Happy day.🥳☀️

Elderly little lady pushing a child’s buggy overflowing with random items, stopped to chat. She was wondering if I had some loose change in my pocket for her cup of tea. I gave her all I had and a copy of my prayer too. Instantly I was reminded of another elderly lady named Mary who pushed a buggy full of random items in Swords when my children were young. One thing renews another.....

Mary loved the open road, travelling was her way of life. I loved her company, she exuded freedom and light. One time I invited her to join me for coffee in a local cafe but she gently declined. Mary knew in her heart that she would never be warmly welcomed by polite society. I fetched her coffee and a scone and as she took them from me I will always remember her heartfelt wishes for me: ‘God Bless you girl and the best of luck to you and your new teeth’. Mary noticed my brand new sparkling dentures. If others did they never said.😀

Back to today! The young girl in the Greenway shop could not accept my €50 for my much needed bottle of water, she had not enough change in her till. As I walked away she called to me: ‘I will pay for it’. I accepted gratefully and the kind young girl happily accepted my prayer. Win/win situation.

That little lady pushing the child’s buggy had no idea when she relieved me of my loose change this morning, she was setting in motion a chain of kindness that spilled over into my whole day. Like Holy Rosary after Holy Mass with prayerful folk I never before encountered. A blouse I purchased that I really believed only existed in my mind - utterly perfect - and so much more.🙌

‘Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares’.

(Hebrews 13:2)

The young guy absorbed on his iPhone, a tad irked by my intrusion, almost refused my prayer today but then did an about turn saying: ‘Ok so’. ‘My name is Bridget. Say it every morning and one day you will be delighted you met this grandmother’, I suggested -  to which he replied smilingly: ‘Thank you. I’m Ciaran. Nice to meet you’.☀️

Catherine accepted my prayer. Fragile and broken, tears in her eyes the whole time. (I was reminded of a line from a song: ‘Years of bad decisions running down her face’). She had not even the price of a litre of milk, her son took her money for alcohol and drugs. She didn’t ask me for money, we just chatted and it all came out. She waited outside Mr. Price while I went in to get some change and a big bar of white chocolate. I will never forget her smile when I handed her 5€ and the big bar of chocolate. For a split-second she was young again, bright and beautiful in her brokenness. She needed the money (for whatever reason) but the chocolate brought her real joy, she wasn’t expecting that.☀️ Catherine remains in my heart now too. She accepted a prayer for her son. 

At Holy Mass this morning when the priest prayed: ‘Peace be with you’  from Holy Alter I had the profound knowing in my deepest spirit that beautiful Jesus was blessing all of us in that singular moment of Divine Grace.🙏🏻

‘We are placed in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can out of them for ourselves, but to labour in them for Him. As Christ has worked we too have but to labour in them for Him. As Christ has His work, we too have ours; as He rejoiced to do His work we must rejoice in ours also’.

                                                                    (St. John Neumann)