Wednesday 30 November 2011

Advent & Novenas

I am looking around my Blog lists and other blog and seeing the most amazing posts reminding us pray and get ourselves ready for the coming of Our Lord.
We have gotten our Advent wreath arranged. We are lighting our candles each day at Breakfast.
We have begun our Advent chain. We are opening each Verse from the bible at breakfast as well
And I selected our great variety of books from the shelf.
Just a very small collectiion, the rest are being read by miss Brid

This year as Brid is getting older we are doing a family reflection every day, using Fulton Sheens' Advent & Christmas..
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We have begun our St Andrews Novena and The Immaculate Conception Novena.

As the greenery is fresh we will replenish it as we need to. Some of our candles are from last year, we will update them as needed as well.

We get our candles from dusk. My favourite candle store.
We have put up our Jesse Tree and are slowly getting our Christmas decorations out.

We are trying to resist the temptations the world offers at Christmas. So how are your plans going???

Monday 21 November 2011

Younger sisters answer the spiritual call



It was a lovely surprise to read this today, and I just had to share it with you all. We know each of these beautiful women pictured and Courtney as well. A very vibrant order of nuns.
November 19, 2011

Sisterhood ... nuns from the Missionaries of God's Love. From left, Sister Therese Mills, Courtney Chircop, Sister Rosie Drum and Sister Judy Bowe. Photo: Wolter Peeters
SURPRISES are common at school reunions, but Therese Mills offered up a real revelation.
''One of my friends went, 'oh yeah, I brought the nun,'' she said. ''And a fella we went to school with said, 'you brought the what?' ''
' 'Millsy, she's a nun'. And he was like, 'no way!' A lot of them were really spun out.''
Be it a radical life decision or a counter-cultural call from God, a small but significant number of young women are now bucking the usual trifecta of marriage, kids and career for another one - the chastity, poverty and obedience of religious life.
The number of women interested in vocations is up, reports the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, with inquiries coming from a much younger age group.
The growth of the Missionaries of God's Love (MGL) - a charismatic Catholic order founded in Canberra in 1986 - has left Sister Therese, now 37, and her 11 fellow nuns searching for a larger formation house. They have an average age of about 30.
Three new candidates in their early 20s, attracted by the MGL's ''radical'' vow of poverty, its special ministry to youth and its call to a life with God, are set to join them in the order's rented Quakers Hill household next year, helping boost its numbers from three to eight.
Among them will be Courtney Chircop, 22, who says she was attracted to a religious life but trained as a childcare worker before taking heed of some of her peers.
''I had some friends who wanted to join religious life, and one of them was only 17, and I thought that was pretty cool,'' she said.
But Ms Chircop said the prevailing reaction to her decision was shock, particularly her parents, who realised they would never be grandparents.
''They were like, 'can you have a kid and then get into religious life? We'll raise the child,' '' she said. ''It's taken a while for them to get used to it … overall, they just wanted what's best for me and what makes me happy.''
The order's Sister Judy Bowe, 46, said in an increasingly secular Australia, their lifestyle didn't make sense outside of faith. Chastity, in particular, was ''the nose ring of the church''.
''Because it's radical and sex is everything in this culture,'' she said. ''It's kind of a shocking symbol of counter-cultural 'wow'.''
A further nine Australian women, aged 18 to 36, have signed up with the habit-wearing Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia, a Nashville-based order that established its first mission house outside the US in Sydney in 2008. Four of these were in August.
The local superior and vocations director, Sister Mary Rachel Capets, said there was ''definitely'' a renewed global interest in young people dedicating their lives to God. The 150-year-old teaching order, at 280 sisters, is now as big as it has ever been.
Working with youth made an important difference to promoting vocation, she said.
''If you looked at the history of World Youth Day throughout the world, that is a definite fruit,'' she said.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/younger-sisters-answer-the-spiritual-call-20111118-1nnex.html#ixzz1eI33GR95

Presentation of Our Lady at the Temple

Today is a beautiful Feast day.
The Presentation of Holy Mary is the “Birthday of the Congregation”. This day celebrates the day that the parents of Our Lady brought her to the Temple at the age of three and handed her over to live there, denying any worldly temptation to distract her prayers to God. Blessed Mary Mother of our saviour Jesus Christ being part of Gods great plan and concieved without original sin prepared for her sacred mission here


