Can I Really Become a Saint?

When I was growing up, I actually thought it was arrogant to say (even secretly to myself) "I want to be a saint!".  I thought it was hubris talking.  And we all know "pride cometh before the fall", so who would dare risk saying that out loud?

It wasn't until I was well past 30 years of age that I actually heard these words spoken by a feisty cloistered nun many of us lovingly still call, Mother, "We are all called to be great saints. Don't miss the opportunity!"  Did I just hear that correctly?  We are called to be saints?  No. Not just saints, GREAT saints!  For the first time in my life, I gave myself permission to say those words (first of course secretly in my head, then ever so slightly louder and louder over the years in prayer) "I want to be a saint!".

Fast forward a few more years and my husband and I were in the midst of completing 33 Days to Morning Glory, our total consecration to Jesus through Mary when I came across this short prayer that I try to remember to say daily:

"Mary, I want to be a saint.  I know that you want me to be a saint, and that it's your God given mission to form me into one.  So at this moment on this day I freely choose to give you my permission to do your work in me, through your spouse, the Holy Spirit."

Then just yesterday, I was reading through some of the exerts of St. Faustina's Diary on the Divine Mercy App and this is what Jesus said about our desire to be saints:

"This firm resolution to become a saint is extremely pleasing to Me.  I bless your efforts and will give you opportunities to sanctify yourself.  Be watchful that you lose no opportunity that My providence offers you for sanctification. If you do not succeed in taking advantage of an opportunity, do not loose your peace, but humble yourself profoundly before Me and, with great trust, immerse yourself completely in My mercy.  In this way, you gain more than you have lost, because more favor is granted to a humble soul than the soul itself asks for. "(paragraph # 1361)

Our Lord goes on to say:

"Let souls who are striving for perfection particularly adore My mercy, because the abundance of graces which I grant them flows from My mercy.  I desire that these souls distinguish themselves by boundless trust in My mercy.  I myself with attend to the sanctification of such souls.  I will provide them with everything they will need to attain sanctity.  The graces of My mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is--trust.  The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.  Souls that trust boundlessly are a great comfort to Me, because I pour all the treasures of My graces into them.  I rejoice that they ask for much, because it is My desire to give much, very much.  On the other hand, I am sad when souls ask for little, when they narrow their hearts." (paragraphs # 1577-78)

So if you are anything like me and you have thought "I'm weak. I'm a sinner.  I could never become a saint.", please find hope in these words our Lord Jesus has revealed to us.  NEVER lose heart but always, ALWAYS trust in Jesus' Divine Mercy.  Together we can help each other become great saints!!!!

Many blessings to you and yours,

A Mother's Lesson in Mercy!

Today, our Lord taught me a very important lesson about mercy.  I've been devoted to the Divine Mercy Chaplet and Novena for many years now and I "know" (meaning I recognize with my thinking but not always truly feel or understand) that Jesus is there simply waiting to dole out His mercy upon us if we just ask.  Oh, but how easy it is to forget the second step in the "mercy process".  In the Our Father we are reminded "Forgive us our trespasses AS WE FORGIVE THOSE who tresspass against us."  At the end of the Divine Mercy Chaplet there is a beautiful prayer that states:  "Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase your mercy toward us so that in difficult moments we will not despair nor become despondent but with great confidence submit ourselves to your holy will, which is love and mercy itself."  Yes we are most definitely expected to participate fully in step two, sharing that mercy with others.

You may be asking yourself, "Ok so what does all that have to do with the lesson you learned today, Maria?".  Well, sometimes I forget that the people who need my love and mercy the most are the ones who are the closest to me, my family.

This week has been a rough "listening week", to say the least, for my oldest, Pickle.  Let's just say, this week he has been really showing his independent thinking by trying to respond to my directions with his own actions.  The problem with this is that many times five year old thinking does not take into account consequences and safety the way a parent's mind does.  Yet it is through this very struggle that we both learned a priceless lesson.

