Aria Grace☀️🙏🏻

Welcome to our world Aria Grace Nolan. What joy!! Thank you Holy Trinity one God from our deepest heart. 

‘No man can live without delight’ (Thomas Aquilas)

Do what you do do well☀️🙏🏻

‘Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things and the God of peace will be with you’. (Philippians 4:8)

Fuel protests in progress. How can this be!! If I am doing something that hurts you how can I possibly have right on my side. Would my conscience not tell me so!

No, Mr/Mrs Protestor, you are not protesting in my name!!

Ordinary folk like me are not benefiting, in fact you are hurting us. Maybe not so much this little old grandmother in deepest Kerry but countless are struggling because of your misguided shenanigans.

Oh yea, almost forgot! God had no country! We are all God’s family. God has no favourites.

The real Irish people are many, varied, all sizes, shapes and colour. Happy days!!

When Mother Teresa was asked one time about ‘world peace’, she replied serenely; ‘ Love the folk you live with’. Not always easy to do but superb starting-point!

‘Let them turn away from evil and do good; Let them seek peace and pursue it’. (1Peter 3:11)

‘Thou dost keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because He trusts in Thee’. (Isaiah 26:3)

Total gift☀️🙏🏻

‘A joyful heart makes for a dazzling countenance’. (Proverbs 15:13)

John calls. ‘I have your Easter egg. Come and get it before there is a tragedy’. My heart skips a beat! ‘What tragedy, John’, I ask, tentatively, bearing in mind his unsteadiness right now. ‘I might eat it myself’, he replies, laughing loudly as only John does. John does pain and laughter in equal measure!

Easter Sunday, almost to his place I call John. ‘Did you eat the Easter egg John’. ‘I did. You didn’t jump fast enough’, he replies. ‘No problem John, I hope you enjoyed it’, I say. He did!!

Next morning he calls early; ‘Sorry about your Easter egg. I will get you something far better’. ‘You will not John’, I reply. ‘Our friendship is best gift of all’

Journeying with John who suffers so much is unutterably beautiful, heavenly, and totally undeserved. Pure gift! Ten years we are steadfast friends. Mostly he cannot cope with folk but somehow, by God’s glorious Grace, we remain unshaken. 

Again I quote Cardinal Robert Sarah; ‘Words spoil anything that surpasses them’.

They arrived in our town from a land far far away. When their baby was born, I gifted them a Frameo. Having photos of home and all else on display in their compact apartment would surely bring them joy and comfort. I love my Frameo. My family close at all times!! Yesterday they were so excited gifting me my new head-scarf. They ordered it from their own country. I love it so much!! My heart is full to overflowing. Sharing and caring is the only life worth living!! 

‘It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness’. (Eleanor Roosevelt).

 

Time is sacred☀️🙏🏻

Hospital staff are so nice!! All of them without exception. At least that is my experience every time. Six years ago, around now, I got to spend one whole week in hospital. Last week I got to spend one whole night in that same place.

This time, scarily high blood pressure. Receptionist, nurses, Docter, everyone doing all in their power to ease my anxiety and care for my every need. Come morning, blood tests yielding positive results, kind generous folk elated, witnessing favourable resolution. Homeward bound thank God.

Eight powerful prayers shared throughout the night. Eight wonderful encounters that would not have come to pass had my blood pressure not erupted. Jesus visiting His people.

Soon to be 70 years of glorious age and so being prescribed blood pressure meds is not at all shocking. In fact there are those who might suggest that perhaps I have gotten off light, not needing them until now.

Today, Good Friday Sacred ceremonies, I got to sing. ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord’ as congregation queued to kiss the Holy Cross. Hauntingly beautiful melody, heard-rending lyrics.

Tonight my grand children sleep soundly in their beds. Parents relaxing for Easter in this compact, delightfully humble cottage, far away from the madding crowd. 

‘I have never known real sorrow since the day I decided to serve with all my power, my Lord and Divine Consoler’. (St. Teresa of Avila)

‘Sainthood’ is simply another word for self-forgetfulness and generosity’, uttered somebody somewhere onetime!!

Reminding me of Diarmuid’s appraisal re folk who continually whine but do nothing; ‘Someone somewhere should do something about that’!!

Claude 🐈‍⬛ keeping an eye on me!!

My powerful prayer!

