"I also express my gratitude to Blessed Jacinta for the sacrifices and prayers offered for the Holy Father, whom she saw suffering greatly." - Pope St. John Paul II, beatification homily, May 13, 2000

On this day in 1920, the nine-year-old girl destined to become the youngest non-martyr canonized a Saint flew from her sickbed in Portugal to Heaven to join her ten-year-old brother Francisco (the second youngest non-martyr Saint, who had flown before her to Heaven just ten months before). There at last they could again gaze upon their dear Jesus and His beloved Mother, she who had appeared to them in Fatima six times between May 13 and October 13 in 1917.
 
On May 13, 2017, the centenary of the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, Pope Francis canonized these two little shepherds and said:
 
“We can take as our examples Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta, whom the Virgin Mary introduced into the immense ocean of God’s light and taught to adore Him. That was the source of their strength in overcoming opposition and suffering.”
 
If you have only time to read the bold line above, you will have learned the lessons of Fatima, the Wisdom of the Blessed Trinity, the message of Our Lady.

Let nothing worry or frighten you! Let the Virgin Mary introduce you, too, into the immense ocean of God's light and teach you to adore Him. This immense ocean of light, this divine mercy, this infinite Love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is our strength! Adoring Him - before the mystery of the hidden Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, before the mystery of the hidden Jesus in the person or child in front of you, before the mystery of the hidden Jesus within you . . . Let us learn to adore God precisely BECAUSE HE IS LOVE, and let His perfect love chase out all our fear!

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Wonderfully, in this Jubilee year of Hope, it is also the Jubilee of the canonizations and beatifications of the many saints and blesseds Pope St. John Paul II brought to the honors of the altar in the millennial Jubilee of 2000. And among them were these littlest ones, Francisco and Jacinta, to whom he personally owed so much.
 
Present at the beatification on Saturday morning, May 13, 2000, were over 600,000 pilgrims gathered in the square and surroundings of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Fatima. Concelebrating were all the bishops of Portugal and other cardinals and bishops from around the world. Shining with a gladness greater than any others present, however, was Sister Maria Lucia of the Immaculate Heart, more commonly known as Lucia of Fatima, the oldest (then aged ten, compared to her cousins, eight and seven), of the three shepherds who saw Our Lady in 1917.
 
Sister Lucia had come on a rare outing from her cloistered Carmelite monastery in Coimbra to witness her cousins’ beatification eighty-three years after Our Lady’s rather understated words to her at the second apparition on St. Anthony’s feast, June 13, 2017:
 
“I shall take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you will remain a little longer, since Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth. He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the world to my Immaculate Heart . . . My child . . . you must not be sad. I will be with you always, and my Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way which will lead you to God.”
 
Note well: “A little longer” in Heaven can feel like a lot longer on earth! Lucia was now, at the beatification ceremony, ninety-two years old, and she would be with us for five more years, taking her long awaited flight to Heaven on February 13, 2005 – just twenty years ago last week – a mere two months before JPII went to the House of the Father that April 5th, Vigil of the fifth Divine Mercy Sunday – the feast he had proclaimed and instituted when canonizing St. Faustina on April 30, 2000, 2nd Sunday of Easter.
 
But returning to Sister Lucia and Pope John Paul II in their prime, here is what she heard the very Holy Father for whom the three seers, especially her littlest cousin Jacinta, had so fervently prayed, say in his beatification homily:
 
"Father . . . to you I offer praise; for what you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest children" (Mt 11:25).
 
With these words, dear brothers and sisters, Jesus praises the heavenly Father for His designs; He knows that no one can come to Him unless he is drawn by the Father (cf. Jn 6:44); therefore, He praises Him for his plan and embraces it as a son:
 
"Yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will" (Mt 11:26). You were pleased to reveal the kingdom to the merest children.”
 
According to the divine plan, "a woman clothed with the sun" (Rev 12:1) came down from heaven to this earth to visit the privileged children of the Father. She speaks to them with a mother's voice and heart: she asks them to offer themselves as victims of reparation, saying that she was ready to lead them safely to God. And behold, they see a light shining from her maternal hands which penetrates them inwardly, so that they feel immersed in God just as—they explain—a person sees himself in a mirror.
 
Later Francisco, one of the three privileged children, exclaimed: "We were burning in that light which is God and we were not consumed. What is God like? It is impossible to say. In fact we will never be able to tell people." God: a light that burns without consuming. Moses had the same experience when he saw God in the burning bush; he heard God say that He was concerned about the slavery of his people and had decided to deliver them through him: "I will be with you" (cf. Ex 3:2-12). Those who welcome this Presence become the dwelling-place and, consequently, a "burning bush" of the Most High.
 
What most impressed and entirely absorbed Blessed Francisco was God in that immense light which penetrated the inmost depths of the three children. But God told only Francisco "how sad" He was, as he said. One night his father heard him sobbing and asked him why he was crying; his son answered: "I was thinking of Jesus who is so sad because of the sins that are committed against Him." He was motivated by one desire - so expressive of how children think—"to console Jesus and make Him happy."
 
A transformation takes place in his life, one we could call radical: a transformation certainly uncommon for children of his age. He devotes himself to an intense spiritual life, expressed in assiduous and fervent prayer, and attains a true form of mystical union with the Lord. This spurs him to a progressive purification of the spirit through the renunciation of his own pleasures and even of innocent childhood games.
 
Francisco bore without complaining the great sufferings caused by the illness from which he died. It all seemed to him so little to console Jesus: he died with a smile on his lips. Little Francisco had a great desire to atone for the offences of sinners by striving to be good and by offering his sacrifices and prayers. The life of Jacinta, his younger sister by almost two years, was motivated by these same sentiments.
 
"Another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon" (Rev 12:3). These words from the first reading of the Mass make us think of the great struggle between good and evil, showing how, when man puts God aside, he cannot achieve happiness, but ends up destroying himself.

How many victims there have been throughout the last century of the second millennium! We remember the horrors of the First and Second World Wars and the other wars in so many parts of the world, the concentration and extermination camps, the gulags, ethnic cleansings and persecutions, terrorism, kidnappings, drugs, the attacks on unborn life and the family.

The message of Fátima is a call to conversion, alerting humanity to have nothing to do with the "dragon" whose "tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth" (Rev 12:4). Man's final goal is heaven, his true home, where the heavenly Father awaits everyone with His merciful love.
 
God does not want anyone to be lost; that is why 2,000 years ago he sent His Son to earth, "to seek and to save the lost" (Lk 19:10). And He saved us by His death on the cross. Let no one empty that Cross of its power! Jesus died and rose from the dead to be "the first-born among many brethren" (Rom 8:29).
 
In her motherly concern, the Blessed Virgin came here to Fátima to ask men and women "to stop offending God, Our Lord, who is already very offended." It is a mother's sorrow that compels her to speak; the destiny of her children is at stake. For this reason she asks the little shepherds: "Pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners; many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them.”
 
Little Jacinta felt and personally experienced Our Lady's anguish, offering herself heroically . . . One day, when she and Francisco had already contracted the illness that forced them to bed, the Virgin Mary came to visit them at home, as the little one recounts:
 
"Our Lady came to see us and said that soon she would come and take Francisco to heaven. And she asked me if I still wanted to convert more sinners. I told her yes."
 
And when the time came for Francisco to leave, the little girl tells him: "Give my greetings to Our Lord and to Our Lady and tell them that I am enduring everything they want for the conversion of sinners." Jacinta had been so deeply moved by the vision of hell during the apparition of 13 July that no mortification or penance seemed too great to save sinners.
 
She could well exclaim with St Paul: "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church" (Col 1:24). Last Sunday at the Colosseum in Rome, we commemorated the many witnesses to the faith in the 20th century, recalling the tribulations they suffered through the significant testimonies they left us. An innumerable cloud of courageous witnesses to the faith have left us a precious heritage which must live on in the third millennium. Here in Fátima, where these times of tribulation were foretold and Our Lady asked for prayer and penance to shorten them, I would like today to thank heaven for the powerful witness shown in all those lives. And once again I would like to celebrate the Lord's goodness to me when I was saved from death after being gravely wounded on 13 May 1981. I also express my gratitude to Blessed Jacinta for the sacrifices and prayers offered for the Holy Father, whom she saw suffering greatly.
 
"Father, to you I offer praise, for you have revealed these things to the merest children." Today Jesus' praise takes the solemn form of the beatification of the little shepherds, Francisco and Jacinta. With this rite the Church wishes to put on the candelabrum these two candles which God lit to illumine humanity in its dark and anxious hours. May they shine on the path of this immense multitude of pilgrims and of all who have accompanied us by radio and television. May Francisco and Jacinta be a friendly light that illumines all Portugal and, in special way, this Diocese of Leiria-Fátima.
 
We make spiritual progress when we rely on Mary
 
My last words are for the children: dear boys and girls, I see so many of you dressed like Francisco and Jacinta. You look very nice! But in a little while or tomorrow you will take these clothes off and …  the little shepherds will disappear. They should not disappear, should they?! Our Lady needs you all to console Jesus, who is sad because of the bad things done to Him; He needs your prayers and your sacrifices for sinners.
 
