Encouragement

You Alone Are My Heart's Desire

by Maria Franco
08/23/16
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There is a great difference between wanting and needing. While some things in life are essential and part of our basic needs, there are so many other things that we actually desire and want and which maybe something that we truly need.

The word 'Ephphatha' was the golden coined word which our Lord used to heal the  and dumb man. As we read in Mark 7:34 our Lord put his fingers into the man's ears and touched his tongue with his own spit and said aloud; 'Ephphatha' which means 'be opened'. At once the man could hear and speak.
Perhaps today we all are in both need and want of this exclusive word to heal us physically, emotionally and spiritually.
If we recite this word continuously, it may well rain down upon us the blessings that we require and ardently yearn for.
We see a different scenario in the scene where four men bring a paralytic man on a mat to be healed by Jesus. When they are unable to find a way in through the throngs of people crowded at the door to seek healing, they make a hole in the roof and get the man down into the room to be cured by Jesus.
This man was in dire need of being restored to health but it was his friends who wanted it for him and took the necessary steps to ensure his healing. When Jesus saw the faith of the four men, he instantly healed the paralytic man who rose, picked up his mat and walked.
When people are in love they both need and want to fall in love all over again every new day of their life. This keeps the spark of their relationship glowing with the very fire of hope and faith in each other.

We all seek the grace of God at every turn in life. This grace is so easily found. A pastor once explained how we can remain in a state of grace by partaking in regular prayers, attending the Eucharist and even every time we reached out to a needy person, the very act was an act of grace.

A vivid testimony comes to mind which occured over twenty years ago. It was during the dark days of my life when my father was confined to the hospital for nearly two months. During this period he suffered three massive heart attacks in a span of twenty days. He survived all three of them and went on to live for another three years following this.
What I recall distincly is the day he suffered his third massive heart attack and the doctors clearly told us that this was the last and he was sinking and requested us to call in all our relatives. It was the First Friday of the month.
I refused to believe even for a moment that the worst would take place. As my father lay battling for life inside the ICCU, I sat outside and was reciting a particulay hymn in the form of a prayer; "Lay your hands gently upon him, Let them touch render your peace. Let them bring your forgiveness and healing, Lay your hands gently upon my father."
That same night to the great astonishment of the doctors my father sat up in bed and in the days that followed regained his health and came back home. A month later when my grandmother visited us, my father went on to recount that on that fateful day that he had suffered his third massive attack, as he lay alone in the ICCU with his eyes closed he felt the pressure of a hand on his chest reassuring him that all would be well.
Thinking it was the doctor, he opened his eyes but realised that he was alone in the room, though he could feel the physical touch of the hand on his chest. When I heard this, I was spellbound. It then dawned on me that while I was praying to God outside the ICCCU asking him to lay his hands upon my father and heal him, God had really heard my prayer and come in person to do likewise. I immediately related this to my father and we were all so grateful to God for heeding our prayers and curing my father.
This is the power of prayer and the miracles connected to it. Divine providence is never far away. God's heavenly throne is always close at hand.

As we have just celebrated the feast of the Assumption where Mary is taken up to heaven body and soul and the Queenship of Mary where she is crowned as Queen of heaven. She now pleads for us on our behalf to the Father, Son and Spirit.
We are also counting the days towards the Canonization of Mother Teresa as a Saint in Heaven, though she had long fulfilled this role on earth by serving the poorest of the poor in both their wants and needs.
Am presently proud to belong to a parish named after her. As Mother Teresa always said that; "Not all can do great things but we can do small things with great love."
She is truly a role model to follow and we can learn a lot from the life that she led and the service that she extended towards the poor with arms outstretched.
She always saw Jesus in the lepers, oppressed and downtrodden.
May she be an inspiration to us all specially in this Year of Mercy as Heaven's floodgates will be opened and the angels will sound the trumpet as yet another Saint in heaven will be declared.

A beautiful hymn rings in the mind; "There will never be Another You." There have been truly remarkable people who walked on this earth and there can never be another one like them.
When we read in stories of 'happily ever after', this phrase refers to our own state of life in the after world which the saints share in the glory of the Trinity. Whilst we venerate them on earth, I believe they truly come in person from heaven in any other form which we may not recognise but they listen carefully to all our petitions which they offer before the heavenly throne.
When we raise our eyes to the Cross and gaze at our Lord, we can collect the strength that he gives out to us at that very moment of connection. We should set aside this personal moment with the Lord, a moment shared only between him and us. At that time it does not matter if the church is crowded or empty, it is our special moment which we give the Lord.
Yes, the Lord is all that we shall ever need. He alone is our heart's desire, the sight that our eyes long for and until we encounter Him, we shall await for that morn to dawn in our lives.

Maria Assumption Franco