Bethany Hang Out

Immaculate Heart of Mary

Happy Immaculate Heart of Mary day! I’m wearing my Immaculate Heart of Mary.shirt today as I clean house, watch my granddaughter and cook. Normally I would be at work on a Saturday but today I am not. As I clean or hang out laundry, I’m pondering Mary’s heart; open and free of the obstructions and blindness that would keep her from love. She had the freedom to be unreservedly given to prayer and communion with God.

Her beating heart also reminds us that Mary was and is 100% human. She is our sister. Because she is free from sin, she is us without impediments; able, as Eve would have been, to see other people’s inner truths as well as their physical bodies when she looked at them, and to see God in all things because of her purity of heart. When she looks at us now Mary sees and understands us completely with total freedom from selfishness and pride, able to love us as we are. She doesn’t judge us. She just loves us. She wants to give us everything. With all of her heart she longs to bring us to her Son more and more fully. She is totally human, totally pure of heart. She is all God’s. She is all ours.

Spend some time appreciating Mary’s beauty and humanity today, her love, her sweetness, her heart.

June 17, 2023 2

“And now that you are alone daughter,”

To me Ordinary Time is getting back to the everyday and delightful work of prayer and service that makes up our beautiful Christian lives. It means hot Texas afternoons, coming into the cool, quiet church, feeling relieved as the sweat evaporates from my face and back and peace surrounds me.

“Hi Jesus. hi. Help me pay attention at mass this time.” I can’t help but smile to myself, or really, at him, in his sweet presence there.

His presence is also right here with us, in us.

Ordinary Time beckons

with the promise of quiet inner space

to be with Jesus in the center of my heart,

I in the center of his,

drawing from the source of all life.

St. Teresa wrote about how the companionship of the Lord is magnified when we are prayerfully solitary, our awareness of him not in the least disturbing our perfect solitude.

“Contemplation is nothing more than making time to be alone with the one who we know loves us.”

Instructing us in how to go about practicing inner prayer, she writes, “And now that you are alone, daughter, make the Sign of the Cross.”

In this way you acknowledge that you are in the presence of God, with the intention of spending time alone with him.

You will notice this kind of quiet and solitude are more full than empty, and that the fullness is nourishing, often joyful. Again, it makes me smile. “Hi Jesus, hi.”

If you have trouble with your focus when you are alone, if stillness causes you anxiety, or of you have many worries that disturb your peace, here are a few things to try.

It helps me to listen to the sounds around me. If you are blessed with a silent house or a quiet chapel, these sounds will be small. Mentally note them, starting with the farthest away. Maybe a dog barks from a neighbor’s yard down the street. Someone is mowing in the distance, a car drives by. Now bring your awareness closer. Maybe you hear birds singing, children playing next door, wind in the trees outside your window, a sprinkler perhaps. How about sounds in your house or wherever you are right now? A clock ticking, a washing machine swishing, the refrigerator humming, the dog drinking its water in the kitchen;

listen.

What sounds are in your room? The ceiling fan, the air coming on… your own breathing.

Speaking of breathing, take a few deep breaths; in through your nose, out through your mouth.

Put all your worries in a little pile; Milagros to leave here in his lap while you pray. He will take care of you.

And now that you are alone, daughter, son, love of God’s life, make the Sign of the Cross.

Ah, there he is now.

Smile.

See him smile back.

Send some time with this, with him.

June 3, 2023 0

Marian Holy Spirit Novena

Day 1

“Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,
and in our hearts take up Thy rest;
come with Thy grace and heavenly aid
to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
O comforter, to Thee we cry,
O heavenly gift of God Most High,
O fount of life and fire of love,
and sweet anointing from above.”

– “Come Holy Ghost, Creator Blest”

Come, Holy Spirit! Come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Thy well beloved spouse.

