Do you know these faces? And though there are only 4 pictures, what would you say if I asked, "Which one of these is not like the others?"

Introductions first:
In sepia tones, we have St. Therese and her sister (the taller one) Celine. In the black and white image, circa 1915, we have Servant of God Julia Greeley of Denver, with Marjorie in her arms. Finally in what looks like a painting by Murillo (but it is probably a photo, don't you think?) we have our dear St. Anthony and little Jesus, our Savior and Spouse of our souls!

The One I would say stands out as "not like the others" is the middle image of Julia and Marjorie because - guess what? - until this morning, while I had heard of Julia G (starting a few years ago thanks to my amazing friend A.W., also known as "Aw, Awesome!"), I didn't really know anything about her except that she is popular in Denver and many want her Sainthood proclaimed. Oh, also recently I knew that another awesome friend has written a children's book about her, but there is more to be done (the usual stuff like finding an illustrator and publisher), so I haven't seen the book yet. Nonetheless, this morning was magical because said friend #2 published an article at our dear Catholic Exchange, and the article is Servant of God Julia Greeley: A Name Written in the Sacred Heart
It is wonderful - the article, the Saint (yet to be named, but so clearly one with Jesus!), and her impending feast that coincides this year with Trinity Sunday - this Sunday! Which links her, most adorably, with a friend of mine named Tim who no doubt brought her to my attention today (because that is his feast too, June 7), whom you can read about HERE (thanks to another friend of mine - boy they pile up, these amazing women I know!), and his mom's special Saint (whose feast is ALSO on June 7!), Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew, whom you can read about HERE, and you'll want to since she was a cool cat and good buddy of St. Teresa of Avila, La Madre!

There is another event we will commemorate this Sunday, though, on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, and this is where we jump back to the first photo of Therese (and Celine). Are you sitting down? (Lying down is acceptable too, but if you're standing, please hold on to something to steady yourself because this is BIG NEWS!!)

This Sunday, Feast of the Holy Trinity 2020, is the 125th anniversary of Therese first making her Act of Oblation to Merciful Love (on Trinity Sunday 1895)!!!!! And God bless Monsignor Ken Loughman, retired Irish American priest of the archdiocese of NY, for letting us know that this anniversary is just around the corner! Woohoo and Hooray! Alleluia and Deo gratias!!!

The actual date of Therese's making the Oblation was June 9, which is why we had planned and announced we would start a novena last Monday on June 1st. Little circumstances and obstacles prevented that, so we thought we'd start on Wednesday, since June 11 is the day Therese and Celine formally made the Act of Oblation together before the statue of the Virgin of the Smile (enter Celine, then) . . . but no, God's hand held us gently back, so that we could start our little novena today (3 days until Sunday, just like the cross to the Resurrection!) and make it a super spectacular all encompassing novena by letting it commemorate the Most Blessed and Adorable Trinity, St. Therese, Servant of God Julia Greeley, Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew, the best hugger in heaven (vying with Marcel for best tickler as well) Tim, and Celine, as well as (no doubt) a handful of other greats who will lead us in 9 days to - Il Santo! The Saint! Anthony of Padua and Lisbon, our special patron (my middle name saint, my grandmother's saint, my husband's saint, my sons' middle name saint, etc. etc, etc!)

Only God could design a novena this great!

So what are our intentions?

1. Thanksgiving for miracles small and LARGE - and if you can't think of one in your life right off the top of your head, please join us in our thanks for my father in law Paul discovering - to our great delight and his even greater delight! - that he is in remission from cancer! A remission that was not even hinted at as part of his deadly prognosis, but hey, that's where miracles come in, and we are SO INDEBTED for all your prayers and love and support that brought Paul to this joyful new reality!

which leads us to:

2. For all the intentions and health, happiness, and so on and so forth, of those who have prayed for Paul (and throw in an Ave now to be enrolled in this long list of names kept by our angels!)

and then:

3. For more miracles! for Physical (and other) Healings for two dear children-of-friends, for a dear sister-of-a-dear-friend, and for all the healings needed by you and those dear to you! St. Anthony is past master of these kinds of healings (easy peasy for one so close to Christ!), so let's pile up the petitions and watch him knock them down into grace and mercy and Jesus' healing power like so many bowling pins into the - well, wherever knocked down bowling pins go!

and finally:

4. For the vocations of all the young people who have just graduated (even without the pomp and circumstance) from college, high school, and every other place (like the boy in our neighborhood who had a graduation from kindergarten congrats sign on his lawn - too darling!) - and for those of us who will be happy to keep discovering our missions within our vocations, just according to Jesus' sweet will and joy for us. I have in mind a particular daughter of a friend (almost a daughter to me too), and another dear Miss Marcel, and so many more! Add your loved ones (and yourself!) to this list too!

and last but not least:

5. The quick restoration of the Sacraments to us, and us to the Sacraments, with special added graces for all seminarians, deacons, priests, Bishops, and the Holy Father.

We will feel free to add intentions as they arise, and please do so too!
So what will our prayer be?
I have the opportunity to go to Mass right now (and I will be late, as ever, even after such long absences that have made my heart grow fonder) so for now, let's start with these prayers I know by heart. We can add or change later, but for now:

We love You, Jesus, please make us Saints!
Little Flower, in this hour, show your power!
Dear Saint Anthony, please come around, there's something lost (Faith, Health, knowledge of God's will, the sacraments in our daily lives, etc) that must be found!

Draw me Jesus, we will RUN!!!!!!

If I were to simply quote James Taylor and be done with it, the Meaning of Life is enjoying the passing of time. Actually, to quote him more literally (or his song), The Secret of Life is enjoying the Passage of Time. And as with many of James' lyrics, I must say: How true, how true! And with St. Thomas (lest you think I'm as silly all the time as I sound much of the time), "All truth, by whomever spoken, is from the Holy Spirit." The great thing about that St. Thomas quote is that he wasn't (by far) the first to say it! So there you go - as our sister Therese said too, there really is no such thing as intellectual property since it all comes from God and the angels. That isn't an exact quote, but she was firm on the idea and if I had more time, I could get you word for word from her on the topic.

As it is, I don't have much time left. Of my blessed stay in Florida, that is. I am writing this post for Pentecost on the Vigil thereof, and even the morning of the Vigil because my husband and I will travel home today. Please say a little prayer for safe and easy travel that brings us home to our son and community, and please say another little prayer for those we leave behind here: my dear in-laws whom we love so very much!

Dear Jesus, please send Your Holy Spirit upon the Florida Andres that they may bask in Your Love even when those who have enjoyed pouring it upon them are in Calfornia. And also, dear Lord, please send Your angels (with Your mom's permission of course, since You have made her queen over them) to guide Miss Marcel and her Mister home safely and sweetly to all that awaits them there. Bless too, please, all those who have prayed for them - may the kindness of those who have prayed for the Andres rebound and multiply so that it showers down upon them in blessings beyond counting!

There, nothing like saying a prayer together! Which reminds me, before we launch full joy into Pentecost, I would love to say a couple more prayers with you - those Holy Spirit prayers that are so sweet and rich that they kind of remind me of the banana cheesecake I had last night. (A real revelation, as it was not from the Factory of Cheesecare Worship but actually from a nearby pizza place called Grimaldi's which had a kind of pandemic promotional with a slice of the BEST banana cheesecake ever for only $3!). The thing about prayer, though, is that it tastes even better than anything we can put in our mouth food-wise (except Jesus Himself!) because it doesn't pall. It has a thousand varieties (prayer), and I think we maybe need to start a prayer network similar to the food networks. Wouldn't that be fun? A lot like EWTN, so maybe they have it covered already, but there are two food networks now, I think, so maybe someday two Catholic networks too . . .

Meanwhile, here is our reflection from St. Cyril of Jerusalem, followed by our prayer to the Holy Spirit a la St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi (doesn't that a la remind you of mode? I think I'm hungry!).

Reflection from St. Cyril:

His action is different in different people, but the Spirit Himself is always the same. In each person, Scripture says “the Spirit reveals His presence in a particular way for the common good.”

The Spirit comes gently and makes Himself known by His fragrance.
He is not felt as a burden, for He is light, very light. Rays of light and knowledge stream before Him as He approaches. The Spirit comes with the tenderness of a true friend and protector to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen, to console. The Spirit comes to enlighten the mind of the one who receives Him, and then, through him, the minds of others as well.

Prayer Proper from St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, Carmelite (feast May 25):

Come, Holy Spirit. Let the precious pearl of the Father and the Word’s delight come. Spirit of truth, you are the reward of the saints, the comforter of souls, light in the darkness, riches to the poor, treasure to lovers, food for the hungry, comfort to those who are wandering; to sum up, You are the One in whom all treasures are contained. Come! As You descended upon Mary that the Word might become flesh, work in us through grace as You worked in her through nature and grace. Come! Food of every chaste thought, fountain of all mercy, sum of all purity. Come! Consume in us whatever prevents us from being consumed in You.

Draw me, Holy Spirit of Love, we will run! 

You might wonder how we can top that awesome reflection and so lovely prayer. I was wondering that myself until a beautiful Nigerian priest started sending me his collection of novena prayers in preparation for Pentecost. Thank you, Father Ambrose!

What I found in Father's treasure trove just before sleep last night (or maybe it was upon waking this morning - yes, I think that was it) is the perfect Pentecost prayer to cap our novena! Do you ever feel a little letdown at the end of the novena when the feast arrives and you are plumb out of special prayers? I am not a long pray-er, that is, I don't do well with long prayers. But if I find a prayer I love (like the one from St. MM de P above, or my old go-to stand-by, "Come Holy Spirit, enlighten our minds with Your Mind and enflame our hearts with Your Love!"), then when I've said it 9 times over 9 days more or less (haha, usually less!), I like to continue it if I remember (which I pull off for about a day!) because it seems wrong for the culmination of 9 days of prayer to be no more prayer! I don't mean I think it's a sin, but rather it just feels like there ought to be a fast, then a feast, not vice versa!

So to share Fr. Ambrose's gift to me and a feast of a prayer for Pentecost itself, here is - and isn't it too funny when the Marian "brothers" Fr. Gaitley and Fr. Calloway are supplying us hand over fist with consecrations, each one more stunning than the last! - here is a Consecration to the Holy Spirit:

O Holy Spirit of Light and Love,
to You I consecrate my heart, mind, and will for all time and eternity.

May I be ever docile to Your Divine inspirations
and to the teachings of the holy Catholic Church whose infallible guide You are.

May my heart be ever inflamed with the love of God and love of neighbor.
May my will be ever in harmony with Your Divine will.

May my life faithfully imitate the life and virtues of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To Him, with the Father and You, Divine Spirit, be honor and glory forever. Amen! 

Did I say I was worried that we'd run out of prayers once the Holy Spirit arrives in earnest?
I think I implied it, and I know I felt it a smidge, but the thrilling reality is that the day after Pentecost (which enfolds within its Divine embrace the sweet sisterly embrace of Mary and Elizabeth at the Visitation - since Pentecost is May 31st this year) - the day after Pentecost, June 1st, we will begin - God willing - a new novena to prepare our hearts to celebrate - are you sitting down?? -

The 125th anniversary of Therese's Act of Oblation to Merciful Love!

