Mary's Touch

     “Love Mary! She is loveable, faithful, and constant. She will never let herself be outdone in love, but will ever remain supreme. If you are in danger, she will hasten to free you. If you are troubled, she will console you. If you are sick, she will bring you relief. If you are in need, she will help you. She does not look to see what kind of person you have been. She simply comes to a heart that wants to love her.”
                                                      St. Gabriel Possenti of Our Lady of Sorrows


     What a gift we have in our Mother Mary! Unsullied by the stain of original sin, there is no disorder in the way she loves. Her love most reflects the way God loves us – unconditionally.

Embracing Emptiness

     “It is very hard to allow emptiness to exist in our lives. Emptiness requires a willingness not to be in control, a willingness to something new and unexpected to happen. It requires trust, surrender, and openness to guidance. God wants to dwell in our emptiness. But as long as we are afraid of God and God’s action in our lives, it is unlikely that we will offer our emptiness to God. Let’s pray that we can let go of fear and embrace God as the source of love.”                                                           Henri Nouwen



     When we feel emptiness, a restlessness full of uncertainty, within our deepest self, we want to act as quickly as possible and do something. Anything! We do not want to acknowledge it, let alone entertain or sit with it, because we do not know what will be asked of us. We try to avoid looking at it and pretend it isn't there. We keep busy; filling our time, hoping it will just go away!

Live the Song in Your Heart

     “A FRIEND is someone who knows the song in your heart

 and

 sings it back to you when you have forgotten how it goes.”

     We have all experienced times when life has beaten us down. When we don’t have the initiative to take the next step or even know what the next step is. The road ahead seems endless with no oasis in sight. We feel like we are a failure and don’t believe we are up for any task.

Create a clean heart in me, O God!

     As I lie prostrate, that summer afternoon, in my empty parish Church, I begged God to help me to love my sister. I told Him that He was going to have to give me His heart and do it for me because I knew that I had failed miserably.

     I had not started my day off on the wrong foot…quiet prayer time, morning Mass, breakfast, and then the Wednesday morning bible study that I facilitated at my home...  The only difference would be that my sister Yoana would be a part of the bible study because another sister was in town and we would afterwards go out to lunch and do a little shopping.