Look what I found outside my window yesterday. :)

 

A Quote From Pope John Paul II

"People are made for happiness. Rightly, then you thirst for happiness. Christ has the answer to this desire of yours. But he asks that you trust him. True joy is a victory, something which cannot be obtained without a long and difficult struggle. Christ holds the secret of this victory."

                                                                              -Pope John Paul II ~World Youth Day 2002

Fight Bad Habits With Good Habits

If you want to stop a bad habit, start a good habit in place of the bad one.
How often do we try to overcome a bad habit all on our own and eventually just go back to it or replace it with another bad habit? And how much more successful would we be if we asked for God's help and put a good habits in place of bad ones? For example, if I often yell and lose my temper, instead of just trying not to do these things I could add a good habit every time I feel myself getting upset and pray to God to be with me and help me to do what is right.
I heard this idea at Mass on Sunday and it rang true in my heart, like a clear and resounding gong of a church bell calling out to us wherever we may be to remember and think about and adore our God, if not at church, at least in the temple that is our body, in our heart, upon which He has written His law. Anyway, I really wanted to share this because I think it will be very helpful in my life and could be  helpful to others too.
I pray that day by day, we can all spend more time with God, than in the world and with ourselves. That He dwells in our hearts always drawing us closer to Himself. And please, dear God, through Mary's unblemished hands and the Divine Heart of Jesus, help us to overcome all our bad habits and every evil in our lives. Amen.

Here are some more ideas for good habits:
Praying the Rosary
Morning prayer and offering
Evening prayer and Examination of Conscinece
Spiritual reading, especially the Bible
Smiling :)
Praying for the people we see and hear about throughout the day
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
Confession

Something I've been thinking about:
God wants us to be free from sin, but He also wants us to be free to be who He created us to be and to be in union with Him. So really we should get to know Him and build our relationship with Him while we are here on earth and maybe that is a way for us to have Heaven on Earth.

St. Maximilian Kolbe

A new prayer card for a great Saint.The M.I. is what he would sign after his name and it stands for "Soldier of Mary Immaculate".

Patron Saint of prisoners, drug addicts, families and journalists

Today,  August 14th, in the year of our Lord, 2012, is the feast day of Saint Maximilian Kolbe.
I read his story recently (St. Maximilian Kolbe, A Man For Others) and was really moved by this dear Saint. He was a Franciscan priest and did amazing and wonderful things. He also did many ordinary things with great love and patience. He loved our Mother, Mary and did all things through her. He called Mary his "little Mother". He spread the love of God, devotion to Mary and the church's teachings through a magazine publications using printing presses, which was cutting edge technology then in the early 1900's. He gave much and asked for little. He was very smart and knew different languages. He trusted himself entirely to our Mother's care and protection and she never let him down. She was with him till the end when he gave his life for another man in a Auschwitz concentration camp in 1941.
Thank you God, for this good and holy Saint.
Little Mother, please help us to walk closely in his footsteps that they may guide us closer to Heaven.
St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us!

Here are two prayers I am going to use for his prayer card:

St. Maximilian Kolbe, so patient and full of love for God and our “little Mother” Mary.  Intercede for me that I too, may love without limits and do good to all men. Upon my knees I pray that I may follow your good example, always trusting completely in God, through Mary, who will certainly lead me safely through all difficulties. Help me, good saint, at all times to see the    loving hand of God at work in my life, to answer all things with prayer, and to suffer  every hardship, great of small, willingly for God with patience and love. That I may be a light in the darkness of life.

Amen.

Feast day: August 14th

Patron Saint of prisoners, drug addicts, families and journalists

 

The Immaculata prayer by Saint Maximilian Kolbe

O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and earth, refuge of   sinners and our most loving Mother, God has willed to  entrust the entire order of mercy to you. I, (name), a repentant sinner, cast myself at your feet, humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to yourself as your possession and property. Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases you.

If it pleases you, use all that I am and have without reserve,  wholly to accomplish what was said of you: “She will crush your head,” and “You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world.” Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for introducing and Increasing your glory to the maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far as possible the blessed kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For wherever you enter you obtain the grace of conversion and growth in holiness, since it is through your hands that all graces come to us from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Allow me to praise you, O Sacred Virgin. Give me strength against your enemies. Amen.

Another prayer by Kolbe:

Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
Immaculate One of God
Immaculate One of God
My Immaculata
My Immaculata
Our Immaculata
Our Immaculata

"Take Christ's hand in one of yours and Mary's in the other. Now even if you are in darkness you can go forward with the confidence of a child guided by it's parents."
-St. Maximilian Kolbe

This post is dedicated to a dear friend of mine and I wish her a very happy anniversary today!

Precious Blood

Yesterday my son was baptized and during the mass I saw something that words cannot do justice.
Since my son was being baptized  we were sitting right up front in the first row of seats and during communion some of the precious blood happened to spill on the floor just feet away from us near the Eucharistic minister who had the cup. Having just come back from receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus, I looked up and saw the Precious Blood spilled on the ground and watched as the alter boy cleaned up every little drop with great care and respect. The boy was probably about 10 or 11 years old and he carried himself with a level of goodness and maturity that seemed out of place and uncommon for a boy of his age. As he bent down on the floor, he seemed not to be aware of, or concerned about anyone else in the room. Then as he took some white cloth with a small red cross in the middle and gently pressed it into the floor, it quickly soaked up the blood making a striking contrast of deep purple and white. When he had finished cleaning and made sure there was none left behind, he slowly and carefully folded each cloth and took them away. As I watched him do all of this, my heart beheld an image of our Blessed Mother, Mary and how tenderly and sorrowfully she must have done the same thing for her son when she saw His blood spilled out upon the ground. What a mysterious and beautiful gift we have that the very same blood that  bled from Jesus' most Sacred Heart, as it was lifted high on the cross, is the very same blood that he continues to pour out for us to receive at every Mass. I am so thankful to have seen this with my heart and not just my eyes as i have many times before. I will keep this memory like a precious little jewel and lock it away in my heart. It will be a fragrant reminder of God's love and goodness, much like the holy oil that is still on my son's head that is  reminding me of of his happy baptism. It smells so GOOD! :)

Wanted to share a prayer that was given to me yesterday and some words from our Lady. 

My mom keeps this quote from our lady of Guadalupe on the fridge so I have been reading it often. Her words have been comforting me and uplifting me and I try to hold them in my heart throughout the day. It is easy for me to forget that Mary is here with me and always ready to help and pray for me, so I am grateful for the little reminders that come my way. :)

“Let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you.

Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance;

Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain.

Am I, your Mother, not with you?

Are you not under the shadow of my protection?

Am I not you fountain of life?

Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in my crossed arms?

Is there anything else that you need?”

-Our Lady of Guadalupe 

O Mary,

bright dawn of the new world. 

Mother of the living,

to you do we entrust the cause of life

Look down, O Mother,

upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born,

of the poor whose lives are

made difficult,

of men and women who are 

victims of brutal violence,

of the elderly and the sick 

killed by indifference of out

of misguided mercy.

Grant that all who believe in

your Son may proclaim the

Gospel of life with honesty and

love to the people of our time.

Obtain for them the grace 

to accept that Gospel 

as a gift ever new, the joy of

celebrating it with gratitude

throughout their lives and the

courage to bear witness to it

resolutely, in order to build,

together with all people of good will,

the civilization of truth and love,

to the praise and glory of God

the Creator and lover of live.

Evengelium Vitae~ Pope John Paul II