Be Holy, Be Happy!

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #61

Man is at the center of the universe. The whole world has a reason to be; it exists and has meaning inasmuch as there is man giving meaning to it. Therefore, creatures are many steps that bring man to God; they are an external reality that give glory to God through man who is the cantor of the universe. I ask myself: why did God create man who is a spiritual and theological center of the cosmic reality? Because He loves him and because He wants man to love Him in return. (Charity)


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Monday, December 30, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #60

Why did God create the world? Is it, perhaps, because He wanted to amuse Himself with the laws of gravity, or to see how the suns emit nuclear energy, or because He wanted to enjoy the moonlit nights? Why did God create? It is a mystery! The only answer to this question is love. God created as a gift of love. (Charity)
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Sunday, December 29, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #59

Consecrated through the sacrament of matrimony, every couple and their children are a little nucleus of a supernatural family, set in a poetic way amid the cry of a baby, the singing of the mother, the aroma of fresh bread. The parish is a family gathered around the good father at an altar adorned by white linens and flowers full of their perfume. The local Church or diocese is a family, fitted to its bishop—who knows how to be for his children a brother and a father; how to have a smile and firmness—as the strings of a harp through which the Spirit repeats the truth in melodies of love (St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Eph. 4). The whole Church is a family which, in a world needing peace and love, shows itself a living reality of the Father who looks for the
far-off, lost prodigal son, as Jesus recounts in the Gospel (Lk 15:11 ff ). (Love is Revolution)
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Saturday, December 28, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #58

What is the difference between us and other creatures? We, people, have the ability of loving, of responding to the love of God Who, out of love, created us precisely because He hoped that we would love Him in return. We come from God’s love. What is the aim of our journey? Where are we going? Where are we returning? We are going back to God. Think of the river: it runs toward the sea; the sea embraces it, and the river disappears in it. We go toward God Who is infinite love. The two essential points are here: the point
of departure and the point of arrival. We come from God–Love, and we return to God-Love. (Charity)
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Friday, December 27, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #57

We have been created out of love, for love. There is no other possible answer: God has created us out of love; we are born from the love of God’s Heart. (Charity)


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Thursday, December 26, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #56

Let us try to become apostles of spiritual brotherhood in all environments, at all levels, with all means, and we will see for ourselves that the real need of today is to regain among ourselves a true, generous, complete brotherhood; and to give a profound and substantial content to our relationship with God. (Love is Revolution)
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Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #55

What is the mystery of Christmas if not the coming of God into time and history, Christ’s going forth from God to enter into man? This is the word that we find in the Gospel: “I came from the Father and have come into the world” (Jn 16:28). Christ, the Eternal Word, has come forth from the Father and has come into the world so that we may have the courage to come out from ourselves…At the very moment in which the Word comes forth, there is a passage from infinity to littleness. We, instead, have to come out from our littleness into the broader dimension of the world and towards our brethren who await us. I am aware that I am saying things that are very simple and ordinary, but they are strikingly true and involve our very life. Very often we are locked within ourselves, within our own selfishness, our sensibilities, our tastes, our vision, our memories, our experiences, and we do not go beyond ourselves or open ourselves to others. Evangelical radicalism can be found in this “going beyond.” Other people do not need our sadness, our poverty, or our limitations. They need to see God through us. This is maximalism! (Homily December 25, 1976)


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Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #54

Fr. Mike Murphy and Bishop Giaquinta
We are a family born from love, a family in which one must live with love toward the Father—live, that is, a life of holiness—a life with inner relationships that are as among brothers and sisters, and that must be regulated by love. (Love is Revolution)


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Monday, December 23, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #53

Unconditional love for the Father, tenderness toward Christ crucified out of love, docility and abandonment to the Spirit’s action flooding our being, brotherhood capable of knowing humiliation and even death for one’s brothers, universal love that becomes the characteristic element of life, courage before the difficulties and persecutions found in the world, a world that must not be abandoned but sought out as the brother who must be helped to return to the Father…--this is the world of concrete and possible hope that the Risen
Christ has already revealed to us, a world that is waiting for our acceptance and our responsible cooperation to make a reality. (Love is Revolution)
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Sunday, December 22, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #52

We live in exceptional times, with the future holding events and problems still more extraordinary than what we face now; imperiously they ask of us a generous response, even a heroic one. Accepting these situations and trying to resolve these problems at the level of sanctity means to make oneself actually part of the world in which the mystique of love reigns. (Love is Revolution)
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Saturday, December 21, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #51

Utopia is thus the ideal that we must try to live with all our strength, even if we are sure that we will not realize it in a complete form because, being of God, it is infinite in scope and measure. While we can be sure, then, of never bringing about a world that is totally and universally holy, we must nevertheless strive to do so because this is the will of God. (Love is Revolution)
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Friday, December 20, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #50

Speaking of “piety” and “spiritual brotherhood” does not mean being content with beautiful phrases or cultivating a pious but sterile sentiment of affection toward God and our brothers. Love, and so also holiness, is tremendously concrete and practical; it must be rooted in reality. The lives of the saints show this to us. It would be absurd to think the duty of sanctity can be left to personal and individual good will, without trying to check to see if, in fact, it can really be lived in the social context in which we are immersed. (Love is Revolution)


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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #49

