Gabrielle Bossis, HE AN D i 1948

It came to speak to my addled brain,

when Gabrielle felt the same sentiment, "Lord, I rack my brains to find ways of loving You and I don't succeed." 

1948

September 9  -  "Lord, I rack my brains to find ways of loving You and I don't succeed." 

 "I am all simplicity

Love Me simply

When you think about Me, feeling sorry at not being able to do better, you love Me

When you act rather from duty than from inclination, you love Me

When you belittle yourself in your own eyes and before others, you love Me

When you want to pray and you deplore the distractions that make your thoughts wander, you love Me

When you hunt for words without being able to express your desires, you love Me

When you forgive a wounding remark; when you give  pleasure for the sake of giving Me pleasure; when you cease to think of yourself in order to try to   reach Me; when you attempt to leave everything as though it were the day of your death; when in thought you join the angels and saints, like one who arrives ahead of time; and when, in the evening, you welcome your tomorrow morning that will unite us, you love Me

It's all very different from what you thought you ought to do in order to love Me

Oh, My little girl, simplify yourself sweetly in My Presence, your love wide - awake

You know very well that I am always there."

Fr. Stephen condolence. Evening News 'Pope Bolt'

See Daisy's Letter and sent Edinburgh Evening News Photos (especially one);

"A striking coincidence: Lighting hits St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City last, hours after Pope Benedict XVI shocked the Catholic Church by becoming the first pontiff to resign in almost 600 years.

Bolt from the Blue."

Friday 15th Feb.
From Daisy,
Dear Father, 

It was good to see you and the community at the celebration for Father Stephen's life.
I was pleased to be able toattend and getting a lift made all the difference.
Thank-you for the lovely buffet! your cook does a great job.

The weather was very kind as well - as some days have been awful lately - still spring is around the corner EL!

I have enclosed some pictures of lovely sunsets and one of the {Bolt from the blue} at St. Peter's Basilica. I keep the holy Father in my prayer in my prayers and wish him a contemplative and prayerful retirement.

I am booked into the  Guest house for Easter - God willing will see you asll then.
      Keeping you all in our prayers,
                                 Yours
                                            in
                                                  Christ.
                                                                       Daisy.     ,

+ + + + + + +

Papal Resignation: A bolt from the blue, - indeed!
http://www.asiantribune.com/node/61594 

Hemantha Abeywardena writes from London…

After the announcement of resignation by Pope Benedict, as an inexplicable coincidence, the dome of the basilica of St Peter was struck by a bolt of lightning which a cameraman captured in vivid detail during a thunderstorm in Rome.

There will be plenty of Catholics who want to interpret the significance of the cosmic signal on a day of dramatic developments.

Anyhow several millions of Catholics across the world are still taking in the shocking news announced by Pope Benedict on Monday. The move, however, won global admiration too, as the pontiff became the first to do so in nearly six hundred years – to call it a day when he thought it was impossible him to carry on.  

Jesus' Temptation (Luke 4:1-13). quote St. Raphael ocso

 Sunday, 17 February 2013

First Sunday of Lent - Year C

Gospel

 Saint Luke 4:1-13.

 Filled with the holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert ...  

Commentary of the day :    

 Saint Raphael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938), a Spanish Trappist monk 

 Spiritual writings, 15/12/1936 (trans

 'To know how to wait', Mairin Mitchell) 

The Son of God rejects the temptations of other ways and obeys the Father's will

I, too, once went tearing along the roads of Spain, with the idea of making the speedometer register ninety kilometers an hour: how foolish! When I was conscious that for me, the horizon marked earth's uttermost limit, I suffered the disappointment of one who enjoys earthly freedom, for the earth is small and moreover quickly comes to an end

 Man is bounded by narrow and limited horizons, and for him whose soul aspires after infinite horizons, earthly ones aren't enough, they throttle him; the world isn't sufficient for him, and only in the vastness and immensity of God will he find what he is seeking

 You free men, making journeys around this planet, I don't envy you your life in the world; enclosed in a convent at the foot of a Crucifix I have boundless freedom, I have Heaven, I have God

 What a great blessing it is to have a heart that is in love with Him!...

 Poor Brother Rafael!..

 Go on waiting, waiting with that sweet serenity which sure hope gives

 Keep calm, unshaken, a prisoner of your God at the foot of his tabernacle

 Listen to the distant uproar coming from men enjoying a few short days of freedom in the world, listen from afar to their voices, their laughter, their lamentations, their wars

 Listen, and meditate for a moment

 Meditate on a God who is infinite, who made the earth and mankind, He, the supreme Lord of skies and lands, rivers and seas, who in an instant, simply by willing it created out of the void all that exists

 Mediate for a moment on the life of Christ and you will see that it has no freedom, no outcry or clamor; you will see the Son of God subject to humankind, you will see Jesus, obedient, submissive, and with what steadfast calm he keeps as the only law of his life the fulfillment of the Father's will

 And lastly, look on Christ nailed to a cross

 And we talk of freedom!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0yWBeRtjlk

COMMENT: Quote, St. Raphael ocso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI5AQAmNuZY

quote: Saint Raphael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938),
a Spanish Cistercian monk

Where, then, is true freedom?

It is in the heart of one who loves nothing more than God

It is in the heart of one who is attached neither to spirit nor to matter, but only to God

It is in that soul which is not subject to the “I” of egoism, which soars above its own thoughts, feelings, suffering and enjoyment.

Freedom resides in the soul whose one reason for existence is God, whose life is God and nothing else but God.

The human spirit is small, impoverished, subject to a thousand changes of mood, ups and downs, depressions, disillusionments, etc., and the body to so much weakness

 Freedom, then, is in God, and the soul which truly, in soaring above everything, makes her abode in him, can say that she enjoys freedom to the extent that is possible for one still in the world to do so.

