Category: My Journal

Uncertainty.

Fear.

Sorrow.

Foreboding.

These and many other emotions could be filling our hearts these days. The invasion of Ukraine is threatening the cohesiveness of peoples and nations in a frightening way that affects all of us.

This morning I prayed for Ukraine with the blessing which the Lord gave to Aaron and his sons to speak over the people (Num. 6:23-27):

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

“A blessing or benediction is a prayer invoking God’s power and care upon some person, place, thing, or undertaking. The prayer of benediction acknowledges God as the source of all blessing” (CCC, glossary, page 868).

Praying this blessing was a small movement of the heart, to implore God’s mercy on this poor world of ours, the people of Ukraine, the suffering on all sides, the threat to the world order this situation will precipitate. We learn from the Scriptures, that the prayer of the people of God, no matter what form it takes—pleading, complaint, argument, desire, sorrow—“is always an intercession that awaits and prepares for the intervention of the Savior God, the Lord of history” (CCC, 2584). In this spirit, I’d like to share this prayer with you so that, pleading together, we might open up the way for the Sovereign of history and Lord of the nations to act in our world today.

In a quiet place, in a still point of your day (even for five minutes!), sink into God’s presence and slowly begin to hold these phrases in your prayer. Hold them gently, lifting them up to the Lord, and allowing the silence to enfold you. May your prayers rise like incense:

May the Lord bless us.
May the Lord keep us.
May the Lord bless us today.
May the Lord keep us today.

May the Lord bless us here and now.
May the Lord keep us here and now.

May the Lord make his face to shine upon us. For the mother in Ukraine who is overwhelmed, may the Lord make his face to shine upon her. For the children who are afraid, make your face to shine upon them. For the soldiers in danger, make your face to shine upon them.

For government leaders who are making crucial decisions that will affect millions of people across the globe, make your face to shine upon them.

In Russia, make your face to shine. O God, have mercy.

O God be gracious to us. Be gracious to us. Be gracious to us. Have mercy. Have mercy on us.

Give us peace. Give us peace. Give us your peace. Fill our souls with the peace of your countenance. Bless our weary and embattled hearts with peace. Bring your peace to hearts that would hurt, destroy, take. Peace, Lord. Have mercy.

Keep us as the apple of your eye. Hide us in the shadow of your wings (Ps 17:8).

Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance. Shepherd us and carry us forever. (Ps 28:9).

Father. Our Father. Thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Thy will be done on earth by me… as it is in heaven.

Thy will be done on earth by (insert the name of those whom God inspires you to pray over)… as it is in heaven.

O God be gracious to us. Be gracious to us. Be gracious to us. Have mercy. Have mercy on us.

Amen.

Image: luisspagniagua via Cathopic.

The Dawn from on high shall break upon us….

Today at Mass was proclaimed the Gospel passage that recounted how all the people scurried about the countryside to bring to Jesus any who were sick that they might at least touch the tassel of his cloak. (Mark 6:53-56)

I was led to bring to Jesus in spirit a loved one who is approaching death, to lay her down near him that she might touch the tassel of his cloak. Gently, I imagined myself lifting her hand towards Jesus, trusting that he would free her from her sorrows, the burdens of life she had carried, wounds that I was never privy to but which were a part of her struggle to live with joy the beautiful gift of her baptism, her marriage, her motherhood. Wounds she had carried in silence as she poured out her love on us. As Jesus took her hand, his mercy became my own. Her every gift and vulnerability has shaped me, blessed me, made me who I am. And for that I am grateful.

As many as touched Jesus’ cloak were healed. (Mark 6:56)

Who do you want to bring to Jesus today?

The splendor light of heaven’s glorious sunrise is about to break upon us in holy visitation,
all because the merciful heart of our God is so very tender. (Lk. 1:78 TPT)

All I am is a capacity to be filled with thee. This is truly who I am. This is my glory.

Obedience is to belong to thee with no desire other than yours regarding anything.

Adoration is to go forward in the surety that your divine plan is unfolding in the darkness.

My life history is a salvation story from beginning to end. There is nothing that is not salvific.

Everything belongs to the story God is writing in my life, the deed of salvation
God and God alone is bringing about.

Even though “I was once dead in my sins,” the fullness of God, who in his power raised Jesus from the dead, now fills me:

He united me into the very life of Christ.
Saved me by his wonderful grace.
Raised me up with Christ.
With Christ, as one with him, I am now co-seated in the glorious perfection of the heavenly Kingdom.

With such great love does my God love me.
(Ephesians 2:1-6)

Abandon the basic struggle of the ego.

See situations as they are. Acknowledge “what is.” The light and the dark. The good and the bad. All accepted with openness and trust.

Give up your demands that life be a certain way and give you specific things.

Learn to trust that you do not need to secure your ground yourself.

Each difficult situation is a delightful opportunity to demonstrate your richness, your wealth, filled with trust and overflowing joy.

Image by Shire777 from Pixabay

Life is reliable because the Father is reliable. He is the root of our life, the horizon of our existence, the guarantee of our eternal joy, the hand that shields us in whatever life throws at us. But our life, our life hid in the Father, lived in the shadow of his beloved Son’s cross, is secure, always and forever, today and tomorrow, whatever comes our way.

God is
God is acting
God acts in a nucleus of fragrant silence
in the storm, fire, earthquake.

Only stand and listen
at the entrance of the
cave
to the Word
of Silence.

where God reveals….

we only witness
worship
witness to others

martyrdom…

die to all else.

You keep saying: our bones are dry, our hope is gone, we are done for….

“I am not going to open your graves;
I shall raise you up from your graves and lead you back to the soil of Israel.

And you shall know that I AM THE LORD.

I will put my spirit in you
you will revive
I will resettle you on your own soil.

You shall know that I HAVE DONE THIS.”

The days are tired, my bones ache. A barren branch surrounded by the cold, brittle in the frozen snow. Sorrow and death swirls around the news I read. Confusion. What can I do. What can I be in the midst of such pain borne by my sisters, burden carried by my brothers….

Nothing. Only the one who proclaims I AM THE LORD will be the one to save us. He alone will announce I HAVE DONE THIS. Then I shall know that I am not God. Then we shall know that we are not God. That we need our Father. We depend on our Creator. We are blessed to surrender to the One who wants for us nothing but his own holiness and joy.

My bones ache. My soul leaps for joy. My spirit sighs. My soul rejoices. Only a Christ-bearer can carry within herself, within himself this tension. Mary. you. me.

Sr Kathryn Hermes, fsp

O Love
My One only

heart within Heart
sight within Sight
taste within Taste
touch within Touch
silence within Silence
lightening within Listening
delight within Delight
prayer within Prayer
resting within Rest

“Oh my darling, what happiness it is to live in intimacy with God, to make our life a heart-to-heart, an exchange of love, when we know how to find the Master in the depths of our soul. Then we are never alone anymore, and need solitude to enjoy the presence of the adored Guest.” (Elizabeth of the Trinity, one of her letters)