I didn’t know I was going to find so much love.☀️🙏🏻

‘I can shake off everything if I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn’. (Anne Frank)

‘I didn’t know I was going to find so much love’: First words she penned in her pristine notepad. Diary of an African Nan. (I love gifting notepads and pens. Lifesavers!). As I was leaving Refugee Centre, she (grandmother) stood at reception, signing copious forms alongside many others. Strangers to each other, collected by common calamity. Yes, all of them together in one place but each one standing alone. Wishing those who incessantly gripe and complain would come and see for themselves.

St. Anne’s afternoon Holy Rosary delightful as always. To be in that sacred space truly a slice of Heaven. Fifteen years ago I asked Father Niall (our Parish Priest for a time) if he would have someone pray Holy Rosary with the gentle folk in St. Anne’s. His reply: ‘How about you do it!’. Seemed an outrageous proposal to me at that time but the seed was sewn coming to fruition in God’s own time. 

In Church three American ladies gladly accepted my prayer. They read and loved it. When I told them that it came to me from EWTN, one of the ladies laughed telling me that her husband one time worked for EWTN.

In Church too, Breda asked Brendan (who uses words sparingly), if he knew the guy Bridget (I) was talking to. ‘He could be from the Horn of Africa and Bridget would make free with him’. replied Brendan dryly. Funny and true!

‘Be who you are meant to be and you will set the world on fire’. (St. Catherine of Sienna)

Another memory! May 2020, first refugees had just arrived in our town. ‘I think I might be involved with our visitors’, I suggested to Jesus one day. ‘You will’, He whispered in my deepest heart. Four years later it is coming to pass and oh how grateful we are to be of assistance to our sisters and brothers in Christ. ‘Blanketiers’, our volunteer WhatsApp group adding new members all the time.

Hearts are being opened. God is blessing our town through the prayers of our visitors, they do not come empty handed! Our little town is not so little anymore.

‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God’. (2Corinthians 3-5)

Mothers Day.☀️🙏🏻

 

Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen

God Bless your big beautiful hearts. My beautiful boys from God.❤️🙏🏻

Thank you for your generous thoughtful gifts. I am truly blessed.

‘My heart is full as I contemplate the Kingdom within us all that makes it possible for us, despite the worst apparent handicaps, to do the work of God on earth. When I was talking about this book to a friend in America, he suggested: “Bring the story to a dramatic climax”. 

But I don’t know how I can. 

The story and I can only go on and on, for that is what life is, the process of going on and on until the work for which we were created comes to an end”. 

‘The Kingdom within’. (Genevieve Caulfield)

Jim🐈 dropped by this morning after a long absence (many weeks) just to wish me: ‘Happy Mother’s day’.❤️ (and there are those who deem our feline friends to be ungrateful!)

Afternoon tea with ladies in Refugee Centre. All of us Moms, some of us Nans too. I ask them what surprised them most on arriving in deepest Kerry, far far away from their own continent. One lady talked about the weather, others our buildings etc. Last lady to reply, Mom and Nan just like myself, uttered haltingly, stifling back tears (yet again): ‘I didn’t know I was going to find so much love’. Holy moment!

                               Mothers Day 2024 extraordinarily beautiful in every way.

Exalted company☀️🙏🏻

Each lady got gifted a beautiful pendant for Mother’s Day. What is so amazing about that? The beautiful pendants were given to me by a dear lady who would never wear them (gathering dust she said!) so she asked if I would gift them to visitors in our town, folk far away from their own homelands and dear families. Utterly moving! What a privilege to be assigned such an awesome task.

The ladies, joyfully surprised, gifted me beautiful hymns in their own dialect while wearing their new pendants. Yes, the pendants are indeed beautiful but oh so much more than that, laden with meaning! Father God letting His dear children know that all will be well. All is as it should be, right here, right now.

We held hands as one lady prayed aloud. I don’t know the words she spoke but Holy Spirit goosebumps enveloped me while grateful tears filled my eyes. Holy Trinity, One God, present for sure in our cozy corner of Refugee Centre. 

That is what our God is like!!