Ask your parents and teachers to enroll you in the "school" of Our Lady, so that she can teach you to be like the little shepherds, who tried to do whatever she asked them. I tell you that "one makes more progress in a short time of submission and dependence on Mary than during entire years of personal initiatives, relying on oneself alone" (St Louis de Montfort, The True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, n. 155).
 
This was how the little shepherds became saints so quickly. A woman who gave hospitality to Jacinta in Lisbon, on hearing the very beautiful and wise advice that the little girl gave, asked who taught it to her. "It was Our Lady," she replied. Devoting themselves with total generosity to the direction of such a good Teacher, Jacinta and Francisco soon reached the heights of perfection.
 
“Father, to you I offer praise, for what you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest children.”
 
Father, to you I offer praise for all your children, from the Virgin Mary, your humble Servant, to the little shepherds, Francisco and Jacinta. May the message of their lives live on forever to light humanity's way!
 
+  +  +

Twenty years ago, one week ago today, on February 13, 2005 - two days after the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes - the last remaining visionary of Fatima, Lucia dos Santos, the one whose job was to make Our Lady's Immaculate Heart known as our refuge, finally entered into the light of God's infinite Love forever.

Today as we celebrate the feast of her cousins, with whom she is reunited but with the title of Venerable and not yet Saint, it is again two days after a feast of Lourdes - namely St. Bernadette's. On February 18, 1858 Our Lady appeared to Bernadette in the grotto for the third time, and finally, for the first time, she spoke to Bernadette directly, who had taken to the grotto her paper and pen and asked the Lady, "What is your name and what is it that you wish from me?"

The lady smiled and said "It is not necessary for you to write what down what I have to say." Then she asked Bernadette for a favor. "Would you please return for the next fifteen days?" Bernadette agreed.  The Lady also told Bernadette "that she could not promise to make me happy in this world, but in the next."

In case you are thinking that this last remark of the Lady is for you: "I cannot promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next," let me reassure you.

First off, not to ruin the surprise, but the Lady speaking to Bernadette turns out to be, in fact, OUR Lady, Our own Blessed Mother, the Mother of Jesus our brother, best friend, Spouse of our souls, the one He gave to us just before giving His life for us - His inheritance and treasure for us, and the Immaculate Heart which gave birth to the Sacred Heart . . .

And secondly - don't let me throw you off, and you probably figured this out already - this Our Lady (of Lourdes) is actually the same Lady as the one of Fatima - who is also one and the same as Our Lady of Guadalupe . . . As Jesus explained to little Servant of God Marcel Van, He needs many apostles of HIs love so that He can reach every heart, every different temperament and personality, every disposition, every one of His sheep. You might say that while St. Paul teaches us to be all things to all men, our Blessed Mother has perfected (in her humility) being all ladies to all men (not to mention to all women and children)!

And so, as we love to do, let's re-visit those words of Our Lady's we find most consoling, most encouraging, most likely to immerse us in the immense ocean of God's love. She first said them (as far as I know) to her little son St. Juanito Diegito, and she says them every instant, every heartbeat, every single day to us too:

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.

Draw me, we will run!!!

"The decisive factor in obtaining God's Mercy is trust. Trust is the expectation of someone's help. It does not constitute a separate virtue, but is an essential condition of the virtue of hope, and an integral part of the virtues of fortitude and generosity. Because trust springs from faith, it strengthens hope and love. . . "   - Bl. Michal Sopocko, St. Faustina's spiritual director

Or in other words:

Trust gets God's attention and convinces Him to pour out His Mercy on us.
So what is trust? What is this magic key unlocking the floodgates of His Love?
Trust is expecting God to help, freely, just like a child expects everything for free from his parents. Just like a newborn baby expects everything from the Mama she doesn't even know yet from the outside.

Nine months growing inside her mother "teaches" the infant trust.
Birth presents a new experience of her mom, one that allows for skin to skin contact, a loving gaze, warm milk, and sweet smells. But this experience only builds on what baby has experienced already: Someone who is a refuge and provider.

God is our Refuge and Provider par excellence. He knit us together in our mothers' wombs, He  brought us safely into the light of day, He has given us air to breathe, water to drink, clothes to wear every day since.

Do we trust Him, then? Not all that much, usually, and in fact, even in the case of the greatest and most trusting saints, only a fraction as much as He can be trusted.

We here at Miss Marcel's Musings are huge fans of the saints who trusted God the most, or rather the saints Holy Mother Church presents to us as models of trust. There are perhaps as many saints in Heaven as stars in the sky, and it may well be that the most trusting ones are those yet unnamed by most men on earth. . . How wonderful!

And yet there are two stars given to us that shine brightly and unceasingly and, thanks be to God and those who worked for their causes, these two stars are named for us: Therese and Faustina.

Little Saint Therese was from France, and dear Faustina from Poland, and both lived in modern times when there were cameras (so we get to see photos of them) and elevators (Therese used this new invention as an image of the way God will take us up to Heaven in the elevator of His arms) and - for Faustina - radio and world war and the 20th century.

Therese is a Doctor of the Church because of her teaching on the Little Way of Spiritual Childhood, sometimes called the Little Way of Trust and Love.

Faustina, a fan of Therese like us, is famous because of revealing Jesus' Divine Mercy image, chaplet, Feast, and motto ("Jesus, I trust in You!") after Jesus revealed them to her.

What is the common feature of their messages?
TRUST. 
"Jesus, I trust in You!" St. Faustina taught us to say (after Jesus taught her).
"It is confidence, and nothing but confidence, that must lead us to Love," said St. Therese, and our Holy Father recently wrote that if that was all she had said, it would have been enough to gain her the Doctorate!

So why are we interrupting our ongoing novena and octave of Our Lady of Lourdes to talk about trust? Yesterday, St. Valentine's Day and St. Cyril and Methodius, was the anniversary of the 2nd apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes to St. Bernadette. And today? What more fitting sequel to Valentine's Day and the rest than . . .trumpet fanfare, please, and a nice, long drumroll . . . .

Today is the Feast of St. Faustina's spiritual director, Blessed Michal Sopocko!
And the Feast of St. Margaret Mary's spiritual director, St. Claude de la Colombiere!
Praise God for the men of the cloth who encouraged and supported Faustina and Margaret Mary in remaining faithful to Jesus, and who brought Jesus' message to these quiet religious sisters to THE WHOLE WORLD!!! Including to us!

"Jesus, I trust in You!"
"Behold this Heart . . . "

I don't know that much about Father Michal, and I don't know nearly enough about St. Claude. I do know that they have changed the world by helping two of the littlest souls in history, and this was most likely not their plan when they became priests. Heavenly Father, send us more priests after Your own Heart, and pour down Your merciful Love and Wisdom, the Holy Spirit, into the hearts of all priests.

Faustina was frustrated (as we so often are) that no one understood her, least of all the priests to whom she confessed.

I love every priest to whom I've confessed, because I take Therese's childlike approach and remember that (as her older sisters taught her) the priest is Jesus in the confessional. Therese asked if she could hug the priest or give him a kiss after her first confession, and her sisters said, "Well, probably better not to . . ." and we know that's because the priest is also a regular man, when he isn't Jesus conferring the sacraments.

And so I add to my love for these priests-in-the-confessional a healthy dose of skepticism. Mostly they don't know who I am and have only a moment to figure out what it is I'm saying - and I'm sure I don't make it easy! My husband is clear - probably in the confessional, and certainly everywhere else. I don't have that gift. . . And so when the priest kindly shares some advice that doesn't set me free with that momentous and liberating whoosh of the Holy Spirit, I don't mind at all. I just make sure I know my penance and get my absolution . . .

Faustina had a problem like this. The saints are THAT normal. They had problems like ours, from indigestion to headaches, from needing to cut their fingernails to bad hair days. (I have to laugh that despite chemo and losing most of my hair, I've still got some wispy strands no one gets to see, and I now imagine that even Ben Franklin had bad hair days most days. Thank goodness I get to wear cuter hats and scarves than he did!)

In Faustina's case though (I'm thinking about problems in the confessional, not under the veil), because Jesus had such an important public mission for her, He said to her one day after she complained to Him, "Don't worry. I'm going to provide a priest who totally understands your heart."

Soon after, she went on retreat and there was a new priest - new to her - and voila! He understood everything. He had been specially prepared by God to understand her, and I think we can use words from St. Therese to explain the beauty of Faustina's encounter with Fr. Michal: 

"I had hardly entered the confessional when I felt my soul expand. After speaking only a few words, I was understood in a marvelous way and my soul was like a book in which this priest read better than I did myself. He launched me full sail upon the waves of confidence and love which so strongly attracted me, but upon which I dared not advance. He told me that my faults caused God no pain, and that holding as he did God's place, he was telling me in His name that God was very much pleased with me." (Story of a Soul)

Wow!

I don't know about you, but that doesn't usually happen to me when I go to confession. But it didn't usually happen to Therese and Faustina either! And if it never happens to us, don't despair - that means that Jesus - whose pierced and merciful hands guide everything - doesn't need that to happen to get us to fulfill our missions.

