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[caption id="attachment_171701" align="aligncenter" width="1180"]"A Month of Mary Mediation" by Fr. James Phalan, C.S.C. (CatholicMom.com) Image: By Quang Nguyen Vihn (2020), Pexels.com, CC0/PD[/caption]

I’d like to invite you to meditate with me.

Please take a deep breath. … We’re in the middle of May, Mary’s Month, so I’d first like to share an old prayer that I love, by Father Jean-Jacques Olier, 17th century founder of the Sulpician Fathers in France:

[caption id="attachment_171700" align="aligncenter" width="1080"]"A May Meditation" by Fr. James Phalan, CSC (CatholicMom.com) Photo copyright 2009 Holy Cross Family Ministries. All rights reserved.[/caption]

 

The Church waits till these weeks of Easter time, before the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, to contemplate during the Liturgy of the Word of the Mass the Farewell Discourse of the Lord, chapters 14-17 of Saint John’s Gospel. It is an amazing text that shines a light on God’s very heart, His being and all of reality. “I am the Way, the Truth, the Life … the Vine … the coming of the Paraclete …  Love one another as I have loved you … Peace I leave with you” … and so much more.

Maybe with the pandemic restrictions you’ll have time to read these four chapters from start to finish. Please try. Maybe at first you will feel like I do before this text: I know I am faced with ultimate truth and total freedom – yet like a clear light that refuses to be grasped, that mystical logic can’t be boxed in. The Lord calls me to come close, yet my brain and my heart are too small. Our world remains trapped in itself … in its pride, fear and pain. How do we break out?

“O Jesus living in Mary.” Mary knew from her childhood another way that she wants to share with us. With her open and free heart – immaculate, pure, and unencumbered – SHE LETS GOD IN. Ask our Mother to help you be open to the Lord’s Word with your heart. Even with the tension and anxiety of these days, can you simply hear and receive the Lord’s PEACE?

Let Our Lady help you to set your burdens down for a few minutes. Let the Lord love you and love in you, touching and healing wounds as he comes truly to live, to be, and to remain in your “heart,” the deepest part of your being. Receive and embrace the Lord – in the Word spoken in the Scripture and in the life He has entrusted to you. Allow Him to come and stay and to love through you. THAT IS TRUE LOVE. Our Lady wants to help you find it.

[tweet "Ask our Mother to help you be open to the Lord’s Word with your heart. By @jamesphalan"]

O Jesus, living in Mary and in us! Come and live in our hearts and in our homes and, through us, in this world that needs to YOU to be free!


Copyright 2020 Fr. Jim Phalan, C.S.C.