Author: Valerie Parisi

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Friday of the Second Week of Lent

Vintage Time

Your oil bearing seeds can only mature and produce abundant fruit in the rays of the Divine Sun. Try to serve Me even better. (Jesus) (October 4, 1962)

Today’s Readings: Hear another parable.
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it,
dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near,
he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. (Matthew 21)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, You have given each of us a vineyard, You have given us all that we need to produce good fruit in our souls. And You have every right to collect our produce at any time at a time unknown to us. But will we be ready or are we fighting Your Grace as if You have no right to the vineyard of our souls. Lord, we do not own our vineyards, they belong to You! Lord, our fruit can only mature in the rays of Your Divine Sun in our lives. Lord, help us to serve You and to be ready when You call, building our lives on the Cornerstone of Your Love!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Thursday of the Second Week of Lent

Only His Love Remains

Why do you prefer some passing goal? Do you not trust the value of sufferings? I give value to your sufferings and it causes Me sorrow if you do not appreciate them. (Jesus) (August 16, 1962)

Today’s Readings:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit. (Jeremiah 17)

Prayer Meditation: O Lord, we put our faith is so many passing things- work, health, family, our country. And yet all things will pass- only Your Love remains. We are pilgrims and one way or another, we will suffer loss, pain, and grief in this world. However, united with Your Love we are like the tree planted beside the still waters of Your Grace and we will not fear.

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Solemnity of Saint Joseph

Go to Joseph

Your most worthy patron is Saint Joseph. Do not forget him, invoke him every day. He will gladly help making our Cause a success. (Jesus) (April 10, 1962)

Today’s Readings: Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, help us to go to St. Joseph, protector of the Holy Family and terror of demons with faith and trust that through his intercession and through the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary You will act. Fiat!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent

Purify Our Intentions

My little one, do not be overwhelmed. Live hidden in great humility. Except for a few persons, no one should know about you.(Jesus) (March 4-7, 1962)

Today’s Readings: All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,
greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ (Matthew 23)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, we who follow You may find ourselves in many ministries and activities to the point of exhaustion, but who are we really serving? No one wants to admit it, but are we doing what we do to be seen? Yet, Lord, You do Your Work through the humble and the hidden. Lord, many of the things we do may be good but are they about the one thing necessary (Luke 11)? Lord, all of our works are filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) if You are not in them- purify our intentions that we would serve You in true humility.

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Second Monday of Lent-Saint Patrick’s Day

Good Gifts Will Be Given

Let this be the supreme goal of your lives, the most valuable gift that you can bring to Me. Take advantage of every opportunity and every means to save souls. Work at it! Remember what you once read: ‘If each Christian would save just one soul, no one would be lost.'” (Jesus) (January 15, 1964)

Today’s Readings: “Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.” (Luke 6)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, how often it is that we judge and we condemn. We do this even in our own families. We forget that we are not the judge- You are the judge. How often, because of our own anxiety, fears, worries, we feel like it is up to us to singlehandedly save our family members totally apart from You. There is no condemnation in You (Romans 8:1) but there is plenty in us. Lord instead of judging, arguing, and cajoling let us unite our desires for our loved ones with Yours and take advantage of every means to save souls- prayer and fasting most of all! Help us to give ourselves for Your Cause so that blessings would flow to our families because You will never refuse to hear prayers for the conversion of sinners.

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Second Sunday of Lent

Show Me Your Glory

“When your body leaves the earth, you will enjoy this glory with Me, impacting favorably on the souls living on earth. Repeat frequently with the angels, ‘Glory to God’ (Jesus) (December 2, 1964)

Today’s Readings: Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But he did not know what he was saying. (Luke 9)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, so often we are looking for those mountaintop moments! Those times when we can say like Peter, Master, it is good that we are here. I am sure many of us reading this, in taking a few moments to meditate on Your Goodness, can remember so many moments of Grace in our lives! In fact, we should do this, remembrance of the Holy moments in our lives helps us to grow in faith, trust and love! We can all be so clueless, like Peter, even in those moments, not fully appreciating or realizing Your Glory! But the truth is, so much of life is lived in the valley, not the mountaintop and it is meditation on Your Goodness and Love that gets us through as does Your Promise that indeed we will be with You forever praising Your Glory!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Saturday of the First Week of Lent

