The Unprofitable Servant: God's Special Blessings This Year

Friday, December 31, 2010

God's Special Blessings This Year

As you may remember from a prior post, I accompanied a friend to an appointment a few weeks ago at Fox Chase Cancer Center because she'd been given a dire prognosis for survival from her cancer. The doctors at Fox Chase offered her several options, all of which involved trials for chemotherapy that is still in experimental stages. She asked me what I thought she should do, and I suggested she sign up for the study drug but review the side effects, etc. with her primary doctor before starting treatment. Apparently, her primary was very alarmed by what he read and he urged her not to participate. Instead, she went to another university hospital and yesterday, she was informed that she is much healthier than she has been lead to believe and that there are many non-experimental options for her cancer. I give thanks to God for this good news.

From a post much earlier this year, you may recall that I gave thanks to St. Therese for her glorious intercession in helping a couple conceive a child. They're not Catholic and to my knowledge, they were not even religious, but I prayed that if God chose to bless them with a child, they would come to know and love Him. Last week, I learned that the family has started going to church every week. The Sunday school teacher asked them if she could borrow their daughter because she needed a baby Jesus for the live nativity. When they agreed, she said "good, and you can be Joseph, since you'll be here anyway." The dad is a bit rough around the edges, but nonetheless, he and the baby took part in the nativity. Who'd have thunk it?

In our household, our autistic son has begun training as an altar server and the oldest is going to Mass and confession again.

There are many less dramatic ways that God bestows His blessings on us each day. We have only to look at the human misery and suffering in places like Haiti and the Sudan to realize that simply living in this very wealthy country is a blessing of sorts. We have a roof over our heads, indoor plumbing and enough food to eat. We are free to worship God in a country where gunmen do not burst in the door and murder the congregation in cold blood.

I, for one, need to resolve to be more grateful for what I have and not sweat the small stuff. For the life of me, I do not understand why I can react more calmly to bad medical news and financial worries than I do to trash trucks blocking the streets or the dishes being done sloppily. As a very wise old priest told me a few weeks before Christmas, God gives us these trials not to trip us up but to enable us to perfect ourselves, which is a life-long process. "Think of yourself as a piece of unfinished wood, and every fault and failing is a piece of sandpaper". But, we're full of pride, and we like to think that we can achieve a point in life where we will never sin again. When you're tempted to fall into that trap, look out. Chances are, there were more saints like the cantankerous Jerome and once-wayward Augustine than a Teresa or Therese, and like them, God sees the potential for holiness in every one of us, even when we can't.

The other thing we can't lose sight of is the people God places in our midst. As important as it is to bless God and praise Him for the wonderful people He places in our lives, it's perhaps more important to praise Him for those who agitate us, insult us and go out of their way to make life difficult. Perhaps we have an unpleasant encounter with a co-worker or even a stranger. Maybe it's because it's an opportunity for us to pray for that person, and if we did not have an unpleasant exchange with them, it's possible no one at all would have prayed for them on a day when they desperately needed it.

In my own life, I am grateful for the graces God gave me to deal with two very difficult co-workers. I literally had a visceral reaction to one person to the point where I couldn't stand to be in the same room with her. How could a person who goes to Mass nearly every day and prays as much as I do possibly react to another human being in such a way? With God's help, I overcame my difficulties with this person to the extent that I could be civil and charitable toward her. And as a result, I'd like to think that God used me as an instrument to help her take a look inward and change her ways as well.

When we pray and beg God to answer us, let's remember the unexpected way in which our Lord and Savior entered the world. God does things as He sees fit, including the manner in which His Son was born. The answer to our prayers may not be accompanied by thunder bolts and flashes of lightning. Most of the time, His response will come in a way not wholly apparent to us at first. Let us always remember to give Him thanks and praise, even when the gifts He sends us are not as apparently beautiful as those He sends to others. Trust that He knows best.

Happy and Holy New Year and may God bless you and your families.

