Hope and Prayer

I want to make something clear. I am not here to say that this is the beginning of the end of the world because I cannot focus on that right now, and I think you can go elsewhere to hear that. Instead, I want to talk to those people who are fearful and need some solace, peace, and hope.

Before I begin, I have a story for you. I was praying the rosary with some friends over a video chat recently, and God asked me to either lead or follow in the mystery of the Resurrection out loud. When I was praying it, He brought me to the Empty Tomb which was black inside and gloomy outside. I asked Him, “Why have you brought me here?” His answer was, “Victory.” I got it. He had to go through Good Friday to get to the victory of Easter Sunday. He needed to wait for the victory. I think that’s what God wants us to do: waiting and know in faith and hope that His victory is coming.

If you hearing things like “This is the beginning of the end of the world,” or “This is the fulfillment of a prophecy,” and you aren’t fazed, that is a true grace. I ask you to pray for us who are fearful. To those who are fearful, those voices could be good but what they are saying isn’t good for you. Let me explain! Marriage and religious life are both good but being married isn’t good for a priest or a nun, since they have given their lives to God differently. Not better or worse but different and equally beautiful. Praying so much that family chores or duties are not being done, for a parent or married person, this is not good. There needs to be a balance in life and both states of life help the church in their own ways. So if prophecy talk isn’t helping you, just pray.

St. Ignatius says that if you get something to do in a period of consolation, you should continue to do that even if you are in a period of desolation. For example, if you are in a place of peace, love, and all the good feelings, and you also went to prayer last week and decided to start a daily rosary, then, let’s say you are feeling down this week so you want to stop praying the rosary. Ignatius says you should keep saying the rosary this week and add a small penance for not wanting to such as 3 Hail Mary’s. This is the devil attacking, and we NEED to fight him.

The way you know it’s God is the feelings of peace, love, joy, and all good feelings. If anything you are listening to or reading does not create these feelings in you, STOP IT because God doesn’t want you to feel those bad feelings. This doesn’t mean you will always feel these feelings. Sometimes God wants you to see what you will do by removing these feelings. God will NEVER create fear in you also. That is Satan pulling you down. God will challenge you to help you grow or call you out, which is different. He did this with me recently. I was watching a video that said people weren’t having their complete mind on Him while praying. The next day, I started actually praying three to four rosaries daily rather than just listening to them while I was working. I have found a beautiful sung version of the rosary which I will link below. It is much longer than the said rosary, but I love to have it behind what I am doing. I do not let it replace a rosary, anymore.

I was in confession talking to the priest about the end of the world. The priest asked, “If this is the end of the world, what can you do to stop it?” I looked at him as the rush of realization came over me answering, “Nothing,” which made him laugh. Then, he said he was in a class, and the priest who was teaching said to him and his classmates, “What would you do if the sky started falling on us when we were playing soccer?” The priests said they ran to the chapel to pray. (Personally I would become Chicken Little and run around screaming, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!). The older priest said he’d continue playing soccer. This struck me because of this priest having such faith and confidence in the Lord, and being ok with the craziness going around him. Also, I have talked to several people about this and a nun believes that when the beginning of the world happens we won’t know, but we will figure it out in the middle of the end of the world. She believes that is by design, so we will go with it calmly, so don’t worry about the end of the world in a way, but pray. Even Jesus, THE SECOND PERSON OF THE TRINITY, couldn’t tell us when it would be, because it was not right for Him to do so.

All I can say if this is the end of the world, pray that you can get into Heaven and increase your faith. I’m just going to throw this out there if this helps greatly. If it doesn’t, that doesn’t hurt my feelings but hear me out. Work up to praying 4 rosaries daily and actually praying the rosaries rather than listening to them on an app. If you need to pray one and listen to the others at the beginning 3 or 4, that is fine. Or you need to start with only 1 or 2 but having the goal to reach 4 which is fine, also. I recommend the rosary because it is the prayer for our times and is a powerful weapon against Satan. Praying 3 to 4 rosaries daily has calmed me down so much and I feel the graces are flowing increasing my faith. Doing this will help you love the people around you better. Also, I think it is OK to be a little selfish in your prayer. Of course, I would say pray for others if you can because others need your help to get to Heaven. I want to be clear here. I, hands down, DO recommend praying for the people around you but there are times I recognize that your mental state will not allow you to pray for others. You might need for a period of time just pray for yourself which is PERFECTLY fine.

