Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Mary TV Daily Reflection 4/13/2011

April 13, 2011

Mary Magdalene, in a dramatic 19th-century pop...

Image via Wikipedia

Dear Family of Mary!

"Dear children!  Today I invite you to prayer of the heart.  Throughout this season of grace I wish each of you to be united with Jesus, but without unceasing prayer you cannot experience the beauty and greatness of the grace which God is offering you.  Therefore, little children, at all times fill your heart with even the smallest prayers.  I am with you and unceasingly keep watch over every heart which is given to me.  Thank you for having responded to my call." (February 25, 1989)

I have been feeling more and more the need to pray.  It seems that my thoughts are constantly being bombarded with temptations and fears and worries.  There are just too many things outside of my control, and I can't seem to think my way out of them.  Finally, in prayer, the Lord seemed to tell me, "Thinking will not save you.  Prayer will."  This has become my motto.  Every time I feel a worry or frustration coming on, I try to turn it into a prayer immediately.  It is helping.  

That is why I love this message.  Our Lady tells us: "At all times fill your heart with even the smallest prayers."  I love this.  It is so practical and so possible.  It reminds me of something St. Therese of Lisieux wrote about prayer, and how she practiced it: 

"The power of prayer is really tremendous.   It makes one like a queen who can approach the king at any time and get whatever she asks for.  To be sure of an answer, there is no need to recite from a book a formula composed for the occasion.  If there were, I should have to be pitied.

Cover of

Cover via Amazon

"Though I'm quite unworthy, I love to say the Divine office every day, but apart from that I cannot bring myself to hunt through books for beautiful prayers.  There are so many of them that I get a headache.  Besides, each prayer seems lovelier than the next. I cannot possibly say them all and do not know which to choose, I behave like children who cannot read: I tell God very simply what I want and He always understands.  For me, prayer is an upward leap of the heart, an untroubled glance towards heaven, a cry of gratitude and love which I utter from the depths of sorrow as well as from the heights of joy. It has a supernatural grandeur which expands the soul and unites it with God.  I say an Our Father or a Hail Mary when I feel so spiritually barren that I cannot summon up a single worthwhile thought.  These two prayers fill me with rapture and feed and satisfy my soul." (The Autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux, the Story of a Soul. Trans. John Beevers. New York. Doubleday. 1957. p. 136)

Like a child who cannot read, she simply told God what she wanted and He always understood! By saying an Our Father or a Hail Mary she was able to connect with the Lord and receive all she needed.  We can imitate her simplicity, and use even the smallest prayers to connect with the Lord.  We need to do it all day long.  I know I do.  It is the only way I can keep going.  

"Thinking will not save us.  Prayer will"

In Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
© Mary TV 2011

 

 

Zemanta helped me add links & pictures to this email. It can do it for you too.

Posted via email from deaconjohn's posterous

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please no anonymous comments. I require at least some way for people to address each other personally and courteously. Having some name or handle helps.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)