April 28, 2011
Thursday of Easter Week
Thursday of Easter Week
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Dear Family of Mary!"Dear children! As nature gives the most beautiful colors of the year, I also call you to witness with your life and to help others to draw closer to my Immaculate Heart, so that the flame of love for the Most High may sprout in their hearts. I am with you and I unceasingly pray for you that your life may be a reflection of Heaven here on earth. Thank you for having responded to my call."
The Divine Mercy Novena intention for yesterday was "Meek and humble souls, and the souls of little children." As I prayed this intention, I couldn't help but see its connection with Our Lady's message of April 25. Our Lady spoke to us about nature, saying, "As nature gives the most beautiful colors of the year..." Of course we think immediately of spring flowers, of the beautiful buds that open up in the spring. Our Lady loves to draw our attention to flowers. They are an image of purity, of simplicity, of beauty and of humble obedience. Flowers are just flowers. They grow and bloom because they were created to grow and bloom. They give glory to God in their existence. But in the Divine Mercy Novena we discover another kind of flower: "Receive into the abode of Your Most compassionate Heart all meek and humble souls and the souls of little children. These souls send all heaven into ecstasy and they are the heavenly Father's favorites. They are a sweet-smelling bouquet before the throne of God; God Himself takes delight in their fragrance" (1221). Truly the meek and humble souls, and the souls of little children are very much like flowers, pure, simple, beautif
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ul, and humbly obedient. And these souls give glory to God simply in their existence! Our Lady also said: "I am with you and I unceasingly pray for you that your life may be a reflection of Heaven here on earth." Meek and humble souls and the souls of little children are the delight of heaven, and they are before the throne of God. They must truly reflect heaven on earth. That heavenly fragrance emanates from them. It is even through them that God can bless the whole world with His love. So, if we want to reflect Heaven here on earth, we must become meek and humble souls, little children at heart. Finally, Our Lady asks in her message that we witness with our lives. What is this witness? It may be the witness of meek and humble souls. I wonder if that witness is just the living out of a childlike relationship with God as Father. Meek and humble little souls rely on God as Father because they can do nothing else. They need Him for everything. He is their "Abba." Pope Benedict writes about Jesus' relationship with God the Father: "In 1966 Joachim Jeremias wrote an important article about the use of this term [Abba] in Jesus' prayer, from which I should like to quote two essential insights: 'Whereas there is not a single instance of God being addressed as Abba in the literature of Jewish prayer, Jesus always addressed him in this way (with the exception of the cry from the Cross, Mark 15:34 and parallel passages). So we have here a quite unmistakable characteristic of the ipsissima vox Jesu' (Abba, p. 57). Moreover, Jeremias shows that this word Abba belongs to the language of children - that it is the way a child addresses his father within the family. 'To the Jewish mind it would have been disrespectful and therefore inconceivable to address God with this familiar word. For Jesus to venture to take this step was something new and unheard of. He spoke to God like a child to his father...Jesus' use of Abba in addressing God reveals the heart of his relationship with God' (p. 62)." (Pope Benedict XVI. Jesus of Nazareth - Holy Week. Ignatius Press. 2011. P. 161-162)
Jesus called God His "Abba" and taught us to call God our "Abba". He wanted us to have the same father and child relationship with God that He had. To be like Jesus is to be like a little one with his father, dependent, pure, trusting, obedient, and in love! It is to be like the meek and humble souls, the souls of little children. Our witness can be that of a child who affectionately calls out "Abba!" In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2011
Image by brtsergio via Flickr
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2011
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