The Humility of the Angels

The fall of the Lucifer and the angels was due to pride: “I will not serve.”
St. Michael responds, “Who is like God?”
Gabriel announces to a virgin that she will bear God and Raphael
accompanies man along the way as a healer.
The holy angels respond to the Divine Plan even to exalt humble man, made of earth and say “I will serve.”

​Even the camels were shocked when Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery! (picture shown) Joseph had a lot to forgive, but when his brothers came to him in the midst of a famine and he was a ruler in Egypt he said: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you once sold into Egypt. But now do not be distressed, and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here. IT WAS REALLY FOR THE SAKE OF SAVING LIVES THAT GOD SENT ME HERE AHEAD OF YOU… in an extraordinary deliverance… I will provide for you here … Joseph then kissed all his brothers, crying over each of them; and only then were his brothers able to talk with him.” Gen 45: 4-13 In this story we find the Love and Mercy of our God, who submitted himself to being sold and even betrayed in order to bring us salvation. In showing our enemies love and mercy we bring them on a path of Christian enlightenment and here we hope for their repentance.

Only God can truly give us the power to forgive our enemies. It is undeniable the Spirit and power of God present in St. John Paul II when he visited the man who shot him in St. Peter’s Square to offer him forgiveness. The man told John Paul II, “ I know I was aiming right. I know that the bullet was a killer. So why aren’t you dead?” John Paul II carried these words with him, pondering them in thanksgiving to Our Lady for saving his life. He said “one hand shot, and another guided the bullet.” In his visit to his shooter, John Paul II showed the Spiritual works of mercy: Forgiving offenses and visiting the imprisoned. Let us ask St. John Paul II to give us the grace to forgive those who have offended us and to heal the wounds through works of mercy.

Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have you present so that I do not forget You. You know how easily I abandon You.

Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak and I need Your strength, that I may not fall so often.

Stay with me, Lord, for You are my life, and without You, I am without fervor.

Stay with me, Lord, for You are my light, and without You, I am in darkness.

Stay with me, Lord, to show me Your will.

Stay with me, Lord, so that I hear Your voice and follow You.

Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love You very much, and always be in Your company.

Stay with me, Lord, if You wish me to be faithful to You.

Stay with me, Lord, for as poor as my soul is, I want it to be a place of consolation for You, a nest of love.

Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late and the day is coming to a close, and life passes; death, judgment, eternity approaches. It is necessary to renew my strength, so that I will not stop along the way and for that, I need You. It is getting late and death approaches, I fear the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O how I need You, my Jesus, in this night of exile!

Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all its dangers. I need You.

Let me recognize You as Your disciples did at the breaking of the bread, so that the Eucharistic Communion be the Light which disperses the darkness, the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart.

Stay with me, Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to remain united to You, if not by communion, at least by grace and love.

Stay with me, Jesus, I do not ask for divine consolation, because I do not merit it, but the gift of Your Presence, oh yes, I ask this of You!

Stay with me, Lord, for it is You alone I look for, Your Love, Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart, Your Spirit, because I love You and ask no other reward but to love You more and more.

With a firm love, I will love You with all my heart while on earth
and continue to love You perfectly during all eternity. Amen.

The reception of the Stigmata by the saints is an intensified calling to accomplish what is common to all Christians: to offer our sufferings in union with Christ and thereby participate in the redemption of humanity won for us on the Cross. It is a living out of the Passion of Christ in the particular circumstances of a person's life, offered for the conversion of sinners and a participation in Christ's act of reparation on the Cross. This is among the reasons why St. Francis is a patron saint of reparation.

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church." (Col 1:24)