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Mary, Queen of Peace

Ever glorious and blessed Mary, Queen of Virgins, Mother of Mercy, hope and comfort of dejected and desolate souls, through that sword of sorrow which pierced thy tender heart whilst thine only Son, Christ Jesus, our Lord, suffered death and ignominy on the cross; through that filial tenderness and pure love He had for thee, grieving in thy grief, whilst from His cross He recommended thee to the care and protection of His beloved disciple, St. John, take pity, I beseech thee, on my poverty and necessities; have compassion on my anxieties and cares; assist and comfort me in all my infirmities and miseries, of every kind whatsoever. Thou art the Mother of Mercies, the sweet comforter and only refuge of the needy and the orphan, of the desolate and afflicted. Cast, therefore, an eye of pity on a miserable, forlorn child of Eve, and hear my prayer; for since, in just punishment of my sins, I find myself encompassed by a multitude of evils, and oppressed with much anguish of spirit, wither can I fly for more secure shelter, O amiable Mother of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, than under the wings of thy maternal protection? Attend, therefore, I beseech thee, with an ear of pity and compassion, to my humble and earnest request. I ask it, through the bowels of mercy of thy dear Son; Through that love and condescension wherewith He embraced our nature, when, in compliance with the divine Will, thou gavest thy consent, and whom, after the expiration of nine months thou didst bring forth from the chaste enclosure of thy womb, to visit the world, and bless it with His presence. I ask it, through that anguish of mind wherewith thy beloved Son, our dear Saviour, was overwhelmed on the Mount of Olives, when He besought His eternal Father to remove from Him, if possible, the bitter chalice of His future passion. I ask it, through the threefold repetition of His prayers in the garden, whence afterwards, with dolorous steps and mournful tears, thou didst accompany Him to the doleful theatre of His death and sufferings. I ask it, through the welts and bruises of His virginal flesh, occasioned by the cords and whips wherewith He was bound and scourged, when stripped of His seamless garment, for which His executioners afterwards cast lots. I ask it, through the scoffs and ignominies by which He was insulted; the false accusations and unjust sentence by which He was condemned to death, and which He bore with heavenly patience. I ask it, through His bitter tears and bloody sweat; His silence and resignation; His sadness and grief of heart. I ask it, through the blood which trickled from His royal and Sacred Head, when struck with the sceptre of a reed and pierced with His crown of thorns. I ask it, through the excruciating torments He suffered, when His hands and feet were fastened with gross nails to the tree of the cross. I ask it, through His vehement thirst, and bitter potion of vinegar and gall. I ask it, through His dereliction on the cross when He exclaimed, "My God! my God! why hast Thou forsaken me?" I ask it, through His mercy extended to the good thief, and through His recommending His precious soul and spirit into the hands of His eternal Father before He expired, saying, "It is consummated." I ask it, through the blood mixed with water, which issued from His Sacred Side when pierced with a lance, and whence a flood of grace and mercy has flowed to us. I ask it, through His immaculate life, bitter passion and ignominious death on the cross, at which nature itself was thrown into convulsions, by the bursting of rocks, rending of the veil of the Temple, the earthquake, and the darkness of the sun and moon. I ask it, through His descent into hell, where He confronted the Saints of the old law with His presence, and led the captivity captive. I ask it, through His glorious victory over death, when He arose again to life on the third day, and through the joy which His appearance for forty days after gave thee, His blessed Mother, His Apostles, and the rest of His Disciples; when in thine and their presence He miraculously ascended into heaven. I ask it, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, infused into the hearts of His Disciples, when He descended upon them in the form of fiery tongues, and by which they were inspired with zeal in the conversion of the world, when they went to preach the gospel. I ask it, through the awful appearance of thy Son, at the last dreadful day, when He shall come to judge the living and the dead, and the world, by fire. I ask it, through the compassion He bore thee in His life, and the unspeakable joy thou didst feel at thine assumption into heaven, where thou art eternally absorbed in the sweet contemplation of His divine perfections. O glorious and ever blessed Virgin! comfort the heart of thy supplicant, by obtaining for me, (Mention your prayer intention here...) And as I am persuaded my Divine Saviour doth honour thee as His beloved Mother, to whom He refuses nothing, because thou asketh nothing contrary to His honour, so let me speedily experience the efficacy of thy powerful intercession, according to the tenderness of thy maternal affection, and His filial loving heart, who mercifully granteth the requests and complieth with the desires of those that love and fear Him. Wherefore, O most blessed Virgin, beside the object of my present petition, and whatever else I may stand in need of, obtain for me also of thy dear Son, our Lord and our God, a lively faith, firm hope, perfect charity, true contrition of heart, unfeigned tears of compunction, sincere confession, condign satisfaction, abstinence from sin, love of God and my neighbour, contempt of the world, patience to suffer affronts and ignominies, nay, even, if necessary, an opprobrious death itself, for love of thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Obtain likewise for me, O sacred Mother of God, perseverance in good works, performance of good resolutions, mortification of self-will, a pious conversation through life, and, at my last moments, strong and sincere repentance, accompanied by such a lively and attentive presence of mind, as may enable me to receive the last Sacrament of the Church worthily, and die in thy friendship and favour. Lastly, obtain through thy Son, I beseech thee, for the souls of my parents, brethren, relatives and benefactors, both living and dead, life everlasting, from the only Giver of every good and perfect gift, the Lord God Almighty, to Whom be all power now and forever. Amen.

Prayer of St. Bonaventure

Pierce, O most sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of Thy love, and with true, calm and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever languish and melt with entire love and longing for Thee, may yearn for Thee and for thy courts, may long to be dissolved and to be with Thee.
Grant that my soul may hunger after Thee, the Bread of Angels, the refreshment of holy souls, our daily and super substantial bread, having all sweetness and savor and every delightful taste.
May my heart ever hunger after and feed upon Thee, Whom the angels desire to look upon, and may my inmost soul be filled with the sweetness of Thy savor; may it ever thirst for Thee, the fountain of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light, the torrent of pleasure, the fullness of the house of God;
may it ever compass Thee, seek Thee, find Thee, run to Thee, come up to Thee, meditate on Thee, speak of Thee, and do all for the praise and glory of Thy name, with humility and discretion, with love and delight, with ease and affection, with perseverance to the end; and be Thou alone ever my hope, my entire confidence, my riches, my delight, my pleasure, my joy, my rest and tranquility, my peace, my sweetness, my food, my refreshment, my refuge, my help, my wisdom, my portion, my possession, my treasure; in Whom may my mind and my heart be ever fixed and firm and rooted immovably. Amen.

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God Bless You!

The Unprofitable Servant

Friday, December 31, 2010

God's Special Blessings This Year

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Mary, Queen of Peace

St Michael the Archangel

St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

St. Teresa Benedicta of The Cross