Confession is good for the soul.☀️

‘

‘I love Confession. Absolution falls on your ears like oil on your wounds. The forgiveness of God envelopes you like a mantle. The confessional is the alter of mercy’. (Catherine Doherty)

Dirt track outside my door gone, in it’s place pristine gloriously tarred road. Dramatic transformation, forever new. Just like my newfound sobriety, gifted freely to me by Almighty God.

Knock Shrine, day of prayer, silence and solitude, I picked up a prayer card that said - ‘Do not fight against a temptation by yourself, but disclose it to the confessor at once, and then the temptation will lose all it’s force’. (Jesus to Saint Faustina). I decided to go to confession and little did I know but I was about to embark on an exceedingly exciting adventure.

I told Father that I could never enjoy just one glass of wine, one led to more every time. Father asked how I felt next day. ‘Not as good as other days’, I replied. Father’s next words were not what I expected or wished for: ‘If it were me I would not drink wine again, but you will ask Jesus at Holy Mass, you are a woman of Prayer’. ‘Yes Father, I am in love with Jesus and He has spoken’, I uttered. 

Right there in that confessional, invasion of Grace revolutionising my life.My former life vanishing in one fell swoop, my new life born anew with The Risen Christ. I could never again partake of a glass of red, foreign concept 🍷 totally alien to my life.

God, in His mercy and kindness granted me a beautiful miracle, seamless transition. In my heart, I could see my wineglass being pushed to the edge of the table of my life, tumbling to the ground, shattering into million tiny pieces. Never to be put back together again.

Mammoth Grace in one moment. God gives those biggest Graces to the weakest souls because He knows we are not going to find it on our own unless He does something big. All Glory to God.

The Sacrament of Confession is a huge gift from God, counselling steeped in grace and healing. We are confessing our sins to the priest but because the priest is in Persona Christi, truly we are confessing our sins to Jesus. We are not informing Him - He knows everything already, we are simply speaking them out, laying them at the feet of Christ, offloading them from our hearts. 

We are involving and including Jesus in our misery. Jesus, in His Mercy, wipes the slate clean, we are forgiven, cleansed, renewed. ‘If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here’. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

God, not alone refreshes us by protecting us from the heat of vice, He fills our hearts with the love of virtue. Alcohol was not a problem in my life, it was a time wasting thing, a draining pursuit. My shackles are gone, Jesus set me free, so much has changed for the better - ‘Thou hast loosened my bonds’. (Psalm 115:16).  

In my deepest heart I was always drawn to this life, I always wanted to live this way, but I didn’t know how to get here, the code eluded me until that day in Knock Shrine when Jesus captured another piece of my heart. I became alive for the first time in the longest time, like I had been living in black and white and instantly everything turns to colour. What a Mighty God we serve.

My new life journey and my new tarred road - Forever new.

‘The more you give up, the more your heart becomes free for God and that is where real happiness comes from. God alone suffices’. (Brother John Diego/Trappist Monk)

Jesus told St. Faustina: ‘When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of Mercy’. ( Divine Mercy Diary 1602)

“You make your confession before Me. The person of the priest is, for Me, only a screen. Never analyse what sort of priest it is that I am making use of: open your soul in confession as you would do Me and I will fill it with light’. (Jesus told St. Faustina)

Therapists (for a hefty sum) will tell us how to manage our guilt. Jesus, on the other hand takes it completely away for no sum at all!!

‘Those who trust us, educate us. (George Eliot)☀️

Marina was blind, her cataracts at an advanced stage of development. In her time of blindness, she needed every day apart from her meals and other personal care, peeled orange, bottle of water and strepsil throat lozenger. Marina’s needs are super simple.

On the day of surgery, I accompanied Marina to the hospital. After surgery she fell fast asleep and I happily returned to my hotel. However, after some time, I felt uneasy and decided to visit with her again. This time I found Marina in deep sorrow, pointing to the ceiling, talking and crying inaudibly.  Dear beautiful Marina, locked in her own sorrowful world unable to verbalise her chronic pain and discomfort.