Perfected In Love

If we refer to the Flame of Love, the Lord Jesus will enlighten our intellect to know what we must do, for example, how we can choose between two things and which is the most perfect and represents the Will of God. (Elizabeth) (July 11, 1975)

Today’s Readings: And if you greet your brothers and sisters only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, it just seems natural- we prefer those who like us and tend to avoid those who don’t. These people can even be among our loved ones at times- how many times do we avoid family members who criticize us. Perfect love just seems like some kind of ideal we will never reach. And yet You do not ask us to be perfect to set us up for failure. You really mean we can love those who hate us and persecute us- Lord it is in Your Love and Love alone that we can be perfected. Lord Jesus enlighten our minds and our hearts that we would always choose Your Will and not ours so that we would be perfected in love this Lenten season!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Friday of The First Week of Lent

Every Little Prison

All can work for Me, the free man and the one suffering in prison. What is important is the availability of the soul and the spiritual freedom which constitutes the culture of the soul. (Jesus) (May 24, 1963)

Today’s Readings: Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.” (Matthew 5)

Prayer Meditation- Lord today we read how if we are angry, if we are holding onto resentments and unforgiveness and do not let them go there is only one place for us- prison. Because the prison is not as we imagine it, Your judgement of us over every failure, but we put ourselves in prison when we do not settle quickly with opponents even if it is just forgiveness in our own hearts. So many of us think we are free, but we are really suffering in the prisons of our own making. Lord, help us today to forgive all and let us leave resentment at the foot of the cross so that our souls will be fully available for the spiritual freedom You died to give each one of us!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Thursday of the First Week of Lent

Ask, Seek, Knock

Jesus: “Ask for abundant graces. The more you ask, the more you will receive. Ask for others and do not fear that you ask for too much! I am happy when I give more. Even your desires make Me happy. (Jesus) (March 4-7, 1962)

Today’s Readings: Ask and it will be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. Whoever asks, will receive. Whoever seeks, will find. To whomever knocks, it shall be opened. (Matthew 7)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, how timid we are so often in prayer. So afraid to ask for what we really need or to seek what we are looking for. Do we pray to You as our real Father, who loves us far more than our own parents even if they were saints? We see in our lives how, despite our faults, we give what is best to our children. How much more so will You Lord, if we just ask with trust. Even if the answer is no You always hear our prayers and give us what we really need. Lord, today, let us repeat three words for ourselves and our loved ones- ask, seek, knock! Let us pray always with faith and trust!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

The Reluctant Prophet

I overlook everything. By Your repentance You attract Me like a magnet, and any soul doing that will attract Me. (Jesus) (July 26, 1964)

Today’s Readings: The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” (Jonah 3)

Prayer Meditation: O Lord, You have asked us like Jonah to announce the good news of Your Gospel! You have asked us also to repent of our own sins. You cast them as far as the East is from the West if we only repent- how many times have You forgiven us! Let us not be afraid then to announce the message You have given us- even reluctant prophets like Jonah can be used for Your Glory!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Teach Us To Pray

“One Our Father or one Hail Mary prayed in the midst of spiritual dryness is much more fruitful than exuberant prayers of someone who abounds in spiritual favors.” (Jesus) (May 2, 1962)

Today’s Readings: “Our Father, who are in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, there was a time in my life when I was anxious about many things (Luke 11) and I cried to You in frustration in my many words- I wish there was just one prayer that said it all! Then it hit me- there is! We so often take the Our Father, which most of us learned as children, for granted. But if we truly meditate on what we are praying we find that You have given us all we need to live in union with You! Lord, help us to seek Your Will in all thing and  to receive our daily bread at Mass if we can, or in spiritual communion, and in  reading Your Word. Lord forgive us for all the times we have missed it and have sinned and help us to forgive others as You always forgive us. Help us to persevere in all trials and temptations in confidence knowing You will not let us be tried beyond our strength (1 Corinthians 10). Let us pray this prayer daily with intention and we will find You have given us all that we need!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Monday of the First Week of Lent

What is Filling Your Thoughts?

