Be Still My Soul

Good Thoughts, in Severe Pain

What to do in severe pain?  Keep praying. Keep praising God.  Try to consider all the good things, the gifts, the positive occurrences and people.

Take it moment by moment, and continue to rest.  Know that the pain will surely pass, and the body will rise again and be able to function somewhat.

Offer the suffering for the millions and billions of people in the world, just this past week or so, who have been victims of injustices and crimes against humanity.  Offer the suffering for sections of the world at war with others, particularly and seemingly mostly over religious differences.

Stay in bed as much as possible, remain calm, remember to think of Mary.

I am thinking of Mary these days as a type of informal renewal of consecration to Jesus' Sacred Heart through Mary.  

Consider that as parents or friends, we enjoy receiving personal messages, written notes, original words and thoughts more than a purchased card or what someone else has written or thought, and with only a signature added to it.

I mentioned this aspect to a friend who feels beleaguered by the daily and heavy reading involved in a more formal consecration that a diocese is promoting.  It is all good, but she feels somehow her otherwise sweet and close and intimate relationship with Mary is impinged upon by the heaviness of the purchased "program".

What if we had the confidence and under- standing to offer Mary (and Jesus, of course, or any of the Trinity) our own words of love and expression, our gratitude, our own little (or long) prayers?  Why not make up a hymn?  Did not Hildegarde of Bingen write and sing her own songs of love and praise?  What makes a song perfect any more than any other song?  Who decides?  Does Mary or Jesus disregard any bit of love offered them?

What makes our expressions good is the love with which we offer them, and the fact of even trying and doing, no matter how humble.

I kept folders of my children's drawings, and I still have the notes they wrote years ago.  They mean so much in their heart-felt attempts to express love and depend- ency--and hope--in me as their parent.  No matter how they may feel now or in interim years of leaving "the nest", their expressions of love and closeness are precious.  (If I felt a tad better, I'd try to draw a picture--even a stick figure--of Mary.)

So are ours, to Mary, to Jesus, to the Father, to the Holy Spirit--to any holy souls on the other side!  We consecrate ourselves by love and by desire.  If we do not have the confidence or think we won't get all the right words or thoughts into the expression, fear not.  Try to say or think any words of love, or not even words.  Just feel love for them.  

They are inside in the abode made in our souls.  Even a smile inward, will be known by His Real Presence.  Even a thought of gratitude to Mary for her example of grace and willingness to do His will, is known to her.

It is all rather simple, is it not?  Even in the worst of pain or the most dire situations, we can express love and desire in quite simple ways.

God Bless His Real Presence in all of us!

Amazing, Another Hymn Gifted Today

It is all so easy, so simple.  I recall years ago when His Real Presence started opening more my awareness of His presence, guidance, love, mercy, healing and friendship interacting always.  At first some thought or glimpse or sound of the inner senses I'd brush away, thinking, "Naw, that is nothing."  But He pursued me, in a way, and I started to realize that what was not, truly was and IS His Real Presence touching, embracing, whispering, presenting Himself.  Such a gentle Lover!

This morning I awoke, and the music to this hymn flowed through my being.  The only words I caught from the flow were "God is love, God is love."  Then as the tune through me again, I heard "all ye little children."  These were enough to do a Google search.  Listening to it on YouTube verified the tune.  It is a known children's hymn, author unknown but the music was written by British Baptist minister, Carey Bonner in 1904.

When hymns are given me at the start of the day, it is a message from His Real Presence.  The words themselves are a message; but the music aspect rather than His giving only a word message, is to tell me to lift the mind and heart to a higher level of communication.  Music and art are communications of a different level and mode of glorifying God.  Just as poetry is a higher form of verbal and written communication, music and art require a higher mode of interpretation through senses and symbol.  

Music can be quite healing as it takes the outer and inner "eyes" from the thinking effort and allows the inner and outer ear to absorb the benefit without much effort of the mind.  Especially with the following hymn's simple words of love and the touch of the Apostle John's oft-repeated sentiment, "Little children, let us love another."

It is said that when John was on Patmos and after, in his last years, he typically and repetitively addressed others directly with the greeting, "Little children."  We find this in the Letters of John in Scripture.

I pray that many of you are asking His Real Presence for a hymn.  The angels sing praise hymns in heaven, and when we begin to fathom that His Real Presence has made His abode in us, and that we are in Him, right now, always, we can begin to grasp that we may experience heaven on earth.  Who knows but that an angel is delivering the hymn to us.  

And by hymn, it can be a tune that we connect with some secular song, but the words and intent can very much be God's words and tune to us, or our singing to Him.  We can take any song of love and lift the intention to our love of God or His love of us.  

Music is a glorious communication and praise with God and to God.  The effects of music on our minds, hearts and souls, is the same mode and effect when we learn how to communicate as God and those in heaven communicate, by thought-flashing.  Thought-flashing is the best way I can describe the instantaneous mode of communicating on the other side of the veil separating the temporal from the mystical realms. 

 
I will share later this month, my death experience, and of which the state during Mass is the closest experience to it.  But all of you have experienced thought-flashing, yet perhaps you have not considered it as such.

Now the hymn given this morning (although they can be given at any time, day or night).  This one sets the tone for me, this day.  I hope it will sing in your minds, hearts and souls, too, as praise of His Real Presence and His merciful love and heavenly balm no matter our earthly situations.

 
Praise Him, praise Him, all ye little children,
God is love, God is love;
Praise Him, praise Him, all ye little children,
God is love, God is love.

Love Him, love Him, all ye little children,
God is love, God is love;
Love Him, love Him, all ye little children,
God is love, God is love.

Thank Him, thank Him, all ye little children,
God is love, God is love;
Thank Him, thank Him, all ye little children,
God is love, God is love.

A Catholic Hermit: Praise Him!

I awoke this morning with this hymn flowing from my soul through the heart and into my mind.  There is much healing in this hymn of praise.  I am reminded of my consecrated life as a Catholic hermit and what is my responsibility and calling.  From The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 920:
 
"Without always professing the three evangelical counsels publicly, hermits "devote their life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance."

Just recently, the praise of God which I embold- ened here and above, stood out to me as never before.  The following hymn is a simple and easily rendered exultation of His Real Presence within us.  The Holy Spirit surely sang this from my soul, early this morning.  I have echoed it back through the words at times, and at other times today finding the tune lightly blessing the silence. 

Ask of His Real Presence for a daily hymn.  You will be surprised how uniquely formed to your life and that of others and how refreshing the ways in which you will discover the hymn He gifts.  [To learn the tune, listen to it on YouTube.]

God bless His Real Presence in all of us!

Praise Him! 

 Author Unknown

Praise Him, Praise Him!
Praise Him in the morning,
Praise Him in the noon-time.
Praise Him, Praise Him!
Praise Him till the sun goes down.



Love Him, love Him,
Love Him in the morning,
Love Him in the noon-time.
Love Him, love Him,
Love Him till the sun goes down.

Trust Him, trust Him!
Trust Him in the morning,
Trust Him in the noon-time.
Trust Him!  Trust Him!
Trust Him till the sun goes down.
   
Serve Him, serve Him!
Serve Him in the morning,
Serve Him in the noon-time.
Serve Him!  Serve Him!
Serve Him till the sun goes down.
 

  
Jesus, Jesus!
Jesus in the morning,
Jesus in the noon-time.
Jesus,  Jesus!
Jesus all my whole life long!