Beautiful day☀️🙏🏻

‘Be sure of this: God does not want our wretchedness but He is aware of it, and indeed He makes use of our weakness to make saints of us’. (Saint Josemaria Escriva)

Three bus journeys to get here and three to return home again. Amazing encounters. Myriad prayers shared. Countless stories told. I am tired and happy this night.

How was it that I touched down in this quaint little town……How to put it in words!!

Dear lady called my phone last Saturday evening. Shocked seeing her name. She had been ill for some time, dementia too. Did not expect a call from her for sure. Up to now, no one seemed to know anything of her whereabouts. I enquired many times but always a brick wall.

‘I miss you terribly’, I blurt out to which she replies: ‘I probably miss you too but I have no idea who you are’. 

Thing is, unaided she made that call, beyond remarkable!! Lady could have called anyone at all but God chose me. I am overjoyed.

So today I took the arduous ‘many bus journeys’ to be with her in her new Care Home. What a meeting!! No, she could not quite place me but my face rings a bell. No wonder!! We have shared many moments of joy and hilarity. Sadness too but always joy saved the day, even on the darkest of days.

Divine intervention phonecall!! No doubt about that. Truly amazing. Gladly I will take that arduous journey again and again, God willing. 

Moments like these truly remind my heart that God is real! God is near!! Yes He is!!

“Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet, especially your family. Be holy”. (St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta)

So many beautiful funny sad interesting encounters like;

Young guy, one whole year clean of drugs, alcohol and gambling. “You look really well”, I told him truthfully. ‘You did not hurt yourself much thank God’. ‘Mentally’, he uttered sadly. As we parted company, he gifted me a key ring with the words: ‘We don’t meet people by accident, they are meant to cross our path for a reason’. Wow!! I will gladly wear it on my backsack.

Older guy who at the moment is reading Alan Carr’s bestseller ‘How to control your drinking’. Thing is we had that same conversation over one year ago. He did not remember, “I may be still a little tipsy from last night’, he said and then laughingly added ‘“But of course you can not control your drinking, you must Stop. That’s the whole point of the book”. He is trying, he really is.

‘Heaven is full of converted sinners of all kinds and there is room for more’. (St. Joseph Cafasso)

Wear the world lightly!☀️🙏🏻

‘Free people make the world nervous’. (Fr. Dave Pivonka)

Relaxing on a street bench, resplendent with the holiness of God, sunshine beaming, as I stroll from St.Annes’s beautiful Holy Rosary. Already my heart full, having spent valuable time with my precious folk from God. Of course I pause: ‘Hello lady’. Gazing upon me so kindly, she replies: ‘ I know you. You are Bridget’.

Wow!! Will Father God say those same words to me one fine day: ‘I know you.You are Bridget’. I believe He will!! Oh happy day!!

I ask if she needs a Holy Bible. Her gentle reply: ‘Thankyou. I have one.’

‘Can you share your favourite Scripture verse’, I ask.  Smiling all the while, lady replies slowly, with the gravity her words deserve: ‘Psalm 51:10’. 

‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me’. 

‘It is all we ever need’, we both agree, in this unutterably beautiful moment in time.

‘If I live constantly in the company of Jesus, I will look like Him and do as He did’. (St. Mother Teresa)

 

One precious moment at a time☀️🙏🏻

Thank you wonderful Holy Spirit! Perfect timing as always!

Oftentimes, (last night) I awaken in deepest night full of concern for what might come to pass. Ridiculous I know but extremely real and utterly upsetting. Then I read the above!!

Living in the present moment is not a new concept to me but somehow in some sweet way I receive this glorious gem more fully and deeply into my deepest spirit, this rainy morning in deepest Kerry.

My dear Mom would say; ‘No news is good news’. Truly, only this morning do I fully get what she meant! Actually ‘no news’ is beyond good!! ‘No news’ is truly great!!

‘Everything is a work of love done for Christ’s sake and all I have to be concerned about is doing the duty of the moment. This is where my anxiety turns to joy’. (Catherine Doherty/Madonna House)

On my way to Holy Mass, going by a Builders yard, Tom is searching frantically for something, darting here and there at the speed of light. ‘What are you looking for Tom’, I holler. Stopping in his tracks, Tom replies laughing; ‘I don’t know!’.

‘When they found Jesus they said to Him; “Everyone is looking for You’. (Mark 1-37)