What a mighty God we serve!!🙏🏻☀️

Paidi Ruairi Nolan touched down this morning at 9.40AM. Fresh from God, newest member of our fast-growing family. We are beyond grateful. No words! Little brother for Daithi.

‘You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb’.         (Psalm 139:13)

Rain bucketing down as I made my way to St. Anne’s for Holy Rosary in the afternoon but I hardly felt one drop!! My grateful, light as a feather heart dancing for joy in the knowledge that I am now Nan to no less than six little ones!! I love every minute of being Mom and now I’m loving every minute of being Nan too. I am truly blessed!

In St. Anne’s, young guy visiting his Godmother sat in our midst throughout the whole Rosary and trimmings. What joy for my precious folk. Clearly young guy enjoying every minute too as he unashamedly prayed and sang along.

One can live many years with no thought of God and even live well. Only problem is though that one fine day it will all come to an abrupt end. What then???

We find out that God is all we need when God is all we’ve got!!

I sang at Holy Mass tonight, All Saints vigil. My sister Mai joined in. Precious. Ours was not always an easy alliance. 

The longer I live the more I know and believe without a shadow of a doubt, that every single thing is gift. Holy Trinity, one God will never be outdone in generosity.

Co-operate with Grace is all we are asked to do. 

‘Don’t spend your energies on things that generate worry, anxiety and anguish. Only one thing is necessary: Lift up your spirit and love God’. (St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina)

‘Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet’. (Bob Marley)

This morning (1/11) two wonderful encounters copper fastening what I wrote yesterday:

Young lady from Albania gifted me beautiful flowers uttering: ‘Thank you. You are like my mother’.

Young lady from Switzerland uttered when I told her that I am a grandmother who loves sharing my powerful prayer: ‘I love talking with elderly folk. You always care about us young people’.

Mom and Nan😀❤️

Pilot Pete✈️

Wonderfully uplifting faith-sharing encounter with Pilot Pete all the way from Chicago in Church this afternoon. As we parted company I told him: ‘Every time I fly I wish with all my heart I possessed enough courage to gift our pilot my prayer. So many times I plan on doing it but lose my nerve every time’.

‘Oh but you must’, Pilot Pete exclaimed. ‘A prayer and a cookie and say Pilot Pete told you’.

‘A Pilot who prays’, I beamed with delight. ‘How consoling for crew and passengers on board’.

‘There are many of us’, he gently replied. 

Next time 🙏🏻 ✈️ please God. My powerful prayer is about to fly!! 

‘Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will, and being just what God wants us to be’. 

(The Little Flower)

So glad I said ‘yes’ early this morning  (28th), when my friend called wondering if she might drop by for tea and chat even though every fibre of my being yearned to refuse! Saturday morning my only morning to stay home and far away from the madding crowd!!

Turns out my dear friend had lots on her mind, not least her beautiful granddaughter emerging finally after many months of self-enforced hibernation in her own home. Bullied in school God love her.

I sent that young lady my powerful prayer. She will pray it every morning and all of Heaven will be minding her now. 

Thank you Holy Spirit for Your awesome guidance in my life always!!

‘I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us’. 

(Charles Dickens)

Anchored in The Lord☀️

May we ever be aware in everything we do, Lord. That knowledge comes from learning and wisdom comes from You. Amen

The clear thought ‘You mind mine. I’ll mind yours’, awakened me from my deep slumber. Glorious consoling confirmation from on High!! Every time I reach out in love to my brothers and sisters in Christ, when I joyfully willingly share, then my own dear family are safe in Father God’s wonderful care. I love it!!

Two main purposes of life: To grow and to serve.

Today, witnessing our visitors from foreign lands overjoyed and extremely grateful for much needed assistance from our little Church community and one charitable organisation who went that extra mile, moved me to tears. What a privilege to be part of something so incredibly beautiful.

To be a combatant and not merely a spectator in these troubled times.

