Women of Faith ad Hope, Ireland Journey.

St Patrick

Sunday, we will start a month's journey with St. Patrick who is a Patron of Ireland. Patrick, planted the seeds of Faith throughout Ireland. He helped to build strong Faith in a pagan land by his example, preaching and gift of miracles. I will share like I did with our St. Mary Mackillop Novena and if you want to share your own reflections please you are more than welcome. 

Written and created by My Mother Rose

God Bless Always Women of Faith and Hope. 💚

"Love Thy Neighbor"

We are all weak and we all fail. My destiny is to love you neighbor as myself. I am a princess, a mother, My Father is a King and my body is a temple for God to dwell. Being a daughter, a child of God’s, I try to everyday, to be a sign of God’s faithful love to all my neighbors.

Being a catholic woman in today’s world can be very hard and belonging to a catholic community is hard too. I feel saddened and disturbed at times to learn how exclusive and cruel a parish can be. When mass is finished, I try and avoid shaking the priest’s hand, so I find a space and sneak out because if I go up or get caught in the crowd and  have to shake his hand, he says “Oh! it’s you.” I guess that is his way of loving his neighbor or maybe he doesn’t know my name. I once heard, “I have love for them in my heart, I have to it’s my job.” Yes, you get paid to love for an hour once a week. Here is a question; What about for the rest of the day, week, month, year or years? I didn’t realize it was a job to love someone, I thought love comes naturally and if you choose to live your life Holy, following Jesus Christ and being a disciple of God’s, wouldn’t your love for people and all people be unconditional? I suppose having power, in a leadership role, you don’t need to love unconditionally or love a fellow neighbor because you are entitled not too.

 However, Jesus is saying to us today in the bible, in the first and second readings. “Love Thy Neighbor,” St Paul to the Corinthians is saying we are the temple of God, my body is the house of God. So, you can’t love me, your neighbor who has God dwelling inside and the book of Leviticus is asking us to live holy lives, never to hate, never to bear a grudge to love your neighbor as yourself. We are all different, we act, love, believe differently, yet we need to find a way to love each other. There is no reference to race, color, or class distinction, our neighbor is every person, every soul that needs help, love, compassion, healing, mercy, promise. Everyone, Everything, all of God’s creations is our neighbor and therefore we are to love, listen, give, trust, forgive and to share.

I am not perfect and I know, I have pushed  a neighbor away, created distance, I have hurt, caused pain and heartache and doing all that didn’t help and I hate it, I hate how hard it all is and how much my neighbor has hurt me and keeps hurting me. There were times when I wished things, but I couldn’t. I do love this neighbor and I do feel this neighbor keeps me from releasing the God who dwells within me. But I keep going, I keep praying.

Women of Faith and Hope, be strong, be of good courage, we are truly royal spirits. Maybe through all the chaos we build a temple of Love, not of hate. Let us not be selfish, ambitious, vain, but let us consider others better than ourselves, let’s not think of our interest but also to the interests of others. Be a sign of God’s faithful love to all neighbors.

May God Bless Always

Written and created by My Mother Rose

Valentine's Day!

“A love that grows within, so beauty grows and therefore love is the beauty of the soul.” St Augustine

I have learnt to love by loving. Somedays, I am tired, and I only can give so much. The one thing though, I strive to do is to learn how to love by loving and over these past few years, I have encountered a love that I never knew possible. A higher love, that I have been looking for, a love that consists of sharing what one and who one is with those whom one loves. When it comes to love, I feel as though I am a fool who dances over the edge.

Women of Faith and Hope, may God bless you all this valentine’s day, may he keep you in his care and may his love be with you everyday and everywhere you go.

Let me leave us with a prayer: O my God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things, because you are infinitely good and perfect; and I love my neighbor as myself for love of you. Grant that I may love you more and more in this life, and in the next for all eternity. Amen.

From the 1st of march to the 31st of March we will journey with St Patrick. May God Bless Always, women of Faith and Hope.🌷💟🙏

Examine Your Heart!

Jeremiah 17:9-10

'The heart is more devious than any other thing, perverse too. Who can pierce its secrets? I, the LORD, search to the heart, I probe the lions, to give each man what his conduct and his actions deserve. '

In grade twelve drama, we had to read a monologue and we had some choices and I chose to read Macbeth, the monologue of Lady Macbeth. I remember sitting down and holding my hands out, looking at my arms and saying, “spots, spots everywhere, the blood.” The blood is a stain that forever terrorizes lady Macbeth. The stain represents guilt.

Do you have a stain that constantly terrorizes you?

Do you have a stain that represents your guilt?

