Fiat

Most of the time, I find it easier to make a fiat to God when things are going well.  But what about the times we are called to accept situations that involve struggle, temptation, and self-doubt?  This calls for an entrustment to Our Lady, who was misunderstood when she conceived Our Lord, or even He Who suffered on the cross for us- abandoned by all but a few.  Let us choose to be among the few, and stand with Him in His sorrows.  That we may give a constant fiat to the Holy Spirit, that He may work in our lives even in the midst of darkness.  Our Lady of Fidelity, pray for us!

"O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I give and consecrate to Thee, my actions and pains, my sufferings and my life, in order that my entire being may be devoted to honor, love and glorify Thy Sacred Heart.”  (Saint Margaret Mary)

The Prophet Jeremiah

As we near the end of the day, let us read the beginning of today’s 1^st Reading from the prophet Jerememiah:

“Thus says the Lord: This is what I commanded my people: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people.  Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper.”

How did I listen to God’s voice today?

Getting to Know God

Psalm 51 starts off with “Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness. In your compassion blot out my offense.” We remind ourselves of the goodness of God, as well as sending a message to ourselves that God is merciful.  He is compassionate! 

While practicing the Fear of the Lord, I find myself being always fearful.  But that’s not how God wants us to see Him. 

6Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God,compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations." (Exodus 36:6,7)

Though we must give God His reverence due, it is also important to keep a close relationship with Him through confidence and acts of love.

Grasping the key words in the mentioned psalm will help us better understand who God is: Mercy and compassion.  This is why we have confession!  This is why we can begin afresh every day!  As St. Francis de Sales says, “You make spiritual progress by beginning again and again.”

And God is nearer to us than we think!  It doesn’t take a text message, a phone call, or even skype!  We need only place ourselves in God’s Presence, and choose to bask in Him Love.  Jesus said to St. Faustina, “The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.” (Divine Mercy Diary, 1578).­­­­

Today's Gospel (3/15/17)

                Today I simply wanted to share with you today’s gospel.  I really appreciated it during Mass this morning!

                As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve disciples by themselves, and said to them on the way, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

                Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.  He said to her, “What do you wish?”  She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.”  Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking.  Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”  They said to him, “We can.”  He replied, “My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”  When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers.  But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt.  But it shall not be so among you.  Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.  Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

(Matthew 20:17-28)

            Again, let us “Come away by [ourselves] to a secluded place and rest a while." (Mark 6:31)  As we ponder these beautiful Sunday Readings, let us leave our world like Abraham and set off into a deserted place. 

            Encountering Our Lord in the Mystery of the Transfiguration is a comforting scene.  It is full of consolation to see Him in all His brilliance, which often takes faith to realize in our hardened and distracted hearts.  But that is what Lent is for!  We need only have this faith to treasure the Father’s Love for us.  We stand before His beloved Son, and He will also say “You are my beloved.”  That way, as our Second Reading for today states, we may: “Bear [our] share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God. 

            I also want to shed light on the second part of today’s Letter to Timothy that “He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began, but now made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 

            On that first note, I wanted to put emphasis that holiness is not about our merits.  It is always important to do the right thing and putting our effort in; but it is Christ’s merits which make us holy.  After all, are we not imperfect? 

            So let us spend the rest of this weekend basking in the Love of God and run the race!

            God Bless!

"Behold this Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify its love. In return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrileges, and by the coldness and contempt they have for me in this Sacrament of love… I come into the heart I have given you in order that through your fervor you may atone for the offenses which I have received from lukewarm and slothful hearts that dishonor me in the Blessed Sacrament." (Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary)

Why Suffering?

                This blog post is going to take on a more serious note: Why suffering?  Why does God permit it?  Sometimes we feel unreachable in our deepest pains, even though family, friends, and professionals try to be there for us.  Our emotions can seem overwhelming and it seems that the tide of sorrow has washed permanently over us. 

                Let us bring our grievances before God and cry out like in the Book of Esther: Help me, who am alone and have no help but you…  When I read the meditation from my Magnificat subscription, Sister Ruth, a Carmelite nun, says that “We must trust God enough to know that he would never leave us in a state of weakness without a purpose.” 

