la salette

Our Lady of La Salette.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, in her appearance as Our Lady of La Salette, has always struck my heart most deeply. This face of hers– weeping yet serene, crowned with pearls and roses– is the face of a beloved mother to me, a mother whose sorrowful heart I dearly wish to console, whose warnings of mercy I strive to heed. She is beautiful but she is quietly terrible, gilded with chains and reminding us of sovereign Justice. But I love her so much the more for that. I love that absolute honesty, that glory of Heaven she manifests in its ineffable purity– and the consequences our sins against that purity will have if we do not repent, if we do not refashion our damaged hearts to more closely resemble hers, with its swords and roses both. Mary is always a Mother, always a presence of compassion and gentleness, but like any good mother, she will always admonish us for our disobedience, pointing us strongly in the right direction. Thank God for Mary.

...

Let me be blunt. For most of my life, I sadly had little to no devotion to Mary, because I had a history of long-term traumatic abuse perpetuated by women, beginning in childhood. Therefore I could not even imagine a non-abusive female figure, especially not a mother figure, and so, even Mary felt threatening to me. This was a shallow and false assumption, true, but unfortunately my mind had no other grounds from which to view a woman at that time. To me, women hurt you. That was all I knew. And so I never knew Mary either.

As I grew older and entered an equally disturbed adulthood, I reached a crisis point and tried to strengthen my battered faith. God was my sole refuge and I was now desperate enough to want to have at least one kind woman in my life-- so where better to look than to Mary?

And so I gradually began to learn about Marian apparitions and devotions. Once again, none drew me in. All still felt frightening or foreign.

Then I met Our Lady of La Salette. The weeping virgin. She looked so different from all other depictions of Mary. And yet it was still her!

(left unfinished)

122920

The mystery of the Scourging is that Herod KNEW Jesus was innocent, and yet he STILL HAD HIM SCOURGED!!! This is SUCH a powerful argument in mysterious support of "why do good people suffer".

Write about WHY all your patron Saints ARE so beloved by you! And if any are lacking venerable affection, GET SOME

God has worked SUCH PROGRESS IN ME during this year, which even I cannot see until I really dig deep.
I mean, LOOK AT JULY!! Back in January, I had virtually no Marian devotion OR real love of the Rosary. Now I'm three days away from Consecration and I am OBSESSED with the Mysteries.

I finally love Our Lady of Guadalupe and God mark my words, Saint Therese is next!

THE SYSTEM RESURRECTED, we got a Christmas rebranding, we pray the Divine Office together, Razor joined a convent, and we're ALL growing closer to God daily.

Chaos found his heartname-- Charis Zelos-- after YEARS of searching.

PHLEGMONI joined the Outspacer Spectrum outta NOWHERE

...

Support is given from a WILLING HEART. This is why people more readily give money to things that are funny, cute, emotionally evocative, tied to their interests, etc. It's a rerouting of selfish bias to uphold a selfless cause. People DO take manipulative advantage of this, but it can ALSO be used for the great benefit of the most in need-- if people will not give out of pure charity, they will give if you associate your cause with something important to their identity, and/or with something that elicits a positive reaction in them prior to the SUGGESTION of support in any sense. Effectively, you are ESTABLISHING LOYALTY and then banking in it, literally. But TAKE NOTE! LOYALTY MUST BE HONORED!! Whatever you do TO spark that response on their end MUST BE SINCERE ON YOUR PART AS WELL. Otherwise, you're a liar, and a manipulative one at that.

But yeah. This is a huge note to self that, in the League, JOY, OPTIMISM, HUMOR, EMPATHY, & COMMUNITY ARE VITAL!!!

Blessed are they who MOURN: suffering because of illness, intolerance, inconvenience, etc. Is BLESSED because it is a suffering FOR CHRIST??? He cannot wipe away our tears if we DONT CRY ANY.

How true is love if it refuses to suffer for the loved one? That's conditional.