july 15 2006 Vita Consecrata, JPII 1996

Prayer to the Holy Trinity
111. Most Holy Trinity, blessed and the source of all blessedness, bless your sons and daughters whom you have called to praise the greatness of your love, your merciful goodness and your beauty.
Father Most Holy, sanctify the sons and daughters who have consecrated themselves to you, for the glory of your name. Enfold them with your power, enabling them to bear witness that you are the Origin of all things, the one Source of love and freedom. We thank you for the gift of the consecrated life, which in faith seeks you and in its universal mission invites all people to draw near to you.Jesus our Saviour, Incarnate Word, as you have entrusted your own way of life to those whom you have called, continue to draw to yourself men and women who will be, for the people of our time, dispensers of mercy, heralds of your return, living signs of the Resurrection and of its treasures of virginity, poverty and obedience. May no tribulation separate them from you and from your love!Holy Spirit, Love poured into our hearts, who grant grace and inspiration to our minds, the perennial Source of life, who bring to fulfilment the mission of Christ by means of many charisms, we pray to you for all consecrated persons. Fill their hearts with the deep certainty of having been chosen to love, to praise and to serve. Enable them to savour your friendship, fill them with your joy and consolation, help them to overcome moments of difficulty and to rise up again with trust after they have fallen; make them mirrors of the divine beauty. Give them the courage to face the challenges of our time and the grace to bring to all mankind the goodness and loving kindness of our Saviour Jesus Christ (cf. Tit 3:4).
Invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
112. Mary, image of the Church, the Bride without spot or wrinkle, which by imitating you "preserves with virginal purity an integral faith, a firm hope and a sincere charity",sustain consecrated persons on their journey towards the sole and eternal Blessedness.
To you, Virgin of the Visitation, do we entrust them, that they may go forth to meet human needs, to bring help, but above all to bring Jesus. Teach them to proclaim the mighty things which the Lord accomplishes in the world, that all peoples may extol the greatness of his name. Support them in their work for the poor, the hungry, those without hope, the little ones and all who seek your Son with a sincere heart.To you, our Mother, who desire the spiritual and apostolic renewal of your sons and daughters in a response of love and complete dedication to Christ, we address our confident prayer. You who did the will of the Father, ever ready in obedience, courageous in poverty and receptive in fruitful virginity, obtain from your divine Son that all who have received the gift of following him in the consecrated life may be enabled to bear witness to that gift by their transfigured lives, as they joyfully make their way with all their brothers and sisters towards our heavenly homeland and the light which will never grow dim.We ask you this, that in everyone and in everything glory, adoration and love may be given to the Most High Lord of all things, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

photofrom several yrs ago abbeytile

 

July 15 2006

Is 6:1-8 In the year King Uzziah died,I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne,with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings:with two they veiled their faces,with two they veiled their feet,and with two they hovered aloft.They cried one to the other,“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!All the earth is filled with his glory!”At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar.He touched my mouth with it and said,“See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged. ”Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,“Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

Mt 10:24-33 Jesus said to his Apostles: “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master.It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher,for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household! “Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

This Gospel reading reminds me of the Irish blessing for birthdays: "May each hair on your head be a candle lighting your way to heaven." God knows each hair on my head. God cherishes me. I need to acknowledge God in all that I do. I must remember the source of all goodness and gifts. I can do nothing alone but in God all things are possible.

"Here I am" "send me" the reading of Is. has the beautiful response of the disciple to the love of God. God has given gifts to be shared. Love is meant to be returned and grows the more it is given.

Today the Church remembers Saint Bonaventure the English missionary to Germanic countries. Saint Walburga went to Bavaria from England in response tohis request and founded monasteries. She is the foundress of the monasteries that the Sisters who founded the monastery in Saint Leo, Florida can trace back to. Sisters came to America from her monastery in the 1800s to St Mary's in Pennsylvania before coming to Florida. A founding is certainly a "Here I am send me" answer to God's love. I pray this morning for a loving heart willing and open to God's call today.