What missions?
The one, starting now, of trusting Him much more. 
How?
Why not start by counting some blessings. Things God has provided for you that you are grateful for. Or that were life changing and brought you here, to a place where you can read about His love for you. 

You can start small. You were created and grew in your mother's womb. You were born! You exist! You can read! You can smell! You can see, touch, taste, and hear! 

These are gifts He has given you because He is delighted to have you know Him and love Him, and above all BE LOVED BY HIM. He loves you so much, and (the parts I like best) He is all good and all powerful! Put those three together - infinite love, goodness, and power - and you've got Someone you can trust A LOT!

Blessed Michal and St. Claude, please intercede for all priests, seminarians, and those with vocations: obtain for them deep insight, good counsel, and the ability to experience and convey to others TRUST. And if you want to do something really fun, please help the priests who hear our confessions to sometimes really understand us, and launch us on the waves of confidence and love.

St. Faustina, you experienced Therese's love in a dream, and Therese, you experienced Blessed Anne's love for you in a dream. We don't need dreams, but we need to know you love us too. Please share with us your beautiful trust and bold confidence in Jesus. You don't need these now that you are with Him face to Face, but we need them badly! Shower us with the heavenly roses of confidence to the point of joy, peace, and surrender. Help us to say often, and believe it: JESUS, I trust in YOU!

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

​Draw me, we will run!!!

As for St. Claude, tune in next time when we will thank and praise God, and try to provide a quote or two to strengthen our trust in the Sacred Heart and His infinitely merciful love for us.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
O Mary, who appeared to Bernadette at Lourdes, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
O Mary, to whom Zelie went for a cure, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
O Mary, who at Lourdes converted Felix LeSeur, pray for us!

​Yesterday was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, but I've decided with the approval of St. Bernadette (who hasn't objected, so I'm taking that as consent) to extend Our Lady's feast for at least an octave this year . . . After all, she appeared to Bernadette 18 times, not just once . . . and you, like me, might still have some dear sick ones who haven't gotten their miracle yet . . . so let's keep going! Let's keep turning to Our Lady who, although she may be busy bringing God's healing and peace to someone else's sick dear ones just now, will surely - like any good mom - eventually bend down if we just keep tugging on her sleeve and calling her name. 

I found the most wonderful little plug for Our Lady of Lourdes yesterday. You may know the story of Elisabeth Leseur. She was a lovely young French Catholic woman who married a not so lovely and not so very Catholic French man, Felix, who kept his atheism somewhat hidden from her until they were wed. Then he worked with every power of his soul to destroy the faith of his dearly beloved and believing wife. To be fair, Felix thought he was doing her a favor, poor dope.

Happily, she ended up becoming more Catholic, and enlisted God to convert him. Good plan, Elisabeth! But what I found yesterday - which contains the sequel to Elisabeth's fervent prayers and self offering - is a pithy account by none other than Venerable Fulton Sheen who heard it from none other than Felix himself, of how Our Lady of Lourdes got involved. Here it is:

Our Lady of Lourdes and the Conversion of Dr. Felix Leseur
​by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

Just at the turn of the (20th) century, there was a woman married in Paris, just a good, ordinary Catholic girl, to an atheist doctor, Dr. Felix Leseur. He attempted to break down the faith of his wife and she reacted and began studying her faith.

In l905, she was taken ill and tossed on a bed of constant pain until August 1914. When she was dying, she said to her husband,

“Felix, when I am dead, you will become a Catholic and a Dominican priest.”

“Elizabeth, you know my sentiments. I’ve sworn hatred of God, I shall live in that hatred and I shall die in it.”

She repeated her words and passed away. She died in her husband’s arms at the early age of 47.

Rummaging through her papers, Felix found her will. She wrote: “In l905, I asked almighty God to send me sufficient sufferings to purchase your soul. On the day that I die, the price will have been paid. Greater love than this no woman has than she who lays down her life for her husband.”

Dr. Leseur, the atheist, dismissed her will as the fancies of a pious woman.
He decided to write a book against Lourdes.

He went down to Lourdes to write against Our Lady. However, as he looked up into the face of the statue of Mary, he received the great gift of faith. So total, so complete was it, that he never had to go through the process of juxtaposition and say, “How will I answer this or that difficulty?” He saw it all. At once.

The then reigning pontiff was Benedict XV.

Then came World War I. Hearing of the conversion of Dr. Leseur, Pope Benedict XV sent for him. Dr. Leseur went in the company of Fr. Jon Vinnea, orator of Notre Dame. Dr. Leseur recounted his conversion and said that he wanted to become a Dominican priest. Holy Father said, “I forbid you. You must remain in the world and repair the harm which you have done.”

The Holy Father then talked to Fr. Vinnea and then again to Dr. Leseur and said: “I revoke my decision. Whatever Fr. Vinnea tells you to do, you may do.”

In the year 1924, during Lent, I, Fulton J. Sheen, made my retreat in the Dominican monastery in Belgium. Four times each day, and 45 minutes in length, I made my retreat under the spiritual guidance of Father Felix Leseur of the Order of Preachers, Catholic Dominican priest, who told me this story.

*   *   *

How's that for an answer to prayer?
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
Dear Blessed Mother, we have so much we need! We have loved ones away from the Faith and sacraments. We have dear ones who are sick with various illnesses, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. And we ourselves are badly in need of your sweet maternal love, wounded as we are. Do take our darling Jesus and offer Him to the Father for all our needs. Bless with your presence, your kindness, your affection and your own prayers - which mean miracles because you are the dearest daughter, spouse, and mother of God - bless the Church, the world, and our homes and hearts. We ask this in Jesus' adorable name!

Draw me, dear Mother, and we will run!!!

"O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!"

Today begins our novena to Our Lady of Lourdes here at Miss Marcel's Musings. If you start today, you'll finish with us on the feast, February 11th. Thank you, guardian angel, for reminding me!

What do we have to gain?
Health and happiness.
Yes, I know, Our Lady said to St. Bernadette, "I do not promise you happiness in this life, but in the next."
Happily, we are not St. Bernadette, and unless Our Mom in Heaven has said the same to you (and if so, please eat a nourishing meal and take a good long nap, just in case it was your imagination), I vote for counting on happiness in THIS "life" and in the next!

For a long time I thought it was a foregone conclusion that this exile we call life would be pretty painful, even though I had every beautiful gift at my fingertips - the Faith, family, friends, and enough to read and eat.

Then I discovered - in books, since that is the way He likes to enlighten me - that living with guilt, fear, and sorrow was not His plan, even if it is unavoidably a valley of tears we walk through . . . 

The Scriptures, our Heavenly Father's love letters to us, are full of His kind and compassionate promises. He wants happiness for us, the more the better, the sooner the better. St. Therese's favorite Psalm 23 illustrates that wonderfully, and recently I enjoyed a typed up translation a friend had sent (after her son had typed) that said, "He maketh me lie down in green pastures."

I got a huge kick out of that because I was at my holy hour - a green pasture indeed, but at the drop of a hat I will let a friend cover for me, and when I finally found myself before my Best Friend again, I had to admit, yes, He does have to MAKE me lie down or I'll fritter away my life in errands!

Anyhow, the whole Little Way is about these promises and the trust and abandonment with which we can relax in the Father's arms while He carries us everywhere. How literal is this? Much more than we think, but even in its figurative sense, I have one son who has seen the truth born out over and over again - when he allows God and Mother Mary to take over, it gets done (whatever "it" is), whereas trying to force the doing of it in pain is a recipe for an inedible and non-nourishing stew.

My other son was recently plucked up from his amazon delivery driver job (fortunately he wasn't on the job at the moment of the plucking, so no Left Behind car accidents ensued) and dropped by the loving hand of God into Castel Gandolfo, Italy, vacation home of the saints (JPII and Benedict XVI most recently) . . .due to no efforts of his own, and thanks to St. Joseph and Padre Pio hearing my prayers.

So, where does this lead us?
Straight to the grotto of Lourdes with St. Bernadette.
On this day - well the day that ends the novena, the day of the first apparition of Our Lady of little Bernadette - in 1983 I visited Thomas Aquinas College and that visit changed my life. That Lady changed my life. 

On this day (February 11, the day we're heading toward) in 1993, my husband and I arrived for his interview at Christendom College and that visit changed our lives too. 

On this day of February 11, 1950, John C.H. Wu finished his memoir Beyond East and West, and on or around this same February 11 in 2001, I found his book on the shelf of the library at Christendom . . . which led me to Fr. Nicholas Maestrini, P.I.M.E., Italian missionary extraordinaire, and lover of little St. Therese. Wow, these were lifechanging events too!

I could go on, but let me simply say:
Let's make this a life changing feast in our Jubilee Year of Hope!
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us, and pluck us out of the ordinary round and drop us deeper into the Heart of Jesus!
St. Bernadette, pray for us!

I'm praying "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee" for my novena prayer. Jump in anytime, and even if you forget, you're covered!

​Draw me, we will run!

