Sometimes this world can be a very lonely and
alienating place. Friendships will always fall short.
No one has the perfect mind of God at
all times to counsel and
console us.
However, the Holy Spirit is
always here
among us,
listening, watching,
waiting,
for us to reach out
and call to Him,
that He may instruct us.
Many a time He is instructing us,
but we are not listening,
very
carefully.
And so because He desires for us to hear
and understand with
all His Heart,
He waits and listens
for the opportune time
when we will hear Him.
In Him is life, and this life is the light of men.
The world does not comprehend this light,
so our worldly ways of thinking
are much in need of
rearrangement.
And the light shines in the darkness,
the darkness of this world
and
the darkness of our own minds,
that we live in.
Therefore, in His life
we find light
and that light
shines upon our path
that we may not stumble
nor be lost.
Through Him all things were made,
and through Him
we live
and move, and breath
and have our being.
Nothing came into being without Him
nothing can be sustained without Him
for by His love
He holds all of creation in a state of
existence.
As the sheep of His pasture
He understands our need to be in His flock,
yet many of us have felt like black sheep
unwanted
wherever we tried to settle.
We wander the canyons and hillsides
lonely and hungry,
for someone who truly understands,
and cares,
and can help us.
In His Mercy and wisdom He has provided
yet another flock to accompany us,
a great cloud of witnesses
cheering us on.
These souls who have gone before us
are so united to His Heart that all
are seen as belonging to
one flock
no matter how diverse
their earthly beliefs were.
For at the soul's earthly parting
the veil is torn asunder
and He is seen face to face,
by those who have loved Him.
For those who seek the Light He is Light
But for those who seek the darkness
without repentance,
there will be no Light,
darkness shall engulf them
for all eternity.
No matter what our doctrine has been on this earth,
when we see Him, we will
see Truth
and the truth will set us free
making all things new,
uniting us for all eternity with those
who have also
seen
the truth.
And there shall be no more confusion,
darkness, fear, or separation,
for all will be
One
in Him.
So we who are still on this earthly journey
and those gone before, now in Heaven,
are members of
One Body
for there are not two heads,
one in Heaven and one on Earth.
No, there is but One Head
Christ Jesus.
Therefore, there can be only
One Body.
Whether the member of that body be
alive in the flesh and the spirit
or alive only in the spirit.
Still, there is only
One Body.
Differences in doctrine do not separate us in Heaven,
where the truth has been revealed
and where all walk
in truth.
When we meet Him,
He will not be looking at our doctrine.
He will be looking at
our hearts.
He will not remember the
eloquent words we spoke in His name
Nor the lofty doctrines.
No, He will be looking into our hearts,
and remembering all that we did
for Him with love
as our
only motive.
Those who have entered into their Master's joy
are so full of the Holy Spirit
that they share in the life of the Spirit
understanding anything
He choses to reveal to them at any time,
such as our cries from Earth to them for
intercession.
These are souls who have been granted eternal rest
but shall not rest completely until
all things are brought to completion in Him.
Until all walk in the truth.
They carried His burden on Earth
and now in Heaven, even more united with Him,
they carry us in their hearts as we work out
our salvation in fear and trembling,
and in Godly fear born of love
seek to fulfill
His
perfect will
for
our lives.
For those of us who long to hear the words,
"Well done my good and faithful servant,
enter into your Master's joy."
He has given us
a host of intercessors that carry our burdens
in Heaven as they carried the burdens of others,
when they were on the earth.
And all we have to do to enlist their prayers
and deepen our relationship with them
is to acknowledge their existence,
entreat them to pray for us,
and thank them
when those prayers are answered.
They are not the source of grace,
they are the
friends of Grace
for they have known His Heart
sought His Face
and obtained for us a favor
from His Hand.
How He so desires that all should be one!
That we should love one another
tenderly
and from the heart,
that the cry of their heart
would become the cry of our hearts as well,
and that in answer to our prayers and tears
grace
would be dispensed to the needy.
Just as we at one time have experienced
a burden
to pray for a loved one
and later learned the reason why,
so it is, through the working of the
Holy Spirit,
that this awareness is given by the
Holy Spirit
to those who have passed through this earthly veil.
For they no longer see through a mirror darkly,
but face to Face.
The purity that God has worked in their
souls makes them trustworthy friends that He may
entrust great gifts and graces to them
because they labor with His Heart
in His vineyard.
For those who have been trust worthy
with the little things on Earth,
shall be given the greater in Heaven.
This is why some souls have experienced
the communion of saints,
the sensing of the presence of a certain saint
who is responding to our petitions
for intercession.
The Lord set the precedence for this
type of holy communication when He appeared
transfigured on Mt. Tabor with the patriarchs.
To this end we have been given many stories,
films and pictures
about these men and women of God,
that we may get to know our friends in Heaven.
They are those who in their mortality
know exactly what temptation,
failure and loneliness
are like.
Those who in their union with God
feel our burdens most touchingly
and desire to in some way
lighten them by approaching Our God
with fervent and heartfelt prayers.
Their entire and consuming motive
is that we may be reconciled to God and
enter into Our Master's joy.
To the glory and honor of God.
Amen
The Role of The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Blessed Mother, holds the most unique position
in the Great Cloud of Witnesses because she was chosen
by God to give birth to the Savior, and it was her
body and blood that nurtured Him in the womb,
it was she who raised Him,
she was the first believer,
And it was her heart that was pierced through
with sorrows, at the foot of the cross.