And you know how we little Marcelites are always forgetting things, like to say each day of a novena? Well this is, fittingly enough, the perfect little novena because it doesn't have one single end date feast! Two days after her own Act of Oblation to the Merciful Love of the Good God on June 9, 1897, Therese and Celine made their formal Act of Oblation to the same, together before the family statue of the Virgin of the Smile! So if June 9 scares you with its imminence, you can keep going - forgetting novena prayers or remembering them, as is your custom - until June 11th! On June 9th we also celebrate the feast of the great St. Ephrem the Syrian, poet of Our Lady, deacon and Doctor of the Church. On June 11, we have the feast of the oft-forgot but really terrific St. Barnabas, Apostle - not one of the original 12, but a co-worker with St. Paul, so in that 2nd wave of those we still honor with the name. His day is special to me because on it Jacques and Raissa Maritain, along with Raissa's very beloved sister Vera, were baptized!

All that is coming soon, but I have yet to tell you more exciting news. This is BIG!!!

Yesterday I got a phone call from Nigeria. Yes, that is big too, but it was even bigger in the news it brought. The call was from one of my favorite sons, and in the course of a delightful conversation I was informed that there are more saints in the making. I mean the official canonized kind, and the news is TREMENDOUS! I am so consoled that even plagues can't stop saints from rising to the top and shining down on us like so many bright starts to light our little way. READY??? 

I get my Saint-news from Hagiography Circle - and you can click on that bold name to go there too, when you want to find the latest, although I must admit I usually get my news from a couple Saintly-news-hounds who are quicker to see the news than I am. Then I go to Hagiography Circle!

Here is the latest in saints from that glorious site! I will put the 3 that particularly made my month at the top - I can't believe it, and yet I can. So Thrilling!!!!!!! The others I will include because my heavens, these are our brothers and sisters too, even if we don't know them yet. But ah, those first three are almost a case of read it and weep! Hooray for the Holy Spirit who makes saints and then makes them again, first in their lives of union with Jesus on earth, and then in their glory recognized by holy Mother Church! Alleluia and Woohoo!!

VATICAN CITY - Yesterday, 26 May 2020, Pope Francis received Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in a private audience. In the course of the audience, the Holy Father authorized the Congregation to promulgate decrees regarding:

-  the miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed CHARLES DE FOUCAULD (in religion: CHARLES OF JESUS), priest of the diocese of Viviers; born in Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin (France) on 15 September 1858 and died in Tamanrasset, Tamanghasset (Algeria) on 1 December 1916; beatified on 13 November 2005;

-  the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God MICHAEL McGIVNEY, priest of the archdiocese of Hartford and founder of the Knights of Columbus; born on 12 August 1852 in Waterbury, Connecticut (United States of America) and died in Thomaston, Connecticut (United States of America) on 14 August 1890; heroic virtues confirmed on 15 March 2008;
-  the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God PAULINE-MARIE JARICOT, layperson of the archdiocese of Lyon and founder of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and the Living Rosary Association; born on 22 July 1799 in Lyon, Rhône (France) and died there on 9 January 1862; heroic virtues confirmed on 25 February 1963;

-  the miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed CÉSAR DE BUS, priest and founder of the Congregation of the Father of the Christian Doctrine; born in Cavaillon, Vaucluse (France) on 3 February 1544 and died in Avignon, Vaucluse (France) on 15 April 1607; beatified on 27 April 1975;
-  the miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed MARIA DOMENICA MANTOVANI (in religion: MARIA GIUSEPPINA OF THE IMMACULATA), cofounder and first superior general of the Institute of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family; born on 12 November 1862 in Castelletto di Brenzone, Verona (Italy) and died there on 2 February 1934; beatified on 27 April 2013;
-  the martyrdom of the Servants of God SIMÈON CARDON and 5 COMPANIONS, professed religious of the Cistercian Congregation of Casamari; killed in Casamari, Frosinone (Italy) in odium fidei between 13 and 16 May 1799;
-  the martyrdom of the Servant of God SANTE SPESSOTTO (in religion: COSMA), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor; born on 28 January 1923 in Mansué, Treviso (Italy) and killed in San Juan Nonualco, Zacatecoluca (El Salvador) in odium fidei on 14 June 1980; and,
- the heroic virtues of the Servant of God MELCHIOR-MARIE DE MARION BRÉSILLAC, titular bishop of Prusa, ex vicar apostolic of Coimbatore, and founder of the Society of African Mission; born on 2 December 1813 in Castelnaudary, Aude (France) and died in Freetown (Sierra Leone) on 25 June 1859

*     *     *

As if that weren't enough . . . our dear brother and internet patron Carlo Acutis, whose beatification is scheduled in June in Assisi, may just have that event happen with zoom participation! How perfect that would be! I was lucky enough to be part of a virtual tour of Assisi a few weeks back, and I heard the Bishop of Assisi, the sweetest man ever, talk about how he might go ahead, despite plague time, and possibly do the beatification with world wide participation thanks to the world wide web that so fascinated - and became such a tool of Love for - our brother Carlo. Plus this may be the month I get my act together and write his and Charlene Richard's book at last!

Speaking of books, it is high time I explain the reversal of Babel! Don't hold your breath waiting for the reversal of my own babble - that was a bit of a joke (and sorry if you are disappointed :) - but Babel reversed by Pentecost is much more dependable, and we are doing our little part, even while we continue to babble.

Guess what's new at Little Way Books? 

Thanks to the amazing ladies who help me (God bless you dear M, N, Sr M, LM, and T!), there is another link you can click to get a new free ebook. THIS IS SO AWESOME!!!!!

It is (drum roll please) - the bilingual Spanish/English Stations of the Cross with Our Sister St. Therese!!! Simply go to suzieandres.com (our welcome page) and scroll down until you see the picture of the book - then click on it! Or if you are feeling lazy, or simply want more immediate gratification (and that must be a good thing when these are holy things that gratify!) click HERE!

I can't believe how amazing my elves are. They have helped God shower us with book-miracle-roses, and you will love what you see! The print book will be available at amazon soon, and it is gorgeous! But the ebook is ready now, so enjoy our Pentecost gift and let St. Therese lead you closer into the Heart of Our Love!

And now, I'd better wish you a happy Pentecost and get moving so I can write again soon, though 3000 miles from where I write today! Enjoy the descent of the Holy Spirit - and may the Wisdom, Love, Light, Joy, Peace, and absolute MYSTERY of God fill you with everything you desire and need! (And your loved ones too!) 

Come Holy Spirit!
Draw me, we will run!

P.S. I almost forgot to tell you the meaning of life! I finally got to spend a little time in more quiet prayer this morning (don't feel too sorry for me about that "finally" - it just means I didn't stand in my way as much as I usually do :). And Jesus was kind enough to tell me the Meaning of Life, so I thought I'd better write and tell you before I forget.

The Meaning of Life is God's infinitely tender and solicitous love for us.
or if you want it more in action form (as in, "What is the meaning of life? What should I do?" - well then the Meaning of Life is to Let God Love us. As St. Elizabeth of the Trinity put it, "Let yourself be loved." That's it! Thank You, Holy Spirit, for making it all so simple. And may Your little daughter Therese continue to shower this crazy world with Heavenly Roses in abundance, and even more so!

 Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in a private audience. In the course of the audience, the Holy Father authorized the Congregation to promulgate eight decrees regarding miracles, martyrdom and heroic 

NEWS FLASH!
It is Padre Pio's birthday today! (on earth, where we can Celebrate!!)
So in thanksgiving for him and the graces Our Lord showered upon him (no doubt aided by St. Therese, to whose canonization Padre Pio bilocated in 1925), let us pray to the Sacred Heart of Jesus so loved by our spiritual father!

My petition to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

I need you, precious Jesus,
I need a friend like you;
A friend to soothe and sympathize,
A friend to care for me.
I need your Heart, sweet Jesus,
To feel each anxious care;
I long to tell my every want,
And all my sorrows share.
I need your Blood, sweet Jesus,
To wash each sinful stain;
To cleanse this sinful soul of mine,
And make it pure again.
I need your Wounds, sweet Jesus,
To fly from perils near,
To shelter in these hallowed clefts
From every doubt and fear.
I need you, sweetest Jesus,
In your Sacrament of Love,
To nourish this poor soul of mine
With the treasures of your love.
I'll need you, sweetest Jesus,
When death's dread hour draws nigh.
To hide me in your Sacred Heart,
Till travel safe on high.

*   *   *

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one!"” - C.S. Lewis

Every once in a while I promise (or threaten, depending on your perspective) to write a sequel to my novel The Paradise Project. And full disclosure, about twice as often I practically vow never ever to do so. ​

Why the interior controversy?

Lots of reasons, but in short, because sometimes it seems like the most obvious and brilliant scheme in the world for me to write the sequel. And other times it seems like the worst idea (and least attractive project) ever!

Today it seems almost irresistible.
And why?
My reason suddenly highlights why I often Don't want to write more of Elizabeth's story:
namely, because the most typical form of the novel, and essential to nearly all story telling, is the age-old bottom line basic premise of (shhhhhh, don't let Marcel or Miss Marcel hear you, for they are NOT fans) conflict.

I don't want to have to embroil dear Elizabeth Benning in one more page of misadventure! We spent the first book getting her into and then out of trouble. And now I'm supposed to get her in again?
I won't do it!

But then again . . . sometimes I have a little misadventure myself. A touch of trouble to dim the sunshine of my smile, and then - whoosh, since I am Miss Marcel, Jesus has to come and smooth my brow, console my heart, cheer me up, or what would happen to my world? I don't mean the world that revolves around me. I mean the world I revolve in. You can picture me, even if you haven't met me in 3-D. (Perhaps picture me a little bigger than you might have before plague time and the need for more sugar.) And so picture me revolving. You know, kind of spinning. I actually got to do this recently on one of the walk-talks that have been a way that Jesus cheers me up in plague time.

No, I wasn't walkie-talking with Jesus Himself visibly beside me exactly, though with my Jesus, you might say. I mean I walk talk with my husband, and we were in a really cool place (no people anywhere to be seen, though it was a very formerly public place, but now a pandemic place) with a kind of round raised up table thing-y (believe me, you can start a blog and write to your heart's content without being a natural at describing physical reality!) - and music was playing, piped in just for us (heavens, yes, just occurring to me now, but just precisely like a scene in one of our beloved Bollywood movies) - and so I climbed onto the round raised up table thingy that was BIG - not too high, but let's say the size of a table for 25 - and I twirled a bit.

Or maybe that was the day I was laughingly dancing . . . the twirling was, come to think of it, on level ground, which is good because I'm dizzy even when I'm not spinning!

But my point is that I was revolving in a most literal fashion (not like, "I have a splitting headache, literally!" - which might not be quite what literally usually means, unless you've been cleaved, but revolving literally, just me and space around me and my husband very kindly waiting until I'd had my twirl) . . . and my goodness, what a boring-er world it would be for those in whose worlds I revolve, if Jesus didn't kindly, often through the kindness of said husband, in fact, indulge me.

Well.
Let's take an example.
A really recent one from the last couple of days and now.