But let's get to those inspired words of St. Francis for us. He's helped me tremendously with his encouragement NOT to worry and his singular understanding that even our efforts to follow Jesus more closely are often fraught with anxiety that is not only upsetting to us, but upsetting to Jesus! Or perhaps a better way to say it (besides the many ways St. Francis himself does, which we'll get to pronto) is simply that we don't need to worry about becoming saints. This is Jesus' work in us, and our job is to let Him take care of everything. We can see this Francis is not only one of St. Therese's patron saints, but one of her favorites. Their messages have a lot in common. They both repeated frequently that surrendering ourselves into the arms of God is the easiest and most effective way to be close to Him, which is all that being a saint really is.

Here are the words Francis de Sales used to convey that good news:

"Anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul, except sin. God commands you to pray, but He forbids you to worry."

"Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then, put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations, and say continually: 'The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart has trusted in Him, and I am helped. He is not only with me but in me and I in Him.'"

"We shall steer safely through every storm, so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God. If at times we are somewhat stunned by the tempest, never fear. Let us take a breath and go on afresh."

"Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs."

"Half an hour's meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed."

And finally, his good friend and spiritual daughter St. Jane Frances de Chantal tells us that St. Francis once said to her:

"I have been feeling most strongly how great a blessing it is to be a child, though an unworthy one, of this glorious Mother. Let us undertake great things under Mary's patronage, for she will never leave us destitute of what we are struggling to attain.” 

*  *  *

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us!
St. Jane de Chantal, help us, too, to become spiritual children of your spiritual father!
St. Therese, pray for us and obtain for us many roses of heavenly graces through the teachings and love of your patron and big brother St. Francis!

Draw me, we will run!

P.S. That wonderful painting of the Good Shepherd is by Sybil Parker who painted it in 1895, the same year St. Therese made her Act of Oblation to Merciful Love, which you can find on this page (below some other prayers and pictures we love).

Maria autem conservabat omnia verba haec conferens in corde suo.
"But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart." - Luke 2:19

. . . et mater eius conservabat omnia verba haec in corde suo.
". . . and His mother kept all these words in her heart." - Luke 2:51

*    *     *

I am finding my consolation in our Mother Mary today. I have been waking with sadness because I can't remember so much, but today I realized the truth I have been groping for this past week:

Our Lady, Cause of our Joy, is also Our Lady of Joyful Surprises, and just when I am ready to throw in the towel, she rouses me for another round, supplying me with sustaining truth - or better yet Sustaining Truth. 

I had been thinking yesterday what I had often thought to console myself: that all this beauty I forget will be returned to me in Heaven - I will remember in exact detail the gifts from His hand, the people I love and all they said and did. But in the wake of The Most Glorious and Happy Day of our lives, i.e. The Wedding of the Century, this was a small consolation. How could I keep it all in my heart and mind NOW?

I don't think I can, but Our Lady, our beautiful Blessed Mother can and does. She is the Seat of Wisdom, and Wisdom requires Memory. But more to the point, she is the seat of Wisdom because Wisdom, that is God, sits in her lap, and He certainly doesn't forget anything (unless it be our sins when we cast them into His mercy).

Lately when I haven't been preparing for The Wedding, rejoicing in The Wedding, enjoying the aftermath of the Wedding, or mourning my inability to possess The Wedding completely in my heart and mind, memory and imagination, I have been delighting in the picture above of The Virgin and Child Embracing, and I have a new image of it because it appears on the cover of a new to me Christmas-tide book by the beloved Colettine Poor Clare, Mother Mary Francis. 

The book is Cause of Our Joy, and the painting is by Giovanni Battista Salvi di Sassoferrato (known as Sassoferrato, the town of his beginnings). Come to find out that Sassoferrato is also the artist who gave me (through the triple charity of my happy twin and her older sister and brother-in-law) a favorite image of Mary I have treasured for 41 years now: The Virgin in Prayer (pictured at the tippy top of this post).

I couldn't resist adding two more images by Sassy, just to complete the sequence. We began with The Virgin in Prayer: Our Lady as she was just prior to the appearance of Gabriel and his world-shattering announcement and invitation (and her resounding YES!) . . . then see the fruit of God's mercy and its Incarnation in her arms . . . then rejoice in the Virgin and Child Embracing . . . and at last we find Our Lady as St. Luke describes her: the Madonna with the Christ Child, which I prefer to call "Madonna reflecting on the Word made flesh."

Since I am myself reflecting (or musing, as we call it here, not able to take ourselves too seriously since like Marcel we're not usually too serious, and when we are, it's time to lighten up) on my forgetfulness, I'd like to add that I was reminded by these images - or rather by the information I found with these images when searching for them online so I could share them with you - that to my utter Joyful Surprise about twelve and a half months ago (December 2023), I SAW the originals IN PERSON in the National Gallery in London!!! Oops, I forgot!

I even bought there a nifty 3-D image of the Virgin and Child Embracing, and it sat on my kitchen counter most of the year. I think I recently gave it away, because what fun is a treasured possession until we part with it and make room for The Real Treasure? But no matter, it was given back to me last week when my Armenian brother let me take (little thief that I am, in imitation of our sister St. Therese) the book that boasted Sassy's wonderful painting on its cover.

All of which is merely to say Thank You Blessed Mother! You were so good at everything I try and fail at, but you don't keep anything for yourself, you give it all to us! Thank you for remembering everything. Please keep The Wedding in your heart and I will know it is safe there. I will get it from you in Heaven if not before, and when I glimpse it in part here below, please fill me with the gratitude that is so much more precious than my silly regret at my Marcellian forgetfulness.

Best Joy from this awesome Lady of Joyful Surprises? I expected it, and yet it is hard to grasp, hard to believe, but truly it happened:

One week ago today, as I write, my dear FDIL became a plain old pickle (DIL) and I have now transformed from FMIL to your basic run of the mill MIL. The happy couple are hitched for life, and to my world's rejoicing (and mine), I have a daughter at long last! God and our Blessed Mother have once again done their work, happily ever after is unfolding, and we ask that the pages be many . . .

Thank you to all who prayed, all who could participate in person, all who helped with the seemingly endless details which so sweetly ended in a pre-wedding welcome, a Nuptial Mass, and a wedding reception that surpassed our wildest and most extravagantly joyful dreams. Joy, joy, joy, as befits a couple so devoted to Our Lady of Joyful Surprises. May our Mother Mary continue to surprise them with joy for as long as they both shall live in this land of exile sweetened by their union with each other and the Blessed Trinity, and may their Heaven (both in Heaven and on earth) be spent snuggled near their sweet Mother embracing her Child.

Draw me; we will run!

Two years ago our little sister had a milestone birthday  - 150 years! That means this year she is 152! My goodness she is well preserved! Except in the case of the saints, it is more than preservation, more than surviving - she is thriving and still having a party each and every day, deputed as she is to be the Head of the Ministry of Roses. Lest that sound like a grand and grown up title, picture her as a little girl strewing rose petals before the Blessed Sacrament in the Corpus Christi procession. She is wearing her First Holy Communion dress, and she looks like . . . a flower girl, like the ones we will be so grateful for this Saturday when we hope you will join us in praying for the Happily Ever After of our eldest son and his darling Catholic bride. . .

But I digress . . . and if I am going to digress, I'd better give you a health update. Therese and I have both gotten older than 50, and isn't that when we cheerfully start talking about our health to any and all who inquire?

My own health is terrific, praise God. My local community has plied me with nutritious meals, while the Mystical Body here and abroad has fed my heart and soul with the graces raining down in answer to their prayers.

More specifically, I am taking a two week break from chemo infusions (had two that went beautifully, have two more to go) in order to host the wedding of - well, if not the century, at least the wedding of the centenary (of Therese's canonization, which we celebrate in May of this year) and The Wedding of the Jubilee Year! Hooray!

All this chemo is simply so that (a) any lingering bit of cancer will be decimated (sorry cancer, but you are not meant to be my gate to heaven this time) and (b) primarily to prevent recurrence, reducing my chances of said recurrence from 16% to 8%. I am in awe of the science, but even more in awe of the God who made us all, and made some of us such smart healers and researchers and medical professionals. May He bless all working in these fields, as well as all benefiting and trying to benefit from medical expertise.

In other words, all is well with me, and on this day that we celebrate little Therese and prepare for our dear J and M's wedding this Saturday, January 4 (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us!), I am thinking about two other weddings that occurred on this day (St. Therese, Little Flower, pray for us!) some decades ago. My, the graces were flowing then - and they still are! Such happy marriages, such amazing paths along which the hand of our dear Jesus has guided these two spousal sets.

Thank You, Jesus, for the sacraments! Please fill us with Your sacramental graces, and for those who have somehow slipped out of Your loving embrace, pour down on them actual graces to bring them back into the heart of the Church where You water and refresh us so thoroughly.

Happy Anniversary JH and L! Happy anniversary COB and KBB!
Your lives have been an inspiration to me and to many - may His love draw you ever closer and may Our Lady wrap you in her starry mantle close to the infant King of the Universe!

Finally, happy birthday little Therese!
Do your thing, shower us with roses, and throw in a cupcake or a glass of wine for good measure. Oh, and since you love nothing more than a good nuptial union (whether it be of the spiritual kind with the Spouse of our souls, or the more natural kind yet doused in heavenly Charity), do help us with all these joyful last minute wedding preparations. May all the travelers be surrounded and guided here by the angels, and may the bride and groom feel the peace of Christ beyond all understanding, now and always.

