We don’t know what God knows.☀️🎶

‘Who goes to bed and doth not pray, maketh two nights to every day’. (George Herbert)

Eve called early this morning, just to say hello. I was hoping she had good news regarding her visa but no, she has heard nothing yet. When it arrives please God she will board a flight to Africa, collect her young son and they will both happily return together to reside in Ireland. O happy day🎆 

She is super excited in anticipation and all the while saving every penny of her hard earned wages. About the trial of wondering and waiting for the much longed-for visa, she uttered the following sage words: ‘In everything we must be patient. If it is not coming, then the time is not good. We don’t know what God knows’. In that moment I was blessed to be at the receiving end of a perfect parable on patience. In a few simple words, Eve said it all. What a start to my day.☀️

At Holy Mass frail Ukrainian lady walked purposefully up the centre aisle as she does every morning. Kneeling in prayer oblivious to everyone and every thing except Jesus on Holy Alter. Afterwards we met outside and I gifted her brown wooden Rosary beads that is very dear to my heart. Holding it gently like it was cut glass, she began kissing the Holy Cross over and over, crying the whole time. After a while she whispered:’Money’. Assuming she needed money I reached for my bag when another lady appeared telling me that she too was from Ukraine and would interpret for the lady and I. What a blessing! Turns out the frail lady was not asking for money for herself, she was asking if I wanted payment for the beautiful Rosary beads. I most certainly did not.

Walking with Dudu this evening and her wise words: ‘Live in God and He will teach you everything’, resonated deeply in my heart. All day I had been thanking Holy Spirit for prompting me to gift that lady my Rosary beads. Dudu, from South Africa had no knowledge of the event.📿 

Our little town is not just for ourselves anymore, we are reaping a second chance to care and share, open wide our hearts and hands. Many families have alighted on our town from war-torn Ukraine and are dwelling in the self same hotel where my dear friend Paulina RIP and many others lived for a brief spell two years ago. That is how it goes, if we will not do it the first time, then there will always be a second time. God is able to fulfill His plans despite human failings.

So, forgetting about ourselves in these challenging times, let us each do something. Over time countless little acts of kindness and generosity will be accomplished and together they will amount to something grand and glorious🌹. 

Our visitors do not come to our little town empty handed, they have much to share with us too. Win/win situation. 

‘Self-forgetfulness is a marvellous type of freedom’. (Fr. Richard Ho Lung)

Wonderful Wednesday.🙌

Bridie’s prayer.🙏🏻

I approached the couple who had joined our 3PM live-streamed Holy Rosary in Church today and offered them copy of Bridie’s prayer. As the man read the prayer his eyes filled up with tears. ‘This is for me’, he said gravely. We stood in silence and then, when he could, he told that his son had died recently having suffered heart attack. 

Before we took leave of one another I told him that my copy of Bridie’s prayer is fixed on my kitchen wall right next to my electric kettle reminding me at all times that : ‘Whoever has God lacks NOTHING’.

Generous lady handed me two big bags of colouring books/crayons, copy books, toiletries and lots more as I left our Church. Would I get them to our Ukrainian visitors please. That turned out to be such a pleasant experience. I asked some people outside hotel if they would like to choose some stuff and somehow I ended up sat on the footpath while little children and mothers discussed in their own Ukrainian dialect the contents of my two bags. Joyous merry occasion in the midst of so much pain and heartache. I got warm bear hugs before we parted company. Keepsake in my deepest heart.

I visit with a dear lady in early onset Alzheimers every Wednesday. We pray Holy Rosary, we drink tea, she tells me stories of days long gone. Today her toe hurt so I placed her tired feet in a basin of warm salty water. As I knelt on the floor lovingly washing and drying her feet I cannot adequately articulate how honoured and privileged I felt to be in that sacred space. 

To be allowed serve another in this way is just too rich for words. To be the Hands and Feet of Jesus, to follow in His Divine sublime footsteps as He washed the feet of the Apostles on Holy Thursday night. To be part of something so much greater and grander than my musty minuscule world of me, myself and I.

‘We cannot give God greater glory than by bringing forth Christ in our lives, by putting on Christ, by entering into Christ, for Christ it is through Whom and with Whom and in Whom, in the unity of the Holy Spirit is all the Glory of God’. (Dom Boylan)

Cardinal Robert Sarah was bang on when he wrote: ‘Words spoil anything that surpasses them’. My words are paltry and puny but still I must put in writing my wonderful Wednesday from God.

