Walking With My Brother

The Church of St. Joan of Arc has a wonderful pamphlet of meditations to ponder as we sit in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.

Written in Jesus’s own voice, even the questions are comforting, as though He were holding us in the palm of His hand — intent on our concerns, lavish in His love, accepting of our whole being, ready to be with us no matter our fullness or failings.

There are 14 meditations. Here’s the first:

My child, you need not know much in order to please Me; only love Me dearly. Speak to Me as you would to your mother, if she had taken you in her arms. Have you no one to recommend to Me? Tell Me the names of your relations; of your friends; after each name add what you wish Me to do for them. Ask a great deal: I love generous hearts that forget themselves for others.

Oh, Mother Mary, blessed are you who carried Our Precious Lord into this world. Who nurtured and raised Him and encouraged Him as He took on the mantle of Our Father God. Holy Mary I give thanks for your faith-filled spirit of joy and acceptance of the role and mission God had planned for You.

Help me to say, ‘yes,’ as freely as You did to Our Father’s call. Help me to receive with a welcoming heart His invitation to love Him and to allow Him to love others through me.

Holy Father, you give all of us Your love, Your spirit of perfect love, freely, as a gift. You sacrificed Your Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ as payment for our sins, the sins of all the world.

The gift — freely given, totally undeserved — that You offer us, Jesus, in the sacrifice of Your life, becomes a sacrament — a holy and blessed — in our willingness to receive You, fully and in awe and in gratitude, without hesitation or question or unbelief.

As I sit before Your Blessed Sacrament — Your Real Presence, oh My Lord — stir in me this awe and gratitude and love that You so desire for me. Fill me, Holy Lord, with the belief of the child You created me to be.

I pray today for:

My husband. For his sweetness and light and deep devotion to You. Comfort him with Your teaching during this time and give him tangible ways to serve and to love You.

My daughter. For her goodness and love of You and for her desire to do what is right, so often in the face of resistance of others. Sweeten her words. Calm her fears. Ease her heart as You help her to feel Your presence and direction throughout her day.

My son and his family. For their devotion to one another and to You. Use this time to strengthen their faith and their understanding of You as they have new and expanded time to teach and to strengthen the faith of their daughter. Help them to teach her Your ways and the depth of Your love for her.

My daughter and her son. In their pain and suffering help them to find and reclaim the children You created in each of them. Teach them Your ways and protect them as they venture through the storms of their lives. Allow the winds of those storms to whip them closer and closer to Your only True Center, where they will find calm and peace and a love that surpasses all our understanding.

Our priest and for all bishops and priests and deacons and religious and for our Holy Father, our Pope: For their call to sacramental marriage with You in which they have devoted their whole lives to carrying You and Your love and truth to the world. Sanctify them and keep them holy. Comfort each of them according to their need this day, and purify their hearts as You help all them to feel the warmth of Your love.

Those ill and dying from Covid 19. Strengthen each of them, Holy Father, to find Your peace and healing love and to partake of it, so freely given. Allow that which You have so freely given to be enthusiastically received, that their lives may be lived joyfully in full knowledge of their lives to be lived eternally.

All of our world leaders. Help them as they turn to You for counsel. Do not make Your Word, Your Love obscure to them, Holy Lord. Bless them with Your insight and judgment and prudence, as they make decisions that affect the lives and deaths of so many throughout the world.

All of us who are either isolated or exposed to threat of illness. Strengthen our belief and deepen our love for and faith in You. Bless this time as a holy time in which we come more and more to find ourselves in Your mercy, our direction in Your Way for us.

I pray for all these things, that Thy Will might be achieved through them, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.