a visit to my interior castle. (in search of the) Divine Mercy in my soul.
my guide: st. faustina.
791 Hide me, Jesus, in the depths of Your mercy, and then let my neighbor judge me as he pleases.
792 I must never speak of my own experiences. In suffering, I must seek relief in prayer. In doubts, even the smallest, I must seek only the advice of my confessor. I must always have a heart which is open to receive the sufferings of others, and drown my own sufferings in the Divine Heart so that they would not be noticed on the outside, in so far as possible. I must always strive for equanimity, no matter how stormy the circumstances might be. I must not allow anything to disturb my interior calm and silence. Nothing can compare with peace of soul. When I am wrongfully accused of something, I will not explain myself; if the superior wants to know (195) the truth, whether I was in the right or not, let her find out from others rather than from me. My concern is to accept everything with a humble inner disposition.
And it’s my day to reflect on The Divine Mercy of God!
And I am…
Jumping with Joy!
Papa made the best announcement recently & my heart is still over the moon giddy! It’s been so thumpity-thumping, over-joyed pumping, that my rib-cage feels bruised. (Well not really, but that’s a pretty good word-exaggeration to give you an indicator of just how HAPPY I am!) Pope Francis (Papa) announced on Friday, March 13, 2015 that next year will be an extraordinary jubilee year dedicated to mercy!
Pope Francis will make the formal announcement on April 12th which isDivine Mercy Sunday!!
“Dear brothers and sisters, I have thought about how the Church can make clear its mission of being a witness of mercy,” Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported. “It’s a journey that starts with a spiritual conversion. For this reason I have decided to declare an Extraordinary Jubilee that has the mercy of God at its center. It will be a Holy Year of Mercy.”
Luke 6:36, “Be merciful as your Father is merciful,” will be the verse for the year!
“I am convinced that the whole Church will be able to find in this Jubilee the joy of rediscovering and making fruitful the mercy of God, with which we are all called to give consolation to every man and every woman of our time,” CNA quotes the pontiff, adding that he then entrusted the Holy Year to Mary, Mother of Mercy. You can read even more at the Catholic Beat.
As Pope Frances wrote in Evangelii Gaudium: “The Church must be a place of mercy freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel.”
I have been dancing the Divine Mercy Dance, body and soul, (another great visual) ever-since learning of this!
And I can just imagine how smile-face-happy St. Faustina would be!
Smilin’ St. Faustina (Helen) Kowalska!
“Oh most Holy Tinity! As many times as I breathe, as many times as my heart beats, as many times as my blood pulsates through my body, so many thousand times do I want to glorify Your Mercy!” -St. Faustina
St. Faustina also wrote in her Diary:
“Today, my soul is preparing for the coming of the Lord, who can do all things, who can make me perfect and holy. I am preparing very carefully for His reception, but there arose the difficulty as to how to present this to Him? I rejected it (this difficulty) at once. I will present it as my heart dictates.” – entry, 1825
May we each begin today to prepare our own hearts for the coming of this beautiful year in the Church, a Holy Year of Mercy!
A past assignment at last examined: consider what you want to accomplish with your blog. Write down three concrete goals you want to achieve. Live. And. Blog. (not blog to live.)
Having goals helps you focus your blogging energy. If the thing you’re doing isn’t helping you achieve your goals, ditch it. Done & ditched!
Some questions to mull over to help you uncover/refine what’s most important to you about your blog:
Why do you blog? My head’s all full of fluff. To connect with others? Sort-of, (but only kind-of.) If others are to connect with me they will need to be those who have not only smiles on their faces but smiles embedded in their souls, (or are striving for this.) To work through and clarify your own thoughts? Mostly.
If your blog exceeded your wildest dreams, what would that look like? It would be a creative outlet of love. How many followers would you have? Only thing that matters would be: a follower of my site must be one who is intrigued by silly, sappy, genuine love (which can be messy sometimes) & those who care to nurture God’s love in their lives and the lives of others. And MUST be comfortable with receiving hugs n’ blessings! (Yes, this site is touchy & feely.) What sort of community would participate? Builders of character. No conspirators who want to build themSELVES up while tearing others down. What discussions would take place? Godly giggles exhaled through angel breaths. How often would you post? my prayer is to build a routine. God is working on that for me...please be patient with His timing.
You can articulate your goals however you’re most comfortable, my main goal is: unpacking my brain fluff; but we recommend making them simple, concrete, and time-based to create laser-like focus, like: okay….unpacking my fluff ROUTINELY so i don’t become over-stuffed!
How would that look?
Attempt to publish three times each week with: One random fluff-thought, 2 regular features.
Spend one hour each week visiting my followers’ blogs, reading their posts, and commenting on their work.
Create an editorial calendar for the next three months by March 23rd.
Publish posts from respected guests once a month.
(Enlist prayer warriors to pray for me!)
Assignment completed. (no credit received. but my character is redeemed & for that I give mySELF some bonus points!)
hugsnblessings 