Woman of Grace: St. Josephine Bakhita (1869 – 1947)
It is natural to express thanksgiving for being released from difficult trials and circumstances. But who would be grateful for those who cause such difficult trials or circumstances? This is the stuff of saints — the very stuff of which Saint Josephine Bakhita was made. Read the rest…
I went to Cconfession today. And once again, I was overcome by the gracious goodness of our God. It caused me to wonder why it is that we do not use this sacrament more frequently.
I do know numbers of dear souls who have made a pledge of sorts to go to the Sacrament of Penance at least once a month. And this is commendable — laudable, even. And I know other souls who frequent the Sacrament bi-weekly or even weekly. This is saintly.
It is said that Pope John Paul II went to confession every day. Imagine. Every day! He, like so many others who have been raised to the altar of Christ, discovered the treasury of grace that awaits us in the Sacrament even when grave sin is not present. Simply put, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is restorative. It is, after all, a sacrament of healing.
For myself this morning, I found it to be exactly that: restorative. And renewing, revitalizing. redeeming. The graces received in the quiet and solitude of confronting Our Lord with our weakness and frailties, our struggles and concerns, our discouragements and frustrations are boundless — like God’s own mercy of which they are replete.
Something about exposing the dark parts of our being to the rays of light that emanate from the Heart of Christ sets us free in new ways. It affects every part of us — our psyche, our emotions, our spiritual life to be sure, even our physiology — all are inundated with the healing love of God and, in that holy exchange of Heart-to-heart, new life comes.
I remember one of my teachers in grade school tell us that she often prayed that God would let her die right after receiving the Sacrament of Penance because she would go straight to Heaven. My little girl’s mind strove to plumb the depths of what this good and holy religious woman was imparting. She pointed to the sun shining on the snow outside of our classroom window so bright it was near blinding. “That”, she said, “is what a soul looks like when it has made a good confession.” I got it then. I understood. At least to some extent. Today, I understand more.
What is your burden this day? Is it a deep sin for which you need to receive forgiveness? Is it a weakness or tendency from which you wish to be set free? How about discouragement, hopelessness, or despair? There is a solution. Run — don’t walk — to the Sacrament! Be set free!
Today is our 25th Anniversary in Catholic communications. I can’t believe it! What a joy it has been to proclaim the Good News of Our Lord, Jesus Christ around the world! And what an absolute pleasure and privilege it has been for both Fr. Ed and I to work together in this apostolic work. We appreciate your love and support! Read the rest…
Not long ago, my daughter, Thea, was driving me to the airport. I was headed to EWTN to produce the next round of programs for Women of Grace. Strapped into the back seat was my almost 7 year old granddaughter, Julia.
“Mom,” said Julia. “It is so sad that Maggie and Elise aren’t friends anymore.”
“They’re not?” asked my daughter. “What happened?”
“Maggie said ‘duh’.” Julia replied somberly.
“She said, ‘duh’?” asked Thea.
“Yes,” said Julia, clearly with the sound of “duh” in her voice.
“Well,” said Thea. “You know Julia, there are two meanings for ‘duh.’ It all depends on your tone of voice. You can say ‘duh’ and it means you agree with someone. Or you can say ‘duh’ and it means the other person is stating the obvious — you know, saying what everyone else already knows.”
“I know that, Mommy. She said ‘duh’!” definition two.
“That’s too bad,” said my daughter.
“I know.” said Julia. “It’s really sad.”
Thea and I exchanged a knowing glance. Julia was “coming of age” in the world of social communication and beginning to realize that tone of voice matters. She was also beginning to see how fragile friendship can be — the power of one syllable can destroy it.
Tone of voice and tonal inflection communicate — often more directly than the actual words being spoken. Tone of voice can bring comfort and solace or hurt and misery. It can be an instrument that heals and bonds a friendship or a sword that slashes it to ribbons.
Tonal inflection is just the same — it can indicate solidarity or derision by the mere emphasis placed on one word over another.
Just as we ought to select our words carefully so that we properly communicate what we are expressing and are rightly understood, so too should we guard our tone of voice and tonal inflection to make sure of the same.