This evening I enjoyed amazing African food gifted to me by one young man. ‘It is all I can give’, he told me. I could honestly reply from my deepest heart that he and his country folk are gifting us far more than they realise - if we but have the eyes to see! Our visitors do not come empty-handed. (First time in my life to eat African meal. Beyond delicious!!)

Lady in Church, enduring Alzheimer’s, happily accepted my prayer. ‘She will say it every morning’, her daughter told me. Young boy working in shop will pray my prayer every morning too because ‘he does not like his job one bit’. Many other amazing prayer-sharing encounters too. No refusal in the longest time!!

Lady ahead of me in shop queue, her basket bearing mostly alcohol, walking with the aid of a stick. How she came to my aid when I realised my loose change was less than the cost of my goods!! (Wallet at home). Dear kind lady. Generous shop assistant insisted on paying my debt though. (Money and me!!)

I love gifting our visitors notepads and pens so they can begin offloading their thoughts and terrors. I know only too well the benefits gleaned. All of us are uniquely crafted with a story that indicates that fact. 

Let us write our own story. No one knows it better than ourselves! 

Live hopefully! No matter what.

‘Many live like angels in the midst of the world. Why not you?’. (St. Jose Maria Escriva)

Whoever has God lacks NOTHING☀️

‘Faith and love are like the blind man’s guides. They will lead you along a path unknown to you, to the place where God is hidden’. (St. John of the Cross)

Deep trauma indelibly etched across the landscape of her sad anxious face when we met for the first time, three weeks ago. She had just arrived in our town from a land far far away. Amongst other stuff, I gifted her St.Benedict medal. This morning she approached me smiling brightly. ‘My nightmares are gone since I began wearing your medal’, she whispered. (Last time we talked, she did not. She merely nodded). I stifled tears of joy and gratitude!

Young man, handsome, beaten down by life accepted my prayer. When I remarked on his beautiful smile his tired eyes glistened with tears. 

Gentle lady in St. Anne’s Holy Rosary group deep in Alzheimers. Non-verbal. Today she made the sign of the cross over herself smiling brighter than a thousand suns. Then she did it a second time with so much divine delight.

Thing is, as I hurried to Church early this morning (my day to be Sacristan, sing, read at Holy Mass, pray Holy Rosary from Holy Alter before Holy Mass) I was thinking to myself how much I love this joyous life Father God bestows upon me every day of my life. 

Not that I voluntarily succumbed! No way. Twenty years ago I cried and pleaded with God to let us somehow remain living in Swords. Yes, Everything was crumbling around us but for God nothing is impossible so why could it not just happen as we dearly hoped and wished for.

Thank you Father God from my deepest heart. You gave me everything I needed, nothing I wanted. Turns out what I wanted was far inferior to the riches You held in store for me. Every single day I realise it more and more.

‘Let us make up for lost time. Let us give to God the time that remains to us’. (St. Alphonsus Liguori)

‘For  My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts’.        (Isaiah 55:8-9)

St. Benedict medal.🙏🏻

Kenmare adventure☀️

‘At each step we can admire the grandeur, the power, the goodness of God. He provides for all our wants - I would even say for our pleasures’. (St. Theodore Guerin)

‘I went to the woods because I wanted to live life deliberately. I wanted to live deep, suck out all the marrow of life. To put out all that is not life and not when I come to die, discover that I had not lived’.

(Henry David Thoreau)

Precious memories☀️

‘A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul’. (St. Therese of Lisieux)

Mary and her companion/carer relaxing on a bench enjoying soothing afternoon sun. I plonk myself down beside them. Mary has Alzheimer’s. ‘I have a tale to share’, says I……

Almost fifty years ago one freezing night, I, teenager, travelled home to Kerry from Dublin on a bone-shaker draughty bus. Next to me sat a pleasant lady. We chatted (I have no idea what about!) and next thing I know I’m waking from deep slumber wrapped in a cozy coat, snug as a bug in a rug. My fellow-passenger must have been so cold without her warm coat on that sub-zero bus for a huge part of our journey. 

