About Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe first appeared to Juan Diego, an Aztec convert to Catholicism, on December 9th and 12th of 1531 at Tepeyac Hill Mexico. During that first apparition Our Lady requested that a shrine be built on the site. The Archbishop, however, refused to approve construction unless she gave him a sign.
The Blessed Mother then appeared a second time to Juan Diego, asking him to gather flowers from the summit of Tepeyac Hill, which was normally barren, especially in the cold of December. Juan Diego obeyed her instruction and he found Castilian roses, not native to Mexico, blooming there.
The Virgin arranged the flowers in Juan Diego's tilma, or cloak, and when Juan Diego opened his cloak later that day before Archbishop Zumárraga, the flowers fell to the floor, revealing the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe imprinted on the fabric This is the same image that is now venerated in the Basilica of Guadalupe (below). The cloak and image have never deteriorated or faded.
Following the apparitions the people of Mexico converted to the Catholic faith by the thousands.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!
What is the Examen Prayer?
The examen prayer is a prayer recommended by St. Ignatius of Loyola and discussed in Fr. Timothy Gallagher's OMV book The Examen Prayer: Ignatian Wisdom for Our Lives which I am currently reading. In it Fr. Gallagher presents the Examen prayer as a five step process that will help us develop relationship with God in our everyday life.
Essentially the examen helps us to examine our day with God and develop an awareness of God in our lives. For me, the examen goes hand and hand with the first fourteen rules of Ignatian discernment because it really does teach us how to see the movement of the good and bad spirits that Ignatius talks about in the rules.
Praying the Examen
The steps of the examen as presented by Fr. Gallagher are, in paraphrase:
Transition. Become aware of the love God has for you.
- Gratitude. Notice the gifts God has has given you over the course of the day and thank him.
- Petition. Ask God for insight and strength in order to make your examen a fruitful work grace.
- Review. Review your day with God. Look for the ways God has stirred your heart and the thoughts He has given you. Look for those ways and thoughts that were not of God. Review your choices in response to all of this and the other choice's you made throughout the day.
- Forgiveness. I ask for forgiveness and healing and allow God to remove your burdens.
- Renewal. Make plans with God about specific ways you can live tomorrow in accord with His loving desire for your life.
Transition. Conclude with prayer and an awareness of God's presence in your examen.
While these steps will get you started Fr. Gallagher's book on the examen can provide some very valuable insights well beyond the scope of this post.
My First Experience with the Examen
As I entered into prayer, I found it surprisingly hard to recall the events of the day. This showed me how very un-examined my life actually is! But I was able to remember most of what had happened.
I talked / prayed about how good I had felt about working in the garden earlier that day, how happy I had been to help a family member in a minor way and how grateful I was for a certain conversation. I saw how God was in all those things and regretted that I had not been aware of it at the time.
I expressed regret for wasting time on unimportant things, skipping the rosary and being impatient with others.
I talked about the insight God had given me earlier that evening - about being too focused on exterior things - and began to understand that it was my own spiritual lack of awareness that had made it necessary for God to make what seemed like an obvious move toward me in the first place.
This insight seemed important. And I realized how unfocused and dull I really am, in a spiritual sense, and how being focused outward is definitely a part of the problem.
I asked for forgiveness and healing and help to do better today. I planned my day with God but I was very tired and didn't get far. I decided only two things really, to get up early and say the rosary and to not let my media consumption cause me to pray the examen late again tonight.
This morning, I was struck by how helpful the rules of Ignatius and the examen prayer already are for me. I have a long, long way to go and the truth is that there is no "getting there." But I am grateful to feel that I have finally and truly begun the journey.
This week's post was supposed to be on the third and fourth rules for spiritual discernment as presented by Fr. Timothy Gallagher and St. Ignatius. But I have found it necessary to take my time with the Rules, just as I found it necessary to take my time with Interior Castle.
Sure I can zoom through the rules and write a series of blog posts on what I think they mean but if I don't slow down and actually apply them, I won't really benefit and neither will anyone who reads what I write about the process.
So I've spent the past week trying to establish a spiritual routine that includes a nightly examen. My success rate has NOT been 100% but I know that I have to keep at it til it is.
In many ways, working with the Rules of St. Ignatius as I have been lately is subtle. We have to train ourselves to be aware of the inner movements of our heart and the affects of the good spirit and the bad. We can't do that unless we are paying close attention, not only to the events of our day but to our inner responses to those events.
In this, the examen is an incomparable resource.
The Examen in the Process of Spiritual Discernment
This week's post was supposed to be on the third and fourth rules for spiritual discernment as presented by Fr. Timothy Gallagher and St. Ignatius. But I have found it necessary to take my time with the Rules, just as I found it necessary to take my time with Interior Castle.
Sure I can zoom through the rules and write a series of blog posts on what I think they mean but if I don't slow down and actually apply them, I won't really benefit and neither will anyone who reads what I write about the process.