.
Oh Comforter with Mary let us travel the world by our prayer of the heart, touching the faces of those who weep, whispering to every soul, “Love is here.” that they may truly experience Divine Love in a conscious way. Sweep over the world with a mighty creative wind bringing peace and Mary’s kiss everywhere your inspiration is most needed.
Pour out your power and love with the grace to receive it, to radiate You as Mary does.

Day 2

“Indeed, the earth will be filled with knowledge

of the glory of the LORD,

as water fills the sea.” Habekkuk 2:14

Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Thy well beloved spouse

Immersed in the pure heart of Mary let us pray her soul’s deep longing “May the knowledge of God fill the earth as water fills the sea.” As the moon draws the ocean tides may Mary’s prayer and love draw the Spirit to rest on her children gently urging us nearer and nearer to God. May we be pure of heart and blessed with the vision of the Lord.

Day 3

“Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”
Psalm 19 1-4a

Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary they well beloved spouse.

Mary you are the Throne of Wisdom and the Star of Evangelization. So filled were you with the Holy Spirit your presence refreshed the souls and brought light to the eyes of those who came into contact with you. In your sweet simplicity and inner strength you made anyone who spoke with you feel in themselves a measure of your faith. Though your dusty and calloused feet were firmly planted on the earth there was a quiet mystery about you, something bright though unseen. People who came near you wondered where the gentle calming breeze that stilled their anxious minds could have come from. As we live in your presence today may we sense you near and smile.

Day 4

“…the fruit of the Spirit is love,

joy, peace, patience, kindness,

generosity, faithfulness,

gentleness,

self-control.”

(Galatians 5:22-23a)

Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, they well beloved spouse.

Mary by your prayer for us and our commitment to you may our hearts fully flower with the fruits of the Spirit. May the inflow of God engender the effortless outflow of his will, which is always love, into the world through us in our thoughts words and actions.
May we know your easy laugh, your joyful smile, your grounded-ness in the continual awareness of the presence and movements of the Holy Spirit. May we experience the peace only God can give.

Day 5

“It was revealed to them that

they were not serving themselves

but you,

when they spoke of the things that have now been told you

by those who have preached the Gospel to you

by the Holy Spirit sent from Heaven.

Even angels long to look into these things.”

1 Peter 1: 12

Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immacukate Heart of Mary, they well beloved spouse.

Mary let us live in your heart, the shrine of the Holy Spirit, that we might serve others authentically, experiencing Jesus in the help we give as you lived in his presence taking care of him. In your quiet way you visited the sick, tended the dying, assisted at births, watched the other women’s children for them when they needed a hand. You cared for everyone you met and smiled at every human face. The work you did for others must have carried a sense of liturgy in each movement you made because of your attentiveness and the prayerful quality of your presence. Make us aware oh Mary, of the beauty of what we do, maybe especially the most simple things, that all might be alive in love, each humble task done in the Spirit.

Day 6

“When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and ublessed is vthe fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of wmy Lord should come to me?”
(Luke 1:40-43)

Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, thy well beloved spouse.

Mary we want to hear your voice, to know the Lord is with you, to recognize his presence. We want to you to come to us, Mother of Our Lord, our Queen Mother. Come and stay with us, talk to us, pray with us, help us around the house and in our struggles too when we need you most. Bring the Holy Spirit in your wake and sing to us your song oh Mary, of you vision of the Gospel. Help us to joyfully follow your Son without compromise. Allow us to praise you oh Sacred Virgin, with the inspiration of the Spirit who overshadowed you and brought the Lord Jesus to us.
Hail Mary…

Day 7

“Commit thy way unto the LORD.” – Psalm 37: 5

Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary they well beloved spouse.

Our Lady of Good Counsel, in union with the Holy Spirit you guide us in all our ways. Be with us in all of our discernment and each desire of our hearts to keep us in the will of the Lord. Obtain for us the Holy Spirits’ gift of Counsel that we may be truly wise and always move with the nudges of the Holy Spirit and to be willing to let go of our own ways and expectations, open to those of the Spirit just as you were so bravely, Holy Mother.

