Thank you, God, for I am wonderfully made!

Gratitude                           Aaron Joseph Paul Hackett| Thanksgiving | 02/24/2022

My God, here is my heart

            Psalm 94:2 – “Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.”[1]My God, why have I neglected such a beautiful thing as your love? Why have I listened to the folly of this world, instead of following my soul? As The Doctor of the Church, Saint Augustine says “our hearts are restless until they rest in You. [cor nostrum inquietum est donec requiescat in Te]”[2] My heart was under a tremendous sickness, oh Lord! I was a vain person, my King, how I should be in the fires of hell since 2017, but you spared your servant! I deserve the punishment that came from the consequences of my rebellion against you! In your love for me, you sent the Mother of the Most- High, Jesus Christ to grant me mercy on her Month of Honor (May). The love of the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary interceded on my behalf and chase the demon from my heart, freeing me to eat once more!

            When I was in my torment Oh Lord, I bathed you with tears on your feet, as St. Mary Magdalene did with you in the accounts of Holy Scripture “And turning to the woman, he said unto Simon: Dost thou see this woman? I entered into thy house, thou gavest me no water for my feet; but she with tears hath washed my feet, and with her hairs hath wiped them.”[3] I cried out to you Lord, forgive me of my debt, for how can I pay you back for my sinfulness? How can I repay a God, whom I have offended?  With me knowing, you were preparing me, like a patient before a surgeon, you needed to cut off the tumor in my body (sins, weaknesses, devil) out of my heart.

            Long have I complained to you oh Lord, that I was not handsome enough, rich enough, well-feed, happy, joyful, peaceful and with gladness. Fool that I was, I was only looking into myself and not understanding the way of God. I neglect his prayer, his reading of Holy Scripture, the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, the Authority of his Roman Pontiff, the nudges of my Guardian Angel, the Priest, and the teaching of the Saints! I could have easily been killed 50,000 times over in my forty years of life! Each one of my mortal sins had brought me one step closer to Hell! The fiery bed was waiting for me, and thus it still waits for me, if I do not turn away from my sinfulness, for the devil has his tormentors’ ready and the chains to bind me…… but the sweet words of your Daughter St. Therese of Lisieux (another Doctor of the Church) told me thru Father Jacques Philppe “Being little means not attributing to ourselves the virtues we practice or believing ourselves capable of anything, but recognizing that God places this treasure in the hands of his little child so that she can use it when she needs it; but the treasure is still God’s.”[4] We must learn to surrender ourselves to the Lord God completely. To be happy and thankful for everything that we have. Big or small, rich or poor, everything that I have, is truly a gift of God from God.

            “For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of affliction, to give you an end and patience. And you shall call upon me, and you shall go: and you shall pray to me, and I will hear you. You shall seek me, and shall find me: when you shall seek me with all your heart.”[5] I give a much greater thanks to God the Holy Spirit! The Third person of the Most Holy Trinity has answered my prayer request many times, especially when it was asked thru his Spouse, the Blessed Virgin Mary! God from God, Light from Light, true God from True God, begotten not made,[6] Truly pure Wisdom itself has granted me great mercy, not to lavish only to myself, but to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in accordance with the Teaching of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, thru the Obedience of the Roman Pontiff. “Christ is the light of humanity; and it is, accordingly, the heart-felt desire of this sacred Council, being gathered together in the Holy Spirit, that, by proclaiming his Gospel to every creature, it may bring to all men that light of Christ which shines out visibly from the Church…The Church has no other light than Christ’s; according to a favorite image of the Church Fathers, the Church is like the moon, all its light reflected from the sun…Having shown that the Spirit is the source and giver of all holiness, we now confess that it is he who has endowed the Church with holiness.  The Church is, in a phrase used by the Fathers, the place “where the Spirit flourishes.”  (CCC, 748-749)

 Holy Mother of the Most- High God, thank you for rescuing me from the hands of the devil! Thank you greatly for the petition that you have presented to your son Jesus, for my healing, and for bringing me hope. I know that I have not been a good student of your saintly son, St. Dominic De Guzman, but now I understand that I too, can offer something to the Order of Friar’s Preachers. I don’t have to be the most learned Dominican or the most holist one, but one that offers complete of himself to Jesus Christ, not only in words but in the actions of my choices that are presented to me!

2 Corinthians 2:4 “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears: not that you should be made sorrowful: but that you might know the charity I have more abundantly towards you.” From my Patron Saint, Paul the Apostle of Christ Crucified, I join with him as I ask thru his intercession to help me to become a more loving disciple of God, to say my Rosary with love and joining all my Dominican Brothers and Sisters in Heaven and Purgatory for the conversion of sinners! Humbling asking the two Doctors of the Church St. Augustine and St. Therese of Lisieux to help me be a loving child, little and always coming before our Lord, they God!

Almighty and ever-living God, thank you for the mercy and gifts you have given me. Thank you for creating me and making me the person you wanted me to be. Thank you to the Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, for dying on the cross and washing me of my sins and uncleanliness! Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, help me to be the best Dominican inquiry I can be, to show the love of Christ your Son, in the everyday lives of your children, and to aid in the mission of saving souls. For this, I humbly ask in the Mighty Name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

God Bless you all,

Aaron Joseph Paul Hackett

Dominican Inquiry

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[1] Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition Bible

[2] The Confessions, Book 1

[3] Luke 7:44

[4] The way of Trust and Love- A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux

[5] Jeremiah 29:11-13 (Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition)

[6] The Nicene Creed