Each day until Divine Mercy Sunday on April 7th, I will email you one thought from that day’s brief reading from Fr. Michael Gaitley’s fine book, 33 Days to Merciful Love. I render full credit for these thoughts, respecting copyright laws, to Fr. Gaitley. Each reading ends with a prayer, which I ask you to pray with me for this intention: the conversion of our parish.
Day Nine
One of my favorite sayings is St. Therese of Lisieux’s Je choisis tout! “I choose all!” I say that often when looking at something very beautiful, and I try to say it when facing something very difficult. Mother Teresa, who interpreted the Little Way of St. Therese for our time, put it like this: “Take what He gives, and give what He takes, with a big smile.” Take all that He gives!
Therese said Je choisis tout when her sister Leonie offered her younger sister Celine and her box of toys she had outgrown. Celine timidly took one toy, but Therese took all the rest, saying “I choose all!” God gave this precocious little creature great desires, but little capacity to attain those desires. “I want to love God,” she wrote, “more than the great St. Terese of Avila!” But Little Therese couldn’t even comb her own hair. “It is impossible for me to grow up,” she wrote, “so I must bear with myself such as I am with all my imperfections.” Unlike Peter Pan, and many men today (sorry guys!), Therese knew that “not growing up” was a limitation rather than something to be “celebrated.” But rather than get depressed over her limitations, she searched the Scriptures for “a path” to heaven.
She found it in these words of Christ: “Whoever is little, let him come to me.” So this “little bird with the desires of an eagle” her way up: “the elevator which must raise me up to heaven is Your arms, O Jesus!” She would trust in His merciful love. “And for this I had no need to grow up, but rather I had to remain little, and become this more and more.”
Even a little bird can desire to fly where eagles soar. Again, Mother Teresa: “Sisters, it’s in the wanting that we become holy. Say to Jesus: I want, I will.” Most of us are little birds with great desires. If we believe that God can fulfil the desires He has placed within us, we too will fly very high.
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. Give me the heart of an eagle, a burning longing to choose all that you will for me.
Novena Prayer to St. Joseph
O God, who in your ineffable providence, have chosen Blessed Joseph to be the spouse of your most holy Mother and father to your Only Begotten Son. We beg that under his patronage our parish and school may flourish, teaching us to pray and leading us to heaven. To the glory of God the Father, through the grace of Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Day Nine
One of my favorite sayings is St. Therese of Lisieux’s Je choisis tout! “I choose all!” I say that often when looking at something very beautiful, and I try to say it when facing something very difficult. Mother Teresa, who interpreted the Little Way of St. Therese for our time, put it like this: “Take what He gives, and give what He takes, with a big smile.” Take all that He gives!
Therese said Je choisis tout when her sister Leonie offered her younger sister Celine and her box of toys she had outgrown. Celine timidly took one toy, but Therese took all the rest, saying “I choose all!” God gave this precocious little creature great desires, but little capacity to attain those desires. “I want to love God,” she wrote, “more than the great St. Terese of Avila!” But Little Therese couldn’t even comb her own hair. “It is impossible for me to grow up,” she wrote, “so I must bear with myself such as I am with all my imperfections.” Unlike Peter Pan, and many men today (sorry guys!), Therese knew that “not growing up” was a limitation rather than something to be “celebrated.” But rather than get depressed over her limitations, she searched the Scriptures for “a path” to heaven.
She found it in these words of Christ: “Whoever is little, let him come to me.” So this “little bird with the desires of an eagle” her way up: “the elevator which must raise me up to heaven is Your arms, O Jesus!” She would trust in His merciful love. “And for this I had no need to grow up, but rather I had to remain little, and become this more and more.”
Even a little bird can desire to fly where eagles soar. Again, Mother Teresa: “Sisters, it’s in the wanting that we become holy. Say to Jesus: I want, I will.” Most of us are little birds with great desires. If we believe that God can fulfil the desires He has placed within us, we too will fly very high.
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. Give me the heart of an eagle, a burning longing to choose all that you will for me.
Novena Prayer to St. Joseph
O God, who in your ineffable providence, have chosen Blessed Joseph to be the spouse of your most holy Mother and father to your Only Begotten Son. We beg that under his patronage our parish and school may flourish, teaching us to pray and leading us to heaven. To the glory of God the Father, through the grace of Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
RSS Feed