Saturday, June 30, 2018

My Friends in the Sudan

Please keep these sisters in your prayers. I know them from my time in Tanzania and we have kept in touch for years through letters and email. Their lives are very difficult in the mountains of Southern Sudan and their people are very hungry both physically and spiritually. I've got to get there to visit them someday. If I can get enough donations I will send them help.


Friday, June 29, 2018

St Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero



"You must remember that they are shooting bullets, but God decides where they will land."

(Wise advice in our own spiritual battles as well.)

Fr Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD


"Time passes and does not return.
God has assigned to each of us a definite time in which to fulfill His divine plan for our soul;
We have only this time and shall have no more.
Time ill spent is lost forever.
Our life is made up of this uninterrupted, continual flow of time, which never returns.
In eternity, on the contrary, time will be no more.

We shall be established forever in the degree of love which we have reached now, in time. If we have attained a high degree of love, we shall be fixed forever in that degree of love and glory; if we possess only a slight degree, that is all we shall have throughout eternity. No further progress will be possible when time has ended. 
Therefore, while we have time, let us work good to all men (Gal 6:10).

We must give every moment its full amount of love, and make each passing moment eternal, by giving it value for eternity.' (Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, OCD)


Thursday, June 28, 2018

Be Faithful. Stand Your Ground.


Jesus Eventually Comes.



Tuesday, June 26, 2018


Monday, June 25, 2018

"Be Who You Are..."


Its simple advice and seems obvious, but people don't live it and so it must not be so obvious.

Be who you are.

You know, that person who God conceived of in His mind when He thought you into existence at the moment of your conception? -That person. Yes, that person. Be who God intended for you to be. So many people try to be like somebody else. Yes, its nice to relate to other people: "Wow, I'm like that too... I do that too... I like that too..." we say. There is nothing wrong with relating to people and, in fact, it connects us somehow making us all part of the same Body of Christ. But, the goal for our lives is not to like or look like or do something just like someone else. We aren't even supposed to be another saint... we can imitate their virtues, but when it comes to the goal we are aiming for, we are supposed to 'be who God created us to be.' Yes, be your own blueprint. If this goes for twins or triplets (they all like to be individuals and not clumped together like a single entity), then all the more it goes for us in life. How can two people compliment each other if they are robotically the same? Be unique. Be who you are. 



See, at the beginning of time God had YOU in mind. Yes, you have existed in the mind of God since the beginning of time. And this idea God had for you is the person who makes you most yourself (and, ergo, happiest -because we all are happiest in being who God created us to be.) Healing of the human person consists in fitting perfectly back into the hands of God -a union of love with Him. And I'll let you in on a little secret -its not Him who needs the changin' in order for us to fit into the mold (the mold of our own personal identity). God never changed... we did ... through sin, through other's sins, etc., and so healing of the human person consists in us allowing the Holy Spirit to pour over us and remake -reform us -back into the redeemed version of ourselves.


It is the Holy Spirit's work -but there are things we can do to make His work most efficacious. For example, stop sinning. Sin is like taking a black marker and scribbling all over God's beautiful version of who we are supposed to be. Stop scribbling on God's work (both in yourself as well as in your neighbor -stop sinning against him). And God gives us a tool to make this redemption of our entire beings go more smoothly -there is something we can actually do to help this process move along quickly and efficaciously -and that is love.



Divine Love is the key for us becoming the perfect version of who God intended for us to be. Soaking in Divine Love (in prayer, in adoration, etc.,) can remove the stains of sin and weakness from our hearts. Being around loving people (those who allow God's Divine Love to flow through them) can do the same. Being an instrument of Divine Love for another can also transform our hearts (you can't touch fire and not be burned -just so you can't be an instrument of Divine Love and not have it transform you). Yes, humans may not be able to create Divine Love, but they can partake in Divine Love -its something God is continually pouring out upon our hearts so that we can absorb it and be filled by it and share it with the world.

In order to be happy, you have to be the 'you' God wants you to be. Memory is part of this -because we are also the sum parts of what happens to us in life (our entire lives God is painting a picture on the canvas of our soul). And remembering the gifts God has given us, the ways He has saved or blessed or redeemed us, the desires He planted in our hearts and then listening for His voice and the way He wants to fulfill those desires is all part of the process. Freedom is key to this -because love can only be love when we are not clobbered or forced... we have to be free to choose to love. Its the beauty of a human's relationship with God and man. And even when we are most bound, we can move that little love muscle in our heart and choose an act of virtue (no matter how little) and it grows our hearts capacity for union with the Lord.


