Anticipating Elizabeth

We want to make our heart like a monstrance, exposing Jesus to all we meet.  Mary, the first monstrance, showed her Son to the Shepherds, the Magi, to all.  Before Jesus was born, Mary brought Him to Elizabeth who rejoiced in Whom she saw.  Elizabeth, in turn, became a monstrance herself and sang the first beatitude   and Mary responded with the Magnificat.  Together the two women - each bearing Jesus in her heart  - sang a beautiful canticle of praise to the Lord.  May our own encounters with others reflect the mystery of the Visitation as we bring our Lord to a waiting world.

Therefore, let us say often:

Jesus, let my heart be

the altar where You sacrifice Yourself

the tabernacle where You watch over us

the monstrance where You manifest Yourself to the world.   Amen

~Giuliana Spigone, A.O.

O Come Desired of the Nations

O KING OF THE GENTILES and their desired One, the Cornerstone that makes both one: Come, and deliver man, whom You formed out of the dust of the earth.

O Come Dawn of the East

O DAWN OF THE EAST, brightness of the light eternal, and Sun of Justice: 

Come, and enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

What do you want me to do for you?

Tell me, my Lord, that you love me.
Speak to my heart once again.
Cry out to me ever stronger.
I am breathless when faced with your love.

Lord I have nothing to offer.
To you I would bind myself forever.
You hear the Psalm of my heart, Lord:
"O, to live only for love."

It is true I am nothing in your sight;
I have neither strength nor voice, Lord.
But when you let your gaze fall upon me,
I bloom beneath your grace and love.

Give me a heart that is burning.
Make mine a voice that shouts love,
ceaseless in telling all others,
how much you love me, my Lord.
How much you love us dear Lord.

(Bishop William Giaquinta)

Look Up!

For me prayer is a surge of the heart,
it is a simple look towards Heaven,
it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.
-St. Therese of Lisieux

(Only God could create intricate beauty such as this...)

Surprised by Christ

There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.
~Pope Benedict XVI, April, 2005

This is Hope

To know that You, Father, hold the world and its wonders in Your creating hand...and there is still room for me! How can I not but totally rely on Your infinite mercy, power, and promises?

Living Stones

Come out Apostolic Oblate, my beautiful friend, come to the light, where the cup is overflowing with the joy of self-giving. Come out Bethany of my dream, come to the fire stronger than death, open your Eucharistic heart to everyone, draw everyone to holiness and send many to sow hope along the city roads. This is the Lord’s invitation: we must come out from our sepulchers (our tombs), remove the stones that block our communion and resurrection. Let us come out from behind the harsh and deadly stone, that we might manifest God’s glory and others may believe. They will believe if they see our effort, our commitment, our love and good will in removing all obstacles to communion. Let us come out from our close-mindedness, so that every Bethany may continue to be for all time the “privileged place” and the life-giving place for all who yearn for life.

The passage from darkness to light demands that we remove the stones. What stones? And how? The unfastening of our hands and feet, in order to go, freed and renewed, to announce holiness to all. “We must stretch ourselves; if I said that we must burst out it might sound too strong an expression; but I say, we must expand ourselves, get larger. In this way we will find more space in our heart for joy, for meaning, and for life” (G. Giaquinta 1990).
-Giuliana Spigone, 2002)

Draw all Nations to Yourself, Lord!

PRAYER OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI AT THE WESTERN WALL
Jerusalem, Tuesday, 12 May 2009

God of all the ages,
on my visit to Jerusalem, the “City of Peace”,
spiritual home to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike,
I bring before you the joys, the hopes and the aspirations,
the trials, the suffering and the pain of all your people throughout the world.

God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
hear the cry of the afflicted, the fearful, the bereft;
send your peace upon this Holy Land, upon the Middle East,
upon the entire human family;
stir the hearts of all who call upon your name,
to walk humbly in the path of justice and compassion.

“The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him” (Lam 3:25)!

Lead Me Lord

LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
My travels and my rest you mark;
with all my ways you are familiar.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
LORD, you know it all.
Behind and before you encircle me
and rest your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is beyond me,
far too lofty for me to reach.
Where can I hide from your spirit?
From your presence, where can I flee?
If I ascend to the heavens, you are there;
if I lie down in Sheol, you are there too.
If I fly with the wings of dawn
and alight beyond the sea,
Even there your hand will guide me,
Your right hand hold me fast.
(Psalm 139:1-10)

Peace be with you

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness.
God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows
in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...
We need silence to be able to touch souls.
Mother Teresa

Clothed with the Sun!

In giving birth to the Son of the Most High, everlasting king with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Mary is truly the Mother of God and Spouse of the Holy Spirit, having conceived by his intervention: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy" (Lk 1:35).

Thus Mary, in virtue of being Mother of God and Spouse of the Holy Spirit, is, we might almost say, by right, Queen. Hence, God could not fail to bring her to Heaven in body and soul, and crown her as Queen of the Angels and Saints.

In the Apocalypse, St. John tells us that He saw, in Heaven, "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (Rev 12:1). We believe that Mary is this woman, crowned by God.

(Sister Lucia)

Duc in altum!

Duc in altum: let us take to the sea, let us go into the deep, let the Word guide us, and not be afraid to share the fatigue of the catch: the Master, Peter, and Padre Guglielmo are with us. (Giuliana Spigone)

Be Still

A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up.
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
They woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"
He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea,
"Quiet! Be still!"
The wind ceased and there was great calm.
Then he asked them, "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?"
They were filled with great awe and said to one another,
"Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?" (Mark 4:35-41)

Feminine Genius!

Let us look at the Blessed Virgin's example. In the narrative of the wedding at Cana, John's Gospel offers us a vivid detail of her personality when it tells how, in the busy atmosphere of a wedding feast, she alone realized that the wine was about to run out. And to avoid the spouses' joy becoming embarrassment and awkwardness, she did not hesitate to ask Jesus for his first miracle. This is the "genius" of the woman! May Mary's thoughtful sensitivity, totally feminine and maternal, be the ideal mirror of all true femininity and motherhood!
(The Feminine Genius, John Paul II)