A Letter from Mary

When I journal I write down what I hear in the form of letters. This is one I received from Mary on the fourteenth of this month.

My Rose,
You have entrusted your heart and your vocation to me, so let me have them. I will lead you to my son, I've told you this again and again, I will lead you and you will get there. But first you must live a "normal" life on the outside, but on the inside, be radically different. Do not be afraid to be passionately pure and radically in love with my Son for that is what will draw them to Him. Because you are so unassuming in your faith and yet will never let it be shaken you will win many souls to my Son. Always remember that with the call comes the grace and He won't bring you to it if He won't bring you through it. Do not fear that you will lose your vocation because the reason He has you picked for this work is exactly because He knows that He has given you strength and clarity of vision that will enable you to live consecrated in the world for a time without loosing that call to religious life in the convent. That is such a gift!
Your time will come, let me lead you and let Him love you into a big huge beautiful Rose bloom but in the mean time, let us love you as you are, small, pink and beautiful! I love you and I will protect my rose.
~Mama Mary

The story behind calling me her rose is from retreat with the Franciscans this past weekend. On Friday night during Adoration we each had a chance to kneel right in front of the Alter and pray. We were told before Adoration that after we were done praying we should take a rose from a vase under the alter and that that was our rose from Jesus. Most of the flowers were big rose blooms but there were a few that were tiny, just barely pink rose buds. I took one of the pink ones. As I was praying in Adoration God said to me "This flower is your vocation right now. I promise that some day you will be a big beautiful red rose bloom but right now you are still beautiful and you can still spread your fragrance in the world." In Adoration on Monday I was journaling about retreat and when I was done, right before I left, a name popped into my head. Miria Rose. Miria is the Aramaic for Mary so it means Mary's Rose. I totally fell in love with the name and I really believe that she was telling me through that to give my vocation to her. It was in Adoration a few days latter that she gave me this letter. It has been very encouraging and I hope and pray that it will encourage you in some small way as well.
God bless you and keep you in His loving hands

JMJ+
~Betsy

Totus tuus Maria! Let's see what the good God wills.