What we say matters. And how we say it matters, too. Both are creative forces that can bring joy and peace or sorrow and pain. What are your words saying today? Are they relationship builders or relationship busters?
Recently, Bishop David Zubik, Diocese of Pittsburgh, issued a call to action as he spoke plainly about the “battle line” drawn by President Barak Obama regarding health care. Below, you will find the whole letter the good Bishop wrote to his flock. In the meantime, consider the words of Our Lady of Salette, recently posted on the Women of Grace page on Facebook. She, too, is issuing a call to action. Will we heed it? Here is her urgent appeal, and followoing is Bishop Zubik’s letter:
“I make an urgent appeal to the earth. I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven; I call on the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Savior of men; I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those whom I carry in My arms, so to speak, those who have lived according to My spirit. Finally, I call on the apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in union with God, in suffering unknown to the world. It is time they came out and filled the world with light. Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children. I am at your side and within you, provided that your faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days. May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ. Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see.(…)
January 27, 2012
HHS Edict Will Force Catholics to Violate Conscience
By Bishop David A. Zubik
It is really hard to believe that it happened. It comes like a slap in the face. The Obama administration has just told the Catholics of the United States, “To Hell with you!” There is no other way to put it.
In early August, the Department for Health and Human Services in the Obama administration released guidelines as part of the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The guidelines mandated that by Summer 2012 all individual and group health insurance plans, including self-insured plans, cover all FDA-approved contraception, sterilization procedures and pharmaceuticals that even result in abortion.
A million things are wrong with this: equating pregnancy with disease; mandating that every employer pay for contraception procedures including alleged contraceptives that are actually abortion-inducing drugs; forcing American citizens to chose between violating their consciences or providing health care services; mandating such coverage on every individual woman without allowing her to even choose not to have it; forcing every person to pay for that coverage no matter the dictates of their conscience.
Let’s be blunt. This whole process of mandating these guidelines undermines the democratic process itself. In this instance, the mandate declares pregnancy a disease, forces a culture of contraception and abortion on society, all while completely bypassing the legislative process.
This is government by fiat that attacks the rights of everyone – not only Catholics; not only people of all religion. At no other time in memory or history has there been such a governmental intrusion on freedom not only with regard to religion, but even across-the-board with all citizens. It forces every employer to subsidize an ideology or pay a penalty while searching for alternatives to heath care coverage. It undermines the whole concept and hope for health care reform by inextricably linking it to the zealotry of pro-abortion bureaucrats.
For our Church this mandate would apply in virtually every instance where the Catholic Church serves as an employer. The mandate would require the Catholic Church as an employer to violate its fundamental beliefs concerning human life and human dignity by forcing Catholic entities to provide contraceptive, sterilization coverage and even pharmaceuticals that result in abortion.
There was a so-called “religious exemption” to the mandate, but it was so narrowly drawn that, as critics charged, Jesus Christ and his Apostles would not fit the exemption. The so-called exemption would only apply to the vast array of Catholic institutions where the following applied:
Practically speaking under the proposed mandate there would be no “religious exemption” for Catholic hospitals universities, colleges, nursing homes and numerous Catholic social service agencies such as Catholic Charities. It could easily be determined that the “religious exemption” would not apply as well to Catholic high schools, elementary schools and Catholic parishes since many employ non-Catholics and serve both students and, through social outreach, many who do not share Catholic religious beliefs. Such a narrow “religious exemption” is simply unprecedented in federal law.
Last September I asked you to protest those guidelines to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, and contact your political leadership in the federal government. I asked that you request that this flawed mandate be withdrawn because of its unprecedented interference in the religious liberty and freedom of conscience of the Catholic community, and our basic democratic process.
You did. And you were joined by Catholics throughout the country (and many others as well) who raised their voices against the mandate, raised their voices against a meaningless religious exemption.
On January 20, 2012, the Obama administration answered you and me. The response was very simple: “To Hell with You.”
