Vol.5 No.35 DoM E Message
Spiritual Gift of the Week
We pray for the grace to be grateful, consistent, and discerning that we may heed the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We pray that our prayer be inspired by the Blessed Mother,
whose ‘fiat’ was led by the Spirit of God.
Spiritual Instruction of the Week
We pray: “Our dear Lord, where are you?” And our Lord responds: “I am with you.”
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Dear Beautiful Daughters of Mary,
“What has been said about the Ascension of Our Lord comes to this: that we are in a world of mystery, with one bright light before us, sufficient for our proceeding forward through all difficulties.” (Blessed John Henry Newman)
O dear Lord where are you? This prayer has been said since Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden. In the Old Testament it is a cry or plea for the hidden God to show himself—it is spoken with anguish and even desperation. Think of the Psalms: “Why Lord do you stand at a distance and pay no heed to these troubled times?” (10). “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? (22). O dear Lord where are you?—Implicit in this prayer is the reality that we are in transition from this life to eternal life. It is the prayer that was said before the life, death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Lord.
O dear Lord where are you? This is a prayer of desolation. Desolation happens when we feel God is lost, or distant, or absent. We often feel empty and desolate, for we experience many stages in life. Even a casual study of the psychological and physiological changes that women endure proves this fact. There are many ways to describe the different phases, i.e., youth, middle age, old age…or… adolescence, childbearing years, menopause and post-menopausal years. Or maybe the years of young adult, marriage and family, empty nest, and widowhood. Whatever the characterizations, the drama is easily understood, for in all we experience great emotion (and sometimes great loss)—and emotions affect our prayer. When we go through these times, we may lose our feeling of God. God may seem hidden or distant. Through faith in the Ascension however, we know God does not abandon us.
O dear Lord where are you? This is a prayer of hope. As New Testament women we realize that desolation is simply a feeling. Even when we lose the feeling of God, we know God will not lose us. Our knowing, our sureness of God’s presence and protection is in fact one reason for this week’s celebration of the Ascension of Our Lord. As Pope Francis said in his 2013 Ascension Thursday homily: “Jesus’ Ascension into heaven does not mean he is absent—-Instead, it tells us that he is alive and among us in a new way.” Christ, Emanuel is with us—not only during times of transition—but also (and most importantly) because this life is our transition into eternal life.
O dear Lord where are you? This is a prayer of renewal. Whatever stage or phase of life we enter, the Ascension of Jesus assures us that God has something new for us. It assures us of a new way of seeking God—a new way of finding God. We are sure to encounter a new image of God. Jesus “has opened the passage up for us,” Pope Francis said as he gave us a new image, comparing Christ to a mountaineer who leads the climb up the rock-face and once reaching the summit, “draws us up to him leading us to God.”
O dear Lord where are you? This is our daily prayer. We pray from our hearts, not with anguish and desperation. Rather, we pray with wonder and hope. We pray with our minds, that we may proceed forward through all stages and all difficulties. We open our hearts to a new path to God—a new way to follow Christ, —-and finally—-a new image of God in whatever phase of life we enter, for we know that life itself is a time of transition. We pray this prayer daily—and God responds: “I am with you.” Let us pray…
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From Pope Francis’ ‘Church of Mercy” we learn to open our hearts to the Spirit of God:
“Let us try asking ourselves: Am I open to the action of the Holy Spirit? Do I pray to him to give me illumination, to make me more sensitive to God’s things?
This is a prayer we must pray every day: “Holy Spirit, make my heart open to the word of God, make my heart open to goodness, make my heart open to the beauty of God every day.”
Happy Mother’s Day Dear Beautiful Daughters of Mary!
Veni, Spirito Santo, la misericordia di Dio ci salva—Come Holy Spirit, it is by God’s mercy that we are saved,
Deb
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