Try a little Kindness.☀️🙏🏻

‘As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied Grace’. (1Peter:4:10)

I knew in my deepest heart she was kind and generous, I just knew. Her mother-in-law is my friend and so our paths would cross sometimes. How could I possibly know anything about her and yet I did. Mystery!!

Until this morning that is!!

Back then, one extremely dark wintry evening, Derm and I in Killarney Outlet Centre having travelled by bus from Cork. Derm had recently been diagnosed with Kerataconus and was attending wonderful Opticians in Cork.

Treacherous weather conditions, snow and sleet, resulting in missing our connecting bus home. Dire straits!! Stopping over in Killarney, out of the question, money scarce. Taxi fare far beyond our reach too but beggars cannot be choosers. We had nobody to call on, not one.

No memory of how we got talking to shopkeeper lady, perhaps we asked about getting a taxi, but on hearing our predicament she offered wholeheartedly to drive us all the way home, over thirty miles without a second thought in the driving sleet and snow. She would be finishing her shift shortly. Of course I could not possibly accept but she insisted adding; ‘Many times I have been stranded just as you are now. I know well how that feels’.

I remember vividly how relieved Derm and I both felt in that moment, at the same time too hoping against hope that we might find another way.

God is great all the time!! Glumly walking aimlessly about when Lawrence, guy from our town I knew from my younger days, came walking towards us. Miracle definitely!! He and us were the only three people in the building that evening. Lawrence, more than happy to drop us at our door, God Bless his kind heart. 

We thanked kind lady and after that our paths never crossed again. I did go to her shop but it had shut down never again to reopen. We never forgot her kindness though.

Then this morning enjoying my cuppa when it dawned on me who kind lady is!! Kind shopkeeper lady in our hour of need is my friend’s kind daughter-in-law!! Utterly amazing. It just came together in an instant! 

I couldn’t wait to call up my friend and wow!! her son (kind lady’s husband) was with her. ‘Have I got a story for you’, I told them both as they listened joyfully. Fifteen years ago she worked in that shop, he told me. Yes, it was her alright.

I knew she was kind!! The heart never forgets!! Circle closed.

Just now message from my friend to say her daughter-in-law remembers but had no idea it was me and is shocked that I discovered it was her, after all this time. 

Divine intervention! Holy Spirit of course!! 

‘But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name, He will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you’. (John14:26)

‘Divide your day into three parts. In the morning, as soon as you awaken, give yourself to the Father Creator, who offers you His Son as food. After Mass, give yourself to the Son, who is in you and fall asleep in the Holy Spirit, who is love’. (Jesus to Gabrielle Bossis/God calling)

All things must pass.☀️🙏🏻

‘Praying, singing, crying and drinking’, lady’s reply to my wondering if she had enjoyed her recent trip  to Medugorje!! Everything covered!!

This morning our town eerily silent after three ‘early till late’ non-stop fun days, annual Music and Arts Festival. Some transformation! Almost difficult to believe any of it actually came to pass!! Gigantic imposing stage, (from which music blared non-stop) now soundlessly out of place, redundant, Food trucks locked up. Exhausted townsfolk going about their business, (many relieved normality once again restored) but above all of that, everyone extremely grateful to God. Apart from aching heads and lighter wallets, everyone safe, sound and accounted for.

One very happy young lady from foreign shores told me this morning after Holy Mass, that she made quite a sum of money, (much needed), recycling bottles and cans discarded by affluent revellers. Good for her!!

Our sleepy small town normally serene but today it feels far quieter. Like walking along a road in the darkness of night and with every passing car lights, the darkness seemed even darker still. (Back then, when I was young and cars were scarce!!)

I got to assist Father at the Christening of three babies on Sunday morning. While setting up, many visitors dropped by our compact Church. Particularly enjoyable meeting up with members of our Travelling Community. Like our African visitors, they treasure their Faith in God. Prayer joyfully in vivid display at all times. Not hidden!!I love that!!

Loved chatting too with four delightful young guys. When I told them; ‘I cannot promise you that nothing will be wrong but you will be strong’ as they accepted my prayer, all smiled and one guy said; ‘I like that’. I told them Holy Spirit placed those words in my heart one time, as I shared my prayer with anothe lovely young guy. Simple but so profound!

Someone left a bag of lady’s clothes at my door on Saturday. Inside, amongst other items, prettiest colourful dress. Bereft lady recipient told me; ‘I have spent all day in my room, missing my family so much. Now, I will put this dress on and go hear some music in the Festival’. We both cried!! God’s amazing Grace! Dear lady’s gaze shifted!!