So I've spent the past week trying to establish a spiritual routine that includes a nightly examen. My success rate has NOT been 100% but I know that I have to keep at it til it is.
In many ways, working with the Rules of St. Ignatius as I have been lately is subtle. We have to train ourselves to be aware of the inner movements of our heart and the affects of the good spirit and the bad. We can't do that unless we are paying close attention, not only to the events of our day but to our inner responses to those events.
In this, the examen is an incomparable resource.
This video inspired me to restore a damaged Blessed Mother statue I considered beyond repair. I'm not finished yet but I will post photos when I'm done. If it goes well I may attempt another one.
I hope you'll take a couple of minutes to watch the video. It really is beautiful!
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| This is one of my favorite paintings of the Blessed Mother! |
I began to feel a pull to return to Christianity in May of 2017. I was wary of returning to the Catholic Church and unsure about Christianity in general so I decided to ask God for a sign.
I prayed a lot that week and on Saturday, the 22nd of May, 2017, I prayed more.
The next day I went to the flea market as I did most Sundays. I had forgotten to stop at the ATM on the way and had only eight dollars with me, which was much less than I usually brought. But I didn't really care. It was raining - a slow steady kind of rain that promised to continue all day - and I didn't expect there would be many vendors or much of anything to buy.
When we pulled into the parking lot I saw that I was right about the vendors. The large open area that was usually full of tables and tents was practically empty. The few sellers who had set up were spread out and the gravel lot was full of puddles. But we decided to put on our slickers and see what we could find.
One of the first things I spotted was a chalkware Blessed Mother. For some reason I couldn't really explain, I'd been wanting one of those big old Mary statues for some time. Over the course of the last two summers I'd kept an eye out. But all those I'd seen were chipped or expensive or both.
The one in front of me that day was almost two feet tall and had no significant damage. So I was surprised when the woman on the other side of the table said it was mine for five dollars. It wasn't really my style but I liked the blue of Mary's cloak and the graceful curve of her neck. I bought it without any negotiation at all.
A little further on, I saw a cold cast bronze St. Brigid's cross that had been made in Ireland. I asked the vendor the price and he said a quarter. And then, when I couldn't find any change, he refused my dollar and insisted I take the cross for free. I was happy that I was able to tell the a bit about St. Brigid and what she had done so long ago in Ireland. And I started to get a good feeling about the day.
The next thing I saw was a bright silver crucifix shining through the rain, When I got close I could see that it had a glass holy water font and a place on either side of the cross for candles. I thought that the seller would probably want at least ten dollars for such a nice item, but she didn't. She wanted three. So I got the crucifix too.
On the long damp ride home, I realized that I had bought three Christian items on an unlikely day and for a surprisingly good price. But what struck me most was that I had bought all three of them for the exact to the penny amount of money that I had with me.
So I considered it sign. And decided that I should give Christianity another shot.
I started with a church tour of several local churches. Afterwards I picked an evangelical church that was not a good fit and then a Pentecostal church I liked better. I didn't spend any real time thinking about the Catholic church I had visited in the early days of the church tour or the fact that each of the items I bought that day at the fleas market were Catholic in origin.
Until, almost three years later, just after my return from Israel.
It began with car problems. Getting to the new Protestant church I had joined was impossible. Finally, after several weeks, it occurred to me that there were two churches within a short walk of my house and that one was actually just a block and a half away.
So I walked down the street and went to Mass for the first time in what seemed like forever. And the next week I went back and I just kept on going.
As the weeks passed, I thought about the spiritual journey I'd made and the enormous circle that has brought me back to a place that is, and always was, just around the corner.
The items I bought that day at the flea market are gone and I know that there is some kind of lesson in that. And while I'm still not sure just what that is, I think that it might be that God doesn't want me to be the kind of Catholic I used to be. Or the kind of person I used to be.
I think that maybe he wants me to be something new.
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Posted just a couple weeks before the two anniversary of my return to the faith!
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| My rainy day flea market Mary |
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| Another flea market Mary that I have kind of sadly given away |
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| St. John's (our town's "Irish" church) complete with spires |
About the Queenship of Mary
Today August 22, (my birthday!) the Church celebrates the Queenship of Mary. On this feast day we honor Mary as the Queen of Heaven and Earth.Pope Pius XII established this feast day in his encyclical Ad Coeli Reginam, calling the Blessed Mother “Queen of Heaven and earth…exalted above all chairs of Angels and the ranks of the Saints in Heaven, standing at the right hand of Her only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This pope encouraged all Catholics to turn to the Blessed Virgin in times of trouble and hardship and ask for her intercession. And Mary is a particularly great resource when it comes to spiritual warfare.
I say the Rosary every morning to this end, and could not recommend it more highly. The following prayer is said at the end of the Rosary.
