Contemplative Haven

Beautiful.

Fun.

O my Jesus, my Master and Director, strengthen and enlighten me in these difficult moments of my life.  I expect no help from people; all my hope is in You.  I feel alone in the face of Your demands, O Lord.  Despite the fears and qualms of my nature, I am fulfilling Your holy will and desire to fulfill it as faithfully as possible throughout my life and in my death.  Jesus, with You I can do all things.  Do with me as You please; only give me Your merciful Heart and that is enough for me.

[The Diary, Notebook II, # 650] 

One Sunday morning as I opened my missalette, a piece of paper fell out.  On it was written a prayer to St. Thérèse, with the instructions to say the prayer for nine days for your intention, and also to copy out the prayer eleven times and place it in other missalettes where people would eventually find them.

At the time I was not familiar with novenas, and the thought of copying it out eleven times for others struck me as absurd, like some sort of religious chain-letter.  But I prayed the prayer over and over, not just for nine days…

I don’t remember what my intention was, but the prayer has always stayed with me:

Petite Thérèse de l’enfant Jésus, toi qui nous a promis de faire du bien sur la terre, répand ta pluie de roses sur tous ceux qui t’invoque.  Accorde-nous la grace de ta bonté.  Amen.

I have not been able to find that exact prayer anywhere in books or online, but I believe it may have been based on the prayer I found here:

Well, as a matter of fact, I did sit down one night and wrote out eleven copies of the prayer.  After a few Sundays had passed, I had managed to slip it into eleven missalettes for others to find.

Thank you, St. Thérèse.  Merci pour ta pluie de roses dans nos vies.  May you have a festive day today in heaven, with the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin,  all the angels and saints, and our loved ones.

…few are the times when I manage to contemplate with my intellect.

Very often, what happens to me then is that when the continuous thought of God, of whom I am always aware, distances itself a bit from my mind, I suddenly feel myself touched by our Lord right at the center of my soul in such a soothing and penetrating way that, more often than not, I am forced to shed tears of sorrow for my infidelity and for the tender mercy of having a Father who is so good to call me back to His presence….

It seems to me that time flies by rapidly and I never have enough for prayer. I am very fond of good literature, but I read very little both because I am hindered by my infirmities and because, after opening a book and reading briefly, I find myself so profoundly absorbed my reading becomes prayer.

[From: Secrets of a Soul. Padre Pio's Letters to His Spiritual Directors, pgs. 55-57]

In his book, “Hildegard of Bingen: Healing and the Nature of the Cosmos”, author Heinrich Schipperges writes:

A continuous “celestial liturgy” dominated Hildegard’s artistic creations. According to her, this liturgy was sung in perfect unison (una voce) and would continue forever (sine fine) with voices alternating (alter ad alterum) in an eternal responsory. Humanity and the cosmos existed in unique musical concord, bringing all people’s hearts into consonance (anima symphonialis est) and serving not only as a guide to healthy living but as the basis of an effective system of healing and therapy. All the arts were divinely inspired, “and therefore it is only fitting that body and soul sing hymns of praise through the voice of God.” [page 19]

I will be posting more later on my thoughts surrounding Hildegard’s statement that music should serve “not only as a guide to healthy living but as the basis of an effective system of healing and therapy”, but for now I would like to leave you with this beautiful artistic performance, in which I’m sure Hildegard takes great delight:

From a letter dated 1940:

Should we strive for perfect love, you ask? Absolutely. For this we were created. [Perfect love] will be our eternal life, and here we have to seek to come as close to it as possible. Jesus became incarnate in order to be our way. What can we do? Try with all our might to be empty; the senses mortified; the memory as free as possible from all images of this world and, through hope, directed toward heaven; the understanding stripped of natural seeking and ruminating, directed to God in the straightforward gaze of faith; the will…surrendered to God in love.

This can be said very simply, but the work of an entire life would not attain the goal were God not to do the most essential. In the meantime we may be confident that he will not fail to give grace if we faithfully do the little we can do.

Edith Stein. Self Portrait In Letters. 1916-1942. Translated by Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D. pgs. 318-319

To start the day’s celebrations, a prayer to St. Joseph, patron saint of Canada:

 
                                                  
Joseph, Guardian of the Pure in Heart

Gentle Joseph, God is captivated by the
quality of your heart. Your entire being is
focused on doing his will. With Mary and Jesus,
you answer the Holy Spirit’s call to build a better world.

With one heart, we join you in saying:
”Here we are, Lord, your will be done!
Your kingdom come nearer to us!”

Keep the hope of a new world alive in our hearts.
Inspire us to speak words of tenderness to awaken
the love of hearts.

May we draw the energy for our actions from the source
of all Love so our faces may shine with the freedom
of the children of God.