The first relationship of holiness is the personal one with God; we can call it the first dimension of holiness. Each of us, though, is surrounded by other persons for whom Christ died, and so they are our brothers and sisters in grace or must become so. For how could we ignore our brethren in their various situations of life? Our love for the Father must make us feel the need and duty of speaking with them of our marvelous experience of encountering the mystery of God-Love. This relationship that sanctity creates with others we call the second dimension of holiness. Can we, however, see people as isolated from the social, cultural, economic, or political situations in which they live, and speak to them of God’s love without taking into consideration their living conditions? Yet we must face the fact that most of this societal context in which we live is not only indifferent to God’s love, but most often is an obstacle to living a full response to the vocation to love Him. What this means is that we need to structure the world in such a way that these different sociological factors help us live our vocation to holiness. This last relationship we call the third dimension of holiness. (Love is Revolution)
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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #48

The saint is a man of God, for Whom he feels an ever-growing need; he is a man living among men, believing with his whole heart that they are his own brothers. The saint is the masterpiece of God and of men; he is the one whom God needs and, at the same time, he manifests what God asks from all of us. The saint is the place where the divine and the human meet; he is the continuation, down through time, of redemptive love, that is, of the Word that became flesh to insert us in His process of love. For this reason, only Jesus, the God-man, is the true saint. However, after Jesus and through Jesus, all must journey towards the Father’s love; all are called to holiness. (Love is Revolution)
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Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #47

The saint is a person who lacks wholeness but aspires to wholeness; he is famished for a love that he already possesses but only partially. The saint is a creature in need of brothers to whom he tries to give not what is superfluous from his abundance but all that he has; he is immersed in “the today” but looks toward eternity, trying to anticipate it in the time in which he lives, according to his capabilities. (Love is Revolution)
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Monday, December 16, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #46

Who is the saint? Every person who with all the sincerity and passion of which he is capable tries decisively to reach the fullness of love is a saint. (Love is Revolution)


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Sunday, December 15, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #45

Love is looking at the Father Who has loved us to the point of not sparing His own Son for our sake (Rm 8:32). Love is listening to the divine Word, Jesus the Incarnate Word, Who has come to reveal to us the ineffable mystery of a Father Who loves us infinitely and wants the totality of our love. Love is docility to the action of the Spirit, Who, from within us, implores the Father on high and forms—as He did in Mary—the features of the divine, and Who, from outside us, speaks to us through past Revelation and the present
Magisterium of the Church. When such love passes from theory to being incarnated in life, we call it sanctity, and the one who lives it is a saint. (Love is Revolution)
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Saturday, December 14, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #44

He knew our congenital and innate poverty, so He did not limit Himself to “becoming one of us” but wanted instead us to “become Him.” Baptism, the Eucharist, and the Church as His Mystical Body are three inseparable aspects of the total victory of love over sin that Christ accomplishes in us, inserting us into His reality. (Love is Revolution)
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Friday, December 13, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #43

We are saints when, through the merits of Christ, we participate in His love and live a life spiritually and morally coherent with the total love that God has for us. As a consequence, sanctity consists in accepting the proposal of love that Jesus makes to us, in receiving from Him the life of grace, and thus in striving toward the maximum of perfection. (Love is Revolution)


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Thursday, December 12, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #42

Adam knows that he is loved; he knows that he has been created for love, and so he loves in return Him Who is the source of love. In this response of love by man toward God, it seems we can discern a marvelous and mysterious echo of Trinitarian love. Rather, one may affirm that in this repetition, this finite multiplication of the infinite Trinitarian love, the primary reason for the creation of all the cosmos and of man in particular is found. (Love is Revolution)
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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #41

Creation is none other than a pale repetition of that mysterious love that indissolubly unites the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God creates out of love, that is, He communicates Himself in some way, and He wants to give to His creatures—inasmuch as they are able to receive it—His beatifying presence. (Love is Revolution)
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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #40

God did not limit Himself to saving us; He made us sharers in His own divine nature. Christ did not want to pay the price of redemption (1 Cor 6:20) in a detached way, but He became one of us, our brother. Our Christian life is not merely the application of Christ’s merits as a remission for our sins, rather it is a participation in the mystery of the Trinity. (Love is Revolution)
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Monday, December 9, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #38

Lord, for too long we were accustomed to thinking of Mary as a limitless reality, transcending our faculties. We might even say we thought of her as almost infinite, even if that is not so… Lord, You have taught us that it is not so. Mary is great; Mary is the Immaculate; Mary is Your mother in order to be our mother and our model of holiness. Mary’s Immaculate Conception is not meant to alienate us from her; instead it calls us closer to her so that we may reach You with her, despite our poor, meager state of holiness, of purity, and
of transparency. For this reason You remind us that today is a day of celebration, a day of joy; it is a day of trust. Lord, increase in us always this love for Mary, mother and model of our holiness (Homily December 8th, 1987).


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Journeying with the Founder Day #39

God does not haggle; He gives with infinite abundance. Christ does not give us a little something; He consumes Himself utterly. The love God wants from us is not according to the law of the least indispensable but according to the principle of “the all.” The brotherhood we must have among ourselves is not measured by justice but by the immolation that Christ chose in order to manifest His love for us. (Love is Revolution)
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Sunday, December 8, 2013

Journeying with the Founder December 8th 2013

The Immaculate Conception
Lord, for too long we were accustomed to thinking of Mary
as a limitless reality, transcending our faculties. We might
even say we thought of her as almost infinite, even if that is
not so… Lord, You have taught us that it is not so. Mary is
great; Mary is the Immaculate; Mary is Your mother in order
to be our mother and our model of holiness. Mary’s Immaculate
Conception is not meant to alienate us from her;
instead it calls us closer to her so that we may reach You with
her, despite our poor, meager state of holiness, of purity, and
of transparency. For this reason You remind us that today
is a day of celebration, a day of joy; it is a day of trust. Lord,
increase in us always this love for Mary, mother and model
of our holiness (Homily December 8th, 1987).


