In The Garden by Fr. Mark Kirby

Are you familiar with Fr. Mark Kirby's Vultus Christi blog?  His prolific writings are always achingly beautiful and his prayers for priests are especially touching.  I have always felt a strong connection to Jesus' Agony in the Garden, and after reading Fr. Kirby's reflection about how the Blessed Mother suffered during Christ's agony there, that connection feels even stronger, for I too, am a mother who knows of the sorrows of her sons born of her flesh as well as her spiritual priest sons, yet must stand by helplessly, unable to offer physical relief.  I pray that God sends the comfort of angels at the moments when they are most in need.  What follows below is Fr. Kirby's reflection, In the Garden.  In these final moments as we await Easter joy, won't you reflect and pray upon this scene with me?  Please visit and bookmark his blog for more inspiration.



In the garden,
His Face was unseen,
for the eyes of His friends had grown heavy with sleep,
and there was none to meet the gaze of the Sorrowing Son
other than the Sorrowing Father
and the Consoling Angel whom He had sent
to wipe His brow,
to caress His head
and, for a moment, to hold His hand.

This the Sorrowing Mother would have done
had she been there,
but even that was denied her.
The Mother was replaced by an Angel!
The consolation that only she could have given
was given by another,
and yet He knew the difference:
though sweet, it was an angel’s, not a mother’s.

Weeping like Eve outside the garden,
she consented to the bitter Chalice:
“Be it done unto me as to your Word!”
Chosen for this, she elected to remain
cloistered in the Father’s Will,
hidden and veiled in grief,
to drink there of the Chalice of her Son, the Priest,
and savour it, bitter against the palate of her soul,
for nought can taste a child’s suffering
like a mother’s palate.

Then the Angel too was gone
and the Father hid behind the veil of blood and of tears,
leaving the Son alone with His sorrow
and with His fear,
to proceed with the Sacrifice:
the priest on the way to the altar
with the chalice already in his hands.
~Fr. Mark Kirby

Angel of Prayer

On this feast of the angels St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael -an angelic repost from the archives...





















God has overcome me.

When my soul becomes so full
of the wonder of His presence
that I can no longer contain Him,
He overflows in the form of tears
spilling from my soul-windows during Holy Mass.
I bend to my knees in humble submission
to His glory.

I can feel His angels surround me,
and my guardian angel joins me in prayer.
She gently reaches into my heart
and takes my prayer into her hands.
She tenderly carries it to God,
and breathes my prayer into His heart.

Once the tears and the prayer
have been released from my heart and soul
to their proper Home, the heart of God,
peaceful exhaustion takes their place.

I simply rest in the Lord, my peace.

Angels Are With You

When I arrived home from my pilgrimage to Our Lady of Good Help Shrine last Sunday, I was greeted by my husband and sons with loving embraces, but I was also greeted with several urgent messages. It seemed that I had missed a few important phone calls and emails while I was gone and they all pertained to the same news: a man named George had passed away, and although I knew the name, I had never met George in person. But now, through the mysterious workings of God, I have been brought to friendship with George through his death.

George was a founding member and current trustee of Roses for Our Lady , the lay apostolate for which I had become president last January. In the few months that I have been associated with Roses, I had never met George, because he had been very ill with heart disease and was confined to his home. All of the messages that were waiting for me when I came home from my pilgrimage were asking me to spread the word, to let others know that George had passed into eternal life. The message I received from his wife, Carol, was especially touching:

"...on Wednesday George had a massive heart attack. At first there was some hope but by morning we knew how serious it was. Fr. John Burns blessed him and gave him all of the rites of the Church. Friday, with his mother, all of our children, and myself praying the rosary and his favorite prayers, he very peacefully drifted off. We are sad but the beautiful gentleness with which Jesus called him to Himself was a blessing to all of us."

So I gladly honored Carol's request to spread the word and was pleased that there was a good representation of Roses for Our Lady members at his funeral where we were blessed to lead the rosary before Mass. During the three hours that I my son John and I (my children rarely allow me to leave the house unchaperoned) were at the funeral, I quickly came to realize that George was a beautiful and holy family man.

During his funeral homily, the priest mentioned that George would greet his children each morning by telling them who the saint of the day was. I just had to smile, realizing that I share this very same habit (and here I give a nod to the saint of the day, one of my favorites, St. Jane de Chantal.) After the Mass one of his daughters shared some touching stories about George's life. She mentioned that he would always remind his children that the angels were with them, and as she finished her remarks she looked to heaven and told the angels and saints that they were very lucky to have George there with them now and then she told everyone gathered in the church that the angels were with us. Down came the tears...from my eyes, anyway. And then the beautiful sounds of the organ and violin playing the Ave Maria gave everyone a chance to recollect their composure and focus on the Blessed Mother to whom George was deeply devoted.

I may never have met George in this life, but I know that I would have liked him very much and would have considered him to have been a dear friend. I believe that in the Communion of Saints I've now got one more saint praying for me as I pray for him and we are united in the friendship of our angels who are always with us.

The messages that were on his remembrance card and order of worship were:

George wished his epitaph to read: "I want to be remembered as the man who taught my children how to pray,"

and "George sincerely loved Jesus and Mary with all of his heart and had a special devotion to the angels and saints. He prayed daily for the souls in purgatory. Please honor him by praying for him."

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May George's soul and all of the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.