Kathleen Sebelius announced that the mandate would not be withdrawn and the religious exemption would not be expanded. Instead, she stated that nonprofit groups – which include the Catholic Church – will get a year “to adapt to this new rule.” She simply dismissed Catholic concerns as standing in the way of allegedly respecting the health concerns and choices of women.
Could Catholics be insulted any more, suggesting that we have no concern for women’s health issues? The Catholic Church and the Catholic people have erected health care facilities that are recognized worldwide for their compassionate care for everyone regardless of their creed, their economic circumstances and, most certainly, their gender. In so many parts of the globe – the United States included – the Church is health care.
Kathleen Sebelius and through her, the Obama administration, have said “To Hell with You” to the Catholic faithful of the United States.
We’ll give you a year, they are saying, and then you have to knuckle under. As Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops responded, “in effect, the president is saying that we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.”
As I wrote to you last September, with this mandate the democratic process is being ignored while we are being ordered to ignore our religious beliefs. And we are being told not only to violate our beliefs, but to pay directly for that violation; to subsidize the imposition of a contraceptive and abortion culture on every person in the United States.
It is time to go back to work. They have given us a year to adapt to this rule. We can’t! We simply cannot!
Write to the president.
Write to Secretary Sebelius.
Write to our Senators.
Write to those in Congress.
Use the PA Catholic Advocacy Network to send an email message, too.
I have included the addresses in a box accompanying this article. Here’s what you can write:
“Dear (Representative):
“In early August, the Department for Health and Human Services released guidelines that would force Catholic institutions to subsidize through their health care plans contraception, sterilization procedures and pharmaceuticals that even result in abortion.
“It was announced on January 20thby Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, that this mandate is affirmed and that non-profit institutions, including the Catholic Church, have one year to adapt to the mandate.
“This is a direct threat to the religious liberty of Catholics, freedom of conscience and the social service ministry of the Catholic Church. The so-called ‘religious exemption’ in the mandate is no exemption at all as it would require any Catholic institution (that serves non-Catholics or employs non-Catholics) to violate Catholic belief, discontinue to provide health care, or close its doors.
“I ask that you do all possible to rescind the ‘Preventive Service Mandate’ as an unprecedented federal interference in the right of Catholics to serve their community without violating their fundamental moral beliefs.”
This mandate can be changed by Congressional pressure. The only way that action will happen is if you and I take action.
Let them know that you and I will not allow ourselves to be pushed around (or worse yet) be dismissed because of our Catholic faith.
Let them know that you and I will not allow our religious freedom to be compromised.
Let them know that you and I will not allow our religious liberty to be rescinded.
Nobody, not even the president of the United States or anyone who represents him, has the right to say to you and to me as U.S. citizens, as Catholics, or as both: “To Hell with You.”
The president and our elected leaders need to hear from you and me and to listen to us NOW.
And if NOT now, HOW can we get the president to listen to us???
There was little mention of the March for Life from main stream media and if reported at all, the numbers were inaccurately described as in the “thousands. There were no counter protesters, although reported as such, but only joyful, prayerful, massive pro-life crowds!
I pondered these things in my heart as I participated in the annual March for Life on Monday. It was the 39th sad memorial of the passage of Roe V. Wade. Since that date over 53 million babies have been lost, mothers have been scarred for life and families devastated.
Determined to make a difference, walking shoulder-to-shoulder, umbrella-to-umbrella the massive March for Life crowd was jubilant, hopeful…and YOUNG. Those who had attended in prior years returned in 
solidarity and renewed vigor; those who were attending for the first time were in awe and uplifted.
We marched as Women of Grace in full knowledge that “for such a time as this” we were created for a specific purpose and to impact the culture. We marched with the director of our local Christian pregnancy resource center, who was overcome with emotion and thanksgiving for the presence of God she was witnessing. We marched with a young Polish priest, in our country for just 5 months, who was amazed by the hundreds of thousands of peaceful, prayerful, joyful people he encountered.
As we approached the Supreme Court building our young priest searched for the precise words to express the moment. “I am full, and I struggle to control my emotions. This (legalized abortion) is Satanic!”
