Treasure At Home

All I want and need
is here at home -
my husband and children
and Your Most Holy Presence within them,
Lord,
- it's the only thing I want
in the entire Universe

and You have given this to me.
How can I ever thank You enough
my Love, my Life, my Treasure, my Everything
xxx

A cheerful giver

Lord, make me a cheerful giver. May the Joy of the Lord be my strength! And furthermore, may I pass it on to others - I feel so incapable Lord, when others suffer how can I pass on your Joy? - through Grace and Grace alone.

Party Bag

After a little argument with Ivan, about housework - I'm downstairs fastening my children's seat belts to take them to a birthday party. Four year old Tom says "I want a party bag", I say "Tom we don't expect things, if we are given we are very happy, but it's rude to expect gifts" - and I suddenly stop - practice what you preach mummy - I should never expect anything from anyone, not even my husband - but of course when given, I receive very happily!! The things You teach us through our children Lord! Thank you.

Life is so beautiful! A thousand years would not be enough, Lord, we need eternity to take in all the beauty of life.

Warmth again..

Warmth like never before fills my whole being
Starting from my toes right up to the tip of my head
Warmth running through my veins
Warmth pumping blood from my heart.
Warmth in my mind,
Warmth in my Soul that rests so peacefully now at night.
Warmth never felt before.

Before was the Winter Chill -
I could not move, nor talk.
I could not feel myself
All life seemed drained away inside me.
My heart so icy, it could hardly pump blood
My mind shut tight to the harsh draughts inside
My Soul weeping bitterly and shivering
Stretching its Hands to its Saviour to come.

And then You came, my beloved – you came
so Fully – and so simply
A winter blizzard you changed suddenly to the warm spring sunshine
And I lay down in peace, on the warm sand, full of gratitude
Gratitude beyond words, beyond all possible actions –
Gratitude -
My Soul sleeping after spending so long awake in nightmares
My Soul sleeping at Your feet.

How Beautiful you are my Darling
You show me Your face, and let me hear Your voice
In the most simple ways of all -
Through Your Grace and Grace alone
I see Your face upon the face of my beloved family,
I hear Your voice in their voices,
Their laughter is Yours
Their gentle touch Your own.
Unworthy am I to serve my loved ones.
Unworthy am I to serve You.

Sweet as the dew in the early morn
Like a lily among the thorns.
Set me as a seal on Your Heart
Set me as a seal on Your Soul
For strong as Death is Love
More yielding than the grave
Nothing can quench its flame
Nothing can quench its flame.

A furnace

furnace [ˈfɜːnɪs] (definition) an enclosed chamber in which heat is produced to generate steam, destroy refuse, smelt or refine ores.

Grant me the Grace to stay here for as long as You will and never to run away.
I stay here for no other reason than my love for You, and I'm convinced that I'm here out of Your infinite Love for me.

Ouch.
Maria

"Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin. All hope consists in confession. In confession there is a chance for mercy. Believe it firmly. Do not doubt, do not hesitate, never despair of the mercy of God. Hope and have confidence in confession."
St Isidore of Seville.

Fragile Gift of Motherhood

"That special power of loving that belongs to a woman is seen most clearly when she becomes a mother. Motherhood is the gift of God to women. How grateful we must be to God for this wonderful gift that brings such joy to the whole world, women and men alike! Yet we can destroy this gift of motherhood, especially by the evil of abortion, but also be thinking that other things like jobs or positions are more important than loving, than giving oneself to others. No job, no plans, no possessions, no idea of "freedom" can take the place of love. So anything that destroys God's gift of motherhood destroys His most precious gift to women-- the ability to love as a woman."

