Courage! It is I; do not be afraid!
          - the 'great' God (Matthew 14:27)

If St. Anthony and Baby Jesus look a little blurry, no doubt my hand was shaking when I took this screenshot. It's not every day you get to take a photo of two of your favoritest people in the universe! And on the feastday of one of them, no less!

Which brings me to my conundrum: what to say on so great a feast, in the company of such great friends and so great a God?

As I quoted just the other day from Therese, our littlest Saint and greatest friend, "I'm not breaking my head over the writing . . . it's as though I were fishing with a line: I write whatever comes to the end of my pen."

Our little sister said these words on June 11, 1897, and two days later on June 13 (feast of St. Anthony of Padua and Lisbon, just where we find ourselves today 123 years later), she said in explanation of her imagery of the Thief Who would come to steal her away to Heaven:

"Whenever I am speaking of the Thief, I'm not thinking of little Jesus; I'm thinking of the 'great' God."

Do you ever find it disconcerting to move from season to season in this life? I suppose that discombobulation could apply to moving from one season of life to another (it's always a bit disconcerting, I find, to get married, for instance. Thank the good Lord I've had that change of seasons only once so far!), and certainly if you live in a place that has radical climate shifts from let's say winter to summer (some call it spring, but I think there are locales where it is simply freezing and then broiling), that might certainly be disorienting. Not to mention the change that happens in gloriously leaf-turning centers of orange and red and yellow when those last leaves fall and winter is upon one.

I'm thinking now, though, of the change in liturgical seasons, and I feel it most between Christmas-tide and Lent. Sure, there's the steady counting of Ordinal (or Ordinary) Time in between, but if you stretch Christmas out to Februrary 2nd and then procrastinate in taking down your decorations, you can find yourself in Lent (if it's an early Lent) lickety-split, and before you know what's hit you, that transition from Little Jesus to the great God-made-man come to save us is (at least for me) a touch alarming.

But then, for those of us who like Therese and Marcel are card carrying members of the Child Jesus Fan Club, the switch back to Little Jesus (or the option to return unto Him) at the close of the Easter Season is quite a welcome relief if perhaps abrupt too. At least this time of year we have the 7 weeks of Easter (whew! That's a lot of partying and I haven't succeeded yet in keeping Easter completely!), then the novena of Pentecost following the Ascension . . . Though does anyone else find the drop from Pentecost Sunday to "counting time" again (Ordinal or Ordinary Time) just a wee bit fast (again) in the new calendar? Thankfully we have the glorious Feasts of the Most Holy Trinity and then Corpus Christi to help make the landing easier . . . but with St. Anthony's feast amidst these, our musings - at least over here at Miss Marcel's place - certainly return to Little Jesus!

And GUESS WHAT? Little Jesus and St. Anthony have a special announcement they've asked me to make. They're feeling slightly fuzzy after the time change from Eternity to Universal Co-ordinated, so let's give them a second to adjust and I'll make that announcement for them. Are you feeling out of focus too? Get a grip, because we have big news and you'll want to be sitting down (or better yet lying down - or laying down as the case may be, depending on whether your angel sets you there or you set yourself, if I remember my grammar). Ready?

This is the day to ASK FOR MIRACLES!!!!

We are finishing up our St. Anthony novena, and it is a doozy this year, running neck and neck with our prayers to Servant of God Julia Greeley,  Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew (one of the big St. Teresa's besties), and Tim-the-best-hugger-ever (see our blog post a couple down for more on this holy (though uncapped) trinity of feast day compatriots, Julia, Anne, and Tim). 

In fact, this year in our run-up to St. Anthony we've also been slightly pre-occupied, but in a hilariously little way, you might say, with the 125th anniversary of Therese's Act of Oblation to Merciful Love - and another Trinity, the Real One-in-Three Whom we celebrated last Sunday, and a third dear trinity, though this last one of anniversaries actually: for on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity we celebrated (albeit somewhat silently) Therese's initial offering of herself to Merciful Love (125 years ago this year on that day), then this past Tuesday, June 9th, we celebrated the same again though on the calendar date (rather than the liturgical calendar date), and finally on Thursday we managed a blog post (just below this one you're reading now) in honor of Therese's formal offering with Celine to the same Merciful Love of the Good God - yep, 125 years ago that very day, June 11.

