Irish Dancing

Last Weekend two of our darlings entered there first Irish Dancing Competition- Feis with CRN. It is a traditional approach and the first 3 grades can not be changed. Each Grade is written and spoken on Gaelic.This means the girls are learning some ofthere heritage.

We were privileged to have 2 Adjudacators from Ireland at this Competition. They gave fantastic feedback, and were very encouraging.
Louise is not new to a Feis, but it was Brids 'first'. Brid did very well and scored highly. Louise also scored highly.
We are so pleased and proud of there diligent efforts.
Well done Our darling Girls.

sitting a long time with.....

Imagine being able to sit a long time with Our Lord. He coming and sitting and consoling you. This is what he did with his Mother, after his Resurrection.
Imagine that Great Privilege and honour of him sitting with you, and consoling you at your greatest time of need. Imagine being able to completely surrender to a situation or a struggle in your life, because He came and sat with you and consoled you.
Imagine after days of painfully placing herself in God's presence in prayer, with the agony of the Cross fresh before her mind's eye, what a joy it was for our Lady to see the Lord in glory, alive and well and to speak with Him with no effort on her part.try to enter prayer with the joy of Our Lady and remember that it took her a long time with the Lord before she experienced the joy of the Resurrection.

How about we try to enter prayer with the joy of Our Lady and remember that it took her a long time with the Lord before she experienced the joy of the Resurrection.
We will receive that great Joy too.

This is my reflection after reading my Mary Vitamin, and I wanted to share this with you.

An Evening with Fr Terence

A few weeks ago, a dear homeschool Mum and I were talking about having talks by religious in our homes.
I said, I was happy to open my home to an event like this.
We opened our home to a dear Priest that many Aussies will know.
He spoke to about 15 people about "The New Age", and its deception. We all interjected were we needed to, and he spoke from personally experiencing some of this through the need of exercising several people.
It was not a talk for the faint hearted, but an area that can be overlooked in our secular society.
Many points he raised, I was not unfamiliar with, as was the same for the others in attendance.
I liked his point that if you stop seeing "The beauty, the truth and honesty" you can easily open yourself up to things not of God.
He spoke of a man possessed, and his religious director from another faith, saying, "seek out a Catholic Priest, there is nothing I can do".
I liked his honesty, that if he didn't know something, he did not try to answer it with a 'fluffy'' answer, but continually went back to the churches stance.
I had several questions I wanted to ask, but I am hoping I can ask them of him when the time is right. 
I think many of us could have listened and interjected for hours, but the night was getting late, and many had travelled from long distances.
So mow until next time.
What an exciting few weeks we have had.

The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart

Last Friday evening we went along to a lovely celebration for the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart. We attended their Mass to observe and prayer as they Renewed  their vows, in their native tongue. As this is an order From Vietnam, some 120 Sisters, will be Renewing there vows, in Vietnam, on the same date 20th August.
They arrived in our dioceses a couple of years ago, and have touched the hearts of many.
There was a great turn out from all areas of our Diocese and beyond. This included Priests, Brothers and other Religious Sisters.
It was lovely to witness this ceremony and to watch a community come together for Celebration.
Here is a small article about them.

It was a Jubilee Celebration...and more

I have been wrestling with posting this for a couple of weeks now. I may still take it down.

Recently, we were present at a Jubilee Mass for 3 priests in our dioceses. One of these priests had been very much part of our lives and was present at Brids’ Holy Communion and Confirmation. So we wanted to be there for him.

There was a buzz in the Cathedral and it was great to be present. Many of our Diocesian priests had assembled to celebrate with their brothers.

Everything was just right until Dermot said ‘there are people outside with posters’, the next thing we saw was posters being carried down the aisle of the church. It was a protest against the actions of a Priest. These were victims of abuse. It was a horrible sinking feeling to realise this was happening. I was moved to tears for our Priests and felt uncomfortable in this situation. It took the shine off the celebration that should have been special for these three men of God.

Our Bishop looked saddened and tired at the public protest. He has been under fire for a very long time. These wounded men did not leave and made their presence felt. As a church is a public space, there was no way to move them on.

Our Bishop under the circumstances did not give a Homily, but instead instruction to us all to not antagonise in anyway. His words were very clever as He was directing his words to everyone present.

Although it was a very upsetting, the people assembled to celebrate the Jubilee, sang and prayed like angels. It was an amazing atmosphere, but on of confusion as well. Brid was very upset by all of this. She really didn’t understand. It was the first time she had been exposed to this type of situation.

On reflection, although this was a difficult situation to be involved in, it was also a time of being gentle and kind to these wounded people. I viewed several priests talking to them afterwards and I felt upset for both parties, but I was not moved to talk to them, ‘what would I say that hadn’t already been said’. All I knew was that I wanted to get our daughter into a safe environment to gently talk her through it. My thoughts were not with the victims at that time, but it didn’t take long for my feelings to change and feel sorrow for there grief.

As I stated in the beginning I have been tossing around this post, as I know my words may offend, or they may not reflect the way others may see this situation. This is purely my reflection on a situation that we found ourselves in, and how I have struggled to write on it.

ROME Topic Approach

Week 5 has seen the coming of the close of our study of Rome, its Kingdom, Its Republic and Its Empire. It has been a long journey, but very fruitful.
We used History Links as our main source and bounced of here and there using the references it suggested, and as my usual style, the books I knew we had in our library to embellish each area as needed. History Links has 3 bound books presenting Rome from its beginnings to its fall.
It covered the Saints of the time, the beginnings of our early church and the heresies at the time. It placed emphasis on our Church Fathers and the rulers of the Roman Empire.
We learnt about Vestments and Sacraments within this unit. Iconography was discussed and we could practice what we learnt on other Icons we knew.
We were able to end this amazing time in history this week because we implemented the topic approach. As I stated last week, we can gain momentum, and stay with it, rather than swapping to a new subject several times a day.

So why was this imporrtant to complete?
We were both feeling we had journeyed enough with this unit. It is a very full unit, and I culled what I knew was information that would just go over Brids' head. This made it more manageable and wothwhile.
So tomorrow brings a new day and new adventures.

Topic Approach week 3 and 4

Its been around 4 weeks since we began using Topic approach. Its been a good fit so far. Brid likes to 'get into a topic' and although she will move on to another, she finds it distracting of her concentration.
So the last week Brid concentrated on her newspaper. It is something, she puts together once a month, on various topics. This month being Music.
This week we have been able to flesh out Rome. We are close to the end of this period in History and it has been worthwhile being able to stay on a topic and get momentum.
So would I say its been a good switch?
yes and a tiny bit of hesitation on a no.
We are covering more and certainly the continuity is worth it, but I am reluctant to say its how we will continue.
Time will tell.

Beautiful Girl

I was very pleased when I discovered this book. I immediately planned to read this book with Brid when we had a night alone. She loves reading together, especially when the timing is just right.
As a mother and daughter, I know this will be a very special time, to further embrace our friendship and each others feminity.
So the book arrived and our journey has begun.