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Lord, to be open to life is an invaluable tip for a life full of joy in abundance. Lord, my words are so feeble - they carry so little. I ask You to make these feeble words carry something of what you have given me. So You may tell others, with these feeble words - what You beyond feeble words say to me:

I know you;
In secret, as in the depths of the Earth
I formed your inmost being
Your very self I knew,
Your bones were not hidden from me
when I knit you in your mother's womb. (PS 139)

Man and woman,
United as one with me,
the reason for life - is Life itself.
Life is the reason for your being,
Life is the principle reason for your unity:

the core of your unity is not companionship,
the core of your unity is not emotional support,
the core of your unity is not the passion,
the core- the crux of your unity with me is Life

Life that rains on the tree, and shines the sun,
so it may blossom with love
and fill the air with a fragrance of such sweetness
that it would draw others to rest in its shade -

open to life is
open to me -
I'll make your descendents as countless as the sands of the sea
and when you suffer emptiness, I suffer and weep with thee
When your heart breaks as a child returns to me,
I hold that life precious in my Hands for eternity.

beautiful is the singing at the gift of life
and beautiful still the heart yearning for life to receive,
beautiful is breathlessness, in awe, newborn at breast,
beautiful the heart that mourns when life returns to me for rest.

Frak

Such confusion Lord. At peace, yet grieving; calm with outbursts of anger; rejoicing knowing our son is a saint with You, and yet sad not able to hold his flesh and blood and kiss him.

Frak Mulej, jien frak. Nhalli kull farka f'idek. Ghamel dak li trid Int - dan biss nitolbok, dan biss nixtieq, dan biss. Min jaf x'qed taghmel, Alla omnipotenti taghna, min jista qatt jimmagina, bl-imhabba li Int, x'qed taghmel, x'qed tohloq b'dan il-frak kollu.

Zommli idejja isikkat, thallinix nitbieghed minnek, f'dan iz-zmien u qatt.
xx

"You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain"
John 15, 16

Jesus wept

"When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept."
John 11:33-35

Where is the Lamb for the sacrifice?

Dear Lord,
I whisper my son's name Benjamin.
Benjamin. Benjamin. His very name is pain for me.
Sweet sweet Benjamin. How I miss him Lord. I beg your bear with me during this time of weakness. I am so weak. So very very very weak. Bear with me. Please do not abandon me.
Maria

"Father I carry the wood, and you carry the flame -
but where is the lamb for the sacrifice of praise?
I said God will provide, what He asks for we must give.
Oh God I trust in You.
Lord I do not undestand, but my love for You is true.
Oh God I trust in You."
(Abraham's Offering - CD D. Rose, Pursue Me)

Walk on, walk on

"Walk on, walk on
with wind at your back,
and a prayer for your new life beginning,
you've been given to me by the Good Maker's Hands
now my gift to the Lord is returning -
and I'll bless your path with the stars at night,
andthe smile of the day as its dawning
-and if I never walk beside you again,
we will dance at the Gates of Heaven
oh we'll dance at the Gates of Heaven."

Sr Rose's father (CD Pursue Me, Gates of Heaven)

In Your Hands now

"Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

-William Butler Yeats

Prayer - ripple effect

"I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even the tiniest of our prayers to God make, and all the people those little prayers were destined to affect, and all the consequences of those effects down through the centuries, we would be so paralyzed with awe at the power of prayer that we would be unable to get up off our knees for the rest of our lives."

Peter Kreeft

To be with

Sweet Lord, I'm missing people dear to me. I think of their faces, voices, the way they move and miss being with them even more. I long to spend time with them. Then I remember Sr Rose and how physically cut off she now is from all her loved ones. Yet she does spend time with them all, each and every one, in You, in the Eucharist. Teach me-that when I miss people I love so much, I can find them so easily in You - we can still spend time together in You. How I long for You. The desire You create in me is so strong it is almost painful dear dear sweet Lord- how do you create us like this, it is such a tremedous gift.

"When we gather at the Table, we are closer than our breath,
Even nearer than the angels, when we touch His very flesh,
Dwelling in each other's presence, I will hold you close inside,
Every soul in Heaven and Earth is now present in the Body of Christ."
(CD Pursue Me, Danielle Rose)

The Trinity

"If God is not a Trinity, God is not love. For love requires three things: a lover, a beloved, and a relationship between them."

Peter Kreeft

Delight in weakness

Dearest, dearest Lord.
I am so weak, but I rest in You, and am so happy like this. This is a grace you have given - to delight in my frailty, my vulnerability in You. Oh what a sweet sweet taste is this. You ask me, 'am I not always more glorious than you could ever imagine?' and all I can answer to that is yes, yes sweet Lord.