Another thing that could help is being grateful for all the blessings you have in your life and there are many since God is a loving Father. Try to think of 3 or 4 ways God has come through for you, personally, in the past in great detail and thank Him for those things. Sometimes you will need to repeat things and that is fine. If that is too hard think of at least 10 last things a day, and they can be the same. When I do this, I thank Him for good-smelling things and the color blue, so they do not have to be big things. I have, also, dealt with so many loved ones not being able to walk, so I am very thankful that I can. If you want to help people by getting active, I recommend the app Vizer. The people behind this app will donate a meal when you hit 10,000 steps. This app has been able to help me get moving and realize I can help by doing a small thing in great love. (I really need to return to my blog post of St Therese of the Child Jesus. I think I have been keeping y’all in suspense long enough.)

Now, I am not the best at saying these rosaries. I hate when I am not able to give my whole self to it. I definitely try to have one rosary where I am fully focused on God, and I am kneeling. But the rest I am walking around the neighborhood or with friends saying it. Oh my gosh, I completely forgot to tell you why 3 to 4 rosaries you daily. It is because the tradition was for people to pray the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious mysteries for a whole rosary. It was for kids to pray one set of mysteries (what many now consider a whole rosary). So, that means that all the great things he prayed the rosary prayed 3 times more of the rosary than we normally do. And the reason I say 3 times rather than four is because the luminous mysteries were added in 2002 by Pope St John Paul II. If you pray the full 4 rosaries, you now get the graces they got by praying 3 just because the world has changed. The pope also has the power to do that. He knew we needed to meditate on those Mysteries during this time.

Like I said earlier, not every good is meant for everyone. I recommend asking God where He desires to meet you. I do this every night with a Catholic meditation app named Hallow. I love it because it has so many ways to pray. It has the Rosary, Litanies, Lectio Divina and so much more. I CANNOT recommend this app enough; I love it so much. This is not a sponsored post for them. I just love it so much, and will include a link below, so they know I sent you. If you use the link it will give you a free month of the premium content but don’t worry there is still a lot on the free version. (Hallow, if you are reading this, comment below and I’m sure we can get a deal going. I wouldn’t be a sellout, readers. (facepalm) I’m sounding like a YouTuber right now…haha.)

When you pray, hold a big open cup to God and let Him work because He won’t give you more than you can handle with His grace. I don’t want to put words into His mouth, but I do think that’s what He meant when He said that to St Faustina. We were made for such a time like this, so we have everything we need, but we need to tap into it.

Humor me for a tangent, here, please. If you are like me, wondering why God placed you in this weird time with the rest of us and thinking you were placed in the wrong time of history, I want to tell you God was correct for placing you at this time in history. He has given you all the spiritual tools you need through the Church to meet the challenges of this time. Maybe you could research other ways to pray and see if any hit your heart as beautiful. Try it for a week or two and if it doesn’t help try something else because there is no one right way to pray for everyone. We are all unique human beings. Keening in mind God has given you everything you need to get through this different time. I have found the Litany of Trust from the Sisters of Life and the Litany of Patience from Hallow helpful.

We also need to entrust the future to Him. He’s slowly working on this with me. The most I have been able to entrust to Him is a whole day. I know He’ll work me up more but right now baby steps, and I feel that’s what He wants from you to… baby steps because why not now? If you put it off it may not be done (because let’s face it, we all procrastinate) so give Him the rest of the day!

In summary, I would say do not be afraid if it is the end of the world but pray that you are ready to meet God. Live your life in faith that God has you and won’t give you more than you can handle through His grace. Also, let nothing disturb you. If I could leave you anything about the end of the world it would be, “Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your hands because your redemption is drawing near” Luke 21:28.

Links

https://hallow.com/share/654UE8.