Be who you are. Think about this today. Who are you and who are you supposed to be. Soul search... what are your likes? What are your dislikes? What are your gifts? What gifts do you want to ask the Lord to give you yet? Its one of the reasons I love to study personalities... when you know what makes you (and others) tick, you can tweek it in tune with the plans that God has for  your life. And the one key to figuring this all out is really the Heart of Jesus. He's the best mirror for us to look into to see where we've gone wrong, where we've gone right and how we are supposed to grow. He's the perfect One. So is Our Lady.


Take a second today, tonight and pray a simple prayer. "Jesus, Father... send me the Holy Spirit and show me who you made me to be and how I can get there. I ask You to share Your Divine Love with me so that I can be transformed and perfected and share this Divine Love with the world."  Please don't fear to walk to the beat of your own drum - in fact, consciously strive to figure out the best way you can glorify God today and do it without comparing yourself to everyone else. 'Different strokes for different folks,' Aunt Mary Fiat always says. And if you hit a bump in the road and start feeling really lonely or down about yourself -force yourself to visit the Blessed Sacrament or even just close your eyes in prayer and be aware of Jesus' Heart beating in some nearby tabernacle and say, "Sweet Jesus, I really need Love right now. Please, guide me, fill me, protect me, surround me with Your Love. Yes, Lord, please Love me, Love me, Love me... " If you do this, miracles will happen and you will be happy.


A post from the past... but its still true.

originally WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2007


A little important advice


 
Dear family and friends,
Why does Monica dress up like a princess and follow me around the house asking me 100 times if I think she is pretty? Why does little Michael Irvin walk around with two swords in his hands repeating to me over and over that he wants to kill blue monsters? It is very important for normal human development that little boys know they are 'strong little men' and for little girls to hear that they are 'pretty little girls'.

I spent last week with almost 90 ordinary young people, many of whom were wounded not necessarily by what their parents said to them, but often by what was not said to them. It is very important for a son to hear from his father that he is strong -that he is a good 'man'. And it is very important for little girls to hear (especially from their fathers) that they are beautiful. And even more than little boys and girls look up to their fathers, they look up to their older brothers. If boys don't hear this, they try to 'prove they are strong' or become feminine; and if girls don't hear this, they will go searching for someone to tell them it -and this often leads to problems. I could write 100 pages about this, but this is enough:

If you are a dad or a big brother and you have never told your son or little brother that he is strong, or never have told your daughter or little sister that she is beautiful, then do it today. Of course it is not the most important thing spiritually, but it is very important for their psychological development. Men were created to be strong, and women to be beautiful. You can heal wounds and prevent many problems by doing something so simple.
Love you, mary
fiat

5 Comments:

At Wednesday, January 03, 2007Blogger Lisa said...
This is completely true, and thank you Mary for posting on it. This might be obvious, but I would also add that one ought NEVER to joke about a girl's looks or about a boy's strength or manhood. Even if the joke seems obviously all in fun, all too often these things are taken as carrying at least a grain, if not a bushel, of truth - especially by a young person who is already somewhat wounded.
At Thursday, January 04, 2007Anonymous Anonymous said...
Mary,
You are beautiful.
At Thursday, January 04, 2007Anonymous dad said...
Theresa, Cheryl, Karen, Lisa, Jennifer, Mary, Kathy you are all beautiful and of course Bonnie is the most beautiest !!! And some of you guys are strong.
At Thursday, January 04, 2007Anonymous mary said...
um.. thank you. wow -someone thinks I'm beautiful? That's a new one... I really was not fishing for compliments :) - I just thought that a lot of people read this blog, and if one of those persons had never thought of what I wrote, then it would be better to help prevent problems in young people, then for me to try to 'fix' them in a few years...

Sunday, June 24, 2018

We all need encouragement sometimes...



This poor saint had to hide-out in the mental ward of a hospital, 
believe it or not!

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Theotokos -the Fadeless Bloom

I just painted an icon of her... (but no camera). She is so beautiful.
No matter what happens to Her and Her son, She bears fruit.

In our lives, too -we cannot control the cruelty or sin others commit against us, but we can control our reaction interiorly. She is a special patron under this title for marriages, new homes and court problems.

May Our Mother, the Fadeless Bloom, pray for us!

Friday, June 22, 2018

Wisdom from St. Gemma... simple and true.


