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Writing in “Mother of the Redeemer,” Pope John Paul says this about the call of woman in the world today:

The figure of Mary of Nazareth sheds light on womanhood as such by the very fact that God, in the sublime event of the Incarnation of his Son, entrusted himself to the ministry, the free and active ministry of a woman. It can thus be said that women, by looking to Mary, find in her the secret of living their femininity with dignity and of achieving their own true advancement. In the light of Mary, the Church sees in the face of women the reflection of a beauty which mirrors the loftiest sentiments of which the human heart is capable: the self-offering totality of love; the strength that is capable of bearing the greatest sorrows; limitless fidelity and tireless devotion to work; the ability to combine penetrating intuition with words of support and encouragement.¹

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Sts. Perpetua and Felicity died on March 7, 203

The annals of the Church are full of examples of courageous Catholic women, but few can rival the tale of a young nursing mother and a pregnant woman who showed such fierce courage in the face of death that even the hardest Roman soldiers were brought to their knees.

The story of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, whose feast we celebrate today, was recorded by the hand of Perpetua herself as well as others who knew the women. This account, known as "The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity," was so popular in the early centuries that it was often read during liturgies.

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Woman of Grace: St. Katharine Drexel (1858 - 1955)

It's only fitting that as we march forward in the battle for religious freedom, we have the opportunity to celebrate the Feast of St. Katharine Drexel, a pioneer of civil rights and activism.

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Woman of Grace: St. Scholastica (480 – 543)

St. Gregory the Great recounts this story from the life of St. Benedict’s beloved twin sister, St. Scholastica, which shows how expressing our petitions to God with childlike faith and confidence sometimes yields immediate and amazing results.

After Benedict founded a monastery for men, Scholastica remained very close to her brother, founding a convent for women some miles away. Every year Scholastica went to visit Benedict at a little place just outside the monastery gate.

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Ven. Thecla Merlo (1894-1964)

Venerated January 22, 1991 by Pope John Paul II

Meditation on Sacred Scripture and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament have been the foundation of prayer for many women destined to be great spiritual mothers. Such was the case with Maestra Thecla, first Superior General of the Daughters of St. Paul founded by Father James Alberione. Teresa Merlo was a pious young Italian woman whose family was alive with Catholic piety and devotion. She had been trained as a seamstress but desired to enter religious life. Her brother, a seminarian, introduced her to Father Alberione who was looking to form a feminine congregation dedicated to spreading the Gospel through the press. With faith and trust in God, Teresa said "yes" to Father Alberione’s suggestion that she join the group of women he was forming. In 1922 she was consecrated to serving the Lord along with nine other women. This new order, called the Daughters of St. Paul, was forging new apostolic ground in the area of mass communications and women religious. Teresa chose the name "Thecla" in honor of St. Thecla, the early follower of St. Paul.

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One of the greatest ways to enter into the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ is to pray the Rosary. However, praying the Rosary well can be difficult for several reasons. Three of the most common are:

Time constraints. The Rosary is a long prayer and requires setting aside a block of time (for me, that is no less than one-half hour) and busy schedules need to be adjusted to accommodate it.

Distraction. This is one of the three plagues of prayer -- discouragement and dryness or aridity, being the other two. Maintaining our attention during a long prayer can be especially difficult.

Repetition. Some people find the repetition of the decades to be either monotonous and somewhat boring or so comforting they are lulled to sleep.

But remember, next to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Rosary is the most efficacious of all prayers. It has the capacity to take us to contemplative prayer and to a mystical experience of the mysteries of Christ's life. Our Lady of Fatima tells us that praying the Rosary can bring peace to the world and Padre Pio told us the Rosary itself is a weapon against the wiles and tactics of the evil one. All of the great saints exhort us to pray the Rosary. Many have written books about it. Blessed John Paul II gave us one of his most beautiful apostolic letters on it. Clearly, praying the Rosary should not be a prayer option. It should be a prayer standard!

So -- do we fall victim to the difficulties we may encounter as we pray the Rosary or do we mount a defense against them? We take the latter course of action knowing that God will meet our meager generosity of heart with His boundless generosity of love.

Here are some strategies I personally employ to aid me in praying the Rosary well and to overcome the three difficulties outlined above:

I plan to pray the Rosary and even schedule it if necessary. I have a very busy schedule and I don't want to rush my time of prayer, including the beautiful prayer of the Rosary. Since I have resolved to pray the Rosary every day, I plan to pray it and I plan where I will pray it -- in Church before the Blessed Sacrament, at home in my "prayer chair," in the car or airplane, for example.

Distraction. Everyone experiences distraction in prayer, even the most proficient of all pray-ers. It is one of the tactics the evil one uses to entice us away from prayer altogether and the time we have set aside for it. Therefore, we have to be prepared for distraction. I like to use a variety of aids to help me maintain my attention and a prayerful disposition of heart. Some of the "weapons" I use to combat distraction are:

* Good Rosary meditation tapes

* Sacred Scripture

* Holy literature

* Religious music

I change the manner of speech with which I pray the Rosary. We can all "get lost" as we pray a long prayer and find our minds have drifted far away from the discipline at hand. To help me maintain a prayerful attitude of heart while praying the Rosary, I change the manner of speech I am using.

