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NOVENA OF TRUST - Day Twenty-Nine "That I am Your beloved one. Jesus, I trust in You." The 29th day of our Novena! What a true blessing it has been. Let us "marinate" today in the above petition - "I am Your beloved one." With everything going on around us may we surrender any fears, any anxiety, and pray today "I am Your beloved one and You have conquered the world." "I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God...Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings..." Psalms 17: 6,8 Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us Photo by Mauro Shared Pictures on Unsplash 
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NOVENA OF TRUST - Day Twenty-Eight "That You are my Lord and my God. Jesus, I trust in You." These last two days of our Novena will be less reflective in the Post, but should be more reflective in our personal prayer. May we sit for prayer and marinate in these last two petitions/offerings, opening ourselves to the Lord's Wisdom. Can I say, "You are my Lord and my God" and mean it? Are there other "things" that take the place of God in my life? Do other "things" dominate my attention and my strength, pushing God aside? Does God come in last on my list of things to do? Do I seek God first in my struggles and trials? Prayer: Thank you Lord for the Twenty-Eight days of this Novena. Thank you for new insights and strengths that I have gained. May you continue to bless me and may I truly learn to say with confidence and belief, "Jesus, I trust in You." Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.  NOVENA OF TRUST - Day Twenty-Seven "That You will teach me to trust You. Jesus, I trust in You." Wow! This is one of those petitions that I question if I truly mean it when I pray it. Do I want to be "taught" trust? As we have focused on and prayed about, we often want abandonment to God, but we want it on our terms. Sure, lessons from God can and will be difficult as true lessons from God are all about conquering our will and our selfishness - how can it not be difficult. But, lessons from God are always a blessing and for our growth and happiness. I have a good friend who when coming across a new prayer or devotion will often make sure to tell God first, "I am just saying this, not praying it." May we remember today that we can often feel like we are "just saying it", but in fact God knows our heart's desires and He will shower His grace upon us. Jesus, may you teach me trust in You! Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us. Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash  NOVENA OF TRUST - Day Twenty-Six "That my life is a gift. Jesus, I trust in You." As I have mentioned in past posts I have a Father and Stepmother who are both 90. I often can get caught up in the cares of daily needs and difficulties of what this means for our family and I forget to embrace the gift. Yesterday the Lord used a neighbor of mine to remind me. We will call her "Nan". Nan lives just the down the street from us and we have gotten to know her around our local Catholic Church. When my children were younger and, right up to not too long ago, about the time I was opening the shades and sitting for prayer each morning Nan would be going by our house for her daily walk. I haven't seen her for awhile and think of her often wondering how she is. Yesterday as I was sitting having a cup of coffee with my husband before he left for work, I happened to glance out the side window of our house and with the leaves gone, I could see Nan walking back and forth in her driveway - cane in hand. Her morning strolls are not what they used to be, you see Nan is 94 or 95 now, but there she was enjoying the beautiful morning and honoring the years the Lord has blessed her with. As we ponder today our call to live every moment to its fullest, I will share with you my favorite story of Nan. I am unable to type it without chuckling! One day while working with Nan at the Church, I was trying to talk with her and she wasn't answering. When I glanced over I noticed she did not have her hearing aides in. When I asked why she said, "Well, I was at a family wedding and while I was having a little fun on the dance floor they fell out and were stepped on." She was probably in her late 70s early 80's at the time! A truly beautiful lady who has taught me, again yesterday, the simplicity of enjoying the gift of my life. Life is our gift from God. How we live that life, is our gift to God. Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us. Photo by John Moeses Bauan on Unsplash  NOVENA OF TRUST - Day Twenty-Five "That You give me all the strength I need for what is asked. Jesus, I trust in You." Earlier in this Novena we pondered the rich young man in the Gospel who asked Jesus what he must do to follow. If you remember, Jesus tells him he must sell (leave) everything! Sometimes in life we can be asked to "let go and let God", which can be very difficult. Many times we can be pushed to the very edge and yes, like the rich young man we can turn away, or be tempted to turn away, believing that to follow, is too hard. May we truly pray today (and trust) this petition and offering, "That you give me all the strength I need for what is asked. Jesus, I trust in You." Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.  NOVENA OF TRUST - Day Twenty-Four "That You give me the grace to accept forgiveness and to forgive others. - Jesus, I trust in You." As I pray a daily Novena of Trust for those we serve and interact with at Joseph's House, the Lord often places certain people or certain experiences upon my heart at each petition. This petition always brings to mind those who are unable to forgive themselves or accept forgiveness from God, for choices they have made in the past. Their pain is great and can often be one of two types. The pain that comes with the grace to know our sins can be pain of guilt or pain of true contrition. The pain of guilt will keep us in a place where we feel we are unworthy of forgiveness and unable to move forward; the pain of true contrition on the other hand, a gift from God, will lead us to ask forgiveness and accept forgiveness, moving forward in the light of Christ. May we today allow the Holy Spirit into any pain and unforgiveness we hold on to. May we accept fully the forgiveness of God and others and may we forgive others as God forgives us!  