This evening as I walked back home tired and content, Bar-owner Tommy called out to me as he whizzed past on his bike: ‘Hello Bridget. Thank you for that beautiful prayer’. Myriad times I am sorely tempted to call it a day and offer nobody ever again my two prayers but then a day like today pops up filling me with zeal, restoring my resolve to keep right on to the end of the road. Awesome God.🙏🏻❤️

Mother’s Day. 🌸

‘We have only to turn to the Blessed Virgin to be heard. Her heart is all Love. (Cure D’Ars)

‘Jesus meets His Mother’, fourth Station of the Cross grants me pause every time. Twenty five years ago my eldest son Eric got run over by a speeding car in Swords. Miraculously he survived to tell the tale. 

I remember gazing on that Station in our Church in Swords soon after Eric got out of Hospital and telling Jesus from my deepest grateful heart: ‘You are so kind dear Jesus. You know very well how much your beautiful Mother suffered as she watched you die a horrific death on the cross and you would not allow me go through it’. To this day, every time I pray Stations of the Cross, the fourth Station catapults me right back to that day and time. My heart never forgets.

Today, Mother’s Day, is your day Mother Mary, it is not mine. All the wonderful loving kindness I receive from my wonderful sons, I offer to your beautiful heart. Their thoughtful generous gifts I will happily share with others. 

We are safe in your care as you lead us to Jesus your son, our elder brother.

‘Everything I have learned about beauty in it’s simplicity and magnificence, I learned from the Blessed Virgin Mary’. (J.R.R. Tolkien)

I dedicated Mother’s Day to Mother Mary many years ago when my children were very young. I remember clearly the day and time, precise moment even, when I realised and understood, in my deepest heart without a shadow of a doubt that Mother’s Day is Mother Mary’s Day. Profound truth from on high that has stayed with me up and down the long years.🕊

‘He was dangerously ill and close to death. However God had mercy on him - and not merely on him but on me as well, so that I would not have to endure one sorrow on top of another’.                         (Philippians 2:27)

Today.🌹

‘Lord, You’re full and You fill us with Your kindness too. You’re great and we’re small. Tell us, how are we to become like You then?’. (Mechthild of Magdeburg)

What a day! So many wonderful encounters. Grace filled moments. James at the coffee vending machine accepted my prayer joyfully as did Martin who was about to take off on his high-powered motor bike. Pretty girl with warmest smile meditating on the Church grounds grass could not have been more sunny as she gratefully accepted my prayer too. 

Lady who already possesses my prayer stopped to chat and as we went our separate ways she said: ‘I feel better now’. Pleasant man at the bank machine gently refused but oh with so much grace and kindness. 

I cannot recall when it was that I began handing out my prayer to folk, no memory of it. I do not remember deciding to do it. Somehow it came to pass and I am so glad,

John and I went on a shopping spree to Bank’s corner shop for his Mom’s ‘Mother’s day’ gift. A few years ago John bought his Mom a small mirror for two euro in that shop and his Mom still compliments his handy gift. This year’s gift was more expensive but is really pretty and quite unique, John was really pleased.

Enjoying our coffee later John laughingly said: ‘I bought you nothing coz you’re not my mother’. Suddenly I was catapulted back in time, my late husband Eric would utter those exact words every Mother’s Day; ‘I bought you nothing coz you are not my mother’ and every year we laughed. ‘I kinda was his mother’, I told John. 

With the passage of time memories that hurt like hell for a time lose their jagged edges and can be relived with love and even enjoyed. What a wonderful thing is Time. 

I met K strolling along in the midday sun, first time since he uttered those heartbreaking words: ‘I am dying’, in Church a few months ago. He is taking copious tablets but feeling well Thank God. We were both really happy to meet up. ‘Are you saying my prayer’, I asked him. ‘’Sometimes’, he replied smiling. ‘Sometimes is good’.

Alice in her gorgeous shop  ‘Skellig Soaps’, sporting her brand new hairstyle gifted me six wholesome free-range eggs, industrious hens ultra generous at this time. Be next person in her door only requirement to receive such a sublime gift. Alice and I have a beautiful friendship, I was her Mom Rosie’s companion for a long time. Rosie is forever in my heart.

3PM Holy Rosary in Church and as always live-streamed to St. Anne’s nursing home. Many joining us from various other locations too. I arrived home to my humble cozy abode, exhausted and famished with the hunger when my dear friend and neighbour Eileen dropped by bearing a most delicious dinner. She had cooked enough for two. I danced for joy, no other way of letting her know my profound gratitude.

Magnificent Friday. Happy now to be home at last in my own corner.

