You Are Mine

     It was late in the afternoon, my last day of retreat, when I decided to continue the tradition my sister Rachel and I had begun years ago. Our routine included a change of clothing – dressing up in something special -- which was symbolic of the change that had occurred spiritually within.

     Our tradition was also, our way of making the last evening special; a way to thank God for all the graces and insights with which we had been showered; a time to breathe in God’s love and bask in the still and quiet of the retreat house, one last evening.

The Assumption of Mary

Oh, my Dear Sweet Glorious Mother

You who were not God

Followed His will so completely and generously

As no human had done before and none since.

You who were so wrapped up in God

And not in self

Became eucharist and gave all

So that He who was All

Could become Eucharist for us.

You surrendered yourself to God

So He in turn

Could surrender Himself to us.

You gave us your Son and we killed Him….

And still you stood by us

Giving birth to us to new life.

Help me my Mother!

Help me to let go of self as you did.

Help me to surrender my will

So I may resemble you and your Son Jesus.

Help me not to fear the dying I must do

In order to live fully in Christ.

As you imitated Father, Son and Spirit in their self giving

Help me to do the same

In all the big and small ways that come into my daily life.

Help me to abandon myself

And become so wrapped up in God as you were

That I, like you, forget myself.

O Sweet Mother of Humility

God could not resist sweeping you up to heaven to Himself

To be the Bride

Pure and spotless and radiant in beauty

The perfect honor of our race.

Help me, your daughter,

To resemble, even slightly, the Mother,

So that God cannot resist me also.

Mary, Queen of Heaven,

Pray for me!

Transformed into Glory

     Saint Matthew’s Gospel (Mt. 16 vs. 21-22 & 17 vs. 1-9), brings out the close connection between the Transfiguration and the Passion of Jesus. The Divine Master wished to teach His disciples in this way that it was impossible -- for Him as well as for them – to reach the glory of the Transfiguration without passing through suffering. It was the same lesson that He would give later to the two disciples at Emmaus: “Ought not Christ to have suffer these things and so to enter into His glory?” (Lk. 24 vs. 26). What has been disfigured by sin cannot regain its original supernatural beauty except by way of purifying suffering. Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.



     When sin entered the world, life as we would have known it was changed forever! Sin brought death, and with it, hardship and pain. Suffering was something that would now be a part of man’s life, and although man had walked away from God, God would not abandon man. He promised to send a Savior to restore to us what had been lost.

Covet Nothing

     “In detachment, the spirit finds quiet and repose for coveting nothing. Nothing wearies it by elation, and nothing oppresses it by dejection, because it stands in the center of its own humility.” Saint John of the Cross



     Oh! How our soul longs for the quiet and repose of which Saint John speaks! Instead we experience the roller coaster ride, with its ups and downs that weary us. Our hearts are full of worries and concerns, and we hold on tightly to attachments which push both God and His peace out.

Resting In God

     “There is a state of resting in God, an absolute break from all intellectual activity, when one forms no plans, makes no decisions and for the first time really ceases to act, when one simply hands over the future to God’s will and ‘surrenders himself to fate.’” St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross



     We LONG to rest in God: To abandon ourselves completely and forever to His will. It is something we have been yearning for, but struggling to do for such a long time.

The Assumption of Mary

Oh, my Dear Sweet Glorious Mother
You who were not God

Followed His will so completely and generously

As no human had done before and none since.
You who were so wrapped up in God

And not in self

Became eucharist and gave all

So that He who was All

Could become Eucharist for us.

You surrendered yourself to God

So He in turn

Could surrender Himself to us.

You gave us your Son and we killed Him….

And still you stood by us

Giving birth to us to new life.

Help me my Mother!

Help me to let go of self as you did.

Help me to surrender my will

So I may resemble you and your Son Jesus.

Help me not to fear the dying I must do

In order to live fully in Christ.

As you imitated Father, Son and Spirit in their self giving

Help me to do the same

In all the big and small ways that come into my daily life.

Help me to abandon myself

And become so wrapped up in God as you were

That I, like you, forget myself.

O Sweet Mother of Humility

God could not resist sweeping you up to heaven to Himself

To be the Bride

Pure and spotless and radiant in beauty

The perfect honor of our race.

Help me, your daughter,

To resemble, even slightly, the Mother,

So that God cannot resist me also.

Mary, Queen of Heaven,

Pray for me!