NOVENA OF TRUST - Day Twenty-Three "That You always hear me and in Your goodness always respond to me. - Jesus, I trust in You." Following on yesterday's offering we can once again say God's ways are not our ways and today, God's response is not always the response we are seeking. Have you ever prayed for something and continually felt that God was deaf to your petition? That He was not answering? Often the truth is, we have been looking for the answer we wanted and overlooking the answer He gave. As every good parent knows, we often have to say no to our children to keep them safe, happy and healthy. God does the same with us. Trusting God fully is hard! Trusting God fully means we realize His love for us and even if His answer is no, we trust that His NO is for our good and the good of those we pray for. May we trust today in the reality that God hears our every word and He ALWAYS responds in the way that is best for us! Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us. Photo by Ben White on Unsplash  NOVENA OF TRUST - Day Twenty-Two "That Your plan is better than anything else. Jesus, I trust in You." God's ways are certainly not our ways. I don't know about all of you, but I can certainly look back over my life and see the times that I have acted like a 2 year old - wanting my way and no other! At the same time, being a people of prayer, if we give the Holy Spirit permission He will show us just how we made things more difficult by standing in the way; more painful, more sorrowful, more stressful. When we allow God's plans to guide our lives, He showers us with His peace*, with joy, with love, with gratitude - with all "good things". *Another good lesson we struggle to learn - His Peace! To be filled with God's peace does not come with a promise of no pain. To obediently follow can come with great pain at times, but always great peace! Ponder that in prayer. As I type this I am thinking about a families experience when a son or daughter is called to a Religious Vocation and, the Gospel of Wednesday's Mass (Luke 14). "If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,...brothers and sisters and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." Don't panic. As Father explained in his Homily Wednesday, hate means something very different in our language and life today. Hate to be understood for the Gospel sake means to "love less than". So, If anyone comes to me without "loving less than Me" his father and mother...brothers and sisters and even his own life.... This is where the true and humble Religious Life of trust and love well lived, brings proof positive that God's plans are better than anything else! Every person who answers a call to Religious Life and every family member who supports them, has to love God above all else, above each other. This love of trust and only this love, will give His Peace to their sacrifice of each other for the sake of the Kingdom. From a devout Religious joy and love is undeniable, joy and love are contagious, and joy and love rain down upon the world. "Your plan is better than anything else." For those of us left "in the world" do we trust that God's plans are the best plans for our lives? Do we strive daily to know and understand God's plans for us? Do we try and conquer the inner 2 year old? Do we love God above all else? Jesus, I trust in You. Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.  NOVENA OF TRUST - Day Twenty-One "That You will not leave me orphan, that You are present in Your Church. - Jesus, I trust in You." Catholics reading this will certainly think first of Jesus' presence for us, His ultimate presence, His true and entire presence - body, blood, soul and divinity - in the Most Holy Eucharist. The source and summit of our faith, and what should be the source and summit of our lives. But, if we change the word Church to be church, we can realize our role of being Jesus' presence for others in the world today. We are the church! Our lives should be fed and strengthened by our Eucharistic Lord (as Catholics), by prayer, by Scripture and fellowship so that His presence within us can be brought out into our daily lives and showered upon all those we meet. Our interactions with others today may just be the moment our Lord uses to speak to that person's heart. Not to scare you, but if we profess that we know God and know His love for us and others, we have a great responsibility before us! We are never alone. Do we trust this? Share God's love today. Make His presence known to others. Our Heavenly Father always has His eyes on us. Do we trust and do we then become His loving presence for others as well? Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.   NOVENA OF TRUST - Day Twenty
"That my suffering, united to Your own, will bear fruit in this life and the next. - Jesus, I trust in You." As I sit here with today's reflection, I am struck by how much there is to unpack in this offering - ...my suffering....this life and the next....Jesus, I trust in You! Living in a world that can be so loud at times is in itself a suffering for many of us striving to be "in the world, not of the world." Suffering - suffering today is not counted as worthy or redemptive. Suffering today is rejected and often times desired to be overcome at any (and all) cost. Horrible laws are passed to assist with this! Where would we be if Jesus had not accepted His suffering? Can we learn to trust that our suffering, united with our Lord's has a purpose? ...this life and the next... We certainly live in a world where focus is on this live and not very much thought is given to "the next." So many people today profess no belief, profess no faith, yet when something happens and someone dies you often hear them talking about Heaven and the person resting in Heaven. This always makes me ponder, pray for them and trust, but ponder just the same. If they didn't want God in this life.... Maybe that is where we come in? Who is our suffering for? When I was a child any time you faced a hardship you would hear, "Offer it up." We don't know the merits that come from our suffering and our suffering well. Is our suffering our path to Heaven or the path for someone we love? We don't know, WE TRUST and we offer! Not too long ago my 90 year old Stepmother used a phrase that I had never heard but loved instantly. As we walked down the hall she stopped, looked at me and said, "My hip is killing me today. But, oh well, it belongs to the Church." Offer it up, but in beautiful words - IT BELONGS TO THE CHURCH! It belongs to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We certainly should take today's petition to our own personal prayer and see where the Lord leads our understanding. What is His message for us personally? What are we suffering through? Whatever it is, it belongs to the Church. |
Director -Deacon Dennis Moore
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