I see so many approaching the altar with despair, I can hear despair in their voices while they sing, I can feel them humbling themselves before the Lord, all of them wanting to return to the LORD, God our Father. Do you approach the altar with a humbled and contrite heart? I know as a mother and woman if I approach God with a contrite spirit, my humbled and contrite heart, God will not spurn. My humble heart will always follow in God’s ways, I choose kindness and forgiveness and overtime God will heal. My faith, your faith a “faith that comes to Christ is a faith that with it a broken and contrite heart.” Author Unknown. I say, don’t be someone you’re not, stay true to yourself, be honest, listen to your heart, maybe ask God to search your heart. Psalm 25:2-3 Examine me, LORD, and try me; O test my heart and my mind, for your love is before my eyes and I walk according to your truth.

The Lord weighs the heart. Women of Faith and Hope, let us examine our path, let us ponder it and return to the LORD. Let us stretch out our hearts and hands to God in heaven. Lamentations 3:40-41

We all have stains and we all must be carrying around some guilt. Whatever might be weighing on your humbled and contrite heart, don’t allow yourself to be tormented by regrets about the past. Like my daughter and Elsa from Frozen, sing “Let it go, let it go.” We learn the truth and our hearts always know the way back to God, our Father.

God Bless always

Written, photo and created by My Mother Rose.

Love of a Mother

This week has been very hard, not just on myself but on my beautiful babies. We have been adapting to a new year at school, changes in teachers, peers and not to mention all the beautiful rain we have been having. We are not giving up, we begin each day again, with our heads held high to look for all the positives. I wanted to share a lovely quote: Have a great weekend, God Bless Always.

💟written and created by my mother rose🙏🌷

“Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud”

Luke 11:34

The lamp of your body is your eye. When your eye is sound, your whole body too is filled with light; but when it is diseased your body too will be all darkness.

My children and I love rainbows, the other day we watched Our Planet on Netflix and the episode we watched showed a massive cloud forming and the cloud became dark and it began to rain in the driest, hottest place in the world. After the rain, we watched as the flamingoes flew over water and we kept on watching until we saw a rainbow appearing in the water. It was mesmerizing, stunning. This week’s reading’s and gospel’s, we again look at light and darkness.  This time I couldn’t help but think of a Rainbow and how special they are, you see a rainbow can be full circles and that makes sense because I don’t know how many times I want to chase a rainbow so I can see what is at the end of one for example; a pot of gold. However, we only can see an arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground and centered on a line from the sun. Did you know rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun? I didn’t, until my sister told me. You learn something new every day. Back to my point about light and darkness, we all have weaknesses, we have all done something wrong, we might not boast about our faults but we do have faults, yet so many of us work, volunteer our time, we outreach to the outer community, we give without wanting or needing anything back in return, and to me we are like a rainbow, even through our own darkness, our eyes reflect bright and vibrant colors in the eyes of others. “Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud” We place our own cloud away to be a rainbow for someone else. We can be a rainbow of possibilities, women of faith and hope. We are going to have tears, and we will have pain and it’s going to hurt for a while, but it’s what we do while we are waiting for it all to stop because you can’t have a rainbow without any rain. Maybe it’s time to learn to dance, to be a bright halo, a heavens light, which is a mother’s smile and that is the sweetest gift anyone could receive.  I love this quote; “There is a rainbow of hope at the end of every storm.” Be a rainbow, be the light.

Genesis 9:13 I set my bow (rainbow) in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

God Bless Always Women of Faith and Hope

Written, photo and created by My Mother Rose

I say, God say's.

Well, school is back and my emotions and my children's emotions have been all over the place. I wanted to share something that I wrote recently. When I was researching I found something that is suited to where I am at and how I feel in this present moment or at one stage or another in my life. I don't know whether anyone else can resonate and if you do this is for you too.

'I say, I can't figure it out, I'm too tired, everything seems to be impossible, no body loves me. I can't seem to forgive myself for all the choices I have made and at times it's not worth it.  I say, I am not smart enough, I am not able and how can I possibly go on because at times I can't do it, I can't manage, I am afraid and I do feel alone, especially now my babies have left the nest even if it's only for six and half hours.

THE GOOD NEWS IN: God Says Different. 

God, will direct my steps, give me rest, all things are possible, he loves me, forgives me and in the end it's worth it. God gives me wisdom and I am able, God's grace is sufficient, he can do all things, God will supply all that I need and he has not given me fear only to have lots of faith and hope and God will never leave me.'

I am going to share some verses over the next couple of weeks and some words of encouragement, support that I feel are helping and guiding me on day to day journey.

God Bless Always Women of Faith and Hope.

Written, photo and created by My Mother Rose