 "If you can share your anxiety with your spiritual director or some trusted friend, calm will be restored more quickly." - St. Francis de Sales (Introduction to the Devout Life) Thank you, dear trusted friends, for letting me share my sadness in the previous post. It was a passing sadness, no doubt thanks to your kind listening and your prayers and Our Lady's too. I was sad because, having experienced one of the most beautiful graces of my life, and knowing it was also one of the most beautiful graces of my husband's and son's and new daughter's lives too- namely the marriage of said son and daughter - I knew, too, that I wouldn't be able to remember it all. Some have written asking me if this failure in my memory is perhaps brain fog due to the chemo I've undergone. Would that it were so easily pegged! In fact, I have always been blessed with a bad memory, and this has come in handy on many occasions, but sometimes I like to complain. It's one thing to be grateful to forget an ugly image that was accidentally seen, and it's quite another kettle of fish to appreciate that this life is made of a series of fleeting images, so many of them beautiful almost beyond bearing, and yet the very nature of their fleeting means they won't last unless we remember them. Yet who but God (and perhaps the angels) can remember everything? And so, once again we are forced to rest on Him in complete abandonment and depend on Him to supply all we lack. It's a good problem to have! I have gotten over my sorrow, so let me reassure you that the sun is back in the sky (just rising as I write!) and the clouds have been dispersed. Thank you! Thanks to God, and thanks to you who have been praying for me. Your prayers are so powerful! I recently read this line from a friend (written to a wonderful group of unschooling Catholics I am in online), and I'm so glad for the chance to immortalize it here (haha, to remember later by re-reading it!). She wrote: "I have this bad habit of wanting to wait until I have more time to sit down in a quiet space and compose thoughtful, meaningful individual responses to people . . . Ah, but life continues at its crazy pace and the time never comes, and thank yous quickly become long overdue . . . I apologize!" Me too! I apologize for not thanking you enough - and again, what a good problem to have! I am (and I suspect we all are) inundated with love and kindness, and life keeps spinning forward with more love and kindness showered on me each day, so that there never seems to come a time when I can just stop it all (and who wants to stop love and kindness?) in order to say a long-winded thank you! So here is my thank you for today . . . in the form of some wonderful words from one of my favorite saints. He is also today's saint, so that works well for today's thank you . . . and, too, he is not only one of our sister St. Therese's favorites, but he is one of her patron saints. For so long I thought that St. Therese was named "Marie-Francoise Therese" in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. He is the Francis we usually think of first, and for good reason. Just like Therese herself, but centuries before, St. Francis of Assisi captured the love and hearts of the whole world - and this love continues through the ages and across cultures. If you could discover the most popular name chosen for confirmation, the most popular saint chosen as patron when a young person (or adult convert) gets to choose - I bet you the name would be Francis and the saint would be St. Francis of Assisi. In my own experience, I have had the honor to be confirmation sponsor for several dear Catholics, and it seems like half of them chose St. Francis for their saint! And I can see why, because not only did he appreciate the beauty of creation we've been talking about (and he wept over it too), but he also loved Our Lord SO MUCH - seemingly more than your other run-of-the-mill head-over-heels-in-love-with-Jesus saints! Ah, but those other saints named Francis were no slouches either! I think of our dear St. Francis Xavier. What a great missionary! And then St. Francis de Sales, the French Francis who has given the Church and the world such an example of gentleness. He is the one for whom Therese was named, and he has a special altar in the crypt of her Basilica in Lisieux (where her favorites each get their own altar!) . . . and he has words for us today, so let's get to them! First I will add this wonderful fact: St. Francis de Sales was NOT gentle by nature. He had a temper he needed to learn to control (like his little sister Therese did later), and it was precisely because God gave him the grace to become what he was not in himself that we know him as the saint of gentleness par excellence. St. John Bosco named his religious order of educators "Salesians" after Francis de Sales because he wanted his teachers to