“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him: do not fret.”
“I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.”
Greetings to dearest Sisters in Christ! Remembering a special day this month: Happy Birthday, Mary! (Sept 8) “Today God welcomes on earth the holy throne which He had prepared for Himself. He who established the heavens in wisdom has fashioned a living Heaven.” – Byzantine Liturgy
Who doesn’t marvel at a flower that finds its way through the tiniest crack in the sidewalk, or a fragile pocket-sized bunny that survives despite its mother succumbing to nature’s forces? Who can resist the draw of an electrifying espionage film or a come-from-behind victory for a peewee baseball team? Against all odds. Our souls seem to be made to notice and marvel. In truth, we hail from those roots. It is our Faith. Perseverance… against all odds. Each believer is called to the same course! Our cooperation gives testimony to the higher thoughts and ways of God. In a word, all glory be to God!
Strong convictions precede great actions. Holy Scripture teems with illustrations. A stand out is Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who together resolutely refused to worship the golden idol of King Nebuchadnezzar, knowing they would be hurled into the fiery kiln. The furnace was so blistering that the guards died that pitched them in! God delivered the trio, however – against all odds! And how about Esther? Mordecai pleaded for her to plead with Xerxes to spare the Jews from annihilation. Her answer, “Mordecai, you are asking me to sacrifice my life to just have the king’s ear.” His answer: “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Her response: “And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!” Against all odds… The heart of the king was softened through Esther and the Jews spared. The course of history changed.
St Paul dominates the New Testament annals as the quintessential figure of a life least-likely-to-convert. With the strength of transformation, however, of this seemingly implausible conversion, even an ensuing glut of hardships and trials did not deter Saul-turned-Paul from following Christ completely – to sainthood, to be exact! His actions and words through Holy Scripture remind us, spur us on, beckon us, even – yes, against all odds! Nothing is impossible with God.
You may be familiar with the remarkable story of the Mothers of Lu – women from a small village by that name in rural northern Italy. It is a true account always worth retelling. In 1881, with the encouragement of the local priest, a group of mothers from the town united for the purpose of praying for vocations. A short but poignant prayer for the intention was composed and collectively prayed. They organized adoration of the Blessed Sacrament once a week and once a month they offered their Sunday Holy Communion for the same intention. From the families of Lu emerged an astonishing 323 vocations: 152 priests and 171 nuns. As many as three or four vocations came from some families. Truly, this abundance of fruit from such a small hamlet is against all odds.
As Seven Sisters we stand to learn something from the Mothers of Lu about simplicity and perseverance in prayer, and looking beyond what the statistics and odds may hold in a situation. We do well to merely remain faithful to our committed prayer times and approach them, like the Mothers of Lu, with the strongest of hopes! “Do not be satisfied with the little things,” encourages St Catherine of Siena, “because God wants great things!”
In obedience to the task set before us as Seven Sisters, we sometimes are called like those aforementioned lives portrayed in Scripture… to pray in the intensityof the likes of a fiery furnace, to courageously pray for the seemingly impossible, and/or endure a number of hardships and sacrifices for the good of another, the recipient of our prayer efforts. Has it been worth it? It is worth our reflection… for in the echo of Mordecai, “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Take heart!
Our Lord will sustain us in these Hours that ask much of us. It has been said that we sometimes need graces to live the complexity of graces being bestowed. Let us be open to the sufficiency and support of graces for that very purpose. As we live the Hours and live the graces, may we also live the joy. United, we rejoice in the hope set before us – that every priest/bishop we pray for will become more Christ-like. The graces are ample! … against all odds(phrase now repeated seven times – the complete number!) – for we can do all things through Him who strengthens us (Phil 4:13).
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercian monk, mystic and Doctor of the Church, offers fitting words to Seven Sisters, as we enter and remain in the sweet school of intercession, ever-learning to intercede afresh and anew for the priest/bishop for whom we have committed to lift to heaven through our prayers: “Wait upon the Lord; be faithful to His commandments; He will elevate your hope, and put you in possession of His Kingdom. Wait upon Him patiently; wait upon Him by avoiding all sin. … He will Himself crown your holy hope. Place all your hope in the Heart of Jesus; it is a safe asylum; for he who trusts in God is sheltered and protected by His mercy. To this firm hope, join the practice of virtue, and even in this life you will begin to taste the ineffable joys of Paradise.”
United in prayer and mission…
that our prayers may find the heart of every bishop and priest…
… eternal gratitude continues as you each remember to offer a wee Hail Mary for me every day…. “One Ave Maria makes hell tremble” (St John Vianney). Pray that I will not ‘spoil the beautiful work that God has entrusted…’ (St Teresa of Calcutta)
… your kind emails and notes and phone calls and generous support always arrive to my heart door at the right moment! Your financial sacrifices are for 100% furtherance of Apostolate. THANK YOU! The letters of testimony are so beautiful and edifying! Don’t stop writing to me. Eternal gratitude is mine for YOU!Be assured of my continued daily prayers for you at the altar.
Janette
+JMJ+
sevensistersapostolate@gmail.com