The backstory:

I have a public page on Facebook, and maybe it's been plague time for a lot longer than we know, but my posts don't usually have much of a public gathered around them! This is fine with me because the fun is to reach one person, and if I reach two, well that's clearly and distinctly double my hopes, so life is quite expanded!

But since we're trying to be literal today, let me state for the record that I have two public pages on Facebook now. One was started with the help of a couple of lovely women who I'm not sure even know each other. The first is the famous Mimi (I keep thinking she should be famous, she's so awesome, but she's living in Michigan these days and they're pretty locked down, so that might explain the lack of paparazzi surrounding her, or maybe it's her new baby keeping her low profile).

Well Mimi let me use her private page (which you need to have a public page) to set up my public page, and I was a happy parasite, a little barnacle if you will on the side of her FB ship for several years.

The other woman who helped me launch my Facebook career is extraordinary too - all the people I meet are, and I begin to suspect it might be the human condition, which cheers me up to no end! - and she helped me design the Paradise Project page, just because she's kindness and charity and really talented in one smart (both senses at least of the word) package. Thank you, L!

That first public page is The Paradise Project, and if you click on the bold title it will take you there even if you don't personally have or do Facebook. That may be why it's called a public page, and we started it when my Catholic romantic comedy The Paradise Project came out, though the FB page quickly became a place to wish the world a happy feast of Saint What's His (or Her) Fabulous Face, (is that why they call if Facebook?) rather than talk about the novel ad infinitum.

Enter Something New with St. Therese: Her Eucharistic Miracle.
The moment came which L had warned me about right before I forged ahead ignoring her warning: 
If you are an author, perhaps don't name your public page after your current book, or you may be forced to have a new public page for each of your books, as opposed to one streamlined and all inclusive author page.

Sure enough, when not only one but our two new Therese books came out this past March (the other being The Stations of the Cross with Our Sister St. Therese), it was time to put up a more inclusive author page, and so the ever-giving-loving-Mimi helped me start a Suzie Andres, Author page on Facebook (again public), and you can click HERE or on Suzie Andres, Author (wow, a trinity of clickable links, three that get you one!) to get there. It's a lovely page with a wonderful profile picture (not of me exactly but more like a handful of my BFFs), and once again, thank you dear Miriam!!

As it turns out, though, the remarkable Mimi is not only amazing, she's also no dummy! She took the opportunity to pry my little barnacle self off her private ship - she's got another little barnacle attached to her these days, and it was time, she knew, for me to fish or cut bait (just to keep the nautical references going - or the proverbial fishy ones anyhow).

So . . . we came up with THIS, my out to lunch page, that is, my Suzie Andres private, normal, just like someone and anyone might have, where you "have friends."

Except that I needed to let people know that I wasn't planning on doing Facebook like a normal person because, well, I'm not quite normal. Or because I am quite normal and I was afraid that if I did Facebook I might not do anything else (Hi, my name is Suzie, and I'm a Facebookaholic, or would be - no judgment, just where my addictive personality takes me if given a chance - if I had Facebook like a normal person.) . . . and if you check out my "private would-be normal if I were" page HERE, you might discover like I just did (though you might not, because I'm awfully vague on what you see and what I see when we go to one of my pages) that I am actually suzieandres.98 - which is lovely because that is the year, 1898, when Therese's Story of a Soul was first published and took the world by storm (a storm of glory, one of the Pope Pii called it). 

And I must say, the angels were definitely helping the day we set up this new private page (which was necessary so I could have a public page, and also so that Mimi could be free from the ever present danger of my posting a comment on someone else's Facebook page under her assumed identity), because they helped me concoct this fun explanation of why I was immediately ignoring all "friend suggestions" from the ever thoughtful and somewhat obsessed Facebook elves, determined as they are to connect us to each other in the tangled web they weave. 

Not sure I needed any more tangles, I posted this:

"Dear friends, You don't have to ask - you already are my friends! But as to friending on Facebook, I can't actually, for 3 good reasons: 1. old boyfriends :), 2. I literally have 444 unread emails I need to attend to, and I can't imagine adding a FB personal page without losing my grip on reality (I'm already out to lunch, you can see) and 3. I have this page only so I can have my Real Page, namely my Suzie Andres Author Page. If you "follow me" over there, you'll get my posts. Or to have more personal contact, dear-friend-already, contact me through suzieandres.com. I love you! --Suzie"

You see, on a public page, people can like you: how very wonderful! Yes, I have always wanted to be liked and even loved, but moreover, if you go to my Suzie Andres, Author page, and like me or maybe  it is something else you need to do - follow me? - I always forget, but if you do it, then you will get notices (maybe?) when I have a new post up. It's all pretty much a mystery to me, which will help explain what happened next. . .

One day in the not too distant past I got tempted by the syren-song of free advertising in the form of "Boost your post! You have $5.00 credit!" blaring at me from the Facebook truck as it drove through my internet intersection.

And I clicked.

And I don't think anything much happened - or I didn't then, but I do tend to ignore all the emails I get from Facebook about new notifications, and I tend to mostly ignore my pages altogether except when I'm posting something new (these days usually about Something New, haha). But I can't entirely ignore my credit card bill, since it must be paid sometimes, and the other day in doing that dread deed, I discovered the dratted Facebook elves had managed to insinuate themselves into my charges. Twice. As in seemingly recurring. But with different codes each time, so the credit card company can't do much to block them. And the charge wasn't (needless to say?) for free!

Did I mention that to have a Facebook public page, you have to give them your credit card? That was such a long time ago, when we first started to design the page, the wondrously talented L and I, and I seem still to remember a moment when I said, "Really? My credit card? Doesn't that seem like a bad idea?" But L knew the drill, and it was totally necessary (according to their requirements for a public page), and who knew that after some years went by, I'd cave to the syrens?

I do know lots of Syrens in real life, and I would cave to them in a heartbeat, they are so wonderful, trustworthy, and got-your-back, salt of the earth people. But the syren song of post boost, well that was something I shoulda known better than to click.

Apparently, it did boost my post, which is why now instead of seeing the names of some old friends (people I already knew) and some new ones who usually are in some way connected to the old ones, now (as in today) when I finally looked at the "notifications" sent by those thoughtful FB elves, I discovered names (with tiny circular photos) of people who have liked my posts or the pictures that go with them, but whose names and photos - I mean of these people who have liked me - seem, frankly, to be made up by the google elves!

And now we're getting to the heart of the matter which prompted me to write a post not on Facebook but here on Miss Marcel's Musings. The thing that makes me think I might need, after all, to get Elizabeth back into (and out of! I promise!) trouble in a sequel. Because in some essential way her experience reflects mine, and I just had an experience she might want to have to, it's so simultaneously startling and reassuring.

Not to mention crazy!

A few mintues ago, looking at the long-neglected FB notifications page, I realized that one of the new people I've been ignoring, someone who has often "liked" my posts and pictures on Facebook (pictures I post of Jesus, Mary, the Saints, etc.), is an Italian who has for his Facebook profile picture (the one that shows up in that little circle) ---------a photo of me!

Okay, the profile picture is me-Marcel, but in sublime Merle Oberon-as-Cathy of Wuthering Heights fashion, I state my truth fearlessly:

"I AM MARCEL!"

And apparently so is this other guy.
And I can't doubt it because check out the logic:
He is Marcel. 
I am Marcel.
We are the same person.
(and now recall the iconic moment from Home Alone when Macaulay Culkin, the blonde boy, slaps his hands to his cheeks and screams AAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHH just like Charlie Brown, but in live action!)

I should wrap up here and get some sleep - somehow this Facebook moment and my writing about it is happening in the middle of the wee hours - but let me explain a titch more, tie up a few loose ends, and then we can all take a well deserved nap. (Though I'm having lots of fun, and I hope you are too!)

First loose end - the FB recurring advertising charges, the rest of the story:

Apparently I must contact FB (maybe I can friend them?) to attempt to get them to stop charging me for something I never knew I signed up for, and then the credit card company will reimburse the lost funds (about 25 bucks so far, and hey, that would buy a nice copy of Marcel's Conversations for a needy child by Friday!) . . . 

Second loose end - why I clicked on notifications to begin with or at long last:

My feeble attempt to see if Facebook will give me a clue as to why they charged me or how I might uncharge - especially considering their facility with switching up codes to send to the credit card company and the likelihood that I could find myself embroiled in a life long (life in exile, that is) circle of not exactly life but more like Chinese water torture.

Third loose end, and the one that unravels the whole mess:

This Italian Marcel: who is he and what does he want?

Haha, this is the sequel-prompting-part:

He is me, and not only because we share a name and a photo (both belonging originally to Servant of God Marcel Van, the little brother, spiritually speaking, of our sister the Little Flower St. Therese of Lisieux, who spoke to him and taught him her Little Way which he now teaches us, thank Heaven).

No, Italian Marcel has more to answer for than being me upon first glance. (Cue Twilight Zone music) - When I looked below his profile picture to see if it was really me, I found out that he had posted MY FAVORITE PICTURE OF JESUS which no one knows about except Miss Marcel East, and then, as if that weren't eerie enough, he (Italian Marcel-me) posted a beautiful holy card image that I have in my room with me at this moment, along with (his) posting the accompanying prayer to the Sacred Heart with which we began this post, and which is ONE OF MY FAVORITE PRAYERS EVER (albeit I didn't know it until Jack Keogan sent me the holy card a few months ago).

Anything else? 
Why yes, thanks for asking!
It turns out that Italian-Marcel even has the same Italian dad as I do (well of course, since we are the same person how could we have different dads?) - and here is the photo of him (borrowed from Italian me FB page) - our spiritual papa in his gorgeously (and a little crazy cool) incorrupt state: 

Anyhow, this may be more than enough musing for one early morning post, but let me conclude with a quote and photo by and of us little Marcels, as originally posted by Mr. Marcellino, and in tribute to the true identity of all little souls in Jesus:

"Only God knows what you yourself will have to suffer. And He will be there to take you by the hand, to go with you step by step, and to support you in all trials." - Little Brother Marcel Văn CSsR (1928–1959)

I hope you are not suffering! And if you are, I sure hope our post today has lightened your load and let you know you are not alone. You may not have a twin in Italy, but then again, you may have one in Poland or Australia! The world is a fascinating place, and if we're honest with ourselves, what better place could there be for us to learn to love and adore Jesus than here?

I'm such a forgetful Marcel that as I was writing this post, I couldn't recall what post I would be supplanting, and just remembered this very moment that it is our Novena to the Holy Spirit post - or at least the post wherein we ended with our novena reflection (from St. Cyril of Jerusalem) and provided our prayer from none other than today's Saint - the darling and dear St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi. I bet you knew the minute her name started with St. Mary Magdalene that she must be a super special lover of Jesus and us! And she is! You can tell by the prayer we will say with her now, and then do take a nap, because if we're to be ready for the Holy Spirit's powerful action on Pentecost, we'd better catch a few zzzzzzzzz's while we can!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen, Alleluia.

