Our Lady of Peace, Pray for us.

There has been so much stress in my life lately. I have a job. I'm moving out in 2 days. Two of my closest friends are leaving for ministry in 2 days and I won't see them until December. I'm trying to figure out all this loan stuff and paying for school. My car is in the shop, I'm driving my mom's car, and my mom has a rental - which is just really annoying. My room looks kind of like a tornado ran through it. I won't be home all day tomorrow until Thursday morning, which is the day I leave, so I need to finish packing tonight. And that's not even all of it.

This morning it took all I had to get out of bed, it took all I had in me to hold myself together. Then I remembered something a friend told me once. "The sooner we accept the fact that we are imperfect the sooner we will be at peace. It's Christ who is strong, not us." Thus I paused for a moment. Actually, I was driving to Walmart, but I started thinking about all the stress I was feeling - I was feeling stressed when I couldn't find anything to listen to on the radio, which is what sent up a red flag. Therefore, I turned off the radio and pulled out a rosary. I prayed my rosary - the sorrowful mysteries are today - and asked for graces and peace in this stressful time. During the fourth mystery I prayed for the graces to carry my cross, with the help of God, and for the graces to not try carrying it on my own, but to carry it with the help God is offering me. I prayed for the graces to remember that I am his weak little lamb, and he will carry me. It is Christ who is strong, not me. When I finished that rosary, I was more at peace. I was able to be calm.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. Our Lady, Mary, Queen of heaven & earth will always give us the graces we need. Our lady is truly a Queen of Peace. She sees we need her help, and automatically comes to our aid.

May we always come to Mary, our Mother and our Queen. I also believe we should look to her as our Lady of Consolation as well as our Lady of Peace because they are so closely linked.

Our Lady of Consolation, Pray for us!
Our Lady of Peace, Pray for us!

...But Offer This Heart, O God

Life is a roller coaster. There are good days there are bad days. Today, was an okay day. Being a woman, my emotions can be crazy sometimes. Today was one of those days. But when I was feeling rather upset, and somewhat overwhelmed, and kind of frustrated a profound phrase came to mind.

So what can I say?

What can I do?

But offer this heart, 

O God,

Completely to you!

Whether it's your first day back to school, you're starting a new job, moving out for the first time, experiencing car trouble, feeling confused about what's going on in a relationship, helping a friend with a struggle, celebrating new life, experiencing change, anxiety, peace....no matter what is going on in our life, we must remember our Jesus. We must spend time where it is just you and Jesus. We must allow him to bring peace. Regardless of the situation we are in, there is always room for Jesus; there is always time for Jesus; it is up to us to make the decision . 

I''ll stand with arms high and heart abandoned 

in awe of the one who gave it all

 I'll stand my soul Lord to you surrendered 

All I am is yours

May we remember these words always. May we live abandoned to the Lord, in awe of his glory. May we surrender ourselves to his love, and pray his will always be done. May we pray to forever be guided by his light. Amen. 

Trusting Christ Hears Prayers

"About eight months ago my boyfriend and I broke up. I was hurt a lot by him, but it wasn't because we broke up. I was at peace with that. It because he was no longer the person I knew. However, I realized that nobody is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes, and as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and as this man's sister in Christ, it was my duty to pray for him. It was my duty to forgive him, without an apology. It was my duty to love him, as a brother, where he was at, and pray for conversion of his heart, and continue being his friend. For a long time I've done this now, and I see the fruit of my prayers. Tonight, he apologized for hurting me. He thanked me for loving him despite hurting him. Most importantly, he thanked me for holding him accountable in his faith.

I share this with you for encouragement. It is easy to become discouraged in this world. We pray for an end to abortion, and it doesn't seem to do anything. We pray for conversion of our friends and even our families, but we seem to see no result. We pray and pray, for big things and for little, but we never seem to see the result. We get frustrated. We become angry with God because he is not doing what we want. When this happens, we must pray for trust in the will of the Father. God's plan is perfect. God's timing is perfect. We must trust in this. 

Tonight, I was blessed to see the fruit of my prayers. I pray that you may be encouraged. I pray that you may not become discouraged and that you may find hope in the Father's perfect plan.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 


May we trust in the Lord, and continue praying, even when we don't see the fruits of our prayer. 

What Will Separate us from the Love of Christ?

Brothers and sisters:
What will separate us from the love of Christ? 
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? 
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us. 
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor present things, nor future things,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35,37-39)


I love this reading. End of story. Not really...


In this life, in this modern world, it is so easy, so very very easy to feel separated from Christ. We are easily consumed by the media, most especially, but also by the busy-ness of this life. We get consumed in doing homework, doing chores, going to school, going to practice, going to sports events, going to concerts, performing our instruments, working, etc. In doing all this - in living life, we put Christ aside. We forget him. So often it seems there's barely enough time to squeeze in that one hour a week for Sunday mass.  Which we should be making efforts to have a personal relationship with Christ, but that can't happen until we allow Jesus into our hearts. That can't happen until we make a determined decision to change, and have a support system to back us up and help us. But this reading tells us - no matter what, no matter how busy we get, despite the fact that we put Jesus aside - He STILL LOVES US. He loved...no loves us so much he died on the cross for us. He suffered brutal beatings, carried a wooden cross up a mountain, was nailed to the cross he carried, and died upon that cross - because he loves us that much. With a love like that - what can separate us from it? For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 


May we have the graces then, to continue on. May we become better at choosing Jesus first. May we always remember: no matter how far I've fallen, Jesus still loves me where I'm at and he wants to help me reach the perfection I am meant for. And may we turn to Our Lady, Mary Mother of God, in our times of need - trusting that she will wrap us in her mantle, and draw us to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.


