A Rosary of Our Life

Let us make a rosary of our life, placing every incident in it, and offering up our daily cares with a quick Ave Maria.

~Adrienne von Speyr, Lumina and New Lumina

What a lovely thing to do! To make a rosary of my life, offering every little piece of it as Our Lady offered herself to God -- gratefully, freely and happily, and confident of the Father's goodness and love. Jesus-living-in-Mary lives in me, too, and the mysteries of His life and hers are mine as well. In union with them, all the Paters and Aves of my life become a splendid Gloria in praise of the Holy Trinity.

Hail Mary, our life, our sweetness and our hope!

Let the children come...

Jesus said, "Let the children come to me..." ~Matthew 19:14

When small children are with their father, they do not keep asking questions, nor do they constantly ask for something else; they may be a little better behaved than usual in their playing; they tell him what they are doing, and the4y have the feeling, which is probably never completely expressed, that the tower they are building will turn out taller with a grown-up nearby than if they were alone. Then they ask their father to tell them how things were before, and they never tire of finding out everything they can grasp; they want to become like him; they look for points of contact, make comparisons; they try in their very modest way to imitate their father a little.

Father, give us the grace to become like these little children. Do not let us constantly disturb the gift of Your presence with our demands. Let us lean instead to come closer and closer to You in the silence of prayer and to let You work, so that through You the task You give us may come into being and flourish.

~Adrienne von Speyr in Lumina and New Lumina

The Divine Presence

Morning Sweep by Ann L. Krumrein

Souls who try to live entirely in God
experience the divine presence
even in the smallest details of everyday life.
~Adrienne von Speyr in Lumina and New Lumina

Fourth Station, Adrienne von Speyr

Father, you entrusted your Son to me by your Spirit. And as I have given him back to you daily and hourly, I give him back to you now once more, knowing that his suffering is nothing other than the expression of your grace, the expression of your love.

It is hard to understand. I do not understand it at all. And yet I know that I must give precisely this, that you require it in this way. And I ask you: Take your son out of my hands -- for he is my Son -- and take at one and the same time everything I myself have given him and which in this farewell hour bears only the name of pain and grief. Take it, dispose of it, let my suffering become as heavy as you will, I know (your Son has taught me this) that this is how I must pray in this hour.

Mary on the Way of the Cross,
Prayer to the Father
by Adrienne von Speyr
in With God and With Men

Here Our Lady plainly states that she does not understand…but she knows. She knows, she says, because Her Son has taught her. Her Son! Jesus, whom as a little child she taught to pray -- the Word, who learned from her lips verses from the Sacred Scriptures, especially those so dear to her heart -- the young man, who increased in wisdom and favor with God and man while living a humble life in Nazareth and being obedient to Mary and Joseph. This Son, her one and only Son, who took flesh in her womb when she uttered "Be it done unto me" has taught his mother to surrender everything with him in his prayer of total abandonment, "Father, Into your hands." Mary's suffering is heavy indeed as she meets her beloved Son climbing the mount of lovers. Her suffering will become even heavier as she kneels at the foot of His cross, utterly bereft as she receives the body of her dead child. She does not understand...but she knows...

Virgin of all virgins best,

Listen to my fond request

Let me share thy grief divine.