But here is the GUESS WHAT part, for those who have survived that last paragraph. I'm almost dizzy myself (always ditzy and sometimes with a touch of vertigo) after all those dates, anniversaries, and parentheses! So let's try to relax, catch our breath, and get a load of this crazy conjunction:

This past Thursday, June 11, the 125th anniversary of Celine and Therese making their Act of Oblation together before the Virgin of the Smile, was actually the Feast of Corpus Christi - at least in those places where it hasn't been transferred out of immense kindness for the masses who work so that they can go to Masses in honor of The Body and Blood of Our Lord on Sunday!

Have you heard about Something New? I don't mean just anything new, but Therese's Eucharistic Miracle book which I was privileged (and pushed by her) to write and which was recently published. Something New with St. Therese: Her Eucharistic Miracle, which you can read for fun and for free - and begin as soon as you wish by simply clicking on one of those boxes that crowd around "Miss Marcel's Musings" at the top of the page near the roses from Therese -  or for $15 (print copy) by clicking on the bold title or HERE, is all about Therese's Act of Oblation to Merciful Love, but more specifically it is about one petition in that Act, a petition Therese encourages us to pray with her, and in this prayer obtain for ourselves a miracle having to do with our union with Little Jesus, the great God, Who gives Himself to us Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity!

How fortuitous, then, that God's one single thought from all eternity has included this beautiful and tenderly solicitous happenstance of days in which He brought together our tiny 125th anniversary of Therese and Celine's history-changing Act and the Feast of Corpus Christi!

Luckily for us, we are now in the octave of that anniversary, celebrating today our beloved St. Anthony, wonder worker and model adorer of Little Jesus and Grown Jesus too! And this St. Anthony Day is going to crowd into and morph into (in its later hours) the Vigil of Corpus Christi - which we get to celebrate again because hey, come on, how could one feast alone be enough for the Body and the Blood of Christ?! (How's that for feminine logic? You should see my feminine finances! If you have a spare moment, watch William Powell and Irene Dunne in "Life with Father" and enjoy Irene's illustration of the same.)

Anyhow, have I gotten off the beaten path again? This is the trouble with musing and taking whatever He puts on the end of my line: He tends to lead me, just like He led Marcel (unless it was Marcel leading Him!) always on an extremely little way. I'm not complaining; I don't want to be anywhere but with Jesus and Marcel and Therese on Mary's lap, but sometimes I seem to lose the obvious thread in these meandering musings, and I sure hope I haven't lost you!

Let's get down to basics then.

Today is the Feast of St. Anthony. 
He is so great that you find his statue - like our sister Therese's image - in churches All Over The Planet. I bet if we ever find prayerful life on other planets, we'll find statues of St. Anthony holding baby Jesus there too! Because what's not to love? I started this post with Jesus' words because when I opened the Gospel last night (after a day of dusting-as-prayer but knowing that prayer-as-prayer certainly deserves its place too!), those were the words Jesus gave me:

Courage! It is I; do not be afraid! 

And I felt their perfect timing for St. Anthony's day, the day of one who has so many titles that his Litany is replete with stunning imagery. Did you know St. Anthony is the Hammer of Heretics? And although unknown in his official litany, he is also to Nigerians (and honorary Nigerians like myself) the Marco Polo of every need - instead of blindly calling out "Marco" and having your compatriots reply "Polo" from the other parts of the pool, the Nigerian St. Anthony Guild has taught us to call out "Anto!" when in search of something lost (or even just to let out a resounding battle cry of Love), to which our fellows reply "Padua!" How very marvelous is that?

And yet there is one image of St. Anthony that trumps all the rest. . . whether painted by Murillo or drawn by the loving hand of a child, who can resist those Franciscan arms outstretched in love and most often seen embracing darling Jesus?

What a gift! Here is Jesus in so adorable a form that none can resist Him! I love, love, love the many pictures and statues of Him caressing St. Anthony's face, or gazing into his eyes, or merely resting in his arms. This is hope! This is the image of how Jesus wants to be with us! This is the whole substance of Marcel's Conversations! Jesus cannot get enough of us - bizarre as that may seem and be!

And He puts Himself in a position, whether as the infinitely great Merciful God of Love to whom we offer ourselves, or as the tiny consecrated Host we will receive on the Feast of God's Body and Blood, or as the little child in St. Anthony's embrace: He puts Himself in a position to love us and be loved by us without fear.

Without fear?

Yes, without fear. 

God does not fear to come to us. He trusts us to love Him, as pathetic as our love may be and often certainly is.

And He asks us - better yet, He who said "Let there be light" and at that moment there was light, commands us, and may it be according to His all-powerful Word - Be Not Afraid, have courage, trust in Him because He is here among us, so near that we can close our eyes and embrace Him just as St. Anthony endlessly does.

