Trust...

"Never be afraid to trust 
an unknown future 
to a known God.
 Corrie Ten Boom

"Give me what you have chosen for me,

and bring about in me

what you desire for me!"

St. Augustine

This is what I also, ask of You, Lord. 
 Give me the desire to want ONLY what YOU want for me!  Make Your Will and my own will, the same.

  Grant that I may become the woman
 that You intended me to become!
Amen.

Feeling very thankful...

The door to my son's cell at Holy Hill, WI.

As I wind down tonight, I give special thanks for someone very special in my life, my youngest son, Alex, also known as Brother Pier Giorgio of Christ the King…and today, we celebrated the solemnity of Christ The King!
 God has been so good to our family!  We have been blessed with two sons who are very good, smart and kind!
 Time flies, doesn't it?!  I remember so well when Nick and Alex were little…in fact, when I dream about my sons, they are always very young and still in need of their little mother!  Now, they are grown men yet, I feel exactly like I did when I gave birth to them.  I still worry about them and wonder what they are doing, and hoping that they stay in touch with each other, even though we all live in different states!
Yes, God has been very good to us and tonight I give special thanks of appreciation!

God is good.

A Spark...

Painting by Henry Edward Spernon Tozer

"If you have a constant desire

 to prove your love to Jesus, 

you are one of those souls 

completely given up to love.

The smallest act of virtue, 

the least sacrifice of a faithful soul 

under the influence of the Holy Spirit,

 is like a spark which escapes from the hearth

 and carries the fire wherever God wills."

Mother Agnes of Jesus, O.C.D.

Embraced by Truth...

Painting by Childe Hassam

A peaceful state is obtained

when there is an over whelming feeling

of being embraced by Truth.

It is being able to acknowledge,

without becoming terrified,

that in a hundred years from now,

no one will realize

that you ever existed...

Yet, it is also being

completely confident,

that you will then 

BE

that very Truth

that another person

is being embraced by.
Lindy P.

Resting in His Arms...

Media Art by Lindy

Seek Thy Face...

Painting by Tiziano Vicellio,'The Penitent Magdaline'

“If my people, who are called by my name,

 humble themselves, 

and pray and seek my face,

 and turn from their wicked ways, 

then I will hear from heaven, 

and will forgive their sin 

and heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 7:14

Surrender...

Painting by Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan Bouveret

"It is simple to become a saint. 

 You have only to surrender yourself to God

 from moment to moment,

 to think of nothing but Him,

 to pay no attention

 to what is not your concern,

 and as a result,

 heaven immediately enters the soul,

 because its emptiness 

attracts the fullness of God."

Mother Agnes of Jesus, O.C.D.

Nonnie...

If I should live to be an old woman,

I want to be like Nonnie.

When I think of her,

I think of her hands.

Her beautiful 103 year old, hands.

I think of the children's faces she touched,

the meals she prepared,

the exquisite doilies

 and other needlework she made

for the people she loved.

I think of her sitting on her couch

with her rosary in her hands,

her eyes closed,

praying for all those

dear to her.

When I am old, my wish is

that the people I have loved in my life

will have known it…

felt it…

as I still feel Nonnie's love…

and hopefully,

one day,

 when God calls me home to Him,

my loved ones will say,

as I said of Nonnie,

"Oh! How she loved us!"

Lindy 

Your little bee...

"On Mount Carmel,
 in small cells,
 similar to the cells of a beehive,
 the Hermits lived
 as God's bees, 
gathering the divine honey
 of spiritual consolation."
(Taken in part from The Magnificat)


Holy Spirit, continue to teach me to be Your little bee, 
gathering the sweet wisdom of Your word...

and...

Always 

               aware of Your sweet gaze!

Captivate me...

Painting by Ferdinand Max Bredt

"O, Jesus, in You alone I find my pleasure.

You are all I desire;

You alone can captivate me.

Grant, O Lord, that your image

may always be imprinted on my mind

and in my heart,

 that my interior

glance may always

 be directed toward You,

so that I may be conformed

 in everything to You,

my Master, my Model, my Way!"