have the same gentleness to the boys they helped as was lived and advocated by Francis de Sales. Hooray for gentleness! I want to add also something I read recently (and I think I posted the quote here on my musings sometime in the past few months) in a book on St. Vincent de Paul. It turns out these two giants - Vincent and Francis - met in Paris and became fast friends as they sought to love God and draw others to love Him. Vincent was very impressed with Francis - loved him so much! - and told about how St. Francis related weeping over his own (Francis' own) writings because he couldn't believe God had let him write what clearly came so directly from Him (God)!!! This is a lot of fun to read as a writer, and no wonder, then, St. Francis de Sales is the patron saint of writers. Reminds me of a favorite Snoopy quote . . .  But let's get to those inspired words of St. Francis for us. He's helped me tremendously with his encouragement NOT to worry and his singular understanding that even our efforts to follow Jesus more closely are often fraught with anxiety that is not only upsetting to us, but upsetting to Jesus! Or perhaps a better way to say it (besides the many ways St. Francis himself does, which we'll get to pronto) is simply that we don't need to worry about becoming saints. This is Jesus' work in us, and our job is to let Him take care of everything. We can see this Francis is not only one of St. Therese's patron saints, but one of her favorites. Their messages have a lot in common. They both repeated frequently that surrendering ourselves into the arms of God is the easiest and most effective way to be close to Him, which is all that being a saint really is.
Here are the words Francis de Sales used to convey that good news: "Anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul, except sin. God commands you to pray, but He forbids you to worry." "Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then, put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations, and say continually: 'The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart has trusted in Him, and I am helped. He is not only with me but in me and I in Him.'" "We shall steer safely through every storm, so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God. If at times we are somewhat stunned by the tempest, never fear. Let us take a breath and go on afresh." "Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs." "Half an hour's meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed." And finally, his good friend and spiritual daughter St. Jane Frances de Chantal tells us that St. Francis once said to her: "I have been feeling most strongly how great a blessing it is to be a child, though an unworthy one, of this glorious Mother. Let us undertake great things under Mary's patronage, for she will never leave us destitute of what we are struggling to attain.” * * * St. Francis de Sales, pray for us! St. Jane de Chantal, help us, too, to become spiritual children of your spiritual father! St. Therese, pray for us and obtain for us many roses of heavenly graces through the teachings and love of your patron and big brother St. Francis! Draw me, we will run! P.S. That wonderful painting of the Good Shepherd is by Sybil Parker who painted it in 1895, the same year St. Therese made her Act of Oblation to Merciful Love, which you can find on this page (below some other prayers and pictures we love).     Maria autem conservabat omnia verba haec conferens in corde suo.
"But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart." - Luke 2:19 . . . et mater eius conservabat omnia verba haec in corde suo. ". . . and His mother kept all these words in her heart." - Luke 2:51 * * * I am finding my consolation in our Mother Mary today. I have been waking with sadness because I can't remember so much, but today I realized the truth I have been groping for this past week: Our Lady, Cause of our Joy, is also Our Lady of Joyful Surprises, and just when I am ready to throw in the towel, she rouses me for another round, supplying me with sustaining truth - or better yet Sustaining Truth. I had been thinking yesterday what I had often thought to console myself: that all this beauty I forget will be returned to me in Heaven - I will remember in exact detail the gifts from His hand, the people I love and all they said and did. But in the wake of The Most Glorious and Happy Day of our lives, i.e. The Wedding of the Century, this was a small consolation. How could I keep it all in my heart and mind NOW? I don't think I can, but Our Lady, our beautiful Blessed Mother can and does. She is the Seat of Wisdom, and Wisdom requires Memory. But more to the point, she is the seat of Wisdom because Wisdom, that is God, sits in her lap, and He certainly doesn't forget anything (unless it be our sins when we cast them into His mercy). Lately when