Dear Saint Monica,
Help me to be more deligent in my prayer life. Keep me mindful of the family members that need my prayers on a daily basis so that I do not become complacent and forget that if I don't pray my prayer can't be answered. Help me always to remember that your suffering lasted 30 years so I should not expect results over night. Give me patience to continue my prayers through the ups and downs of my life journey. I ask this in Jesus Name and your intercession. Amen

I have been thinking a lot about this blog but I have had nothing to say that would be of any spiritual help to anyone in months. I could copy things form my readings but to be honest nothing has struck a chord so to speak. So I have had a few dry months and if anyone out there has been looking for me I apoligize.

Then tonight, as I am looking through my e-mail I recieved one from a friend that I haven't been in touch for a while and it was about letting God change you. It was a devotional for women written by a separated brethren and it wasn't half bad. However, we Catholics have something that our protestant counter parts don't have and that is the grace of the the sacraments. I answered my friend with a few chosen words that I thought I would also like to post here. I pointed out to her that we as Catholics have been given much and that we should use what we have been given in the form of evanglization just as the late John Paul II said we should. Too many of us keep our talents in the church thinking that we are fulfilling our giving by doing various ministries at the Liturgy. while these duties are important they are not the end of what we should be doing. We should be living out our faith that is our vocation. We have the grace and means by which we can do this and we should not hide this talent under a rock and wait for somebody else to do it. We are all called to witness and proclaim the Good News but more then that we are called to be like the one we consume at the Mass we should be what we est. Jesus Christ or King Jesus as he is rightful called has mandated all of us to be just like him and do just like he did right down to the suffering and humility that we find so hard to imitate. To those that have much will be expected and to those that have little even what they have will be taken away. I use to think that this applied to monitary wealth but it doesn't. It is talking about our spiritual gifts. We as Catholics have been given much for we have the sacraments and I am thinking about the sacrament of Eucharist. If we truely understand this sacrament we have to become what we consume and that is the Body and Blood of the risen Lord. We should be one with Christ and take on all that entails. We should accept the gifts along with the suffering. We should see that there is a reason for everything that we go through in life and that everything has a purpose. We shouldn't ask to be released from it but to understand why it is, and what we can do with it. We should not seek to change but to be changed into that which we are partaking of. The sacrament of the Eucharist is the sacrament of seeing. Because the two disciples had their eyes opened when Jesus broke bread. Did you know that there are saints who when asked to give up the partaking of the breaking of the bread told their captors that they would rather die. That many did die because they celebrated the Eucharist and that every time the early church gathered they broke bread. Paul mentions it more than 12 times in the Acts of the Apostles. It was important enought to die for. So we should pray that our eyes are opened and that our hearts are changed that we become that which we consume in all ways with the gifts and the suffering.
And while we are at it this Lent and in the process of giving things up we should consider giving up our pride, selfishness, concite, and any other un Christ like behavior that we may have and keep giving it up for as long as we live. Now I would like to close with one of my favorite songs because it is a prayer. It is called Open My Eyes Lord
Open my eyes Lord, help me to see your face, open my eyes Lord, help me to see.
Open my ears Lord, help me to hear your voice, open my ears Lord, help me to hear.
Open my heart Lord, help me to love like you, open my heart Lord, help me to Love.
I live within you, deep in your heart oh Love, I live within you, rest now in me.
I have added a verse: Open my mouth Lord, help me to speak your word, open my mouth Lord help me to speak.
May the Lord Bless you and Keep you,
Peace, Joy, Love and Hope,
Your God-sister, Nancy