Hail Holy Queen Prayer in English
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears Turn then, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us, and after this exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.V. Prayer for us oh Holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, Who by the working of the Holy Spirit didst prepare both body and soul of the glorious Virgin Mother, Mary, that she might deserve to be made a worthy dwelling for Thy Son, grant that we who rejoice in her memory, may, by her loving intercession, be delivered from present evils and from lasting death, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Salve, Regina (Hail Holy Queen Prayer in Latin)
Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae;
vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae.
Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo, advocata nostra,
illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.
V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix.
R. Ut digni efficamur promissionibus Christi.
Oremus. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui gloriosae Virginis Matris Mariae corpus et animam, ut dignum Filii tui habitaculum effici mereretur, Spiritu Sancto cooperante, praeparasti, da, ut cuius commemoratione laetamur; eius pia intercessione, ab instantibus malis et a morte perpetua liberemur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
This Blog
Today seemed like the perfect day to begin this blog. I am dedicating it to the Blessed Mother. It's my intent to talk about Catholicism, writing and some of my favorite books. At some point, I hope to included some excerpts from my own upcoming ebooks. I will also be sharing some of the prayer cards and other catholic items I design for my Etsy shop - as I've done below :)
I'll write a bit more about the blog in a future post!
Hail Holy Queen Prayer Card
I had wanted to design a Queenship of Mary prayer card for this feast. But this week got a little busy so I'll have to plan on it for next year.
I do have one card in the shop already that has the Hail Holy Queen prayer. Sharing a pic and link below!
Available for purchase at CatholicBookAndCard.com here
I have been seeing angels everywhere - in rock, and paint and plastic - and last weekend I saw such an angel in jumble of holiday decorations on a flea market table, holding a tin horn and looking like he didn't belong.
"It's Gabriel," I said as if I had run into an old friend unexpectedly and I suppose that the truth is, I had.
Only a few minutes before, I had told my family that I was looking for an angel, for my online shop or for myself. That Gabriel would be that angel was a happy surprise. I knew he was a keeper.
Gabriel was the first angel who caught my interest. The messenger who came to the Blessed Mother and to Zacharias. The warrior of Daniel.
Among my books, I have an orthodox Jewish prayer book. Toward the end of the bedtime prayer, the text asks God to protect and guard our souls through His holy watchers, the angels, who walk through the night. It goes on to call "Michael to my right side, Gabriel to my left, Uriel before me, and Raphael to my back."
Among my books, I have an orthodox Jewish prayer book. Toward the end of the bedtime prayer, the text asks God to protect and guard our souls through His holy watchers, the angels, who walk through the night. It goes on to call "Michael to my right side, Gabriel to my left, Uriel before me, and Raphael to my back."
Of these four, it is Gabriel who appears most often in the Hebrew bible and biblical commentary. He
is first mentioned by name in the Book of Daniel. After Daniel experiences a vision, Gabriel comes to him and tells him what it means (8:16). A year later, Gabriel appears again telling Daniel that He has "been at war, and going to fight those who remain" (9:27). No further details of this war are given and Gabriel's name is not mentioned again in the Hebrew bible. But he is referenced repeatedly in the rabbinical literature as a warrior and a holy protector.
In the Book of Enoch, Gabriel is an avenging angel, sent to provoke sinners to war. In the Talmud, God sends him to smite the Assyrians, and Gabriel answers God by saying that him sword "has been sharpened since the six days of Creation." Which is to say that he was born to fight.
Consistent with this declaration, most traditional Jewish sources describe Gabriel as the emissary of God's power. And the Hebrew name Gavriel, or Gavar El, means "God's might." He is represented by the element of fire in some Talmudic references and in others by water. In all instances, he is among the strongest of the seven archangels and a force to be reckoned with.
Be that as it may, it important to remember that when we first meet Gabriel in the book of Daniel he appears as a messenger and a translator of visions. And this is fitting. Communication being the divine purpose of angels.
When I first met Gabriel in Scripture, he served in this capacity. I was lonely and discouraged and the idea that angels existed filled me with hope. And, in some ways, that feeling has never entirely left me.
Even so, I've been feeling lonely these last few weeks and in the midst of this sense of separation from others, I am seeing angels of almost every description. Some are innocent children and others are beautiful women but few resembled the angels of Scripture.
This weekend's flea market angel was different. His wings were battered and his garments were faded but his face was beautiful and strong and really, surprisingly, just as I imagined it. I count his unexpected appearance a message and a reminder: Angels are emissaries and we are never really alone.
This weekend's flea market angel was different. His wings were battered and his garments were faded but his face was beautiful and strong and really, surprisingly, just as I imagined it. I count his unexpected appearance a message and a reminder: Angels are emissaries and we are never really alone.
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Please note, while Catholic tradition tells us that there are seven guardian, Uriel is not mentioned in Scripture and therefore not mentioned in Catholic sources.
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| Love the soft colors in this image. |
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