What Sacred Scripture Says About
The Blessed Virgin Mary
She Was Chosen and Blessed Among Women
From the Very Beginning of Time
"Therefore, the Lord Himself shall give you a sign,
Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and His name shall be called Emmanuel."
Isaias 7,14
When the Angel Gabriel was sent to Mary
to announce her mission, he said to her,
"Hail , full of grace, the Lord is with thee:
Blessed art thou among women."
She Was Humble
Mary, in her profound humility, was troubled by this salutation,
not understanding its purpose, and Gabriel
answered her thought by saying,
"Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God:
behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb,
and shalt bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus."
She Would Be a Queen
"He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High,
and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David,
his father: and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever.
And of His kingdom there shall be no end."
By the angel's own proclamation, Mary would give
birth to a King, which would in the culture of the day
would have made her a Queen.
It was God Himself who
sent His seed through the Holy Spirit
to bring forth the life of this King.
She Was Betrothed To God
and To Joseph As A Virgin
Mary replied to the angel,
"How shall this be done, because I know not man?"
She did not 'know' man, nor did she ever intend
to know man, since her betrothal to Joseph was as consecrated
virgins, so for this to be done was a mystery to her.
The Angel's answer, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee.
And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee,
shall be called the Son of God."
She Was Obedient, Fully Trusting God
Mary's reply,
"Behold the handmaid of the Lord,
be it done to me according to thy word."
She trusted that God would also take care of
Joseph's concerns and the gossip
which was inevitable for being found pregnant and
betrothed but not married.
The punishment for this was death by stoning.
She Had a Servant's Heart
"And Mary rising up in those days,
went into the mountainous country with haste...."
to serve her cousin Elizabeth
who had conceived John the Baptist.
Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Ghost
cried out in a loud voice
saying,
"Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
And whence is this to me,
that the mother of my Lord
should come to me?
For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation
sounded in my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy."
Mary Had Unwavering Faith
"And blessed art thou that hast believed,
because those things shall be accomplished
that were spoken to thee by the Lord."
Mary Glorified God
Rather than taking any credit for this great miracle,
Mary, immediately worshiped God and said,
"My soul doth magnify the Lord:
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Saviour.
Because He hath regarded the humility of his handmaid:
for behold, from henceforth
all generations shall call me blessed.
"For He that is mighty hath done great things to me:
and holy is His Name.
"And His mercy is from generation to generations,
to them that fear Him. He hath shewed might in His arm:
He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat,
and hath exalted the humble.
"He hath filled the hungry with good things:
and the rich he hath sent away empty.
He hath received Israel, his servant,
being mindful of His mercy.
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham,
and to His seed for ever."
Luke 1
Mary Pondered God's Word in Her Heart
After the angels appeared to the shepherds they found Jesus,
Mary and Joseph and related all the miraculous signs to them,
"... Mary kept all these words,
pondering them in her heart."
Mary Suffered For The Redemption of Souls With Jesus
When Jesus was presented at the temple for the rite of circumcision,
the prophet Simeon spoke these words
over the child and His Mother.
"Behold this child is set for the ruin, and for the resurrection
of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted.
"And thy own soul a sword shall pierce,
that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed"
This prophecy was most literally
fulfilled at the foot of the cross when
the Centurion pierced the Lord's Heart with a lance
and blood and water flowed out.
Yet their can be no doubt that the rejection
of her Son, the Messiah,
pierced her heart over and over again.
Mary, the Mother of Intercessors
Mary Was The First Christian Intercessor
Directly Responsible for Jesus' First Public Miracle
In the second chapter of John, Mary and Jesus
are invited to a wedding feast.
Midway through it, the bride and groom run out of wine.
Of course Jesus knew they were out of wine
but He did nothing about it until
His Mother came and said,
"They have no wine."
To which Jesus replied,
"Woman, what is it to me and to thee?
My hour is not yet come."
This implying that Jesus was not ready to reveal Himself.
Mary Instructed Them
But the Blessed Virgin, knew well
the compassionate
Heart of her Son
and that He would not deny her the request.
So she turned to the waiters and said,
"Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye."
In other words, "Do whatever He tells you to do."
Jesus told them to fill six ceremonial stone waterpots
with water which He turned into
the finest wine.
Mary, Was Appointed Mother of Believers
At the Last Supper, Jesus wrapped a towel around His waist,
took a bowl of water and proceeded to wash the feet of
His disciples. He told them that they would understand later
what He was doing. He explained this act as symbolic,
for if He, their Lord and Master, stooped to
do the lowliest of tasks, they too should stoop
to serve one another.
In the 19th chapter of John, at the foot of the cross,
just before He gave up His Spirit,
He again did something symbolic.
"When Jesus, therefore, saw His mother,
and the disciple standing, whom He loved,
He saith to His Mother; Woman, Behold thy son.
After that, He saith to the disciple;
Behold thy mother.
And from that hour the disciple took her to his own."
By this symbolic act He first declared Mary's responsibility
to the Church and all believers,
to mother them,
after which He addressed the Church's and
all believer's responsibility,
to take her into their home,
humbly to receive instruction from her.
Mary is Mother of the Bride
For it is in this dwelling that she will prepare the Bride for
the Groom, if we will allow it.
She will dispense the graces entrusted to her by her Son,
she will win miracles out of season
through her intervention with Jesus,
she will instruct,
comfort
and
stand beside us in all our trials.
All of this she does
and will do,
because she who was faithful on earth
has now been entrusted
with the greater things of Heaven.
And all of this she does,
not by her power,
for she has nothing of her own
but by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
To His endless praise and glory throughout all ages.
Amen