Tis God doing!☀️🙏🏻

 

‘The work will continue, you see, whether I’m there or not, because it is God’s work, not mine’. 

(Fr. Edward J. Flanagan/Boys town)

As I stroll along, engrossed in my own world, passing car grounds to a halt, window rolls down and a hand appears holding an ice cream. Wow!!

Thing is I had just witnessed something beyond beautiful, ethereal even, and so my gifted ice cream was literally the icing on the cake!!

Earlier, grateful to be invited to pray at the bedside of dear Bridget as she whiled away her final hours in this wonderful world. Before I began to pray Divine Mercy Chaplet, I told her family present, that which I say and know every time, that right now there is no roof in St. Anne’s and no floor in Heaven. All of us together in this sacred sacrosanct space.

As if hearing my words, dear Bridget opens her eyes wide, gazing intentionally up above. (Unthinkable that she would open her eyes at that stage). Clearly she could see what we clearly could not! Then, closing her eyes once more, her breathing slows right down and within seconds she passes peacefully to her eternal reward. All of us cried!! Her son who told me one time, utterly kindly, that while he ‘liked what I do (pray Holy Rosary with dear residents), most certainly it was not for him), was visibly moved and shaken.

Seeing his dear Mom in her final moments definitely granting him pause. Her final gift to him before taking her well earned leave. God is great all the time!! 

Sublime gift to all of us present. Unforgettable!! Heaven exists!!

Back to that invaluable ice cream! Colette and her daughter having been food shopping were enjoying ice cream and noticing me walk along, decided to hand an ice cream out of the car window to me in the midst of traffic. Snap decision ! All part of the Master’s plan.

Uplifting Faith-filled tale of kindness, joy, love and all all that is good, gifted to our hearts from above!! Ain’t no High like the Most High!!

‘If you pray well, you will live well and if you live well, you will die well’. (St. Augustine)

Every Thursday morning, Legion of Mary meeting over, I gift our alter flowers to whoever comes my way. This morning’s flowers tattered and bereft, some Legion members of the opinion that they were not fit for ‘passing on’. However, I know that Mother Mary blesses our flowers no matter what state they are in. Our time of prayer in Her company bestows myriad graces and blessings.

Rain bucketing down, I encounter Eileen. Yes, she would like my flowers please and then, after a short pause, utters: ‘Last night I asked our Blessed Mother to please help me’ and now, this morning, She gifts me flowers. All is well’.

Our Mother Mary flowers never go astray. Many Thursdays, many stories. Like the distraught lady who had just been informed that her son’s marriage had broken down and so many more.

Loved African gentleman’s reply as I complimented his amazing tiling work in our Church. Throwing his arms up in praise: ‘Tis God doing’. Allelulia!! 

The yield of doing what we are meant to be doing is sheer joy!

To be intentional☀️🙏🏻

‘It occurs to me that the critical thing in life is whether you take things for granted or whether you take them with gratitude. Gratitude is merely happiness doubled by wonder’. (G.K. Chesterton)

We departed in haste mingled with fear, over twenty years ago, so revisiting Swords some days ago fitted like a well-worn cozy shoe. The place where we lived as a family, good days and bad, always in the Gladsome Light of Christ.

Back home now, and here I am, reliving every minute, all the time immersed in gratitude to God for myriad graces and blessings. One-time thing, no need to repeat. Fait accompli!!

Close to one hundred prayers shared. Unbelievably amazing encounters, all of them in my heart, some undoubtedly will haunt my mind and spirit for quite a while. Many distressed folk in need of kindness right now and probably every ‘right now’ until the end of time. ‘The harvest is ready’. (John 4:35)

Thinking, this morning, that I must listen more intently to Holy Spirit’s leading. Feeling deep down in my soul that I must go out!! Staying close to home is cozy and safe but perhaps time is not yet to hang my boots up!! Deep in thought when I open my Magnificat and read the following!!

‘Hence the importance of standing always ready, of being cautious with attachments, of practicing the ascetics of not lingering. Those who wish to follow Christ must be ready to get up and go. They are not to think of taking luggage. As an exhortatory climax, the warning resounds - ‘Remember the wife of Lot. Whoever seeks his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it…..’

