A Dream Fulfilled: Lourdes

      As I finished praying the rosary, our plane safely touched down. Filled with gratitude, I offered a prayer in thanksgiving, to Our Lord and Our Lady, for a wonderful pilgrimage to France!

     It was a nine-hour flight, which gave me time to process all that had transpired. This pilgrimage had been a long time coming. It was my third attempt to make it happen, and it finally did!

God, You Know the Whole of It

      “God’s love calls us to move beyond fear. We ask God for the courage to abandon ourselves unreservedly, so that we might be molded by God’s grace, even as we cannot see where the path may lead us.”                       St. Ignatius Loyola

     God’s love was calling me, no, urging me, to move beyond fear this past month since my husband’s “heart event.” And praise to God, as well as thanks to all those praying for us, I am at peace. 

Thorns Among the Roses -- Part 7

      Today is not only our last day in Rome, but also of our pilgrimage. My heart is so full of gratitude to God for allowing Jonathan and I to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary in such a grand way!

Heroic Love and Sacrifice

      Spring was just around the corner, and we were quite ready to say goodbye to winter! Jonathan and I had booked our pilgrimage for the fall.  We also made arrangements to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary in September with a Mass, where we would renew our vows, followed by a reception, for family and friends. We were very excited!

     My deepest wish was that my sister Sarah would live to be present at our celebration. She had just had a reaction from one of her treatments which meant that it would have to cease. We felt troubled because the cancer had responded well to it, but that door was now closed to her. She had felt so blessed to have had minimal side effects from her treatments and had little to no symptoms from the cancer since her diagnosis 3 years ago. She was still receiving radiation and if needed, she could have chemotherapy.

Avoiding Storms

  “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in Thee my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of Thy wings, I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.”                 Psalm 57:1

     For well over a month, I felt like I had one foot in heaven and the other on earth. I was still astonished   over the many blessings I had experienced, and my heart was full of gratitude to God. I was well aware that this would not last, but I never expected just how low I could be brought down.

The Gift of Yourself

      My time of preparation during Advent, had been a wonderful journey, except for one day as Christmas drew near and I allowed my “to do” list to send me into a panic!

     Realizing this was an attack from the evil one to take away my peace, I took a deep breath, said a prayer and did the next task that needed to be done, and then the next, and the next and the next. Soon, God’s peace returned to me, and I was back on the road to Bethlehem with Mary and Joseph.

With Gratitude

     “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”                
                                                                                                       G. K. Chesterton


     Taking things for granted, is such an easy way to live.

The Ingenuity of God

     My husband and I stared in disbelief as we surveyed the extensive damage the termites had done to our home! Just a few hours ago everything looked perfect.

     We were in the midst of a renovation, which included replacing our front door. Before the door could be installed, we had to remove the wallpaper from the walls. “What in the world is that?,” we asked in unison. There were vertical tracks on the drywall. Our contractor was somewhat suspicious and suggested we remove the drywall to examine the wood beneath. Much to our horror, the wood had been ravaged by termites, which meant not only replacing the two by fours, but the header and footer as well! My husband and I stood shaking our heads as we gazed upon the ruins. What began with excitement dissolved into disaster!

Everything Becomes a Grace

     “The most important and most fruitful acts of our freedom are not those by which we transform the outside world as those by which we change our inner attitude in the light of faith that God can bring good out of everything without exception. He is a never-failing source of ultimate riches. Our lives no longer have in them anything negative, ordinary, or indifferent. Positive things become a reason for gratitude and joy, negative things an opportunity for abandonment, faith, and offering: everything becomes a grace.”                                                                                                                                                                                                        Fr. Jacques Phillipe



     That God can bring good out of everything that happens – without exception – is a life-changing attitude to work toward achieving. Father Jacques did not come up with this notion himself. Our good God clearly stated this in His Holy Scripture through St. Paul: “We know that all things work for good for those who love God” (Rom. 8 vs. 28). All does mean everything – without exception – so why do we struggle so much with believing this to be true?

Shake Off the Shackles of Discontent

     “When you sit down to eat, pray. When you eat bread, do so thanking Him for being so generous to you. If you drink wine, be mindful of Him who has given it to you for your pleasure and as a relief in sickness. When you dress, thank Him for His kindness in providing you with clothes. When you look at the sky and the beauty of the stars, throw yourself at God’s feet and adore Him who in His wisdom has arranged things in this way. Similarly, when the sun goes down and when it rises, when you are asleep or awake, give thanks to God, who created and arranged all things for your benefit, to have you know, love and praise their Creator.” St. Basil the Great



     Working on having a heart full of gratitude toward God, can sometimes be a challenge! We are a society who often sees the glass “half empty,” instead of thanking God that it had something in it in the first place. We look to see who has more than we do and instead, feel discontented with what we have been truly blessed. Our culture espouses that whoever has more is the happiest and most fulfilled. Possessions are looked at as treasures, and we are encouraged to do our best to accumulate them, sometimes at the cost of relationships; even our relationship with God.