Myriad amazing encounters all weekend long, but this morning’s particularly poignant. Lovely couple I mistook for folk I met yesterday (Travelling Community). Guy, full of life took my prayer and began to pray it aloud, laughing (not mockingly, shocked morelike). ‘I share with whoever comes my way’, I told them. ‘Holy Spirit directs my path’. With that, beautiful lady blurted out; ‘Oh my God. This means so much. My brother committed suicide last week’. She kissed my prayer adding; ‘Meant to be’.

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

Yes, and walking every step with Jesus makes exactly that happen. My home is not here, it is in Heaven. We are going back to God from Whom we came and our place is there now waiting for us. 

                                        ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’. (John 3:30)

St. John Vianney (Cure D’Ars) Feast day today. What a role model He is, in this our day and time;

‘Man has a noble task; that of Prayer and Love. To pray and to love, that is the happiness of man on earth’.

‘Not me - but God’. (St. Carlo Acutis)☀️🙏🏻

He danced into my heart first thing this morning. Young guy killed tragically in a road traffic accident some months ago. I did not know him or his family but my heart was heavy at that time just as everyone else in our town was. My sons knew the young guy and his brother. God love them all.

On my way to Holy Mass little while later, walking through Church grounds I meet with a pleasant young man. I walked by him and as oftentimes happens, I turned back asking if he would like a beautiful morning prayer’. Without a moment’s hesitation he replied; ‘I would’.

My name is Bridget, I told him. He told me his name adding; ‘I was in school with your son’. Wow!! Turns out young man happened to be brother to the poor guy who lost his life and whom I was thinking of earlier. 

‘I was thinking of your brother this morning’, I said. We shook hands. ‘That is weird, alright’, he said.

God’s ways are not our ways!! Rather amazing the whole thing. 

Speechless, I could only offer; ‘Just keep on walking. Your brother is very near.

My hope is that our impromptu encounter, gifted to both of us from Heaven above, shone some light into sad young man’s day.

‘Do not expect to see results. The bee knows nothing of its agency when fertilising flowers for fruit-bearing’. (Jesus/God calling)

The sanctity of an ordinary life.☀️🙏🏻

“Praying, smoking a few cigarettes and minding my own business’, Mary’s reply to me just now. The sanctity of an ordinary life! Mary is being cared for by kind staff and has been under somebody’s care for much of her long oftentimes painful life. I love to tell her that while she may not have got to live the kind of life she longed for and deserved, nevertheless with the passage of time she is fortunate and extremely blessed in her living.

As for us, yes we got to live our lives as we pleased, (for the most part), and yes, we have accrued much ‘stuff’ along the way, only nowadays, truth be told, we are enjoying shedding much of that ‘stuff’ from our lives. Trinkets!! 

Mary is further on up the road! Then I read; 

‘I have seen Christ in certain people who suffer much and still manage to have a sense of peace, and acceptance of things as they are, and even a finely developed sense of humour. I love seeing that in people, and I hope to see more of those things in myself as I get more used to being used up’. (Fr. David May/Restoration magazine)

What can I say!!

‘Youth and good health eventually give way to old age and sickness. But what keeps us ever new, ever joyful, is that each stage of life is a communion with our Lord, who is not impeded by limitations of age or health or circumstances from being fully Himself in us’. (Fr. David May/Restoration magazine)

Recently, I overheard a young lady reply re dental appointment for her mother who stood by her side: ‘If I cannot bring her, (for her appointment ), perhaps my sister will’. Poor lady! So much nicer had her daughter used the words ‘if I cannot accompany her……Our words are so very important!! Even if dear lady is enduring Alzheimer’s, (I have no idea), yes she most certainly would have forgotten but that does not mean she did not feel invisible in the moment. Hurt lodges within even when forgotten!!

St,Anne’s Holy Mass. Dear lady deep in Alzheimer’s worried and upset about many things. Consecration, as Father raises Sacred Host, lady relaxes, uttering aloud; ‘My Lord and my God’. All else in zigzag mode, but sure and certain of her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Unforgettable!

Pause, ponder and praise God.☀️🙏🏻

 

In the evening of life you will be examined in love. Learn then to love as God desires to be loved and abandon your own ways of acting’. (St. John of the Cross)

One dear lady from our St. Anne’s Holy Rosary group passed away and I got invited to watch her funeral Holy Mass on television with her friends. I pray Holy Rosary with them twice every week so this was very precious for me. Afterwards I got to enjoy lunch with them all. 

We ate in silence, not one word uttered throughout. No discussing, no grumbling, no asking questions. Movingly beautiful even now, many hours later. Not a sullen silence, far from it!! Elderly folk happy with their lot needing nothing more than what they possessed in the sacred moment.

