NATIONAL SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF LA SAETTE
LENTEN EMAIL 
FRIDAY , MARCH 3     
Saturday, March 4

By Anna Rae Kelly


Can you hear the longing in God's Great Heart in today's Liturgical readings? They speak of a God Whose desire is to forgive,  to heal and to love us deeply when we humbly draw close to Him. His words reveal a Heart laid bare in His longing for our love.  If His Voice is muffled, perhaps because we are  spiritually hard of hearing, can we borrow the Wisdom of our Christ to pierce through our deafness so that we can allow His  beseeching words to wash over us and allow His Whisper to be heard:

"I WILL LOVE THEM FREELY....I WILL BE THE DEW....SPLENDOR AND FRAGRANCE AND BEAUTY AND STRENGTH  WILL BE SHOWERED ON THEM". (Hosea 14)

How can we prepare to receive such treasures? In today's Gospel, the answer comes from Jesus and it's staggering in its simplicity:  "LOVE ME! LOVE GOD WITH YOUR WHOLE HEART, SOUL AND MIND".   (Mt 12 )

And the splendor and fragrance and beauty of God will be showered on us.  As we try to take in His request, as we struggle to understand how we, mere human beings could ever adequately love God, the Holy One, with our  whole heart and soul and mind, Jesus, the Beloved One, gives us the "how to"....  "LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF".       (Mt 12 )

Well now, there's the rub! I'm a monumental failure at that part!  When I was very young and I was struggling to understand "fractions" in arithmetic, my mother used to tell me, "Make the equation  simple and little". 

When I first met St Therese of Lisieux, I remembered my mom because our Little Flower gave me a similar solution to that great difficulty   which I face in the spiritual journey.....loving God in my neighbor.  St Therese used to teach us to make things small, find "little ways" to love.
Yet, she knew that even loving in "little ways" was beyond her so she used to say to Our Lord, "Let me borrow Your Love".

So as I follow in her footsteps, knowing that for me too even little ways of loving can be beyond me, I "borrow" from Him as I try to find some 
"little ways" to love Him with all my heart and strength and will by loving the folks whom He places in my days....

I smile when I meet rudeness.
I say, "Hello" when I want to walk by.
I touch when a shoulder is stooped in sorrow or weariness.
I stay silent when words might divide.
I sit now wondering, what are your "little ways".

Like me, do you ever think about how paltry are these, your gifts to show God your love? If you do, we turn again to remember little St Therese....
"Oh! What a miracle, Lord. My feeble love enthralls You".

Anna Rae Kelly is a  Daughter in the secular discalced order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and permitted to serve her within the charism of reconciliation of Our Lady of LaSalette.
Wife and mother. Master of Theology; Master of Science. Retreat leader, spiritual director, speaker on Mariology and Carmelite spirituality, author and webmaster of www.annaprae.com.


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NATIONAL SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE
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