Patient Persevering Love Never Gives Up

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

Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi

Patient Persevering Love Never Gives Up

Your sacrifices unceasingly rise up to Me and I shower My abundant graces upon you and upon all who dedicate themselves for the glory of My Holy Name. Patient, persevering love never blunders. (Jesus) (March 6, 1964)

Today’s Readings: At that very moment he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said,
“I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. (Luke 10)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, today we hear of how your disciples were sent out in Your Name and were able to deliver others in Your Name! Lord, there is power in the Name of Jesus and You send abundant graces upon all who call upon Your Holy Name in faith and trust! And yet You love to give these graces to the humble and the childlike.  Each day Your Children invoke Your Name and the Holy Name of Mary in the Hail Mary in every Rosary as we meditate on those mysteries which are still alive to us today. We can be with Mary at the Annunciation, at Your Birth, and at the foot of the Cross. We can follow You in Your childhood, public ministry, and console You at Calvary. We can rise with You in Your Resurrection and rise to Heaven with the Blessed Mother at Her Assumption. We can receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit because You are outside of time! And we can do this all not for ourselves but for Your Glory and the good of all pleasing mercy, salvation, and sanctification of all souls because patient and persevering love never blunders and never says enough! So let us meditate with expectant faith and trust on all four mysteries- Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious spreading the effect of grace of the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary because the Kingdom is coming!

Calculating The Cost

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

Twenty Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Calculating The Cost

Jesus: “Take part unceasingly in My work of Redemption. Do not ask how. Fervently desire the coming of My Kingdom for yourself and for all the souls. When you rest at night, examine your day. What have you done for My Kingdom to arrive?” (Jesus) (April 20, 1962)

Today’s Gospel: Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’ (Luke 14)

Prayer Meditation: O Lord, how many of us start well! A conference, a retreat, a great homily, or an invite to a prayer cenacle on Zoom and here we go! We are all in and ready to give all for Your Kingdom in these times. These sad times where we are so sure that everything we do-every Rosary, every Novena, every 33 Day Consecration matters and is bringing the Kingdom closer! We are really cooking with gas now! And then life hits you out of nowhere. Sickness, family divides, money worries, work woes, our own dark nights that seem to never end. And we are not feeling it and we wonder if we ever did have it in us to be co-workers with Jesus and Mary in these times we are in. Maybe You have moved on looking for someone else who will use Your Grace well and with more zeal and constancy. But maybe that is the problem Lord, because if we feel like failures, we are really just thinking about ourselves and not about You! Because these desolations- privations as they call them in the spiritual life, are all part of Your Plan! Counting the cost, we should know that we do not have what it takes on our own. But we do if we realize that we are nothing and You are all and it is Your Work that You will complete in us with our Fiat no matter the cost and no matter what it may feel like.

“August 29—Holy Hour.—“ Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit present in me.”

“Even if you were to do nothing but repeat this wish for the whole hour, you would not have wasted your time, since not one of your prayers goes unheard. If people only knew how attentive the Father is to the actions and words of His little children; for in fact many of them remind Him of His only Son toiling on earth. “The Holy Trinity is in each one of you, more or less according to the room that you allow It, for, as you know, God never forces anyone. He asks and waits. And when you are faithful, you are sure of the joy—I was going to say the celestial joy—that it gives heaven. Keep this thought always before you: it is when you are living on earth that I enjoy you, My beloved faithful ones. But in heaven it will be you who will enjoy Me. “My little children, consider My simplicity and how easy it is for you to please Me. It means only doing everything that you do as well as you can for My love’s sake, in order to grow, to advance, to go higher. Hold out your two weak arms to me. I’ll help you. We’ll do the work together in unequal shares. It is for the Father to shoulder the heavier end of things. And if the little child fixes his eyes lovingly on the Father’s eyes, the painful task will seem so little. A look of love . . . what power for you! What joy for Me! Anyone who loves Me has the right to see Me. Even if you loved Me each day with a heroic love, it would be so little compared with the love you will have for Me throughout all eternity. Then love Me continually. Tell Me about it and live your love-of-Me. I’ll receive it day by day, new in your heart and ever new for Me. Do I ever grow weary of you?””

— He and I by Gabrielle Bossis

¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, ¹⁷ even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)

¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:14)

² looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 2:12)

Prayer Meditation- O Lord how our little prayers and praises make You happy! How we forget that the Holy Trinity is indeed living in us if we allow You room- may we be further disposed to live fully in Your Divine Will. May we do all for love, allowing You to shoulder the heavier end of things while keeping our eyes fixed on You and all of our painful tasks will become little.

