August 24, 2010
St. BartholomewDear Family of Mary!"Dear children! Today I invite you to prayer.
Let prayer be life for you.
A family cannot say that it is in peace if it does not pray.
Therefore let your morning begin with Morning Prayer, and the evening end with thanksgiving.
Little children, I am with you, and I love you and bless you and I wish for every one of you to be in my embrace.
You cannot be in my embrace if you are not ready to pray every day.
Thank you for having responded to my call." (August 25, 1995)
I, for one, want to be in Mother Mary's embrace.
I really want to be in her embrace. And so I have to ask myself, "Am I ready to pray every day?" This is a very good question to ask ourselves in our journals.
"Am I ready to pray every day?" In my intellect, do I understand the importance of prayer? Do I realize that God is waiting for me to speak with Him? Do I wish to hear from Him as well? Is it clear to me that prayer is real, that we can enter the supernatural realm through prayer? Do I believe in the supernatural, in God? In my memory, do I recognize the presence of God in my life?
Have I ever experienced prayer before? Have I heard God's voice? If so how did I respond to that voice? Did I run away? Did I explain it away in disbelief? Did I listen? What changed in my life from that experience of God? Do I have any negative experiences of prayer that are scaring me away from prayer? Am I angry at God? Do I avoid prayer because of the anger? In my will, is there an aversion to God?
Am I in control of my will? Can I make decisions and follow them? Am I attached to things of this world that draw me away from God and prayer? Is my life out of control? What is binding me and keeping me from freely choosing prayer? In my heart, what do I feel about God and prayer?
Am I bored, angry, afraid, doubting, tired, lost or empty? Do these feelings interfere with prayer? Where is the root of my problem with prayer? How can I invite God into that root area to be healed and set free? These are only examples of the journal questions that could arise about our readiness for prayer.
Let's face it; it is not easy to stay committed to prayer. But if we want to stay in the embrace of our Mother, we must pray. If we want to stay close to our Father in Heaven, prayer is the only way. Prayer is the bridge between heaven and earth for us. It is our phone line to God. It is our life line as well, because without God we have no future. Jesus told Martha that her sister Mary had chosen the better part (See Lk 10:42).
Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to Him. This is prayer. St. Faustina once thanked God for her illness because it gave her time to pray. She wrote: "I thank God for this illness and these physical discomforts, because I have time to converse with the Lord Jesus.
It is my delight to spend long hours at the feet of the hidden God, and the hours pass like minutes as I lose track of time. I feel that a fire is burning within me, and I understand no other life but that of sacrifice which flows from pure love."(Diary 784) I believe that Jesus wants to give us each just such an experience of His love.
He wants us to sit at His feet and listen. Prayer is just that. Let's ask the Lord to arrange our lives so that we can actually pray like St. Mary and St. Faustina. He can remove all the blockage and denial, and make us ready for prayer! Come, Lord Jesus! In Jesus and Mary!
Cathy Nolan
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Posted via email from deaconjohn's posterous
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