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Saturday, December 7, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #37

Christ’s Heart is manifested as a spousal Heart, as a Heart that loves immensely, as a Heart of great desire. It is in this context that we can understand how at the Last Supper the Lord allows John to rest his head on His Heart, and how He can call the Apostles His friends; in fact He calls them “My little children,” “My little ones." (The Covenant)
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Friday, December 6, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #36

Every time that a person approaches us we have to ask ourselves: has this person secured his covenant of total love with God? When we enter into an environment we must ask ourselves: has this environment secured its covenant of total love with God? However, it is not enough to ask oneself this question in general; it is fitting to ask oneself in what way is it possible to help the person and the environment embrace their own covenant with God, that is, through what means and ways can this be done? (The Covenant)
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Thursday, December 5, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #35

Each one of us is simultaneously a bearer and thus a supervisor and a builder of at least a dual covenant: one that is both personal and collective. No one can lock himself up in his own covenant, in his own interiority, in his own personal spirituality, neglecting the fact that others near him may or may not live the same covenant. We are one family. (The Covenant)
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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #34

The infinite prospect for what is beyond places us in a situation of interior tension through which we look at today’s reality and give of ourselves today but with the certainty that today is only the eve of the eternal tomorrow. This eve already has a reality of intimacy, of concreteness, of friendship and of profound love: it is life in the Spirit, life of the foursome that is within us: the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the “I.” (The Covenant)
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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #33

Each person must be able to say: I am a person who has been transformed; I am somebody who has been called by Christ; I have to secure or renew my covenant with Christ, to live the law that He gives me, that is, all that He wants from me. Certainly this is a personal issue, but a community one, too. Each community of any type (family, religious, or a group), must reflect together on how to live its own covenant with Christ in a concrete way. (The Covenant)
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Monday, December 2, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #32

God takes man’s fidelity seriously and builds history on it. Think of Mary’s Fiat on which history has been built: the history of the new covenant starts with Mary’s Fiat, her “yes,” her “Amen—may it be so.” Think of the “Amen” at Gethsemane: Father, may this chalice pass away from me; yet not my will, but Yours be done (Mt 26:39). Think of the Apostles’ response. They are called, they say their Amen and it is on their Amen that God builds the history of the Church. Think of our sacramental Amen as Christians, and then as consecrated people, on which God wants to build the history of our time. Think of our personal responsibility
in whether this history is built or not. The personal, little Amen of each person has an essential importance, not a relative one, inasmuch as the various “Amens” together form the necessary condition, the supporting pillar, for the building up of today’s history. (The Covenant)
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Sunday, December 1, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #31

Christ suffered for us, giving us an example so that we could follow in His footsteps. As Christ led a life of oblation to the Father and His brothers and sisters, and did not look after Himself but emptied Himself and denied Himself, in the same way he who wants to follow Him as a disciple must take up his cross every day and deny himself. This is Christianity. (The Covenant)


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Saturday, November 30, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #30

Christianity is this: a Church that is born from the transfixed Heart of Christ, lives by His sacrifice, and through sacrifice, continues to insert herself in Him and goes back to Him. (The Covenant)
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Friday, November 29, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #29

We have to personally experience our poverty in the awareness of our sin, though without neglecting our duty to be light for our brothers and sisters. We have a mission to accomplish for them, not because of our own merits or because we are wealthy, but because we have been chosen to be a light that is not placed under bushel basket, a city that shines from the heights of the mountaintop. We have been chosen to be a light that enlightens and a force that attracts and polarizes. (The Covenant)


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Thursday, November 28, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #28

“We will be within you” ( Jn 14:17). The ark of the covenant descends within us. Grace: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit come to live within us; we are the tent of the Divine. The ark of the covenant is within us; the Spirit is within us and forms a new heart in us. Truly each one of us is a bearer of the new covenant because he is the bearer of the Spirit and of Christ. (The Covenant)
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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #27

The Christian is a candidate for martyrdom. He is someone who speaks through his martyrdom and his life, and therefore, he is a prophet and at the same time he is a priest through his immolation. The more the blood of martyrs flows, the more the Church grows. In fact Tertullian could say: the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.  (The Covenant)
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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Joureneying with the Founder Day #26

Christ redeems us with the sacrifice in which He is priest and victim at the same time. Thus His mediation takes place through prophecy and sacrifice. Christ as priest and victim points to a new life, a life that first of all His priests have to follow, and then all the prophets, priests and victims must follow. (The Covenant)


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Monday, November 25, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #25

We have to be Christ’s prophets through our profession of faith, with a life that witnesses what we believe and announces the Christian message. Every Christian has to realize this program: integral profession of faith, a life formed by and conformed to the profession of faith, and announcement of the message to others. (The Covenant)
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Sunday, November 24, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #24

Lord, if we have made Your Word ours, if we have accepted the commitment to hand it on to others, we have to be aware that some people will be annoyed. We cannot expect that others will be attracted to us, or that we will receive their approval, or that they will applaud us and compliment us. No, that is not possible. If this were to happen, we would have to conclude that there is some distortion; something must not be working, because divergence between the world and the Word of Christ is inevitable. The “world” (in the negative sense) cannot accept the Word of Christ. Because of our certainty and awareness of being inconvenient, our inner promptness and availability to immolation remain with us. (The Covenant)
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Saturday, November 23, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #23

