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J.M.J September 18, 2012 Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Also today I am calling you to prayer, and may your heart, little children, open towards God as a flower opens towards the warmth of the sun. I am with you and I intercede for all of you. Thank you for having responded to my call." (April 25, 2012)
Earlier this year Our Lady gave us this message about the flower and the sun. She has used the image of a flower many times in her messages. Today I found this following passage from Caryll Houselander about flowers and how we can learn about prayer from them. I think she and Our Lady are on to something: In a flower, God has his unrestricted will; by observing it we are able to guess his will for all that he has made. The flower opens to the sun each morning, each night it closes its petals for the night. But it does not do so voluntarily, no, for it has no will, it is God acting in it. God wills to act in us in the same unhampered way. In the morning he wishes us to expand to his touch, to open to his light, to "lift up our hearts" as we say at Mass; at night to fold all our thoughts and feelings like the petals of a flower, and absolutely trusting, sleep in his care. He wills to flow through us as life, to be in us as sleep, to utter himself in us. Rhythm makes the soul as responsive to God's will as the flowers, as ready to open at a touch and shine out with his splendor, or to close and relax into absolute peace. All day long and all night long, the rhythm of the Church's prayer goes on, and we who are members of the Church share in it. We must do so, because we are all one. Every morning contemplatives praise God, every night they rise and sing to him under the stars, and all day long the rhythm goes on like wave upon wave of love sweeping to his feet. We ought to be glad that this is so, because Christ is the life of each Christian, we are all one and the prayer of the Church is the single voice of the one Christ in us all, therefore our own voice. But it is better still for us to increase our awareness of this by deliberately joining in the rhythmic prayer. We can remind ourselves, too, that it is not only uttered on earth but is also on the lips of the saints in heaven and the souls in purgatory. No catholic is ever alone, no Catholic is ever separated from his fellows, living or dead, and the prayer he wants to join in is not the cry only of one helpless creature, it is the strongest force that there is, stronger than oceans and storms, stronger than armies in battle, stronger than sin and death. Well, how can we join in it? Our forefathers did so through the rosary. They could not read and study the Office, so they divided the mysteries of the rosary to fall in with the hours of the Office. This was good, the rosary has the soothing repetitions of the Office itself and recalls the same mysteries of Christ's eternal love. Those who have time will find the practice very good, and in any case whenever we do say the rosary it gathers in meaning and power when it is said with this intention. (Caryll Houselander. This War is the Passion. Ave Maria Press. P. 103-4) For Caryll, rhythm is very important. Having a rhythm of life makes for peace. Regular times of prayer give the soul the same openness to God that the flower has to the sun. Each time we open our hearts to prayer, we respond to the life-giving rays from God's heart, and we become more and more the creatures He created us to be. It is all very natural, very gentle and normal. Prayer is our response to the spiritual sunlight being poured out upon us. Prayer is our way of responding to the love of God. She is right about the Rosary as well. The Rosary can connect us with the entire Church at prayer. We are one with all our brothers and sisters on earth at prayer, with the Church suffering in purgatory, and the Church triumphant in heaven. We are not alone, ever! We are part of a vast army of pray-ers, of lovers of God. Our army is more powerful than any earthly power. Aren't we glad to be surrounded by so many other flowers, all filled with love and life!! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2012 |
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