From experience we know the truth of St. Bernard’s claim: “Not to move forwards on the path of life is to slide back”. Standing still is not an option. We need to stay fixed on the goal we would reach, to mobilise our will, orient our desire’. (Bishop Varden)

Wow!! Walking with Jesus, in the Gladsome Light of Holy Spirit all the way home to Father God really and truly is high adventure!! Signposts in vivid display every step of  the way when we see with the eyes of our heart.

Chatting with folk who ‘got even’ with those who treated them horrendously one time. Only thing is, now they are no longer the victim, now they are the perpetrator!! So sad to see. Better to be a venerable survivor if at all possible.We must never seek revenge, hard as it might be to remain stoic in such times. 

In fact ‘getting even’ allows the real perpetrator off the hook, so to speak!!

‘Vengeance is mine’, says the Lord. God sees all!! Everything comes to those who wait.

So many times I almost abandoned my prayer-sharing mission. On each occasion though, someone or something miraculously prevented me from doing so. Happy days!!

                        ‘Let us run ahead by our desires and by progress in virtue’. (St. Bernard)

‘When you have done all that is commanded of you, say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty”. (Luke 17:10)

Visiting with dear Mary once again, beyond words.❤️

‘Pray it every morning and all of Heaven will be minding you. I cannot promise you that nothing will be wrong but you will be strong’. (Holy Spirit wisdom to my heart as I shared my prayer with young guy called Fionn, some years ago)

‘Everything God expects of us, He supplies. Whatever He commands, He enables’. (Elizabeth Elliott)

God’s Amazing Grace☀️🙏🏻

                  ‘Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’. (John 6:68)

‘We often need simply good eyes, sensitive to a need for attention in a poor soul. The test is to realise that nothing more important matters than the person in front of us in that instant’. 

(Fr. Donald Haggersty)

I could hardly believe my eyes!! Upcoming visitation to my compact cottage not filling me with joy at all. In fact some trepidation as to how it might all pan out. Then, thanks be to God, above wisdom in this month’s Magnificat magazine quelled my fears, ferrying on its wings, much needed clarity and peace. Light from on-High.

After Holy Mass, tea with distraught poor lady from a land far away. Myriad concerns, tired and alone. Definitely when Jesus enters the mix everything changes!!

Young girl, tear filled eyes had lost her mother’s money, loose change from shopping. Yes, she could have approached anyone in the store but she chose me. Jesus again!

Distributing Holy Communion, guys enduring and living with mental health issues ask as they always do; ‘Will you sing for us Bridget?’. What a privilege. I sang ‘Don’t give up till it’s over’, by Johnny Duran rip. On my way home I planned on seeking out uplifting songs and have them at the ready for my guys. Magnificat again! Perfect hymn!! My own melody. Always my hymns must have have meaningful words and catchy melodies. Warms our hearts and lifts our spirits.

Visiting with a dear man recuperating from surgery in another place and as we parted I told him; ‘I will call again next week please God, to which he replies; ‘Thanks for the warning!’.

Laughter, best medicine of all.

‘Dear Jesus, I know that intimacy with You brings us to the fullness of peace and love and that if I enter thus into Your heart, You shall freely enter into my heart. I need You to fulfil my mission, to carry my cross, and to keep myself in peace throughout the trials and difficulties of my life’. (Blessed Concepcion)

                                                                     Magnificat hymn!!❤️

Don’t worry. Be happy☀️🙏🏻

This afternoon, Jim touches down on my kitchen window sill, hail and hearty, looking stunning. What a transformation!

He had not been looking well recently. Scarily sore eye, bone weary, not in a good place at all. Obviously needing care and attention but Jim doesn’t hang around, mostly he eats and goes. That he drops by at all makes me feel truly blessed. For the longest time, frantic with nerves, Jim absconded whenever I dared move in his direction. Nowadays trusting totally, he knows he’s on solid ground. 

Jim trusts God too, he knows he is always in the care of his Heavenly Father. Jim relies totally on God’s Grace. I know it too but oh how easily I forget. Thank you Jim for reminding me……

‘Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or stow away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much mor valuable than they? Can anyone of you by worrying add a single hour to your life’? (Matthew6:26)

 

Walking with Jesus☀️🙏🏻

                                         Mom, Eric and Katy. God rest their gentle souls❤️🙏🏻
Dear lady deep in Alzheimer’s, gloriously enveloped in the Gladsome Light of Christ, translucent. Prayerful lady her long life through. Today, cozy in her reclining chair, I lean over to place Holy Eucharist on her tongue but before I could, opening her tired eyes she gently asks me; ‘Are you Mary Walsh?’. ‘Yes’, I reply, shocked. ‘Mary Walsh was my mother’. ‘You look so like her’, she utters, adding, ‘How did I just say that?’, herself pleasantly surprised too. I could have cried!! My dear Mom passed on to her eternal reward almost thirty years ago. Nora rarely speaks. Moment of transcendence, beauty and peace.