Meal over, we prayed Holy Rosary together and sang hymns. Lots of laughter too as always. Joy never in short supply. 

So beautiful every moment. Getting older doesn’t scare me and that is for sure. Of course it is not all plain sailing, there are challenges, but there’s a freedom too. With acceptance there is peace. 

Perhaps it is never too early to begin letting go of stuff. I love St. Mother Teresa’s quote;

‘Accept whatever God gives you and give whatever God takes from you with a smile’.

I love this quote too from Cardinal Robert Sarah’s beautiful classic, ‘The Power of Silence’; ‘True witness is expressed by the silent, pure radiant example of the sanctity of our life’. 

As we refresh others, God will refresh us.☀️🙏🏻

‘If you’re in trouble or hurt or need - go to poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help - the only ones’. (John Steinbeck/The grapes of wrath (1939)

I had the privilege of meeting with him twice, on my way to visit my family and on my return home journey. Same place both times. Large bottle of cider at his feet, just sitting there. I had actually passed him by but returned offering him my prayer. He gladly accepted kissing it before he placed it in his pocket. ‘Have you any spare change, I don’t like to ask’, he said. Of course I shared my widow’s mite. Everyone needs money!! I asked him to please pray for me, he said he would and I knew he meant it.

Next day I told him; ‘I’m Bridget. I gave you my prayer yesterday’. ‘Indeed you did’, he replied smiling, ‘It is in my room and I prayed it this morning. I will pray for you and your family Mam’. 

I shared my widow’s mite with him again. The way he looked at me uttering: ‘God Bless you. Thank you for your kindness’. Spending that little time in his company, pure gold to my heart.

I would have loved to stay awhile, hear what he might say, but like others in his predicament, (I have found), he has no need of company. His neediness is well and truly over. Low expectations. No paper ‘spare change’ cup by his side!! He wears the world lightly.

Walking on, my heart was sad. Folk dashing past, going about their business, hither and thither. My friend invisible in plain sight! If only they would see him, even a furtive glance in his direction. Oh they would not have walked away empty handed. I most certainly did not!

Yes, Jesus was sitting alone on the cold cement, hidden in plain sight, waiting to bless us all……

‘Do not turn your face away from any poor man and the Face of God will not be turned away from you’.     (Tobit 4:7)

“Dear brothers and sisters, when will we too be capable of interrupting our journey and having compassion?. When we understand that the wounded man on the street represents each one of us. Then the memory of all the times that Jesus stopped to take care of us will make us more capable of compassion.

Let us pray that we can grow in humanity, so that our relationships may be truer and richer in compassion. Let us ask the Heart of Jesus for the Grace increasingly to have the same feelings as Him’. (Pope Leo/General Audience/28/5/2025)

The Lord takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary.☀️🙏🏻

‘Let every action of mine be something beautiful for God’. (Saint Mother Teresa’s motto)

Hobbling along on crutches he joined the queue as we waited on our bus. He enquired, of no one in particular, if he could get on first because of his predicament. We were happy to oblige. He began to talk with a lady just in front of me, they both kindly included me in their interesting conversation. I love impromptu encounters. We introduced ourselves. 

He lost his leg in an accident. His own fault, drugs! He accepts his lot (He didn’t for a long time) but life is tough. I offered them both my prayer. They happily accepted. She said; ‘This is meant to be’. He told us that one time he was a committed atheist but not anymore.

Bus arrived, we got on. He sat up front talking a lot (to anyone and everyone) and loudly, all the way. Something really nice about him, full of drama and perhaps deep trauma. God only knows!

Time to get off the off bus and as I walked by him (he waited until last); I said; ‘ Goodby now, Name, I hope it all works out for you’. I will never forget what happened next. He looked at me like he had never really heard his name being called before, like he was being seen for the very first time in his short life. His face completely transformed, softer, he uttered; ‘You are such a sweet person. I have your prayer. Thank you’.

Stepping down from the bus I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I had witnessed something unforgettably miraculous. Jesus and that young troubled man came face to face right before my very eyes on a Bus Eireann bus in the middle of the afternoon.

‘In the heart of everyone there is a hunger for God’. (Mother Angelica)

‘If you live for the Lord, He Himself will be your support, your defence, your comfort at all times. Who knows what you need better than He does? Put into that heart then, with total trust, all your fears, all your anxieties. Pray, receive Holy Communion with fervour, work generously to acquire those virtues which cost you the most, and God will know when and where to surprise you so that you will be happy’. (Blessed Clelia Merloni)