Help us to live your Little Way, dear little sister. Help us to understand your words and the path you have traveled before us so successfully . . . You insisted:

"To remain little before God is to recognize one’s nothingness, to expect all things from the good God just as a little child expects all things from its father; it is not to be troubled by anything. . ..Even among poor people, a child is given all it needs, as long as it is very little, but as soon as it has grown up, the father does not want to support it any longer and says: ‘Work, now you are able to take care of yourself.’ Because I never want to hear these words I do not want to grow up, feeling that I can never earn my living, that is, eternal life in heaven. So I have stayed little, and have no other occupation than that of gathering the flowers of love and sacrifice and of offering them to the good God to please Him. Again, to stay little means not attributing the virtues we practice to ourselves, under the impression that we are capable of such things, but to recognize that the good God places this treasure of virtue in the hand of His little child for him to use as he needs it; and that it remains God’s treasure. . . It is not to become discouraged over one’s faults, for children fall often, but they are too little to hurt themselves very much.”

Yes, Therese, with out angels and yours, do help us to follow your Little Way in the arms of Jesus forever!

Draw me, we will RUN!!!!!

​Seven years ago today, I wrote here:

Do you know what day it is as I write and officially begin this blog? It's the feast of St. John the Evangelist, the beloved disciple, the Apostle of Love "to whom secrets were revealed and who spread the words of life through all the world" (as the opening antiphon to his Mass puts it).

I am in awe of God's marvelous timing.
Marcel Van was (and is from heaven now), like St. John, an Apostle of Love, and he too had secrets revealed to him and spread the words of life through all the world.

I too would like to be an Apostle of Love. Marcel has shared his secrets with me, and especially the secret of Jesus' limitless love, and I too want to spread Marcel's words of littleness and Jesus' words of life through all the world. 

Like Marcel, I don't even need to understand exactly what it is I'm writing: I'm likely too little to understand the secrets confided to my heart and pen, even as I can say, with St. John and St. Peter, "Surely we cannot help speaking of what we have heard and seen."

But Jesus always puts it best, and I hear Him tell me as He told Marcel on Christmas night 72 years ago in 1945 [now it is 79 years ago]:

"Your duty simply consists in writing."

I rejoice in my mission of writing, and I ask my guardian angel to protect me from ever worrying for a single moment about how many people my words will reach - that is, as Jesus would tell the Apostles of Love before me, none of my business. My business is simply to write, and if I reach one single soul, it will have been worth it.

You are reading this post now, so it has already been worth it. 
 
*   *   *

It was not seven years ago but twenty-three years ago on the feast of St. John the Beloved that my little family went to the (then) P.I.M.E. house on Singer Island in south Florida to attend early morning Mass with a great Italian missionary and lover of St. Therese, Fr. Nicholas Maestrini (P.I.M.E.). When I once asked him what was his favorite book of the Bible, he looked at me like I was silly to ask, the answer was so obvious.

"The Gospel of John, the Apostle of Love."

Why?
Because of the Last Supper Discourse beginning in Chapter 14 with:

"Let not your hearts be troubled."

How adorable is Jesus, telling us just before His Passion, "Don't worry about anything." How He loves us! How He asks the impossible!

One of the many reasons I loved and still love Marcel and his Conversations with Jesus, Mary, and Therese of the Child Jesus is that Jesus (and Mary and St. Therese) are forever - or at least for the entire length of this dear, long book - telling Marcel (and us through him), "Don't worry about anything." On one occasion, Jesus even says something like, "Don't worry about anything any more, ever." How's that for a commentary on His own words in Scripture?

Seven years ago when I wrote my first real post here I asked, "Why Miss Marcel?" which really amounted to "Why Marcel?" and I can answer these many moons later in the words of Bearded Jesus,, Fr. Antonio Boucher, CSsR, Marcel Van's spiritual director and novice master in the Redemptorists:

"First of all, I have been profoundly moved by the unbelievable familiarity and tenderness of which Brother Marcel has been the object on the part of his heavenly interlocutors. On the other hand, his exemplary life, his limpidity of soul, his perfect obedience to his director and his generosity in face of sacrifice favourably impressed me regarding his truthfulness and the authenticity of his communications; this, obviously, with all the reserve necessary, not wishing in anything to anticipate the final judgment which belongs by right to the authority of the Church."  (from the Introduction to Conversations)

My favorite book of the Bible is the Song of Songs of Solomon which begins, "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth." This desire for kisses from Jesus also explains my great love for Conversations because Jesus is forever telling Marcel about the kisses He has in store or is giving as they speak. And wonderfully, these kisses explain so much! On November 6, 1945, Jesus tells Marcel:

"My little apostle, remain in peace. If you are still tired today it is because of the kisses I am giving you . . . It is very painful, my child; I must do everything to repress my love before daring to give you some kisses, and in spite of these precautions, my kisses still tire you. My little friend, what will happen when you receive the real kiss? The effect of this kiss will be to draw your soul completely to unite itself directly to me, nothing less. If, because of all the kisses that I have just given you with so much care, you already have a red face, my little friend, it is because you are very weak; so I must try to spoil you in a thousand ways. My dear child, accept the sadness just as you accept the caresses that I pour on you at this time."

Like Marcel, I'm a bit tired today, and that threatens to make me sad because I want to be bright-eyed and bushy tailed for every beautiful thing happening in these days of Christmas.

I was tempted to think this tiredness the natural result of staying up too late and waking up too early, but once again I've learned what I needed to know from our sweet little brother Marcel and the Spouse of his soul and ours. . . . First off, always blame Jesus! He wanted to wish me a Happy Anniversary of being Miss Marcel musing here, so He gave me a kiss to wake me, like with Sleeping Beauty (only I'd been sleeping far less long than that princess). But really, at the bottom of this tiredness-threatening-sadness is simply . . . . too many more of those kisses! What Love the Father has bestowed on us, and how very unready we are to receive His Love! And yet I wouldn't change a thing! Let Him kiss us with the kisses of His mouth! His Love is better than wine (even better than Christmas cookies and Brandy Alexanders!) - or really I should say, "Your love is better than wine, Your anointing oils are fragrant, Your name is oil poured out, that is why the maidens love you . . ."

How blessed we are, again like Marcel, to have met the fair French maiden Therese. She will teach us to follow in her footsteps, her Little Way, and even better, she teaches us to let Jesus scoop us up in His arms to take us to the Father, Who will then embrace us and allow us to live in His Love eternally. 

For whatever sadness that we feel - with Jesus and Marcel we call them bitter sweets in the box of chocolates He's given us - there is plenty more happiness to (over)compensate. These are the truly sweet chocolates, the Scotchmallows of the box, and here is how Marcel explains it, the reason he gives for his joy.

"My Jesus, why am I so happy today? I am so happy that it is impossible for me to continue to write the story of my vocation [his autobiography]. From the moment when I gave to my sister Saint Therese of the Child Jesus the name of 'sister,' I have been overcome with such joy that it has been impossible to hold my pen firmly enough to write. This joy lasted all day, except after the siesta when I felt a slight headache that disappeared immediately." (November 1, All Saints Day, 1945)

Yes, that familiar blend of joy, siesta, and a slight headache! 

Marcel, thank you for being our dearest little brother! Thank you for being the second St. Therese and the second Apostle of Love! Give St. John, the first Apostle of Love, a kiss for us! Give another - a big, smacking kiss like she requested in letters to be given to others - to our sister St. Therese.

And what shall we ask you to give Jesus and Mary and good St. Joseph? Please pass along three choice kisses to them along with a tender caress for Mary, a smile and thank you to our father St. Joseph, and a sweet little slap for baby Jesus. Nothing painful, just a soft little slap on top of the swaddling clothes covering His truly human infant bottom. Then kiss each of His darling hands for us, each of His adorable fingertips, and reassure Him that we have learned our lesson from Therese and just for today we are trying to remember it: we know it is His darling hands that guide everything. 

But we didn't finish our quotation from the Song of Songs . . . and our favorite prayer from our sister Therese comes here, for she stole it - the little thief! - from the Bride:

Draw me; we will run!!!

Merry Christmas! And happy feast of Jesus' beloved disciple, St. John. May he share with us the secrets he learned leaning on Our Savior's Sacred Heart, and may all of Heaven remind us: 
​No more need to worry about anything, any more, ever!

Let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you.
Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance.
Am I not here who am your Mother?
- Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diegito and us

The Lord is near.
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, full of gratitude,
make known your requests to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
- St. Paul to the Philippians and us

From now on,
don't worry about anything any more, ever.
- Jesus to little Marcel Van and us

Cancer update:
For those in a hurry like Juan Diego today trying to avoid Our Lady so that he could find a priest for his uncle - and doesn't that put a smile on your face straight off??? - here is the latest on my wonderfully fun and undramatic cancer journey:

Praise God with me, please! In fact, hating to descend from the heights of Tepayac to the boring depths of cancer treatment, let's start this way:

Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!
Sing joyfully, O Israel!
Be glad and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem.
The Lord has removed the judgment against you
He has turned away your enemies;
the King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst,
you have no further misfortune to fear!
On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!
The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty savior;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in His love,
He will sing joyfully because of you,
as one sings at festivals.
-the prophet Zephaniah, reading for Gaudete (Rejoice!) Sunday, 3rd week of Advent

In practical terms this means that my treatment has been going super well!
Your love, prayers, meals (for those who are local), smiles, emails, cards, Masses - in short, your charity - is working miracles!

