There is nothing to be dreaded in human ills except sin – not poverty, or disease, or insult, or ill treatment, or dishonor, or death, which people call the worst of evils. To those who love spiritual wisdom, these things are only the names of disasters, names that have no substance. No, the true disaster is to offend God, to do anything that displeases Him. – Saint John Chrysostom
In my last post I told you I would update you on the happenings in my life. I picked a word of the year for this year. I got EXPAND. I wasn’t sure what this would mean for me this year, but God was preparing to show me something.
My family ushered in the New Year with COVID. All of us, including my mom. I had no caregiver help for 13 days and cared for my entire family while I myself was fevered and coughing. There were moments I didn’t think I would make it, not because I was deathly ill, but because I felt so bad and was unable to rest because of the high level of care my mom needed as well as the care of my husband and kids.
The devil attempted to attack my faith. I must tell you, when an attack on faith takes place, you must rebuke it swiftly and sharply. The devil yelled, “see God doesn’t love you. He doesn’t hear your prayers to protect you. You’re silly to think that your prayers can break this curse.” In my state it was hard to fight off. But I know well enough that that was not the voice of God. And I know also well enough that I have prayed for something larger. I have prayed to be stripped of my ego and to be conformed totally to God’s will. If we learn anything from the Saints, it is that God accomplishes much of conforming to His Will through suffering. I proclaimed that God is good, and really set to the task of living in the present moment. It was all I could do. I decided that each task, each reaction, no matter how hard, had to be done with love. If I thought of the future, the devil attacked. I thought only of what needed to be done in the present moment. And 13 days later, I emerged from the darkness. My type one diabetic mom, who has heart and kidney disease and dementia and has had two strokes and had a broken hip last year, beat COVID. I do not know the ways of God, but I do know that God is good.
My mom is quite childlike. I came to understand during this time that her dementia really is a blessing. She no longer has the reason or capacity to sin. Caring for her was almost impossibly hard in the sick state I was in. But I see what God is doing for her.
Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3
He has prepared her. She will be ready. God is good.
After emerging from the sickness, I was chatting with my prayer group and we were telling each other our words of the year. As I stated, my word is EXPAND. My friend Leah texted me this passage from Letter 110 of Luisa Piccaretta;
Leah sent it to me because it contained the word expand. But I saw something else and I came to understand something the Lord has spoken to me about for awhile. I will state that, as always if the church states that what I am saying is wrong, then the church is correct and I am wrong. Know that as you discern what I write.
There is something I have been trying to put together for quite awhile. It is how the Lord has spoken to me about being restored through the Immaculate Conception and the Cross. Though I understood that He was speaking of Mary and Jesus, I hadn’t understood how it applies to us. Now I think I understand.
The human will is strong, but when one decides to say “yes” to give a “fiat” to God and fully embrace their baptism, the seed of the Divine Will is conceived in their hearts. An immaculate conception of the Divine Will within someone.
But it’s just a seed. It has to expand, be nourished and grow within a soul. With every advance in doing what God asks, joyfully, fully and immediately, It is birthed fully in the soul through the cross. The soul that fully accepts the sufferings that come their way, and offer all they have to God has the Divine Will birthed within their soul. They become Golden Souls.
Through the Immaculate Conception and the Cross a soul is not just redeemed but restored to the original order God intended. The souls that take Mary as their Mother, understand “fiat” and receive this seed.
Mary is Co-Redemptrix; but in this she takes absolutely nothing away from the Redeemer. It is God who wills us to partake in her Immaculate Conception. She had the seed of the Divine Will from the moment she was conceived. She made it all the way to the Cross with her Son. She is the Mother of the Church, and we are the Church, when we hand our human will to God and say yes, we receive the seed of Divine Will through her. FIAT.
It is important for us to know this because of the suffering that has come on the world. We must view this with the eyes of eternity or we will falter. When you know there is an end to the immense suffering, when you know there is light in the tunnel you are in, you can persevere in God’s grace. Despair and the attacks on faith will not overtake you because you know the lies of the devil and you know the goodness of God.
During those 13 days of sickness, the devil tried to tell me I would never get better or that I would never have help. He tried to make it seem as though the good God of the universe didn’t know what was best for me. The devil is wrong and he is always a liar. Perseverance really was a grace; the grace of the Sacraments that came to us through the Immaculate Conception and the Cross and brought us the hope of Resurrection.
God Bless you all out there.
Veil of Veronica 
Thank you for the candor, your better explanation of preserving through darkness! Gos is good, and if we remember to keep our eyes fixed on the cross, humble ourselves at His feet, we can with Him come through our own darkness.
God bless you always.
Amen!
There is so much richness in this post! I am definitely going to have to take time to ponder it all. My word of the year was OPEN. I have been praying daily for the Divine Will to live in me–and now this post! God bless you for sharing this wisdom with us!