Twenty years later I and my young children visited that same lady’s shop in Kerry, and she told me that soon she would be undergoing surgery in a Dublin hospital. I made a mental note of the date and place. Some days after her surgery took place, kind lady awoke to find little old me sitting on a chair by her bed. She could not believe her eyes!! Favour gratefully returned! 

Lady in question, none other than dear Mary, seated next to me once again after many long years, this time on a bench in the afternoon sun. How she enjoyed hearing my happy tale, her companion too.

‘Tell her again tomorrow’, I suggest to her companion (also named Mary). ‘I will tell her every single day’, replies Carer Mary.

Kindness! The gift that keeps on giving!

‘Great love can change small things into great ones, and it is only love which lends value to our actions’.(St. Faustina Kowalska)

One day at a time☀️

‘I know by experience how one should take the hardships as they come, day by day, one by one, rather than look forward or backward either. To live in the ‘now’ is to be like little children. To be utterly dependent on our Father is to be like little children’. (Dorothy Day)

Yesterday, feeling overwhelmed realising the pittance I can do for impoverished folk arriving in our town right now, when compared to their gigantic need. Flash in the pan! Poor folk possessing nothing, sometimes not even the bare essentials! Abject poverty!

Then, gently, wonderful Holy Spirit spoke into my deepest spirit: ‘Whoever I bring to you on any one day’. Real moment of being overrun by Grace. God is calling us to do good TODAY!

Glorious peace restored! One day at a time, dear Jesus. The Lord is always sending messages to our hearts. Thankyou Jesus, You kept me safe from sinking!

We try to do our best. God will do the rest!

‘The Grace of God pursued me at every step and God spoke to me when I least expected it..’(St. Faustina)

I had forgotten too that today is St. Francis of Assisi Feast day. ‘Start by doing what is necessary: then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible’. (St. Francis)

Francis loved ‘Lady Poverty’. As I write, my phone rings. Lady caller’s name from distant continent: ‘Francesca’!!

Many of us have overflowing wardrobes. Sharing is good for body and soul.

I am in awe of our visitors’ kindness towards one another. Constantly sharing the little they have with one in their midst who possesses even less!! Truly living witnesses of Jesus Christ in our town.

‘Our spirituality should come from living deeply with the poor. A spirituality of being with vulnerable people and of being vulnerable with them - that’s the great journey!’.

 (Henri.J.M. Nouwen/The road to peace)

God is amazing.☀️

‘At each step we can admire the grandeur, the power, the goodness of God. How bountifully He provides for all our wants - I would even say our pleasures!’ (St. Theodore Guerin)

Ruairi and Daithi gone again after our wonderful weekend together. Beyond enjoyable!! Action packed weekend, sweet Daithi has no time to spare right now. Joys of being two years old!! We loved every single second. 

This afternoon my precious privilege praying at Michael’s bedside as he bade farewell to this world and returned home to Heaven. Every time is like the first time. No roof in our room, no floor in Heaven. Sacred sacrosanct space. I savoured every moment.

Glad to catch up with B this evening. First time since she arrived desolate in our town three weeks ago from far off shores. On that day B was anxious and scared. Today she looks amazing! Both of us danced joyfully on the spot. What a mighty God we serve!

As I walked home, having witnessed B so thrilled with life, I said to myself: ‘This is how it must feel to win the lotto - multiplied by millions’.☀️

To be part of something so amazing. No words!!

‘We will find no rest for our heart or spirit as long as we seek it in insignificant things, which cannot satisfy us, rather than in God, who is omnipotent, omniscient and beneficent’. (Julian of Norwich)

At Holy Mass, three of walking up to receive Holy Eucharist. Little Daithi in the middle holding both our hands. (Three generations). As Ruairi and I both received Holy Eucharist, Daithi reached out his tiny hand wishing to receive Jesus too.

 Holy moment.☀️

                                   One of my friends from far off shores wrote this today…….🌟