Thursday, August 30, 2018

7 September 2018 - Friday of the 22nd week in ordinary time - Psalm 37


       Our psalm today states: “The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.”  It goes on to say that we should commit our way to the Lord, to trust in him and he will act.  The psalmist declares that the Lord “will make justice dawn for you like the light; bright as the noonday shall be your vindication.”  However, we all know that life is not always so straight forward.  Sometime we’re faced with great difficulties and struggles.  Trusting in the Lord and following his path does not mean that everything in life is always going to wonderful and perfect. 
     I really enjoy learning about the saints and learning from their journeys of faith.  This week, one of the saints on our calendar is Blessed Dina Belanger, a young woman who was born in Quebec, Canada in 1897.  Dina was a gifted musician and pianist as a youth; she studied the piano as a young woman in New York.  Yet, she felt God calling her to serve with joy as a religious sister of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary in Canada, where she taught music.  She had devout examples in her parents; they spent a great deal of time caring for the sick of their community as a ministry. Dina declared at a young age: “I want to be a saint.”  A mystic who saw great joy in her union with God through her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, Blessed Dina died at the young at of 32.  This is the message she received from Christ that brought her great joy: “My happiness is to reproduce Myself in the souls that I created through love. The more a soul allows me to reproduce Myself truly in itself, the more happiness and repose I feel in it. The greatest joy a soul can give Me is to let Me raise it to the Divinity. Yes, My little spouse, I feel an immense pleasure in transforming a soul into Myself, in deifying it, in absorbing it entirely in the Divinity.”
      When we face struggles in life, the examples of faith we have in our lives give us encouragement and strength.  May the prayers and intercessions of all the saints give us strength on our journey.  May we rejoice in the salvation we receive in the Lord. 

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