September 29, 2010
St. Michael, St. Raphael, St. Gabriel, Archangels Dear Family of Mary!"Dear children! Today I am with you and bless you all with my motherly blessing of peace, and I urge you to live your life of faith even more, because you are still weak and are not humble. I urge you, little children, to speak less and to work more on your personal conversion so that your witness may be fruitful. And may your life be unceasing prayer. Thank you for having responded to my call." (September 25, 2010) Working on our personal conversion is not all that pleasant a task. We have to examine our conduct and search our hearts to see if we are anything like our beloved Jesus. It is a difficult task. Something like sitting in the line for confession and begging the Holy Spirit to show us our sins! But what elation when we meet the Lord in the person of the confessor and admit it all to Him. We discover what true mercy is! Last Sunday at Mass, Fr. Kevin shared this marvelous story. It has stuck with me, so I am passing it on to all of you. It really shows the depths of depravity to which we can fall and the incredible mercy of God. "The Parable of the Onion"
from The Brothers Karamazov By Dostoyevsky (book7, chapter 3): "'You see, Alyosha,' Grushenka turned to him with a ner vous laugh. 'I was boast ing when I told Rak itin I had given away an onion, but it's not to boast I tell you about it. It's only a story, but it's a nice story. I used to hear it when I was a child from Matry ona, my cook, who is still with me. It's like this. "Once upon a time there was a peas ant woman and a very wicked woman she was. And she died and did not leave a sin gle good deed behind. The dev ils caught her and plunged her into the lake of fire. So her guardian angel stood and won dered what good deed of hers he could remem ber to tell to God; "she once pulled up an onion in her gar den," said he, "and gave it to a beg gar woman." And God answered: "You take that onion then, hold it to her in the lake, and let her take hold and be pulled out. And if you can pull her out of the lake, let her come to Par adise, but if the onion breaks, then the woman must stay where she is." The angel ran to the woman and held out the onion to her; "Come," said he, "catch hold and I'll pull you out." And he began cautiously pulling her out. He had just pulled her right out, when the other sin ners in the lake, see ing how she was being drawn out, began catch ing hold of her so as to be pulled out with her. But she was a very wicked woman and she began kick ing them. "I'm to be pulled out, not you. It's my onion, not yours." As soon as she said that, the onion broke. And the woman fell into the lake and she is burn ing there to this day. So the angel wept and went away. So that's the story, Alyosha; I know it by heart, for I am that wicked woman myself.'" Have we given our onion yet? Or is the deed waiting to be done? Have we gotten in the habit of giving onions? Only then will we be able to grasp the Hand of God and be pulled into heaven! Also, notice the role of the guardian angel in this story!! This is the feast of the Archangels, and they along with our guardian angels are always working on our behalf. Let's call on them today and every day for guidance and protection. Maybe they will show us the onions we need to give away today!
In Jesus and Mary!
Cathy Nolan(To sign up for these reflections go to our website and click on the yellow button that says "Join our Daily Reflection List. You can enter your email to the list and receive these reflections directly to your inbox. http://www.marytv.tv )
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