How to Win Friends and Influence People...

This is an awesome book. Click here for a link to Amazon. When I was in the third grade I still didn't feel like I had real friends (kids always said I was the joke of the 'cool group' because they said it was easy to make fun of me -that meant I was allowed to be with them, but only if I let them rip on me... not nice for a sensitive child.) So I decided to do something about it myself... I took this book off my Dad's shelf and tried to use the tips I read therein. It has stuck with me over the years... Not sure how much it helped me on the friend level, but these are nice reminders as to the best way to deal with any other human being. Here's a summary -click to enlarge:


Thursday, June 21, 2018

I love Josephine Bakhita...





She suffered terribly as a slave, and God used it to free her from slavery and make her not only a consecrated soul in the Church, but a saintly one at that.
Click here for her life story.
Sweet Bakhita, pray for us!


We are always free to choose a virtuous response regardless of what is being done to us or what is around us.


Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Justice and Mercy...



Sometimes people try to excuse their bad behavior by saying, 'God is just and I'm just being just.' These people do not know much about the Heart of our Savior.


God's justice is more merciful 
than the mercy of men.

And thank goodness for that.


Monday, June 18, 2018

Russia and Spiritual Motherhood...


Seventeen years ago smack in the middle of June I got on a plane to fly to Rome (to gain grace) and then onto Eastern Siberia to start a mission among people who I grew to love as my family. Many of those I served in Eastern Siberia were themselves victims of concentration camps or the descendants of those who suffered under the Communist regime. Being 100% Polish myself I was struck by the incredible fact that these people who suffered in the camps were my distant family. Why did God take them from their homes in Poland and allow for them to be sent off to Russian camps and take my relatives and allow for them to be sent into the 'New World' of America? I wonder sometimes if Great-Grandpa Pasakowski had any idea at age 13 traveling alone to find work as a furniture maker in Grand Rapid's, Michigan that young men just like him would be captured and sent East. I do know that a sister of his was killed in Auswitz.


These ideas made for interesting conversation when the Russians would ask me, 'Mery, why in the world did you leave everything in AMERICA so that you could come to us with nothing here?' To me, it wasn't virtuous, it was sort of an act of justice or obligation of something I owed to God. Part of my family (distant, but nonetheless my family) was sent far away to a painful life and I owed it to God and to these people to bring the blessings of an American upbringing full of joy and hope to them.

It was in 1994 that I first found my spiritual motherhood of Russian souls (both in the orphans I cared for in Moscow as well as in the recovering drug addicts and 'hospital people' hidden away in Gagarinka). But this spiritual motherhood of Russian souls exploded that summer of 2002 when I found myself at the breakfast table of Bishop Mazur (I accidentally sat in his seat and no one had the guts to tell me -oops) in Irkutsk. Two years later (after many souls were tucked forever into my heart) Jesus would call me forth from Russia telling me that I would still help them, but that I could not love a mission and a people more than His Heart and will which also had Africans, Filipinos, Poles, even new Americans to tuck under my spiritual maternity. Every people and place has a gift and a cross -blessings and struggles -but my heart will always remain half Russian... these are deep people and God works profoundly in that land.

So I will share some of my Russian spiritual children with you. These are fun pictures... the boys from my first years there... especially Sashka (who asked me to be his Mom in 2001 because his Mom had died... little did he know I took that to heart, prayed for him and was super happy to meet him again years later)... parishioners... street people... a former KGB worker religious sister... each story is incredible -their suffering was intense at times and so God in His wisdom had to take me to light-hearted Africa to give me a mental break. Anyways, welcome to the Russian part of my spiritual family:


 (In 2002, Tanya was hugging me (above) -in 2007 (below) I was hugging her.)


Sashka wanted me to be his mom... spiritually I promised I would always pray for him...



1994:



The Babuska who had incredible stories about being shipped out to Siberia:


A poor village family:


A child who was literally thrown out a window by her parents and rescued by her grandparents:


Girls who wandered in from the street (to Church) saying they decided to believe in God and were looking for the best Church:


Our retreat on the Vocation of Woman:




A long story about my Cyril and Vanya. Their story is here:




And then there were the missionaries -Sr. Tatiana next to me below called me her 'mother-in-law' to make fun of my spiritual motherhood of them:





Let's all pray together that soon Our Lady's Immaculate Heart will triumph in the lives of each of these people and in the entire world.
Please keep praying for Russia.