The Spirit comes with the tenderness of a true friend and protector to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen, to console. (St. Cyril)

Come, Holy Spirit. Let the precious pearl of the Father and the Word’s delight come. Spirit of truth, you are the reward of the saints, the comforter of souls, light in the darkness, riches to the poor, treasure to lovers, food for the hungry, comfort to those who are wandering; to sum up, You are the One in whom all treasures are contained. Come! As You descended upon Mary that the Word might become flesh, work in us through grace as You worked in her through nature and grace. Come! Food of every chaste thought, fountain of all mercy, sum of all purity. Come! Consume in us whatever prevents us from being consumed in You.

Draw me, Holy Spirit of Love, we will run! 

*     *     *

p.s. Do visit the post below this one if you want to meet some wonderful new friends among the Saints. Or click HERE to find Fr. Aloysius Ellicuria, the miracle working perfect patron for the archdiocese of Los Angeles at this time when we need Jesus to remain within us as in so many tabernacles! You'll find Fr. Aloysius' charisms, miracles, virtues, and friendship (yes, he wants to be friends with you!) in a spectacular book written by Fr. Charles Thomas Carpenter, who is himself also wonderful (if not quite as full of wondrous charisms, Padre Pio style, as Fr. Aloysius).

Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints!!!
St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, St. Gregory VII, and St. Bede the Venerable, pray for us!
And just a day early but always in God's perfect timing:
St. Philip Neri, pray for us! And saintly Fr. Al Hewett, on the anniversary of your ordination, so fittingly on May 26, the jovial St. Philip's day, please pray for us and obtain for us the miracles you prayed for in your life and death and recent Divine Mercy birth into eternal life!

Below: Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament overlooks His flock from the Carmelite church of St. Therese in the archdiocese of Los Angeles

In 1959, Mother Joachina de Vedruna of Spain was canonized - It was 105 years after she died at age 71, having been a mother in every sense: she was married as a girl, gave birth to 9 beautiful children, was widowed, raised her children and then at age 43 she founded the Carmelite 3rd Order Sisters of Charity for the care of the sick and the education of children, especially the poor.

St. Joachina lived from 1783 to 1854, the very year of the proclamation and official definition of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception, and just 4 years before St. Louis Martin married St. Zelie, his beautiful and holy wife, mother of his own 9 children, 5 of whom lived to enter religious life, and youngest of whom was our Little Flower!

But don't think that St. Joachina then simply died after her busy and full earthly life. Oh no, she was born again into Heaven, the Real Life her earthly days had anticipated!

Wonderfully, her order which she founded under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with the charism of Carmel was joined to and became part of the overarching order I belong to, the Carmelites reformed by St. Teresa (my holy mother) and St. John of the Cross (my holy father), namely, the Discalced Carmelites, and so I have special access to St. Joachina as we start our Novena to the Holy Spirit today on her feast.

Are you ready for it? This is that first novena and leads us, as it led the Apostles and disciples and holy women, under the loving gaze and maternal presence of Our Lady, from Jesus' Ascension to the Holy Spirit's coming in a blaze of Fire, Love, and Truth on Pentecost. This year Pentecost Sunday falls on May 31st, usually our Feast of the Visitation of Mary to her cousin St. Elizabeth on that delightful occasion when the Holy Spirit tickled baby John the future Baptist while he was still in utero, and he leaped in Elizabeth's womb! How wonderful a conjunction of days!

Can you imagine how many experiences St. Joachina had in her life on earth? And I bet her life in Heaven has been even busier and fuller - no doubt! Here is what she says to us today:

"If only we were all on fire with love for God! If we were, we should preach love, proclaim love, and yet more love, until we had set the whole world on fire. We must have great desires: then God will give us whatever is best for us.

"We must not give in to weariness: we must spend every minute in loving God. God alone, the maker of heaven and earth, must be our rest and our consolation. The love of God is the only thing we can possess for ever: everything else will pass away!

"Love, love, and yet more love - love that is never satisfied! The more we love God, the more we shall long to love Him. And when we have Jesus in our hearts, we shall have everything else in Him and with Him."

I have been reading this morning about another religious sister, this one closer to our own day, Sister Mary Mediatrix, who was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 4, 1911, and lived until the same year as Marcel. They went to Heaven almost at the same time, so that makes them almost twins, their birthdays being nearly the same (Real Birthdays into Real Life, that is!).

Sister MM was born into Eternal Life on June 9, 1959. This was only 3 months and 2 weeks after St. Therese's "sweet echo" and sister Celine went to Heaven, and - ready for this? - only 1 month and 1 day before Marcel followed them into the Beatific Vision. I wonder if Sister Mary Mediatrix procured special graces for Marcel in his last days. I'm sure she did, because although she was a Servant of the Holy Heart of Mary, she had begun her attempts at religious life by spending about 3 years as a Discalced Carmelite! And her first name in religion, in the Carmelites? This was in the early 1930's, just a few years after our little sister Therese's canonization, and Frances Hennessey (the future Sister Mary Mediatrix) was given the name Sister Theresa!

No doubt when Sister MM, who had left the Carmelites only when asked on account of poor health, eventually got to heaven (at aged 48), she was excited to meet St. Therese, her first patroness and the one whose language she had adopted in speaking of God, Who was, to her, Merciful Love. But we can guess that Therese herself, though delighted to meet Sister MM whom no doubt she'd had a hand in bringing to Heaven to help her, was immediately occupied with delegating certain buckets of her roses to Sister MM that she might shower them on our own little Marcel, who was - we might say - in his final retreat of preparation for Heaven precisely at that time . . . 

But believe it or not, both Sister Mary Mediatrix and St. Joachina are merely friends who have come to help us meet the real guest of honor at our blog today. His name, the third person I'd like to introduce you to, and in this novena time why not associate him with the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit, because WOW - our newest BFF is going to knock your socks off, just like the Holy Spirit will (unless He goes the "quiet vo.ice" route with you this year) . . . his name (our guest of honor) is Fr. Aloysius Ellicuria, C.M.F

It is my honor to present this Claretian priest who, like his holy founder St. Anthony Mary Claret, is from Spain, but wonderfully for us, unlike his holy founder, spent many years in the U.S. First Fr. Aloysisus was in Illinois, where he knew Sister Mary Mediatrix from 1939 to 1942 (a period in which their love of God grew through their spiritual friendship, and their mystical gifts confirmed each other's authenticity), and then he was in Los Angeles from 1942 till his own birth into eternal life in 1981 - though this stay in Los Angeles, where he was a great and loving saint ministering with his many charisms to innumerable souls, was punctuated by years also in Mexico, Arizona, and even in Fatima (1971 - 1973) where he founded a movement that was not quite a religious order, but a band of priests, religious, and lay people dedicated to proclaiming the love and beauty of Our Lady's Immaculate Heart until the end of time. 

The reason I'm caught up now in these two new friendships (and their own friendship) is thanks to an old friend of mine, a schoolmate who is now a priest in Denver and who contacted me through this website so that he could ask where to procure a print copy of Something New for St. Therese: Her Eucharistic Miracle.  I've put the link right there in the title, so you can click to find the answer I gave Fr. Gary, but much more interesting is the information he gave me, namely that I needed to meet two of his friends, Sister MM and Father Aloysius Ellacuria, C.M.F. - both of whom had this Eucharistic miracle as well!!!

Well you coulda knocked me over with a feather, and you could again because I really need to eat breakfast (as lunchtime, or at least elevenses fast approach in my time zone as I write). Let's make this short and sweet then. Fr. Aloysius is amazing - he read souls, he healed, he lived in the Presence of God, and this last in no doubt more than one way, but most strikingly, just like the founder of his order, the great St. Anthony Mary Claret, Fr. Aloysius had this special gift Therese is just pushing and pleading for us to have too, especially now when we are deprived (seemingly) of sacramental Holy Communion.

You know Therese, don't you?
She wants ALL. She said that, as a girl when offered something from a basket of doll clothes that her older sister Leonie was ready to part with. First Celine, her next oldest up sister and bosom friend and constant companion chose from the basket. Celine was a terrific kid and later a fabulous person, and she politely and gratefully took a few things from the basket. Therese, when her turn came next, simply said, "I CHOOSE ALL!" and took the whole dang basket for her own! Did anyone object? No! Why not give her all if she wanted all? And so it went....and now she wants ALL of us to ask for ALL of God.

Spiritual communion? Great idea.
Actual Communion? WAY BETTER!
I CHOOSE ALL, she would have us say.

Pandemic keeping you from Jesus still? I don't know where you live, and I hope and pray right now that you are already reunited with Him. But if you are from where I am from, in the very archdiocese of Los Angeles where Fr. Aloysius spent so much time, then it's likely you have not yet had your reunion with God at Holy Mass.

As for me, I might be apart from His sacramental-presence-in-church-and-in-Mass-and-Holy-Communion-there for quite some time, due to my living with my dear father in law Paul who is high risk for covid so we are majorly self quarantined on his behalf. I can only praise God for this grace and privilege of tucking in Paul's feet at night, and making him nourishing and hydrating smoothies and meals the rest of the time . . . not to mention doing jigsaw puzzles with my dear niece, doing dishes while we sing Disney princess songs, and working betwixt and between long distance with several wonderful women on the East and West coasts of the U.S., in the mid-West or our sprawling country and (really and truly) in my little brother Marcel's country of Vietnam, to get the bilingual Spanish-English and Vietnamese-English Stations of the Cross with our Sister St. Therese out and available . . . 

But this is a matter of Jesus' whims (what I do to look busy). The real point is union with Him.
And how can He accomplish this?

If you are asking that question, I am afraid (just a little, and amused too, so no worries) that you may not have read very far yet into Therese's magnum opus, Something New . . . You can start right now by going to the top of this page and clicking the PDF version and you will begin to know what He is wanting to do for you too!

I'll tell you something here, though, in the body of this happy blog, something new that is not in the book. A great friend of St. Therese, Monsignor Ken Loughman, told me a couple of months ago to Hurry Up for Heaven's Sake and Publish This Book (which is now done, praise the good Lord) and Please Stop Putting More People into it, because at this rate YOU would never be able to read it.

It was great advice, and he was so adamant that I just got in the old starship and went at our sister Therese's usual speed (hyperdrive), and WHOOSH the book is instantly available - FOR FUN AND FOR FREE - as an ebook, and also (for a little bit of dinero, but well worth it) as a print book . . . which gives me just a speck of time, now that my major work is done, to follow up on leads to other saints who had this miracle, and equally exciting: to share the pith of their joy here with you!

So this is the "not in this edition of the book, but man, this is AWESOME" news for today, as taken from the notes of Sister Mary Mediatrix.

April 10, 1941
Holy Thursday
After receiving Holy Communion this morning, Jesus allowed me to participate in His joy in the gift He made to Father Aloysius of remaining Eucharistically present in him from one Communion to another. Jesus exercises this Divine Power to satiate His love for souls . . . 

Yep! That's it!
He's done it again!
And what do you think? Is Jesus ready for a break?
Or is He, perhaps, still thirsty for our love?

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He begged the Samaritan woman at the well for water, and He cries out from His Cross of Love, "I thirst!"

Will you give Him to drink by inviting Him to remain in you, too, as in a tabernacle?

