Blest are the Poor in Spirit 5:3

 What does poor in spirit mean?

Being poor in Spirit means we are spiritually bankrupt before God, it is like we have nothing to offer, we are spiritually empty and before we approach God in faith to receive his grace and salvation as a gift, we admit to our sins. Let’s see the positive side, “Blest are the poor in spirit: the reign of God is theirs.” First, be happy that each day we get to wake up and start all over again and experience Christ in a new way when we choose to go to him with an empty spirit. We don’t have to wait to go to the Kingdom of heaven to be happy, we can be happy now in the present, enjoying the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

As Paul suggests in Philippians 3: 7-14, We realize at some point of all the advantages because of Christ Jesus and that nothing can ever outweigh the major advantage of knowing Jesus Christ our Lord. We have nothing to lose, we don’t have to reach perfection only the perfection that comes through faith in Christ. We haven’t won yet; we are all still running the race to the finish line and the prize to which God calls all of us upwards to the Kingdom of Heaven.

‘Don’t allow the past to haunt you move forward, keep running, he runs with us.’

May God Bless Always, Women of Faith and Hope.

Written and created by My Mother Rose.

The Beatitudes

The Beatitudes

Written and created by My Mother Rose.

“The Beatitudes are no spiritual “to do list” to be attempted by eager, rule-keeping disciples. It is a spiritual “done” list of the qualities God brings to bear in the people who follow Jesus.” Author Ronnie McBrayer

This January, I wanted to take the time to go through each Beatitude and explore what they mean and how can we live them in our own lives. As a part of the Mother Ministry, I am going to share a little activity that you might like to do with your children or grandchildren, and I am going to include a link to a card game that you may like to play as well Look to Him and be Radiant: Beatitudes & Modern Saints .Women of Faith and Hope as we explore the Beatitudes this month most of my research comes from the book (The Eight Beatitudes by Father Lovasik S.V.D.). 

First ask yourself this question what do the Beatitudes truly mean to me? I will be honest I never really understood the Beatitudes I thought as Christians and Catholics we prayed for people who were poor in spirit, who mourned, who are meek, for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the peace makers, the merciful, the pure in heart and those who are persecuted for righteousness’s sake. I did not realize that it takes all of us to live up to the Beatitudes not just a few all who serve God, all who are following Jesus as disciples and all of us who are seeking heaven. So, let us climb and go up the mountain and hear Jesus teaching how one should live, how one should pray and how we should treat one another just the way God loves and cares for each one of us. On this journey we should pray to Jesus that we can imitate and understand his teachings and practice in our own daily lives.

Now ask yourself how are the Beatitudes going to teach me? The eight Beatitudes teaches us to trust in God, to live and aspire to the traits Jesus describes. Today and more than ever the Beatitudes do still have some relevance and have the power to make positive changes in peoples lives. We are truly blessed people to be able to possess the same qualities as the one who gave his life for us on the cross, which leads me to the following definition of Beatitude; ‘Beatitude means supreme blessedness, the state of divine favor. Spiritual blessedness, typically that reached after death.’ A little more meaning, Beatitude comes from the Latin beatitude, meaning blessedness.

“In the end, Jesus does not merely speak the Beatitudes. He lives the Beatitudes. He is the Beatitudes.” Saint Pope John Paul II

May God Bless Always. 

 

Window Stories

Recreating the birth of Jesus through the windows.

May God Bless Always, Women of Faith and Hope. 

Written and created by My Mother Rose. 

Advent Love 2021

Matthew 2:23

‘God-is with us.’

Women of Faith and Hope, why are we so honored to know Mary the mother of our Lord who among all women are most blessed?

Her yes, was an act of love a love for the whole world. At times I don’t feel worthy to know her, or to even pray the Rosary but she is a central figure for this time of year and a role model for so many women.

“We never give more honor to Jesus than when we honor his mother, and we are simply and solely to honor him more perfectly. We go to her only as a way leading to the goal we seek- Jesus her Son.” Saint Louis Marie de Montfort.

Maybe we honor Mary this Christmas and remind ourselves that because of her we have God with us in every moment of our lives. Nothing on this earth can separate or come between the love of God which is made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.

Romans 8:38-39

May God Bless Always, Women of Faith and Hope.

Written and Created by My Mother Rose.

Advent Joy 2021

Colossians 1:11

You will have in you the strength, based on his own glorious power, never to give in, but to bear anything joyfully.

Women of Faith and Hope, we trust, and we shall not fear with Angels we shout out with Joy

‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing.’