One way I do this is by altering the cadence I am using. I will slow down, pausing frequently to consider the words I am saying and the mystery they are revealing. I may stay there a bit to reflect, enter in, or beg God to take me more deeply into the mystery at hand. I ask Him to imbue the innermost confines of my heart with this moment in the life of our Savior, or the words Gabriel spoke to Mary. At other times, I will speed up the cadence, not to "get through" the Rosary, but to express the spiritual delight of it.

Another way I change my manner of speech is by changing from praying the Rosary silently to praying it out loud -- especially if I have drifted or am getting lulled by it. If I pray it out loud, I like to change the tone I use throughout the recitation -- softer, louder, less emphasis on a word, more emphasis -- especially in light of the mystery being prayed. I often find that I move from meditation to contemplation to thanksgiving, to praise, back to meditation, back to contemplation. The Holy Spirit moves us along the continuum and prays through us.

The Rosary is a journey into the life of Christ and an excellent means through which the life of Christ enters into us. By praying it daily, we will find that our facility to pray it well grows, our experience of it will heighten, and the mysteries it presents will become our own. May daily recitation of this prayer be among your holy resolutions throughout this new year.

( For an excellent Rosary meditation CD, simply click the link. My Soul Magnifies the Lord is celebrating its 20th anniversary in healing hearts, changing lives, and saving souls. http://shop.womenofgrace.com/product/rosary/)

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Yesterday morning while I was making my bed, a question entered my mind. "Why is it," I queried, "that it is so easy to develop a bad habit and so difficult to acquire a good one?" The answer came as I tucked the sheet and fluffed my pillow.

A bad habit rises out of our passions. In most cases, our disordered passions. Even if the pleasure is licit, lack of self-discipline and restraint makes it negative (shopping? food? gossip? -- you get the idea). It is rooted in concupiscence, our natural inclination to sin. And we naturally lean toward it.

A good habit, on the other hand, requires order, constraint, mastery, dying to self. It requires taming unbridled desires and wants through mortification and sacrifice. Taking custody of our senses. Asceticsim. Doing this goes against the grain of our natural desire and so it doesn't bring us pleasure -- at least initially. Therefore, we don't like it. While we may desire it in theory, we lean back from it in practice.

What, then, do we do? Do we give up and give in? No. That clearly is not the appropriate response.

In addition to praying for all of the supernatural help and grace we need and making good use of the sacraments, we employ the will and begin to reorder ourselves toward the good, the holy, the truly beautiful.

As we do so, we begin to seek a different kind of pleasure -- one rooted in the things of God rather than the things of the world. One that seeks the eternal rather than the temporal. One that leads us to truth rather than illusion. One that lifts us up to a new level of knowledge and understanding about God, man, ourselves.

Doing so yields not only good habits with their accompanying virtues, but that which good habits and their virtues bring -- happiness. True and abiding happiness. Philippians 4:8.

As we make our way through this Advent season, let us continue to root out that which is disordered and replace it with the virtue opposite to it. By Christmas day we may be well aloong the way to replacing a most pernicious bad habit with a good one. What a gift that would make for our King!

 

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Today on our radio program, Women of Grace Live, I shared a reading from a very old prayer book called Hail Holy Queen in a section called Counsels and Maxims. The prayer book was published in New York by P.J. Kenedy & Sons in 1928 with an Imprimatur by Patrick Cardinal Hayes, Archbishop of New York, on August 21 of that same year. The subtitle tells us it is A Book Of Prayer and Counsel For Catholic Girls And Women.

Though the writing hearkens back to an earlier day and time, the wisdom is everlasting. I am offering it to you for your consideration and prayerful meditation. To hear my comments about it as well as another reading from this gem of a book, go to www.womenofgrace.com and click on Podcasts. It is number WGL 1269.

Zeal, Industry

A Girl's character can be pretty well judged by knowing what she does with her spare time.

The piety of a good girl will manifest itself not only in attending devotions, but, when necessary, in being willing to do her share in parish activities.

The Blessed Virgin was not afraid of spoiling her hands by doing household work, although she belonged to the royal family of David and was God's most favored creature.

You may think you are able to take care of a husband's home; but you are not, unless you are able to take your mother's place in the work of your own home.

Those who dislike work in all its forms and phases, and who yield to their indolent disposition are like barren fig-trees, useless to themselves, to God and to man, fit only for the ax and the fire.

If the time that is wasted in useless or dangerous talking and reading, or in unnecessary rest and recreation, were devoted to the service of God and the salvation of souls, the whole world would be converted.

For the encouragement of those whose life is a daily grind of routine work, it should be remembered, first, that the world depends on patient faithfulness to such tasks; next, that the expert performance of simpler duties always fits one for higher and more responsible posts; and finally, that in the sight of God, and as far as our eternal reward is concerned, it is not what we do, so much as the intention with which we work that counts.