“Renounce yourself and your own entertainment. Think about how I work within you, My little sister, and do not allow any passing diversion into your soul. (Jesus) (January 18, 1965)

Today’s Readings: Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart find favor before you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19)

Prayer Meditation- Lord is it so easy to get caught up in entertainment. We end the day tired and we turn on the TV or we drive to the incessant beat of the car radio with blaring music or news, none of it very good! This is not necessarily sinful but what are we filling our heads with- is this entertainment leading us to or from You? Lord let us fill out thoughts with Your Word and Your Presence- can we say a rosary during that car ride.? Could we spend time each night reading our Bibles? Lord let the words of our mouths and the thoughts of our hearts be pleasing to You- let everything we choose to fill ourselves with each day lead us closer to You!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

First Sunday of Lent

Winning The Victory

I had never experienced this wonderful glance which now accompanies my soul. It helped me to win a great victory over the terrible temptations of the Evil One. (Elizabeth) (January 14, 1963)

Today’s Readings: The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, One does not live on bread alone.” (Luke 4)

Prayer Meditation: O Lord You are the Living Word and the Living Bread from Heaven. You are all that we need to fight the snares of the evil one. Only with You can we have victory over our temptations and not fall into sin. The Gospel today shows the way- to speak Your Word out loud which means we need to know it and live it. To worship You alone and nothing else that the world has to offer no matter how tantalizing. To not depend on ourselves but on You alone!  May we keep our eyes fixed on You and speak Your Word out loud when we are tempted- there is power in the name of Jesus!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Saturday After Ash Wednesday

Rescue for Sinners

Jesus: “My dear child, wish Me many, many souls. This is My only request. Souls! Oh, how I long for sinners! Oh, how I suffer from the indifference and the contempt of souls. Tell Me, Elizabeth, is it difficult to love Me?” (August 15, 1964)

Today’s Readings:

“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.” (Luke 5)

Prayer Meditation: O Lord, how You long for us to be healed and not to stay in our sin and sickness! You long for us so much that You would eat dinner with those whom society has rejected and put aside. And You are knocking on the door of our hearts to dine with us! (Revelations 3:20). Lord come into our homes and heal us of our infirmities! Let us not be indifferent but help us to love You with Your Love because without You we are nothing.

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Here I Am Lord With A Contrite Heart

“You must shake the lukewarm souls out of the indifference which drowns them. My effort to take them to a deeper spiritual level is wasted if they turn their back on Me and abandon Me. (Jesus) (April 17, 1962)

Today’s Readings:

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am”. (Isaiah 58)

Prayer Meditation: O Lord we so often go our own way and wander far from You. We do the right things but for all the wrong reasons- our hearts are in need of a shake up this Lent so that we truly will be walking together with You in love. Time to turn around and examine ourselves and offer first our contrite hearts (Psalm 51) and wait on You to lead the way out of our lukewarm comfort zones and indifference. Help us to keep walking with You and never turn back- always forward in Your Will and in Your Love!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Losing Life to Save It

Jesus: “Do you want to give yourself to Me entirely and without reserve? I, the Man-God, ask this of you. I need you for My work of Salvation. What I am asking you now is a total abandonment. Therefore renounce yourself completely with all your strength and all your will. You must serve only Me. No one else and nothing else now exists for you. Only I.” (Jesus) (September 1, 1962)

Todays’ Readings: Then he said to all,
 “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9)

Prayer Meditation- Today in the first reading from Deuteronomy 30 we read that You have put before us life and death- our choice. The Gospel shows us the way forward- You ask us to pick up our cross daily and follow You. Not anything big or heroic, just our own little crosses tailor made for us- our family, our work, our health, all of our difficulties. Lord help us in the everyday to choose life and to bear our crosses with patience and perseverance. All things are passing- only You remain!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Ash Wednesday

