Category Archives: My Journal

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Be Holy's avatarInto Stillness

From a sermon by Saint Bernard, abbot

I love because I love, I love that I may love

Love is sufficient of itself, it gives pleasure by itself and because of itself. It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in its practice. I love because I love, I love that I may love. Love is a great thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it. Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of…

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Prayer for the Protection of Religious Liberty

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O’ God our Creator,
Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit, you call us to live our faith in the midst of the world, bringing the Light and the saving Truth of the Gospel to every corner of society.
We ask you to bless us in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty, Give us the strength of mind and heart to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened; give us courage in making our voices heard on behalf of the rights of your Church and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.
Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father, a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters gathered in your Church in this decisive hour in the history of our nation, so that, with every trial withstood and every danger overcome—for the sake of our children, our grandchildren, and all who come after us—this great land will always be “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Fortnight For Freedom

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A call to prayer for our great nation by our bishops has gone forth.  Now it is for the people to pray.

H/T  USCCB

 

The fourteen days from June 21—the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More—to July 4, Independence Day, are dedicated to this “fortnight for freedom”—a great hymn of prayer for our country. Our liturgical calendar celebrates a series of great martyrs who remained faithful in the face of persecution by political power—St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, and the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome.  Culminating on Independence Day, this special period of prayer, study, catechesis, and public action will emphasize both our Christian and American heritage of liberty. Dioceses and parishes around the country have scheduled special events that support a great national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty.

Vigilance

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Vigilance

 

O, Trinity, mine,

As I am Thine,

Indwelling with sacred flame,

Dispatch as for battle

Angels and Archangels,

Sword in hand.

 

Penetrate my darkness,

Infiltrate clandestine deceptions

Masquerading as light.

Pull down cruel strongholds,

Erected by Minion’s guile,

Surreptitious and in disguise.

 

Where blindness

Has made me vulnerable,

Where folly

Has let down my guard,

Where allurement

Has entrapped me,

Give power, sword and wing,

To Your Michael.

 

Bid him ride the dawn

To stand arrayed for the frey,

Here by my side.

Bright Angel of Truth,

Mount ye,

Who Is Like God,

Ever upward,

Empowered by my prayer,

Whispered in th Name,

All Hallowed.

 

Hashem, do You battle,

Vanquish the hidden

Enemies of my soul,

By my union,

In Your Death.

 

By my Baptism,

Let Your Blood

Cry out as Your Able,

From the ground

Of my being.

 

Give Life ever new.

In Your rest,

Empty Tomb,

Witness in me,

By Eucharistic grace,

The triumph of Your Resurrection.

 

© 2012 Joann Nelander

 

 

 

 

Religion Distribution Map for US and by State——

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On Mother’s Day

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On Mother’s Day all mothers hold a special place in the heart of God, especially those who have lost their children. I, especially, grieve with mothers who have aborted their babies.  Daily I pray that I be permitted to spiritually baptize all the children dying in any form of abortion with the Living Water that gushed from the open side of Jesus.  These holy innocents are victims, too young to will, but not too young to suffer and die. Knowing God desires to bring good forth from evil, I widen my prayer to include their  mothers and fathers, and all in their lineage, back to Adam and Eve, and to the end of time. I pray that God release from purgatory many of those in the lineage to accompany them to heaven in holy celebration, so that family always surrounds them.  One day I hope to rejoice with all these children and those saved by the mystery of their short lives and deaths united to the Will of God.