Happy Birthday Mother Mary!

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Our life does not exist by accident, it is not an accident. My life is willed by God from eternity. I am loved, I am necessary. God has a plan specifically for me. Eternal love has created me in profundity and awaits me.

Pope Benedict XVI

Happy Birthday to Bl. Mother Teresa...let us LOVE....

"We can do no great things, only small things with great love."

Bl. Teresa of Calcutta

She would have turned 100 years old on Aug. 26

“‘By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.’ Small of stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming God’s thirsting love for humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor. ‘God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor.’ She was a soul filled with the light of Christ, on fire with love for Him and burning with one desire: ‘to quench His thirst for love and for souls.’ (read more from the Vatican website here)

So, let’s get personal. How do we LOVE? How do we DO as Blessed Mother Teresa encourages “small things with great love?” Some excellent advice on living humbly and living true love can be found in an article written by Alice Von Hildebrand called “On True Love” found on Catholicity.com. Here are some words from the article : “A great sign of true love is the loving patience that one has toward the weaknesses of the beloved. It can be his idiosyncrasies, his temperament, his mannerisms (we all have them); it can be his physical frailties, his psychological oddities, his intellectual inability to follow a straight line of reasoning; his disorder, or his fanaticism for order. If a monk is constantly given occasions to ‘die to his own will’ (as St. Benedict says), the same is true of marriages. John Henry Cardinal Newman writes that even in the deepest human relationships, when love is authentic, life in common will give one plenty of opportunities to prove one's love by sacrificing one's preferences.........Mannerisms, idiosyncrasies, moods; physical, psychological, and intellectual weaknesses are either interpreted as positively as possible or are borne with patience. Benedict writes about monks striving for holiness who nevertheless almost inevitably cause irritation for those living close to them...” To read full article, click here.

Let us pray today for the intercession of Blessed Mother Teresa that with each thought, word and deed we may become more loving toward God, ourselves and our neighbors.

Happy Birthday Blessed Mother Teresa! Pray for us!

In search for Truth, St. Benedicta of the Cross found that truth had a name: Jesus Christ......

Yesterday, we celebrated the feast day of a beautiful saint who searched for the truth and “at the end of a long journey, she came to the surprising realization: only those who commit them selves to the love of Christ become truly free.”

During his homily for the canonization of Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) on October 8, 1998, John Paul II had this to say about St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross:

“St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was able to understand that the love of Christ and human freedom are intertwined, because love and truth have an intrinsic relationship. The quest for truth and its expression in love did not seem at odds to her; on the contrary she realized that they call for one another.”

He said....."The love of Christ was the fire that inflamed the life of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Long before she realized it, she was caught by this fire. At the beginning she devoted herself to freedom. For a long time Edith Stein was a seeker. Her mind never tired of searching and her heart always yearned for hope. She traveled the arduous path of philosophy with passionate enthusiasm. Eventually she was rewarded: she seized the truth. Or better: she was seized by it. Then she discovered that truth had a name: Jesus Christ. From that moment on, the incarnate Word was her One and All. Looking back as a Carmelite on this period of her life, she wrote to a Benedictine nun: 'Whoever seeks the truth is seeking God, whether consciously or unconsciously.'" ........To read John Paul II’s entire homily on Edith Stein, please click here.

At the end of a long journey, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross came to the surprising realization: only those who commit themselves to the love of Christ become truly free.

Interested in learning more about this amazing saint and her blessed search for truth? ENDOW has a wonderful study on saint titled: Edith Stein: Seeker of Truth. To learn more and to find a class or information on facilitating an ENDOW class please click here.

We are never alone! Our Holy Father speaks about praying the “Our Father...”

As we pray, we draw into closer and closer friendship with God. Today I saw this beautiful butterfly doing exactly what he was created to do. Trough prayer, we can ask for the grace to do what our Father has planned for our lives...“Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you...” (Is 43:4, RSV) Imagine! These are the true words of our Father in heaven to us.