Nurse on duty saw only a mentally frail lady with weird mannerisms and therefore could not possibly have understood the situation. Thank you Holy Spirit from my deepest heart for prompting me to return, Marina received pain relief and before I took my leave she was sleeping soundly. 

Following morning, bandages off and Marina could see again Thank God. She thanked Docter for restoring her sight, but Docter was keenly aware that he received much more than he could ever give. The deepest desire of our heart is to be seen, known and loved and Docter was seen, known and loved by God that day, through the gentle eyes of Marina. Unforgettable moment in time for all of us.

On our journey to hospital Marina sat silently but journey home completely different affair. She gazed out the window smiling all the while. 

Marina could see clearly now and we who had spent valuable time with her could see a little clearer too.

‘Real goodness is always simple. Simplicity is so attractive and profitable. It is strange that so few people are really simple’. (Leo Tolstoy).

Eyes that have cried, see the clearest.💎

‘They also serve who only stand and wait’. (John Milton/‘On his blindness’)

Johnny is very upset, his Mom cries a lot. Deep in Alzheimer’s, Claire has many imagined worries and fears. Johnny thought if they prayed a decade of the Rosary, his Mom might find peace. He was amazed and delighted with the difference it made. He wonders why God is so slow about taking his Mom home, his beautiful Mom has no quality of life now. I say, that for now, we can but see the back of the tapestry, one day it will all make perfect sense.

Johnny will be wiser when he comes through this painful time. Mystery can only be entered into, never understood. Successful business man, decade of the Rosary would not normally figure on his ‘to do’  list but now the only thing his Mom knows is Prayer. Johnny is happy to have found a cure for Claire, he may well be about to find out that the cure is for himself too.

Sister Wendy said - ‘Not to pray, is a reluctance to live life to the full. It is the choice of a small warm, selfish life. It would be like Rembrandt refusing to paint because he could live on his wife’s money’.

Our elderly have a profoundly important function but rarely is it ever recognized. They are our teachers, families and carers learn patience, kindness, tenderness, and so much more. School of life, best university of all. Kind staff get kinder, unkind staff get kind. Kindness like snow beautifies everything it covers.

God knows what He’s about, His timing perfect. When Claire’s work here on earth is accomplished, when her basket is full, God will gently come for her to be with Him forever. 

My life is but a weaving between my God and me. I may but choose the colours, He worketh skilfully.

But oft He chooses sorrow, and I in foolish pride, forgets He sees the upper and I the underside.
Amen.

Make your life, not your words, your argument.☀️

It puzzles me greatly and saddens me more watching my beautiful folk abandoned by friends, now that they need them more than any other time in their long lives. Families of Alzheimer sufferers are under so much pressure, mentally and physically with much to contend wiith.

Ella, beautiful petite dainty lady seldom speaks but her smile says it all. She is always animated and full of joy in our Sacred Space. When her son and daughter visit she dances with delight in her chair. When her son sings and plays guitar in our Holy huddle, Ella gazes on him, smiling broadly, saying without words - ‘That’s my boy’. He brings his Mom sweets every time - three maltesers.

Ella’s daughter is so caring of her pretty glamorous Mom, so much love between them, unspoken agape love, the highest Love of all. It would be such a great help if Ella’s friends had continued being ‘friends’. Her loving family could take a break sometimes, a burden would be shared, a load lightened

There can be no greater task for us, than to be at the service of the Divine plan. Everything God gives us, He gives with someone else in mind, our gifts are not just for ourselves alone, our gifts are for sharing. If we each did one small thing, they would all mount up to a big thing and we would make such a difference in someone’s life in the process. There is no higher calling, in my humble opinion.

‘Paul exhorts the Philippians that they should do all that has to be done and not complain about it. If you are kind and harm no one, you will live a life without bitterness. You will live as God’s children in the simplicity and joy of your good actions’. (Hildegard of Bingen)

‘Time wastes us our bodies and our wits - And we waste time: so Time and us are quits’.

(From an old sundial)

.