How absolutely beautiful! I too thought of Moses today at Mass. I could not get the thought out of my mind that mothers are shepherdesses for their little flock. I pictured the old stone circle where the shepherd would sit in the doorway protecting the sheep at night. This to me represents the home. What happens in the home and what is allowed in or not is up to the mother. But then I pictured Zaporiah and her sisters who watched the flock. When Moses came to the well and protected the shepherdesses from the thieves. See us mothers need to be protected too in our vocation of caring for our little flocks. Christ is our first Shepherd, I pray that in our husbands, priests, and Bishops they increasingly aid us in raising "the world (we) will not see" up to Christ. Amen.
Elizabeth appears in the Gospel of Luke, where she is described as “righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly,”. I imagine that she was warm, loving and obviously a safe harbour for young Mary, who was not married when she conceived. When Mary came to visit her, Elizabeth was pregnant with St. John the Baptist and in her sixth month: “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And how have I deserved that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, the moment that the sound of thy greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who has believed, because the things promised her by the Lord shall be accomplished.”
This popular prayer, a favorite of many Catholics, dates back to the 15th century and takes its name from the first Latin word of the prayer, "memorare," which means "remember." The Memorare is of unknown authorship, although it has been attributed to St. Augustine (354-430), St. John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) and, with more reason, to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1090-1153). St. Bernard's sermons on Mary were famous, and it was his Cistercian monks in the monastery of Citeaux in the 12th century who popularized the name "Our Lady" for Mary. The Memorare has also been attributed to the French cleric Claude Bernard (1588-1641), known as the "poor priest" of Paris, whose homilies contain passages that echo its words. No matter who wrote this prayer, it was Father Bernard who did much to popularize it, teaching it in hospitals and prisons, where Mary's intercession was effective in working miracles of grace. The first manuscript of the Mem...
I haven't been able to post for more than a week as I was giving an eight-day directed retreat to eight sisters of the Missionaries of Charity near Manila. While I had some access to the internet it was rather slow. I had intended to make a post here on the murder of Fr Fausto Tentorio PIME , a 59-year-old Italian priest, in the Diocese of Kidapawan, Mindanao, on Monday 17 October. I will save that post for a later date. As I was looking for a video about Father Fausto I came across one about Brother Richard Michael 'Richie' Fernando SJ, a Filipino Jesuit scholastic who died while trying to prevent a troubled and disabled young man in Cambodia from throwing a grenade. That was in 1996 - on 17 October. Father Fausto gave his life exactly 15 years later. I remember the mixture of sorrow and pride I felt when I read of the death of Brother Richie, pride as a missionary in the Philippines that a young Filipino seminarian had given his life so spontaneously in order to sav...
How absolutely beautiful! I too thought of Moses today at Mass. I could not get the thought out of my mind that mothers are shepherdesses for their little flock. I pictured the old stone circle where the shepherd would sit in the doorway protecting the sheep at night. This to me represents the home. What happens in the home and what is allowed in or not is up to the mother. But then I pictured Zaporiah and her sisters who watched the flock. When Moses came to the well and protected the shepherdesses from the thieves. See us mothers need to be protected too in our vocation of caring for our little flocks. Christ is our first Shepherd, I pray that in our husbands, priests, and Bishops they increasingly aid us in raising "the world (we) will not see" up to Christ. Amen.
ReplyDeleteSusan, I love what you wrote... I hope to spend some time with it tonight in prayer and meditation. Thank you so much! - Nancy S.
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