All is 🎁☀️🙏🏻

“I do not boast of preaching the gospel, since it is a duty which has been laid on me; I should be punished if I did not preach it. If I had chosen this work myself, I might have been paid for it, but as I have not, it is a responsibility which has been put into my hands. Do you know what my reward is? It is this; in my preaching, to be able to offer the Good News free, and not insist on the rights which the Gospel gives me”. ((1 Corinthians9:16-19)

Wow!! This morning’s reading really resonates in my deepest spirit. Profound.

Yesterday as I was visiting with Marina in St. Anne’s Nursing Home, forlorn lady crying copious tears approached me. She needed badly to go home but all the doors were locked and bolted. In her muddled confused state of mind everything was wrong with her world. Blind panic emanating from her exhausted beautiful face.

I knew from experience that trying to convince her that all is well would make not a jot of difference to the poor lady so I requested permission to sit awhile and we would pray Holy Rosary together. Mostly she sobbed silently through it all but when our prayer ended, miraculously so did her tears, ‘No more tears now’, she uttered and we both laughed joyously. 

I did not walk home, or even limp (torn ligaments). I danced all the way, at least my heart did. All the wages in the world count as naught when a dear dejected lady’s tears turn to life-giving laughter.

‘Be sure that you first preach by the way you live. If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing, but live otherwise and your words will bring only cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head’.            (St. Charles Borromeo)

Marina❤️

Just this minute as I’m rushing out my door for Holy Mass, I receive a phone call from St.Anne’s secretary asking if I would be Minister of the Most Holy Eucharist for today’s Holy Mass in St. Anne’s. Would I sing hymns too for the precious folk. What glad tidings to my ❤️. Dear God of my life, You will never be outdone in generosity. What a Mighty God we serve. Amen

(First time I get to attend Holy Mass in St. Anne’s ever since lockdowns began over two years ago!)

‘There bursts forth from my soul immense gratitude to Him for all the graces that He imparts to me, and especially for the grace of being called to His exclusive service’. (St. Faustina)