Tonight as we enter Holy Week we will chat at 730PM est about this week in light of the pierced Heart of Jesus
Mar 24 2013, 11:20 AM
Sister Susan Marie: and the video Visitandine mystics of the Sacred Heart
Mar 24 2013, 11:23 AM
Sister Susan Marie: As Pope Francis said in his homily today:This is Jesus. This is his heart which looks to all of us, to our sicknesses, to our sins. The love of Jesus is great. And thus he enters Jerusalem, with this love, and looks at us. It is a beautiful scene, full of light – the light of the love of Jesus, the love of his heart – of joy, of celebration.
Sister Susan Marie: Our mystics who were given Heart related messages really fit into Holy Week
Mar 24 2013, 8:00 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Even our Holy Father made mention
Mar 24 2013, 8:00 PM
C: they surely can
Mar 24 2013, 7:51 PM
Sister Susan Marie: that would be the one founding the Guard of Honor; the one with the Holy Wounds Chaplet
Mar 24 2013, 7:51 PM
Sister Susan Marie: The one who had a mission for priests (HOly THur)
Mar 24 2013, 7:51 PM
C It’s been a hectic week or so since I saw the video, so a lot of the details have escaped my head, but I know our conversation will jog my memory
Mar 24 2013, 7:51 PM
Sister Susan Marie: and the contemporary of St Faustina and merciful love
Sister Susan Marie: They all center around the Passion, in a way
Mar 24 2013, 7:52 PM
C: I remember the story, but for some reason her name is escaping me
Mar 24 2013, 7:52 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Sr Marie of the Sacred Heart Bernaud founded the Guard of Honor
Mar 24 2013, 7:52 PM
Sister Susan Marie: to honor the pireced Heart with Mary, John and Mary Magdalen
Mar 24 2013, 7:52 PM
Sister Susan Marie: That’s perfect timing for this week
Mar 24 2013, 7:53 PM
C: yes! and I’m still interested in finding the common thread between the chaplet given to Sr Faustina and the Holy Wounds chaplet
Mar 24 2013, 7:53 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Also Sr Mary Martha Chambon and the Holy Wounds Chaplet- great time to focus on that prayer
Mar 24 2013, 7:54 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Yes there is a paper in Spanish that deals with St Faustina, but with the other Sister of merciful love- so you would have a fresh approach
C: I really like the palms and the praise. and every year I am surprised by how quickly all that joy disappears into the passion And all those palms and HOSANNAS!
Sister Susan Marie: This is the week I always think of SFDS phrase” We were founded on Mount Calvary for the service? of Jesus Crucified”
Mar 24 2013, 8:05 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Our whole life is a Passion week
06 PM
C: Yes, Wakenda and I were talking about that today-how you can’t be a Christian without the cross, but shouldn’t dwell on suffering either Our whole life is a Passion week
Sister Susan Marie: Joy enters into life and the deeper it is- the suffering also enters in; but ti is hard to explain
Mar 24 2013, 8:08 PM
Sr. Mary Roberta: Giving myself away in whatever way I’m asked to is my “passion.”
9 PM
Sr. Mary Roberta: As long as Christ’s love is what “urges me on,” as St. Paul writes to the Corinthians.
Mar 24 2013, 8:09 PM
C: Suffering is a great mystery. I don’t have a clue how it works, I just know it does
Mar 24 2013, 8:10 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Every struggle can also be united to His passion but sometimes that can be overlooked and the struggle seems like its only ours
8:11 PM
C: It’s like we try to make sense of it with what little we know, and we just can’t
11 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Jesus knew His purpose
Mar 24 2013, 8:12 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Does that make the suffering different than if we don’t know the purpose of ours?
Sr. Mary Roberta: That’s such a consolation, isn’t it. I do my best in the struggle, but it’s really Our Lord who’s carrying me – like the footsteps in the sand. That’s such a consolation, isn’t it. I do my best in the struggle, but it’s really Our Lord who’s carrying me – like the footsteps in the sand.
Mar 24 2013, 8:13 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Do you know that at the time or in hindsight?
C: Well, it just came to me that if we continue to try to make sense of our own suffering, it’s like we are trying to redeem ourselves, and we can’t do that either
For me it’s always been hindsight, and a lot of things aren’t far enough behind yet!
Sister Susan Marie: So we should not try to understand the suffering, just live it and unite it with Jesus? PM
C: Well, I don’t know about everyone, but I don’t think I should
Sr. Mary Roberta: Isn’t that why Catholics always say, “Offer it up”?
C: for the poor souls in Purgatory!
