Drawing Close Without Fear

Posted byValerie Parisi January 10, 2024  EditDrawing Close Without Fear

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Thursday of the First Week of Ordinary Time

Drawing Close Without Fear

Jesus: “You, little spark, no matter how small you are, were created by Me and from Me. Draw close to Me without fear. (August 21, 1962)

A leper came to Him and kneeling down begged Him and said, “If You wish You can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out His hand, touched the leper, and said to him, ‘I will do it. Be made clean.” (Mark 1)

Prayer Meditation- O Lord, help us not to be afraid to come to You to be made clean- heal us of anything that is in the way of Your will for us no matter how broken we are. We are all Your little sparks, Your Children, created by You in love. Let us come without fear and in all humility with all of our sins, our weaknesses, and our failures without fear because You will always be moved by pity and mercy if we bring all that we are to You for forgiveness and healing!

Early To Rise

Posted byValerie Parisi January 9, 2024  EditEarly To Rise

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Wednesday of the First Week of Ordinary Time

Early to Rise

At the dawn prayer, while I was meditating, I saw again the penetrating glance of the Lord’s eyes. (Elizabeth) (January 14, 1963)

Today’s Readings: Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.(Mark 1)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, You spent Yourself every day doing good during Your Public Ministry but You never failed to rest and to take time for prayer even if it meant getting up before everybody else. Lord, we all need our deserted places where we can pray each day- it can be just a small corner of a room but we need to go there each day and meditate on Your Word and pray, even for five minutes. Lord help us to imitate You each day and take time to pray and charge our batteries in the Silence of Your Sacred Heart so that when it is time to work, we can say with You let us go on to the nearby villages!

Quieting Our Souls

Posted byValerie Parisi January 8, 2024  EditQuieting Our Souls

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Tuesday of the First Week of Ordinary Time

Quieting Our Souls

He also told me to maintain the quiet and peace of my soul because Satan wants to strip me of the grace of abandonment to God. (Elizabeth) (January 18-19, 1963)

Today’s Readings: All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” (Mark 1)

Prayer Mediation- Lord we try to maintain peace and quiet in our souls and to abandon ourselves to You, to be still and know that You are God (Psalm 46) But then life gets in the way and we easily forget to call out to You while the enemy of our souls prowls around and stirs us up! And there we are back in the chains of our own human will and human failings!  O Lord only You have the authority to set us free from whatever is in the way of You! Help us to quiet our souls- the enemy of our souls wants agitation but You bring true peace!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

The Baptism Of The Lord

Put On Christ

“In Baptism, My heavenly Father gave all of you the most beautiful robe of sanctifying grace. In spite of this, you do not take care of it. Is there any father who has suffered more than I, so that this robe of sanctifying grace can regain its whiteness? I instituted the Sacrament of Penance, yet you make no use of it. For this, I have sweated blood. For this, I was crowned with thorns. I let Myself be nailed to the wood of the Cross. I endured unspeakable suffering.” (Jesus) (May 1962)

Today’s Readings: It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.
On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open 
and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.
And a voice came from the heavens, 
“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1)

Prayer Meditation- O Lord You have given us the most beautiful baptismal gown- Your sanctifying grace! O Lord how we have let this white garment become stained yet in Your Mercy You let us come again and again to the Throne of Grace through the Sacrament of Confession. Let us never take Your Mercy for granted- we can never know the number of our days. Let us put on Christ each day through prayer, reading of Your Word, and the Sacraments!

We Three Kings

Posted byValerie Parisi January 6, 2024  EditWe Three Kings

“Reach beyond your limits. Look at the Three Wise Men, who made superhuman sacrifice. They left behind their limitations. First and foremost, this is what is expected of the clergy and others consecrated to God and all the believers. (Jesus) (January 1, 1981)

Today’s Readings: They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2)

Prayer Meditation- O Lord are we ready to be like the Three Wise Men? Are we ready to leave behind our limitations and follow Your Star even though the journey be long and we may not know the way? Lord may we be overjoyed at finding You in Your House today and with the Blessed Mother may we open up the treasures of our hearts to You! Our talents and treasure, our prayer and worship, our sorrows and sacrifices- Lord we lay them down!

