“Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou, among women. And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners. Now and at the hour of our death.” Amen.
I’m under the one year mark now of joining the half-a-century young club!
I’ve watched as several of my
friends
and family
(all dearly loved)
have found their membership sooner than I.
(And) I have loved celebrating with them!
(And) watching as they, themselves, have transitioned into this phase of their life.
(And) how they have each handled their new membership in a unique and individual way.
One constant I’ve watched is how reflective they all have been.
How each have taken “stock” of the first-half-century of their life.
Reliving memories, grateful for the blessings they’ve been gifted, and making
informed choices on what they desire to carry with them
into the completion of this century they have more than half-way begun.
What has this taught me?
Lots.
But most especially that through each person’s life (as with my own) what speaks MOST to everyone is
Relationships.
This is what we all cherish.
This is what has helped us to stretch and to grow
into who we have become
both
through joy and with sorrow;
and who will help us to evolve into what we’ve yet to
be.
I call these relationships,
these people I cherish, who challenge me to be the person God has built me to be, my
“Ironmen!”
Photo Courtesy of Marvel
“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17
This is my community.
Who keep me in check.
Who cheer me on along the way.
So that one day, (when all is said and done)
He will smile when I meet Him
and say,
“Well done.“
My Ironmen come in various shapes and sizes and many recite the same Creed I do each Sunday (but not all and that’s okay too!) I love them all and wouldn’t trade one out for the other, no matter the age or the shoe-size! I’m immeasurably grateful for the ones who have remained with me the longest, (but more about them another day.)
Recently, I met a few of my friends out for a Special Rendevous of Fine-Dining! These friends and I had just completed working a Retreat together several weeks earlier and we missed the comaraderie we shared being together. When we first met, without their even knowing (but much to my delight,) they began to claim our Retreat-Working-Group as “The Ironmen!” That’s when I knew instantly They were destined to be imprinted into my heart for always.
My Newest Ironmen (minus 2) DME #78
Through them God showed me that I will continue to collect Relationships! The one’s I’ve already made will always, through His grace, remain strong; but He will continue to bless me with New Ironmen (for always) along the way!
And oh, how very much that makes me giddy-with-excitement to jump into the next half-century of my living!
(because every Ironman loves a good hot-dog)
these hot-diggity hugs n’ blessings go out to you!
What Do We Believe?
“Our profession of faith begins with God, for God is the First and the Last, the beginning and the end of everything.” -the CCC, no. 198
On Mercy Sunday, April 30, 2000, before some two hundred and fifty thousand pilgrims and the television cameras of the world, Pope John Paul II canonized Saint Faustina Kowalska, ‘the great Apostle of Divine Mercy’. In doing so, he also approved the Divine Mercy message and devotion by declaring the Second Sunday of Easter as “Divine Mercy Sunday” for the universal Church. In one of the most extraordinary homilies of his pontificate, Pope John Paul II repeated three times that Saint Faustina is “God’s gift to our time.” She made the message of Divine Mercy the “bridge to the third millennium.” He then said, “By this act of canonization of Saint Faustina I intend today to pass this message on to the third millennium. I pass it on to all people, so that they will learn to know ever better the true face of God and the true face of their neighbor. In fact, love of God and love of one’s neighbor are inseparable.
Yippee!!
Today is the final day for the completion of my first blog-series!
The release of the third part in The DM Trifecta!
I have loved writing this three-part series and am grateful for the Holy Spirit’s guidance in doing so. (Because…I’m not that smart, without Him, don’t you know!) I do pray it has inspired you to grow just a little closer to God.
As St. Faustina showed to the whole world, Christ desires us to embrace and immerse ourselves in His Grace and Mercy. May each one of you experience the power of the Blood and Water that poured out from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy, and may each of you find confidence and trust in this ever-present love of God!
Over the course of the past three Wednesdays…
because every Wednesday is for Saint Maria Faustina KoWalska (what else,) with a brief reflection on the Divine Mercy of God, here at hugsnblessings….
we have over-viewed the following:
The Chaplet of The Divine Mercy The Hour of Mercy
Today we will complete The DM Trifecta by looking at how each of us are called to examine the third part of this series, as partakers in
Spreading the Honor of The Divine Mercy
In short, St. Faustina’s mission consists in reminding us of the immemorial, but seemingly forgotten, truths of our faith about God‟s merciful love for men, and in conveying to us new forms of devotion to The Divine Mercy, the practice of which is to lead to the revival of the spiritual life in the spirit of Christian trust and mercy!
In discussing the essential elements of the Divine Mercy devotion, the spreading of the honor of The Divine Mercy as one of them is important, since certain promises of Christ are related to this as well: “Souls who spread the honor of My mercy I shield through their entire life as a tender mother her infant, and at the hour of death I will not be a Judge for them, but the Merciful Savior”(Diary, 1075).
The essence of The Divine Mercy devotion is found in the Christian attitude of trust in God and of an active love toward neighbor. The Lord Jesus said: “I desire trust from My creatures”(Diary, 1059), and He expects them to exercise mercy through deeds, words, and prayers. And further: “You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it” (Diary, 742). Christ wants those who worship Him to perform at least one act of love of neighbor in the course of each day.
Isn’t that beautiful! Isn’t that a world we all imagine? A world of expressing mercy through our words, deeds, and prayers to our brethren. Every day. No excuse. No reason to hold back.
The spreading of the honor of The Divine Mercy does not require many words, but always the Christian attitude of faith, of trust in god, and of becoming ever more merciful.
In her lifetime St. Faustina gave the living example of just such apostolic work. There is nothing that man needs more than Divine Mercy, that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights of the holiness of God. There is no greater time than now to become particularly aware of this. Christ himself chose to pass on to our generation through Saint Faustina this message. And it is a message that is clear and understandable for everyone. Anyone can come, look at this Image of the merciful Jesus, His Heart radiating grace and hear in the depths of his own soul what Saint Faustina heard, “Fear nothing l am with you always”(Diary, 586).
My prayer, brothers & sisters in Christ, is that you understand the great apostolic work that lies before YOU too. These aren’t lofty goals we’ve been given!
They are real, tangible, lived out missions we’ve been entrusted with!
May each of you find the courage, wisdom, and guidance necessary to trust in Jesus as you Spread the honor of His Divine Mercy!
Jesus, I trust in You!
and…may these hugs n’ happy blessings be with you as you do!
hugsnblessings 