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In You Lord I Have Found My Peace — November 4, 2023

In You Lord I Have Found My Peace

In You Lord I Have Found My Peace

Posted byValerie Parisi   EditIn You Lord I Have Found My Peace

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

Thirty First Sunday of Ordinary Time

In You Lord I Have Found My Peace

The Lord Jesus did not speak, but He inundated my soul with the sublime feeling of His presence. Without any words, He poured into my consciousness a feeling of peace: it has been a long time since I surrendered completely to Him.(November 11, 1962)

Today’s Readings: O LORD, my heart is not proud,
nor are my eyes haughty;
I busy not myself with great things,
nor with things too sublime for me.
R. In you, Lord, I have found my peace.
Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted
my soul like a weaned child.
Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap,
so is my soul within me. (Psalm 131)

Prayer Meditation: O Lord today’s first reading and Gospel refer to people who are a big deal- perhaps too big for their britches. The ones who exalt themselves and need to be humbled. And let’s not kid ourselves, it is not just religious leaders or people we see in the media, many times that is us because we forget You are God and we are not. But then we have in the middle this gem of a psalm- about the little souls who are not proud and who are not busy with things too great for them. The childlike who sit on Your Lap like a weaned child- who are not anxious and worried (Luke 10) about anything because they trust in You Lord and Our Blessed Mother. When we have lack of peace and find ourselves too much on our own minds we can always come back to that place of childlike abandonment, even if it has been a long time since we surrendered completely to You if ever. You are waiting to pour out Your Peace into our souls but You can’t if we are too full of ourselves. Lord we are nothing  but You are all so come Lord Jesus into our hearts and souls in unison and harmony, fused in Your Will and in Your Love because Youi have hidden Yourself from the wise and revealed Yourself to little ones (Matthew 11).

God’s Seating Chart — November 3, 2023

God’s Seating Chart

God’s Seating Chart

Posted byValerie Parisi   EditGod’s Seating Chart

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

Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo

God’s Seating Chart

I know, I see your thoughts, your efforts, by which you want to satisfy My Divine Request and Will. This is enough for Me. I never seek results from you, Elizabeth. I tell you this so you are humbled. In these days and in these difficult times, you have a need for greater and more frequent humiliations. I know this. Therefore, I send you everything to bathe your soul in humiliation because without it, I could not guarantee the purity of your soul.” (Jesus) (March 16, 1966)

Today’s Readings: Rather, when you are invited, 
go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14)

Prayer Meditation- Lord we thank You and praise You for today’s Gospel! In it is the great parable about always seeking the lowest place. Typically, we do quite the opposite- when we want to attend a concert or sporting event we concern ourselves with the seating chart. Will be close up or in the cheap seats? There are whole industries supported by the need to sit in the front row with ridiculous sums of money paid. Everyone wants the place of honor but in God’s economy it is quite the opposite. In Rediscovering Jesus, Matthew Kelly writes about Jesus Airlines, where the “common folks” are seated in first class. Quite the opposite of the world. Lord help us to die to our flesh and the need to exalt ourselves and let us always seek the lowest place, knowing that you will exalt us if it is Your Will. Let us accept all humiliations as a form of purification of our souls, not in Purgatory, but here on Earth so that Your Divine Will would reign in us! And let us remain confident that in Heaven Your Seating Chart will place us exactly where You have meant for us to be from all Eternity if we cooperate with Your Grace right here right now!

Best Of Wheat — November 2, 2023

Best Of Wheat

Best Of Wheat

Posted byValerie Parisi   EditBest Of Wheat

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

Friday of the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time

Best of Wheat

Your bad temper will go on, but out of this evil nature, I will accomplish a masterpiece if you agree to submit to My Divine Hand. Simply surrender to Me like the wine grapes that are pressed and transformed into wine, which will become My Precious Blood. You also will be intoxicated with My Precious Blood, but only if you are transformed and purified, just like the must, or like the wheat transformed in My Sacred Body, once it has been ground. You also will transform yourself only once you have been ground down and your miserable nature divinized. (Jesus) (September 14, 1963)

Today’s Readings: He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word! (Psalm 147)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, you feed us with the finest wheat- the wheat of Your Word and of Your Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. But are we disposed to receive You? Because You have told us that unless a grain of wheat (John 12:24) falls into the ground and dies it is just a grain of wheat. But You want to transform us so that we can bear fruit that will last. We cannot do that if we are holding onto our own wills- our bad tempers, our anxiety, our complaining, our negativity, our sins. Lord help us each day to die to ourselves so that it is not us who live but You who live in us (Galatians 2:20)-we will only be transformed when we have been purified of what does not belong to You!