‘May He walk with us all the days of our lives. His light shine in us. His words make us whole. The kindness, love, joy He shows us through other people, may we give it to others. May the Lord be with us all the days of our lives’. (Pendant ladies). (Text message)

‘Jesus said also to the man who had invited Him; “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen, or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. When you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just’. Luke 14:12-14)

‘Everything a baptised Christian does every day, EVERYTHING!! should be directly or indirectly related to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy’. (Doris Day)

‘To join Jesus army is to do the corporal and spiritual works of mercy’. (Bishop Robert Barron)

Walking with Jesus☀️🙏🏻

‘But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying: “Take heart, it is I: have no fear”. (Matthew 14:27)

On my way to Holy Mass this morning, Postman driving by stops to hand me this beautiful postcard. He never before did that. ‘Letter for you’, he said. ‘It is so beautiful’, I replied. ‘Great start to your day’, Postman said. ‘Yours too’, I replied. 

A few minutes before this took place, I said aloud: ‘Oh Jesus, I love walking with you’. 

Further on, bursting with joy I tell Mary all about it. ‘Oh yes’, she replies, ‘Nobody writes letters anymore’. (Missing the whole point!)

Then she added: ‘Do you know of anybody who could use a pair of shoes, size 6’. I could hardly believe my ears! I surely do know someone who will be delighted with her new shoes. Thankyou kind Mary.

After Holy Mass lady told me that her teenage son who received my prayer recently, sent me a message: ‘Hello. God Bless and Thank you very much’. Wow!

Wonderful visit with guy recovering from long-awaited much needed surgery. All pain gone from his ever-joyful face. His daughter, ever-joyful too, told me she learned very early-on from her dad to smile in good times and bad. Impossible to be grateful and unhappy at the same time.

St.Anne’s Holy Rosary I told my precious folk that if I had a choice between a holiday in America or pray Holy Rosary with them, I would choose the latter. ‘Do you believe me Nora’, I asked. ‘I do. You are like that’, she replied. Dear Nora. High praise indeed!

Dear lady on her final journey received a brown Scapular. Miraculous that!

Oh how I love walking with Jesus! ‘The joy of the Lord is my strength’. (Nehemiah 8:10)

Happiness can only be achieved by looking inward and learning to enjoy whatever life has, and this requires transforming greed into gratitude. (St. John Chrysostom)

Slow down. Cover less ground.😀🙏🏻

Flawless timing divine wisdom! (God calling2).  Last night Killian was concerned that maybe I rush about too much, leaving little or no time just for little old me. God Bless his kind caring heart.

How could I explain that with Jesus holding the reins, there is no strain! Time reveals all. We must each of us do our own growing no matter how tall our grandfather was. 

Just now Father calls leting me know that St. Anne’s Holy Mass is being postponed until next Wednesday. Awesome God caring for Killian’s concerns too. Restful morning for me and any time I am unable to attend Holy Mass, wonderful Holy Spirit whispers: ‘It will be as if you have been at Holy Mass’.

I love St. Teresa of Avila’s quote:

‘One single Holy Eucharist devoutly received would be enough. One Sacred Host is 100% Jesus - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. It only takes one Holy Eucharist to make us a Saint’. 😀

The red coat

Maria is one of the very first African folk to arrive in our town. Older than the others she came across a touch arrogant, proud even. One day my dear sister Chris gave me a beautiful red coat and I gifted it to Maria. (I knew right away that it was meant for her)

What happened next stays with me forever.

Maria told me that she had much wealth and now it is all gone, loss of life too. (Her words). When she received her beautiful red coat she knew God was speaking to her in a powerful way. He was telling her that she will always have nice things (of course God knows that Maria loves nice things!) but above all of that, Maria has Him, she is not alone on this foreign soil. She has everything she needs right here, right now. 

What a transformation!! Nowadays, Maria is happy, accepting her new life, believing with all her heart that God will find a way. She looks so much better too!