He will do it, but you don't need to be afraid, because He will bring His own fun, as my mom used to encourage us to do. He has no illusions about what wonderful company we'll be. Of course we'll be great company! We are, after all, so darn funny! Think of the millions of silly things we do each day! How could Jesus not find us extremely entertaining? But more than that, He loves us. He just wants to sit beside us (or within us) and watch us sleep our lives away, like young parents would like to do - watch their children sleep - if only they weren't so blasted tired that they fall asleep too!

Ah, but Jesus Risen and Ascended doesn't quite sleep in the way He did back in His days on earth.
Yeah, yeah, I said He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He is, so don't blame me if you find Him asleep in the boat of your soul when you invite Him to remain there! But my point is that He will be so comfy in your poor boat. He loves you!

Think of the young engaged couples - do you know any? I know probably a dozen (lucky as I am to be associated with a Catholic college which will tend to produce happy Catholic marriages, and even luckier as I am to have a 30 year old son whose good Catholic friends are at that moment in their lives too). And these couples planning to get married this summer (or in the past month already) are being creative about how they do it.

Cancel the plans.
Forget the party.
Get married and live happily ever after.
It's kind of like stories from World War II - you get married quick while you can, and that way you can have the joy of marriage even amidst the suffering of a time of crisis.

I hope this isn't a time of crisis for you, but it is a bit of a plague and pandemic, so first off, congrats to all those young couples I know who are saying, "Let's do it! Let's tie the knot - all we need is a license, a priest, and two witnesses standing a good distance from us!" And secondly, major congrats to you too, because if you haven't yet invited Jesus to come live with you in the marriage of your soul with His, well, don't worry, my novena to the Holy Spirit will have that intention at the top of my long list of intentions! 

St. Therese said it. "Yes, I feel it, Jesus wills to give us the same graces, He wills to give us His Heaven gratuitously . . .Since we see the way, let us run together!"

So cancel the big "I must become a saint and then I can invite Jesus over" plans.
Forget the party - you're going to fall asleep on your honeymoon with Jesus, just like the apostles did the night they first received Him!
And just go for it - get married to Jesus, as it were - plight your troth, throw in your poverty with His riches, and live happily ever after - you, likely as idiotic as ever (nothing personal, it's the human condition!) and He as magnificently Divine as He always was, is, and always will be!

Having harangued you into happiness (I hope!) we have one more bit of housekeeping at MMM today. We need a novena prayer for saying the next 9 days or so, don't you think?
 
I have a gorgeous passage that comes to us from St. Cyril of Jerusalem, thanks to another saintly Carmelite sister of mine, C.M. (thanks, sis!). See what you think of it, and I hope you love it like I do. It will sound more like a reflection than a prayer, but then we can follow it up with an actual prayer from the adorable St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, a Florentine Carmelite famous (in my world) for her exuberant joy on finding a gorgeous rose on a rose bush, and leaping about the her monastery with it, singing of God's great love for her. Nothing like a little joy to make you look crazy! The story of my life, and I love knowing I'm not the first! Here we go then, and I'm so glad you are here. No worries, about anything anymore ever, least of all about whether you manage a Big Novena of This Reflection and This Prayer for 9 consecutive days. Just love and do what you will, and we'll trust God to hear us! If our guardian angels have time (in between saving us over and over) to remind us, we can keep praying to the Holy Spirit bigly, but if we are just our usual Marcel-ian weakness and forgetfulness, let's rejoice that He is Never going to forget to love us. Alleluia, He is risen and ascended as He said!

Little Jesus, we offer you this worry as a sacrifice. (And now, per Mama Mary's instructions, peace!)

Novena Prayer for Little Souls as Pentecost approaches, Mother (month of May) 2020

Reflection by St. Cyril of Jerusalem on the Holy Spirit (to be read daily if desired and remembered, or simply now):

His action is different in different people, but the Spirit Himself is always the same. In each person, Scripture says “the Spirit reveals His presence in a particular way for the common good.”

The Spirit comes gently and makes Himself known by His fragrance.
He is not felt as a burden, for He is light, very light. Rays of light and knowledge stream before Him as He approaches. The Spirit comes with the tenderness of a true friend and protector to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen, to console. The Spirit comes to enlighten the mind of the one who receives Him, and then, through him, the minds of others as well.

Prayer Proper from St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, Carmelite (feast May 25):

Come, Holy Spirit. Let the precious pearl of the Father and the Word’s delight come. Spirit of truth, you are the reward of the saints, the comforter of souls, light in the darkness, riches to the poor, treasure to lovers, food for the hungry, comfort to those who are wandering; to sum up, You are the One in whom all treasures are contained. Come! As You descended upon Mary that the Word might become flesh, work in us through grace as You worked in her through nature and grace. Come! Food of every chaste thought, fountain of all mercy, sum of all purity. Come! Consume in us whatever prevents us from being consumed in You.

Draw me, Holy Spirit of Love, we will run! 

Let's pray, darling sisters and brothers, let's pray for each other these next 9 days, even if only through our implicit offering of all we happen to suffer (like not being in Heaven just yet!). If we fall and fail, more weakness to us and more power to God, our Father, Savior, and Friend! What a wonderful bargain - we shall be nothing, and He shall be ALL - and let's remember to repeat with Therese (this might be a more fitting novena for our very little souls):

Come Holy Spirit!
I CHOOSE ALL!

You might say I'm a day late, but in this time of great feasts, I rather feel that would be like accusing our glass of being half full just because we're sharing! Have you felt the joy and love of Our Lady's month yet? If you have, welcome to the club. And if not? Welcome to the club and doubly so - there is so much joy to be had for the taking, and we're here to share it! 

To give you the whole situation (in which we find ourselves, and you too, now that you've joined us), we tried to celebrate May 13th yesterday, but there are so many Our Ladies on that day that we couldn't possibly manage to cram them all in without squashing Little Jesus in her arms!

The sequel? We've decided to spread the Marian joy over at least a triduum - perhaps for an octave or the rest of our lives! - because waste not, want not, as the saying goes. And why want in any kind of unsatisfied way when we could simply fulfill all our hearts' desires by resting in the capacious lap of any one of these marvelous Mamas?

The first picture above (If you're using a computer start on the left; on a phone it will show up on the top), is an image of Our Lady of Fatima. Shall I make this easier on us all? Let's just say that anything you want to know about her love for us and our love for her can be found HERE. (If you click on HERE, you'll get there!)

In the middle of our photo gallery we have (from left to right): Marcel, a delicious glass of chocolate milk, and Therese. Not much to say there except that in lieu of "the making of this post" documentary film, which we don't have any time to make these busy days, let me tell you that the glass of chocolate milk looked so yummy, I had to go make myself one before I could continue writing! And might I add that this is the most delicious plague I've ever found myself a part of? Feel free to go make yourself a cold or hot drink of something delightful, and meanwhile let's say, "Thank You, Jesus, for taking care of us, and please take care of all Your children throughout the world!"

Underneath our brother and sister drinking together, you'll find a photo of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament. This title was given to Mom by our big brother St. Peter Julian Eymard, the great French apostle of the Blessed Sacrament. Thanks to St. Peter's love and inspiration, there is a feast of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament celebrated even now by his religious congregations on May 13 - sharing the day with Fatima because Peter's devotion came a few decades before Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia's.

But my favorite picture of those that top our post today is the one that comes last. Let me post it here again so that you can get a better look at it:

Can you see our little brother Marcel gracing the cover of his Conversations just above these words?

If you look above him, you'll see St. Therese, our sister, and above her, Mary, our Mother.

We sure enjoy lots of different loving gazes from the Immaculate Heart and compassionate eyes of our sweet heavenly Mom, but of all her looks of love, this image both reveals and hides one of her kindest glances ever.

Therese describes for us in Story of a Soul what she saw in Our Lady's face on May 13, 1883 (which was Pentecost that year), and she writes:

"All of a sudden the Blessed Virgin appeared beautiful to me, so beautiful that never had I seen anything so attractive; her face was suffused with an ineffable benevolence and tenderness, but what penetrated to the very depths of my soul was the ravishing smile of the Blessed Virgin. At that moment, all my pain disappeared, and two large tears glistened on my eyelashes, and flowed down my cheeks silently, but they were tears of unmixed joy. Ah! I thought, the Blessed Virgin smiled at me, how happy I am . . ."

And the physical image of Our Lady through which our Heavenly Mother smiled at Therese and cured her when our little sister was mysteriously ill in her childhood?

It's the statue of Our Lady of the Smile which you can find in the chapel of the Carmel of Lisieux when you go there! And don't let's any of us imagine that we'll never get there, because I am living proof that miracles still happen and Our Lady will bring us to Lisieux whether we want to go or not! 

Take my poor husband as an example.

One year ago, he found himself before this very image of Our Lady in the chapel of the Carmel of Lisieux, yes, right there with me and Marcel and Therese, one year ago exactly! If ever there was a man who didn't imagine or desire himself in that spot, it was my sweet husband - and don't think he ended up there because I forced him. I had given up asking, begging, pleading, cajoling, and trying to trick him into accidentally (or purposely) taking me there long before he actually did it. 

Okay, so the jury is out, and yet to be perfectly honest, we don't know if Tony actually took me to Lisieux. There is a theory (I'm not saying who started it, but it has merit and ought to be considered among the possible causes of my ending up in Lisieux a year ago this week) that the real Tony was abducted by aliens and Alien Tony was the one who took me to Lisieux. (The pod people having replaced him with his Martian double, or something like that. I'm not super clear on how these things work, so I only share what I can piece together about this unsolved mystery.) The one glaring problem with this theory is the feelings it evokes. I liked Alien Tony fine, but I felt sorry for Alien Tony's wife on her planet. She had been expecting a special trip just when I wasn't, and while I ended up in Lisieux, she ended up with my own Tony who acted completely natural reading a book in her living room and playing solitaire on the floor instead of taking her anywhere exotic! And when he said, "Isn't that just like me?" she must have been as startled, bemused, and nearly beside herself with confusion as I was when Alien Tony said the same thing to me, after proposing we go to Lisieux!

Anyway, however God worked it, we went! And of course we took Marcel, and thus we helped Therese to finally fulfill her promise to him! And if you think I'm taking too much credit by blithely noting that it was Tony and I who fulfilled a promise Therese made to Marcel in 1946 and took a long 73 years to fulfill (aha! the very year Therese was born! I feel like St. Augustine reading the Bible, finding meaning in every seemingly random but actually Providential number!) - well listen to my explanation and see if you can doubt its nearly demonstrative level of certainty.

Not only did we take Marcel to Lisieux last May (one year ago this week, as I've been announcing for a couple of days to anyone within earshot, for such joy as mine cannot be repressed!), and not only did this pilgrimage fulfill a conversation that he and Therese had in 1946 (which was recorded, thankfully, by Marcel in his Conversations with Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese which you can find HERE), but get this:

Whenever I want to find a particular passage in Conversations, invariably I can't! I have to search and search, and then often I give up and just take what Marcel and Jesus give me. Considering that they always give me manna, I can hardly complain (or rather I know I'd better not - the Israelites found that out the hard way!), but if I may say so, it's a bit annoying!