Day 8

And when we pray
Do we listen to the Silent Wind?
And if we pray
Will we listen for the Silent Wind?
And when we pray
Is our hand against the Silent Wind?
And if we pray
Will we breathe in the Silent Wind?

Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, thy well beloved spouse.

Do we Blessed Mother? Do we listen to the Silent Wind that swept you off your feet, asked everything of you and gave you a life, an eternity beyond anything anybody could possibly dream in the most glittering of dreams? Oh Mary May we never turn our hands against the Spirit of God but instead learn to open ourselves, to be still and receptive and ready for anything, to have our lives filled with impossible colors of richness and beauty even though we often must suffer. Even suffering will contain great meaning and carry us deeply into the Heart of Jesus and his mystery if we can become lighter and more movable by the Silent Wind, embracing all as you did.

Day 9

“[They] devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus.” Acts 1:14a

Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, they well beloved spouse.

Holy Spirit, you came once again to Mary, now as Mother of the Church, the family of believers gathered around her. As St. Therese said she wanted to be, Mary was and is “love in the Heart of the Church.” Come Holy Spirit and make us so. In union with Mary may we be love within the Church, to heal, strengthen, to sanctify, to love and evangelize under your guidance and with your inspiration. Open the way before us, illuminate the darkness of this world beleaguered, of the Church longing for her Bridegroom to come to her, let us be a light to all who need your grace and peace and Divine LOVE.

We have reached the end of our novena and now we wait in prayer with Mary Mother of the Church for your mighty wind, your tongues of fire sent to enlighten and enliven us, to teach us all things, to reveal your love. Come, Holy Spirit.

Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

May 19, 2023 1

The Ascension

To us who celebrate it every year the Ascension of Jesus seems to naturally follow the initial celebration of his Resurrection.

However I imagine it was an earth shattering surprise to his followers that he would be leaving them yet again.

When I reflect on this event as part of the rosary the virtue I link to the Ascension is detachment as I see him beautifully disappear before the eyes of his followers as “a cloud removed him from their sight.”

The family of believers had to let go of their expectations that Jesus as they knew him would permanently remain to walk and talk with them. Again they had to face that Jesus was not about to get rid of the Roman occupiers either. There would be no restoration of the Davidic Kingdom in the literal way they had thought of it. And the One they loved was going to withdraw from them yet again. They must have felt as if they were back from the defining experience of their lives with nothing to show for it, as if they were just a rag tag group of people standing on a mountainside for no particular reason. They were shocked and bereft. They didn’t understand what Jesus meant about him having to leave that the Holy Spirit could come to them. How could they?

When the angel said that Jesus would be back they must have shaken their heads. Jesus had said for them to go and baptize, to take his message to the world. This must have seemed like too much for them, an overwhelming task, especially on their own.

They had to greatly expand their understanding of God even past the miraculous three years they had left everything for and deeply identified with now.

They had to let go so they could be filled and receive Jesus in a whole new way, by his presence in their hearts, and to come to know the Holy Spirit who was new to them.

How can we receive the Spirit without detachment, self emptying, without freedom of heart?

“Love- the way God wants to be loved, and leave off your own way of acting,” said St. John of the Cross.

Or, as Jesus said to St. Angela of Foligno, “Make of yourself a capacity and I will make myself a torrent.”

Jesus said that if his friends loved him they would be happy he was going to the Father. (Jon.14:28) Is there something more to that than being happy for him? Yes, because he says, “for the Father is greater than I.” Maybe it also means that we have to let our current perhaps more comfortable understanding go to make room for the immensity he has for us. We can be happy he is going to the Father because then, in letting him go as we thought we had him, he then is truly closer than our breath, more accessible than ever. Detachment is hard. We feel that we are losing our Treasure.

St. Faustina said of Mary’s experience of the Ascension that she deeply grieved as any mother would that her Son was leaving but that, “her heart could not want what God did not want.”