17 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Suffering can enter into decision making too.
C: because the easiest decision is usually not the right one?
Sr. Mary Roberta: My agnostic sister can’t understand my unwillingness to analyze suffering because she always wants to know why.
C: Does she read a lot of who-done-its? using mystery for this type of novel is kind of misleading, because they are really about problems that haven’t been solved yet
Sister Susan Marie: Yes- Looking for God’s will is not always the easiest path
Sr. Mary Roberta: A priest once told me that God doesn’t want us to suffer.
Sister Susan Marie: Mixed messages- aren’t they?
C: so there’s mystery, but then there’s Mystery-the truly unknowable
Sr. Mary Roberta: The unknowable that Christ came to unveil – at least partially.
C: In thinking back to the story of Adam and Eve, they were not created to suffer were they? but they invited sin and suffering into the world through their actions
Sr. Mary Roberta: When there doesn’t seem to be a “reason” for suffering, a person sometimes suffers more.
Sr. Mary Roberta: But really in the end all our suffering should be, like Christ’s, in the name of love
Mar 24 2013, 8:23 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Yes, His Passion was all about Love- why it was all about His Heart too
C: yes, and I think most people would stare blankly if you asked them how suffering with cancer can be loving
Sr. Mary Roberta: That’s when it’s clear that loving is the hardest thing anyone can do PM
Sr. Mary Roberta: REAL loving, Christ-like loving
C: it could be doing loving acts when you are in pain and all you want to do is curl up and be hurt
Mar 24 2013, 8:25 PM
Sr. Mary Roberta: Our Sister Regina offered all her suffering for everyone who visited her – and for the whole world. What a gift!
C: yes, the world sees no redemption in suffering, only destruction PM
Sr. Mary Roberta: I’ve also heard Catholics say, “Don’t waste that suffering!” C:: offer it up!
Sr. Mary Roberta: In other words, offer it as an intercessory gift for someone else
C: yes, that’s what I mean
Sr. Mary Roberta: Easy to say, but hard to do!
C: yes, we do keep coming back around to that point, don’t we?
Sr. Mary Roberta: That’s when we need to place our suffering in Christ’s Sacred Heart
C: and then He does the rest
PM
Sr. Mary Roberta: He was the one who suffered most and suffered it best, after all. And He did for us – to show us how and assure us of His help. PM
Sister Susan Marie: The value of a soul- no limit
Mar 24 2013, 8:30 PM
C: because He will never leave us orphaned
Mar 24 2013, 8:31 PM
Sister Susan Marie: The other day I was reading an old book and it distinguished between persons and souls
Sister Susan Marie: I am still pondering that one
Sr. Mary Roberta: Here’s what I find hard: SFdS insists that “love reaches its most exalted state when we accept afflictions not only easily and patiently, but even cherish, like and embrace them because of that divine good pleasure from which they come. (Treatise on the Love of God)
C: I am going to have to ponder it as well, because the meaning is not obvious
C: I’m a long way from SFdS, but I’m finally starting to clue in to how what I’ve been through mirrors in its smally way, the Passion
Sr. Mary Roberta: Life = suffering, but if we see it as a special “gift” from God, then it’s more
Sister Susan Marie: and helps us transform it into love
Sister Susan Marie: the vision of it as gift
Mar 24 2013, 8:34 PM
C: I think we live in a culture that emphasizes pleasure over joy, and so there’s no room at all in the equation for suffering. it looks like so much foolishness
Sr. Mary Roberta: Just as God gave me my brown hair, He gives me the measure of suffering He means me to have.
C: because He has a place for us that only we can fill, and that suffering will polish us into what we are supposed to be
Mar 24 2013, 8:35 PM
Sr. Mary Roberta: So, the REAL Christian is one full of gratitude for each good and each ill.
Sr. Mary Roberta: As Job said, “If we receive good things from God, why shouldn’t we receive the bad?”
Mar 24 2013, 8:36 PM
C: because it all comes from His hand. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Lord.
Sr. Mary Roberta: And His hand gives with love. If an earthly father won’t give his son a scorpion, why would God?!
Mar 24 2013, 8:37 PM
Sister Susan Marie: This week I will try to relate each suffering to Our Lord’s passion in a more conscious way
Sr. Mary Roberta: So, even if it looks like a scorpion, it must be seen as a special gift from God, for His good purpose!
Mar 24 2013, 8:38 PM
C: And I will do that too
PM
Sr. Mary Roberta: Good idea!
C: Yes, because even if it looks like a scorpion, it cannot destroy us if we stay with Him