Grace And Mercy Are With His Holy Ones — November 1, 2023

Grace And Mercy Are With His Holy Ones

Grace and Mercy Are With His Holy Ones

Posted byValerie Parisi   EditGrace and Mercy Are With His Holy Ones

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

The Commemoration of All The Faithful Departed

Grace and Mercy Are With His Holy Ones

“Let all your actions be done with the purpose of helping them in union with Me, desire that these souls contemplate My face as early as possible. Offer for them the strict fast as well as prayer during a part of the night.” (Jesus) (April 10, 1962)

Today’s Readings: Those who trust in him shall understand truth,
and the faithful shall abide with him in love:
because grace and mercy are with his holy ones,
and his care is with his elect. (Wisdom 3)

Prayer Meditation- Lord today we remember all the faithful departed including those who are part of the Church Suffering. Because we cannot yet enter Heaven with “baggage” on our souls. The baggage as the Church teaches is the effect of forgiven sins and remaining venial sins and faults. Do we hold onto anger, unforgiveness, negativity, over attachment to the goods of this world, selfishness? If we can’t leave it behind, it will have to be burned away in that place of Your Mercy so that we are perfected in love. Perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18). Lord, Your will is that we become Your kind of perfect- not what the world calls perfect. And as St. Therese has taught us You can purify us in an instant- but we have to be open to grace. How many of us just get stuck and lack the love and trust to turn to You in total childlike dependence? Lord today, let us especially examine ourselves to see where we can be perfected in love and let us pray and sacrifice for the faithful departed including our deceased family members and friends offering them the charity we lacked when they were among us. Because we are all one Church and we will abide with You in love because grace and mercy are with Your holy ones and Jesus we trust in You!

Made White In The Blood Of The Lamb- All Saints Day —

Made White In The Blood Of The Lamb- All Saints Day

Made White in the Blood of the Lamb- All Saints Day

Posted byValerie Parisi   EditMade White in the Blood of the Lamb- All Saints Day

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

Solemnity of All Saints

Made White in the Blood of the Lamb- All Saints Day

“Then I humbly hid Myself under a common appearance so as to be more accessible to you, so that you would not fear Me. I hid Myself in the white Host like a child wrapped up in swaddling clothes. When I enter your heart, make sure that the robe of your soul is free from any stain or tear, because no father has made greater sacrifices to acquire a suit for his child.” (Jesus) (May 1962)

Today’s Readings: “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?”
I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.”
He said to me,
“These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.” (Revelation 7)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, today we honor all the Saints, all the ones who made it- the great cloud of witnesses that cheers us on from Heaven including we pray our family members who have come before. The ordinary people saved by grace who have washed their robes and made them white in Your Precious Blood. Lord, as we think of all the great saints, including our patron saints perhaps, we see their great deeds and we may feel like we may never get there. But Lord, as St. Therese has taught us and as St Faustina and the Divine Mercy devotion has shown us it has never been easier to be a saint! Because we have been given especially in these times every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3). But do we desire holiness or are we content with mediocrity? Let us examine ourselves and place ourselves in the Holy Hands of Our Mother Mary who will fashion us into saints, as St. Louis Marie de Montfort says, by placing us in Her mold as she fashions us into Your Likeness. As St. John tells us today, we shall be like You because we will finally see You as You are, so let us make ourselves pure as You are pure as we hope in You with all of our hearts!

Nothing Compared With The Glory — October 31, 2023

Nothing Compared With The Glory

Nothing Compared With The Glory

Posted byValerie Parisi   EditNothing Compared With The Glory

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

Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time

Nothing Compared With The Glory

Never despise any tiredness. Be my eternal companion helping me bear my sufferings. This is what I ask of you.” (Mary) (November 19, 1962)

Today’s Readings: Brothers and sisters:
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing
compared with the glory to be revealed for us. (Romans 8)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, some days can just make us so tired. We can feel overwhelmed- it does not even have to be anything bad going on- just stress, work, family troubles, worries, aches and pains. We sure all want our heaven here. And yet we are promised that our present sufferings are nothing compared with the glory to be revealed to us. Saint Paul goes on to write-  For in hope we were saved.
Now hope that sees for itself is not hope.  
For who hopes for what one sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance (Romans 8) Lord, help us to wait in endurance and hope and not despise any tiredness. Let us accompany Our Mother of Sorrows who will bring all of these tribulations to You for Your Glory and to save souls!