What does it truly mean to be happy?

Our answers will be different and that’s ok because we are different, you are you and I am me. There are many things in this life that make me truly happy and that includes Christmas time where we prepare for a feast, for time spent with family and friends and we prepare ourselves for mass on Christmas Eve.

Sometimes happiness hits so hard especially when I choose to be happy not sad, nor angry. I want to be happy and so does our Lord who reminds us of that in the Second Reading.

Philippians 4:4-7

I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord; I repeat, what I want is your happiness.

So, a question was put forth to John in the Gospel,

Luke 3:10-18

 what, then, must we do?

In no way do I want to change the answer John gives in the Gospel but if I am to reflect upon that question and answer it, I would suggest we make a choice to be happy, to stop comparing ourselves with others because we are perfect the way we are. To finish happiness means different things, I am happy when the Spirit is upon me because I can bring the Good News to you all, it’s being content with what we have in life, being happy for the love we give and the love we receive.

May your Christmas be filled with happy thoughts, happy people, and happy times.

May God Bless Always, Women of Faith and Hope.

Written and Created by My Mother Rose.

 

Behold!

John 19:5

Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said, ‘Here is the man.’

You might be thinking about the weird words which are written in the image this week,

“Eece Homo”- “Behold the Man!”

Well, let me explain I have been reading a book called Mediations on the Passion and Death of Christ, (Tan Books 2018). In the book those words are mentioned and the way the author has described what it means to behold the man makes me want to be there in the scene with Jesus. So, imagine Pilate bringing Jesus before the Chief Priests and the guards saying. “Eece Homo” which in Latin means behold the man, the Christ who is presented to his accusers bound and crowned with thorns. Also, as I was researching it was mentioned “Eece Homo” is a painting of Jesus Christ wearing the crown of thorns.

So, there I was sitting in mass and I couldn’t help but look over to the glass windows and be amazed of the vibrant colors that I saw beaming from each image. I want to take the time this week to consider what it means to ‘Behold.’ Behold means to look, to stare, to gaze to really consider and make a choice to observe or contemplate Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

When I look at the image, I see Mary who has an invitation an invitation that invites each one of us to ‘behold her son, her son that takes away the sins of the world.’ What do you see when you look, gaze or stare at Jesus? Do you see the King of your heart? Possibly you see Jesus making everything new again and you sense that he is always with you, and this is beholding the man, the man who stands at your door knocking.

“We become what we behold.”

 Author Unknown.

May God Bless Always,

Women of Faith and Hope

Written and created by My Mother Rose.

Merry Christmas Women of Faith and Hope 2021

Merry Christmas! Women of Faith and Hope.

May God Bless Always

by My Mother Rose. 

Advent Peace 2021

“I am a child of God, a woman of faith, a warrior of Christ, I am the storm.” Author Unknown.

Luke 3:1-6

‘A voice cries in the wilderness. Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley will be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low, winding ways will be laid low, and rough roads made straight. And all mankind shall see the salvation of God.’

Sometimes, it’s hard to hear the voice of God and to hear the voice that cries out in the wilderness. But when I sit and listen in silence turning the volume down, I just might hear the voice of God.

Isaiah 6:8

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?’ I answered, ‘Here I am, send me,’

May God Bless Always, Women of Faith and Hope

Written and created by My Mother Rose

Advent Hope 2021

“You were created to be a woman of impact who is so in love with her Lord and so AWARE OF HIS MIGHT that she cannot help but EXPECT GREAT THINGS and move in HIS POWER & GRACE.” Author Unknown

Today is the First Sunday of Advent and we celebrate Hope, we all know hope is where we wait patiently and positively expecting something great to happen and right now all around the world we begin to wait and keep a close watch on our hearts for the coming birth of our dear baby Jesus Christ.

Do we look forward to the coming of the Lord?

May we take the time this Advent to know his ways, to allow Jesus to teach us and show us the path, to know and understand we walk in truth with a friend, a lover, and a father.

 

Proverbs 23:17-18

Do not let your heart be envious of sinners but be steady every day in the fear of the LORD; for there is a morrow, and your hope will not be nullified.

May God Bless Always, Women of Faith and Hope.

Written and created by My Mother Rose.

'My Words Will Not Pass Away.'

 

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

Mark 13:24-32

No matter what we go through in life we hold onto the words we find in verses, scripture, the bible, the Psalms, and each word brings hope and light back into our darkness and doubts.

I don’t ever think I could stray far from picking up my bible and reading it, to every word I hear, to every person I feel called to help to every dark moment in my life. His words remind me of a God who does not change and a God whose great love is without end.  