Let The Spirit Testify

Posted byValerie Parisi January 5, 2024  EditLet The Spirit Testify

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Christmas Weekday

Let The Spirit Testify

The sweet Savior filled my soul with such an attraction for His Sacred Body and Precious Blood that for weeks I could only meditate on the Eucharist. It was His desire that He and I penetrate deeply into these inexhaustibly profound words: “He who eats My Body and drinks My Blood remains in Me and I in him.” (Elizabeth) (July 20, 1962)

Today’s Readings: This is the one who came through water and Blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and Blood. The Spirit is the one who testifies, and the Spirit is truth. So there are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the Blood, and the three are of one accord. (1 John 5)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, You came to us to live among us! Through the waters of baptism You modeled our rebirth in You and the heavens were torn open as the Spirit descended like a dove. (Mark 1). You poured out Your Precious Blood for us and gave us as a Sacrament the Eucharist so that You would be with us in every tabernacle of the world until the end of time. Your Divine Mercy flows to us now more than ever through the Blood and Water that flowed from Your Pierced Side! Lord let the Spirit testify to the truth in accord with the Waters of Baptism and The Blood of Calvary that You are Lord and in You we have Eternal Life!

He Knows Our Names

Posted byValerie Parisi January 4, 2024  EditHe Knows Our Names

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Memorial of Saint John Neumann

He Knows Our Names

“Again, I will speak of something from your past. Remember when you were still working in the factory. Besides your work, which you did with great fidelity and responsibility, you took a course on quality control. You were very tired when you studied, so you thought and knew that you would not pass the exam.

As a working mother with six children, burdened with a thousand preoccupations, you needed enormous effort to study. You surprised yourself by becoming the top student. Although you did not think of Me, My hand was upon you.” (Jesus) (November 10, 1962))

Today’s Readings: “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1)

Prayer Meditation- Lord there is not a time in our lives that You have not seen and there is not a thought, word, or deed You have not observed. You know our names! You know us inside and out and whether we realize it or not Your Mighty Hand is upon us every day our lives! This is so awesome to ponder, incomprehensible, but what is even more wonderful is what awaits us when we are united with You at last as no eye has seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love Him! (1 Corinthians 2:9)!

Come And You Will See

Posted byValerie Parisi January 3, 2024  EditCome And You Will See

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

Come and You Will See

“How much I long for you to come to Me so that nothing disturbs our union. (Jesus) (December 12, 1964)

Today’s Readings: Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them,

“What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” (John 1)

Prayer Meditation- Lord today we honor St. Elizabeth Ann Seton- like me a convert to the faith from being a faithful Protestant and like me an American. Elizabeth’s eyes were opened to the truth of our faith through Catholic friends and The Eucharist! How sweet that union of Your body, blood, soul, and divinity with ours is- may we never take it for granted! Lord may we always like St. Elizabeth see You and follow You and come to where You are staying in the Tabernacle with grateful love and affection all of our lives!

We Are God’s Children Now

Posted byValerie Parisi January 2, 2024  EditWe Are God’s Children Now

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Christmas Weekday

We Are God’s Children Now

Jesus: “My daughter, what I am about to say to you is not just for you. Share it with all My beloved children. Assimilate the essence of My words with the thoughts from your heart. You must shake lukewarm souls out of the indifference which drowns them.

(Jesus) (April 17, 1962)

Today’s Readings: See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 2)

Prayer Meditation: Lord, what love You have bestowed on us, Your Children,-yes we are Your Children now and what we shall be has not yet been revealed, but we know we shall be like You and we shall see You in Your Glory! This is a promise we can stand on and rest in- Your Goodness Lord and Your Grace! And yet how many souls, even those who call themselves Your Children, even us sadly, can be so indifferent and lukewarm when it comes to returning love for Your Love which is infinite and which never lets us go! It can be hard to stay “fired up” in the mundane details of life and in the disappointments, worries, and even sins that keep cropping up and getting in the way! And yet we know You are always knocking at the door of our hearts (Revelation 3) and even if we open it a crack, the infinite ocean of Your Mercy will come rushing in ready to absorb us like little drops of water. So let us make time for You today- in prayer, in Bible reading and meditating on Your Word. and when we can attend at Mass and Adoration. Now that is a New Years’ resolution worth keeping!

Who Are You?

Posted byValerie Parisi January 1, 2024  EditWho Are You?

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church

Who Are You?

Do you wonder how you can see and comprehend the Divine Mysteries with so much clarity? Only the one whose sight is one with My Divine Gaze, and whose thought is one with My thoughts can see them. (Jesus) (April 19, 1963)

Today’s Readings: This is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him to ask him, “Who are you?” (John 1)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, today John the Baptist is asked a question, who are you? John is clear about who he is and who he is not because he knows who he is in You! But who are we- those who say that we are followers and disciples of Yours? So often all we focus on is who we are not in this world and how we don’t measure up- our faults, our insecurities, and our weaknesses. Lord, let us instead answer who we are in You-Your dearly beloved sons and daughters who can do nothing without You but with Your eyes let us see and comprehend as we “put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27) that with You all things are possible!