Connor's Climb 5k

Today Sister Maximilian, Sister Esther Marie, and I went with our friends Leigh and Janet to Connor's Climb 5k in Exeter, NH.  This race was organized by Connor's friends in his honor and to raise funds for suicide prevention programs.  Connor committed suicide at the age of 14 but thanks to his friends he is still allowed to influence others for the good through the power of love.  We met many interesting people at the race including Connor's mother, Tara.  She is a beautiful person who is using the pain of her own experience in a redemptive way that gives hope and healing to many!  It is consoling to think that today's feast is the Triumph of the Cross.  Certainly in this race we see the Cross triumphing over the sadness and power of death through the power of God' Healing Love!  May God bless all who participated in this race and their families!  Please think of joining the Lifeline Against Suicide Team to pray every day for people who are tempted to commit suicide, for those who have committed suicide that they will be open to God's Merciful Love, and for their grieving families and friends.

This picture shows: Sister Mary Rose, Sister Esther Marie, Janet, John (founder of the Will to Live Foundation), and Sister Maximilian at the race on September 14, 2014.

"Do thyself no harm for we are all here" (Acts 16:28).

This Scripture was read at Mass today, Tuesday of the sixth week of Easter.  It is the theme line for the Lifeline Against Suicide Team because we are praying that people will not commit suicide because they know that we are all here supporting them with our prayers and love.

We are also praying for the souls of those who have made this great mistake that each of them will be open to the Loving Mercy of Jesus Christ and be saved.  Many of them may be in Purgatory and need our prayers so that they may enter Heaven.

Lastly, we pray for the families of those suffering because of a loved one's suicide.  We ask God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of consolation, to fill them with hope in the Infinite Mercy of our Beloved God.

The First Gift of Christmas

The First Gift of Christmas

            In the famous Christmas movie, The Polar Express, the boy receives a bell from Santa Claus which is called “the first gift of Christmas.”  Then he is told that only those who believe in Santa Claus can hear the ringing of this bell.

            What longing in the human heart was the author of The Polar Express trying to convey?  It is the desire to have something beautiful to believe in-- beyond what we see around us.

"O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light,
sun of justice: come, shine on those who dwell
 in darkness and the shadow of death."

            Around us there is so much desolation.  There are wars between nations and the war against the preborn.  Consider, for example that since 1973 the equivalent of 17.5% of our national United States population has died in the war against the preborn.  Additionally many of the elderly or disabled have fallen victim to euthanasia.  There is violence in our schools and communities.  Poverty, substance abuse, pornography, suicide, bankruptcy, and homelessness have become rampant.  Our freedom of speech and freedom of worship are being severely eroded.  Multitudes have embraced the lie that our sexuality—the gift of being created male or female in the image and likeness of God has no meaning.  This has reached the point where people are being persecuted and ostracized for stating the obvious fact that sodomy and other distortions of sexual expression are intrinsically disordered and morally destructive. Even the meaning of terms like equality and freedom has changed.  Instead of referring to the individual dignity of each person, equality is now falsely used to justify aberrant behavior and freedom is used to justify licentiousness.

            Yet despite all this desolation the longing for the beautiful remains in each of our hearts.  We desire that Someone Beautiful would come to heal our grief and restore what we have shattered.  Many centuries before Christ’s birth it was prophesied that when He came He would bring good news to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to captives, and set prisoners free (cf. Isaiah 61:1)  In the synagogue at Nazareth Jesus applied these words of Isaiah to Himself: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).  And now He is here, the Father’s Eternal Gift, the Radiant Dawn from on High, the true and everlasting First Gift of Christmas, Jesus Christ, the Lord.

            He is coming for you—His beloved one.  No matter what you have done or failed to do—you are still His beloved one.  He sees your true identity, the real you!  You were created as a unique, irreplaceable male or female immortal person in His own image and likeness.  The greatest gift you could give Him this Christmas is to open your heart to His overflowing Love for you.

            Today will you open your heart to Jesus Christ, the True First Gift of Christmas, or will you allow the hole in your heart to be forever unfilled?

 

Wishing you and your loved ones

The Everlasting First Gift of Christmas,

Sister Mary Rose Reddy, DMML

Spiritual Warfare is Necessary Against Suicide

The tragedy of suicide has multiple causes but what should not be overlooked is that in some cases evil spirits have negatively influenced the victims' thought patterns.  This was brought out in a very good article that I read today: "Why are so many pastors committing suicide?"

We need to take the offense against suicide by uniting ourselves with Jesus Christ and His Blessed Mother and the Holy Angels.  Together with the armies of Heaven we can resist negative thought patterns and help others to do so.  Through our prayers and love we can also reach out to help the souls who may be suffering in Purgatory because of the terrible mistake of suicide.  And united with Jesus Christ and His all Powerful Spirit we can aid with our love the grieving families and friends of those who are suffering the loss of a loved one to suicide.

A Prayer of Thanks for Your Infinite Mercy Toward Those Who've died by suicide

A Prayer of Thanks for Your Infinite Mercy Toward Those Who Have Died by Suicide

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the immeasurable gift of every person You have ever created.

We know that each of us is a beautiful irreplaceable unique image of Your perfect Beauty.

Today we offer You thanks for having created the people whose suicides we are grieving.

Thank you for the gift of their lives.

Thank you for all their heartbeats, the breaths they took, the joy and love they brought into our lives.

Thank you for their immortal souls created in Your image and likeness.

Thank you for the Gift of Your Son Jesus Who offered His Life on the Holy Cross for us.

Thank you for allowing Your Beloved Son to experience the terrible anguish that led Him to cry out to You, “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) so that no soul would be beyond the hope of redemption.

Thank you for hearing your Son’s prayer form the Holy Cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Let God the Father take care of His people

One morning last week as I was waking up I said to God the Father, "There are so many people that I am worrying about."  He said, "Why don't you let me worry about the people since I created them and you just love them?"

Praying for Souls Who Committed Suicide

Every November 2nd the Catholic Church throughout the world prays especially for the souls in Purgatory.  At Medjugorje Our Lady said that when most people die they go to Purgatory, the next greatest number choose to go to Hell by rejecting God's Merciful Love, and the fewest go directly to Heaven.  Souls in Purgatory are all on their way to Heaven but they are expiating sins and faults that were encumbering their souls at the moment of death.  These souls need our help.  We can help them by our prayers and sacrifices.  Especially souls who have committed suicide need help.  If you are suffering anguish because of a suicide of one of your loved ones, please place all of that grief into the Heart of Jesus and offer it with His Perfect Offering to our Heavenly Father for the relief of your beloved one's soul.  It will become a very powerful prayer and this prayer will help your loved one to complete the "School of Love" that is Purgatory and to enter more quickly into the full bliss of seeing God face to Face in Heaven.