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“I want to describe how the Master has made me find joy in the cross. After my profession, folio wing the advice that had been given me, I hastened to the “bleeding Flower of Calvary ” and plucked it continually with the cross for its stem. This cross was the daily, perpetual mortification of our austere life: austere indeed for one who refuses nothing to the good God and who is perfectly faithful to the Rule and duty. I no longer sought for imaginary crosses and dreamt of them no more, and as I received each day the grace to bear my daily cross, I carried it cheerfully, finding by experience that the first step is the hardest, and that the generous acceptance of a light cross brings with it a deep peace which gives strength for greater and harder mortifications.
Fasting tried me very much, I found it very hard to work in the morning on fast-days, as I was obliged to do for several years while I had sole charge of the refectory and swept and dusted it. The weight of the Breviary at Matins gave me a back-ache which was so increased by the weight of our mantle on feast days that as a rule, my prayer only consisted in offering to God my poor back, which occupied all my thoughts. When, later on, I was forbidden to perform the penance of the Rule in such matters as fasting, want of sleep, and other things, illness supplied their place. I was very glad, as, had it been left to me, I should have preferred, except in certain moments of temptation, to take no care of my health and to keep my Rule exactly.”
MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART CARMELITE NUN OF LISIEUX. 1882-1914
”I am the lowly herald of the “LITTLE QUEEN. With an introduction by Dom Benedict Weld-Blundell, O.S.B. THE KINGSCOTE PRESS, 3 DYER S BUILDINGS, HOLBORN, LONDON, E.G. 1916 Authorised translation from the French.
http://www.meditationsfromcarmel.com/podcast/?p=125
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You.
Because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples,"Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to feel sorrow and distress. Then he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me." He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will." When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep. He said to Peter, "So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." ~Matthew 25:36-41
We pray:
Lord Jesus, Your whole life has been a perfect offering to the Father, and here in the garden You will not withdraw from Your mission of freeing all of Creation
by taking upon Yourself every falleness and transforming it. Yet we see You struggling with what is before You.
Your friends recently saw You transfigured on the mountain and then You demonstrated that love means service by washing their feet, but now they cannot reach beyond themselves or be available to You in this profound sorrow; a sorrow so deep Your sweat is mingled with blood. You are alone with the Father. So often we feel overwhelmed and want to ask that we might be relieved of our burdens. You have shown us that these feelings are natural and this cry is acceptable, as long as we echo Your ultimate submission to the Father.
Lord, give us the strength to surrender our wills to You, so that in all things we may know the wisdom of letting go, and we might always say, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” Teach us to trust in the power of self-giving love and to understand that we need not rely on our own strength, because Your grace is sufficient (2 Cor 12:9).
Sometimes, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) means simply remaining where we are when we want to run.
May Your submission to the Father encourage us to trust in Love.
These Forty Days
http://thesefortydays.blogspot.com/2009/02/scriptural-stations-meditations-first.html
From the
Pope's Angelus message of July 1, 2007:
The Bible readings of this Sunday's Mass invite us to meditate on a charming theme which can be summarized thus: the freedom and the following of Christ. Luke the Evangelist tells of how Jesus, "when the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem" (Lk 9:51). In the expression "resolutely" we can glimpse the freedom of Christ. He knows, in fact, that in Jerusalem, death by the cross awaits him, but in obedience to the will of the Father he offers himself for love. It is in this, his obedience to the Father, that Jesus fulfills his own conscious choice motivated by love. Who is more free than the One who is Omnipotent? But it was a freedom he didn't see as arbitrary or as one of dominion. It was one he viewed as service. In the process, he "restored" what freedom means, otherwise it would remain "empty" opportunities of doing or not doing something. And so in the life of man, freedom brings with it a sense of love. Who is actually more free? The one who withholds all possibilities for fear of losing, or the one who gives himself "resolutely" in service and so finds himself full of life thanks to the love he has given and received?
