen to carry his son, Jesus.

God kept his plan a secret until which time he deemed
 to send his angel to break the news to her.
She was to be the mother of the Anointed One.
She would be the first to give glory to God with her son, Jesus.
Through her humble surrender to be the mother
 of Jesus she gave him glory.

...they glorified God because of me.

The Blessed Mother Mary leads us to glorify God 

because of the very woman she was.

She was the woman chosen by God to bring forth the Christ.

She was the one anointed herself chosen to bear for us the Son of God.

She was the one lovely and holy.

She was the one so wonderfully made

 that God himself so loved her that he filled her 

with the Word made flesh.

She is the one whom today we honor in prayers

 spoken in description of her beauty.

...She is full of grace...

...the Lord is with her...

...she is blessed among all women...

...she is the Mother of God...

We pray today in holy words...

We pray today with beads in hand

 as we make visible our love for her,

the Mother of God.

We feel the beads as if our own fingers clasp together with hers.

We speak the words of the Rosary 

as if we were looking into her lovely face.

We are so very Blessed to have the devotion
of the rosary to honor Mary...
to share in her love for her son...
while expressing our love for her as well.

Today say at least one decade of the rosary.
Mary loves us and delights in hearing the words of the Hail Mary.

~~~Peace~~~

Choose Life

Deuteronomy 30: 15-16, 19-20

(New Living Translation)

 “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster.  For I command you this day to love the LORD your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy."

Praying today for the unborn aborted children and their parents. It is with sadness that I pray today. I pray for those who made the choice to abort their unborn child. I do not know their reasons. I do not know their fears. I do not know their hearts. I do not in most cases know their names, but today I pray for them.

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life."

As I sit in Adoration I hear the Rosary being led aloud in solemn respect for life. Prayers being lifted up for those who know not what they have done and prayers for those struggling with their decision. In my experience with women's retreats, sooner or later a woman must come to grips with her decision to terminate her pregnancy. Sometimes she was too young and her parents made the final decision for her...maybe even against her will.

At some point it no longer works to keep burying this horror deep inside. There is hope if you find yourself facing the reality of what you have done. I was fortunate to find out about Rachel's Vineyard.

www.rachelsvineyard.org  Rachel's Vineyard is the world's largest post abortive ministry.

I urge you to seek help if you are carrying the emotional and spiritual pain of abortion.

It is never too late to ask for forgiveness from God.

We have the most wonderful merciful forgiving God. There is nothing we have done including abortion that he will not forgive. He loves you and wants nothing more than to make you whole again. He wants nothing more than to remove the hidden shame from your heart. He wants nothing more than to care for you and to show you how to love yourself and your aborted child.

As I sit in Adoration a young mother comes to pray with her two young children. I sit not in seclusive silent soaking prayer, but rather amidst the joyful babbling of little children. It just seems as if God is saying this is why you are praying here this morning...for the tiny voices that were never to heard by their parents. It just seems fitting. I am sure some sitting here are annoyed and wish this mother would take her children elsewhere. I admire this mother for coming to pray when she could have just as easily stayed at home with her children. Perhaps she is thanking God for the gift of her children.

I cannot judge those who have committed abortion. I believe they need our love, care, and compassion. There but for the grace of God go I. I thank God for the gift of my own children.

I also pray today for those who are unable to conceive as they live with the reality in our society today of the disposable human life.

Original photo: Mother holding newborn in her hands.

This Kaleidoscope image captures for me the pure light and love of the child's soul.

Lifting up in prayer those who need it most!

The Name of Jesus

"At the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 2:10-11)

That is certainly a typical St. Paul sentence; chock full of food for thought. So what is Paul saying? At the very name of Jesus we should be genuflecting along with all creatures no matter where they may be, but we should also speak our beliefs.

I know plenty people who speak the name of Jesus, but it is certainly not to praise him in the least. Instead the very anem of Jesus is taken in vain, used to curse. I have never understood how cursing Jesus could make anyone feel better. How can cursing with the name of Jesus improve things? Why is it so easy to curse with the name of Jesus?

I don't often hear people saying, 'thank you, Jesus', except sometimes around the church.

When I was in my Catholic boarding school, St. Mary of the Pines in Chatawa, Mississippi, the nuns taught us to bow our heads each time the name of Jesus passed through our lips. It soon became a habit that today I still practice. It seems fitting to perform some kind of outward sign to reverence his holy name. Especially when I pray the Rosary, even silently, I bow my head when I say the name of Jesus. I am not sure if today it is practical to actually bend your knee each time we pray the name of Jesus. I think Paul was trying to impress upon his listeners then and us today how blessed and powerful the name of Jesus was then and is now.

Paul continues by adding that when we say the name of Jesus we are also affirming our belief the Jesus is one with the Father. We give glory to God the Father as well as the Son when we say the name of Jesus.

There is in the Eastern church a popular devotion to the name of Jesus called the Jesus Prayer or the Prayer of the Heart. It is sometimes prayed on beads such as the rosary. Reciting the Jesus Prayer becomes a mantra when repeated several times throughout the day. It is a quiet personal way to pray keeping Jesus ever present in your mind, on your heart and lips.

"Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner!" or simply repeating the name of "Jesus".

My prayer for today is that you begin to focus more attention on the name of Jesus, either through the reverent bowing of your head or through the practice of the Jesus Prayer.

If you want more information on the Jesus Prayer here is one source:
The Jesus Prayer

I chose this original picture because it was of a woman sitting at the feet of Jesus looking up into his face. This kaleidoscope captures the image of the beauty of the name of Jesus.