‘Our Lord God wants us to love Him just as He has loved us and loves us still, and always will. If we want to be like Him, we will love just as He does. (Mechthild of Magdeburg)

When the evening shadows fall, may the quiet heart recall - not the troubles of the day but small mercies by the way: the unexpected gift bestowed - the friend you met along the road. Not the things you failed to do - but the wishes that came true’. (Patience Strong)

Everyone is beautiful, in their own way..🌸

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

                            First wonderful conversation of the day -  sister Josie and me.❤️

                                 ‘You better get used to those bars, kid’. (Back to the future/Film)

Sitting in the sunshine with Joan in the afternoon. Listening to Joan never gets old.🥳

‘Are you wearing a mini’, asked Joan😂

This evening, Tanye and I strolling. She arrived in our town from Ukraine less than a week ago and already it feels like she’s been here forever. ⏰

Armed with her new pad and pen, Tanye will begin penning her uninvited adventure tonight.🎆

‘This is Eden’, Tanye exclaimed this evening - ‘But I miss my homeland, my husband and my cat so much’.😌

What a privilege is mine to be her Irish Mammy in these tumultuous times.❤️

                                 Joy and sadness can exist simultaneously in the human heart.😀😌

                                                              Tea and cake at No.6. 🇮🇪 🇺🇦 

If we could plan our lives, there’d be no trials, no tears, no loss. But then how should we ever learn the meaning of the Cross? If all went went we’d never need to kneel and close our eyes - and never learn about the things that make us strong and wise’. (Patience Strong)

 

A thousand welcomes 🙌 🇺🇦 🇮🇪

‘Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.

 (Marlyn Vos Savant)

This morning, on my way to Holy Mass, I offered Tanya and her young son Mischa my prayer. I had no idea who they were as is oftentimes the case when I am sharing my prayer. Turns out, Tanya and Mischa have only just arrived in our town having fled the horrors of war in their Ukraine homeland. They accompanied me to Holy Mass and afterwards we talked and talked over hot coffee and doughnuts.

What a tale is theirs and still they could smile and laugh as they candidly shared with me their outrageous odyssey. No trace of doom and gloom even though their hearts are shattered right now. Grateful to God to be here and safe, hopeful for the future they display no trace of self pity. I felt honoured and privileged to be in their company, deeply humbled too. 

Father God, may Your extraordinary Love flow through me in ordinary ways. Amen 

‘Sadness is looking at ourselves. Happiness is looking towards God’. (Blessed Carlo Acutis)

   ‘All we have left is our knowledge, our love, and our bare hands’. (Paul Takashi Nagai)

‘Jesus asks all of us, who would be His disciples, to embrace the role of servant, emptying ourselves of our own needs and wants and self-importance for the sake of others, realising the profound truth that we receive only in giving, that greatness is found only in humility and service, that resurrection is possible only in suffering and death’. (Jay Cormier)

                                                                        Mother and son.❤️

                                                            Bank’s ice cream 🇮🇪 Ukraine 🇺🇦 

                                                     Mischa’s 17th Birthday- July 20th.🥳🎁🇺🇦

Nothing has changed.🌸

 

‘Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven’.

(Matthew 5:16)

Home again after my brief stay in Dublin’s fair city. Over the past few days countless folk in many different locations accepted joyfully and gratefully my prayer, Heston Station, Grafton Street, Henry Street, and many other locations besides. Myriad tales of woe and wonder, sharings extraordinaire came to pass and all because my dear friend Paulina passed on to her eternal reward while she slept peacefully one week ago.

The one and only reason I found myself in Dublin was to attend Paulina’s Prayer Service. I love Dublin (I lived there for twenty eight years before returning home to my own place), but exceptional grounds would be required for me to embark on such an arduous bus and train journey from most southern tip of the island of Ireland.

Paulina is out of sight but she is not absent from my life. ‘P&B Prayer Sharers’, still goes strong, only the dynamic has changed, that’s all. God turns all things to good. In the economy of salvation nothing is wasted.

‘Those who’ve left us are not absent, they are invisible. They keep their eyes full of glory fixed on ours full of tears’. (St. Augustine)

Life is like that!🌺

‘There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man and woman which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ’. (Pascal)

I sat and chatted with many homeless folk, some downcast but many upbeat and happy with their lot. As always, without fail, they became more animated when they received my prayer than when they received my money. Same every single time. 

Like Darren who had people drop by and chat with him all the time. ‘I slag everyone’, he told me and I was no exception. He offered my prayer to the guy who had been chatting with him and to the street cleaner too. The accepted joyfully. If I could have stayed longer I would have had no prayers left in my bag.

My soul felt like it ate a huge burger as I took leave of Darren. I hope we meet again.😃

‘Bread for yourself is a material matter: bread for other people is a spiritual matter’.