Today, Pickle was playing with his younger brother, little Bean, when he decided it was a good idea to run around the kitchen pushing Bean's walker and slamming it in the walls.  I told Pickle several times to stop doing this as he was going to hurt himself or Bean.  Sometimes, I guess lessons are learned best through experience.  Within seconds of my third explanation (like a good mother, providing rationale and reason for the what's and why's of my directives), I hear a great BANG and Pickle immediately begins to scream and cry "I broke the walker!".  I turned around and all I see is blood everywhere!  Pickle was in shock that he broke his brother's toy that he hadn't even noticed he was hurt.

Sidenote: Anyone who knows me, knows I am NOT good in emergency situations.  I tend to freeze completely or scream when I see the sight of blood.  But something happened inside of me in that moment.  I was absolutely calm.  It was as if I was moving in slow motion and my thoughts became crystal clear: 1) find the source of the bleeding, 2) stop the bleeding, 3) determine the severity of the injury, 4) remain calm so Pickle can calm down as well.  I KNOW?!  This is definitely not me.  It was as if I was a different person, someone possessed, going through these motions only through the grace of God, I can assure you!

Quickly, I took Pickle's hand, sat him on the kitchen counter next to the sink, grabbed a handful of wet paper towels and dabbed the blood away.  It continued to gush down his throat, in his mouth, all over his teeth, I just couldn't figure out where it was coming from.  Finally, I was able to stop the bleeding long enough to see there were three sources from which it was comine, his top lip was split, his chin was scratched several times, and underneath his chin there was a deeper cut where most of the blood was gushing forth.  Within a few minutes the bleeding was stopped and I was able to really assess Pickle.  He was scared but he was just fine (Thank you Pickle's Guardian Angel!).  Nothing a little cold compress and a few band-aids couldn't fix.  Little Bean was just fine too (Thank you Bean's Guardian Angel!).

Yet, Pickle could not calm down.  He was so devastated the he broke his brother's toy he couldn't stop crying or breathe.  This was the moment, I felt the Lord teaching me a lesson.  As much as I wanted to yell and scream that I am so tired of telling you to follow my directions the first time they are given and this is what you get when you don't listen to mom and so on and so forth,  it was like the Holy Spirit spoke to me.  In that moment, only one word came to my mind "mercy, mercy, mercy".  This is what the Lord was asking of me.  Have mercy on Pickle in this moment.  He has learned his lesson the hard way.  Now is not the time for a lecture but the time for mercy.  The time to show my son that no toy is more valuable than the love I have for him and no action he could ever do, would diminish that love.

With those words on my heart, I spent the next half hour loving him and explaining to him gently that no matter what choices he makes (good or bad) I will always love him, and just like Jesus forgives us for our mistakes, so I forgive him for his.  Of course, once he realized he had to eventually tell Dad what happened after he gets home from work today, a new torrent of tears came streaming down his cheeks.  Oh how I wished at that moment I could take away his anguish!  I wanted desperately to offer to call my husband for him and to explain everything but again the Holy Spirit spoke "mercy" and I understood.  As hard as it would be for me to see him worry about having to admit his mistake to his father, I also knew that it was something for which he MUST take responsibility.  If I stepped in now, I would be doing him a greater disservice, and taking some of the real life-lesson out of this moment.  I realized that sometimes, having mercy is consciously choosing to do the most difficult thing of all, watch your child struggle.  This too is a great mercy as I am teaching my child that with every choice he makes there is a consequence, sometimes good, sometimes bad.  With every consequence, he must take responsibility for those actions.  What a hard lesson for a five year old to learn!  But if not now, then when?  And in what higher-stakes situation?

Sometimes having mercy on our loved ones means we will have to watch them suffer for the sake of learning a bigger lesson.  Sometimes, having mercy means we too will suffer with them.  I think I may finally understand, on a very very small scale, how Jesus feels watching us make mistakes.  How He LONGS for us to make the right choice but how He knows the consequences of our actions will help us to learn the tough lessons of life and that maybe, just maybe He too suffers along with us all because He wishes to grant us the most wonderful gift of all...mercy!  