The obligations of justice should be discharged before generosity is indulged in. Therefore the satisfaction of debts and the performance of duties to those dependent upon us take precedence over the giving of alms to optional charities.

It is said that you can catch a thief, but that you cannot catch a liar; but for liars is reserved hell fire, as St. John warns in Rev. 21:8.

It is most useful to cultivate the friendship and companionship of other good girls, whose virtuous example and conversation will be an inspiration to higher and nobler life. "He that walketh with the wise shall be wise; a friend of fools shall become like to them." -- Prov. 13:20.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Recently, a dear sister in Christ posted a comment in "Coffee Talk", an open forum at GracePlace (www.womenofgraceplace.com).  In it, she expressed the fact that she was feeling discouraged about a number of things. Several women of grace immediately responded. I was one of them.  I wanted to comment on the way the evil one uses discouragement as a tactic against us, the power of praise in the face of discouragement, and the use of Scripture as a weapon against the darkness of the enemy.

One of my collegues suggested that my comments would make a good blog. Taking her advice, I am offering it to you here slightly modified and with an invitation to join us at GracePlace where you can "Get Renewed and Connected Everyday!"

Let's begin with the power of praise.

Praise:  In Full of Grace I talk about the need to praise God because He is God and deserves our praise. BUT, being a God who loves us, He commands us to praise Him because He knows the benefits we receive through praising. First, Scripture tells us that God inhabits the praises of His people. Our praise of Him is like a calling card that draws Him to us. He delights in our praises and "sits upon them" as Scripture says. And, when God is for us, who can be against us, asks St. Paul. Second, praise raises our hearts and minds above the situation. It helps to put things back into proper perspective. It takes our eyes off of ourselves and the misery of our condition and places them on the One Who can resolve our condition. This is transforming. Third, praising God elevates the emotions and actually makes us happier -- our biology was meant to praise and our biochemistry responds -- good hormones are released and our mood is elevated (laughter does the same thing). Fourth, our praising is not a guarantee that the situation will change. But it is a guarantee that we will change through the praising. We will discover that nothing is impossible with God even joy in the midst of travail and tribulation. And this gives us encouragement when we are confronted in the future with an unpleasant moment or serious situation.

Use of Scripture Against the Enemy: This was Jesus' method of dealing with the temptations of the devil when He was praying and fasting in the desert. And it is the best one to use. The enemy desires to thwart our efforts, to lead us into despair, to cause us to be down-trodden and depleted, to distract us and cause us dismay. Memorize some good one-liners that you can use in these moments. They remind you of the power that is yours through Christ Jesus and it releases us from the hold of the evil one. Here are a few passages you can memorize easily: "Get thee behind me Satan." Matthew 16:23 "It is no longer I who lives but Christ Jesus Who lives in me." "Stronger is He who is in me than he who is in the world." 1John 4:4 "Nothing is impossible with God." Galatians 2:20 Behold, I make all things new." Revalation 21:5 "We are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus." Romans 8:37 "If God is for us who can be against us?" Romans 8:31

Discouragement and Excessive Anxiety: St. Faustina tells us that discouragement and excessive anxiety are two favorite ploys of the evil one. He uses these to gain control of our emotions and paralyze our forward movement spirtually and in the natural. Discouragement left unchecked will lead to despair -- a profound desolation of heart predicated upon the notion that God has abandoned us or forsaken us and that our circumstance will never change. It can also cause us to erroneously believe that our travail or suffering is greater than the power of God. Discouragement roots itself deeply within us and begins to poison our spiritual life attacking the virtue of hope. Excessive anxiety causes fear to seep into our heart and soul. The fear I am referring to here is not the kind of fear that warns us of impending danger, but rather the kind of fear that is "false evidence appearing real." It is a trap and is meant to put us into bondage, place chains around our capacities, and stop us dead in our tracks. When discouragement and excessive anxiety prevail upon you, see it for what it is -- a tactic of the evil one -- and know from whom it comes -- the evil one himself. The Holy Spirit never brings discouragement. Once you identify that the enemy is working against you through this tactic -- praise the Lord because obviously something great is on its way or the evil one would not be attempting to discourage you. His very activity is a sign that great things are about to break loose!

May we all take courage today with the knowledge that God gives us every spiritual blessing in the heavens. He desires to help us in the midst of our deepest travail and to reveal to us the power of His unfailing love and presence. May all of us continue to move forward in the ways God is calling us, and may we seek His abundant life in all things.

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Here is an excerpt from a book written by Father Benedict Groeschel that he wrote in 1987 called "Stumbling Blocks, Stepping Stones." It inspired me and I hope it inspires you: "If you want to love, you must be willing to be vulnerable. The Gospel makes it clear that if you extend your hand often enough in a gesture of love, someone will drive a nail through it. If you love others, you may be deceived, betrayed an abandoned. if you love Christ, you must walk the difficult road to Calvary. but you will begin to see yourself borne by powers that are beyond you. It may not be very noticeable at first. It may be no more than patience with criticism, or extra generosity after you have done enough. You may feel firmly drawn to God even when you can't pray. You will begin to change. ... Love inspired by charity is one of the most potent forces in the world."

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