Voyage of discovery in the Gladsome Light of Christ☀️🙏🏻

                            ‘My God, as long as I live, I am Your servant’. (St. Gertrude of Helfta)

Young girl serving us tea and scones seemed really sad. I could not help overhearing her tell another lady; ‘Yes, I am really tired. Long working hours late into the night’.  My heart went out to her. When I went to pay she was there again smiling brightly but still sad. ‘Would you like a beautiful morning prayer I love to share’, I ask. Never before have I witnessed such startling surprise in my prayer offering. ‘I really need this today’, she utters, on the verge of tears. We chatted some more. Unforgettable encounter at 9AM.

Young man on bicycle. Another unforgettable impromptu blessing. What a chat we enjoyed. His dear mother had just passed from this world and his poor heart is shattered. Before she died she told him that if he would not take life easier he will never ‘make old bones’. What wisdom! He attended Holy Mass next morning in our Church and he intends to be much more intentional in his Faith journey going forward. 

Lady told me that when she walked away from alcohol one year ago, my words to her at that time were; ‘You are about to embark on the most exhilarating adventure of your life. Walking with Jesus is beyond beautiful’. Yes, it is true - for both she and me. Alcohol is the supreme light squasher!

Three young folk came into our Church as I was setting up Holy Alter for Holy Mass. Italian, I learned. They were taking photographs on their smartphones. They happily, (shocked) accepted my beautiful morning prayer and one young girl said smilingly, in all seriousness; ‘You are very kind’. 

I love telling, in particular to our precious young folk, that I am a grandmother who loves to share what I know and believe without question or doubt to be totally true and totally thrilling. I say too that if each and every one of us would do something nice every day, our world will become nicer! Simple!

‘Thank God for praying grandma’s. They’re going to get you and you can’t get out of their prayers’. (Young man on YouTube).

Elderly man who replied to my prayer offering; ‘Oh I don’t know! I don’t pray at all girl’, took my prayer anyway.

I read one time; ‘We don’t have to wait for pie in the sky when we die. We can have cake on our plate while we wait!’. Exactly right!

Walking with Jesus, adventure extraordinaire!

‘May the Grace of God uphold you. May the Father’s Love enfold you. May the Holy Spirit guide you, with joy and peace now and to eternity . Amen (Old Irish Blessing)

                   ‘Look around and be distressed. Look at Jesus and be at rest’. (Corrie Ten Boom)

I awoke one morning singing; ‘Wherever I be is fine by me’. I had been ruminating over the fact that while my time in Medugorje was magnificent on so many levels, being home again is awesome too. Spending time with my dear sons and their families, sitting in prayer with my St.Anne’s Holy Rosary group, Holy Mass and Adoration of the most Blessed Sacrament in our Church every morning, joyful prayer-sharing encounters, getting to serve folk, scribbling these heartfelt lines ……

Yes, Holy Trinity One God, fulfils our heart’s every desire! With the passage of time it becomes clearer and clearer that all we really need to do is SHOW UP! Circle of love which is the Blessed Trinity.

Walking with Jesus, (our elder Brother), all the way home to Father God, in the Light of Holy Spirit. That’s the journey!!

 ‘The whole of the Christian life is like a great pilgrimage to the house of the Father’. (St. John Paul 11)

                                                  Seven days without prayer makes one weak!

❤️🙏🏻

‘Taking Christ in us wherever He wants us to go to, being where He wants us to be, being what He wants us to be’. (Carlyle Houselander)

Medugorje 2025☀️🙏🏻

‘I am the Light of the world says the Lord. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’. (John 8:12)

 

 Beautiful Medugorje. Seven whole days steeped in goodness, truth and beauty.  Myriad Holy Spirit encounters, far too many to relate. Like the young man whose partner suffers with her mental health. As we stood together, into my heart dances; ‘My Grace is with you right now’. (Holy Spirit prompt to my heart on a day of deep turmoil). Grace, light of Christ, not in the past, not in the future, but RIGHT NOW! and every ‘right now’ until the end of time. Young man, smiling now, utters; ‘Yes, and I must tell you we have a little girl and her name is Grace’. 

Holy Spirit goosebumps enveloped us. All will be well, we both agreed. Live in the present moment. It is ENOUGH!