Believe You Have Received It- Knocking On Heaven’s Door

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

Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Believe You Have Received It- Knocking On Heaven’s Door

Jesus: “Trust. I have always told you that whatever you ask for in confidence, consider you have already received it. Do you think that if you asked Me for souls, I would not grant them to you? May our hands gather in unity. Ask! Never grow tired of asking and desiring for Me.

 Today’s Readings: “And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Prayer Meditation- Oh Lord we thank You, we bless You and we adore You for Your Word today! Ask, seek, knock. In Mark 11:24 You tell us that when we ask we are to believe that we have received it. Because You are the Good, Good Father who knows not how to give us anything but good! It is so easy to say Lord that You do not answer or do not hear our prayers especially if it seems like it is taking years for whatever intention is on our hearts but You tell us in Habakkuk 2 that “though it linger, wait for it, it will certainly come and will not delay”. O Lord how hard it is to wait on You and to keep knocking with confidence and trust but that is exactly what You are asking of us. In fact, until we show You our confidence and trust, we are not asking as You would have us as Your faithful children. Lord, we know that You work all things together for good for those who love You (Romans 8:28) and that our times and our circumstances are in Your Hands so let us come boldly to the throne of Grace (Hebrews 12) and let us not stop knocking and believing!

Where is Your Heart?

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

Friday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time

Where is Your Heart?

Through you, my little Carmelite, I want all to know the anguish that springs up from the boundless love of my maternal heart because of the danger threatening the entire world by the disintegration of the family sanctuaries. I direct my maternal cry to all of you, and in union with you, I want to save the world. (Mary) (January 17, 1964)

Today’s Readings: Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. (Matthew 6)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, how easy it is to have our hearts set on the world and what it has to offer. We try to save maybe for a nice retirement or we have goals for our careers and our families. But Lord, all around us families are disintegrating- even if we are ok it hard not to see what is happening in our culture. Our Lady in these times calls us to join Her in setting our hearts on the salvation of souls and particularly the restoration of family life. Lord, open our eyes so we can see where our hearts are leading us- are they leading us and our loved ones to Heaven or are we living for those things that can be here today and gone tomorrow. Lord You are our treasure- help us to live for You and for Your Kingdom in our families and in our hearts!

Firmness of Heart

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

Memorial of Saint Barnabas

Firmness Of Heart

I was sick. For days, I could not pray because I was so weak. The great heat of this summer contributed to my fatigue. I could hardly walk. When I felt a little stronger, I firmly resolved to return to prayer at night. I asked Jesus, “My adored Jesus, give me strength.” (Elizabeth) (August 1, 1962)

Today’s Readings: In those days a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
The news about them reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem,
and they sent Barnabas to go to Antioch.
When he arrived and saw the grace of God,
he rejoiced and encouraged them all
to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart,
for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith. (Acts 11)

Prayer Meditation: O Lord today we bless You, we adore You and we glorify You and thank you for the witness of Saint Barnabas, the encourager, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith. He encourages us even today to remain faithful to You in firmness of heart. Because it is easy to be faithful when all is well but to remain faithful in fatigue, illness, worry, strife, or whatever our circumstances are is where the rubber meets the road. Constancy, never wavering or giving in to our moods or our passions- seems almost impossible. But in Your Word in Psalm 112 you tell us

 For the righteous will never be moved;
    he will be remembered for ever.
⁷ He is not afraid of evil tidings;
    his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
⁸ His heart is steady, he will not be afraid.

Lord help us to be faithful because You are always faithful (2 Timothy 2:13) no matter our inconstancy. Jesus we trust in You!

Teach Us To Pray

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 Lent

Teach Us To Pray

“One Our Father or one Hail Mary prayed in the midst of spiritual dryness is much more fruitful than exuberant prayers of someone who abounds in spiritual favors.” (Jesus) (May 2, 1962)

Today’s Readings: “Our Father, who are in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, there was a time in my life when I was anxious about many things (Luke 11) and I cried to You in frustration in my many words- I wish there was just one prayer that said it all! Then it hit me- there is! We so often take the Our Father, which most of us learned as children, for granted. But if we truly meditate on what we are praying we find that You have given us all we need to live in union with You! Lord, help us to seek Your Will in all thing and  to receive our daily bread at Mass if we can, or in spiritual communion, and in  reading Your Word. Lord forgive us for all the times we have missed it and have sinned and help us to forgive others as You always forgive us. Help us to persevere in all trials and temptations in confidence knowing You will not let us be tried beyond our strength (1 Corinthians 10). Let us pray this prayer daily with intention and we will find You have given us all that we need!