Path of Grace
The Adoration Chapel is the most powerful space for interaction with Jesus, angels and saints in my town, anyway. I feel like I can hear Jesus, Mary and Joseph so clearly in there. A few months ago, I was seated in our very small chapel - two rows of five chairs against narrow walls (more like a short hallway!) - praying my Rosary when I heard Our Lady say, in my heart, "Give it all to me and I will make it easy." Now I know that Mary is not in our lives to make things easy. She is with us to escort us to Heaven, and, along with the Holy Spirit, work through us to aid others, so I knew I had to ponder what I received. When I was praying, I was thinking about a few of the big projects that were coming up in my life and lamenting about how much time they were taking away from activities like prayer, Mass, etc., while promising, at best, limited success. In short, I was anxious. I didn't fully understand her message, but I agreed and gave her "all of it". A few weeks later, I read online about the "swap prayer" you can offer Mary. With this prayer, you hand over all of your wants, desires, fears, inclinations, anxieties (i.e. intentions) to her and, in return, you promise to pray for her intentions in place of your own. Well, I did that. I have to say that things I was concerned about - albeit small - were made "easy" by Mary. I'm going to add bigger things (already am) while promising Mary always to pray for her intentions for our world, our families and ourselves. I'm also including St. Joseph in the swap (more on him in a future post).
What about you? Have you ever had a similar experience? Engaged a similar prayer? Lmk in the comments. Peace.