The original prognosis was good, and I had a surgery (outpatient!) on St. Monica's Day (Aug 27) that got out the little lump of cancer. Then after a consultation and tests with City of Hope (yay, City of Hope! God bless all there!), we decided on chemotherapy to reduce chance of recurrence from 16% to 9%.

I have had two infusions of chemo so far, the first on the feast of St. Albert the Great and All Carmelite Souls (Nov 15) and the second just last week on St. Nicholas Day (Dec 6). Both were amazing!

There are three weeks of rest in between each (of 4 total) chemo infusions. The first three weeks went mildly by and brought us to Advent. Now this cycle (I am in the second three weeks) is a little harder, but not too much. There are myriad meds and protocols (fancy Nancy word for things to do) that help tons with any possible side effects, and to answer the super concerned and sweet question on everyone's mind and lips: Thanks be to God, no, I have felt no nausea! I was reassured from the beginning by the 4 levels of medication they have available in case I do feel nauseous (which tends to restore ones confidence in scientific progress!) - but by God's mercy and your prayers, nausea has simply not been a problem.

Sometimes I am awake more than I used to be, but I love my home and have plenty to do even in the wee hours. We are preparing for a wedding here, and that is SO JOYFUL that the conjunction with Advent and a couple of prescribed steroids means I am over the moon, almost literally. Okay, not really almost literally. But still, I am very, very happy and peaceful.

One gift I have been given that brings us back to today's GLORIOUS feast is the gift of freedom from fear. I have done nothing to earn this, it is entirely a gift, and your prayers are no doubt responsible. But in a nutshell: No part of this cancer journey has been scary, not from the original call back from a routine mammogram, not from the part where they needed to see me again and yet again to check if it might be, um, a problem, not from the day my primary saintly doctor told me with sadness in his voice that it was cancer (but we would beat it!) - not when my surgical oncologist told me he was sorry for my bad luck and I started arguing with him! I didn't have a problem with the diagnosis, but I had a huge problem with calling it bad luck!

Anyway, thanks to your love and God's, it has all been good luck. I call it "drama with no sin." I'm the kind of person who wanted (this time literally) to be an actress when I grew up. Now I get to act like I have cancer, and everyone is SO NICE to cancer patients! I have lost most of my hair (a wisp here and there is not flattering, but scarves and hats are SO cute on me!) - and this is great for authenticity. It was getting embarrassing accepting (and I do so gladly accept - I think I could be called a taker rather than a giver :) so much kindness when I had to say, "How am I? Well I feel great!" Now at least I can say, "I feel great, praise God," but the subtext can be: "Though I bet you don't want to be me because I am now a baldish woman!"

What's a little baldness in the service of making us all saints?
One of my favorite memories is when my husband and I traveled the arduous path to LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) to pick up my dear in-laws who had been, in their 80s, traveling for 24 hours across the country to escape a hurricane. We found each other in the belly of the LAX beast, and there was my dear mother in law clutching a Trader Joe's brown paper bag to her chest because it contained all their important documents! My father in law was in need of knee surgery and had limped and loped along 3000 miles, so now we had a wheelchair for him. 

He, like every other elderly or infirm person at LAX that night, refused it.

I made a solemn vow at that moment, nothing too formal, just, "When it's my turn, I will accept the wheelchair!"
Believe me, I wanted it that night and should have asked! Just because I'm a lazy bum, and thankfully Our Lady and Marcel have taught me in a particular passage from Conversations to be proud of it!
Marcel is doing what we do and feeling guilty and blaming himself even though he's done nothing super particularly wrong. He just hates the job he's been assigned because it is actually something he doesn't know how to do, and Our Lady says to him (I paraphrase):

"Little Flower, Marcel, I know you think you are lazy. You are not lazy. But even if you were lazy, just remember that I want you to be even more lazy! That will make me happy."

How good mothers are!
I was recently recounting how my mother failed me at the eleventh hour, the night before my wedding. Knowing she needed her sleep more than I did, she went to bed, leaving me up with my 9 month pregnant matron of honor/best friend (who had an hour drive back home to her husband) to finish the seating plan for the reception!

Oh mom! I forgive you! How good you were to set a boundary and get your sleep. And I think, though I never thought of it before, I can just use that moment - not getting anywhere near enough sleep the night before my wedding because after I finished the seating plan I remembered I had to pack for the honeymoon, and if that (packing for a trip with my husband) hasn't become the metaphor of my weakness and poverty, well . . . someone get me a wheelchair! I think that night of not enough sleep on the vigil of Happily Ever After might just be the reason life has been so very . . . . fallen!

Or then again, it could just be the Fall!

So. What about Our Lady of Guadalupe?
So much to tell!
I am going to do this to keep it simple.
I am going to give you a couple of links to articles I have online about her. The history is so splendid, I'd hate for you to miss out on it just because I'm lazy (which she is all about, which is why I adore her!).

Then I am going to transcribe a passage from this marvelous book I recommend by this marvelous saintly friend I recommend:
Am I Not Your Mother (published by Magnificat)
by Servant of God Archbishop Luis Maria Martinez 

So first, here are the links:

With St. Juan Diego to the Merciful Mother

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Very Littlest Ones

And now, on to dear Archbishop Martinez. He was primate (head honcho bishop guy) in Mexico before and during and after the awful Civil War where little St Jose and the Cristeros and Blessed Miguel Pro shouted "Viva Cristo Rey!" and were martyred because they wouldn't reject the Faith that was their heart. They made a great choice because how can you live without your heart? Or as Jesus says, "What good if you gain the whole world but lose your soul?"

So they lost their mortal lives, but no biggie, they gained Christ completely.
The problem, as my FDIL has put it so beautifully, is that while it can be easy to die for Christ, how do you live for Him?

In other words, for those NOT martyred in the Mexican persecution of all Catholics that raged about 100 years ago, how did they live, day to day, hour to hour, in such an environment of hatred and oppression? It was not entirely unlike today. That is, it was like today. I love our world and all the ins and  outs of it, but if you want to live really well, like say pet a horse now and then, that is not easily had. I mention this example because yesterday I got to pet a horse. Probably the first time in ten years. And I love horses. But they just don't seem to show up at my suburban doorstep, and that is a sign of how cut off we are from what really matters. (No, I don't actually want a horse for Christmas, nor even a puppy. I am so glad to be getting a daughter, and I can always drive back to the bucolic country estate where I found the horse.)

So the good Servant of God Archbishop Luis had the task of rousing the hearts of his flock in the midst of wolves. He did so by helping them in their dire poverty to rebuild and refurbish the awesome temple of Our Lord requested by Our Lady. This temple was, namely, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe which houses, first and foremost, Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament, and then on a much lesser (infinitely less) scale, it houses the miraculous tilma Our Lady gave to Juan Diego on this day, December 12, almost 500 years ago. (It will be 500 years in 2031. If anyone wants to go on a pilgrimage to Lisieux with me that year, it may be less crowded).

When they blessed the finished shinier Basilica, Archbishop Luis gave a novena of Masses, a series of homilies and liturgies for the community of Mexico City. Here is what he said in the first homily, speaking about the first words Our Lady said to Juan Diego on the day they first met, December 9, which we now celebrate as St. Juan Diego day.

From Servant of God Archbishop Luis Martinez:

Do we remember the first word that the Blessed Virgin pronounced on the summit of the Hill? It was a word of love, a word of incomparable predilection: "My son, Juan Diego, whom I love tenderly as a delicate little one." 

The Virgin did not just speak that word then, but she continues to speak it and will speak it until the end of time. It is necessary to repeat it: we are Juan Diego. He is not only the poor, unfortunate individual who looked at the hill filled with light, who contemplated the heavenly face of Mary, who heard her maternal and most sweet word as music from the heavens. We are Juan Diego. He is four centuries [now five] old. He will live until the end of time. And to the immortal Juan Diego our Lady says, "My son whom I love tenderly as a delicate little one."

Do we feel the exquisite sweetness, the heavenly softness of that word of love? When our Lady came to our soul, when she took possession, so to speak, of our people - which is her people - when she adopted our race, the first word that sprang from her most sweet heart, we should not forget. It was a word of love: "My son whom I love."

The love of the Holy Virgin was not fleeting. It is not like the affections of our fickle hearts, which change, fade, and suffer eclipses. No, the love of the Virgin is like the love of God. What Mary loved she continues to love, and now that word has a pulsating and divine timeliness. If at this moment we were to hear with our mortal ears that the Blessed Virgin was saying to us from her throne, "My little children, whom I love tenderly as little and delicate ones," these words would have no greater reality, no greater force, no greater sweetness than those spoken four centuries ago. The divine conquers time because the divine is not subject to the changes of the centuries. And through the centuries we receive the loving word in the depths of our heart.

