Go have tea with Hope☀️🙏🏻

‘I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go’. (Psalm 32:8)

Holy Mass this beautiful St. Stephen’s day. Hope (Africa) sat in the pew across from me. I was surprised when Holy Spirit whispered into my deepest heart; ‘Go have tea with Hope after Holy Mass’. As always I asked Holy Sprit a few times if I was hearing right! I didn’t audibly hear ‘yes’ but I didn’t hear ‘no’ either. Hard to put in words that ‘knowing’ feeling.

Turns out, Hope received word yesterday, Christmas day, that she will soon be starting her new job in Dublin. Expecting to have to wait until her money comes into her account on Thursday, wonderful Holy Spirit to her rescue. I would gladly help out today and therefore Hope can begin, right away, putting her new life in motion. A few short years younger than me, we both know all about ‘beginning again’.

Hope spent yesterday, Christmas Day, alone in her room. Yes she missed her family in Africa but for the most part she danced, sang and praised God for His never-failing faithfulness in everything she’s been through. Add to that, new job where she will earn actual money. How great is our God.

Had Holy Spirit not prompted me, Hope would have returned to her room after Holy Mass this morning uttering not a word of her ‘good news’. None of our worthwhile encounter would have come to pass either.

‘I will look after you one day’, she told me. I could truthfully tell her that her powerful prayers are already helping my family and I. Each and every one of us give, every action is a transaction. 

How great it is to know, really really know, that God owns everything, even money!!

Passion and empathy is all it takes to live our best life, Hope says. Now that is top-tier freedom straight from Heaven above.

Don’t just live. Live with passion!

‘They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, that shall walk and not faint’. (Isaiah 40:31)

Hope told me too that after arriving in our town she cried every single day but her tears dried the day we met and now she rarely cries. Oh to be the Hands and Feet of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in this world. 

                                              (He must increase; I must decrease’. (John 3:30)

O Lord, You are the Word, spoken from eternity by the Father. You came to dwell among us and to lead us with You to Your Father’s House. I thank You, I praise You. I worship You Amen. (Henry Nouwen)