Now is the Acceptable Time for Salvation

Accept faithfully the sacrifices that I ask of you for My Cause. Many ask repeatedly to share in My works, but when they must accept a sacrifice from My own hands, they are afraid of Me. (Jesus) (March 4-7, 1962)

Today’s Readings: Do not perform good deeds before men so you can be seen by them. If so, you will receive no reward from your heavenly Father. When you give an alms, do not blow a trumpet, as hypocrites do. They already have their reward. Give your alms in secret. Then, your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you. When you pray, go to your room and pray in secret. Your Father who sees in secret, will repay you. (Matthew 6)

Prayer Meditation- Now is the acceptable time the Second Reading says today, the time for salvation. It is Ash Wednesday ready or not- time to accept faithfully the sacrifices the Church asks of us. Prayer, fasting, almsgiving. It can seem overwhelming but You see our hearts. Lord, help us to seek You in silence so that we would understand the inner movements of our hearts and Your Will for us this Lent. Help us to accept the sacrifices You are asking of us- is it  chocolate or anger, wine or fear, candy or worry- or is it a little of all of these alternatives. Lord let us lay down the little pebbles of our will- living in Your Divine Will is the sanctity of sanctities  but it requires dying to whatever is in the way so we can rise again perfected in Your Love and Grace this Easter.

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Tuesday of the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time

All That We Have To Offer

“Live hidden in great humility. Except for a few persons, no one should know about you. You will gain merits by your sufferings. These you must offer in union with Me to the Eternal Father for the souls consecrated to Me. May your humility be so great that you radiate goodness and love to all whom you meet.” (Jesus) (Compendium Page 37)

Today’s Readings: Appear not before the LORD empty-handed, for all that you offer is in fulfillment of the precepts. The just one’s offering enriches the altar and rises as a sweet odor before the Most High. (Sirach 35)

Prayer Meditation- Lord it seems sometimes that we have so little to offer You- sometimes all we really have to offer is our misery and sufferings. It can seem that we are empty handed because we can feel so depleted by the tribulations of life. What can we possibly offer in return for Your Unfailing Love? But Lord, You told St. Faustina that our miseries are what is uniquely ours- our weak nature and our failures can be made into a beautiful offering if offered in union with You to the Eternal Father for the salvation of souls! Lord may we learn humility so that filled with Your Love we can radiate that love to others despite being the leaky broken vessels that we are! (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Monday of the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time

Confessing Our Faults

“Many, many times, I experienced the repentance that the Lord’s mercy brought forth in my soul. I want to repent for my sins like no one ever has repented until now.” She would pray, “I want to love You like no converted sinner has ever loved You until now.” (Elizabeth) (First Sunday of January 1964)

Today’s Readings: Then I acknowledged my sin to you, my guilt I covered not. I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,” and you took away the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32)

Prayer Meditation- O Lord You have washed us in Your Blood and You offer Yourself to us every day in Your Word and Your Sacraments. O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us we trust in You! Lord help us not to hold anything back from You today because we owe You our lives- let us return love for the Love You have poured into our hearts!

Today’s Consuming Fire Meditation- – A Daily Dose of the Flame of Love Diary Served Up with Today’s Scriptures

Eighth Sunday In Ordinary Time

From The Fullness Of The Heart The Mouth Speaks

“Remain always silent because only in this way God’s voice will continue to speak within you. Be silent and do not praise yourself. Your spiritual life must take root in silence.” (Jesus) (May 1962)

Today’s Readings: A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6)

Prayer Meditation- Lord, sometimes it seems a day can be going so well and then I open up my mouth! Many of us have a “mouth problem”- especially in our families. We complain, we sow negativity, we may even be hurting the ones we love the most with words we cannot take back. Lord help us to walk in more interior silence this Lent- to listen to You and to speak less. Maybe less noise in our environment- less social media and TV, more prayer, contemplation and time spent before the Blessed Sacrament. Help our spiritual lives Lord to take root and produce a harvest of good fruit this Easter!