(c)Catey Nolan 2012
J.M.J.
April 29, 2013
St. Catherine of Siena
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Pray, pray, keep praying until your heart opens in faith as a flower opens to the warm rays of the sun. This is a time of grace which God gives you through my presence but you are far from my heart, therefore, I call you to personal conversion and to family prayer. May Sacred Scripture always be an incentive for you. I bless you all with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call." (April 25, 2013 message)
I love the motherly urgency in this message. "Pray, pray, keep prayng until your heart opens in faith as a flower opens to the warm rays of the sun."
Pray, pray, keep praying... Mother Mary longs for us to "get it'. She
longs for us to finally understand what she has come to teach us. How
long will it take? "Pray, pray, keep praying..." This seems to be the answer to everything.
And it is. We have to
keep trying to open our hearts to God. No matter what the day brings, no
matter what our problems are, we must open our hearts to God in faith,
as a flower responds to the sun. Why? Because our help comes only from
the Lord. It does not come from our brilliance, our success, our
financial planning, our worldly connections, or our education. It comes
from God who made us and sustains us at every moment. And so we must
open our hearts to Him, to receive our help, our sustenance, our
courage, and our future!
St. Faustina was given the very same image of the flower and the sun, in her prayer with Jesus. She wrote in her Diary:
Today,
I invite Jesus to my heart, as Love. You are Love itself. All heaven
catches the flame from You and is filled with love. And so my soul
covets You as a flower yearns for the sun. Jesus, hasten to my heart,
for You see that, as the flower is eager for the sun, so my heart is for
You. I open the calyx of my heart to receive Your love. (1808, Diary)
"As the flower is
eager for the sun, so my heart is for You." This holy eagerness comes
from a life of prayer. St. Faustina understood how much she needed Jesus
because she prayed constantly.
A side note, Denis and
I are in Baltimore, visiting our son and his wife. We have had a
wonderful time. Today we walked to his neighborhood church for Mass. It
was an old Polish parish, very beautiful. I was drinking in the Mass, so
thankful to be there. And as we were leaving, we saw a poster in the
vestibule which told the story of the miraculous healing of Fr. Ron
Pytel of Baltimore, Maryland. Fr. Ron was a former pastor of this little
Polish parish, and while he was pastor, in 1995, he was very ill, with
lung disease. He went to venerate St. Faustina's relics, and was
completely healed. His healing was the sign to the Vatican that they
could proceed with the canonization of Faustina. As a result this little
parish was designated the Shrine of Divine Mercy in the Baltimore
Diocese!! No wonder I was drinking in the graces at Mass!
Thank you, St.
Faustina, for being our big sister, and teaching us so much about loving
Jesus. May we all respond with the same eagerness that you had to the
love of Jesus! May we be flowers that yearn for the sun!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2013
PS. Fruit of Medjugorje, tonight!!! Two beautiful priests share about Medjugorje in their priesthood!! 8:00 pm Eastern Time.
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