Day: October 15, 2024

Like a tree planted near running water…   October 16, 2024 St. Hedwig Dear Family of Mary! The Psalm Reading for Mass today is so beautiful and simple: Psalm 1 Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked Nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, But delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. for the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. This image of a tree is so beautiful. God compares a tree in its growth to our souls in their growth. It is a good way to think of our souls. As I said yesterday, we must spend time each day in prayer, tending to our inner self and getting to know our soul. This kind of prayer is really a lot like watering the tree. This kind of prayer feeds and waters our soul, making it grow into a mighty tree that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves never fade! Our Lady spoke about it this way: April 25, 1987  “Dear children! Today also I am calling you to prayer. You know, dear children, that God grants special graces in prayer. Therefore, seek and pray in order that you may be able to comprehend all that I am giving here. I call you, dear children, to prayer with the heart. You know that without prayer you cannot comprehend all that God is planning through each one of you. Therefore, pray! I desire that through each one of you God’s plan may be fulfilled, that all which God has planted in your heart may keep on growing. So pray that God’s blessing may protect each one of you from all the evil that is threatening you. I bless you, dear children… Thank you for having responded to my call.” Let’s pray and pray and pray, so that all that God has planted in our hearts may keep on growing!!! In Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Cathy Nolan Mary TV  

To first find and come to know yourself…   October 15, 2024 St. Teresa of Jesus Dear Family of Mary! Today is the feast of a wonderful saint, St. Teresa of Avila! St. Teresa once wrote: “It is a shame and unfortunate that through our own fault we don’t understand ourselves or know who we are. Wouldn’t it show great ignorance, my daughters, if someone, when asked who he was, didn’t know, and didn’t know his father or mother or from what country he came? Well now, if this would be so extremely stupid, we are incomparably more so when we do not strive to know who we are, but limit ourselves to considering only roughly these bodies. Because we have heard and because faith tells us so, we know we have souls. But we seldom consider the precious things that can be found in this soul, or who dwells within it, or its high value. Consequently, little effort is made to preserve its beauty. All our attention is taken up with the plainness of the diamond’s setting or the outer wall of the castle; that is with these bodies of ours… You have already heard in some books on prayer that the soul is advised to enter within itself; well, that’s the very thing I’m advising…insofar as I can understand, the door of entry into this castle is prayer and reflection.” (St. Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection.) St. Teresa wanted her sisters to really understand the great dignity they possessed in their souls! But the only way to become acquainted with our soul, is through prayer and reflection, and the life of the Sacraments. Our Lady has been leading us all these years in that life of prayer and reflection. She knows so well the worth of the soul!! Here is a message to ponder: December 2, 2013 “Dear children, with a motherly love and a motherly patience I am looking at your ceaseless wandering and how lost you are… That is why I am with you. I desire to help you to first find and come to know yourself, so that, then, you would be able to recognize and to admit everything that does not permit you to get to know the love of the Heavenly Father, honestly and wholeheartedly. My children, the Father comes to be known through the cross. Therefore, do not reject the cross. Strive to comprehend and accept it with my help. When you will be able to accept the cross you will also understand the love of the Heavenly Father; you will walk with my Son and with me; you will differ from those who have not come to know the love of the Heavenly Father, those who listen to Him but do not understand Him, those who do not walk with Him – who have not come to know Him. I desire for you to come to know the truth of my Son and to be my apostles; that, as children of God, you may rise above the human way of thinking and always, and in everything, seek God’s way of thinking, anew. My children, pray and fast that you may be able to recognize all of this which I am seeking of you. Pray for your shepherds and long to come to know the love of your Heavenly Father, in union with them. Thank you.” May we take Our Lady’s words to heart, and like St. Teresa, through prayer and reflection come to know who we really are, beloved children of the Father who will live forever with Him one day. It is a matter of our soul!! In Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Cathy Nolan Mary TV