Consecrating our Kenya Mission to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary

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On the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 15th, 2012, Father Randy Stice celebrated the noon Mass with Father William Oruko con-celebrating.  Following the final blessing, Father William led the team in a prayer consecrating ourselves and our Mission to Kenya to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.   

We are a small group that will be traveling, 5 in all.  I was unable to attend the Mass and Consecration, but all of those that I am traveling with:  Father William Oruko, Lisa Morris, Theresa Eirlerman and Judi Pedas were all present.  I understand that many friends and parishioners came to the Mass and Consecration in support of the Mission.  


Those of us that are traveling have received an outpouring of support and encouragement, for which we are so grateful.  In talking with friends and family who cannot go with us and who have such a heart for what is happening with this Mission, it has become clearer and clearer that this Mission is truly for all of us...The participation in this mission is not limited to the 5 of us traveling to Kenya.  We know that their are many who may not be able to physically travel to Kenya, but who are being called to participate from where they are.  We know that it is all of us together that will spread this Mission far and wide!


Having said that, We would like to invite all of you reading this blog, if you feel so called, to pray and unite yourselves and your families to this mission spiritually by praying the Consecration prayer that was prayed by the team.  


The power of prayer will strengthen all of us as pilgrims on the road together to serve our Lord and his people - Thank you for being a part of this journey - it is a blessing.

CONSECRATION OF THE KENYA MISSION

It is appropriate in our times, to profoundly understand and have a greater conscience of the intimate relationship that exists between the Two Hearts, and of the immense value that an authentic devotion and consecration to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary have in our lives.”
(Pope John Paul II, November 23, 1987)

To your Sacred Heart, O Lord, we wish to consecrate ourselves and this Mission to Kenya today, June 15, 2012, the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Through this act of consecration, we desire to enter into your Heart, our refuge and protection. Keep us free from all error and confusion, from all frailty, selfishness, and indifference. Please give us wisdom and clarity in all that we do for this Mission and in our daily lives.  May we acquire from your Heart the virtues that we most need, the light that will guide our path, and the strength necessary to be faithful to your will in this Mission and in all we do. May your Heart be our treasure and our reward. May the graces of mercy, conversion, and peace that flow from your Heart transform us, giving us new hearts like your heart. Moved by the contemplation of your love, may we become true channels of your grace in a world so in need of your love and of truth. Through the consecration of ourselves and this Mission to your Sacred Heart, may we help to establish in the world the civilization of love.

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, you are the most perfect model of total consecration and dedication to the Heart of Jesus. O Mother, it is our desire to live in your Heart so as to learn to love unconditionally the Heart of Jesus, your Son. Through your Heart, may we truly obey Him and serve Him with all generosity, responding diligently to the desires of His Heart.

We wish to consecrate ourselves and this Mission to Kenya to your Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart, the perfect and sure path to reach the Heart of Jesus. Your Heart, abundantly filled with grace and holiness, is the refuge where we are healed and liberated from all our miseries and frailties. O Most Holy Virgin, we want to belong to your Heart, bearing within us a complete and loving readiness to do the will of God manifested through your maternal mediation. In virtue of this consecration, we implore you, O Immaculate Heart, to guard and protect us from all physical and spiritual evil. May our hearts be inflamed by the fire and love of the Holy Spirit as is your Heart. In union with you, most pure channel through which Christ came into the world, and anointed by the power of the Holy Spirit, may we be instruments in this world, bringing to all the love, joy, mercy, and peace of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

O Hearts of Jesus and Mary, only hope of humanity! You are our hope since in your perfect union of love for God and for humanity, you have given yourselves for the salvation of the world. Through this consecration of ourselves and this Mission to Kenya, we humbly seek to spread the fire of your love and mercy to all we meet and that those who will participate there and here (by their spiritual presence with us), be the light of Truth to all they encounter, so that the world will become a true Civilization of Love.  We desire to offer our lives in love and in reparation to your Hearts. With all our lives, we desire to promote and to establish in the hearts of all men the Reign of Love found in the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Amen.

Father William, Lisa, Theresa and Judi and Father Randi in the background

Father William

Judi, Thersa, Lisa and I

Packing for the trip, materially as well as spiritually

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The first thing anyone things of when traveling abroad for a long period of time is what should I pack and how will it all fit in my bag?!  This trip, however, warrants a very different kind of packing-not only clothes, books, medications, and all the material goods that I will need, but spiritual packing as well.  


I started reflecting on how I needed to prepare for this trip.  I bought a new camera, one that takes excellent shots and movies.  I asked for and received a Kindle so that I can download and bring all of the books that I need.  I have a friend whose son works in a sporting goods store that specializes in hiking and camping gear and she suggested that I visit her son for good, lightweight, comfortable clothes.  Thomas, who cuts my hair, suggested that we cut it pretty short about a week before I go. We will only be away for two weeks, but, better to be safe than sorry.  I started to feel comfortable with the plans for the material goods that I will need; however,  I knew that the more important packing I should be making is my spiritual preparation.


How to spiritually prepare for this trip? Prayer, prayer and more prayer. 


Those involved with the mission have been praying a novena to the Rosa Mystica on the 13th of each month, beginning January 13th and ending on September 13th.  


On the first Friday and Saturday of each month, starting in May, we have been and will continue to go to confession, mass, communion and pray a minimum of 5 decades of the rosary in reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, thus fullfilling the first Five Saturday devotions.


Tomorrow, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we will be consecrating our Mission to the Immaculate Heart of Mary after the noon mass concelebrated by Father Randy Stice and Father William Oruko.  Pictures will follow.


