Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Take My Life and Make It What It Should Be!

We are beginning our School year on the right foot this year,  may all the joys, effort and suffering that follows be for the honor and advancement of the intentions of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, those of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and for the triumph of His Cross in our family, communities, parishes, states, country and world.

Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

O Mary, Virgin most powerful and mother of Mercy,

 Queen of Heaven and Refuge of Sinners, 

We consecrate ourselves to your Immaculate Heart.  

We consecrate to you our very being and our whole life:

 All that we have, all that we love,  all that we are.  

To you we give our homes, our families and our parish.  

We desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to you

 And may share in the benefits of your motherly blessing.

And so that this Consecration may be truly fruitful and lasting, 

We renew today at your feet the promises of our Baptism: 

We renounce Satan, and all his works, and all his empty promises.  

We pledge ourselves to courageously profess the truths of our Holy Faith, 

And to live as Catholics, accepting the directions of the Pope 

And the Bishops in communion with him.

We pledge ourselves to keep the Commandments of God and of his Church 

And in particular to keep holy the Lords Day.

We pledge ourselves to confess our serious sins frequently 

And to receive Holy communion worthily.

Finally, we promise you, O Glorious Mother of God, 

To devote ourselves wholeheartedly to spreading devotion to your Immaculate Heart, 

In order to hasten and assure the coming kingdom of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, your son, 

In our hearts, our families, our parish and our country.

Amen


and for a meditation for today...

http://harvestingthefruitsofcontemplation.blogspot.com/2014/09/memorial-of-our-lady-of-sorrows.html#more

Be Resigned to My Will and You Will Suffer No Loss.

The Twenty-Seventh Chapter - Self-Love is the Greatest Hindrance to the Highest Good

The Voice of Christ:

MY CHILD, you should give all for all, and in no way belong to yourself. You must know that self-love is more harmful to you than anything else in the world. In proportion to the love and affection you have for a thing, it will cling to you more or less. If your love is pure, simple, and well ordered, you will not be a slave to anything. Do not covet what you may not have. Do not possess anything that can hinder you or rob you of freedom.

It is strange that you do not commit yourself to Me with your whole heart, together with all that you can desire or possess. Why are you consumed with foolish sorrow? Why are you wearied with unnecessary care? Be resigned to My will and you will suffer no loss.

If you seek this or that, if you wish to be in this place or that place, to have more ease and pleasure, you will never rest or be free from care, for some defect is found in everything and everywhere someone will vex you. To obtain and multiply earthly goods, then, will not help you, but to despise them and root them out of your heart will aid. This, understand, is true not only of money and wealth, but also of ambition for honor and desire for empty praise, all of which will pass away with this world.

The place matters little if the spirit of fervor is not there; nor will peace be lasting if it is sought from the outside; if your heart has no true foundation, that is, if you are not founded in Me, you may change, but you will not better yourself. For when occasion arises and is accepted, you will find that from which you fled and worse.

A Prayer for Cleansing the Heart and Obtaining Heavenly Wisdom:

     Strengthen me by the grace of Your Holy Spirit, O God. Give me the power to be strengthened inwardly and to empty my heart of all vain care and anxiety, so that I may not be drawn away by many desires, whether for precious things or mean ones. Let me look upon everything as passing, and upon myself as soon to pass away with them, because there is nothing lasting under the sun, where all is vanity and affliction of spirit. How wise is he who thinks thus!


     Give me, Lord, heavenly wisdom to learn above all else to seek and find You, to enjoy and love You more than anything, and to consider other things as they are, as Your wisdom has ordered them. Grant me prudence to avoid the flatterer and to bear patiently with him who disagrees with me. For it is great wisdom not to be moved by the sound of words, nor to give ear to the wicked, flattering siren. Then, I shall walk safely in the way I have begun.

http://www.jehannedarc.org/imchr2.html


Our Prayers are With You Today!

Graduation Day is Coming

                              Graduation Day is coming! (Click the words (not the clock) to see how soon!)

This is the countdown timer I wanted to use but Blogger didn't like it

I love you guys!

Thank you!

A Holy Saturday Family Tradition!

http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/resources/books-1962/rituale-romanum/48-blessings-for-special-days-and-feasts.html

I found this site this morning and had to add it to our collection of posts (click the link to get the rest of the blessings). We for many years have been taking part in the Blessing of the food at a local parish, if I find pictures of it that we have taken over the years I will share them.  Since we have moved the duty has fallen to one of the girls and  whomsoever happens to be with her in that area on Holy week.  There is no such thing happening in my new neighborhood.  Boy! Are they missing out! I cannot convince anyone to take up the  duty either, next year maybe I will be more convincing.  as for now I research and arm myself with materials on the benefits of blessings.

Keep the faith!

Good Guides

Somehow, when I get busy, I lose perspective.  Things that are really not that important become critical and make me cry, where as the really big, important things kind of go off my screen.  Lately I found a combination of websites that made me think, "Oh, I remember now, I am not the first one down this road." It was a very liberating thought.

Breaking trail

(Just by the fact that it is a road that I am following suggests that I am not breaking trail here!)

One was this website.       (I've added it to the list on the side of this page.)  The saints...  Some real life examples and real help in time of need, but the reason I especially like this site is because the coloring pages Mary draws that make the saints a little more real.  For example, Our Lady of Guadalupe has her hand on the head of Juan Diego.  Can't you just hear her saying to him "Am I not here who am your mother?  Are you not in the crossing of my arms...?"  a whole generation of children and their parents can learn from this gentle example posted on their refrigerator.

Then there is the EWTN audio library collection.   Father Pablo Straub, God rest his saintly soul, is immortalized in the collection, and his simple clear style helps us all to know just exactly what we OUGHT to be doing.  Clear instruction makes right action that much more simple. (He is just one of the wonderful teachers available on that site.  I listen to them while I work.

With these I am reminded of who I am, a Christian, and revived in my efforts to keep the faith, fight the good fight, follow those leaders that are following Jesus,  the good saints, the ones who have broken trail for us.

Good Guides

 All you angels and saints,  Pray for us.

Check out these sites, if you have the time. Refresh yourself and see for yourself that the heroic examples of the saints gives courage to their companions.