Now for something totally different!

I'm adding to my blog things that I have written during prayer. These were written during a fourty day period from the Feast of the Assumption until the Michaelmas, this is a traditional time of lent (not the Lent before Easter) for Franciscans. Keep in mind while you are reading these that they are directed at myself, and what I need to do.

To give my will to the Father I have to be willing to hang on the cross. I have to be willing to endure ridicule and rejection and to do it for the love of those ridiculing and rejecting me. To be His instrument I have to like a reed in the wind, willing to bend to His will and even to break if he asks it. To turn my thoughts and my body over to Him, knowing that what ever happens is for the eternal good if not the temporal good. To be supple in His hand, I can't be afraid; He has done all this before. He did it and it lead to the resurrection, not just the cross.

There is a difference between being dragged to the cross and running to the cross. One is fear and pain and the other is longing and love. Oh Holy Spirit, help me to run towards my cross and embrace it lovingly and carry it joyfully. For in resisting my cross I make it heavier and more painful.

My cross is a gift from Jesus, my Love. It is my ticket to heaven. It is the yoke that binds us together. My Beloved gave it to me, it was chosen especially for me so that I might get to be with Him forever. It is my ring, the only one I need, and it binds me to Him. My cross is not like His. Mine is small and only carries the weight of my sins. His carried all our sins. He carried His alone and hung on it alone. I have His help in all I do.