Each one of us lives out his covenant on a personal level, and each of us has a prophetic vocation. I have to be a prophet according to this covenant. I have to understand the meaning of being a prophet and the conditions for being a prophet, though. Today the crop of prophets has mushroomed: we have all become extraordinary prophets! There is only one problem—we are not God’s prophets, but prophets of ourselves
and very often of our pride. One of the conditions for being a prophet is to listen to God’s Word. The prophet is the one to whom God speaks. God calls people and says to them, “You will do this,” and the person has to listen to the word God speaks to him. (The Covenant)
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Friday, November 22, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #22

The God of mercy is always waiting. He is the father of the prodigal son, the one at home who wastes no time even trying to imagine the sins or missteps of his son; he simply hopes that his son matures and returns home. This manifests and helps us understand God’s goodness and His capacity to wait. We instead want to see people grow quickly and do not have the patience to wait for their growth. Moreover, we often disrupt the process of growth with our hasty actions because we want to see quick results. God is not in a hurry in
His covenants with humanity. (The Covenant)


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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #21

A prophet has the specific function of speaking on behalf of the Lord; he is the voice of the Lord. Even when a prophet wants to give up, God insists on calling him and asking him to continue his mission. The prophet is he who, within the context of the covenant, calls people back to true values and sacrifice; he recalls us to the value of good works, to what needs to be done, and thus not to be formal or legalistic, but to go in depth. According to Malachi, the prophet is he who manifests the new sacrifice, speaks prophetically about a new
reality, a new world, a new covenant, a new heart, and a new Spirit (see Ezekiel and Jeremiah). This is prophecy’s value. (The Covenant)
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Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #20

Let us not be demanding, because only God understands the profound reality of the conscience. God’s pedagogy must open our hearts to love everyone because only God knows our hearts, and only He can judge. (The Covenant)
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Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #19

We have immense wealth. Our poverty, our misery, our weakness, our imperfection, at times even our sins, are not necessarily steps away, but are instead, or could be, a runway to reach God, to abandon oneself to Him, to let Him take possession of us. (The Covenant)
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Monday, November 18, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #18

This is also the basic concept of Christian perfection: to let oneself be invaded by God; to let God act. It is God Who acts in us, yet we have to cooperate with our good will. Humility becomes the essential condition for any spiritual project. (The Covenant)
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Sunday, November 17, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #17

Mary was chosen not because she was a big person, but because she was little: God looked upon His servant in her lowliness. The principle of the mighty – the great ones – being shunned, and the lowly – the little ones – being raised is evident. This is not because of racial or categorical distinction, but because God wants to be God, that is, He wants to be at work in poverty. The more the creature is aware of her poverty and abandons herself to God, the more she lets God act fully in her. (The Covenant)
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Saturday, November 16, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #16

I have to be docile to the action of the Spirit, to abandon myself to Him with awareness, without neglecting Him. I need to perceive His presence and answer Him with an act of love, with an “Amen” to His divine promptings. (The Covenant)

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Friday, November 15, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #15

It is the Spirit that makes my soul groan and makes me love with His very power. However, I have to ask myself about the way I live with the Spirit; the type of relationship there is between my will and the Spirit present in me; how I listen to His cry to the Father (see Gal 4:6). Is the presence of the Spirit in me a vague thought, the fruit of a generic attitude of faith, or is it a reality that moves me, even though sometimes I am not aware of it because I am distracted? Am I often unable to see the work that the Spirit wants to do in me but that He cannot do without my collaboration? (The Covenant)
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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #14

It is through the Spirit that we experience a vital relationship with Christ. Thus docility to the action of the Spirit means letting the Spirit, Who is within us as a mysterious reality—just as He was in Mary—work in us through the sacraments. On the ordinary level the Sacraments are means through which we receive grace and, therefore, receive the Spirit. Then we may live gently together with the Spirit because we are bearers of the Spirit not in a given moment but uninterruptedly. (The Covenant)
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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #13

It is the Holy Spirit within us Who acts, and we have only to be docile to His action. In fact it is not in the many penances, or in much study, or in much work, or in much doing, or in much effort, but by abandoning ourselves completely to the action of the Spirit, such as Christ did, that we are imbued with God. St. Paul will say, “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rm. 8:14). (The Covenant)
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Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #12

Guglielmo Giaquinta as a young seminarian.
The covenant, therefore, has to be lived as an experience of a vital relationship with God, not as a momentary experience; it has to be constant, final, and irrevocable. Thus it is our duty to examine ourselves and ask if our relationship with God is on this vital level of irrevocability or if instead it wavers, increases, and wanes. We can be sure that we are fully given to living in love if we find ourselves constant in keeping our commitments and in our longing to be faithful and sincere. (The Covenant)
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Monday, November 11, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #11

The covenant has to be loved in a more complete sense, with the fullness of one’s being, not simply with the heart, but with the intellect and with the will. “With the will” means with effort, sacrifice, oblation, and overcoming all that is contrary to the covenant. (The Covenant)
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Sunday, November 10, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #10

To speak of holiness means to speak of love’s response to God’s infinite love. Holiness is the main and recurring theme in both the Old and the New Testaments—personal holiness like we find in Abraham; collective holiness like we find in the covenant with Moses; holiness becoming interior holiness, especially with the Prophets. Holiness is the new heart, the new spirit, the Holy Spirit Who lives within us. Holiness in the New Testament is both personal and collective, up to becoming universal holiness because all are called to holiness, and not only Christians, because all are called to Christ and to the fullness of His grace. (The Covenant)
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Saturday, November 9, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #9