The Lord’s Prayer “is the most perfect of prayers..” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2763). When we gather together in prayer at mass, in our ENDOW studies....in our families...even when we are by our selves, we are never alone when we pray the Our Father! An article from ZENIT reports Pope Benedict XVI’s instruction to the faithful on the Lord’s Prayer. Our Holy Father says “Every time we recite the Our Father our voice interweaves with the voice of the Church, because no one who prays is ever alone.” In saying this prayer we all know and love, “We are before the first words of sacred Scripture that we have known since childhood. They fix themselves in the memory, they form our lives, they accompany us until our last breaths. They reveal...”(read full article).

I encourage all women of ENDOW to spend time today praying the Our Lord's Prayer with focused attention. You might ask in prayer, “What will you have me do for you today, our loving Father?” Let us join into this blessed interweaving of voices by praying now “Our Father who art in heaven......."

Love is in the air....Please give me eyes to SEE!

When we meet new people it is sometimes a bit scary as the expectations of ourselves and of others get so high. Is this person too good to be true? Am I not good enough? Coming to know ourselves as beloved (like St. John, The Beloved Disciple) in the eyes of God helps us live our true God-given dignity. In a Catholic News agency article titled “I’m not Good enough for you” by Anthony Buono, there are suggestions of how to let go of fear and live more fully in relationship. Some advice presented in the article for those who are looking for a spouse or for anyone looking for greater peace between loved ones: “For the pursuit of marriage, it is imperative that we never make the mistake of thinking that we are dating a saint, and we are too sinful, weak, or broken for that person. It is also imperative that we do not put that other person on too high of a pedestal, and remember that they, too, are a sinner. If you are ever dating someone who comes across as believing there is nothing wrong with them......" (to see full article, click here).

So very many women who participate in ENDOW classes have come to better understand this harmony in relationships that God intends for us. In knowing more fully that we are all beloved, “as is,” in the eyes of God, we soon experience a richer and more authentic harmony in all of our relationships. A couple of ENDOW classes to consider are Discover your Dignity I the journey of a woman’s life from birth through her late 40’s and Discover Your Dignity II the journey from mid-life to the end of life.

Virtue--Eileen Love

By Eileen Love

I saw a TV show one day recently – a talk show – and some “experts” were coaching a clueless mother on how best to help her ninth grade daughter. You see, the daughter and her boyfriend were very close and getting closer and both sets of parents were watching the friendship progress. The boy’s mother – a guest on the show - was approving of the two of them taking their relationship “to the next level,” as long as they practiced “safe sex.” The girl’s mother – also a guest - was by turns, angry and incredulous that all her talks with her daughter had come to nothing. The girl was defiant and obstinate – what did her mother know about love anyway? The boyfriend had an air of entitlement about him – this is what I want, who has the right to tell me otherwise?
Enter the expert. She counsels the two kids to have some very frank talks. They nod their agreement. Yes, they think everything should be discussed thoroughly. Facing the girl, the expert inquires, “How long do you see yourselves together as a couple?” The girl demurs, looking at her boyfriend for some guidance. He answers firmly, “This is a long term relationship...” The girl smiles adoringly. He continues his thought…“…at least six months.”
You could almost hear the girl’s heart shatter.
At the Q and A session, lots of folks weighed in, but the woman who made the audience cheer was the one who got up and said, “What about some competent adults telling them NO?! Educating kids is about more than risk management, for heaven’s sake. What about teaching your children virtue?”
Ah, yes, virtue. According to ENDOW’s soon-to-be-released book, Aquinas for Beginners Part II – The Virtues, “virtue” is the English translation of the Latin word virtus, which can be translated as “excellence,” or “state of thriving.” For Aristotle and for Aquinas, for a human being to have virtue means to be excellent, to excel as a human being. To have virtue is to be more fully human than one would be without virtue.
Seems to me the biggest favor a loving mother could do for her child is to help that child be her most fully human self. That means offering her a standard of excellence to aspire to that is higher, better, and truer than what is frequently served up by our confused culture.
The TV show ended on a hopeful note, as the girl said she was persuaded to rethink her decision. Apparently, the boyfriend’s “six months” remark cinched it. She thought love was forever.