In seeking a pure heart for God and a Marian detachment; a detachment with great love, a detachment even from the way we thought Jesus would be present to us, we open ourselves to what is even greater, beyond what we could ever have thought of ourselves. But first we let go.

“Bend my heart according to your will, O God.” (Ps. 119:36)

Then,

“I shall run in your paths for You will enlarge my heart.” (Psalm 119:32)

In this is peace that comes from open-ness to God and freedom of heart.

These verses are a perfect prayer to cultivate holy detachment as the disciples struggled to do this, standing there on the Mount of Olives, not knowing what to do with themselves.

Fortunately we don’t have to rely on our own strength in this and neither did they.

Jesus had said to wait in Jerusalem and to pray. They did. They trusted in simplicity. And prayer continually purified theirattachments and intentions as disciples, transforming their dismay into receptivity.

They still longed for Jesus; his voice, his hug, the sound of his footsteps, “like a deer that longs for running streams in a dry weary land without water,” (Ps. 42:2) However they soon found that once emptied, their muddled and broken hearts were then open to the new gift of God’s presence; the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, filling them past overflowing, their thirst for God more than quenched. “Your torrents and all your waves swept over me.” (Ps. 42: 8)

Come, Holy Spirit, come.

May 18, 2023 3

Red

Red had an easy laugh; open and free

He laughed at himself because he was funny,

And at the world because it was his playground and he loved when it surprised him.

At The Eagle Newspaper pressroom

Red was irreplaceable

Ingenious

An out of the box thinker who loved to save the day.

He liked telling pressman history and showed me how to fold the paper hats they used to wear in the old days to protect their hair from ink.

He was proud of his work.

Red had endurance

Working long hours until the job was done.

I hardly ever saw him not covered with grease and ink.

He was often seen eating refied beans out of the front pocket of his uniform.

Red was a hard worker but a rebel

Full of mischief although he understood honor

A little crazy though he had his own wisdom.

He would have made a good pirate.

Great in an emergency Red had the presence of mind to laugh and take a sweeping bow when his hat caught on fire.

He was a gentleman who smiled at the ladies, opened doors for us, always ready with a compliment “You smell good!”

Red was kind, believing in love.

Red was a wild man.

Red could fix anything

Blow up anything

Get into anything

Race anything.

He had a theatrical sense of humor; coming to work dressed in a sarape and sombrero, maracas in hand.

It was a national immigrant walk out day but those in the mail room were not allowed to participate under threat being fired. Red and Bob harassed the manager all day yelling “No worky Monday” on their behalf. Loudly they sang in fake Spanish their made up Tejano music making said employees screech with laughter and take pictures.

And who could forget Bob and Red’s mock strip tease routine in their tool belts when they popped out of a cardboard cake for that mail room crumudgen on his birthday?

Red was accident prone.

Once accidentally peeling off the top of an Eagle truck under a bridge. We had a picture of him shrugging dramatically at the scene, smile intact.

Red was the most believable Gun Smoke cowboy and on alternate years, tie dye hippie, at The Eagle Halloween parties, always in character with memorable lines off the cuff

Red always had something inappropriate to say to make us shake our heads and laugh.

Red believed in peace but he didn’t mind stirring up a little trouble now and then.

Red was a dare devil we were sure would go out in a blaze of glory one day.

Red loved his six Yorkies with all his heart maybe especially Chester the rattlesnake fighter.

He loved his kids and spoke of them often.

He married in his teens and stayed with his wife until her death, often writing on face book afterward, that he would love her forever.

Red tattle tailed on my daughter but also defended her to me, reminding me she was a good girl.

Red made everything he touched and every place he inhabited into art. Things that dangled, things that drove, things you weren’t sure about. He was an unusual yet somehow traditional decorator. Odd keepsakes and knick knacks you couldn’t mistake for anyone else’s’ filled every available space of his house.

Red had a quick mind and a ready wit.

Once he fixed a dirt bike in the woods with a rock.

At The Eagle Red is legend, someone we’re proud we knew.

