It all
started with a group email request from my dear friend for purple baked goods. She was facilitating a Young Women of Grace
retreat Friday and Saturday at our parish, and needed to feed these hungry
teen-agers, ages twelve to eighteen. I
had fanciful thoughts of experimenting in my kitchen with red and blue food
coloring. That was my will, but God had
other plans for me, and I ultimately swung by the bakery at my local grocery
store, instead. I walked into our main
church office on Friday morning to drop off the cookies I bought, and I learned
that there were forty of them – forty young women! Wow!
What a great turn-out!
Having
done my duty, I thought my obligation was finished. Little did I know, my involvement with these
forty young retreatants was so not over!
Later that afternoon I decided to check which time slots were still open
for our once-a-month, twenty-four hour Eucharistic Adoration. I noticed that there was a big opening from
2:00 a.m. – 4:00 a.m. on Saturday morning!
I debated signing up for either one, or two hours, and wondered how I
was going to leave my home without disturbing my husband and son. I have never committed myself for two hours
before…I finally decided to take a leap of faith that God would pave the way
for me, and keep me awake that second hour!
Ah! I love Eucharistic Adoration! I sat in God’s holy presence, His
unconditional love, and ocean of mercy for over an hour, just soaking Him into
my heart and soul. No words. Just love.
Then a fellow parishioner entered
the daily chapel to pray also. I still
had forty-five minutes, so I decided to pray my rosary, the Joyful Mysteries. I was praying the rosary the way Saint Louis
de Montfort prayed it, with the short phrases in the middle of each Hail Mary,
to stay attentive. While I was praying,
I was thinking about the forty young women of grace. When I got to the third mystery, the “Nativity
of Our Lord,” Mary, my Holy Mother of God, spoke to my heart. She wanted me to do something for her.
First, Mary showed me four of the
young women, wearing blue-grey nun habits, so holy! Their backs were turned to me, so I couldn’t
see their faces. Their love for God was
like a breath of fresh air! Then Mary
showed me how she was sheltering all forty of the young women with a corner of
her Heavenly Mantle, protecting them from all evil and all harm. Mary spoke to my heart. She said, “Bring them to me... be a mother to
them.” I realized that Mary spiritually
placed them under my charge, to pray for them always! I was also aware that I needed to humble
myself under Mary’s loving guidance, and be completely dependent upon her. That is the only way for me to know when, and
how, to bring these precious daughters of God to Mary, and nurture their faith.
The rest of my rosary prayers
became very special. For the third mystery, the “Nativity,” Saint
Louis de Montfort’s phrase after saying, “Jesus,” in each Hail Mary is, “born
into poverty.” I saw how Jesus was being
born into their hearts, one heart for each bead on my rosary. When I got to the tenth bead of the decade, I
realized I needed to pray thirty more “Nativity” beads, because there were thirty
more daughters of God needing prayers for Jesus to be born into their
hearts! My hands backed up three times
over the ten beads to fit in three more decades.
For the fourth mystery, the
“Presentation of Jesus in the Temple”, Saint Louis’s phrase for each Hail Mary
is “…Jesus, sacrificed.” I prayed forty Hail Mary’s for each of the forty
daughters of God, for their sacrifices to the Lord that they will make during
their lifetimes.
For the fifth mystery, the “Finding of Jesus in the Temple,” Saint
Louis’s phrase for each Hail Mary is, “…Jesus, Saint among saints.” I prayed forty Hail Mary’s for Mary to make
each daughter of God a saint!
This is my prayer for each of these very
special young women of grace:
Mary, Sweet Mary, my Holy Mother of
God, I humbly and lovingly place these young women inside your Immaculate
Heart. Mary, Holy Virgin, please bathe
them in the Wound in your Son’s Sacred Heart, in His ocean of divine mercy and
love! Mary, Queen of Angels and Saints,
please offer them up to Jesus’ most holy and precious Blood.
Jesus, my beloved and merciful
Savior, I humbly and lovingly ask that You please allow Your most holy and
precious Blood to fall upon the hearts, minds, and souls of these chosen
daughters of Yours. Jesus, meek and
humble of heart, please consume them in the fire of Your love; baptize them in
Your Holy Spirit of Love; be born into their hearts and souls, that they may be
born into Your love; and dwell in them, that they may dwell in Your love.
Mary, our Blessed Mother, please
help these blessed daughters of God to see God’s love for them today, and every
day! Amen!