                As for me, I cannot give a clear enough answer about suffering.  But I do know that Jesus, too, suffered in His Passion and Death- for love of us.  Do we suffer for love of others?  My suffering tells me to offer it for you, especially you readers who are tempted by the ways of the world.  Let us unite our sufferings with that of Our Lord’s.  Let us raise our eyes in hope, before a God who provides healing.  Let us not despair.  Please don’t!  For we are loved, reached out to, by God through the lives of those who reach out to help and console us. 

                Let us suffer with trust in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and look on with hope as we seek Him out in the resurrection.

God be Praised!

First Sunday of Lent- Into the Desert

When we journey through Lent, there are different ways of envisioning our journey.  Most years, I prefer to journey with Our Lord on His way to the cross.  Though I’m sure I will at least contemplate His Agony in the Garden during Holy Week, I would like to focus on Jesus’ time in the desert.

Yes, He was tempted.  But He also went there to be alone with God.  He frequently returns to this solitude throughout His Proclamation of the Kingdom. 

He calls each of us in a special way to “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest awhile.” (cf Mark 6:31)  St. Teresa of Calcutta adds that “We need silence to be alone with God, to speak to him, to listen to him, to ponder his words deep in our hearts.  We need to be alone with God in silence to be renewed and transformed.”

And we are not alone, in this silence and solitude.  We are with God Himself!  How we see God and how we let Him impact our lives is not about loneliness.  How we see ourselves will also determine if we are comfortable with solitude.  Are we afraid of ourselves, or do we accept and embrace ourselves in the Father’s Love?  After all, there is a difference between loneliness and solitude. 

So let us learn from the “porch” of Lent behind and enter the depths of what mortifications, adjustments, and additions that will help us grow in the spiritual life. 

What will make me trust Jesus more?

How can I offer things up in a more meaningful way?

What is it like to be with God?

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” (Hosea 2:14)

A Few Thoughts For the First Friday of Lent

                I hope you all had a blessed Ash Wednesday.  The First Friday of Lent, as well as of March, takes me back to the devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  We can recall this devotion of reparation and petition for the sins of the world. 

                But I also wanted to share with you a phrase from the Lord’s Prayer: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  Yes, we want to be forgiven, but can we forgive others to the same degree? 

                I was reading in Bishop Robert Barron’s reflection for Ash Wednesday that, “…according to Jesus’ model, you have to pray with forgiveness.”  I found this call to forgiveness especially meaningful when I opened up my Magnificat subscription for March and read in a reflection that   “Forgiveness does not overlook the deed: it rises above it.”  (Gobodo-Madikizel, page 5.)

                How can we answer this need to forgive?  Let us ponder the Lord’s prayer again: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  It’s about learning to forgive ourselves through the Sacrament of Confession and to forgive others when we are wronged. 

                I found a good reminder about spiritual fasting during the Lenten Season from what I have of my notes from the novitiate.  Not only should we abstain from meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday.  We must avoid all negative behavior so as to be enriched by the positives of authentic, Christian living.

“Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ dwelling within them.

Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of all life.

Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.

Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.

Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.

Fast from anger; feast on patience.

Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.

Fast from worry; feast on trust.

Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.

Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.

Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.

Fast from hostility; feast on nonviolence.

Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.

Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.

Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.

Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.

Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.

Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.

Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.

Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.

Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.

“Gentle God, during this season of fasting and feasting, gift us with Your Presence, so we can be gift to others in carrying out your work.  Amen.”

Lenten Resolutions

          “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart…  Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God.”  (Joel) 

            And so we begin the liturgical season of Lent.  When I think of this “penitential” time of year in the Catholic world, I think of giving up candy as a kid.  (Boy, was it hard!)  Then came the negotiating of whether Sundays counted as part of Lent, and if the ultimate penance could be broken for a day.  When I think of penance, it sounds like I am imposing something difficult on myself.  This can be good for self-discipline, but I’ve also wondered if there’s a gentler way of returning to the heart of what it means to be Catholic?

            As a former novice in religious life, I continue to be enlightened by the psalms to “sing a new song.”  (see Psalm 96)  How can we renew our “song” as Catholics?  What is our attitude in prayer?  How are we living out our Catholic faith? 

            Lent is a great time to refresh and begin anew.  As St. Francis de Sales says, “Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.” 

Now is the time to start afresh, and I encourage you to walk through Lent as a journey with Christ and His Blessed Mother, whether in His gospel ministry in the daily readings at Mass or on His walk towards Cavalry with His self-gift on the cross.

God be Praised! 

To read more articles by Jennifer Mendenhall, visit her blog at

in-the-presence-of-god.blogspot.com