Today, however - I mean just now a moment ago, when I opened my handy copy of Convos to find this passage - VOILA! There it was on the first page that met my eyes! This is perhaps to some a poor proof of my pudding, but let me just say, "Oh ye of little faith! Really, believe me, this is unprecedented to find the very passage I'm looking for!" 

And so without further fuss and delay, let me quote from Marcel's book, around (632) or better yet (as a reference point) from the entry he wrote on 7 Mother 1946, "Mother" being his adorable name for May, since both are in honor of Mary! 

As usual, I could quote page after page, because there are pages here which are the best pages in the world! (We make an exception for the pages of Holy Scripture, but otherwise, I stand my holy ground.) Happily for all of us, though, today's pertinent words are pithy and perfectly to the point, so here we go.

Therese tells Marcel: "In a short while I will take you to France, so that you may enjoy the countryside at your leisure."

Not to delay the punch line, but might I interject for the sake of clarity?

I recently had two friends, one from Canada and the other from Vietnam, ask me for clarification in the nicest possible way. Their queries were similar, and went something like this: "Suzie, you write a blog called Miss Marcel's Musings, you bandy about names like they were going out of style, you talk about someone called Marcel who was the brother of Therese - and could you please explain what in God's creation you are talking about?" 

So for those who may be stumbling upon this blog, as well as those who would like a refresher on what and whom I mean, let me explain that Therese is St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower. She lived in France from 1873 to 1897, and then flew the coop and resides (since that time) in Heaven on the lap of Jesus, when she is not on the lap of Mary. She is quite a busy little lap-dog, though (if we may call her so, and I'm sure she wouldn't mind a bit) and by any and every means at her disposal - and in Heaven, while no one is ever mean, there are lots of means! - she spends her eternity showering roses on those stuck in exile, here below. O happy victims of the shower of roses! That would be us - we, her siblings whom she loves to aid and abet, and you will begin to see her roses everywhere if you only look around!

In 1946, some of Therese's time (or eternity) in heaven was spent conversing on earth with a little Vietnamese boy, Marcel Van (1928 - 1959) who was a novice in the Redemptorists (the religious order founded by St. Alphonsus de Ligouri) in Hanoi, Vietnam. 

Little Brother Marcel Van, at this point around 17 years old, was told by Jesus, but more importantly by his spiritual director (whom they lovingly called "bearded Jesus") to write down these conversations with St. Therese, as well as those he had with Jesus and Mary. He did write them down, and later his spiritual director (the Canadian missionary Fr. Antonio Boucher, C.S.s.R.) translated them from Marcel's Vietnamese into French, which the good and amazing Jack Keogan more recently translated into English for the likes of us. The book of Marcel's chats with Jesus, Mary, and Therese is called, fittingly, Conversations, and is the book we here at Miss Marcel's Musings prefer to every other, except the Bible. 

So getting back to the conversation Marcel and Therese had a week and 74 years ago (my, how time flies! It feels like this was yesterday!), Therese has just finished telling Marcel that she will "in a short while" take him to France, her home country which Jesus loves very much. Since Marcel is in Vietnam, his own home country (also beloved by Jesus but it seems Jesus loves France with a very special love of predilection), and all of us like time to prepare and pack for a trip to a foreign land, naturally he asks Therese about their trip:

"But, my sister, when will that happen?"

Therese answers, "That will happen later, no other time."

To which Marcel, no dummy, though sometimes as silly as any among us, replies, "Later, that surely means when I am in heaven, not anything else. But when I am in heaven, even if you do not take me there, I will go to France nevertheless to see if the children are well behaved."

And do you know what happened next?

Well, if you fast forward to last year (from 1946, or alternately you can rewind if you feel quite stuck in 2020), we took Marcel with us to France! And jumping jellybeans, he was much less surprised than we were that at last the three of us found ourselves there - first talking to his own postulator, the wonderful Benedictine monk Pere Olivier de Roulhac at the Abbey of Saint Wandrille in Normandy, and then surrounded by all of St. Therese's special places in the life-changing, flower-filled city of Lisieux.

Do you want to see pictures? Do you want to know if the children were well behaved?

They were very well behaved, in fact, and we knew this because Therese played a great joke on us and we arrived in Lisieux at the same time as the annual pilgrimage of Catholic school children from Paris! How magnificent our little sister is! And how funny! She had been waiting 74 years to play this joke on Marcel, just as if she'd promised, "Sure, I'll let you get a glimpse of my children and you can see how well behaved they are in France. Very well behaved indeed!"

Yes, how they were! Just look!

Suffice it to say that I can never express my gratitude for being allowed to go to Lisieux in the company of my husband, my sister Therese, and most of all my little brother Marcel Van, but I'll keep trying!

And if you want the complete picture of what I learned from our pilgrimage, and what I continue to learn from my husband and our sister and brother in this month of Mary - or to be more specific, what I learn about Jesus' best little way for us to get to heaven - let me give you one last image.

This final photo was not taken a year ago in a land of beauty far, far away, but was taken a couple of days ago in the land of beauty I find myself inhabiting now. I don't know if Mary, Our Lady of Ladies, has often been compared to a Mama Duck, but Marcel and Therese have taught me that we should never be afraid to liken her to every beautiful thing in Heaven and on earth!

We love to pray simply here, and the prayer of our blog usually ends with the short cry of the heart we offer together:

Draw me, we will run!

But now, a last thought to go with our last photo:

Plague time being such a time of sheltering in place, let us shelter in Our Lady and not worry about a thing. And when she is ready to lead us - as she always does - to the Living Water, we can waddle happily behind her to our very Happiest Place - none other than Jesus, her firstborn, our brother, best friend, and Spouse of our souls, Who forever makes all things new!

I received the most marvelous letter from Jack Keogan today. He is the British translator of Marcel Van into English (from the French of Fr. Boucher - Marcel's "bearded Jesus"), and as you will see from this correspondence, he is still smitten with his little brother. Aren't we all? But as you will also see, the letter wasn't written to me personally, but rather to all who are the little brothers and sisters of Therese's little brother Marcel - and as a dear priest friend once said when I told him I had just discovered Marcel - "What? I thought everyone who had Therese as a sister already had Marcel as a brother?" Well, yes indeedy that is truer than true, but sometimes it takes a while for family members to really get to know each other!

Perhaps you know Marcel (if at all) as the author of Conversations, the book I'm forever recommending here. Or possibly you've heard of or read about - or, lucky you, even read - Marcel Van's Autobiography. Or is it the case that like me you are interested in his letters?

If any of these are true, or all or none, you will enjoy hearing Jack's thought-for-the-day, which culminates in a very beautiful novena idea. Let the joy begin! Here is what Jack wrote:

Mother 2020

Dear friends,
First of all may I apologise for the absence of any communication from me for a while. Early in the New Year I became ill with pneumonia and life was further complicated by a badly burnt hand which required further hospitalisation. So, my little bulletins (which have no official status) ceased temporarily.

I was prompted to write to you again yesterday, May 1st.

I was flicking through Volume 4 of the Complete Works of Marcel Van; "Other Writings" when I realised what a treasure trove of spirituality it contained. Because it has 3 quite voluminous books before it in the pecking order it may be neglected, which is a pity. Vols. 1 and 2 may provide the main courses which Brother Marcel has to offer, and what substantial courses they are! But Volume 4 provides some enchanting hors - d'oeuvre which whet the appetite for more.

As a young man Brother Marcel was enchanted by the beauty of nature and the arrival of spring which he saw as a metaphor for his spiritual feelings and particularly for his love of his Mother Mary. He liked to refer to the month of May as the month of Mother which explains the date I have put at the top of this letter.

Here is a poem he wrote in 1953.

Mary, my Mother, give me your love!...…….

Today, on the hill, are the wind and the flowers...
On breathing the sweet and gentle air,
My heart lightens in a frank smile
Today, it is the month of Mary!
It is not surprising that all is covered in greenery,
That the wind sings in the poplar trees,
And makes a sweet music heard in the hearts of men.
It is not surprising that the flowers display their fresh colours,
That the plants and the trees sway unceasingly.
In a word, that all exhales beauty,
Since it is the month of the Virgin of Paradise
My heart lights up.
This evening, I offer you
the pure flower of my soul,
in eternal decoration.


May I make a suggestion [Jack continues]:
We could use this verse as the prayer of a novena to Our Lady to seek her aid during this Covid19 crisis. Each of us could use his/her own date for starting the novena. We could complete it with: "Brother Marcel join us in this prayer."

Yours sincerely, Jack.


*    *    *

Isn't that wonderful?
And so I invite you to join us in a Marian Marcellian novena!

I know Our Blessed Mother can't resist the flattery of her so beloved children, which we are! Kind of reminds me of the time my then-8-year-old (or so) looked up at me just before I was going to scold him and said with sincerity, "Mom, you're beautiful when you're angry!" I'm sure that even if Mother Mary was a little peeved with us (which I'm sure she isn't, but we do get the strangest ideas into our pea-brains), she'd melt straight off when she heard us recite Marcel's poem to her. 

I'm always the littlest of the little, and so I will shorten the poem for my Miss Marcel musings, and in doing so highlight the part I love best. This part comes at the end, which is proof to me that Marcel liked this part best too. After he'd written these final lines, he just up and stopped writing the whole poem because he'd got the words right, to match the sentiment. Ah, glorious poetry!

In a word, that all exhales beauty,
Since it is the month of the Virgin of Paradise.
My heart lights up.
This evening, I offer you
the pure flower of my soul,
in eternal decoration.

And now, I'm sure Jesus, Marcel, and Jack too will be proud of my decision. It's time for a nap! Sweet dreams, and we can conclude:

Brother Marcel, join us in this prayer.
Draw me, little Jesus, we will run!!!

You've got to hand it to Murillo - he sure does know how to capture St. Joseph and little Jesus!

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, we've got several pictures that speak to us today, and one gorgeous prayer that has obtained for me many favors in the past. I think it's because, far from imagining St. Joseph to take his sweet time, this prayer reminds him how quick and prompt he is to answer.

Can you imagine when Jesus called him? "Papa! Daddy!" I'm sure St. Joseph was captivated every time! So, too, when we call upon St. Joseph today, let's remind him: We are Jesus' little sisters and brothers! Dear Papa Joseph, hear our prayer and respond as if you are answering your dear little Jesus Himself! Only now that you are so happy in Heaven with our Savior and our Immaculate Mother, please obtain for us all that we need for ourselves and the whole world! And give our brother Marcel a quick tickle for us, too!

Awesome Prayer to the wonderful St. Joseph, our father, guardian, and friend:

With childlike confidence I present myself before you, O holy Joseph, faithful foster father of Jesus! I beg your compassionate intercession and support in this, my present necessity. . .

I firmly believe that you are most powerful near the throne of God, who chose you for the foster father of His well-beloved son, Jesus Christ. O blessed Saint, who saved that treasure of heaven, with His virginal mother, from the fury of His enemies, who with untiring industry supplied His earthly wants and with paternal care accompanied and protected Him in all the journeys of His childhood, take me also, for the love of Jesus, as your child. Assist me in my present difficulty with your prayers before God. The infinite goodness of Our Savior, who loved and honored you as His father upon earth, cannot refuse you any request now in heaven.

