Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices. ~ St. Teresa of Avila
Do you feel the warmth of God’s mercy? Do you feel the tenderness that embraces you? Do you feel the knock at your heart that says, “You needn’t be lonely and worried about this matter; I am with you. I am in you. “Do you feel his consolation—not emotionally, but spiritually, in faith? Do you feel the touch of his hand upon your heart, healing the wounds of sin?
” I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep.” ~ John 10:14-15
St. Francis Borgia, S.J. with St. Teresa of Avila, O.C.D.; art by José Segrelles (1956)
We who walk in the desert of violence, wars, and changes that bewilder and confuse us need an oasis in which to rest and renew ourselves. Mass is the oasis to which the Good Samaritan brings us each day. Every day Christ invites us to the oasis of his heart to be refreshed there by the Wine of his compassion and love.
Love is not an emotion and not a state. It is a Person — it is God himself. He is the food I receive in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. I need him daily because I am a sinner and weak.
True, I am a saved sinner; but one who realizes only too well the words of Christ, “Without me, you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:5) I need him, the living Bread, to love through me.
I need to participate in the daily Sacrifice of the Mass because I am in love with God. I am in love with Jesus Christ. My soul seeks union with God. It cannot rest until it finds him.
Mass is a rendezvous with Christ. Passionately in love with my God, I become one with him at the Eucharistic table.
Daily Mass is a plunging into the inexplicable, incredible mystery of love. It is a reality more real than the air I breathe, than the life I live throughout the day.
What can I bring to the world but him who has given himself to me?
~ A meditation by Catherine De Hueck Doherty
❤
My lover belongs to me and I to him… ~ Sg 2:16
God’s heart is our only true resting place, the oasis to which he calls us ❤ Beloved Lord Jesus, draw us near and near to your Most Sacred Heart! Amen!
My Beloved, May I console Your heart? Sadness and weariness are so palpable in this encounter. Is it necessary that You go through all those moments of suffering and anguish for me? The anguish of Your precious heart, O Lord, breaks me. It’s happening all over again…
You are only loving and giving. How can this be happening? I don’t want to fall asleep my Jesus. I want to stay awake, to console Your precious heart, like the angel from heaven did in those dark days.
Would You allow me to be in Your presence now, Lord? I know You need to pray to your Father. For his strength and courage will be upon You. But Lord, I pray, allow me to remain with You now. In silence and in communion. Your tears are overflowing and my garden is wet from those precious tears… Your tears are cleansing and healing everything.
O Beloved Jesus, Thank You for loving me with such infinite and unconditional love. I can’t express in words how much gratitude I feel for You saving me.
Beloved, let us pray together. Let us stay in this silent union of love and trust, That all is in the Father’s heart.
I stay awake. Let us be together. Let us pray together, my Beloved.
St. John The Beloved Disciple resting in the Heart of Jesus ~ By unknown artist
Long ago, an ordinary man called John laid his head on the breast of Christ, and listened to the heartbeats of the Lord. Who can guess what that man felt as he heard the beat of that mighty heart? None of us will ever be in his place, but all of us can hear, if we listen, the song of love God sings to us. If we meditate on the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, we will hear, not only his heartbeats, but our own hearts beating in unison with his. We will be united with our Lord and our God.
God’s heart is our only true resting place, the oasis to which he calls us. The key to his heart is identification with all his little ones, a deep love that requires so great an enlargement of heart that we cannot even aspire to it unless God shows us the way.
Let us pray for that enlargement of heart.
“I give you a new commandment: love one another; just as I have loved you, you also must love one another. By this love you have for one another, everyone will know you are my disciples.” – John 13:34-35
A Meditation by Catherine Doherty, Madonna House Apostolate
This is a little adaptation of the beautiful song by Sophie B. Hawkins. Every time I listen to it, it makes me think of My Beloved….Jesus I love you!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do…
You are mine, art by Yong-Sung Kim
It felt like spring time on this February morning In a courtyard birds were singing Your praise I’m still recalling things You said to make me feel alright I carried them with me today Now
As I lay me down to sleep This I pray That You will hold me dear Though I’m far away I’ll whisper your Name into the sky And I will wake up happy
I wonder why I feel so high Though I am not above the sorrow Heavy hearted Till You call my name And it sounds like church bells Or the whistle of a train On a summer evening I’ll run to meet You Barefoot, barely breathing
As I lay me down to sleep This I pray That You will hold me dear Though I’m far away I’ll whisper Your name into the sky And I will wake up happy
Oh, Beloved As I lay me down to sleep This I pray That You will hold me dear Though I’m far away I’ll whisper Your name into the sky And I will wake up happy
It’s not too near for me Like a flower I need the rain Though it’s not clear to me Every season has it’s change And I will see You When the sun comes out again
As I lay me down to sleep This I pray That You will hold me dear Though I’m far away I’ll whisper Your name into the sky And I will wake up happy
I wonder why
when the sun comes out again when the sun comes out again…
Seeing God does not necessarily have to do with visions or extravagant gifts of grace. It can be a simple and quiet consciousness of God’s presence and reality. It can be an unshakable confidence in him who gives you a solid grounding. To see God can also be an insight and conviction that your whole life rests in the hands of God, and everything that happens is a message from him. Or it can be a deep insight into the human longing for an infinite love which only God can fill. The pure heart can see God already in this life, since he reigns in our midst. God wants to be mirrored in your heart. But if the mirror is stained and soiled, it can’t reflect God’s image. And so it is not God’s fault if you don’t see him. If you want to see and experience God, you must let your heart become what it was meant to be from the beginning: a clear and pure mirror for the one who is love and who loves all that is. To let your heart recover its originality, you must first discover and admit that you are an abyss crying out for God’s infinity, and then you must empty your heart of all the surrogates with which you have tried to fill it.
To a Christian it is very simple to come into contact with God. God is not just the goal at the end of a long and hard journey. In Jesus Christ, God is the way itself. As soon as we take the first stumbling steps on this way, we are together with God. No demanding exercises in concentrating are needed, no heroic asceticism. The only thing needed is to genuinely love Jesus. Love entrusts itself to the beloved, opens itself to him or her, trusts him or her. If such a genuine love of Jesus fills our hearts, then everything else will follow. Jesus is Immanuel: God with us. We don’t need a telescope to scout for God. God is near; he is our traveling companion. We need only let him take us by the hand. Since God has shown himself on the earth and has pitched his tent among us, he is “grab-able” to all. It is not through profound speculation that we grow in our relationship with God, but through the unsophisticated faith of the heart, and the trust in what transcends human understanding. When we bow before the mystery that has come so close to us in Jesus, then he reveals himself most clearly.
~ A Christmas meditation by Wilfrid Stinissen, O.C.D.
