Lord, help me to come down from my tree of refuge

and help me embrace the tree of the Cross...

It is love

It is not dutiful observance that keeps us from sin, but something far greater: it is love. And this love is not something which we develop by our own powers alone. It is a sublime gift of the divine mercy, and the fact that we live in the realization of this mercy and this gift is the greatest source of growth for our love and for our holiness.

Thomas Merton

MAGNIFICAT

A minha alma
glorifica o Senhor,
Meu espírito
exulta em Deus, meu Salvador,
Porque pôs
os olhos na humildade de sua serva, eis que,
de hoje em
diante, todas as gerações me chamarão Bem-aventurada.
Porque fez
em mim grandes coisas o Onipotente, cujo nome é Santo.
E a Sua
misericórdia se estende de geração a geração, sobre aqueles que o temem.
Manifestou o
poder do Seu braço e confundiu os soberbos, nos pensamentos de seus corações.
Depôs do
trono os poderosos e exaltou os humildes.
Encheu de
bens os famintos e despediu os ricos de mãos vazias.
Tomou
cuidado de Israel, Seu servo, lembrando-se de Sua misericórdia.
Conforme
tinha prometido a nossos pais, a Abraão e à sua descendência para sempre.
Lc 1, 46-55

Litany of St Angela Merici

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of heaven, Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, Have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, and faithful Guardian of our Mother Saint Angela, R: Pray for us.
Saint Angela Merici,
St. Angela, favoured with the choicest gifts of God from thy infancy,
St. Angela, who didst give thyself to the practice of all the virtues from thy tenderest years,
St. Angela, who didst always preserve a spotless purity,
St. Angela, who by thy love for holy purity, didst merit to receive thy name,
St. Angela, who from childhood found thy delight in solitude,
St. Angela, who led an angelic life in the house of thy parents,
St. Angela, who didst daily hear on thy body the mortification of Jesus,
St. Angela, whose gift it was to reconcile the bitterest enemies,
St. Angela, who at thirteen become a Tertiary of St. Francis and ever remained faithful,
St. Angela, gifted with the graces of prayer and contemplation,
St. Angela, who visited the Holy Land, and there followed the bloody footprints of Jesus,
St. Angela, who triumphed over the illusions of the devil,
St. Angela, who was not afflicted at the loss of thy sight in visiting the holy places,
St. Angela, whose sight was miraculously restored in the Island of Candia,
St. Angela, whom the love of. God had wounded and whom this same love cured,
St. Angela, model of perfect self-denial and true humility,
St. Angela, who, like Jacob, was permitted to see the mysterious ladder,
St. Angela, chosen by God to be the mother of many holy virgins,
St. Angela, Foundress of the illustrious Order of the Ursulines,
St. Angela, to whom God promised that this Order should always subsist,
St. Angela, who, filled with joy, didst give up thy soul in the embrace of the Lord,
St. Angela, whose body remained incorruptible after death,
St. Angela, Patroness of Christian mothers,
St. Angela, Protectress of young girls,
St. Angela, our Mother and Advocate,
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world: Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world: Hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.
V. Pray for us, O glorious Mother Saint Angela:
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.

O God,
Who by means of our blessed Mother Saint Angela
didst cause a new Order of holy virgins
to flourish in Thy Church:
grant, through her intercession,
that we may imitate her angelic virtues,
and, forsaking all earthly things,
may be found worthy of eternal bliss.
Through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Amin

Come Holy Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit. Fill the hearts of your faithful and make the fire of your love burn within them. Send forth your spirit and there shall be another creation. And you shall renew the face of the earth. Let us pray: O God, you have instructed the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit. Grant that through the same Holy Spirit we may always be truly wise and rejoice in his consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Thank You for This Earth

O God,We thank you for this earth, our home; for the wide sky and the blessed sun, for the ocean and streams, for the towering hills and the whispering wind, for the trees and green grass.We thank you for our senses by which we hear the songs of birds, and see the splendor of fields of golden wheat, and taste autumn's fruit, rejoice in the feel of snow, and smell the breath of spring flowers.Grant us a heart opened wide to all this beauty; and save us from being so blind that we pass unseeing when even the common thorn bush is aflame with your glory.For each new dawn is filled with infinite possibilities for new beginnings and new discoveries. Life is constantly changing and renewing itself. In this new day of new beginnings with God, all things are possible. We are restored and renewed in a joyous awakening to the wonder that our lives are and, yet, can be. Amen

Thank You Lord

Thank you, dear God.
For all you have given me,
For all you have taken away from me,
For all you have left me.