The Gift of Peace and a New Understanding - 2nd week of Advent Reflection - Mission Post update

 

Second Sunday of Advent from Santa Maria Magdalena’s Home

I confess this is not at all your normal picture for the Advent Season!
However, it is where my heart is! 

The Gift of Peace and a New Understanding!

Let us see, O Lord, your mercy and grant us your salvation.

 This Advent season for me at Santa Maria Magdalena’s home has been filled with many new and different blessings this year. And I pray that this Advent season will be the same for you.

As we light the second candle of our advent wreath this week and as we listen to the Gospel reading this week may we be confident in the fact that John the Baptist is not calling us to strike our breast or make harsh acts of atonement for our sins. But rather it is an invitation to change our way of thinking and the way we look at the Lord. My friends there is nothing we can do to make Jesus LOVE US MORE nor is there anything we can do to make him LOVE US LESS!

The prince of lies will tell you that you are unworthy and that you are unloved. But I am confident Jesus wants us to see, know, and feel the immense compassion and mercy he has for us all! Jesus wants us to recognize that he was born in a stable among animals and laid in a manger, that he hung on the cross not by three nails but by his love for us! He loves us no matter how many times we fail, how many times we commit the same sin, or how many times we turn our backs on him.

The conversation that Saint Maria Faustina had with Jesus has been with me during my prayer time for the last couple of days and I would like to share it with you in hopes that you will find it a blessing for you and for all those you encounter. Because indeed it is a message everyone deserves to hear!

Let us know and be confident that the Lord Loves us and he will indeed heal us!

He wants us !

He longs for us! 

He desires us! 

He is all we need! 

He will give us Peace and a new understanding!

But only if we let go and let him! 

Let us see, O Lord, your mercy and grant us your salvation.

The Goodness of God.

“The mercy of God, hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, the voice of the Lord who speaks to us from the throne of mercy: Come to Me, all of you. Conversation of the Merciful God with a Sinful Soul.

Jesus: Be not afraid of your Savior, O sinful soul. I make the first move to come to you, for I know that by yourself you are unable to lift yourself to me. Child, do not run away from your Father; be willing to talk openly with your God of mercy who wants to speak words of pardon and lavish his graces on you. How dear your soul is to Me! I have inscribed your name upon My hand; you are engraved as a deep wound in My Heart.

Soul: Lord, I hear your voice calling me to turn back from the path of sin, but I have neither the strength nor the courage to do so.

Jesus: I am your strength; I will help you in the struggle.

Soul: Lord, I recognize your holiness, and I fear You.

Jesus: My child, do you fear the God of mercy? My holiness does not prevent Me from being merciful. Behold, for you I have established a throne of mercy on earth — the tabernacle — and from this throne I desire to enter into your heart. I am not surrounded by a retinue or guards. You can come to me at any moment, at any time; I want to speak to you and desire to grant you grace.

Soul: Lord, I doubt that You will pardon my numerous sins; my misery fills me with fright.

Jesus: My mercy is greater than your sins and those of the entire world. Who can measure the extent of my goodness? For you I descended from heaven to earth; for you I allowed myself to be nailed to the cross; for you I let my Sacred Heart be pierced with a lance, thus opening wide the source of mercy for you. Come, then, with trust to draw graces from this fountain. I never reject a contrite heart. Your misery has disappeared in the depths of My mercy. Do not argue with Me about your wretchedness. You will give me pleasure if you hand over to me all your troubles and griefs. I shall heap upon you the treasures of My grace.”

St. Maria Faustina, Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul

 

On this second Sunday of Advent let us recognize that we are human, we are sinners, and that through seeking Jesus we will encounter his love, mercy, healing, and help so we can become what God has created us to be!

Also, I feel we should honor all the great things that the Lord has been doing at Santa Maria Magdalena’s Home!

ALL SAINTS DAY CELEBRATION! 

The young Men of Santa Maria Magdalena's home 

The women young and old 

1st Thanksgiving Feast after mass

            

 Every Last Thursday of the month
 I bake birthday cakes and we celebrate the birthdays of that month.

One of the mothers decorated the manger! 

1st small home for long-term mothers 

it is almost complete we have paid for doors and windows, and they should be installed before Christmas. 

We are now waiting on our Lord to send funds for furniture for the home. 

We beg for your Help! 

With confidence, I ask in the name of Jesus and his poor whom this home serves for you to pray about becoming a monthly mission partner with Santa Maria Magdalena's Home!