God bless!

Serving, Suffering and Uniting it to Christ

Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many - Matthew 20:26-28.

These words perfectly describe what we are called to do. As Christians, as a apostles, as disciples of Christ we are not to count the cost for Christ did not count the cost. We are called to serve, and not always as we may expect. We are called to suffer, and we should not allow suffering to go wasted. We should give it to God. You may have heard me, or others so offer it up or lift it up - which means, when you're having a bad day you say God, I give it you. We should offer our suffering to God for the good of others, ourselves, and the Church.

My dear brothers and sisters, no matter how little your suffering may seem, if you turn it to God, and make it a prayer it will become fruitful, and easier to handle. Jesus will never give us more than we can handle. We must trust him to guide us, as we begin to serve Him, learn to serve Him, and continue to serve Him all throughout our lives!

If even one soul makes a decision to serve Jesus in a consistent way, the world begins to change. -Blessed Mother



Again you feel the weight of My cross. Unite your sufferings to Me, child, that I may benefit souls. Father is My servant. You may trust his guidance. I will leave nothing to chance and you should stop questioning My plan, method, or goals. All you need do is be at peace and do the work I ask you to do. I will never leave you. And you will never fail Me in this regard, because it is My work. Be an example of peace to your brothers and sisters...

If you are a follower, your holiness will shine from within you and that is what they will identify. Be at peace. Fear is not from Me and does not draw you closer to Me. You must strive for confidence in your God. I will be with you, even until the end of time. Your sufferings will console you greatly later, when you join Me. You will never be sorry you suffered for your Jesus. I am bringing you along and soon you will no longer feel the weight of this cross. -Jesus




Check out www.directionforourtimes.com to learn more about the quotes I posted from Jesus and the Blessed Mother

Our Lady of Consolation, Pray for us!

Monday and Tuesday of this week I had the pleasure of going to Cedar Point and to a shrine honoring Mary, Our Lady of Consolation. It was such a beautiful trip because on Monday we were crazy and had fun riding roller coasters and hanging out, but there was just constant noise between the number of people, music, and of course ROLLER COASTERS!!!! And then Tuesday was quiet. We celebrated the mass, had lunch, had an hour of quiet reflection to just wander about the shrine & it's accompanying park, and closed with an hour of Eucharistic adoration. Such a beautiful day. For our Holy hour, our youth minister, Dan DeMatte, gave a brief reflection on our Lady. He talked about how we tend to seek comfort and consolation in this world. A few examples in my life -

When I'm feeling down in the dumps I will eat chocolate, potato chips, candy, ice cream, etc. - thinking it will comfort me.
When I'm feeling exhausted I will sit in front of the television and watch a pointless, meaningless movie - think it will console me
When my body is really sore from 3 hours of sand volleyball, after being at camp for a week and going to Cedar Point - I just want to lounge and do nothing productive what so ever - which falls into aimlessly staring at the television or sleeping for a ridiculous amount of time.
I'm positive there are many other examples in every person's life, these are just a few to help get my point across.
Something Dan told us to do was rather than seeking our comfort and consolation in food or television or the internet/computer we should seek consolation and comfort from Mary.
Mary is our mother. She loves us as her own children. She desires for us to be peaceful, calm, and rested; capable to serve the Kingdom. If we seek her out when we're feeling neglected in our group of friends instead of stewing in our anger, we will be 1. more pleasing to God 2. feel 1000x better than if we stewed in our anger or sought consolation in food/television/computer.

Therefore, I encourage you to seek out our Lady. Mary desires to pour out graces on our souls. She desires to love us as the children we are. Next time you are in need of comfort and consolation turn Mary, our queen and our Mother. You can say a Hail Mary, or simply say Our Lady of Consolation, pray for us. Call on Mary, and you will receive grace!

Mary, Our Lady of Consolation, Pray for us!

Pray for Priests

The past week I was at Catholic Youth Summer Camp (cysc.com), and it was a beautiful experience. I was small group leader/counselor to 8 girls. They were all so beautiful, and the Holy Spirit truly worked this week, shining through them.

Anywho, something really struck me this week - the importance to pray for priests. One night, a speaker talked about how important it is to pray for priests and this struck me. I mean, I'd been told before that it's important to pray for them, but she talked about why it's necessary - and that is because the devil attacks them most especially since they are Christ to this world. They administer the sacraments, and live for God - so why wouldn't the devil attack them? Also, one of the cars had a bumper sticker that said pray for priests and it was a constant reminder to me, and every time I walked by the car I thought about it. Then, we have various priests come to camp to celebrate daily mass for us. One of them, who was with us for 3 days, was ordained about 6 weeks ago. Which means he has been a priest for 6 weeks. I spoke with him for quite a while and we talked about praying for priests. When he said to me, and the people I was with, please pray for priests, his sincerity and genuineness when asking for our prayers made my heart just reach out to him. Fr. Ty Tomson was such a blessing to all the youth this week.

Therefore, I encourage you all to pray for priests. Simply say a Hail Mary for them. You can do more of course, but start there. Then, as your prayer life grows you can pray for priests more by offering rosaries for them, and your mass.

God Bless!
Mary Help of Christians, pray for us!