Monthly Archives: September 2010

St. Gertrude’s Prayer of Petition

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St. Gertrude’s Prayer of Petition

O most sweet Lord Jesus Christ, I praise, extol, and bless Thee, in union with that heavenly praise which the Divine persons of the Holy Trinity mutually render to each other, and which thence flows down upon Thy sacred humanity, upon the Blessed Virgin Mary, and upon all the angels and saints. And I give Thee thanks for all the graces Thou didst lavish upon Thy beloved spouse St. Gertrude. I thank Thee especially for that ineffable love where with Thou didst pre-elect from all eternity, didst enrich her so highly, didst draw her so sweetly to thyself by the strongest bonds of love, didst unite her so blissfully to thyself, dwell with such delight in her heart, and crown her life with so blessed an end. I recall to Thee now, O most compassionate Jesus, the promise Thou didst make to thy beloved spouse, that Thou would most assuredly grant the prayers of all who come to Thee through her merits and intercession, in all matters concerning their salvation. I beseech Thee by the most tender love, grant me the grace ________________ which I confidently expect. Amen.

Preparing to Adore – All the While Adoring

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Our Lady of Solitude Chapel, Tonopah, AZ – a work in progress.

In Adoration Waiting

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You are before me,  Bright Light.

The Darkness without shouts,

But I gaze heavenward.

My eyes rest upon You, Lamb of God

In Your rest upon the Altar of Your repose.

Having conquered all by Your Cross and sacrificial Death,

You spread Your mantle over the centuries

Till Your glorious Coming.

I see You enthroned on the altar

and offer You the throne and altar of my heart

Here You are enshined in my life, now hidden in Your’s.

The Darkness without lies and denies You,

But the Spirit within gives witness,

That dispels all blindness,

Preparing me to do battle in this stillness.

“Stand still and know the I Am God.”

By Joann Nelander

Do Not Be Silent When You Should Speak

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St. Augustine, insisting upon the message whether it be welcome or not, wrote:

“If I am straying,” he says, “if I am lost, why do you want me?” You are straying, that is why I wish to recall you. You have been lost, I wish to find you. “But I wish to stray,” he says: “I wish to be lost.”
So you wish to stray and be lost? How much better that I do not also wish this.

The Pope – On the Great Convert

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In an excellent meditation delivered at the vigil of the beatification of John Henry Newman,Pope Benedict XVI said, “”Passion for the truth is costly: it often involves being dismissed out of hand, ridiculed or parodied.”

The Pope said:

Newman’s life also teaches us that passion for the truth, intellectual honesty and genuine conversion are costly. The truth that sets us free cannot be kept to ourselves; it calls for testimony, it begs to be heard, and in the end its convincing power comes from itself and not from the human eloquence or arguments in which it may be couched. Not far from here, at Tyburn, great numbers of our brothers and sisters died for the faith; the witness of their fidelity to the end was ever more powerful than the inspired words that so many of them spoke before surrendering everything to the Lord. In our own time, the price to be paid for fidelity to the Gospel is no longer being hanged, drawn and quartered but it often involves being dismissed out of hand, ridiculed or parodied. And yet, the Church cannot withdraw from the task of proclaiming Christ and his Gospel as saving truth, the source of our ultimate happiness as individuals and as the foundation of a just and humane society.

Finally, Newman teaches us that if we have accepted the truth of Christ and committed our lives to him, there can be no separation between what we believe and the way we live our lives. Our every thought, word and action must be directed to the glory of God and the spread of his Kingdom. Newman understood this, and was the great champion of the prophetic office of the Christian laity. He saw clearly that we do not so much accept the truth in a purely intellectual act as embrace it in a spiritual dynamic that penetrates to the core of our being. Truth is passed on not merely by formal teaching, important as that is, but also by the witness of lives lived in integrity, fidelity and holiness; those who live in and by the truth instinctively recognize what is false and, precisely as false, inimical to the beauty and goodness which accompany the splendour of truth, “veritatis splendor.”

A Flower in the Sun

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Make me as a flower in sun and rain.
May I, as by nature,turn to follow You in Your course throughout my life.
Let Your holy, healing waters penetrate my being, as roots planted securely in Your Providential soil, drink of Your constant streams.
As it is Your nature to water and supply, may I by Rebirth, unfurl my gowns to Solomon’s delight.

By Joann Nelander