We need monthly mission partners. Our 1st financial goal is set at $3000.00 per month

Take to prayer and ask Jesus if he is desiring you to serve the poor here. 

Together let us radically love all those who he sends to this home! 

We love you all and pray for you everyday! 

Karen and Gabriel 

Mission Post: Santa Maria Magdalena's Home 

Caserio Santa Clara, Amazonas, Peru

1st Sunday of Advent- Hope

 

1st Sunday of Advent Reflection from 

Santa Maria Magdalena’s Home

A home for abused and abandoned Mothers and their children.

 

         “Let all who hope in you rejoice, triumph for ever.

       You will shelter them and they will glory in you”

 

Perhaps the 1^st Sunday of Advent this year has a very new meaning for me.

As we celebrate the 1^st Sunday of Lent and as we light the 1^st candle in our advent wreath here at Santa Maria Magdalena’s Home, I cannot help but reflect on this morning's prayer from Psalms 5 which was titled A morning prayer for help!

It is so fitting for this Sunday and for this home. With such injustice, mistreatment, and cruelty that has been experienced among those who gathered in the sala this morning, it is this Hope in the coming of the Lord that gives us all strength. That gives us something to look forward to. If not the mundane, cruel, taunting, and wicked world would just get the best of us all. But instead, here at Santa Maria Magdalena’s home this morning it is as if we gather in hope, with confidence that the lord hears our voices, that he hears our prayers, and our cries.

The home has become a refuge for so many in the past months, they come, and they go; but they all have something in common. They all have experienced pain, heartbreaks, and terrible physical and emotional pain. But somehow this home brings them peace and hope. They want to believe; they desire to find the one responsible for this hope and joy they experience while here.

Today after morning prayer, I was walking with one of the women today, together we were admiring the flower gardens, and listening to the birds while her children played, running about the grounds of the home. She asked me why everything was so pretty, and why I allowed her to stay so long. I told her because Jesus helped me many years ago in the same way by sending people to my rescue. I also told her the reason that the home and the grounds are so beautiful is because Jesus built this home for women and children just like her and I and that Jesus desires her and her children to be happy, to have hope in Him. I affirmed with her that Jesus wanted to love her radically and this home is one way he shows His love for her. That he wants her to see Him in all its beauty in the birds, in the flowers, and in the sound of the river running by the home.

 

I wanted to say thank you to all of you who support this home because this morning’s prayer nor this morning’s conversation with this mother would not have been possible without your help, without your YES!

It is through the mission of the home, It is through your prayers your donations that allow these women and children and the surrounding community to experience hope and love!  

 

If you’re not already partnered with us, please prayerfully consider becoming one! So many good things are happening here. Incredible miracles and healing of hearts and souls! It is easy just follow the link

https://www.familymissionscompany.com/santa-maria-magdalenas-home/

 

Psalm 5
A morning prayer for help

It is you whom I invoke, O Lord. In the morning you hear me.

 

Let my words come to your ears, O Lord:

hear my sighs.

 

Listen to the voice of my crying,

my King and my God.

 

As I make my prayer to you,

Lord, listen to my voice in the morning;

in the morning I will stand before you and await you.

 

You are not a God who loves evil.

The wicked cannot stay near you,

the unjust cannot remain in your presence.

 

You hate all who do evil –

you destroy all who speak falsehood –

the Lord abominates the bloody and deceitful man.

 

But in the abundance of your mercy you will admit me to your house:

I will worship you in your holy temple, with fear and reverence.

 

Lord, guide me in your justice, protect me from my enemies:

let me see the path I must follow.

 

For there is no truth in their mouth – their heart is a bottomless pit –

their throat is a wide open grave – their tongue seduces.

 

Punish them, Lord,

and let their own plans destroy them.

 

On account of their crimes, thrust them from your presence;

for they are rebels against you.

 

Let all who hope in you rejoice, triumph for ever.

You will shelter them and they will glory in you.

 

For you bless the just, O Lord,

and your good will surrounds them like a shield.

 

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning,

is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

 

Amen.

 

It is you whom I invoke, O Lord. In the morning you hear me.

---

 

We pray this Advent season will bring you closer to Jesus! May he hear your cries and your prayers! May we have HOPE in HIM!

WE LOVE YOU ALL

Karen and Gabriel Del Castillo 

Mission Post: Santa Maria Magdalena's Home 

Caserio de Santa Clara, Amazonas, Peru