What miracles will you ask for today? I'm posting early, and I'm giving my day for your and your miracles. Let's do it! Let's have confidence in God, and when our confidence is falling short (like already, or in about 45 seconds), let's ask the Saints for their confidence. They had confidence to spare, which is how they always had miracles to spare - and they don't need their confidence anymore because in Heaven (where they are) sight has replaced blindness and knowledge has supplanted hope, so let's ask for their hope, their bold confidence, their miracles, and take all they offer for the asking!

St. Therese, Celine, and St. Anthony, Marcel and Julia Greeley, Blessed Anne and your BFF St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and dear Tim M: give us your confidence that we might hold Jesus and demand all we need for ourselves and those we love! Bring back to the Faith all those who have wandered that they too might enjoy the Love of the Good God! Heal all those who are sick - through the power of God, the Mighty and Merciful One-in-Three Who gives us more than we ask or imagine because He can't contain His Goodness!

And dear St. Anthony, on this your feast, thank Little Jesus for us, for letting us know and love Him, and kiss Him countless times for us today and until we, like you now, embrace Him face to Face!

Draw me, we will run!!!

"I'm not breaking my head over the writing of my 'little' life; it's as though I were fishing with a line: I write whatever comes to the end of my pen." - Therese, June 11, 1897

Those words were spoken by St. Therese a few months before she died, and they provide inspiration to me today as I search for words to offer on this very special June 11, 2020.

Why is today so very special? I used to celebrate June 11 as the Feast of St. Barnabas, Apostle (as it is, and so shall we still celebrate it), and then later, I loved to celebrate it as the birthday of the Saints of Leon Bloy. He was a French writer at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries (a little more than a hundred years ago) who befriended and then god-fathered Jacques and Raissa Maritain when they, along with Raissa's sister Vera, were baptized on this day in 1906. Hooray for the Maritains and Leon Bloy! God rest their souls in His infinitely tender and merciful Love that makes Saints from such varied and sundry material!

But this year I am quite pre-occupied with a different feast, and anniversary, for at long last (it's taken a century and a quarter!) it is the 125th anniversary of our dear sister St. Therese and her own sister (and thus ours too) Celine: the 125th anniversary of their Act of Oblation to Merciful Love!

On this day 125 years ago, Therese and Celine knelt before the statue of the Virgin of the Smile, a statue which had been the instrument of great graces for their family (including Therese's miraculous healing 12 years before), and together Celine and Therese prayed the Act of Oblation to Merciful Love that Therese had written out after her own initial offering of herself on Trinity Sunday, June 9, two days before.

So yes, if you're paying super close attention to the dates here, you might notice (but don't worry if you're skimming because I'll tell you what you might have noticed but perhaps didn't!): Today is the third 125th anniversary of the Offering to Merciful Love that we're celebrating this week!

First was on Trinity Sunday, which we celebrated a few days ago, and which was the feast on which Therese first felt her inspiration to offer herself to Merciful Love and so promptly and spontaneously did.

Second was this past Tuesday, June 9, the actual calendar date of Therese's first offering.

But finally, today is the day I've decided we ought to celebrate most wonderfully because this was the day on which Therese had her first follower on this little way of oblation.

Right after Mass on Trinity Sunday, right after she'd made her own offering, Therese grabbed Celine's hand as they were leaving the chapel of the Carmel, and went to their sister Pauline, their mother superior. Therese asked for herself and Celine that Mother Agnes (Pauline) give permission for them to offer themselves formally as Victims to Merciful Love. Mother Agnes said yes, leaving Therese the task of explaining to Celine what in the world she had in mind this time!

And then, so simply and marvelously, by her mere cooperation (tantamount to allowing her younger sister to lead her where she would, as usual), Celine paved the way for the legion of little souls who came after, and among whom we count ourselves, poor and weak and (if you don't mind my saying so) pathetic as we are.

Like our hero and brother Marcel Van, and like Celine before him (not to mention their other sisters Pauline, Marie, and Leonie, their cousin Marie Guerin, and Therese's novice Marie of the Trinity, et cetera), we too need only allow Therese to drag us (or push us) hither and yon, and we too will become other little great saints! And how? You might as well say, "And how!" for the road is long, with many a winding turn, but believe me - or better yet, believe Therese! - we'll get there, and she knows exactly where! To the Heart of Love, the very Merciful Love of God to which we abandon ourselves without reserve.