How many pious souls have sought help from you in their needs and have experienced, to their joy, how good, how ready you are to assist. How quickly you turn to those who call upon you with confidence! How powerful you are in bringing help and restoring joy to anxious and dejected hearts! Therefore, do I fly to you, O most worthy father of Jesus, most chaste spouse of Mary! Good St. Joseph, I pray you by the burning love you had for Jesus and Mary upon earth, console me in my distress and present my petition, through Jesus and Mary, before the throne of God! One word from you will move Him to assist my afflicted soul. Then most joyfully shall I praise Him and you, and most earnest shall be my thanksgiving! Amen!

Draw me, little Jesus who so loves St. Joseph, we will run!

Let's face it, who can resist her?

And so, on this feast of St. Louis de Montfort (also feast of St. Peter Chanel, feast of mama St. Gianna Molla, and vigil of the feast of the great Dominican St. Catherine of Siena) - anyone want to join me and Marcel for a 33 day immersion into preparation to consecration to Jesus through Mary?

Wow, that was a mouthful, but this is quite an idea that a dear friend suggested to me today. It turns out that if we start today (and what better day than St. Louis' feast?) we will end and consecrate ourselves (or re-consecrate ourselves) on the Feast of the Visitation!! That is May 31, a Sunday this year, and - HOLY MOLEY!!! - actually Pentecost!!! And the next day? Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church! So....do you feel it? That breath of the Holy Spirit? Do you hear it? That small voice that is Wisdom? And do you sense it? A push in the small of the back - that is usually St. Therese, in my experience, but may be your guardian angel....

So in the interests of Love, I'm going to share a letter I wrote to friends on this topic and have been sending around this morning (without the crazy fun news of Pentecost right in there and Our Lady hiding behind the Holy Spirit, just where she is happiest). And then I'm going to share the words of Our Lady of Guadalupe to us (through St. Juan Diego) because, as two friends reminded me on Our Lady of Good Counsel day: Don't forget who butters your bread!

Actually they said it in other words entirely, but what I understood from their two sweet messages (one with a gorgeous hand-painted image of Our Lady of Guadalupe attached!) is that my trying to set Our Lady's True Image aside - as expressed on Juan's tilma and preserved perfectly to this very moment - well, that would be like forgetting my mama altogether! So welcome back, dear Mother Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and please shower us with even more Castilian roses than ever! 

+     +     +

Today is the feast of St. Louis Marie de Montfort, and a dear friend in Carmel just wrote and mentioned that it is also a great day to start a 33 day consecration because this would end on the Feast of the Visitation (May 31).

WOW!

I am thinking I could really use to renew my consecration to Mary.
My original consecration date is December 8, in honor of the Immaculate Conception, but golly, the Visitation!? How about asking Our Lady and little Jesus in her womb to grant all the necessary miracles to end social distancing (because they end the plague)?!

Anyhow, I do know that in this time I need Our Blessed Mother to guide me and be in charge of me (and mine) more than ever....so if you would like to join me, let's start our 33 day preparation for Consecration to Mary! 

I love Fr. Michael Gaitley's 33 Days to Morning Glory as a guide (and I know many of you do too) and I will use that - which I happily just discovered already on my kindle! (I am not at home with all my books!)

Here are a couple links if you want to order either the ebook or paperback of this book if you don't have it but want to use it for the consecration (and preparation):

On amazon, for kindle e-reader (this is instant gratification!) - if you don't have a kindle, you can click on that page, right under the box that says "kindle" and the price - click on "Read with our Free App" and you can easily download the kindle app onto your phone or your computer (amazon will show you how if you click that):

33 Days to Morning Glory for kindle

Or you can buy the paperback on amazon here:
33 Days to Morning Glory paperback

May your guardian angel (and Padre Pio's angel) inspire and accompany you through these next 33 days, whether you are preparing to consecrate yourself to Jesus through Mary, renew your consecration, or just count His blessings and rest in Our Lady's love for you during plague time!

with much love,
Suzie

p.s. Oh! Here are some other preparation books that you might like to try instead of Fr. Gaitley's, if you want something else:

This one includes St. Louis' masterpiece True Devotion to Mary and costs only 99 cents on kindle or kindle app!
True Devotion to Mary and Preparation for Consecration included - ebook (for kindle or kindle app)

Here's one that works through the Rosary!! What a great idea, and the priest-author is wonderful:
Total Consecration through the Mysteries of the Rosary

This one looks great "for little ones"! -
Consecration to Mary for Little Ones
 
Here's another one for children, this one from TAN:
Marian Consecration for Children

If you decide to buy one of these, be sure you are buying the right edition - ebook or paperback....

+   +   +

It's always good to know who it is to whom you're about to dedicate all you have and are, so here are the words from Our Lady that most express (for many of us) her truest identity - that of our mother. As she spoke them to St. Juan Diego, but for all of us:

Hear and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little one:
Let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you.
Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance.
Am I not here who am your Mother?
Are you not under my shadow and protection?
Am I not your fountain of life?
Are you not in the folds of my mantle?
In the crossing of my arms?
Is there anything else that you need?
Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain.

*    *    *

Sending lots of love from Marcel-land, and if you are reading this, please say a tiny prayer (maybe, "Mary, help!") for my interview with Michael Lichens at Catholic Exchange - this will be a podcast I'll share with you when it's posted. And I'm pretty silly to ask for a prayer, because Michael is so much fun to talk to that it will be a blast - for us, and I hope for you later! But hey, prayer is always good! A sigh, a glance, a smile, or how about our own from little Therese:

Draw me, sweet Jesus in Mary; we will run!!!
Lots of love!!!!

Can you ever get enough of these two faces? I can't! And Marcel (in his delightful Conversations with Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese) explains - or has explained to him - just why this is so. Of course, as little Miss Marcel, I can't find the passage for you now, try as I may, but give me a couple of decades more of immersing myself in the consoling, true, and illuminating words of this favorite book, and I will have the words not only at my fingertips (which they are in the book which is forever near me, thanks to God's kindness), but in a post for you to read too! If you can't wait that long, feel free to click on this magic word Conversations and impulse buy! I'm confident it will be the best purchase you've made in plague time, and just to let you know I'm not the only one highly recommending the second St. Therese and his masterpiece, let's give a shout out to the master of helping us find what we are missing:

Good and dear St. Anthony, pray for all of us who are so often at a loss!

Meanwhile, the idea is this:

Just gazing upon our dear Mother and darling Jesus is enough to call their compassion down upon us!
Isn't that marvelous?
And here is an example:
My favorite image of Mary - I know, I'm fickle and I've often mentioned Our Lady of Guadalupe in this regard, but forgive me if I now know myself better today and have more candour, relegating Our Lady of my Mexican heart to second place, because my favorite image of Mary has just got to be the image above of Our Lady of Good Counsel. And to prove it, I'll offer it again as the image below in a more moderately sized version that turns Our Lady's veil into a gorgeous blue, and even better, shows us Little Jesus' adorable divine hand resting sweetly on His mommy. He's our exemplar and showing us the Little Way!

Well the delightful news is that today, April 26 (and this year the joyful 3rd Sunday of Easter), day after the wondrous Feast of St. Mark on April 25, is - hold on to your Easter bonnet or fedora - The Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel!!!

Despite my calling on her just about every day and often multiple times a day, I manage to forget this recently acquired (in the last decade or so) info about her own lovely feast - and so I thank my dearest Padre V for alerting me very first thing with a much needed simple email that said: Happy Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel! And I extend these felicitous greetings to you as well, dear reader! And I can even offer - what an embarrassment of riches! - a Litany to Our Lady of Good Counsel which I discovered about 5 moments ago when I found the picture of Our Lady of Good Counsel in a blue veil. So . . . in the interests of Sunday joy (and my other little duties), I will leave you with a link to the magnificent and very miraculous story of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Genazzano.

(If, like Miss Marcel East, you find you don't love that image in Genazzano, well no worries, we have the images above in your choice of veils, but the true history is to die for - I mean I would! - and so cool that I must give you that link).

Exactly like Our Lady and Little Jesus tell Marcel, the message of Our Lady of Good Counsel is that gazing upon them is a prayer in itself which delights their hearts, and this image in Italy (to my understanding, the reason for the fame of Our Lady of Good Counsel) illustrates the power of this simple prayer of gazing in multiple ways. Not only was the image in Genazzano transported by angels from a far away place (and witnesses at the time attested to having seen it both places), not only does it have a science defying eggshell thin thickness, not only does it hang miraculously an inch or two away from the wall it fronts, not only has it been the cause (secondary) of tons of miracles (I was going to say countless, but many have been counted in the careful records kept at her church in Genazzano) - but also and perhaps most wonderfully of all, when pilgrims pray before this special image, Our Lady's and Little Jesus' so lovely faces often become fuller and suffused with an exquisite rose color when they are about to grant a request! Which shows us how happy they are to answer all our prayers! WOW!!!

Without further fuss, then, here is the link to the article about Our dear Mother of Good Counsel:

OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL (OF GENAZZANO)

And here is our Litany! In case you find it too long, let's say our little happy prayer first, and then we'll be sure to have prayed together on this so sweet feast. I love you, dear reader, and my love is only the faintest glimmer of Our Lady's and our all-loving Lord's infinitely tender love! So bask in their faces today, and may St. Therese and her little brother shower you with their trademark roses!

Draw me, we will run!
Our Lady of Good Counsel, pray for us!!!

LITANY OF  OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven,
Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God,
Have mercy on us.
Beloved Daughter of the Eternal Father,
pray for us.
August Mother of God the Son,
pray for us .
Blessed Spouse of God the Holy Ghost, etc.
Living temple of the Holy Trinity,
Queen of Heaven and earth,
Seat of Divine Wisdom ,
Depository of the secrets of the Most High,
Virgin most prudent,
In our doubts and difficulties,
In our tribulations and anguish,
In our discouragements,
In perils and temptations,
In all our undertakings,
In all our needs,
At the hour of death,
By thine Immaculate Conception,
By thy happy nativity,
By thine admirable presentation,
By thy glorious Annunciation,
By thy charitable Visitation,
By thy Divine Maternity,
By thy holy Purification,
By the sorrows and anguish of thy maternal heart,
By thy precious death ,
By thy triumphant Assumption,
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
R. And obtain for us the gift of good counsel.
Let Us Pray.
Lord Jesus, Author and Dispenser of all good, Who in becoming incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin hast communicated to her lights above those of all the Heavenly intelligences, grant that in honoring her under the title of Our Lady of Good Counsel, we may merit always to receive from her goodness counsels of wisdom and salvation, which will conduct us to the port of a blessed eternity. R. Amen.

This is the picture that accompanies me through Easter every year, alongside the song that IS Easter to my family. Tears come to my eyes as I think of His merciful Love, so readily poured out for us in all the little and big Easter moments, from the time of His Resurrection around 33 A.D. to this day, Divine Mercy Sunday, 2020.

What can one say? If one is me, one can say a lot. But then again, sometimes silence reigns (believe it or not!) even in my heart, soul, and mind. And then, on that rare occasion - as on any other occasion I can drum up - it's time to let Marcel and Jesus speak to us from Conversations, the book little Marcel Van, Vietnamese Servant of God and spiritual brother of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, wrote for his spiritual director and for us (thanks be to God, along with thanks due to Fr. Anthony Boucher, C.S.s.R. and Jack Keogan for their years of translating).

