A beautiful depiction of Mary at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, PA
My sister gets this email from a Yahoo group called Mary Vitamin. I think it’s the cutest thing. Since I don’t have or want a Yahoo account, she forwards the emails she gets to me, and you know, sometimes… actually, very frequently, these emails shoot through my heart like an arrow.
Like today’s for instance. Oh, I’m stressing about this week’s shoot at the Blue Army Shrine in Washington, NJ. It’s going to be hard. Or, at least, I keep telling myself it will be. The script is long, there’s so much to tell, the property is ginormous, and I feel so unprepared. But I just need to calm down! Nothing is impossible with God. And in all honesty, I know this stuff. Fatima runs through my soul. And the day we’re going–may 13–is such a huge Fatima day. It’s the anniversary of the first Marian apparitions at Fatima, it’s the anniversary of the day Pope John Paul II was shot, and it’s the anniversary of the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco. As long as I pray, and keep Jesus and Mary close, I know I’ll be fine.
I know I’ll be fine.
So today, as I trudge through a long list of To Do items, I offer to you the amazing quote from today’s Mary Vitamin. Wouldn’t the world be such a better place if we all took this to heart?
“Strive therefore, above all, to do your duty and to do it out of love for her: your duty, great or small, easy or painful, interesting or monotonous, glorious or obscure.”
“With a view to pleasing your Mother, be more docile toward your superiors, more amiable toward your equals, more gentle with your inferiors, more kind to all. Be more punctual in your obedience, more conscientious in your work, more patient in your trials. But accomplish all this with a maximum of love and with a pleasant smile. Look cheerfully at your painful task, your prosaic occupations, the monotonous succession of your obligations; or rather, look with a smile at your Mother who asks you to accomplish your duty in high spirits that you may prove your love for her.”
—Father Emil Neubert, SM, My Ideal, Jesus, Son of Mary, 27.
Resolution:
Today I will look for my Mother in monotonous or painful tasks. I will try to do my duty well and in particular, I will try to remember to smile.
“Mother [Teresa] tell us something to make us better husband and wife.’ Mother Teresa replied with her wit, ‘Smile at each other.’ The wife thought for a moment and asked, ‘Are you married?’ Mother Teresa replied, ‘Yes, and sometimes I find it very difficult to smile at Jesus, my husband, because he can be very demanding.'”
—Angelo D. Scolozzi, M.C. III. O, ed., Thirsting for God, 173.