We have undoubtedly thought it in the depths of our souls. Mary loves us! She loves us like delicate little children! Can we dream of a greater happiness? Ah, let other peoples boast of the power of their armies, the abundance of their treasures, the splendor of their science, the immensity of their territory, and the glory of their history. For us, the Blessed Virgin's love is worth more than all that! When one by one the nations of the earth come to tell us the marks of their greatness and their glory, we could answer them: Ah, we have more, much more than you because we have the love of the Mother of God! On our coats of arms there is a word that is worth all the glories of the earth.

"My son whom I love tenderly as a little and delicate one."
Let us not think that Our Lady's love has withered over the centuries. Let us not believe that it has waned little by little because of our ingratitude and our miseries and sins. No, I am pleased to repeat that Mary's love is like the love of God, like a divine gift. It is never withdrawn. She loves us, and she loves us tenderly as little and delicate ones. 

+ + +

There is more, as there always is when we speak of love. But for now, let me wish you a very Merry and Happy Feast of Our Mother who loves us tenderly and like the little and delicate ones that we are! Marcel is a fan! Therese is a fan! And overall, we here at Miss Marcel's Musings can't get enough of the love of God which bends down to delight in us, the littlest ones of His awesome creation.

Draw me; we will run!!!

"Come from Lebanon, my spouse, come from Lebanon, come: thou shalt be crowned . . .Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse: thou hast wounded my heart with one of thy eyes and with one hair of thy neck."    - Song of Songs 4:8,9

You considered that one hair fluttering at my neck;
You gazed at it upon my neck
And it captivated You . .      - Spiritual Canticle 31, St. John of the Cross

"The book, Story of a Soul, had become my dearest friend. It followed me everywhere and I did not cease reading or re-reading it without ever getting weary of it. There was nothing in this volume which did not conform to my thoughts, and what enthused me still more in the course of my reading was to see clearly that the spiritual life of Therese was identical to mine. Her thoughts, even her 'yes' and her 'no' were in harmony with my own thoughts and the little events of my life. . . Truly, never in my life have I met a book which was so well adapted to my thinking and feelings as is the Story of a Soul. I can confess that the story of Therese's soul is the story of my soul, and that Therese's soul is my very own."     - Autobiography, Marcel Van

"The book, Conversations (with Jesus, Mary, and Therese of the Child Jesus), had become my dearest friend. It followed me everywhere and I did not cease reading or re-reading it without ever getting weary of it. There was nothing in this volume which did not conform to my thoughts, and what enthused me still more in the course of my reading was to see clearly that the spiritual life of Marcel Van was identical to mine. His thoughts, even his 'yes' and his 'no' were in harmony with my own thoughts and the little events of my life . . . Truly, never in my life have I met a book which was so well adapted to my thinking and feelings as is Conversations. I can confess that the story of Marcel's conversations is the story of my conversations, and that Marcel's soul is my very own." - Miss Marcel

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It's been a busy few weeks.

The poodle found a new home! Which is perhaps the understatement of the century because what happened really was that God brought together the perfect family and the perfect dog at the perfect moment, and Voila! Hammy found an ideal new home . . .

One of the photos above is Celine (Therese's next oldest sister and the one who entered Carmel after her) with Therese's dog Tom. And then there is the picture of me with Hammy. Just to make it clear which is which, the photo of Celine and Tom is black and white. But isn't it fun to think that the saints had dogs and loved them, just like we do? And sometimes they had to part with their dogs, but all for the greater glory of God, which is such a very happy thing that I can't find a reason to be sad in Hammy's (and our) new situation. Thank You, Jesus!

The other photos above reflect my recent obsession with hair.

First you see Therese's hair (that's the hair you can see on the wall of her bedroom at Les Bouissonnets, her childhood home in Lisieux when you visit)

Then there's a photo of my birthday hair from this past April.

And finally the photo that solves that perennial question: Why do we think Therese was a brunette when she was really a blonde?

I submit that hair changes colors according to the light, the weather, and whether it is wet, not to mention that if you throw a wad of bills at a hair salon you can likely exit with a different color hair than when you entered!

But perhaps most importantly, it's amazing to me that the colors I see out of my eyes and in the world are not usually the colors that get captured by my photography. And so, when we see the photo of Therese at 14 with her hair piled atop her head to look older to impress the bishop so that he would let her enter Carmel earlier than any bishop in his right mind would, her hair looks black, though clearly from the adorable little girl photos of Therese, we can tell her hair was blonde. 

Did it change as she grew older and before she entered Carmel at 15?
Maybe it darkened a little, as towheads are prone to do, but in fact I think it was just that the black and white photo we have of her with that updo doesn't do justice to her blondness.

And then there is the picture of her in Carmel when she played Joan of Arc in the play she had written for the community. She definitely has dark hair there - but I have to remind myself that she's wearing a wig! Because like most nuns who enter a cloistered religious order, when Therese had her clothing (the day she wore a wedding dress to more definitively leave the world and become a bride of Christ), part of the ceremony was to cut her hair once she entered and exchanged her wedding dress for her new habit. Hence the glorious hair now displayed on the wall of Les Bouissonnets, and this quote from a letter to her Aunt Celine Guerin (her mom's brother Isadore's wife) that accompanied a little lock of her shorn hair arranged on a card to represent a branch of lilies:

"The little gift which our good Mother was happy to have made for your feast will tell you better than I, dear Aunt, what I am powerless to tell you. My heart is filled with emotion when seeing this poor hair which undoubtedly has no other value but the delicate workmanship and the gracefulness of its arrangement, but which nevertheless was loved by him whom God took away from us."

Therese is referring to her papa, St. Louis, who delighted in the hair of his "little blonde rascal."

Well I say what goes around comes around, so when it was my turn to lose my hair (no, I have not entered a cloistered Carmel! More like I cloister myself and eat caramels, or look forward to a trip to Carmel-by-the-sea someday), I thought I ought to share some with Therese. We don't usually think about what her scalp may have looked like under that pretty veil, but hey, I recently got a wig (exactly the color of my hair which is not at all the darkened color of the wet hair Therese is wearing but thanks to Vanity on Main is rather a wonderfully highlighted carmel-and-chocolate), and I figured Therese might like one too!

Which leads us to the latest contest here at Miss Marcel's Musings.

Do you need miracles?
Do you think you are good at asking for what you need?
I sometimes find myself having a really hard time articulating my needs. Usually when I've forgotten to eat and now it's (almost) TOO LATE. At that point it is best to just eat anything, but if I need to express what I would like to eat (say to a waitress in a restaurant), I find myself even more indecisive than usual.

Lately, though, no doubt due to the prayers of y'all, or possibly this is another side to my character (because my long-suffering husband might agree that sometimes, for as long as he's known me at least, I can be quite articulate, nay even demanding about what I "need") - lately, I say, I've been demanding from Jesus exactly what we all need - and that is, to repeat that magnificent word: MIRACLES!

So.
I am not a person very concerned about my health. If I told you my dental history (or rather my history of going to the dentist) you would no doubt be appalled and I would lose all credibility.

Nonetheless, I managed to go get a routine mammogram last spring, and this eventually led to an outpatient surgery on St. Monica's feastday in August (also feast of the 7 Joys of Mary) when a kind surgeon removed a tiny cancerous tumor from my right breast. When that happens, you say you have cancer, bizarre as that sounds.

This led me to City of Hope, a fabulous place where there is tons of hope and even a huge statue of St. John Paul II and another of Our Lady of Guadalupe, both set in an extensive rose garden. Glorious! And the whole huge non-profit cancer center has the added benefit of satellite offices, one of which is much closer to where I live than the main campus where JPII is. So . . . after some tests showed that I would benefit from chemotherapy, I began my post-surgical cancer treatment on the feast of St. Albert the Great, also feast of All Carmelite Souls, on November 15.

Which leads us to now, when I've almost finished the three week "cycle," which means the three weeks following my first chemo infusion - which infusion was just like in the movies where I'm in a pretty room with nice nurses and my doctor wanders in to check on us and I have an IV that drips  important meds into my body so that any lingering microscopic cancer cells will die a quick death and I will be good as new.

The "good as new" part is happening very fast because, thanks be to God and again to your prayers, I am having very few side effects from the chemo (in particular, no nausea and no fatigue). But to be completely honest, there is one fun side effect that came to fruition on the feast of St. Francis Xavier yesterday. . .and here's where our miracles come in.

Starting on Thanksgiving, my hair began to decide it wouldn't like to live with me anymore. So little by little, it began, or rather they, these hairs that grow on my head, began to depart. I was ready!

I realized that I could pretend I minded, and then demand from Jesus a just compensation for this great sacrifice.

If you know me in person, then you know that my radiant beauty comes from my smile. This is a huge relief because in my experience a smile is much more reliable than pretty hair. You can have bad hair days nearly constantly, and sure, the bad smile day might occasionally be a problem, but for the most part, a big smile can be teased out by any of a million things (a slice of chocolate cake or a scotchmallow can bring a smile to my face instantly), whereas big hair won't necessarily cooperate even in the presence of a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie.