Spiritual writings, 15/12/1936 'To know how to wait'

Saturday after Ash Wednesday. St. Raphael, Cistercian

Saturday, 16 February 2013

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

    

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: DGO <noreply@evzo.org>
To:  Donald....
Sent: Friday, 15 February 2013, 17:03
Subject: The Daily Gospel

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5:27-32.

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, «Follow me.» 

And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.... 

Commentary of the day

Saint Raphael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938), a Spanish Trappist monk 

Spiritual writings, 15/12/1936 (trans. 'To know how to wait', Mairin Mitchell) 

"Leaving everything behind, the man got up and followed him"

Above the monastery some planes are cutting through the sky at tremendous speed. The noise of the engines frightens the birds who take shelter in the cypresses of our cemetery. In front of the convent and crossing the land is a tarred road along which lorries and carloads of tourists, for whom the sight of the monastery has no interest, run at all hours. One of the principal Spanish railways also runs through the fields of the monastery... People tell you that all this is freedom... But the man who reflects a little will see how deluded the world is in the midst of what he calls freedom...

Where, then, is true freedom? It is in the heart of one who loves nothing more than God. It is in the heart of one who is attached neither to spirit nor to matter, but only to God. It is in that soul which is not subject to the “I” of egoism, which soars above its own thoughts, feelings, suffering and enjoyment. Freedom resides in the soul whose one reason for existence is God, whose life is God and nothing else but God.

The human spirit is small, impoverished, subject to a thousand changes of mood, ups and downs, depressions, disillusionments, etc., and the body to so much weakness. Freedom, then, is in God, and the soul which truly, in soaring above everything, makes her abode in him, can say that she enjoys freedom to the extent that is possible for one still in the world to do so.

Jacinta Marto later Blessed

Jacinta Marto bookmarker in Fr. Stephan's Daily Missal.
Front fly leaf, "To Patrick (Joseph) Murphy, from Daddy, March 1938." That would have made  Patrick 14 years.
From your Email, William, you give me clues to trace Stephens path, "... the small red book he always had with him when we met."
Sure enough we found his small book and so many other 'scribbles'.
Prominent was the Dailly Missal from his Daddy. The book markers told the story and chronology of of friends. First was a souvenir of a certain Br. Mark making his Solemn Profession in September 1968, and later the Ordination of Fr. Mark Caira.
Another picture, hidden among the leaves, brings a whole experience.
Two or three days before Stephen's death I had a dream, different from the usual chaotic dreams. But this 'encounter' was with an attractive and friendly young lady. The vivid face of the lassie was very familiar to me. It was the memory but no idea of the name or who she is. I Googled the PICTURES and scanned possible Saints or Blesseds, Venerables or any. Nothing turned up to suggest.
That is the surprise to find this picture in Fr. Stephen's Missal. At once seen, it was the face to recognize.  And it follows the whole story is to be found in the Internet; Blessed Jacinta Marto.

Apart from memory of the face, I had never learned anything about Jacinta, the youngest of the three children of Our Lady of Fatima. For the moment, the details are on the back of the old holy card in Stephen's Missal.
Thank you for for sending your pages from Stephen's "Understanding of Love" etc. So I even browsed to see if there was any mention of the Blessed Jacinta.

_____________________________________

JACINTA MARTO, born at Fatima in Portugal on March 11th 1910, died in hospital at Lisbon on February 20th 1920. aged nearly 10 years.

She was perhaps the most favoured of the three young shepherds, in spite of being the youngest. With her companions, she saw an Angel three times and Our Lady six times. But besides this she had the special privilege of seeing other appearances of the Blessed Virgin, and of the Holy Father. The theme of her life was to pray and make every possible sacrifice, for the conversion of sinners and in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Before she died, she said: “In heaven I'm going to love Jesus very much, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary too."

God has already given many extraordinary graces through her in­tercession. The Process for the Beatification of the Servant of God, Jacinta Marto, was sent to the Sacred Congregation in Rome on the 2nd July, 1979.

PRAYER FOR JACINTA'S BEATIFICATION (For private recitation)

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I adore Thee pro­foundly with all the powers of my soul, and I thank Thee for the Apparitions of the Most Holy Virgin in Fatima which have made man­ifest to the world the treasures of her Immaculate Heart.

By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary I implore Thee - if it should be for Thy greater glory and the good of our souls - to glorify in the sight of Thy Holy Church Jacinta the shepherdess of Fatima, granting us through her intercession the grace which we implore. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Please send deteits of any favours received through the interces­sion of this Servant of God, to the following address:

Vice-Postulador da Causa de Jacinta Marto - Apartado 6 P - 2496 FA TlMA Codex (Portugal).

IMPRIMATUR, Leiren, 20 Februarii 1980

+ ALBERTUS, Episcopus Leiriensis

 Below also a picture of the three children of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima.

From left to right, Jacinta Marto, Lúcia dos Santos and Francisco Marto, 
holding their rosaries in 1917. 

  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

http://sicsempertyrannisjmj.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/feast-of-blessed-jacinta-and-francisco.html   

Monday, February 20, 2012

 I would then recommend three books:

 first, find and OLD (1940-50s) copy of Sister Lucia’s memoirs (before all the “editing” was done to it) and get the basic story; second I highly recommend the wonderful little book 

Jacinta: The Flower of Fatima by the Rev. Fr. Joseph Galamba de Oliveira, the English edition of which boasts a preface by a young Father Fulton J. Sheen; 

and finally a very recent work that deals with a lot of the controversy over the message of Fatima in the last few years and is extremely fair and well researched: 

The Fourth Secret of Fatima by Antonio Socci, a well respected Italian journalist who works in and around Rome, and is a personal friend of our Holy Father.