‘Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices’. (St. Teresa of Avila)

Let go and let God☀️🙏🏻

Daniel was in no mood for my chitchat when I arrived at his Care-Home today. He agreed to let me fix his pillow before closing his weary eyes in peaceful sleep. Walking away from him, feeling extra to curriculum, unwanted, when after a while beautiful Jesus spoke to my deepest heart. (I love how calm my Jesus always is). ‘You came here today to fix Daniel’s pillow. He has no need of anything else’. Wow! My bus journey was not a wasted one. I got to do what I was called to do. All glory and honour to Holy Trinity one God. (I had forgotten that our elderly need so little but they need that ‘little’ so much!)

I prayed Holy Rosary in magnificent Church. Sheer joy! Normally I kneel or sit while in prayer but walking in prayerful reverence in the company and under glorious gaze of Jesus in Holy Tabernacle. Unutterably sublime.

Wonderful encounters in compact Cafe (tiny). Ash, young guy who’s pretty flower, now dried and pressed, is in my prayer-book from our very first meeting almost a year ago. Today our third meeting. (Coincidence, said Ash. God-incidence I suggested).  As we parted I gifted him St. Catherine of Sienna’s beautiful quote: ‘Be who you are meant to be and you will set the world on fire’. He memorised it joyfully. Perhaps that is all Ash needed today too. 

Two Phillipino ladies received my prayer. One said: ‘This is a big blessing. God is with us right here, right now’. Other lady will stick it on the wall beside her bed and pray it every morning. Polish lady ‘spiritual’ and not religious so declined my prayer. I suggested she keep it until she is elderly like us and perhaps one day she may well pick it up again. Delighted she agreed. (Probably thinking to herself that ‘being elderly’ is way off in the distance. I thought that one time too!)

Nora in Post Office queue (our coats identical!) shared as she gratefully accepted my prayer: ‘This is beautiful. I am just emerging from a fierce battle with cancer’. How can I possibly articulate how grateful I am to be used by God in moments like that! Better than all the tea in China.

‘If only we would go out calling upon Jesus power, His Grace, His authority and His word, and leaving ourselves out of the picture, we too could do wonders for Him’. (Frances Hogan)

Henry Nouwen.

Sharing and caring☀️🙏🏻

‘Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire’. (St. Catherine of Siena)

Guy walking past as I made my way to Holy Mass this morning and stuck to the Velcro on hood of his jacket, plain as day in full view, grubby cloth duster. I drew his attention to it and when we eventually stopped laughing I suggested that Holy Spirit must really want him to have my prayer. No other explanation! He accepted graciously, surprised and really happy with our encounter, as indeed was I. 

One thing always borrows another and I am reminded of something similar happening to myself many years ago when we lived in Swords, Co. Dublin. One morning I walked from my home to the village (twenty minutes) not realising that a personal item, definitely not intended for public display was stuck to the bottom of my backpack. Back in the day when some stuff was still sacred, unlike now I’m sad to say. Oh the embarrassment of it all!!

After Holy Mass, I walked through the park just to get a photo of my snow-capped favourite mountain. Another delightful encounter! Young Ukrainian couple, first day in our town and awestruck with the beauty confronting them, stopped to chat. Of course they received my prayer even though they never pray. They will now pray it every morning they told me. I shared with them how desperately prayer is needed right now for Ukraine, Gaza and countless other war torn parts of our troubled world.

After 3pm live-streamed Holy Rosary, tea with lovely Nadia (Albania) in Lazy Cat Cafe. So many displaced folk in our town right now. Care and share or remain aloof, choice is ours to make but lest we forget - we were born for a such a time as this. We were created for this! We are really serving Jesus in serving one another.

Each and everyone of us is exactly where we are meant to be, right here, right now. Our God makes no mistakes and He always provides!

‘The only answer in this life, to the loneliness we are all bound to feel, is community. The living together, working together, sharing together, loving God and loving our brother, and living close to Him in community so we can show our love for Him’. (Dorothy Day)

‘I am inspired and humbled by the generosity of people towards those who are seeking refuge in our land and towards those of this land for whom life has been more than difficult and who find themselves at life’s edge. In our generosity - when we give ourselves and our resources, Christ comes to life in us anew’. (Archbishop Dermot Farrell)