Sounds good, surely, but if you wonder how in the world it might work, well let's just follow Marcel and Celine following Therese. I'm going to insert a picture of the lovely Virgin of the Smile, and the text of the Act of Oblation to the Merciful Love of the Good God. Without a lot of explanation, because as Fr. Thomas Dubay used to frequently acknowledge, we have a time pressure problem. Let's hurry, then, and not allow anything to stop God from pouring out His infinitely tender love into our hearts, quickly, before we get distracted or bored, before we forget what we're doing, before we fall asleep at out prayers.

Okay, maybe not that last. If you're reading this late at night, and you nod off in the middle, no worries! Therese will assist and make the Act in your name, as she assisted Celine, and later Marie of the Trinity, and later still our little Marcel. 

Marcel is a darling guide to this offering as well, because he had no idea what it meant, and yet I do think the whole of his book Conversations (with Jesus, Mary, and St. Therese) is an extended commentary on this Act of Oblation. He even asked Jesus straight out to explain it, quite a while after Therese had made the Act for him since, little as he was, he entrusted himself to her clear and sure guidance as do we. Marcel asked, "So, little Jesus, tell me what 'Victim of Love' means." Jesus responded:

"They are victims who, through love, offer themselves to Love. These victims leave to Love complete liberty to accomplish His desires in them but of themselves, they do nothing to expend themselves; it is Love, that is to say the Holy Spirit who acts spontaneously in them."

There you have it then, and so let's waste no more time in chit chat. I offer to you below (in order to help Therese offer you to God) our patroness the Virgin of the Smile, our dear Mama Mary, and the Act of Offering which Therese and Celine recited before her on this day 125 years ago.

But before I do, I almost forgot - we are in the middle (or toward the end) of a sweet novena culminating in St. Anthony's Day on Saturday. We commend to him the health of many of our loved ones and all who are ill, asking his powerful intercession to heal them, as well as to fulfill the many other needs and desires - including our thanks to God for miracles already granted - as mentioned in the previous post. Here then, is a little novena prayer to dear St. Anthony, and then we'll proceed with our Offering. Thank You Jesus, for all these irresistible Saints you give us to help us on our little way! 

UNFAILING PRAYER TO ST. ANTHONY

Holy St. Anthony, gentlest of Saints, your love for God and charity for all God's creatures made you worthy when on earth to possess miraculous powers. Miracles followed your word, which you were ever ready to speak for those in trouble or need. 

Encouraged by this thought, I implore you to obtain for me also my requests . . . 

The answer to my prayer may require a miracle' even so, you are the Saint of Miracles!

O gentle and loving St. Anthony, whose heart was always full of human sympathy, whisper my petition into the adorable ears of the Holy Infant Jesus, who loved to be held in your arms, and the gratitude of my heart will always be yours. Amen.

ACT OF OBLATION TO THE MERCIFUL LOVE OF THE GOOD GOD

O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to Love You and make you Loved, to work for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls on earth and liberating those suffering in purgatory. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your Kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be saint, but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God! to be Yourself my Sanctity!
     Since You loved me so much as to give me Your only Son as my Savior and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I offer them to You with gladness, begging You to look upon me only in the Face of Jesus and in His heart burning with Love.
     I offer You, too, all the merits of the saints (in heaven and on earth), their acts of Love, and those of the holy angels. Finally, I offer You, O Blessed Trinity! the Love and merits of the Blessed Virgin, my Dear Mother. It is to her I abandon my offering, begging her to present it to You.
     Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, told us in the says of His mortal life: "Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name he will give it to you!" I am certain, then, that You will grant my desires; I know, O my God! that the more You want to give, the more You make us desire. I feel in my heart immense desires and it is with confidence I ask You to come and take possession of my soul. Ah! I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I desire, but, Lord, are You not all-powerful? Remain in me as in a tabernacle and never separate Yourself from Your little victim.
                                                                                                            
     I want to console You for the ingratitude of the wicked, and I beg of you to take away my freedom to displease You. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may Your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself.
     I thank You, O my God! for all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the scepter of Your Cross. Since You deigned to give me a share in this very precious Cross, I hope in heaven to resemble You and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion.
     After earth's Exile, I hope to go and enjoy You in the Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for Your Love Alone with the one purpose of pleasing You, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally.
     In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no other Crown but You, my Beloved!
     Time is nothing in Your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years. You can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before You.
                                                                                                           
     In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I OFFER MYSELF AS A VICTIM OF HOLOCAUST TO YOUR MERCIFUL LOVE, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!
     May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love.
     ​I want, O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times, until the shadows having disappeared I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!

Draw me, we will run!!!

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.


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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! 

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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....

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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.

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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!!!!