Lent & Easter 2017

            When I prayed the Joyful Mysteries of the rosary this Monday morning of Holy Week, the day after Palm Sunday, I had the sense that Jesus was going to show His Love for me, which was what I prayed for all forty days of Lent.  Father Pat Martin promised me that if I prayed the rosary every morning during Lent, the way that he said to pray it, that God would answer a personal intention of mine.  Father Pat said that instead of praying for my personal intention, I needed to ask Mary, the Mother of God, to help me to see God’s love for me today.

Wow!  What a life-changing prayer!  What a weapon against negative thoughts!  There’s no room for putting myself down, or judging the people in my life, when I’m too busy thinking about God loving just me, just today.  When I feel loved, and healed, and whole in God’s eyes, then I have a greater capacity in my heart to be more kind, gentle, merciful, and sensitive to the needs of those around me, and to help them know God’s love for them.

The answer came in the afternoon when I knelt down to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet.  I remembered a new prayer that Father Pat taught our parish recently.  He said to pray every day, “For the love of Jesus, I offer up my sufferings to the Lord for the salvation of souls.”  I was thinking about the various sufferings that I endure in my life, but when I started to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, all of a sudden, I was aware and struck by Jesus’ sufferings that He offered up to His Heavenly Father for the salvation of the world.  My sufferings are only a tiny speck compared to the magnitude of Jesus’ sufferings.  The merit of my sufferings is so very tiny compared to the vast merit of Jesus’ sufferings, because He suffered out of tremendous, self-less, unconditional, merciful love!

In prayer, I saw with the eyes of my heart, Jesus crucified, with His Precious Blood, flowing down from the wounds in His Body.  I saw myself as an empty gold chalice, catching and holding Jesus’ Blood in the center of the chalice, until it filled up to the brim.  As I prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet, I lifted up the chalice to the Lord, offering God my Father the Blood of His Son, Jesus.  Praying each bead of the Divine Mercy Chaplet caused the chalice to fill anew with Jesus’ Blood, so I could offer it up to God again, and again!

It reminded me of how so many times in prayer I would see with the eyes of my heart, Mary, drawing strength, mercy, and love from Jesus’ Blood to fuel the graces and blessings she bestowed on her children in answer to their prayers.  I understood that Jesus was, “showing His love for me today,” by blessing me with a special gift, a unique capacity to do what Mary was doing, to draw forth from Jesus’ Precious Blood salvation for souls, by offering up His Blood to our Heavenly Father.  Now I understood more clearly the meaning of the, “special devotion of emptying myself,” that Mary had given to me in prayer about a year ago.

Jesus told Saint Faustina in the middle of a storm to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and the storm would cease.  When the storm stopped at once, He said to her, “Through the chaplet you will obtain everything, if what you ask for is compatible with My will.”  (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, #1731)  This is where I can pray for my personal intentions, and obtain the ones that are in line with God’s will.  All I have to do is trust in the power of Jesus’ Precious Blood, as I offer up Jesus’ sufferings to God the Father for the salvation of souls.  Jesus, I trust in You!

Usually, I practice the Easter music with my choir each year, and attend the Masses four nights in a row – Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil on Saturday night after sunset, and Sunday morning with my family.  Well, this year I got sick after the Holy Thursday’s foot washing Mass, and I couldn’t go to any Masses the rest of the weekend!  I was in bed for three days.

Usually, I would take over-the-counter medicines to ease my pain and suffering, but I remembered Father Pat Martin talking about how people tend to do everything possible to avoid pain, rather than embrace pain like Jesus did on the Cross.  A very small nudging from Mary, deep in my soul, caused me to consider the salvation of souls, and decide to offer up my pain for the love of Jesus.  I’m sure Ibuprofen would have taken away my body aches, but I wanted to be close to Jesus this Holy Week.  I wanted to leave room for God to show me how He was loving me each day, by allowing me to participate in some very small way, in His Passion.

On the third day, Easter Sunday, I was laying in my bed with uncomfortable, constant pain in both of my knees for about three hours.  I was waiting upon the Lord to heal me when He was ready.  I kept thinking about how the Lord healed St. Padre Pio’s stigmata right before he died.  I thought the Lord could heal me at any moment, too.  Then, with the eyes of my heart, I saw Mary kiss my left knee, and Jesus kiss my right knee.  In an instant, the pain was gone from my knees!  Praise God! 

A few minutes later, I realized that the pain had merely moved to my thighs, which was still uncomfortable, but not as concentrated.  A few hours later, the pain completely left my body, and I had the best night sleep of the whole weekend!  Praise God!

I remember I was praying in particular for four people while I was sick, offering up my sufferings for them.  On the Tuesday after Easter, while praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary, I saw with the eyes of my heart, Jesus, carrying His Cross.  On top of the crossbeam were seated in a row, the four people I had been praying for.  Jesus was carrying them!  Jesus showed me that when they are in heaven, looking back at this time in their lives, they will see how God brought forth tremendous good out of their sufferings!

I also remember during prayer, for the love of Jesus, giving my sufferings to Mary, my holy Mother, like giving her a chalice.  I humbly and lovingly asked her to purify my sufferings, and offer them to God our Father for the salvation of souls.  I was wondering how Mary could purify my sufferings.  Then Jesus showed me during the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary that He offers His Own Blood for each and every person, and gives His Blood to Mary to purify the sufferings of each person before she offers our sufferings up to God our Father!  Wow!  I love how Jesus and Mary work so beautifully together for love of us, and wanting us to be with them forever in heaven.

I can’t help saying Happy Easter!   Jesus is Alive!   He is risen!   Halleluia!