Novena for Marriage and Families

Day 2 - The Novena for Marriage & Family

No Fence Sitting

NO fence sitting. In every thought, word, or action, You are either with Christ or anti-Christ. 

The BATTLE IS RAGING.  We must spread and courageously be witness to the full Catholic truth, especially on the Church’s teachings on the family, on Creation, and the Commandments of Almighty God.

While the world is falling apart around us, we must keep our eyes toward Heaven and know that our trust is in the Lord, and that we are not alone in this fight.  It will get rougher, but we need to persevere in the true Faith.  GO TO CONFESSION.  GO TO MASS.  Receive the Graces from the Blessed Sacrament.  PRAY daily, especially the Holy Rosary that the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph.  Stay in a state of Grace so that you may have the Sacramental graces necessary to overcome adversity and temptation when it presents itself, as well as to be ready for judgment if you are called by Our Heavenly Father.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have Mercy on us.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Pray for us.

The Fruit of Purity is Love

After reading and understanding more about St. Bernard and his life's work I came to understand why Jesus is asking for, "Women Espoused to Purity," and why he would be asking at this point in time. In St Bernard's time the world was in a depraved state. When people herd about the community St. Bernard was creating they found it refreshing and a welcome change from the darkness of sin.  The reading below took my breath away and I knew it was time to move forward in the planning and development of "Women Espousing Purity for Christ." Please contact me if you truly believe Love for God is the answer to our deepest longings.

 From a sermon by Saint Bernard, abbot

I love because I love, I love that I may love

Love is sufficient of itself, it gives pleasure by itself and because of itself.  It is its own merit, its own reward.  Love looks for no cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself.  Its profit lies in its practice.  I love because I love, I love that I may love.  Love is a great thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it.  Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be.  For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him. The Bridegroom's love, or rather the love which is the Bridegroom, asks in return nothing but faithful love.  Let the beloved, then, love in return.  Should not a bride love, and above all, Love's bride?  Could it be that Love not be loved?

Rightly then does she give up all other feelings and give herself wholly to love alone; in giving love back, all she can do is respond to love.  And when she has poured out her whole being in love, what is that in comparison with the unceasing torrent of that original source?  Clearly, lover and Love, soul and Word, bride and Bridegroom, creature and Creator do not flow with the same volume; one might as well equate a thirsty man with the fountain.  

What then of the bride's hope, her aching desire, her passionate love, her confident assurance?  Is all this to wilt just because she cannot match stride for stride with her giant, any more than she can vie with honey for sweetness, rival the lamb for gentleness, show herself as white as the lily, burn as bright as the sun, be equaling love with him who is Love?  No. It is true that the creature loves less because she is less.  But if she loves with her whole being, nothing is lacking where everything is given.  To love so ardently then is to share the marriage bond; she cannot love so much and not be totally loved, and it is in the perfect union of two hearts that complete and total marriage consists.  Or are we to doubt that the soul is loved by the Word first and with a greater love?

O God,

who made the Abbot Saint Bernard a man consumed with zeal for your house and a light shining and burning in your Church, grant, through his intercession, that we may be on fire with the same spirit and walk always as children of light.  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

Friends in high places

"Nothing is far from God"

                 

                -St. Monica

I am a wife and mother of 5 sons.  All dear sweet boys raised in the Catholic Church. In the early years it was good and easy to answer their questions about God and Jesus.  For years church, school and sports were the normal routine of life.  All that changed when our oldest son went to college.  He was attending the same school his father did.  No coed dorms in dad's day but unfortunately all that has changed.  Looking back it was shear stupidity on our part to think he was prepared for the collision with the opposite sex every day.  Of course this was a state school, no morals no values no God, 18 years later he and two of his brothers are not attending Mass.  It is the farthest thing from their minds.  I live with a broken heart like so many other moms. 

The John Paul and Anne novena prayers along with St. Monica and St. Augustine have become an important part of my summer prayer.  I rarely finished a novena before connecting to this Web site.  Now these novenas give me a sense of security.  The Saints were all once like me, waiting, hoping, praying for peace in the family and peace in the world.   If you are waiting for a son or daughter to find their way back to their true home the Saints are there to intercede.  One of my sons shares a birthday with St. Augustine and yes he continues to resist the truth of God's love for him and his need for that love.  A year ago I was thinking St. Monica  had it easy compared to me.  As the year has passed I have grown to trust in God and not in what I think I see.  I have a gentle appreciation for the journey my sons are on and for the mothers who have gone before me, rosary in hand , hope in their hearts.

May you find blessing in these novena prayers as I have.   PrayMoreNovenas.com

The Ball of Purification

THE BALL OF THE PURIFICATION IS ROLLING AND IT WILL NOT STOP UNTIL THE ENTIRE WORLD HAS BEEN PURIFIED.

 PRAY FOR THE WEAK

When the people of Ireland voted to make same sex marriage a law of the land I immediately felt the pain of Jesus and his Beloved Mother Mary.  I felt an almost crippling sorrow, as parents of a child who has gotten himself or herself into irreversible trouble feel when they know only a very serious punishment will bring the child back to the reality of what their life is meant for and who they really are.

People think that God is emotionless. That is not true.  Mary is and always has been a pure human being and don't we have feelings and emotions.  Jesus is masculine both human and divine.  Several months ago with great anger Jesus came to me and said, "They are legislating the death of my children."  Legalizing marijuana is one of the reasons for his anger.  Allowing Planned Parenthood and the federal government to teach sexual morality and instruct school children in these hideous methods of degrading there bodies is another way we have legislated the death of His children.  I was listening to a priest basically beat the dead horse on the issue of abortion, Jesus told me to " Tell the priest that as long as Planned Parenthood and the federal government are teaching sexuality to the children in school the abortion situation will not change."

After the Supreme court of the United States passed the Same Sex marriage amendment I walked into my prayer room and heard the words, "Pray for the weak."  I pondered this and realized as the days passed how impossible it seemed to be in communication with people who are in agreement with all the gender confusion we seem to be fixated on in our country and in our world.  Yes, if you are in agreement with the teachings of the Roman Catholic church you are in the minority.  Most difficult are the family members and the members of our own church community who are still in the dark as it comes to truths of the human person that can never be changed.

For the first time in my life I knew to the marrow of my bones the meaning of, "Who are my mother and my brothers, those who do the will of God."  Unfortunately we can no longer straddle the fence, a as one person in a room filled with those who are rejoicing in the new law, as well as those who are sticking there head in the sand as it relates to Planned Parenthood, it is just no longer possible.  Up until now it seemed a good thing to be in the company of those who see life differently and are sure freedom means equality in the arena of gender confusion. When laws change people think it is proof positive that wrong is right and right is wrong.

The line is drawn in the sand.  About a week ago God himself came to my prayer room.  HE SPOKE ABOUT ALL THE WONDERFUL PRAYER GROUPS HE HIMSELF STARTED ALL OVER THE WORLD. He said, "THE BALL OF PURIFICATION IS ROLLING AND IT WON'T STOP UNTIL THE ENTIRE WORLD IS PURIFIED."   HE SAID THAT BECAUSE OF ALL THE PRAYER WARRIORS AROUND THE WORLD THE PURIFICATION WON'T BE AS BAD AS SOME THINK."   I do not know what that means as it relates to the blog I am suggesting below.  Most people do not even know what it could mean to be purified.  Last week I came across a blog that explains it very clearly. I suggest,  https://charliej373.wordpress.com/

The time for repentance is NOW.