March for Life

On January 21st, we were blessed to be able to attend the Vigil Mass for the March for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. It is estimated that 11,000 people were in attendance. The celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is always incredibly powerful, and it was especially moving to see all of the clergy, religious, and laity there. So many young people… we truly are the pro-life generation.

 

On January 22nd, we participated in the March for Life. It is a beautiful, peaceful march through our nation’s capital to celebrate the gift of life, and to show our solidarity in defending all human life, from conception to natural death. Hundreds of thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds walked together, some singing, some dancing, some praying, some chanting, some in reflective silence… but all moving as One. So many witnesses, including courageous mothers and fathers who had lost children to abortion. May we strive to build a culture of life everywhere that we go. “Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love” - Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. 

A letter to our Heavenly Father

My Beloved, 

What is love? What is man that You keep him in mind, mortal man that You care for him? Who am I to have acquired Your Eucharistic Love? To have acquired You? I am seeking You. I am not far from You because of You; because of Your gifts to me: to mankind. It is by You alone that I know You are Good; that I am, in my essence, good. That You are Love, and that I can love. Love is a choice. May I always choose to love You and Your creation. May I always choose You. May I always choose Love.

I love You. Please help me to discern Your Will for me, and please accomplish it in me.

Love,

April Marie

Transformed by the Eucharist

Praised be Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, now and forever!

As we begin the new year, many of us may have special goals for ourselves. A new year is exciting because it gives us a fresh opportunity to better ourselves in some way. I would like to present to you a daily goal for the new year: to be transformed by Love!

If you are reading this blog, I think it is safe to assume that you have some vested interest in the condition of your soul. This is typically not something our worldly culture encourages us to think about, so it is really our choice (because God has given us all free will) to desire eternal life with God. This desire is really important for the spiritual journey. If you desire to become a saint, then God will make it happen….if you let Him. That is the real struggle.

In order for God to make you holy, you have to be open to receive His love. In Scripture, we read over and over again that God is love. What does this mean? St. John says in his first letter:

We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:16-19)

God created each of us in His image and likeness. Because He is love, we were created out of love. St. John, the Beloved Disciple, knew the heart of Jesus very well and he was open to receiving this special love from Jesus. It was John who stayed with Jesus at the foot of the cross with Mary when all the other disciples ran and hid. St. John ran faster than St. Peter to the tomb after he heard that Jesus was risen. St. John was transformed by Love.

We are all called to this same intimate relationship that St. John and Jesus shared, but many of us find this very difficult to accept. In order to be transformed and share in this authentic relationship with God, we need to be vulnerable. This means we have to share and surrender our pains, sufferings, joys, and who we truly are with God! This is not easy and it is often very painful.

You may be thinking, “St. John had it easy because Jesus was really there with him! He got to actually lean on Jesus’ Sacred Heart and be with Him.” Well, if this is your line of thinking, then I have some very good news: Jesus IS still with us everyday, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist.

My community is very privileged to have Eucharistic Exposition everyday as a part of our lives. Just by truly being present with our Eucharistic Lord, our hearts are being transformed by His Love. A very special spiritual father of mine once told me that, “prayer is simply heart speaking to Heart.” That is what we do and this is something everyone is called to do! Remember, if you have the desire to be transformed, God will respond. Even if our hearts are just a little bit open, He can work miracles. It was Jesus who said that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains (Matthew 17:20).

Allow Jesus to transform you with His love in the Eucharist. Become like St. John and lean on the heart of the Beloved, and He will make you one of His saints.

United in the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus,

Katie McCloskey, Postulant

Becoming One in the Eucharist

Another time the cycle repeats: we say bye to a year that ends and receive a new year with new hopes and renewed desires. We all experience the passing of time; it is, in fact, humanly unstoppable. The challenge is to live in the present.  We are frequently reliving the past or planning the future. It is ever so difficult to remain in the present.

When I was a 16 year old, I truly enjoyed attending "quinceañeras." Ah! Those days in which we all were coming of age: the music, the friendship, the dancing, the chatting, discovering who is going out with whom... One day everything changed. I was in the school chapel, and I heard a sister reading a biblical passage: John 15:16. "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you."  This is all it took for Jesus to conquer my heart.  I had been chosen!  The impact of this invitation was not to be palpable until after I attended the next party.  The joy of preparing for it and the joy of dancing and socializing were there, but what a void it all left in my heart afterwards.  My heart now longed for something else.  It was a longing that was almost painful. Like the bride in the canticle by St. John of the Cross, I had been wounded by love.

Where have You hidden Yourself

and abandoned me in my groaning, O my Beloved?

You have fled like the hart,

Having wounded me.

I ran after You, crying; but You were gone.

From then on, nothing satisfied me.  The sweetness of intimate talks with friends, the joy of parties, and the love of my family could not satiate this longing for oneness and intimacy with Jesus. Little by little I realized that it was only through Him that I could become really one with the whole universe; in Him I could embrace everybody; with Him I could learn to live and die in Love. My young heart was longing for Love, an infinite Love.

How many people I encounter in the Eucharist, in my daily time of adoration, through my very poor prayers! It is in Him that we all become real brothers and sisters.  In Him and with Him we become one! We are never alone!

As Jean Corbon says in The Wellspring of Worship, God has one impatient desire, one passion, and that is "to be with the children of men." Wow! In other words, our longing for love, for oneness, is not a crazy desire. It has been implanted in our hearts by God, who Himself longs to become one with us!

Through this blog, we, the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, want to invite you to share in our Eucharistic-Marian spirituality. We seek to become like our Eucharistic Lord, souls that are willing to give it all; willing to be broken and given to others. May we pour out our hearts each day to the Blessed Sacrament, and, in silence, listen to the palpitations of His Heart. May we pour out our hearts to the Blessed Sacrament each day, and, through the intercession of Our Lady of Mercy, bring Christ to the rest of the world.

Men have been called into existence, but will they accept and respond? Will they gaze back into the adorable Face of God? (Corbon).