Amen

[This prayer was found on the website of St. Joseph's Oratory, Montreal, Quebec]

* * * * * * * * * * * *

And now a little something from our beloved Stephen Leacock…from the short story, The Marine Excursion of the Knights of Pythias, in Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town:      

You may talk as you will about the intoning choirs of your European cathedrals, but the sound of “O Can-a-da”, borne across the waters of a silent lake at evening is good enough for those of us who know Mariposa.

I think that it was just as they were singing like this: “O Can-a-da”, that word went round that the boat was sinking….

What? Hadn’t I explained about the depth of Lake Wissanotti? I had taken for granted that you knew; and in any case parts of it are deep enough, though I don’t suppose in this stretch of it from the big reed beds up to within a mile of the town wharf, you could find six feet of water in it if you tried….if a person arrives late anywhere and explains that the steamer sank, everybody understands the situation….

So you can imagine now that I’ve explained it a little straighter, the indignation of the people when they knew that the boat had uncorked and that they might be stuck out there on a shoal or a mud-bank half the night….

So pretty soon they had the davits swung out over the side and were lowering the old lifeboat from the top deck into the water.

There were men leaning out over the rail of the Mariposa Belle with lanterns that threw the light as they let her down, and the glare fell on the water and the reeds. But when they got the boat lowered, it looked such a frail, clumsy thing as one saw it from the rail above, that the cry was raised: “Women and children first!” For what was the sense, if it should turn out that the boat wouldn’t even hold women and children, of trying to jam a lot of heavy men into it?

“Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary! that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, and sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother! To thee I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word incarnate! despise not my petitions, but, in thy mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.”

For an explanation of why saints such as St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. Anselm and others believed that our prayers to Mary are heard and answered more swiftly and assuredly than our prayers to Jesus may be, please see my post today at Consecrated to Mary.

“St. Rita, intercede for all women who suffer in difficult marriages that they may discover the best response to their cross.  May we, like you, someday find our highest longing for holiness fulfilled.  Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

[From:  Treasury of Women Saints, by Ronda De Sola Chervin]

Today is the feastday of St. Catherine of Siena. For any of you who are not familiar with her, I will put a link here to my post of last year.

Anne the Lay Apostle received two messages from St. Catherine of Siena, both of which I would like to share with you today. I would like to highlight three blogger friends today as well:

• Cathy (A Bit of the Blarney), whose patron saint is St. Catherine
• Aeternus
• Marie-Cecile (Soulful Longings and God’s Wonderful Love)

In Cathy’s post today, she quotes St. Catherine of Siena:  “Your neighbors are the channel through which your virtues are tested and come to birth…”  We hear/read the same in The Message dated July 27, 2004 where St. Catherine says:  “So from now on, when you are having difficulties with other souls, thank Jesus.  Continually work on your own soul and ask yourself what this opportunity could help you with spiritually.  Should you practice humility?  Are you too fond of the esteem of others?  Should you practice detachment?  Is the world an alluring pull for you?  Should you practice trust?  Are you having difficulty trusting Jesus?  Are you seeking to fill your needs through other avenues?….This is a time for grace.  This is a time for spiritual growth.  There are great spiritual opportunities available now.  Use every one.”  Cathy also reminds us in her post about St. Catherine of Siena’s “…Dialogues (written accounts of her revelations from God) and her Letters which initially gave spiritual instruction and encouragement…”   We see how God has always and will always use whomever He chooses for this type of work.   St. Catherine received from the Lord primarily in ecstasy; Anne the Lay Apostle received The Messages through interior locutions.

In her post today, Aeternus shares an excerpt from The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, part of which I quote here:  “Oh! Supreme and Eternal Goodness of God, who am I, miserable one, that You, Supreme and Eternal Father, have manifested to me Your Truth, and the hidden deceits of the Devil, and the deceitfulness of personal feeling, so that I, and others in this life of pilgrimage, may know how to avoid being deceived by the Devil or ourselves!”  I am reminded of something that Anne the Lay Apostle wrote in her book, Climbing the Mountain (page 78); she tells us that as a messenger, she is only another “fellow slave of heaven”.

Marie-Cecile of Soulfull Longings and God’s Wonderful Love always came to mind every time I listened to or read the Message I put up in my previous post.  Each time I heard Anne and Dr. Miravalle speak of consistency of service, Marie-Cecile’s work is what I thought of. As she indicated in a previous comment, MC always places herself in the background in comparison to the greatness of God, because it is God she wishes to glorify and certainly not herself; but I can tell you, MC, your quiet service does not go unnoticed by Him or others. There have been many occasions over the last three years where I might have gone to sleep a little down or distraught, except for having checked in with you before bedtime and read some of your faithful and uplifting posts, so I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and as St. Catherine of Siena said in her Message of July 26, 2004: “You might not believe this, thinking you are not that important, but I assure you that through even the quietist, most humble service, Jesus can save many souls.”

And now, on to the Messages from St. Catherine of Siena:

Volume Seven: Message dated July 26, 2004

Volume Seven: Message dated July 27, 2004