Corrine Week 4 pgs 51-79

There is so much that it is hard to sort out what is most striking to me….but here goes……

Elisabeth said....Pg. 53 “I want to be a Christian, Christian to the marrow, and transformed by grace.”  I need to be open to God’s grace that is there “waiting” for me to open up my heart.

Elisabeth said....Pg. 55 “With Felix I should be more even-tempered; with everyone kind and forgetful of myself.”  Do I ever need lessons in this area!  I seem to be getting more selfish as I age and that is scary. 

Pg. 68 Elisabeth speaks of the total necessity of meditation, each day, as daily food or I will be weak. She says “Meditation prepares the daily toil; to be alone with God helps us later in the midst of people, and enables us to distribute among them some of our morning provision.” That goes along with what I mentioned in my last post concerning St. Francis de Sales morning exercises.  I notice a difference when I don’t start my day with Mass….I kind of just wander into the day and I certainly need direction.

In her Resolutions….after she speaks of piety resolutions she next…………”First my duty to my dear husband…”  I now recall hearing somewhere else that our husband should be high on our priorities, not just if they aren’t in our faith.  As to our two children who are away from our faith….one lives 400 miles away, the other only 90 miles but may as well be 400 for the few times we see him…..we aren’t face to face real often, so it is phone calls and emails. When we are together it is usually multiple people instead of on individual basis.  I don’t know that our children, at this point in life, push my tolerance, but as I said above, I need to be more even-tempered with my husband, who retired  5 years ago and I’m still adjusting, selfish me.

Elisabeth keeps saying in different ways…..we have “to await the hour willed by Him for the souls I love”.

My hope and my prayer-----Pg. 78 as Elisabeth said..  “To learn from the Heart of Jesus the secret of love for souls and deep knowledge of them: how to touch their hearts without making them smart and to dress their wounds without reopening them; to give oneself to them and yet reserve oneself; to disclose Truth in its entirely and yet to make it known according to the degree of light that each soul can bear. The knowledge required for the apostolate can be had only from Jesus Christ, by encountering Him in the Eucharist and in prayer.”