Blessing to you and your and may mercy be flowing from you today and everyday!

Catholic Tidbit: Divine Mercy Chaplet at the Moment of Death

Did you know there is something you can do for your loved ones at the hour of their death to incite the Lord's mercy for them?  Yep, that's right!

Through her visions of Jesus, Sr. Faustina Kowlaska experienced, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy was given to our world.  It is a beautiful prayer, one that can be prayed daily, and numerous times a day.  It can be prayed for both the living and the dead.  Maybe even more importanly, it can be prayered for those who are at death's door.

In her diary, Sr. Faustina recalls Jesus' words: "My daughter, encourage souls to say  the chaplet which I have given to you. It pleases Me to grant everything they ask of Me by saying the chaplet. ... Write that when they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the just Judge but as the merciful Savior" (Diary, 1541).

Jesus also promised:  "At the hour of their death, I defend as My own glory every soul that will say this chaplet; or when others say it for a dying person, the indulgence is the same" (Diary, 811).  It is important to note that one does NOT have to be in the physical presence of the dying person for this indulgence to take place.

So you see the power you have to incite mercy for your loved ones (and yourself) at the moment of death?  In fact Jesus employs us to offer our chaplets up for sinners and for the dying by saying:  "Pray as much as you can for the dying. By your entreaties [that is, insistent prayers] obtain for them trust in My mercy, because they have most need of trust, and have it the least. Be assured that the grace of eternal salvation for certain souls in their final moment depends on your prayer. You know the whole abyss of My mercy, so draw upon it for yourself and especially for poor sinners. Sooner would heaven and earth turn into nothingness than would My mercy not embrace a trusting soul" (Diary, 1777).

All quotes in this blog post are reposted from here.

Blessings to you and yours,

Catholic Tidbit: Divine Mercy Chaplet and Novena

One of my favorite novenas to pray is the Divine Mercy Novena.  It holds a special place in my heart as it was a novena I was brought up praying and one that my husband and I prayed together the week before our wedding.  So it has always held a very dear place in my heart.  Have you heard of the Divine Mercy Chaplet and Novena?  Have you noticed that the Sunday after Easter is now celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday?  Or are you asking yourself "what's all this Divine Mercy business about"?

You can find a short historic review of it's origin here but very quickly, Sr. Faustina was visited by Jesus Himself who revealed that He wanted the world to pray the Chaplet of Mercy and celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday with adoration of a picture of the Divine Mercy (which is shown here).  He promised that anyone who prays the novena of the Divine Mercy,which begins on Good Friday and continues for 9 days until the Sunday after Easter, He will grant "every possible grace" to them.

In addition to the above promises for saying the Novena, the Divine Mercy Chaplet (which can be said at any time of year, even daily) has other promises as well:

• It promises a peaceful death when said in the presence of the dying.
• It is also retroactive in a sense as you can pray for persons already diseased who may be in purgatory and the Lord will shower His graces and mercy upon them. 
• When praying the Divine Mercy Novena, along with confession and receiving the Eucharist on Divine Mercy Sunday (1st Sunday after Easter) you can receive a plenary indulgence (check out this link for a full explanation of the conditions required to receive the indulgence)!

What is a plenary indulgence you say?  Well very basically it's a way, given through the grace of God for you to receive a remission of the punishment of your sins.  You can find out more about temporary and plenary indulgences here.  

There are other promises as well that I cannot recall at this moment but I highly recommend you read Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul which will provide for you a beautiful account of Sr. Faustina's visions and how this novena came about.

Ok so this was just the basics and I hope you will join me this year, starting on Good Friday, in saying the Divine Mercy Novena for the spread of grace, mercy, and peace throughout the world!

Blessings to You and Yours,