Wednesday 16 November 2011

A wonderful message..movie review


Recently, we had the opportunity to see a wonderful Christian movie at the cinemas -COURAGEOUS.  The same directors as Fireproof.
We heard it advertised on our local Christian radion station and we wanted to support it. It was M rated, this concerned us as we wanted to take Brid. I suggested to Dermot we  check the dove foundation for a review.  We decided after reading there take on it, that it was OK for Brid to view.
After Piano lessons Dermot drove us into the city. It is usually rather busy on the roads in the late afternoon. This concerned me, bumper to bumper on the bridge into town. Oh Joy!!- not. It was a concern, because I had no idea as to how to get into the cinemas, as they were new-ish. The roads were completely clear and we arrived at the cinema 10 minutes before the movie started. This gave us plenty of time to buy an icecream and choose a seat.
The movie theate was fairly full. It looked like the patrons were from  various church groups with a smattering of others. How could I tell, you say. Well they are sat in rows together and they appeared to know each other.
There was no advertising before the movie, no previews. I wondered why? A projector failure. Surely they don’t use projectors.  A computer failure, or just an agreement between the cinema and  the movie company?? I don’t know, but it was very pleasant.
The movie was about a group of warrant officers in a state in USA. Their stories, where they came from and there walk with God. It showed good Christian morals and how each of these men wanted the best for their families. There was even a family who homeschooled. The movie centred around a Resolution that these men made in front of their families and each other to be the very best Father they could be, using the principles set out by Our Lord in the Bible.  
It asked men to be men of God and stand for up for their believes in God to their family and the world. It showed their struggles afterward and the way The Lord worked in their lives.  It stated that the problems we have today with gangs and young people would not be, if Fathers actually took there role seriously as fathers.
It ended with a scene in a church, with one of the men speaking of his experience to the congregation. People actually stood up at the end of the movie and made this resolution as well. It was a very powerful scene and a wonderful movie.

There was a point in the movie were the little girl asked her Daddy to dance with her, in  public place. He didn’t.  He regretted it. Would you Dance with your son or daughter?  I know Dermot would, He has. I would too?

Take a box of tissues and go see this movie.  Brid and I sat close, holding hands and sharing tissues. There were a couple of scenes that were 'physical fighting' scenes, which she needed me to talk her through, and scenes where she wanted to hold her Dads' hand- umm for 20mins. His arm stretched over me. He did it because she needed his hand.
May God bless you, May he empower us to build up strong men and women to bring the world to know Jesus.






Monday 14 November 2011

Padre Pio

The Padre Pio dvd
Recently  I  have watched a great dvd of a Miracle worker Saint. St Pio of Pietrelcrina.  He is a remarkable modern day saint.
I purchased the dvd late last year at a homeschool camp, and left it on the shelf. Umm.. Why..? I wonder now. I was a fairly real portrayal of his life.
Recently I gave a small Pauline book to my Mum about St Padre' Pio, as she hasn't kept up with some of these 'modern day saint'. I will be passing this dvd on as well.
He was chosen by God for some amazing work and his Stigmata is well talked and queried.
I first learnt of him through the Disciples of Jesus, and have enjoyed  discussing his life with Dermot & our children.
We are all watching this dvd in small portions throught this week as part of our Religion, Geography, History etc..
 Pietrelicina is a small town in Italy, 2 hours drive from Sorrento. He was named Francesco after St Francis of Assisi. He received his gifts as a small child and announced at a young age that he wished to be a Friar.
He lived as a persecuted Priest due to his Stigmata,The gift of bilocation, wonderful confessor and the ability to have exactly thr right word of counsel. The church was sceptical about this, and it needed to be. He understood this, and offered his suffering through the crucified Lord.
Blessed John Paul II met with Padre' Pio and asked for prayers before he was even a Bishop.
He spend most of his days at a town known as San Giovanni Rotonda. It is the second visited pilgrim sight after Our Lady of Guadalupe.
We celebrate Padre Pios' feast day September 23rd.  He dies in 1968 and was canonised in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.

St Pio of Pietrelcina Pray for us.