Mary TV Daily Reflection 2/15/2013

 
(c)Josip Zubac, 2013
Live Lent by means of your little sacrifices...

          

J.M.J.      

February 15, 2013

 

Dear Family of Mary!

 

"Dear children! Today I call you to live Lent by means of your little sacrifices. Thank you for every sacrifice you have brought me. Dear children, live that way continuously, and with your love help me to present the sacrifice. God will reward you for that. Thank you for having responded to my call." (March 13, 1986)

 

Our Lady tells us that every sacrifice, every suffering accepted with love is redemptive. She will take our sacrifices and present them to God, who will reward us for them. What is the reward, we may wonder? I believe it is the salvation of others. In heaven we will meet the souls who were snatched from perdition because of our sacrifices. Oh what joy will be shared then!

 

As we go our way of the cross this Lent, this thought should fill us with joy! Here is a prayer composed by Caryll Houselander for the 2nd station of the Way of the Cross. This prayer echoes Our Lady's message, and fills me with great joy and courage!

 

Jesus Receives His Cross

 

Prayer

 

Lord,

let me receive the cross gladly;

let me recognize Your cross in mine,

and that of the whole world in Yours.

 

Do not let me shut my eyes

to the magnitude of the world's sorrow

or to the suffering of those nearest to me.

Do not let me shrink from accepting my share

in that which is too big for me,

and do not let me fail in sympathy

for that which seems trivial.

 

Let me realize

that because You have made my suffering Yours

and given it the power of Your love,

it can reach everyone, everywhere -

those in my own home,

those who seem to be out of my reach -

it can reach them all

with Your healing and Your love.

 

Let me always remember

that those sufferings

known only to myself,

which seem to be without purpose

and without meaning,

are part of Your plan

to redeem the world.

 

Make me patient to bear the burdens

of those nearest at hand,

to welcome inconvenience for them,

frustration because of them.

Let me accept their temperaments as they are,

nurse them in sickness,

share with them in poverty,

enter into their sorrows with them.

 

Teach me to accept myself -

my own temperament,

my temptations,

my limitations,

my failures,

the humiliation of being myself, as I am.

 

Allow me, Lord,

all my life long

to accept both small suffering

and great suffering,

certain that both,

through your love,

are redeeming the world.

 

And in communion with all men,

and above all with You,

let me accept joyfully,

death and the fear of death -

my death

and the deaths of those whom I love -

not with my will but with Yours,

knowing that you

have changed sorrow to joy,

and that You have changed

death to life.

 

Amen

 

(Caryll Houselander. "The Way of the Cross". Liguori Publications. 2002. P.14-15)

 

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan

©Mary TV 2013