 (Nikolai Berdyaev)

Our Taxi drivers were very happy to accept my prayer. One guy from Iran told me that my smile was enough to pay my fare. He refused my money point blank and when I offered him my ‘Kerry Prayer’, he was delighted. ‘You have a rich heart’, he told me. Mysterious moving experience in rush-hour Dublin.

Another Taxi driver from Pakistan told us his name was Suleman and we were sure he said ‘Sullivan’. 😂

Praying for peace🙏🏻

‘With Christians, a poetical view of things is a duty. We are bid to colour all things with hues of Faith, to see a Divine meaning in every event’. (St. John Henry Newman)

Chris from Poland, quietly going about his beautiful business with sand. As I knelt for a photo with him, Chris gently passed me his knee cushion and a brush. 

He perused my prayer before placing it in an inside pocket. Every morning he prays for peace in our world. He prays for the poor people in Ukraine. He prays for change of heart for Mr.Putin.

Henry Street buzzing but when Chris spoke it was as if all noise was suspended for a time. The Gladsome Light of Christ enveloped that tiny corner of the world, giving me pause, lifting me up. I was loathe to leave.

‘Beauty is that which pleases when seen or heard’. (St. Thomas Aquinas)

‘I will treasure this Mam’, spoke the affable young man (Jerome) in Veritas as he accepted my prayer.((I could not resist purchasing these pretty Rosary beads). As we introduced ourselves, I said: ‘Saint Jerome’. He replied smiling: ‘Saint Bridget’. Another light-filled encounter from Father God.👑

                                         Surprise glorious catch-up for my boys and me too.🥳❤️

Paulina, your work on earth is done.🌸

‘Like an hourglass with a certain number of grains of sand within it, God has appointed your life to last only a certain number of days and you have absolutely no idea how many there are. 

In God’s presence, consider: I have no idea when my life will end. 

All I know is that death will come to me eventually. 

Am I doing anything to prepare for the real possibility that God may call me sooner rather than later?

 If He called me into Eternity would I be ready?’. 

(Patrick Madrid)

Beautiful Prayer service today in memory of, and honouring the life of my fond friend Paulina.❤️🙏🏻

‘Father, in the Holy Name of Jesus, please help me do right by others and everyone you bring into my life. Amen

God is in control.💥

As the dreadful shock of Paulina’s passing subsides, many wonderful memories from our time together rise to the surface vying for my attention. Like the way she would always say when yet another hurdle came across her path: ‘It is fine. There is no problem. God is in control of everything, all the time’. Dear Paulina overcame many obstacles in the course of her short life.

When she took the train to Cork city every Friday, she would offer my prayer to any homeless person she encountered. Oftentimes we would laugh and say: ‘That is just who we are: ‘P&B Prayer sharers’. John remarked when he heard of Paulina’s passing: ‘It was a marvellous thing that Paulina became a Missionary to the homeless’. Yes indeed, it is within all of our power to lighten another’s load no matter our trial or circumstance.

This morning at Holy Mass a man informed me that my friend J, who was sitting right next to me had dropped money on the floor. I was embarrassed, appalled and hurt for J.  How could the man in question not see that his otherwise thoughtful action was rudeness personified? J was perfectly capable of dealing with the paltry matter, he did not need an interpreter. Then I thought of dear Paulina and all the times she must have felt invisible and irrelevant. There and then peace returned as I breathed deeply and relaxed, imbibing her sublime words into my deepest spirit: ‘It is fine. There is no problem. God is in control of everything all the time’.

Thank you Jesus for the company I am privileged to keep, kindly folk who never cease to inspire and call me higher. Folk oftentimes overlooked and yet they walk right on, heads held high, shining brightly from their broken places. I know that when I am privileged to walk with them I am really and truly walking with You my precious Lord and Saviour. Here I long to remain, there is no other place on this earth I want to be.

‘Our Lord is never found in pomp, pleasure, luxury, but in lowliness and humiliation’. (Cure D’Ars)

Compassionate God, open our eyes to see You in the faces of the poor, the troubled, and the forgotten; open our hands to reach out to them in Your hope and peace. May we give you thanks for Your many blessings to us by seeking to share those blessings with all our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Amen

Dear Paulina.🙏🏻☀️

May the Lord have mercy on your gentle soul, dear Paulina. May your soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen. 

Because of you Paulina, I know who God is. 🎆🙏🏻

‘Our true worth does not consist in what human beings think of us. What we really are consists in what God knows us to be’. (St. John Bergmans)

‘To give and give, and give again, what God hath given thee; To spend thyself nor count the cost, to serve right gloriously the God that gave all worlds that are, and all that are to be’. (Woodbine Willie, died of influenza, worn out in God’s service/1929)