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This blog is simply meant to bring God the glory; no more and no less. I'd love to hear from you! Comments, questions, conversation. rebecca.labriola@gmail.com

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Hail Mary. Mother's Day. Sunday May 8, 2011.

If you love Her, protect Her.
Do you love Her enough to protect Her?
Pray the Rosary.
Hail to the Mother who is full of grace.
Praise to the Mother who is so often pained by the evil in the world.

We all deeply love our mothers.
There is simply no person who can take the place of a mother.
Most of us would do anything to protect our mother if she was in danger or in harm’s way. 
We would use any means needed;
anything for the woman who sacrifices so much for us. 
It should be the same for Mary.
Our perfect and heavenly Mother.
We should be ready at any moment to defend Her.
To protect Her.
To love Her.
And this is what She asks of us-
Please, pray the rosary.

In each house that we have lived in, my mom hangs up this mirror that has a number of hooks at the bottom of it.  Each of the hooks holds two or three rosaries.  This mirror is always hung somewhere near the front door.  A friend was over one time and commented on the fact that the rosaries were all lined up like weapons that we would grab in a hurry, run out the front door, and fight in a battle.
Exactly.
The rosary beads are the weapons of peace that we are called to use to fight for our Mother.
The rosary is the weapon of peace.
A prayer of praise.
To honor the beloved Mother.

In Croatia, the word that they use for the Rosary is krunice.  It is more properly translated as crowns.  Each time we pray the Rosary we are forming a crown of roses for Mother Mary that we will present to Her. She will joyfully accept the crown of roses with tears of joy.  She loves us all so much.  She is pained by so much evil in the world.  To know that we can bring Her joy by something as simple as praying the Rosary? What is better?
What a joy, what a privilege, what an honor, to be so blessed to be able to bring JOY to the Mother of the world.
We are SO blessed.
So very blessed.

So often I overlook this amazing gift.
I’ll pray the rosary later…
And so very often it just never happens.
I’m too busy.
I’m too busy to bring the Mother of the world JOY?!
This is absolutely a fault of mine.
I should take full advantage of this gift.
After all, joy is my favorite word, my favorite thing and I won’t take the time to bring that joy to the one who loves me unconditionally?

Our Mother deserves all of our praise.
All that we are.
All that we have.
All that we hope to be.
She deserves it ALL.
Everything.
No holding back.

This is Mother’s Day.
This is HER day.
Bring Her some joy.
Pray the Rosary.
Put a smile on Her face,
Put tears of joy in Her eyes,
And put happiness in Her heart.

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.
Amen.

Many thanks to Fr. Charbel who gave an outstanding homily this morning; many of the ideas in this blog came from his divinely inspired homily. Please, pray for our priests. Pray that they may continue to be open to the Holy Spirit and continue to faithfully lead this Church home.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Bin Laden....and the mercy of God. Monday May 2, 2011.

So, he’s dead.
One of the most hated men.
Facebook was just jam packed with statuses about Bin Laden.
I saw just about every opinion on Facebook.
Some were middle ground.
Just surprised. Or maybe a bit shocked.
Others asked for prayer for the man’s soul.
And still many others rejoiced.
I was slightly taken back.
It is so ironic that we can call ourselves the body of Christ,
yet we rejoice in the death of one whom He loves.
For God so loved the WORLD that He sent His Son.
God loves each and every person in this world.
No exceptions.
His love is not conditional.
He does not pick and choose who He loves.
He loves the WORLD.
We are called to love like Him.
To love each and every person in the world.

Bin Laden hurt thousands of people.
Physically and emotionally.
No doubt.
He did many evil things.
But we are called to hate the sin, not the sinner.

It was no coincidence that Bin Laden was pronounced dead on Divine Mercy Sunday.
God is fully just but He is fully merciful as well.
We have NO idea what was going through Bin Laden’s mind as the gun was pointed at his head.
He could have had a moment of complete repentance and turned to the Lord. We don’t know and it is not for us to say.
On the day of Divine Mercy we must trust in God’s complete mercy.
This mercy is twofold.
WE must be merciful towards the sinner.
We are all sinners.
It is completely hypocritical to hate on Bin Laden and rejoice in his death and then assume we are on good standings because we think we are better than him.
God is all merciful.
God is all just.
And God is all loving.
God will exercise the same amount of mercy, justice, and love towards the WHOLE world.
Without exception.
This includes us, Blessed Pope John Paul II, and Bin Laden and everyone in between.
Instead of rejoicing in the death of Bin Laden we can pray for God’s mercy towards Him.
And we can pray for His soul.

"Rejoice not when your enemy falls, and when he stumbles, let not your heart exult,
Lest the LORD see it, be displeased with you, and withdraw his wrath from your enemy."
Proverbs 24:17-18

"But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…”
Luke 6:27

The bottome line is, we are blessed enough to be apart of the body of Christ.
To whom much is given, much is expected.
It is time that we step out of ourselves and our rejoiceing and turn to God and beg for mercy towards Bin Laden.
We are the body of Christ.

“…But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the Body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way

Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come
And we are the Body of Christ”

If We Are the Body-
Casting Crowns.