Do not let your heart be disturbed.

Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Annunciation, 1898.

Mary, girl, I get you. I learned a lot about you this weekend and just wanted to share these words that another shared with me. These words were spoken by the Virgin of Guadalupe to Juan Diego when she appeared to him at Tepeyac:

Listen! Put it into your heart, my dearest son, that the thing that disturbs you, the thing that afflicts you, is really nothing. Do not let your heart be disturbed. Am I not here, I who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and my protection? Am I not the Source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything more? Let nothing else worry or disturb you.

I found a little bit of the respite I was looking for last week during my RCIA class on Sunday morning. It's still hard to focus on letting things go and quieting my brain and my heart. I find that visualizing that nervous energy falling away and just being in the shadow is starting to work.