Sons And Daughters — October 29, 2023

Sons And Daughters

Sons and Daughters

Posted byValerie Parisi   EditSons and Daughters

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

Monday of the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time

Sons and Daughters

“My daughter, put your earthly things in order. Time passes quickly and you are flying to Me without sensing your speed. There is an immeasurable distance between your soul and the earth. Beloved, I am waiting for you with a loving heart. God is calling you with His infinite love.” (Jesus) (September 23-24 1964)

Today’s Readings: This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?” (Luke 13)

Prayer Meditation- Lord we are Your Sons and Daughters, Your Beloved Children. Like the Gospel today, You do not want to see us bent over, eyes to the ground, stuck in our infirmities be they of the body, mind, or spirit. Lord You breathe restoration and healing over us if we but turn to You in prayer, Your Word, and in the Sacraments! Lord, You do not want our eyes on the ground, on the earthly things that do not matter and cannot save- our lives pass quickly as You wait for us with a loving heart as we return to You. Lord set us free so that we can keep our eyes on You, the One who was, and is, and is to come! (Revelation 1:8)

Love For Love — October 28, 2023

Love For Love

Love For Love

Posted byValerie Parisi   EditLove For Love

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

Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Love For Love

Jesus: “Do you know how much you please Me? Just embrace My teaching. My insistence has not been in vain. I am truly happy. I just do not understand why you are so ambitious. Why are you not satisfied with the little sacrifices? Why do you not remain small? Do not believe that if you had powers to do great things, you would be a saint sooner. You are mistaken. Great things carry in themselves their own glory and receive their reward right here on earth. May our hands gather in unity. All that we gather together will be of great value, even the smallest things. For Me, nothing is insignificant. I hold in high esteem all that you do for Me.” (Jesus) (October 25, 1962)

Today’s Readings: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22)

Prayer Meditation- Lord today we are given the essence of our faith, what You are truly asking of us- the two great commandments which sum up all the law and the prophets. To love You with all our hearts, souls, and minds. And to love others as ourselves. And it seems so simple but often so hard to do. Lord, the key is to love You first above all else- to completely surrender and abandon ourselves and our will. We all want to do great things, to be noticed here on Earth- but those are works that only have their reward here, even “religious” things if done for the purpose of being seen and noticed or with our own agendas. You call us to littleness, to nothingness. To be happy with little sacrifices done in our everyday lives done in union with You! Then our acts have great value in Your Divine Will! And it is when we allow You to empty us of ourselves and to be filled only with You that we begin to know how to love You with Your Love. And when we love You with Your Love and through Your Sacred Heart we can then love others as ourselves because we have living in us the Divine Indwelling of Your Holy Spirit ready to gather others into Your Marvelous Light (1 Peter 2:9).

Chosen And Loved — October 27, 2023

Chosen And Loved

Chosen And Loved

Posted byValerie Parisi   EditChosen And Loved

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

Feasts of Saint Simon and Jude

Chosen and Loved

You, My little one, must stir up the fire because you have been chosen for this. This is a great privilege. Never interrupt your desires and sacrifices because this would cause My mother great sorrow.” (Jesus) (July 12, 1962)

Today’s Readings: Brothers and sisters:
You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets. (Ephesians 2)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, as we celebrate the Feast of Saint Simon and Jude we meditate on what is means to be chosen for Your work of redemption. Because we are not strangers to You but members of Your household built upon the Apostolic foundation of the those who have gone before, fellow citizens with the saints. So let us stir up the fire in our hearts because we have been chosen by You to spread Your Kingdom on Earth no matter our state in life. All are called to desire this Kingdom to come into our hearts and into our families and to make loving sacrifices, as simple as a smile when we don’t feel like it or a sharp word held back out of love for You, because we are chosen and loved!

Miserable — October 26, 2023

Miserable

Miserable

Posted byValerie Parisi   EditMiserable

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

Friday of the Twenty Ninth Week of Ordinary Time

Miserable

You know that I am weak and sinful. Without You, I am a miserable nothing. I live by the grace of abandonment to You.” (Elizabeth) (January 4, 1963)

Today’s Readings: Miserable one that I am!
Who will deliver me from this mortal body?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 7)

Prayer Meditation- Lord we read in Romans today how St. Paul does not do the good that he wants but he does the evil he does not want. Many of us today may be reading it and saying to ourselves, welcome to my world. Because that is the struggle everyday- we start out each day with good intentions, hopefully prayer because if not the day is pretty much already lost, and yet the just man falls seven times each day. (Proverbs 24:16). We start out each day in battle and by the end of the day we are pretty roughed up by skirmishes of defeat- our minds, our flesh, our mouths, our failure to do what we ought to have done each day pulling us down. So, what to do- we are all, even great saints like Saint Paul, weak and sinful. We are nothing without You! The key is to live in the grace of abandonment to You! You will take our misery and make of it a victor’s crown if we but offer all of it to You! Who will deliver us- thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!