Walk in my presence (Gen 17:1). What really matters is to walk under God’s gaze knowing that He looks at us; to adhere to His will; to live by faith; and to abandon ourselves to Him. Everything else will follow as a consequence. The Promised Land will be a gratuitous but logical gift for the person who completely abandons himself to God and places himself at His disposal. (The Covenant)
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Friday, November 8, 2013

November 8, 2013
If the Lord knocks at the door and we do not open it, Love goes away. St. Augustine used to say,
“I am afraid that Jesus passes by and does not return.” It is our duty to remain in an attitude of
listening. God respects our will; His gift of love is a gratuitous one, not obliging us. It is
gratuitous on behalf of God but not obliging for the person. Love in God is a love that offers
Himself, but He does not impose Himself. However, the meaning of commitment must not be
under-valued: God wants to bind us to Himself with bonds of love; we must feel the personal
responsibility to be bound and to respect the bonds.
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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #7

November 7, 2013
Jealous love is exclusive; it is a love that wants the beloved for oneself. This exclusive love for
God is called holiness. Holiness, in fact, is nothing else than God’s setting a person apart for
Himself. Spontaneously we ask ourselves, “What interest can God have in loving us and in
asking us for love?” The whole great theme of God-Who-searches-for-our-love, Who “begs” for
our love, is a mystery, one of those great mysteries which arrests our intelligence. Why does God
love us? Why does He seem to almost need our love? Why does He beg for our love? The
parables of the Good Shepherd and of the Prodigal Son are among the greatest psychological
mysteries of Revelation. We do not know why, but it is certain that God’s gratuitous love is at
the basis of the Covenant, and along with love, respect. God respects man; He proposes but does
not impose; He calls but does not force His will on us. (The Covenant)
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Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #6

November 6, 2013
Christ has freed us from every burden and made us children of the Father. We are not slaves
anymore or foster children; we are children of the Father. We possess now the freedom of God’s
children who have been freed from the burden of the Law through faith in Christ. Our
relationship with God becomes a relationship of love, an interior relationship, a spiritual
relationship—no longer a mere legal relationship. Christ has raised us to the level of sonship, of
love, and of freedom. (The Covenant)
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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #5

November 5, 2013
Jesus came in our midst as our Brother, to have the experience of humanity and of what it means
to be a human being. Thus He could sanctify us and, being one of us, sympathize with us. The
One Who sanctifies and those who are sanctified come from the same origin: we are brothers.
The unity of fraternity becomes also the unity of perfection in Christ. Christ becomes the cause
of our perfection, the source of our hope. (The Covenant)
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Monday, November 4, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #4

November 4, 2013
God comes in our midst through Christ. Christ comes in touch with us, becomes our Brother,
enters within us sacramentally, leads us to the Father, and awaits us at the eternal banquet. Even
though in the Old Testament, God was a God of love, He was always a terrible God. In the New
Testament God is essentially our Father Who is waiting for us, the Shepherd Who looks after His
sheep. (The Covenant)
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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #3

November 3, 2013
We have been redeemed by the blood of the Immaculate Lamb; we have been redeemed not with
gold or silver, but with Christ’s own blood. The new covenant of the blood of Christ redeems us
and takes away our sins. The blood of the victims of the Old Testament never had such power. (The Covenant)
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Saturday, November 2, 2013

Journeying with the Founder Day #2

November 2, 2013
Coming down from the mountain, Moses brings a Law with him that the people accept. The
Law, however, remains outside the people; it is a reality that must be searched for, known,
realized and lived. It implies great difficulties of knowledge, convictions, acceptance and
practicality. As a matter of fact, people are unable to keep the Law. God will make internal this
Law that was only external: He will write it in their hearts. The heart, according to Biblical
understanding, is the place of knowledge and, at the same time, the place of the will, of reflection
and sentiments. Consequently the moment when God no longer writes the law on the stone or on
the scroll but in the heart, it becomes almost a super-nature, an inner reality that is known, waited
for, loved and lived. Thus the motivations mentioned above for its violation—that the people do
not know the Law, do not understand it, and therefore do not accept and live it—will not be valid
anymore. The moment the Law becomes interior, profound, personal, and lived from within,
keeping it becomes easier. (The Covenant)
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Journeying with the Founder Day #1

November 1st, 2013
Lord Jesus, in Your Gospel we have heard Your warm invitation to strive toward the perfection
of the Father. The call to holiness has already become for us the light that illumines our way and the ideal toward which we want to journey. Give us the strength to overcome the difficulties that
we meet on our way and the temptations—above all the temptation to discouragement—that we face so frequently in our life. Help us to lift our eyes to You, Oh Divine Crucified, and to implore Mary’s maternal help. May our life be an answer of love to Your call to love; may our life be an invitation to love extended to our brothers and sisters. Amen. (Prayers)
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Thursday, October 31, 2013

All Saints Novena Day 9

All Saints Novena Day 9

This is no longer the time for lone climbers of the heights, but for people who have the humility to be linked together as a team.

To become such will be possible only by overcoming the temptation of individualism and the desire to escape the company of others.

Let us remember:
          Alone
          we are as reeds
          perhaps agile and elegant
          but fragile in a strong wind.

          we must unite ourselves
          and become a network
          rather a barricade
          able to resist the storms.

Communicated  in The Gospel Maximum of Love, Bishop Giaquinta’s solution to the pain in our society was to form a group of people, the Pro Sanctity Movement, to communicate the love of Christ to everyone.  As I read the above I see that individually we can only do so much, but together with Christ working in us and through us, we truly can change the world. 