Thank you and God Bless you!!
The line “bloom where you’re planted” came to me as I was reading this. Not entirely sure why although oftentimes it does seem futile to “live” the Divine Will right here, where I am. Thoughts like ‘maybe I should relocate’ or ‘otherwise change my surroundings’ do plague me at times. The “darkness” that you described is much the same for me – a lot of the time. We cannot (or perhaps should not) know how the Lord is using us in seemingly dead surroundings. Trust is the key… Completely BLIND trust – much of the time! Thank you for this! God bless!
Oh how you lift us up! Thank you! Our Dear Mother has always said to live one day at a time and you have shown the true identity of this. Suffering is always with us in one form or another, but the joy that comes, the Resurrection that is ours after the Suffering is so worth it. Thank you for expending your heart to include all who follow your posts, for we surely expand, and open ourselves as you prompt us to see God at work in all our lives. Blessings to you and the family for health in Mind and Heart and Soul.
TM
Thank you so much!
Beautifully said. Thanks for sharing your insight – what a wonderful word of the year in “expand.” God is doing great things in your life and it sounds like you have the will and the FIAT to see them through.
Thank you!
Hi most precious Susan !
May I share several passages of Scripture that all come to mind, to illustrate your Word ?
It is indeed about what the LIGHT of God does, and how it conquers the Darkness. The Covid seems to really hit souls in the area of Faith. It is very mysterious … far more than just a physical illness, it is a walk in darkness for most people who experience it. You have just experienced this passage, walking for 13 days in apparent Darkness, then the Light of Faith returns in all its splendor and glory ! It says in Malachi 4 verse 2:
“BUT FOR YOU WHO FEAR MY NAME THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL RISE, WITH HEALING IN ITS WINGS”!!! (you shall go forth like calves from the stall…) Hallelujah ! What a test…and what a glorious family Victory ! Thank you , Jesus, Mary and Joseph…. Thank you.
Isaiah 54: 2-4
“Enlarge the space for your tent,spread out your tent cloths unsparingly;
lengthen your ropes and make firm your pegs.
3For you shall spread abroad to the right and left;
your descendants shall dispossess the nations and shall people the deserted cities.
4 Do not fear, you shall not be put to shame;
do not be discouraged, you shall not be disgraced.”
1 Chronicles 4: 10
10Jabez prayed to the God of Israel: “Oh, that you may truly bless me and extend my boundaries! May your hand be with me and make me free of misfortune, without pain!” And God granted his prayer.
In the Radiance of His Glory : St Cardinal Newman
Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Yours. Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus! Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others; the light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine: it will be You shining on others through me. Let me thus praise You in the way You love best: by shining on those around me. Let me preach You without preaching, not by words, but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.
Nature and Incomparable Dignity of Wisdom
Wisdom Chapter 7 verses 22-30 , is an awesome meditation on the aspects and attributes of Wisdom. As we read along, we see how Wisdom is a radiant force of pure creative power ….life and truth and goodness and beauty all wrapped into one, and it is highly mobile due to is absolute purity. Like the Glory of God, it extends and expands wherever it is given the opportunity to . Most perfectly wielded in Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, Seat of Wisdom… Like the rays of the Sun, like the rays of the Monstrance containing the Real Presence of Wisdom Incarnate, this generative force
( see: Piccaretta’s language) expresses the very essence of God. God is EXPANSIVE (no, that’s not just my Texas accent , ya’ll !) .
“For in her is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, Manifold, subtle, agile, clear, unstained, certain, Never harmful, loving the good, keen,
23unhampered, beneficent, kindly, Firm, secure, tranquil, all-powerful, all-seeing, And pervading all spirits, though they be intelligent, pure and very subtle.
24For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion, and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity.
25 For she is a breath of the might of God and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled can enter into her.
26For she is the reflection of eternal light, the spotless mirror of the power of God, the image of his goodness.
27Although she is one, she can do all things, and she renews everything while herself perduring; Passing into holy souls from age to age, she produces friends of God and prophets.
28For God loves nothing so much as the one who dwells with Wisdom.
29For she is fairer than the sun and surpasses every constellation of the stars. Compared to light, she is found more radiant;
30though night supplants light, wickedness does not prevail over Wisdom.”