One of my favorite verses is from Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God remains forever. People pass, people come and go from our lives, seasons change it either gets colder or hotter, wetter or dryer but the one thing that remains the same is God, he is the same today, as he was yesterday and will be tomorrow.

Can we say that we remain the same?

I can’t say that I remain the same, each year I am a year older, possibly a little wiser or not the wiser, I try my best to make changes in my appearance, life choices and I make the effort to grow in my faith which is always changing because I am learning new things.

Over time you come to realize the importance of God’s Words and how it still can make an impact on people’s lives, for example we still talk and celebrate the birth of Jesus, we still journey through Lent discussing the Passion of Christ and what faith and Jesus means to us. This weekend as you listen to the readings and Gospel my only hope is for you to stay close to the word of God for it is the word of God that stands forever.

In the beginning was the Word; the Word was with God and the Word was God.

John 1:1

May God Bless Always, Women of Faith and Hope.

Written and created by My Mother Rose.

Putting In All We Have For God!

 

This week’s gospel acclamation is Matthew 5:3

Happy the poor in Spirit, the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!

I am so excited for January as we will be exploring the beatitudes.

Is it the quantity or the quality? How much do we put in? How much do we give back? I don’t want to talk about money, I am meaning more how much of us do we put in like the hokey pokey do we put our whole self in and shake it all about for God or are we only putting in a tiny portion of ourselves and giving back what we assume is enough for God. The Good News is he wants all of who we are as individuals and a community we all put in an effort and God knows that some may contribute much more and that is great, but no one should ever feel bad or feel guilty we give what we can and put in what we can whether that is our whole self or a tiny portion of who we are.

This week we hear about the poor widow who put in more than all who contributed something that has been on my mind this week and I was reminded yesterday morning, whose faith are we measuring up to? First, faith- is believing in someone or something, placing trust or confidence in someone or something for example faith in God, faith in your doctor, faith in your hairdresser. I would like to hope I measure up to the faith I receive from God unfortunately these days it’s hard not to compare and you do feel as though you must measure up to the faith of others if you want to belong to the click or the popular group. Here is the thing though, I don’t want to measure up to anybody else I finally understand the relationship between what I put in and what I receive from God. Here are two verses that may help us to understand further.

Romans 12:3-6

In the light of the grace, I have received I want to urge each one among you not to exaggerate his real importance. Each of you must judge himself/herself soberly by the standard of the faith God has given him/her. Just as each of our bodies has several parts and each part has a separate function, so all of us in union with Christ, form one body, and as parts of it we belong to each other. Our gifts differ according to the grace given us. If your gift is prophecy, then use it as your faith suggest.

1Corinthians 12:27-30

Now you together are Christ’s body; but each of you is a different part of it. In the Church, God has given the first place to apostles, the second to prophets, the third to teachers; after them, miracles, and after them the gift of healing; helpers, good leaders, those with many languages. Are all of them apostles, or all of them prophets, or all of them teachers? Do they all have the gift of miracles, or all have the gift of healing? Do all speak strange languages and interpret them?

These verses sum up that we are all different, we all have different gifts while we all belong to the One Body of Christ and so I guess what I am saying is we shouldn’t judge rather judge our own lives, we shouldn’t compare, and we shouldn’t separate or throw out what god is measuring out to the world or a community of people who believe in Jesus Christ. The widow is an example of someone who has a generous heart, someone who puts all that she has into loving God and uses her gifts as her faith suggests.

Can we Women of Faith and Hope use our gifs as our faith suggests?

Last night I went to a retreat, and I came to the realization that I must have acceptance for the things and people I cannot change, and I felt as though God was saying Katie do you willfully accept my proposal? After starring at an image of Mary on the front of a booklet and my answer is yes, I accept, and I will put in all that I have because the world needs people to be like Jesus loving, open, kind, compassionate, respectful, forgiving, and merciful. I feel the world is stressed, frustrated and angry and all it takes is for us to be there in the present moment listening, acknowledging, and giving a dam about another human being. To me the widow lived a simple life loving God and as I said before she put in all she had.

Will you put in all of who you are?

May God Bless Always, Women of Faith and Hope.

Written and created by My Mother Rose.

REPENT

Advent-Peace 5th December, 2021

This is the second week of Advent, I want to share this video, I watched this movie as a child and if I have a chance, I watch it on Good Friday. So, sit back and watch because it sums up the readings and the gospel.

May God Bless Always, Women of Faith and Hope