Dear Jesus, Thank you for the gifts of the saints as examples and companions.  Help us to know they are with us, and leading us on,  Give us the compassion and thirst for the souls of our brothers and sisters that you yourself have and went to Calvary for.  Remind us that we can give no less than the maximum as we follow your example 

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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

All Saints Novena Day 8

It is also easy to imagine what kind of world we would have if all persons, or at least Christians, would accept—not only in theory and in words but in the crudeness and reality of their lives—the maximum-love message of Christ.

In fact:
·       God would be at the center of the life of humanity;
·       egoism would disappear, along with insane ambition and the spirit of violence;
·       people would live perfectly moral lives, personally and as families;
·       relationships would be based on true justice and fraternal love;
·       society would have a harmonious development and progress; the eventual, inevitable evils, of whatever kind, would be faced and resolved with a spirit of solidarity and collaboration.


Wow, what an amazing world, Christ and our founder has envisioned for us.  Can we even imagine what life would be like if these things were true?  There would be no crime, no poverty, no hatred. 

Dear Jesus, I know this is what the Father intended when He created us.  Help us change our thinking that we might start to believe this is possible and work to achieve it.



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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

All Saints Novena Day 7

It is easy to see how much this Gospel, which Christ has left us with His words and His life, is far removed from our Christianity—formal, empty, on Sundays only—and realize that if this true Gospel came into contact with our mediocrity, it would make it explode, nullify it.

As we continue to look at the Gospel Maximum of Love, I am struck again by the directness of our Founder’s words.  I feel very uncomfortable as I read them and I think I am intended to.  We have to ask myself, as honestly as I can, how formal and empty is our Christianity?  As I ponder the word “formal” and “empty”  thinking of a room in a home for example, I am afraid to touch anything for fear I might break glass, or leave a black mark on a perfectly white wall.  Formal and empty Christianity then must be a relationship with God and others where we are afraid of the “black marks” we might leave by being honest about our failures or not wanting to get close enough to others who are in difficulty for fear they might leave “black marks” on us. 

Jesus never hesitated to reach out to everyone, rich and poor, clean and unclean, “sinner” and “righteous”


Dear Jesus, give me the courage to step out of my comfort zone, and truly spend myself for someone in need.  You would not ask me to do something that You Yourself would not give me the strength to do 

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Monday, October 28, 2013

All Saints Novena Day 6

This is a continuation of Bishop Giaquinta’s  basic principles of our faith.  To me the first two focus on the knowledge of what Christ has done for us and the last 3 focus on our duty to respond to His love

·       we must correspond with all our strength, that is, to the maximum, to this love of the Father and of Jesus, accepting and actuating the message received;
·       love among ourselves as Jesus loved us, that is, to the point of heroism unto death, is a duty that Jesus has left us as his last will and testament;
·       this unity and fraternal love must find a particular expression in our faithful participation in the life of the Church centered on the Eucharist, animated by the Spirit and the presence of Mary, and based on Peter and the Apostles.

Speaking for myself and maybe all of us, I am convicted that I rarely use all of my strength to do anything.   Yes I work hard at my job and share love and kindness primarily with those who love me—but “heroism unto death” seems to frightening and difficult. 

That is why I am so thankful for the very last point.  We are not alone.  Christ Himself in the Eucharist, the Church, the Spirit,  Mary and the Apostles are our guides along the way.

Dear Jesus, thank you for the constant help you pour forth.  We would be completely overwhelmed without it



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Sunday, October 27, 2013

All Saints Novena Day 5

Continuing in  The Gospel Maximum of Love

It is possible to synthesize some basic principles (that certainly do not exhaust the Gospel message) that give the essential content of this maximum love:

·       we have a Father in heaven who loves us infinitely, watches over us unceasingly, and has sent his only Son, having him accept death for our salvation;
·       Jesus, the Word of God, has come among us to bring the message of the Father, to make us one with himself as branches of a vine, showing us concretely how we must live, and He died to merit for us the strength to do this and to draw us to Himself with the example of His infinite love;

What amazing truths these words contain.  There is no greater maximum than laying down one’s life.  And as if that were not enough He wants to draw us to Himself and live in heaven with us forever.  We should truly spend every day lost in amazement. 

Dear Jesus, help us to truly believe that you love each of us infinitely, those who know this now and those who have yet to learn of your love.   Help us to truly appreciate your incomparable sacrifice. 



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Saturday, October 26, 2013

All Saints Day Novena Day 4

All Saints Day Novena Day 4
Continuing in The Gospel Maximum of Love

Jesus embraces the person, who is poor and weak, and shows his pierced heart, not to authorize mediocrity but so that the person may strive to the maximum toward the perfection of the Father’s love.

The Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, the firmness of his reaction against scandal (pluck out your eye; cut off your hand), his unflinching position before they hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the decisive condemnation of a system that had killed the spirit of the law to exalt the letter (that then became the real cause of his Crucifixion), the example of an atrocious death accepted and lived with love and forgiveness, all show what Jesus had come to reveal to us by coming among us on earth.

He came to bring us, on the part of the Father, the message of maximum love.

The words of  Bishop Giaquinta here could not be more direct and piercing, the infinite love and forgiveness of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are ours for the asking, but CANNOT be taken for granted as a “blank check” to live our lives the way we please.  Our lives are not our own, for we have been purchased with a price. 

Dear Jesus help us see and be sorry for  how much we take you for granted.  Help us begin to see through Your eyes what maximum love truly is. 