I haven't been preparing for The Wedding, rejoicing in The Wedding, enjoying the aftermath of the Wedding, or mourning my inability to possess The Wedding completely in my heart and mind, memory and imagination, I have been delighting in the picture above of The Virgin and Child Embracing, and I have a new image of it because it appears on the cover of a new to me Christmas-tide book by the beloved Colettine Poor Clare, Mother Mary Francis. The book is Cause of Our Joy, and the painting is by Giovanni Battista Salvi di Sassoferrato (known as Sassoferrato, the town of his beginnings). Come to find out that Sassoferrato is also the artist who gave me (through the triple charity of my happy twin and her older sister and brother-in-law) a favorite image of Mary I have treasured for 41 years now: The Virgin in Prayer (pictured at the tippy top of this post). I couldn't resist adding two more images by Sassy, just to complete the sequence. We began with The Virgin in Prayer: Our Lady as she was just prior to the appearance of Gabriel and his world-shattering announcement and invitation (and her resounding YES!) . . . then see the fruit of God's mercy and its Incarnation in her arms . . . then rejoice in the Virgin and Child Embracing . . . and at last we find Our Lady as St. Luke describes her: the Madonna with the Christ Child, which I prefer to call "Madonna reflecting on the Word made flesh." Since I am myself reflecting (or musing, as we call it here, not able to take ourselves too seriously since like Marcel we're not usually too serious, and when we are, it's time to lighten up) on my forgetfulness, I'd like to add that I was reminded by these images - or rather by the information I found with these images when searching for them online so I could share them with you - that to my utter Joyful Surprise about twelve and a half months ago (December 2023), I SAW the originals IN PERSON in the National Gallery in London!!! Oops, I forgot! I even bought there a nifty 3-D image of the Virgin and Child Embracing, and it sat on my kitchen counter most of the year. I think I recently gave it away, because what fun is a treasured possession until we part with it and make room for The Real Treasure? But no matter, it was given back to me last week when my Armenian brother let me take (little thief that I am, in imitation of our sister St. Therese) the book that boasted Sassy's wonderful painting on its cover. All of which is merely to say Thank You Blessed Mother! You were so good at everything I try and fail at, but you don't keep anything for yourself, you give it all to us! Thank you for remembering everything. Please keep The Wedding in your heart and I will know it is safe there. I will get it from you in Heaven if not before, and when I glimpse it in part here below, please fill me with the gratitude that is so much more precious than my silly regret at my Marcellian forgetfulness. Best Joy from this awesome Lady of Joyful Surprises? I expected it, and yet it is hard to grasp, hard to believe, but truly it happened: One week ago today, as I write, my dear FDIL became a plain old pickle (DIL) and I have now transformed from FMIL to your basic run of the mill MIL. The happy couple are hitched for life, and to my world's rejoicing (and mine), I have a daughter at long last! God and our Blessed Mother have once again done their work, happily ever after is unfolding, and we ask that the pages be many . . . Thank you to all who prayed, all who could participate in person, all who helped with the seemingly endless details which so sweetly ended in a pre-wedding welcome, a Nuptial Mass, and a wedding reception that surpassed our wildest and most extravagantly joyful dreams. Joy, joy, joy, as befits a couple so devoted to Our Lady of Joyful Surprises. May our Mother Mary continue to surprise them with joy for as long as they both shall live in this land of exile sweetened by their union with each other and the Blessed Trinity, and may their Heaven (both in Heaven and on earth) be spent snuggled near their sweet Mother embracing her Child. Draw me; we will run!  Two years ago our little sister had a milestone birthday - 150 years! That means this year she is 152! My goodness she is well preserved! Except in the case of the saints, it is more than preservation, more than surviving - she is thriving and still having a party each and every day, deputed as she is to be the Head of the Ministry of Roses. Lest that sound like a grand and grown up title, picture her as a little girl strewing rose petals before the Blessed Sacrament in the Corpus Christi procession. She is wearing her First Holy Communion dress, and she looks like . . . a flower girl, like the ones we will be so grateful for this Saturday when we hope you will join us in praying for the Happily Ever After of our eldest son and his darling Catholic bride. . .