In other words, I'm not that sad about losing my hair, because I know my inner beauty can still shine out, but don't tell Jesus I'm not upset, because I'm trying to play the cancer card with Him.

My plan is to demand a miracle for every lost hair, and since I'm handing the hairs to Jesus through Mary, they actually (according to no less an expert than St. Louis Marie de Montfort) become tripled in value. Hence each lost hair is worth three miracles, and since I have (or had) a LOT of hair, with the excellent exchange rate, we're talking a TON of miracles. 

The bottom line is there are more miracles coming my way than I can possibly use, even counting every intention (and I am!) that I have ever prayed for or which has ever been commended to my prayers.

Our take-way?

Please ask for miracles! Our Lady was entirely clear about this in her apparition to St. Catherine Laboure when she gave us the Miraculous Medal. She said the non-shining jewels on her fingers represented the graces that people didn't ask for. If only we would ask, those gems would begin to shine brilliantly - shedding graces upon graces upon us! So please ask for lots of miracles, and say that Miss Marcel sent you. If you forget and say Suzie sent you, that works too!

Meanwhile, I thought there was a line I loved about a single hair in the Song of Songs, and I couldn't wait to find it, but then I simply couldn't find it. It wasn't there.

Next I thought it must be in St. John of the Cross, but I didn't find exactly what I wanted there either, though I got closer.

Still, I didn't quit because I love that line! I thought, finally, I could find it in St. Therese, and thanks to the search feature on my kindle, I did - and the line in one of Therese's letters then had a footnote back to the Song of Songs. What do you know? The first good Catholic translation of Song of Songs I used lamely left out the part about the single hair!

And so, thank you Douay Rheims! There it was in Song of Songs 4:9 -

"Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse: thou hast wounded my heart with one of thy eyes, and with the hair of thy neck."

St. John of the Cross explains that our eye which has wounded Christ is Faith. And that single hair? It is love. The neck on which the hair (love) rests, or actually upon which it flutters (restless to act) is fortitude.

Translation:

Let's take Therese's bold and persevering confidence and finally gain those miracles we've been asking for these ages upon ages. Let's point out that I have lost almost all (soon to be all) of my single hairs, and they were truly uncountable, at least by a mere mortal. My angel, though, has the exact number so Jesus can't hold back a single miracle of those we demand in exchange for my hairs.

If you feel shy, I'll demand them for you, but on Friday (St. Nicholas Day! Hooray!) I go in for my second round of chemo. That means I might be distracted with keeping the side effects at bay for the next few days after that, and so again I appeal to you to be forthright and insistent with Our Lord and Our Lady about what you need and, really, about what you want!

This might be a good place to add that I don't consider what I'm going through "suffering." 
For me suffering means something that causes unhappiness, and this has been a joy, largely because I live among the saints, and they are all treating me like a princess, or even a queen.. It's tremendously comforting, and then, too (it can't be said often enough), I'm experiencing no nausea. Thank You, Jesus!

To top it off, I got to lose the majority of my hair on the feast of St. Francis Xavier, which Therese and I co-opted for his co-patron of the missions, namely Therese herself, so I felt like finally I was able to offer something for those missionaries out in the field and their incipient flocks. Come, Lord Jesus, bring Your love and Your sacraments to all those who don't yet know You, and please bring them through missionaries after Your own Heart!

OH!
I almost forgot!
Speaking of Hearts, and His in particular, yesterday a wonderful priest friend told me that recently Pope Francis issued an encyclical letter "Dilexit Nos" (He loved us) on the Sacred Heart! Praise God!

Thanks to this terrific priest and thanks to Marcel's urging me to write our blog, I'm finally looking at this encyclical approximately 40 days after its release. And HOLY MACKEREL! I must have been living under a rock because Guess What? Who do you think is the heroine of this encyclical?

Yes, in all justice it ought to be St. Margaret Mary, but just like I discovered almost a year ago in Sacre Coeur, right where you'd think St. MM would get her due, there pops us St. Therese to steal the show. In Paris, it was the remarkably large and beautiful statue of Therese sculpted by her Trappist, Pere Marie-Bernard and flanked by massive amounts of votive candles which sat opposite the statue of Margaret Mary which, by contrast, looked small and boasted only one stand of votive candles. At least that's how I remember it.

Well let's just say for the record: Thank you, dear humble Margaret Mary. Where would we be without you? Oh so much further away from His love than we are now. Thank you!

And like any introvert worth her salt, I don't think St. Margaret Mary minds being upstaged, I don't think she minds a single bit, especially when her extroverted sister in Christ makes everyone draw even further into our Spouse's wounded side.

Here is what Pope Francis says in the last paragraph (before the conclusion) of this amazing encyclical, mentioning our sister St. Therese for the 24th time:

"In your own way, you too must be a missionary, like the apostles and the first disciples of Jesus, who went forth to proclaim the love of God, to tell others that Christ is alive and worth knowing. Saint Therese experienced this as an essential part of her oblation to merciful Love: “I wanted to give my Beloved to drink and I felt myself consumed with a thirst for souls”. That is your mission as well. Each of us must carry it out in his or her own way; you will come to see how you can be a missionary. Jesus deserves no less. If you accept the challenge, He will enlighten you, accompany you and strengthen you, and you will have an enriching experience that will bring you much happiness. It is not important whether you see immediate results; leave that to the Lord who works in the secret of our hearts. Keep experiencing the joy born of our efforts to share the love of Christ with others."

*  *  *

Pope Pius XI named St. Therese co-patron of the missions on a par with St. Francis Xavier, the Church's missionary par excellence, on December 14, 1927. She is still working to make us all missionaries with her, and her latest exploit is suffusing Dilexit Nos with the fragrance of her heavenly roses. As a culmination of the encyclical, our Holy Father recalls St. Therese's Act of Oblation and what it teaches us about God's merciful Heart and how to approach Him. With a cameo by St. Margaret Mary, here is the passage:

194. Saint Margaret Mary recounted that, in one of Christ’s appearances, He spoke of His heart’s passionate love for us, telling her that, “unable to contain the flames of His burning charity, He must spread them abroad”. [208] Since the Lord, who can do all things, desired in His divine freedom to require our cooperation, reparation can be understood as our removal of the obstacles we place before the expansion of Christ’s love in the world by our lack of trust, gratitude and self-sacrifice.


An Oblation to Love


195. To help us reflect more deeply on this mystery, we can turn once more to the luminous spirituality of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. Therese was aware that in certain quarters an extreme form of reparation had developed, based on a willingness to offer oneself in sacrifice for others, and to become in some sense a “lightning rod” for the chastisements of divine justice. In her words, “I thought about the souls who offer themselves as victims of God’s justice in order to turn away the punishments reserved to sinners, drawing them upon themselves”. [209] However, as great and generous as such an offering might appear, she did not find it overly appealing: “I was far from feeling attracted to making it”. [210] So great an emphasis on God’s justice might eventually lead to the notion that Christ’s sacrifice was somehow incomplete or only partly efficacious, or that His mercy was not sufficiently powerful.


196. With her great spiritual insight, Saint Therese discovered that we can offer ourselves in another way, without the need to satisfy divine justice but by allowing the Lord’s infinite love to spread freely: “O my God! Is Your disdained love going to remain closed up within Your heart? It seems to me that if You were to find souls offering themselves as victims of holocaust to Your love, You would consume them rapidly; it seems to me, too, that You would be happy not to hold back the waves of infinite tenderness within You”. [211]


197. While nothing need be added to the one redemptive sacrifice of Christ, it remains true that our free refusal can prevent the heart of Christ from spreading the “waves of His infinite tenderness” in this world. Again, this is because the Lord wishes to respect our freedom. More than divine justice, it was the fact that Christ’s love might be refused that troubled the heart of Saint Therese, because for her, God’s justice is understood only in the light of His love. As we have seen, she contemplated all God’s perfections through His mercy, and thus saw them transfigured and resplendent with love. In her words, “even His justice (and perhaps this even more so than the others) seems to me clothed in love”. [212]


198. This was the origin of her Act of Oblation, not to God’s justice but to His merciful 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”. [213] It is important to realize that, for Therese, this was not only about allowing the heart of Christ to fill her heart, through her complete trust, with the beauty of His love, but also about letting that love, through her life, spread to others and thus transform the world. Again, in her words, “In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I shall be love… and thus my dream will be realized”. [214] The two aspects were inseparably united.


199. The Lord accepted her oblation. We see that shortly thereafter she stated that she felt an intense love for others and maintained that it came from the heart of Christ, prolonged through her. So she told her sister Léonie: “I love you a thousand times more tenderly than ordinary sisters love each other, for I can love you with the heart of our celestial Spouse”. [215] Later, to Maurice Bellière she wrote, “How I would like to make you understand the tenderness of the heart of Jesus, what He expects from you!” [216]

​
Thank you for your love and prayers, not only for me but for the whole Church and world. Thank you for your love of Jesus and your missionary efforts on His behalf, whether those are prayers, alms, or audible evangelizing. We are called, above all, to understand the tenderness of the heart of Jesus, and your love has helped me see His so much more clearly. May Therese shower you with roses!

Draw me; we will run!