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Friday, October 25, 2013

All Saints Day Novena Day 3

As we continue to reflect on The Gospel Maximum of Love by Bishop Giaquinta we see his predominant theme of  disdain for Christians who do just the minimum to get by when Christ gave everything He had for us.  He writes: “(R)eductionism has been at fault in undermining true Christianity.  It has been reduced from its true nature of maximum love into an easy and accommodating spiritual minimalism.  Christianity no longer is lived as a great ideal; it has become a complex of catalogued obligations, observed with the indispensable minimum to reach the promised reign of heaven”.

As I read this my first inclination is to say that I do not fall into this category, that I am very active in my parish and volunteer much of my time for causes that are loving and just. 

But as I reflect more deeply I know how little I truly use the multitude of gifts that God has given me:  gifts of time that I would much rather spend watching a movie than truly sharing love and concern with a friend, gifts of  financial resources  that I would much rather spend on dinner out than  to ever give so much that I had to deny myself something that I really wanted, gifts of talent that I would rather use by myself in my own room than with  a nursing home full of lonely people who would  truly enjoy an afternoon sing a long.  Maybe there are others who are experiencing the same conviction that I am as they read these words


Dear Jesus  Please help me find and make the opportunities to truly use my time, talent, and treasure to the maximum.   I trust that you will  open the doors if I just listen for your prompting.  

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Thursday, October 24, 2013

All Saints Day Novena Day 2

We continue reflecting on  Bishop Giaquinta’s Gospel of Maximum love today with the remainder of the paragraph that was quoted in day 1:

 “The absurd consequence (of being the cause of others finding Christ’s message alienating or repulsive – this portion added by me not a direct quote)  has been  that Christian truths, mutilated in their essence, concern, and relationship with Christ, have been taken over in distorted form by various non Christian philosophies and political parties”

This statement to me is full of truth, too often I, and many others I am sure,  have been hesitant in mentioning Christ as the reason for our  hope and the purpose for our lives.  I believe everyone at his/her core is searching for something to believe in, and without being in relationship with Christ, there are multiple other persons/groups that seek to fill the void.  If we truly love Christ as we say we do, this should break our hearts.  I know these words as I write them are coming from the Holy Spirit.  God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, longs more deeply than we can imagine  for everyone to know His love for them. 


Dear Jesus, give me the courage on this day to mention You and my relationship with You to one  person who needs to hear of your love.  Show me who that person is and what I should say.  I trust that you will do this with all my heart. 

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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

All Saints Day Novena 2013 Day 1

“We Christians must be the animating force that raises the world up.  Instead, too often we have been the cause for people to find Christ and his message alienating or repulsive”

This is a powerful statement that both engages and challenges me.  How can I raise (my corner of) the world up—a smile to a co worker or a stranger on the street, a letter or a phone call to a friend who I know needs a lift, praying for a person or a community in a difficult situation.  On the other side too I know I have been guilty of hurting the cause of Christ—by engaging in hurtful gossip, by not standing up for my faith when someone asked about it’s importance to me, by judging others harshly instead of seeing with eyes of love and forgiveness


Dear Jesus,  help me find a specific way to share your love today, show me the person who needs it the most, and keep me from things that would detract others from you

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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Join us for the All Saints Day Novena 2013

In honor of the approaching year of our founder Bishop Guglielmo Giaquinta, our novena this year will contain reflections on one of his writings:  The Gospel of Maximum Love

Please join the Pro Sanctity Family in praying and reflecting together as we consider concrete ways to share Christ’s love to the maximum, and don’t hesitate to share your thoughts on our blog or on our facebook page. 



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Saturday, February 9, 2013

Our Lady of Trust Novena 2013 Day 9


Day 9
2 Cor.1:7-11

Who has entrusted their needs to your prayers? How does Mary want to be with you in your prayer?

Many ask for our prayers but I know I am not as faithful in prayer as I need to be.  That is why I am grateful at Mass that our prayers of the faithful always contain the request:  "for those for whom we have promised to pray and for those for whom we have forgotten to pray and for those for whom we find it difficult to pray".  Prayer is such a simple thing and should not be taken lightly.  As we come to the end of this novena it makes me want to deepen my habits of prayer throughout the season of Lent so that I can walk with Jesus in the desert.  I am so glad to have such a wonderful spiritual family to walk with me.  Thank you Pro Sanctity!



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Friday, February 8, 2013

Our Lady of Trust Novena 2013 Day 8


Day 8
Heb. 4:14-16
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. 16 So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help. 

How does Jesus’ humanity help you to trust in Him? How does Mary’s life with Jesus show you how to trust Him?

I especially appreciate that Jesus experienced pain and sadness like we do and infinitely more than we ever have so that when I am in pain and sadness I know He has been there.  Mary too experienced pain and sadness throughout her life with Christ.  Even though they were intimately connected with God at every moment, it amazes me that they chose not to be immune from these things.  

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Thursday, February 7, 2013

Our Lady of Trust Novena 2013 Day 7


Day 7
1 John 5:12-15
13 I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God. 14 And we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we know that what we have asked him for is ours.

What is God giving to you when you trust in Him?

I know I have peace but need to trust more.  What about you? 




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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Our Lady of Trust Novena 2013 Day 6


Day 6
Eph. 3:7-13
7 Of this I became a minister by the gift of God’s grace that was granted me in accord with the exercise of his power. 8 To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light [for all] what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things, 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the principalities and authorities in the heavens. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness of speech and confidence of access through faith in him. 13 So I ask you not to lose heart over my afflictions for you; this is your glory.  

When has the Holy Spirit given you the grace and trust to speak about God to others? 

I remember once many years ago speaking to a co worker about God.  I was wearing a Christian necklace and it started a conversation.  I wonder every now and again if this person has come to faith.  As a Christian I know I should have many more memories than this.  I need to pray for the boldness and trust to speak of Him more.  