Everyday, to pray my Office, Rosary, Mass, and spend some time in front of the Blessed Sacrament with the intention that this mission be what Our Lord would like it to be, that we give fully of ourselves in whatever way we are being asked to give, and to give with a smile and in haste, with no hesitation.


And, most important, to read and reflect daily on scripture.  To sit and be with God; to let Him sit and be with me.


As all of us fast during the season of Lent in preparation for Easter and I have decided to fast for this mission.  That it will be all that God wants it to be.  I prayed about it and decided that I will not eat any snacks or desserts after dinner except on Sundays and Feast days.  This will be hard for me!  But it is probably also very good for me as well.  I will not fast from beverages-just from snacky/dessert foods.


Lastly, we have been informally getting together - a small group of us - those that are traveling to Africa and some that are friends that are in support of the trip.  The first time we met it was to watch a taped program from EWTN of a priest, Father Petrie, that was at the World Congress for the Enthronment of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Father Mitch Pacwa interviewed him and it was wonderful interview!  I have a separate post written on Father Petrie and what he shared during the interview.  I will post at a later date.  We also met at my home this week to watch a documentary on Mother Theresa that was filmed by Father Petrie's sisters.  Both meetings were wonderful, prayerful times with good friends.  


I continually thank God for all that He is doing in my life and is asking me to do.  It turns out that what I thought would be a huge sacrifice for me is turning out to be a HUGE gift and blessing to me.  I am having fun.  And living in God's love - who could ask for anything more?

Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.  Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.  

Rosa Mystica, pray for us.

A F R I C A !!!

I am a Hobbit.  I never realized it before, but, I am a Hobbit-or at least I tend to resemble one.  I do not have curly hair on my toes nor do I smoke a pipe, but I do live a very wonderful, small, simple, comfortable life.  Until I received the invitation to go to Africa with my friends, Father William Oruko and Lisa Morris.

Father William and Lisa were invited to lead a parish mission on the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at a shrine in Nairobi.  They were to leave on September 17th and return on October 2nd.

When I received the invitation to join them in the trip, I assumed that my husband would not want me to go. The trip involved being away for two weeks and I knew that it would not be inexpensive.  After further thought, I knew that I did not want to go.  It was a long period of time to be away from my family and it was way out of my comfort level to be that far from Knoxville.  I was shocked to discover that  Ray was in full support of me going.  However, I still could not see myself going.  After a month or two, I approached my good friend and told her that I probably would not be able to make the trip.  Lisa, being the lovely, affable friend that she is, accepted my answer without disappointment and with love.  I was so appreciative of that.  And I felt badly about it.  And everything was fine...for a few more weeks.

While at a very early daily morning mass at Holy Ghost Church, I noticed the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that hung right behind the ambo.  Throughout mass, I knew that I was being asked to accompany Lisa and Father William to go to Africa for the mission.  I prayed about it, reflected on it and just knew that I was being asked to go.  But I still did not want to go.  It just sat with me and I felt sad, and uncomfortable, and I knew that it wasn't like me to just dismiss something this important.  When I finally accepted that I would go, I internally threw-up my arms and said: "Well, OK, I give it all to you-all of it" and I felt a great peace about it.  And joy.  So, I am going to Africa.

And so it begins.  For the past few weeks, I have known that part of my responsibility with regard to the trip is that I am to document the trip through pictures and writing this blog.  I had no idea how to begin.  I rolled it around inside of me for some time and then I just started praying about it.  I walked into our kitchen this morning and opened up Come Be My Light, a book about the private writings of Mother Teresa, and this is what I read:

"...'The Call' was a delicate gift of God to me...From the first day to this day-this my new vocation has been one prolonged 'Yes' to God-without even a look at the cost.-My conviction that 'the work is His'-is more than the reality.-I have never doubted.  It  hurts me only when the people call me foundress because I know for certain He asked - 'Will you do this for Me?'  Everything was His-I had only to surrender myself to His plan-to His will-Today the work has grown because it is He not I that do it through me.
     Of this I am convinced-that I would give my life gladly to prove it-"

And I knew- this is where I needed to begin.

Mother Teresa was an incredible woman:  holy, beautiful, incredible work ethic, was in love with and in relationship with our Lord in a way that many of us would like to be and aspire to be, but just can not reach yet.  Mother Teresa gave every, every bit of herself to Jesus.  In work, in prayer, in everything that she did and said--she just "lived Jesus".  Her words, works and actions have inspired and changed and helped more people than we could possibly imagine.  In her writings about her call, she describes her "yes" or her answer to God as her abandonment and trust in all that God asked of her-and she did it in haste, quickly and without counting the cost.  She then states unequivocally that it was this "yes," this abandonment to all that Jesus asked of her, that allowed her to accomplish all that she accomplished. Because the work was not hers - it was His.

It is with this hope, desire and prayer for our upcoming trip to Africa - TO LET THE WORK BE HIS.  It is with much hope and prayer that the five of us going are able to give to Jesus all that He asks of us, that we answer promptly without counting the cost.  And, as a result of our abandonment to all that He asks of us, that our trip be fruitful, not only for ourselves, but for those for whom it is meant for.

Oh Sacred Heart of Jesus

Filled with Infinite Love, 

Broken by our ingratitude and pierced by our sins,

Yet, loving us still, 

Accept the consecration we make to you,

Of all that we are and all that we have, 

Take every faculty of our Souls and Bodies, 

And only day by day draw us nearer and nearer to your 

Sacred Heart

And as we should hear your lessons, 

Please teach us your holy ways.

Amen.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.
Rosa Mystica, Pray for us.