Take today, for instance. 
I've long held that it is easier (unpleasanter as it is) to live the 6 weeks of Lent than to celebrate for 7 weeks of Easter. 40 days of restraint (or restrained indulgence, for those of us who seem inclined to break our resolutions one by one when we are really good and not blowing them all at once together!) vs. 50 days of holy dissolution - which do you find more suited to our mortal frames?

I personally can't wait for Heaven, when all penance - in fast or feasting - will be over! But like St. Paul, I happily wait - because we get to love Jesus and be loved by Him either and both here and/or there! So no worrying, any more, ever, about anything at all. And if you don't believe me, whether your words are coming fast and furious this Divine Mercy Sunday, or slow and steady, or not at all . . . well in any case, it is time to open Conversations! If you don't have a copy, I can only say that it is high time we get you one.

If you are destitute, and not only don't have a copy of Marcel's masterpiece yet, but also don't have the means to procure one, perhaps I can help if you Contact Me by clicking the Contact Me button you'll find somewhere or other on this page.

If you are merely impoverished, because you don't yet have this best-book-ever but could click amazon.com just as easily as clicking Contact Me and then keep clicking until the book is ordered and on its merry little Marcelian way to you - well then CLICK HERE to order now! Do I get some sort of remuneration for all my free publicity for Marcel? I sure count on it! I'm looking for heavenly kisses, since earthly ones are harder to come by these days, what with social distancing and all that annoyingly necessary rot!

Okay, so now that I'm confident you're on your way to reading Marcel not only through me (or through this dear and happy blog of our musings) but also with me ("Class, open to 28 April 1946. Miss Marcels Michigan, please begin reading for us, alternating paragraphs, starting with the fly."), let's get going!

If you just ordered your copy (and what with shipping speeds slightly slower in plague time, it hasn't yet instantaneously arrived), or if you can't find the copy that should be at hand but was perhaps stolen by another in your household who has also realized the brilliance of our little brother - or rather his wonderful dullness and Jesus' glorious LOVE shining through their pages - no worries (remember our motto!), simply read our post for today (this one!) and then download any of the free ebooks at the top of the page - I said before they were in the typewriter section, but delightfully discovered that on a phone they are in the rose section, the typewriter having been left in California, apparently. We wouldn't want you left without Easter treats, and these are abundant in every one of the books we're offering for fun and for free, as you can see by their descriptions HERE. Not only that, but if you haven't yet read The Paradise Project (or have, but not since yesterday or the day before), you'll want to dive in because Elizabeth, our heroine, also has some difficulty with Lenten resolutions. I can't quite remember myself what happens to her in the Easter season, though I'll need to know before embarking on the sequel! Like Marcel she is so darn human, though unlike him she is a figment of our imaginations.

Happily, just like the Risen Jesus whom the terrific Thomas doubted (where would we be if he hadn't? Thank you, Thomas the Apostle, for your humanness too! These perfect imperfections help the rest of us survive life in exile and have hope for our own Paradise in His good time!), Marcel is very real. And the two of them - Marcel and Jesus - have the most wonderful 9 page dialogue on Divine Mercy Sunday, 1946! Thank You, Heavenly Father, for providing such abundant nourishment for our sugar-filled souls. We need that spiritual milk St. Paul talks about, as well as our Easter chocolate!

If you know me (and even if you don't know me yet, welcome to my world - I wear my heart on my sleeve so it will take you about 30 seconds to see my inner self if you read on!), you'll know I could joyfully and quickly type out the whole 9 pages of today's Conversations, but in the interests of brevity, I'm going to practice Easter restraint and just give you some highlights. That way you can make it on time to your online Divine Mercy Mass, or say a Divine Mercy chaplet - which will gain you or someone you love a plenary indulgence! You can find info on the special plenary indulgences in coronavirus time in the document put out recently by the Apostolic Penitentiary - but still no worrying allowed, because Holy Mother Church has made it super simple and so have we! You can read the document HERE, or in the back of our Stations of the Cross with Our Sister St. Therese book (downloadable for free with one click, here on this blog - above - or at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com, or even directly on your kindle or nook by searching in the Store for the title or my name).

But meanwhile, here are some highlights of Jesus' words to Marcel on this Divine Mercy Sunday, 1946 - though back in our little brother's day, it was merely the Octave of Easter. How our Jesus does manage to pile on the blessings and graces as the years accumulate!

Marcel on this day accuses Jesus of being a miser, saying:

"The more I offer You souls in great numbers, the more You want. How can one explain such a strange attitude? I do not really understand how the will of a miser can penetrate Your heart to such a point that it is impossible to get it out. That is a very unattractive defect, little Jesus; the more I offer You souls in great number, the more You say to me: 'I still want more.' So, when will this end? It is probable that it will only cease for good the day when You will no longer be able to receive any at all. And, after all that, You reproach me for having the acquisitiveness of a miser. It is Yourself, Jesus, who has such a yearning and You still thrown the fault in my direction. Are You not afraid of being ashamed? Certainly, our Mother Mary should feel like laughing."

To which Jesus responds:

"Yes, Marcel . . . And whatever you might say, you also have a little of my defect, since the more I give you kisses and caresses, the more your miser's appetite grows. Even though I have exhausted all the means of indulging you, this strange desire always demands more. . . "

Ah, it is true, dear Jesus! We DO demand more, and we thank You for revealing this more to us through our sister Therese!

I have been pushing books on you today, primarily because that is where we find words, and the words of Jesus and His Saints best of all!

Have you yet read our Something New with St. Therese? There you will find the craziest idea yet, the nuttiest and most extravagant indulgence that Jesus has come up with to this point in history. It is NEW, it is WILD, it is (if I might quote myself) OUTRAGEOUS! And it is for you, and He can't wait another second for you to find it out if you have not found it out yet.

Have you been feeling a little low lately? Or maybe your high (like mine) comes from all those orders you're placing with amazon.com, but you know that even when the pringles arrive, they won't really satisfy . . . Jesus alone will satisfy you, and if I might be so bold, I will tell you that Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacrament of His Love and Union - only this union of Holy Communion will satisfy you!

Now don't cry. I'm not being cruel to mention this just when you most likely can't receive Him.
Because the good news this Easter is that YOU CAN receive Jesus, our Love!

No, not by climbing over the boundaries that keep you from Him today (civil law, Church ordinances, Covid 19) - but precisely by climbing under them! Therese taught this to her sister Celine, and Celine and Therese want you to learn the lesson too. We are little ones. We don't have the power to make or break laws and ordinances, nor (tempting as it may be) would it be a good idea to hold up our favorite priest at gunpoint in order to demand Jesus from him!

(Lest my parentheses obscured the meaning of that last sentence, let me reiterate: Please DO NOT hold up anyone at gunpoint, least of all our dear priests!)

No, but if there were a locked gate keeping you from the gorgeous ocean (congratulations, J, C, and J in Arlan! The Resurrection Gate is open!), and if you were a little one determined to get to said ocean, you would not perhaps be big enough to climb over the gate, but you could very likely slip under it. And that is exactly what Therese teaches us to do in this difficult conundrum of how to receive Jesus in Holy Communion when we need Him most this plague time.

No, I don't think I'll explain the rest here. Please Contact Me if you can't manage to download the book Something New with St. Therese: Her Eucharistic Miracle. Or read THIS article to get a hint of it, and then read the book . . . Even my oldest brother - a Very Busy Man (Hi, J.H.! I doubt you have found this blog or have time for it, but if you are here - I love you! Thanks for all your goodness, and hi to the fam!) - even my oldest brother has found time to read (last I heard from him on Easter Sunday morn) enough of the book to Get the Gist and rejoice in Jesus' overwhelming determination to unite us to Himself in the Blessed Sacrament, even now.

But before you immerse yourself in Therese's glorious discovery, let's finish here. What else does Marcel have for us in today's Convos? Our little brother tells us that Jesus said, clear as day, clear as the Light of the World that He is, exactly what He wants us, even in the poverty of our pathetic memories, to keep in mind:

"Remember what I said to you, namely: that you must always be joyful."

and again, Jesus says to us today (through Marcel):

"Because you are wrapped in the flames of my love, on looking at you I see that you are very beautiful and your beauty enchants me so much that I give you kisses without tiring myself; and truly, the more I give you, the more I wish to give them to you without stopping."

Enough already! Padre Pio told us that Holy Communion is all an external and internal mercy, an embrace, and in it Jesus kisses us all over, visiting our whole being, finding delight in us, His creatures. Have you heard this before? If not, you need to listen to it HERE, in the talk I gave for the awesome Padre Pio Prayer Group of Nashville. Then you will understand what Jesus desires. Yes, it is union with you that He desires, now, even as He has desired this union with you from all eternity! Will you become the perfectly imperfect vessel for His Mercy on this Feast of Divine Mercy? I bet you will! You are already it, and need only to hear how in order to open yourself up even more to His infinitely tender and solicitous love!

Let's do it - let's set the world on fire with His love!
Here is what our liturgy told us yesterday, and it is our Easter message of hope and joy:

"Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus." (Acts of the Apostles 4:13)

Let's be bold, especially with Jesus, just like Peter, John, Therese and Marcel have been!
And if you need a boost in boldness, let's start with joy, which you can find abundantly in this song I posted last Easter, and thanks to another Miss Marcel and her beauty, was reminded of late last night. Ready? It is HERE, our theme song, Souris et Chante, and more fun than a barrel of monkeys, which is to say, more fun than a barrel of Marcels! Will you join me in a prayer for the sweet Miss Marcel who loves it so much? May she smile and sing, whether in CA, MI, or anywhere her dear Jesus takes her in His abundant love!

And speaking of prayer intentions, let's bundle them all up in one big sigh (of love) and offer them to Jesus now!

Draw me, Risen Jesus, we will run!!!!

p.s. Keep listening after Souris et Chante, and you will hear - Jesus' Divine Mercy gift which I had no idea would play next! - my other favorite Therese/Marcel song! It is about how Jesus does everything in me, and I do nothing! It's a great little way to go, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
p.p.s. I am fixing typos, and to my utter astonishment, Jesus played this song for me eventually, the very song that contains (always to my joy and bemusement) the sentence that unlocks Holy Communion for us instantly at every moment: Remain in me . . . but I won't say more, because it's been said at the links above. Enjoy Him as He enjoys you! Rejoice, He is risen! He is risen as He said! 
p.p.s. In honor of the Most Holy Trinity and in particular the Holy Spirit, here is an unprecedented 3rd postscript, because how could I not share with you Fr. Michael Gaitley's Divine Mercy Sunday Message? He too will explain the plenary indulgence available to all of us today. I disagree with Fr. Gaitley on how hard or easy it is to be detached from sin, but thankfully, Fr. Gaitley explains that this is not a condition for the Divine Mercy plenary indulgence....Additionally, the Apostolic Penitentiary's Decree doesn't (I think, though feel free to check), that is, DOES NOT require perfect contrition to receive the plenary indulgence in this time, but only the intention to go to confession when we are able/when it is allowed . . . God bless us all!