So let us continue to pray for one another, most especially for the Gift of Wisdom. It is indeed the “next step” after the soul has been steeped in purification and is prepared through her purity to receive Wisdom. I see why the Lord gave you the Word EXPAND, because it is an attribute and aspect of Wisdom ! He is surely announcing to you where He desires to take you next! In fact, this is what Luisa writes about using the term : The Divine Will. When the soul abides in union with the Divine Will it is necessarily PURE. The image is indeed of the SUN, which has RAYS , that expand and extend outwards from its center, lo to the very ends of the Universe ! Alleluia ! Wisdom is the “ultimate” of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Holy Fear being the first and Wisdom being the last of the Seven Gifts. Wisdom promotes and nourishes the abiding unity of the soul within the Blessed Trinity (see: John 17 for what that is meant to look like in us) . There is a wonderful little book written by Dom Prosper Gueranger of Solesmes Abbey OSB, France. He lays out for the reader the steps and stages of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, like a process. To extend or to expand is the “natural” direction that the Love of God, His Divine Life, desires to “move”. Therefore, MISSION/Evangelization is in fact , “organically” if I might say, the natural/supernatural consequence of Purity/Divine Will/Wisdom: ever extending and expanding outwards infinitely. May His Kingdom Come ! May His Will be done , on earth as it is in heaven ! AMEN !
Thanks Lucy
When I read ….expand …it reminded me of a word given to Australian Lana vawser…..don’t despise the stretching.see Lana vawser .ministries
Lana is also told …I am forming a people of perseverance
Following the indication of a RICA’s instructor, I again used the drawing machine: for this year I got the word DRESS. I was just getting ready to go to sleep, so I only reached for the book* “To the Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Sons” to get an idea of what the word is about. I got this word randomly, so I opened this book in the same way. It was entry number 546 with the following lines referring to ‘dress’ or ‘to dress’:
“e – Tongues of fire will come down to enlighten and sanctify the Church, which is living through the dark hour of Calvary and being stricken in her pastors, wounded in the flock, abandoned and betrayed by her own, exposed to the impetuous wind of errors, pervaded with the loss of faith and with apostasy.
f – The divine fire of the Holy Spirit will heal her of every malady, will purify her of every stain and every infidelity, will CLOTHE her again in new beauty, will COVER her with his splendor, in such a way that she may be able to find again all her unity and holiness, and will thus give to the world her full, universal and perfect witness to Jesus.”
g – Tongues of fire will come down upon you all, my poor children…” [end of quote]
The last statement is quite shocking: everyone will be DRESSed with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
On June 4th, 2022 it will be Saturday, the eve of Pentecost … or maybe the last line of entry 546 applies here:
“k – And so, I invite you to spend this day in the cenacle, gathered together in prayer with me, Mother of Mercy, in the hope and the trembling expectation of the second Pentecost, now close at hand.”
P.S.
I really liked this word matching machine, so today I “clicked” it again. The result: DAZZLE – a beautiful extension to DRESS, isn’t it?
Earlier, I drew Saint Ambrose for this year. A few more words about him: My son from his first school trip (he was 7 years old at the time) brought me a figurine of … Saint Ambrose as a souvenir. This is a beeswax figure! This is a kind of candle! The wick is on top of the saint’s head! on its miter basically! We’ve never lit this candle before, we’ll kindle the Immortal’s fire on this Pentecost!
*https://our-lady-priests.blogspot.com/2015/10/our-lady-priests-1995.html
Scripture is full of references to the garment. We’re supposed to be a purified bride (the church) our wedding garment white…
yes it is dazzling.
I love Saint Ambrose.
Come Holy Spirit!
Father Gobbi made this entry no. 546 on June 4, 1995, the solemnity of Pentecost, so the octave of this celebration was June 11, which is the commemoration of Saint Barnabas, the founder and the first bishop of Milan. My son, who gave me the figurine of St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan, was baptized at Pentecost AD 2006 on … June 4, so the octave again fell on June 11, the solemnity of the Holy Trinity with Saint Barnabas in the background. Barnabas the Apostle in the Scriptures is also called the Son of Consolation, and because in iconography he is depicted with fire* in his hand, so he is a type of the Second Comforter. On June 4 (Saturday) 2022 there will be 27 years from June 4, 1995 which equals 3 x Novena each of 9 years. I drew attention to these 3 novenas, bearing in mind the story of the birth of the Sun King (Louis XIV of France): Our Lady asked** the royal couple (Louis XIII and Anne of Austria) to celebrate 3 novenas for the conception of the desired son. Then it was a prayer for 27 days, and now for 27 years because of the dignity of the second Comforter, the true Sun King, about whom the Lord Jesus spoke: I have come to throw fire on the earth, and how I wish it would already be kindled. Will this Fire burn at this coming Pentecost?
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnabas#/media/File:San_Barnaba.jpg
**https://www.wherewewalked.info/feasts/11-November/11-03.htm
I want to subscribe to this blog please.
I wish I could adequately convey to you how much understanding I received through this post. How many dots are being connected for me. It would be too lengthy a post and most likely far too disjointed to understand because of the speed and depth of what God is lending me to begin to understand. Much prayerful pondering of these things is needed. Very grateful for your fiat. God is always good. Thank you Susan ❤️
God Bless you.
What is the name of the picture in this post?
Thank you!
It’s just called Madonna and Child by a Spanish artist who lived in the 1800’s named Enrich Monserday Vidal.