But I digress . . . and if I am going to digress, I'd better give you a health update. Therese and I have both gotten older than 50, and isn't that when we cheerfully start talking about our health to any and all who inquire? My own health is terrific, praise God. My local community has plied me with nutritious meals, while the Mystical Body here and abroad has fed my heart and soul with the graces raining down in answer to their prayers. More specifically, I am taking a two week break from chemo infusions (had two that went beautifully, have two more to go) in order to host the wedding of - well, if not the century, at least the wedding of the centenary (of Therese's canonization, which we celebrate in May of this year) and The Wedding of the Jubilee Year! Hooray! All this chemo is simply so that (a) any lingering bit of cancer will be decimated (sorry cancer, but you are not meant to be my gate to heaven this time) and (b) primarily to prevent recurrence, reducing my chances of said recurrence from 16% to 8%. I am in awe of the science, but even more in awe of the God who made us all, and made some of us such smart healers and researchers and medical professionals. May He bless all working in these fields, as well as all benefiting and trying to benefit from medical expertise. In other words, all is well with me, and on this day that we celebrate little Therese and prepare for our dear J and M's wedding this Saturday, January 4 (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us!), I am thinking about two other weddings that occurred on this day (St. Therese, Little Flower, pray for us!) some decades ago. My, the graces were flowing then - and they still are! Such happy marriages, such amazing paths along which the hand of our dear Jesus has guided these two spousal sets. Thank You, Jesus, for the sacraments! Please fill us with Your sacramental graces, and for those who have somehow slipped out of Your loving embrace, pour down on them actual graces to bring them back into the heart of the Church where You water and refresh us so thoroughly. Happy Anniversary JH and L! Happy anniversary COB and KBB! Your lives have been an inspiration to me and to many - may His love draw you ever closer and may Our Lady wrap you in her starry mantle close to the infant King of the Universe! Finally, happy birthday little Therese! Do your thing, shower us with roses, and throw in a cupcake or a glass of wine for good measure. Oh, and since you love nothing more than a good nuptial union (whether it be of the spiritual kind with the Spouse of our souls, or the more natural kind yet doused in heavenly Charity), do help us with all these joyful last minute wedding preparations. May all the travelers be surrounded and guided here by the angels, and may the bride and groom feel the peace of Christ beyond all understanding, now and always. Help us to live your Little Way, dear little sister. Help us to understand your words and the path you have traveled before us so successfully . . . You insisted: "To remain little before God is to recognize one’s nothingness, to expect all things from the good God just as a little child expects all things from its father; it is not to be troubled by anything. . ..Even among poor people, a child is given all it needs, as long as it is very little, but as soon as it has grown up, the father does not want to support it any longer and says: ‘Work, now you are able to take care of yourself.’ Because I never want to hear these words I do not want to grow up, feeling that I can never earn my living, that is, eternal life in heaven. So I have stayed little, and have no other occupation than that of gathering the flowers of love and sacrifice and of offering them to the good God to please Him. Again, to stay little means not attributing the virtues we practice to ourselves, under the impression that we are capable of such things, but to recognize that the good God places this treasure of virtue in the hand of His little child for him to use as he needs it; and that it remains God’s treasure. . . It is not to become discouraged over one’s faults, for children fall often, but they are too little to hurt themselves very much.” Yes, Therese, with out angels and yours, do help us to follow your Little Way in the arms of Jesus forever! Draw me, we will RUN!!!!! |
Miss MarcelI've written books and articles and even a novel. Now it's time to try a blog! For more about me personally, go to the home page and you'll get the whole scoop! If you want to send me an email, feel free to click "Contact Me" below. To receive new posts, enter your email and click "Subscribe" below. 
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