Saint Rebecca

Here, roughly, is the message I left for my friend this evening:

Hello, Rebecca. It is Michael. I love you. I love the Rebecca that I met twelve years ago. I love the Rebecca that you are today. I love the Rebecca that I hope and pray that you will become: Saint Rebecca.

All the people in Heaven are saints, and there no darkness enters in, and there you will find peace and everything will be made right.

Dearest friend, please give to God any bitterness or resentment that you still carry; surrender to Him anything that would keep you from being holy. Let Him take it away from you so that you can become a saint.

I hope that you and I will meet again, where there is no pain or sorrow. But we will both need to become saints, first!

I never got to tell you what I gave up for Lent, so that you could laugh at me. I gave up (tried to give up) bitterness, and contempt for others, and soy sauce. I did ok, pretty well, with one out of the three.

It is a difficult to become a saint. It is the act of a lifetime. It is the action of a whole life. You need to give all that you are to God, so that He can take it, and purify it, and give you back yourself made whole and perfect so that you can live as a saint with the saints.

I hope I have spoken wisely now, and in what I said to you before, and in what I hope to say, but if I speak foolishly, be consoled by the example of Job. In addition to all his other troubles, he had to endure bad advice from friends. But in the end, all that he had lost was restored to him.

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I left out some of the chattiness, and awkwardness, and endearments, and a couple of side comments. But this is the gist. Be at peace, dear reader, and if time permits, please say a prayer for my dear friend Rebecca. God bless you.

The way

Dearest friend,

God loves you very much. I love you very much. For the times when I did not act so loving, please forgive me, and anyone else who has hurt you. Let no bitterness or resentment divert you from God.

Jesus has traveled the same road that you travel. He knows your sorrows. He sees your difficulties. He has has cleared the way through all darkness and confusion to our true home, where you will find healing and happiness.

Follow His way. Let goodness and kindness rule your heart.

With affection and gratitude,

your friend forever,

Michael.

Bless the Lord

My love, my cherished friend:

Remember to bless God in all the seasons of your life.

Psalm 103

¹ Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

² Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
³ Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
⁴ Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
⁵ Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
⁶ The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
⁷ He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
⁸ The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
⁹ He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
¹⁰ He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
¹² As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
¹³ Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
¹⁴ For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
¹⁵ As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
¹⁶ For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
¹⁷ But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;
¹⁸ To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
¹⁹ The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.
²⁰ Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
²¹ Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
²² Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.

Peace be unto you

And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

[John 20:26-28]

Dear friend: see that Jesus is stronger than death and does not abandon His disciples. See that He accommodates His friend's difficulties and offers him help and offers him peace.  After that, He did not prevent sorrow from entering into His friend's life, but strengthened him to endure, and St. Thomas in his difficulties glorified the Lord, and the Lord glorified St. Thomas, who now knows a peace and joy more lasting than all this life's sorrows.

I heard this Gospel in the Romanian Catholic Church in which I worshipped this morning.  If I go to the TLM this evening, I will hear it again.  If God blessed you with the opportunity to attend the New Mass this morning, you heard it there, too.  I hope you read it in your Magnificat.  Take this unity of message as a sign that God's Church endures and continues her mission, even in this splintered and confused world.  She will be made whole again and you will be made whole again, and in Christ all manner of good things will be restored.

Persevere, beloved.

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Jesus, help us to trust in you always, and to persevere in Thy service to the end of our days.

Prayer of Saint Francis

A prayer to pray this evening with my dearest friend, and also offered for you, gentle reader. May God raise our eyes from the earthly to the heavenly...

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

His praise will be ever on my lips

A prayer shared with my beloved friend, in the sunset of her life...

I will bless the Lord at all times.
His praise will be ever on my lips.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever
Amen!

[Found here]