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Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Our Lady of Trust Novena 2013 Day 5


Day 5
Luke 5:3-7


Consider the fruits of trust in your relationship with God.  What was the fruitfulness of Mary’s trust?

I have heard Teresa Monaghen say often that we pray for a flood and we are holding a teacup.  I think this is true.  God wants to give us so much that our nets will break.  Let us not be afraid of what will happen if we ask for great things.  Mary knew that God would give great things to her just through her trust in him.  

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Monday, February 4, 2013

Our Lady of Trust Novena 2013 Day 4


Day 4
Jer. 17: 5-8
5 Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He is like a barren bush in the wasteland that enjoys no change of season, But stands in lava beds in the wilderness, a land, salty and uninhabited. 7 Blessed are those who trust in the LORD; the LORD will be their trust. 8 They are like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It does not fear heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still produces fruit.

What graces have you received when you have put your trust in God? How does Mary’s Magnifcat teach you the “Way of trust”? 

Some of the greatest experiences I have had of grace when I put my trust in God happen when I am speaking and writing and ask for his guidance.  It seems before I know it that things are coming through my fingers and from my mouth that I know are not my own but coming from God through the Holy Spirit.  As I read the Magnificat what strikes me is that very little of it is focused on Mary herself and the vast majority is about God and the wonders He has done.  It is another example of complete trust.  What about the rest of you?  Please share your thoughts with us. 

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Sunday, February 3, 2013

Our Lady of Trust Novena 2013 Day 3


Day 3
Is. 12:2-4
2 God indeed is my salvation; I am confident and unafraid. For the LORD is my strength and my might, and he has been my salvation. 3 With joy you will draw water from the fountains of salvation, 4 And you will say on that day: give thanks to the LORD, acclaim his name; Among the nations make known his deeds, proclaim how exalted is his name.

What areas in your life does God want you to entrust to Him? Does Mary’s trust in God encourage you to trust in difficult times?

I wish I was confident and unafraid more.  I worry a lot about unforseen happenings and have a strong desire to be in control at all times.  Mary's example teaches me that in every circumstance God is trustworthy and His hand is guiding and protecting us. 


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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Our Lady of Trust Novena 2013 Day 2

We continue reflecting on Our Lady of  Trust through Scripture


Day  2
Wis. 3:7-9
7 In the time of their judgment they shall shine and dart about as sparks through stubble; 8 They shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the LORD shall be their King forever. 9 Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love: Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with the elect.

Who are the sparks in your life that help you to trust God?  How does Mary light your way to Christ?

As I read the questions above I think of so many holy family members and friends as well as so many priests, deacons and other consecrated individuals who have lit my way.  I also see Mary as one of the first to fully trust God in His true form as the trinity, Father who sent an angel to speak to her, Son who she lovingly carried in her womb, and Spirit who overshadowed her.  She was truly and completely immersed in divine life.  

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Friday, February 1, 2013

Our Lady of Trust Novena 2013 Day One

Please join us in praying a novena to Our Lady Of  Trust.  Our own Anne Zugelder has suggested some scripture and questions for meditation as we prepare to enter into the season of  Lent.  Each day we will meditate on the scriptures and corresponding questions provided and conclude by praying the prayer to Our Lady of  Trust.  Please post your comments and reflections here so we can grow together on our journey toward holiness and trust.


Drawn by the need of your help in the many trials that engulf us in this life, we come to your feet, O Virgin of Trust, to pour out to the heart of a mother our wishes and failings.
            Although it is our duty to strive for perfection, it is also true that our mortal body makes the path difficult, and the enemies of our soul cease not from their attacks, while everywhere we are enticed to leave the difficult and straight way known by only a few travelers.
            And all the while, our suffering along the way, our own interior weakness and temptations press heavily to torment us and produce in our souls a feeling of faintness and sadness, which means only one thing: distrust, in ourselves, in our ideal, in the means to attain it.
            But your motherly look which follows us, and your Immaculate Heart, which your Son points out to us, open our souls to a new feeling – the assurance of your help. And we want it, O Mary.  We ask it of you, we beg for it, O loving Mother. 
            When sin entices us, stay with us and be our strength.  When mediocrity absorbs us, do not leave us.  When the ascent to the perfection of the Father leaves us weary, whisper a word of help, O Mary – trust!
            If we will listen to this word of yours, the way will be easier, the goal closer, and our confidence more certain that we shall reach sanctity.
            So repeat this word often – trust.  Repeat it to us and to everybody, O Mary, because all people must become saints.  Amen.

Bishop Guglielmo Giaquinta

*****
Day One
Ps. 31:14-17
14 I hear the whispers of the crowd; terrors are all around me. They conspire together against me; they plot to take my life. 15 But I trust in you, LORD; I say, “You are my God.” 16 My destiny is in your hands; rescue me from my enemies, from the hands of my pursuers. 17 Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your mercy.
When have you put your trust in God in a difficult situation? How does Mary model this for you?





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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Absolute Trust

I was struck today by the first reading given to us by the Church from the book of Hebrews for daily Mass. 

It encourages us to approach Jesus with absolute trust.  There is little ambiguity, this is very clear.  It made me think of our patron  Our Lady of Trust

"let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust,


with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience

and our bodies washed in pure water.

Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope,

for he who made the promise is trustworthy.

We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works.

We should not stay away from our assembly,

as is the custom of some, but encourage one another,

and this all the more as you see the day drawing near".

Take action today in whatever environment you find yourselves to encourage one another and exercise trust in the One who is trustworthy




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