{"id":24873,"date":"2016-09-19T11:02:20","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T17:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=24873"},"modified":"2017-05-02T16:29:19","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T20:29:19","slug":"where-heaven-touches-earth-pt-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/where-heaven-touches-earth-pt-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Heaven Touches Earth","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

PART VII<\/p>\n

\"steeple\"<\/p>\n

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IT <\/strong>was to be our last Mass at the Monastery\u00a0before my daughter and I would fly back to Canada. I opened my missalette to August 29th, the Memorial of The Passion of Saint John the Baptist<\/em>. My thoughts drifted back to several years ago when, while praying before the Blessed Sacrament in my spiritual director’s chapel, I heard in my heart the words, “I am giving you the ministry of John the Baptist.” (<\/em>Perhaps this is why I sensed Our Lady call me by the strange nickname “Juanito” during this trip. But let’s remember what happened to John the Baptist\u00a0in the end…)<\/p>\n

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“So what do you wish to teach me today, Lord?” I asked. My answer came a moment later as I\u00a0read this brief meditation from Benedict XVI:<\/p>\n

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The task set before the Baptist as he lay in prison was to become blessed by this unquestioning acceptance of God’s obscure will; to reach the point of asking no further for external, visible, unequivocal clarity, but\u00a0instead, of discovering God precisely in the darkness of this world and of his own life, and thus becoming profoundly blessed. John, even in his prison cell, had to respond once again and anew to his own call for metanoia<\/em>… ‘He must increase; I must decrease’<\/span><\/strong> (Jn 3:30). We will know God to the extent that we are set free from ourselves. <\/strong>\u2014POPE\u00a0BENEDICT XVI, Magnificat, <\/em>Monday, August 29th, 2016, p. 405<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here was a profound summary of the past twelve days, of what Our Lady was teaching: you need to be emptied of self in order to be filled with Jesus\u2014who is coming.<\/em> [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf. Dear Holy Father… He is Coming!<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/span>