She's one of my main patrons, as you well know. And lately, she's been really gunning for me.
Since the most beautiful date of July 14th, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, WI, I've been officially discerning marriage with the most awesomely holy Catholic man I've ever had the honor of having in my life.
Since June, 9th (but 17 days after we met, even though I think it was 18), however, I've been officially asking Jesus if said man is "the one," and begging St. Therese to send me roses.
Allow me to illuminate how it all went down.
Every month, (off and on over the years), I've prayed the 24 Glory-Be novena to St. Therese and asked her to send me roses if I am doing the will of Jesus. It hasn't failed. Not once.
This June, I realized right around the middle of June that this fella loved me- right smack dab at the end of my first Little Flower novena to Jesus for him. Of course, I began with his favorite color rose: orange.
I got them 5 times during my novena. One instance popped up randomly on my facebook feed in this format:
But, if Jesus has taught me anything, it's that I need to be persistent in prayer, so I kept going back to her, my little spitfire Carmelite.
So in July, I really hadn't settled on a rose color. I wanted white for purity, but red because it's my favorite color. And I hadn't really decided, so I went with both. Well, he came up to visit me, and we made our way to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. We visited the apparition site and knelt before a statue of Our Lady to pray together. I started praying Memoraraes (unbeknownst to me that it was one of his favorite prayers), and looked down to the feet of the statue. There, on the left, was a huge bouquet of orange roses. And my heart sank a little. I thought to myself, "ah well, one month too late!" I looked back up into the face of the statue. A few minutes later, I glanced down at the feet again, but now on the other side. There, in all it's Little Flower glory, was a huge bouquet of red AND white roses. And about 20 minutes later, he asked to pursue courtship and discern marriage with me out by the St. Joseph statue. BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE.
August's color was yellow, and I happened to glance up one day near the tabernacle at Mass. One lonely yellow rose stood amongst a bouquet of red and white. I love how she hit both months at one time.
September's color was pink, and I got one, which was great, because I'm not particularly fond of pink roses. But then I wanted to say another novena that would end on her feast day. And I thought to myself, "self: yellow, orange, and red are Autumn colors, so of course they're going to be everywhere. That's not too fair. Let's go for a whopper."
The rule with this novena is that I typically pick roses that are a naturally found color. Black and blue are kind of out of the question, as is dark purple or green. They don't grow that way; they're dyed. I dunno, I just guess I thought it didn't really count as much. But I tried to think of the most un-Fall like natural color I could imagine. So I did a little research.
Lavender.
Yes, there are lavender roses. And they are real. They are a very very pale purple. And so, for the last 9 days, I've begged Jesus: "Lord Jesus, if he's the one, have St. Therese send me lavender roses so that I may do Your will always."
And I got them.
And I got them 3 times.
And in 8 days, I'll start another novena. The trick is to make sure that I don't tell anyone the color that I've chosen, because then they can't give it to me on purpose. Also, I don't expect to have them given to me. It counts if they pop up somewhere unexpected, or if I see a picture or graphic using them (see above). However, they have to be *real,* not an artist's interpretation or just a drawing. They have to be the real thing or a photograph of the real thing.
And, boy oh boy, does Little Flower throw them at me. For example:
THIS holy card is taped to my computer, and I just now realized something whilst tacking away at this post. Look closely at the roses she is holding. What colors are they?
Red, pink/lavender, yellow, and white.
I think I see a bit of orange in there, but it's a long shot. According to my own rule, this wouldn't count because it's not an actual picture of the roses, it's a drawing. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? Therese is the one holding them, so she trumps the rule. Heh. Also, now that I know the colors that are on the card, seeing them again won't count (I can't go looking for them. They have to catch me by surprise.).
Little Flower. She gets it done. Go to her. She won't fail.
Don't forget to feast!!
No comments:
Post a Comment