“For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths.” –2 Timothy 4:3-4
My dear sisters in Christ please continue to be heartfelt, determined Women of Grace, nurturing life to the full. Pray for God’s grace and mercy to be manifest in our country. Ask Our Mother to guide you and give you her heart to transform our culture.
I pray that it would be unnecessary to March in 2013. Perhaps, however, we should consider marching together next year as Women of Grace full of joy, hope and grace?
Your thoughts?
Peggy Pritchard is a Women of Grace® facilitator and Regional Coordinator. She and Vicki Crispo conduct studies in York, PA and will be hosting the Women of Grace Healing the Wounds of the Heart Retreat and are both lay associates of the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life.
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. Read the rest…
One of the real graces that comes through our radio broadcast, Women of Grace Live (EWTN Radio, its affiliates, and Sirius 130, 11:00 AM ET) are the number of people who call in to give help and assistance to other callers. It is not infrequent that our listeners provide the very answer our callers most need to hear. What grace!
Following is just such an example. A woman called in and asked if I had a prayer to consecrate a baby to Mary. I quickly looked on line and gave her a suggestion or two but shortly after our broadcast, this beautiful prayer of consecration was sent in by one of our listeners. It had been printed in her parish bulletin that very week. Now that is the Holy Spirit at work!
Consecrating a baby to the Blessed Virgin is an ancient tradition as is consecrating oneself to Mary. When such a consecration is made, it is always with the understanding that it is to Jesus through Mary that the consecration is intended.
Following is the prayer submitted by our listener. I especially like it because it implores the help and assistance of each member of the Holy Family. The instructions printed with the prayer encouraged parents to pray the consecrations below for each of their children at least once during their lives. It reminded them that parents “can render no greater service to their children than to implore their salvation, and indeed, they will of necessity render almighty God an account of their efforts in this regard.”
CONSECRATION OF ONE’S CHILDREN TO JESUS,
MARY AND JOSEPH
(Adapted from a prayer by St John Eudes and other sources.)
O Jesus, only Son of God, only Son of Mary, I come to Thee as an unworthy parent, and I humbly consecrate to thy Most Sacred Heart, now and for eternity, the soul of my child N. I surrender him/her to Thy sweet yoke and place him/her at the foot of Thy Cross. I offer Thee for him/her the most loving Heart of Thy Most Holy Mother Mary, which is more precious and pleasing to Thee than all hearts, and I beg Thee by her merits to show Thyself to him/her a Savior.
O Mary, Mother of Jesus, I come to Thee as an unworthy parent, and I humbly consecrate to thy Most Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, now and for eternity, the soul of my child N. I offer Thee for him/her the most adorable Heart of Thy Son Jesus, who is the life, love and joy of Thy own Heart, and I beg Thee by the infinite merits of the Divine Son, Thou who art our Mother in the order of grace, to obtain the grace of salvation for my child.
O glorious St. Joseph, I come to thee and ask thee to take under thy special protection my child N. I consecrate him/her to thee today, that through this consecration he/she they may become your foster child. Guard him/her, guide his/her steps in life, and form his/her heart after the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. O glorious St. Joseph, who felt the
tribulation and worry of a parent when the child Jesus was lost, protect him/her
for time and eternity. May you be his/her father and counselor. Preserve him/her
from the corruption of this world, and obtain for us the grace to be united in
heaven forever. Amen.
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/)
In my reliquary, I have a first class relic of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born American to be canonized. I find it appropriate that a woman was the first of our land to be lifted to the altar of Christ by Holy Mother Church. After all, our country and all of North America is dedicated to the woman: the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our special patroness is also the Blessed Mother under her name, Immaculate Conception.
Just as it is true that all of the male saints seek to imitate Our Lord Jesus Christ, so too, do the women saints — but their emulation takes on the characteristics of the feminine, the authentically feminine, as lived to the superlative degree by Our Blessed Lady. While every soul must acquire the virtues of receptivity, trust, and surrender, these are the hallmarks of the handmaid of the Lord, virtues implicit in her by virtue of her gender. To acquire them, however, practice them and live them, can be quite another matter. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, in imitation of the Blessed Virgin, gives us good example. Through all of the vicissitudes of life, Mother Seton lived heroic virtue — frequently in situations and trials very similar to those experienced by Mary.
