All things made new...

He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"  

Then he said, "Write this down, for these words

are trustworthy and true." - Rev 21:5

During a visit to the Philippines, Sister Gertrude from the Sacred Hearts Community

in Hawaii relayed this story (when she was over seventy) to Msgr Josefino (Pepe)

 Ramirez.  He passes it on in a Chapter of his book, Letters to a Brother Priest:

"When (Sr Gertrude) was a young nun, one of the old nuns was dying. The custom at that time was for the community to gather in prayer around the one dying.  ... the nun was breathing her last breaths.  Suddenly, she opened her eyes, stretched forth her arms and exclaimed: "O my Beloved." 

Then she sat up and gazed lovingly at the Blessed Sacrament,which she had permission to have in her room since she had been too weak to go to the chapel. What happened next had never been told, until Sister Gertrude shared it with me.   The old, wrinkled nun changed to a strikingly attractive young woman, radiantly aglow with a countenance that put the rest of the nuns into ecstasy just looking at her. After what seemed like a minute or two, the transformed nun went back against her pillow, turning old again and died.  When the Sisters came out of their ecstasy, they were stunned to discover that this extraordinary event lasted for more than one or two minutes. The Sisters were in ecstasy for over thirteen hours!  

... If only we could see the change that takes place in us at each Holy Hour we make.  We are made new in the Eternal Youth of Christ.  We are made innocent, without blemish, as we are cleansed in His Precious Blood, in the folly of His surpassing love. "

Photo: University of Steubenville, Ohio

Cloistering the heart...

"Your Face is all lovely and Your heart is all inviting,

but my thoughts alas! go wandering far from You. 

Come, O God of my heart,

gather together my scattered mental powers

and fix them upon Yourself.” – St Gertrude

"We come to Holy Mass to hearken 

to the words of the Word, 

to be wounded by them, to be espoused by them in such a way that, 

as the one Body of Christ, we are drawn upward 

with our Divine Head to the Father in the Holy Spirit. 

A listening Church will be one in which Saint Paul's 

goal for the Corinthians is necessarily fulfilled: 

"power to attend upon the Lord, without impediment" (1 Cor 7:35)."

Dom Mark Daniel Kirby
Prior of Silverstream Priory
Stamullen, County Meath, Ireland
Click here: Vultus Christi

 

Saint Elisabeth of the Trinity prayed:

"O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life in listening to You, to become wholly teachable that I may learn all from You. 

Then through all nights, all voids, all helplessness, 

I want to gaze on You always and remain in Your great light."