Today too I got to share a few words and my powerful prayer with one heartbroken grandad. After that, wonderful prayerful encounter with sad lady whose husband is in prison and will be in that place for a long time. Walking with Jesus because He knows the way!!

Strolling home, thanking God, carrying my loaf of ‘Sullivan’s’ bread (comfort food) when a guy I know well (his name is Sullivan) stops his car just to inform me that I was holding a ‘Sullivan’ in my arms so all is very well.

My reply; ‘Made it Ma. Top of the world!’

Laughter badly needed!! Always there is joy.

‘At each step we can admire the grandeur, the power, the goodness of God. How bountifully He provides for all our wants - I would even say for our pleasures!’. (St. Theodore Guerin)

St. Faustina’s Feast day☀️🙏🏻

I saw my beautiful Katy in my dreams last night, shiny black hair, wearing a red coat. Red was always Katy’s favourite colour! Transfixed, I gazed for a while as she walked gently along the side of a hill we both loved as children. Then, excitedly, I picked up my cellphone to photograph her. However, I just couldn’t do it. My camera just would not comply. Then I said to someone close by; ‘’Oh, she cannot be photographed where she is now’.

What a gift to my heart this morning as I awoke.

Thing is, twenty three years ago today, my boys and I arrived in this place, lock stock and barrel. Out of our comfort zone for sure. Without Katy and her husband Donal’s wonderful minding and caring of us in those windswept worrisome days, our suffering would have been far greater. God rest their kind gentle souls.

Katy came to me in the early hours of St. Faustina’s Feast day. We came here twenty three years ago on St. Faustina’s Feast day. Katy loved St. Faustina. We would pray together the powerful ‘Chaplet of Divine Mercy’. 

 Inseparable in life, inseparable in death. Together forever, my beautiful Katy and me.

‘I will daily repeat the following prayer which You Yourself have taught me, Jesus:

“O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a Fount of Mercy for us, I trust in You. Jesus I trust in You. Jesus us I trust in You”. (St. Faustina)

‘I desire to unite Myself with human souls; My great delight is to unite myself with souls. 

Know, My daughter, that when I come to a human heart in Holy Communion, My hands are full of all kinds of Graces which I want to give to the soul but souls do not pay any attention to Me;

 they leave Me to Myself and busy themselves with other things. 

Oh, how sad I am that souls do not recognise Love! They treat me as a dead object’. 

(Jesus to St. Faustina)

I love this!

The Unutterable Beauty

I’m a man and man’s a mixture. Right from his birth there’s part of him comes from Heaven and part of him comes from earth. 

There’s summit that draws him upward and summit that drags him down. 

The consequence is he wobbles twixt muck and a golden crown. (Woodbine Wille 1883-1929)

Nellie knew.☀️🙏🏻

‘On ever with Me. Do not let earth’s frets disturb you’. (Jesus/God calling)

Nellie, our precious pony ferried us to Holy Mass every Sunday morning. Five miles to the compact country Church, five miles back home again. No extreme safety measures, no seat belts. Old coats underneath us providing some respite from the hard cart. Our dear Mom must have worried so!

In all those years the nearest we came to having an accident was the time two little elderly ladies had one of their car lights broken, trying to avoid us on a tight bend. Otherwise we were safe and sound, Sunday after glorious Sunday.

Today, myriad years later, it dawned on me!! Nellie knew that once she did exactly what was expected of her, trotting along, looking straight ahead the whole time, then all would be well. No wonder we were safe and secure.

Thank you Nellie from my heart. For taking us to Holy Mass of course but also for reminding me to keep on walking in the Gladsome Light of Christ. What I do not know will not bother me and what I need to know Holy Spirit will tell me and He does, the whole time.

Simple as that!!

‘Be little and low. Let Jesus get on with His work and you will witness more miracles than you can ever imagine’. (Sr. Dede)

‘Be still and know that I am God’. (Psalm46:10)

‘Beauty is the heart’s encounter with the Living God’. (Bill Donaghy)