Born into an affluent family and married to a wealthy business man, her happiness was to be short-lived. The early death of her father-in-law eventually left young Elizabeth and her husband, William Seton, to rear Will’s seven half-brothers and sisters, and to run the family importing business. Young Mr. Seton’s health and business began to fail under the increasing pressure of the situation, eventually forcing him to file a petition for bankruptcy, after which he and Elizabeth sailed for Italy to pursue the help of business friends. It was there, in Italy, that Will died of tuberculosis leaving Elizabeth with one consolation — that he had recently experienced a conversion of heart toward the things of God.
Though the Seton’s Italian business friends took her in, supported her spiritually and financially, she eventually needed to return to the United States and to her other children and family. However, a deep and holy friendship had blossomed with her Italian patrons who continued to be of great interior support and consolation to her for all that she would encounter on her home shores.
While in Italy, Elizabeth was drawn to the majesty and beauty of the Catholic Faith which she had witnessed in the lives of her patrons. She longed for Eucharist, hungered really, for the Bread of Life, and found great comfort in the Blessed Virgin to whom she turned for guidance and direction. Mary, she discovered, was her mother, her true mother, whose maternal beatitude was there for her. Consolation filled her with this understanding since she had lost her own mother at an early age. It was Our Lady who eventually led her to join the Church her Son had founded, the Catholic Church.
Upon her returned, poverty greeted her as well. Her resources were dried up and she received no help from her Episcopalian family and community whose bitter resentment toward her conversion expressed itself in hostility and ostracization. At the suggestion of the president of St. Mary’s College in Baltimore, Maryland, Elizabeth opened a school in the city. She engaged two other young women to help her and thus began the religious community she would form, the Sisters of Charity, based on the rule written by St. Vincent de Paul for the Daughers of Charity in France. The Sisters of Charity was the first religious order founded in the United States.
Provision was made for Mother Seton to continue to raise her five natural children in the convent setting, but she would know the searing pain of burying two of them at an early age as well as the loss of spiritual daughters she had borne in faith. Living and embracing the will of God — the rudder of Mother’s spiritual life — guided her through these times and she was able to say with confidence and conviction,””What is sorrow , what is death? They are but sounds when at peace with Jesus.” She knew that physical death is only the passage to eternal life.
Throughout her life, in her joys and in her sorrows, Elizabeth Ann Seton modeled her True
Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Like Our Lady, Elizabeth knew widowhood at an early age. She experienced abject poverty and no small degree of marginalization and misunderstanding. And she accepted as God’s will the most excruciating of all crosses, the death of a child, kissed that cross, and embraced it.
But,also like Our Lady, Elizabeth suffered well. Not only well, but we might suspect, in union with her Savior, Jesus Christ, mystically placing herself on the Cross with Him, that she might be a conduit of redemptive grace in the world. Her travail became the crucible in which He perfected her faith and made her fire-tried gold.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton stands as a model for women today. Wife, mother, widow, founder,religious sister, patron of the death of children, daughter of God, spiritual daughter of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her life, her words, her example, and her desire for God alone, give the women of today a sure and safe path to follow.
Following are six resolves Mother Seton made. As they did for her, they may well lead us, too, to sanctity and holiness of life:
She wrote: “Solemnly in the presence of my Judge, I resolve thorugh his grace
1) to remember my infirmity and my sin
2) to keep the door of my lips
3) to consider the causes of sorrow for sin in myself and in them whose souls are as dear to me as my own
4) to check and restrain all useless words
5) to deny myself and exercise the severity that I know is due to my sin
6) to judge myself – thereby trusting through mercy, that I shall
not be severely judged by my Lord
Perhaps these resolutions might be good ones to make as we begin this new year in Our Lord, 2012.
(Resolutions of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton taken from http://setonspath.tripod.com/)