Red repaired my rosaries with love though he made cracks about it the whole time.

Red loved the press crew as his brothers.

He was there for my husband when he was dying, racing him around in his wheelchair for “one last ride.”

He said he and the press crew wanted to heal my broken heart.

Well they did.

You helped a lot Red.

Red was a good friend to all of us.

Red was reckless, adventurous, a lover of danger but he could be a sage at times, cautioning me against resentment.

If he left us with a message maybe it would be a kindly but funny warning like the one he spray painted on a barrel of toxic waste the guys were stacking on the dock to be taken away; bad shit do not eat.”

Red would tell us to forgive, to let things go and not to ever let hate settle in our hearts to embitter us.

He would tell us to live, love and be free.

Don’t eat bad shit that will damage your well being and the priceless gift of joy.

I don’t think Red will just “rest in peace.”

Too much to do.

God will have to start breaking stuff to keep Red occupied.

We love you Red.

In the great beyond

You do you.

May 7, 2023 3

With joyful love

Photo by Kristina Paukshtite on Pexels.com

With Jesus risen and back for forty days I bet Our Lady could hardly stop cooking and bringing him food, watching him eat. It was probably hard not to hug him every minute. I bet she kept looking in on him when he was asleep, draping him in too many blankets because she was so happy to bring them and cover him up again. Let’s tend to Jesus like that too. Let’s treasure him and peek in at him and bring him things and wait for a moment we can hug him again and have a look at those wounds, kissing them many many times.

Photo by u5965u5c3cu5c14 u5b59 on Pexels.com

Blessed Octave of Easter ♥️

April 11, 2023 1

A Quiet Easter 2023

I have been sick this Triduum so it’s been very different than most for me. I have been in bed with cats all over me, hearing Hannah Montana music non stop because my granddaughter loves it these days.( No fair I already went through that with her mother!)

My youngest daughter and my granddaughter and I did little family liturgies for each day of this Triduum. The seven year old was wiggly but reasonably behaved and interested. She only had to be threatened by her mother a couple of times with no TV if she didn’t settle down and stop interrupting. This year the washing of feet seemed to resonate for her. I think she really listened to Jesus’ words about that and was surprised by them.

I followed the readings and slept and the prayed the Liturgy of the Hours and slept. I followed my personal traditions as well as I could as Christians all over the world walked together with Jesus through the last days of his earthly life.

I missed the mass of all masses last night, the great Easter Vigil. But I think my fever broke.

I missed experiencing that with everybody.

The good thing is I was in touch with the grace of this holy time. I do feel changed. I do feel that I passed from death to life with Jesus hand in hand.

We didn’t come out of the tomb with trumpet blast or brilliant light. We just walked out of there. Then we went to see our friends and console our mom.

I’m still in bed today missing all the stuff. The best I can do is to pray Morning Prayer and burn frankincense incense in the censor I save for holy days. I’m enjoying clouding up the room.

I am hoping to join my parish in an evening mass, and to see my eldest daughter and her boys today. They are excited about egg hunting. My granddaughter has been practicing in our apartment with plastic eggs for several days so she is ready.

Oh Jesus we will never come to the end of your beautiful surprises. The physical resurrection of your body happened in quiet and dark but its repercussions are endless, eternal, a treasure we will never exhaust, never fully understand.

We thank you. We bless you. We adore you. We glorify you.

Praised be Jesus Christ

-both now and forever.

April 9, 2023 0

In silence and trust

Oh silence you are so safe and all is contained in you. As much as music fills my soul so do you nourish me as you gather yourself to me and come into my heart. God’s embrace is silent, his kisses on the soul even more so. God creates a silence, a unique solitude, a stillness with his presence, a stillness we all know and recognize as his.

Holy Saturday is about the silence of the earth, silence of the soul of the world.

Silence in the depths of Mary’s soul even in grief.

Wherever you are today take some time to enter into her silence. And trust.

“Your strength will be in silence and trust.” Isaiah 30:15b