Be Strong with Fortitude

      Kneeling, and with my hands raised to heaven, I pour out my heart to God in prayer. I pray for His guidance, claim His love, and surrender my heart. I vow to run His race and ask that His will be done in me and through me. And then it happens. I become complacent, challenges and trials come, and my once-bold heart winces. In an instant, my willingness to do His will loses its zealousness. Oh, to have the fortitude of Saint John the Baptist. Jennifer Hubbard

     As I read Jennifer’s reflection, her words resonated deep within my being. 

Become Broken Hearted

     “This Heart is a pierced Heart. Jesus stands before us with a pierced Heart. We have seen how knowledge of God has always cost; the human heart has to be broken open before it can receive God, and thus it was with Jesus. And the deepest mystery of all is that we learn that the Father’s own Heart is pierced.
     How can we enter into this pierced Heart? Only by becoming like it, living in love at whatever cost, paying the high price of loving. Too easily we assume that loving is a pleasurable experience. Most surely it is the only sweetness in life, but this must be understood correctly. True love is always bleeding in our mortal life. You cannot have love in this life without pain.
     Just think of our own way of carrying on. We get hurt, offended. . .what do we do? Shrink into ourselves, erect all sorts of barriers. Our heart has withdrawn from the one who hurts us in any way. We mustn’t be hurt, “I matter,” our poor ego cries. But that is not how Jesus loves. If we would be like Him, we must struggle to the death with all this, refuse to curl up, refuse to withdraw in the slightest. We must go on exposing ourselves, giving ourselves, pouring ourselves out.
     We say we want to love, we want to serve, we want to give ourselves, and at bottom we are saying we want selfish satisfaction. We want to feel we matter, are important, we want to feel fulfilled; in other words, we are using others, and the beautiful concept of love is being abused. Love is selfless. The way into the Heart of Jesus is not through intellectual insight, not through glowing emotion, but through learning to pay the cost of pure love. There is sacrifice involved in letting others be themselves.”                                                                                      Sr. Ruth Borrows, O.C.D.



     As I read Sr. Ruth’s words, a memory stirred in my heart.

     “Your mission is to be the Wounded Heart.”

      I sat there many years ago, trying my best to absorb Father’s words and internalize their meaning.

Victim No More

     It was the morning of the second day of my retreat. Upon waking, questions that I needed to pose to God became apparent.

     As a secular Carmelite, I will choose a name at the time of my profession. Although it is more than a year away, it is something about which I have already been thinking and praying. The name that God placed upon my heart is “Therese Joy of the Wounded Hearts.”

Not Your Average Joe

     “O God, Creator of all things, who laid down for the human race the law of work, graciously grant that by the example of St. Joseph and under his patronage we may complete the works You set us to do and attain the rewards You promise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” Collect for the feast of St. Joseph the Worker


     God has a plan for each one of us: to complete the work He has called us to do. It is often in the mundane, ordinary work of our everyday lives that God expects us to exercise this plan. We must do all that we do, even when we don’t feel like it, in the best way possible, so we may offer it to God as a gift.

Open the Door

     “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn. 20 vs. 19-23).


     Filled with fear for their lives, the disciples hid, locked away. Most of them had been in hiding since the horrible events of Thursday evening had taken place, while others joined them later. Their Master had been betrayed, scourged and crucified. Most of them felt ashamed of the way they acted during Christ’s passion. They were confused, perplexed and heavy hearted.