Barbara McGuigan, a host of EWTN's Open Line, read this quote last week on Open Line when she was doing a show on helping others heal from the loss of a child. She emphasized the last sentence, "we allow God to take from us whatever He wants and we accept whatever He gives with a big smile." It sounds difficult, if not impossible, to do...accepting a miscarriage with a big smile. How can this be done? The key is the first sentence..."the Holy Spirit makes us do that giving of self, that total surrender to God without any reflection without any counting the cost;" this takes openness to the Spirit, and at times, especially after our first miscarriage, all I could offer was a prayer that I could be open to the Spirit. But God accepts us wherever we're at and if we but give Him the opening into our hearts, He can use that. Pray and pray to be open to Him, to His healing, to His will for your miscarriage, that He will use you as He wills to bring about the good He longs to bring forth from your suffering. He is a good God, a perfect Father, and He comes to us, holds us, and accepts us with a big smile. Let us in turn do the same for all the He wills for us, and most especially, for the crosses He gives us to bear with Christ.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
With a big smile...
“The easiest way and the simplest way of belonging is this: the Holy Spirit makes us do that giving of self, that total surrender to God without any reflection without any counting the cost, we call that blind surrender. We allow God to take from us whatever He wants and we accept whatever He gives with a big smile.“ Mother Theresa
O Marvelous Sacrament!
Jesus did not leave us alone here in the world to toil our way through, to find our own way. No, He wished to remain with us, to be in our living and our dying. He left us His precious, most sacred, body, blood, soul and divinity in the Holy Eucharist! A greater source of healing, you will not find. Run to Him; embrace Him; adore Him; receive Him. He is in the tabernacle, the monstrance, on the altar, waiting for you. Receive Him daily if you are able. Let His truth penetrate the darkest parts of you, and be healed. Embrace the Church He left for us all, for you will find so much healing in our Holy Mother Church, His gracious spouse. Pay heed to the Sacraments; call on the Spirit given to you in your Baptism and at your Confirmation; be reconciled to God through the sacrament of Reconciliation; use the sacramental graces God bestowed upon you when you were joined in Holy Matrimony; but most especially, meet Jesus in the Holy Mass and receive Him often, for His consolation is so great.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
The Saints embrace our children
Our children our in perfect company, the company of the Saints and angels in heaven. And the Saints embrace our children! (We always want our children to have good, holy friends don't we??)
With our first miscarriage, we named our daughter Ariana Faustina. We chose "Faustina" after St. Faustina Kowalska, who brought us the devotion of the Divine Mercy. Our priest offered a holy Mass in rememberance of our daughter in the chapel at our parish. When we entered the chapel for the Mass, there was a beautiful Divine Mercy image to the right of the altar. My husband, thinking Father had placed the image there since our daughter was named for St. Faustina, went up to thank Father after the Mass. He told Father "thank you for putting the image there, it meant a lot to us" and Father said he had not even thought about our daughter being named for St. Faustina, and that he had not put it there for the Mass. The image, he explained, was an apostolic Divine Mercy image that had been blessed by Pope John Paul II, and it was the only one of its type in the United States. It travelled from parish to parish around the U.S. and it was only at our church for one day and when we set the date for the Mass, no one had any idea it would be there.
Coincidence? The world may tell us this is just a crazy coincidence...but we know better. We believe Christ and St. Faustina were comforting us, showing us God's Divine Mercy, and that our little daughter was there with them, embraced by St. Faustina and all the Saints, embraced by her Mother, Mary, embraced by Christ Himself.
With our first miscarriage, we named our daughter Ariana Faustina. We chose "Faustina" after St. Faustina Kowalska, who brought us the devotion of the Divine Mercy. Our priest offered a holy Mass in rememberance of our daughter in the chapel at our parish. When we entered the chapel for the Mass, there was a beautiful Divine Mercy image to the right of the altar. My husband, thinking Father had placed the image there since our daughter was named for St. Faustina, went up to thank Father after the Mass. He told Father "thank you for putting the image there, it meant a lot to us" and Father said he had not even thought about our daughter being named for St. Faustina, and that he had not put it there for the Mass. The image, he explained, was an apostolic Divine Mercy image that had been blessed by Pope John Paul II, and it was the only one of its type in the United States. It travelled from parish to parish around the U.S. and it was only at our church for one day and when we set the date for the Mass, no one had any idea it would be there.
Coincidence? The world may tell us this is just a crazy coincidence...but we know better. We believe Christ and St. Faustina were comforting us, showing us God's Divine Mercy, and that our little daughter was there with them, embraced by St. Faustina and all the Saints, embraced by her Mother, Mary, embraced by Christ Himself.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)