Beautiful lady, her smile like a thousand suns. She gladly accepts just enough money for pizza but not another penny, no matter how I try. Then, holding up five fingers, in her own dialect she gladly tells me that she will pray ‘Rosarie📿 for me’. Gladsome Light of Christ shining brightly.

Jesus, James and me☀️🙏🏻

                                                                      Three sisters❤️

                                       Dear Father Slavko please pray to Jesus and Mary for us. Amen

Mother and adult son with special needs, his beautiful head resting on her comforting shoulder, arms around one another, swaying gently to beautiful prayerful music, all the while gazing lovingly on beautiful Jesus in Blessed Sacrament, outdoors. One whole hour! Excruciatingly beautiful.

                                              Archbishop Aldo. Goodness, truth and beauty.

               Father who heard my Confession is eighty nine years old. Goodness, truth and beauty.

                   Dearest Mother Mary, Queen of peace. Keep our troubled minds at ease. Amen

                                             Eric (first born) came to meet me in Cork Airport.❤️

                                                  Killian (last born) picked me up at the bus stop.❤️

I return home with an even deeper conviction and commitment to ‘my life of unceasing service and unconditional Charity for all men and women without exception or reserve’.

(Thank you Fr. Denis Lemieux/Restoration magazine, for putting in words beautifully what I could not).

‘Nothing seems tiresome or painful when you are working for a Master who pays well; who rewards even a cup of cold water given for love of Him’. (St. Dominic Savio)

                 I love what Seamus in our group told me; ‘Take each problem by it’s easiest handle’.

‘I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things…..

Everyone there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light’. 

(C.S. Lewis/Mere Christianity)

Young guy sat beside me at Holy Mass, weeping when music ministry played Ennio Morricone’s ‘Gabriel’s Obo’ after receiving Holy Eucharist. I wept too. Beauty is a great reflection of God Himself. There is no other explanation!

Beautiful elderly lady who on accepting and reading my powerful prayer, utters; ‘This is not by mistake! God has prepared it’. 

One day. One tiny town.☀️🙏🏻

‘Go forth as an apostle, with no shoes, no gold or silver. Then, you too will hear the words of Christ at the end of the journey; ‘Have you wanted for anything’. (Catherine Doherty)

Sam is pensive as he walks along bearing pretty flowers. We stop to chat. His friend’s little nephew was killed (murdered more like) yesterday in her harried homeland of Gaza. His friend, living here in our town, devastated and helpless many miles from home. It so happened that a few minutes earlier, Christine gave me a plastic Rosary beads for no reason at all. (Or so it seemed!).  Sam wrapped the beads around the pretty flowers for his friend. Moment of transcendence and beauty. 

St. Anne’s Holy Rosary and dear elderly lady pining for home. Addling Alzheimer’s!! Searching for Home, just as we all are, even if we don’t realise it. We pray Holy Rosary, all of us together. Peace descends for a time. Honestly! If folk ever caught a glimpse in their heart how beautiful it is to be in their midst, St. Anne’s would be snowed under with visitors. Sadly that will not come to pass any time soon.

Strolling home and beautiful music emanating from a parked car. Of course I stopped by and inside, the driver, happy guy, playing his concertina obliviously enjoying every note. This is how he passes time in a new town! His wife enjoys browsing while he plays music to his heart’s content. Husband and wife both doing what they love!! Symphony of beauty. Into the bargain joyful gentleman happily accepted two prayers. The ordinary is extraordinary all the time!

All is so simple in the ever present moment! Everything God expects of us, He supplies. Whatever He commands, He enables.

With Faith everything is possible. With Love everything is easy.

‘Things seen superficially can disturb us, but if we regard them with the profundity of Faith, nothing can make us lose peace’. (Archbishop Martinez)

Young African boy prostrated himself as I entered their humble, beautifully simple, apartment. ‘This is how we welcome our elderly’, his Dad proudly declares. Wow!! Venerable elder!!

I love what Cardinal Robert Sarah writes about Martha (Luke 10:42);

‘Christ tenderly invites her to stop so as to return to her heart, the place of true welcome and the dwelling place of God’s silent tenderness, from which she has been led away by the activity to which she was devoting herself so noisily’. (The Power of Silence)

Yes indeed, all of us are searching for Home!,