Taken in part from Divine Intimacy

Go into your cell...

Painting by Luigi Busi

 "A cell becomes more sweet

 as it is more faithfully dwelt in." 

Blessed Titus Brandsma

"You must build a little cell within your soul as I do.  Remember that God is there and enter it from time to time…

…it is the secret life in Carmel: the life of a Carmelite is a communion with God from morning to evening, and from evening to morning.

If He did not fill our cells and cloisters,

  Ah!  How empty they would be!"

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

Alone with Him...

Carmelite Monastery in Germany

"You came to Carmel to find God...

Seek Him in solitude of heart, 

where alone He can be found."

Mother Isabel of the Sacred Heart

Lord, now that You have led me, your little one, into this solitude

 and whispered tenderly to me,

 I only want to hear Your voice… 

Now that I have experienced Your gaze,

 I don't want You to look away! 

 Now, that I have experienced Your love for me… 

I want You to teach me how to love You, even more!

 Now that I have felt what it is like

 to be scooped up into Your arms,

 I want to cling to You and not let go! 

 I want to feel our hearts beat as one heart…

I want to whisper to You in the night

 and quietly listen for You to say my name.

" I should like to have lips the purest to pronounce the name of Mary, and a pen of gold to write it."
St. Mary of Jesus

God's Bonfire...

(Painting-The Bonfire by Sybil Barham)

"The world is cold. 

 Someone must be on fire so that

 people can come and put their cold hands and feet against that fire...

then he will become a fireplace at which men can warm themselves. 

 His rays will go out to the ends of the earth.

Real zeal is standing still and letting God be a bonfire in you. 

 It's not very easy to have God's fire within you!

  Only if you are possessed of true zeal

 will you be able to contain God's bonfire."

I found this in my Drafts and for the life of me, don't know where I found it or who's quote it is!  I even tried googling it to see if anything came up.  I still love it though and wanted to share it!  If someone should see this and knows where this is from, PLEASE let me know!  

Draw me to Yourself, Lord...

Artist-Sir John Everett Millais

"The more we correspond to grace,

 the greater the graces

 Our Lord will grant us;

the more we press on 

toward Him,

 the more He will

 draw us to Himself,

 so, that the result of this continuous interplay of the divine assistance and our correspondence will be the sanctification of each one of us."

Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.

How sweet...

Private Collection-Vintage Postcards
Media Art by Lindy

Carmelite image found on world wide web

Johann Baptist Hofner

"Be gentle to all

 and stern 

with yourself."

                         St. Teresa of Avila

Always Ready...

Media Art by Lindy

"God is always ready,

but, we are very unready.

God is near to us,

but, we are far from Him.

God is within, but, we are without.

God is at home, but, we are strangers."

Meister Eckhart

Sweet, Mother Mary...

Media Art by Lindy

All her paths are peace....

"She is more precious than jewels,
    and nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand;
    in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
    and all her paths are peace.
 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
    those who hold her fast are called blessed."

                                                                                                    Proverbs 3:15-18

Planting Day...

Artist Camille Pissarro

"What we plant in the soil of contemplation,

we shall reap in the harvest of action."

Meister Eckhart

Johannes Vermeer - Artist

"The eye through which I see God

 is the same eye

 through which God sees me;

 my eye and God's eye

 are one eye,

 one seeing, 

one knowing, 

one love."

Meister Eckhart 

Painting by Albert Lynch

"God is at home.
  It is we that have gone out for a walk." 
Meister Eckhart

God in everything...

Painting by Charles Cres

"The moment I realized that God existed,

 I knew that I could not do otherwise

 than to live for him alone.

Faith strips the mask from the world

 and reveals God in everything.

It makes nothing impossible

 and renders meaningless

 such words as anxiety, danger, and fear,

so that the believer

 goes through life calmly and peacefully, 

with profound joy,

like a child,

 hand in hand with his mother."

                                                    Charles de Foucauld

Night...

Painting by John Everett Millais

"What we consider light must become darkness.  It is the night of our own treasured wisdom."
St. Therese of Lisiuex