What is the season of Lent like for us.

The first week of Lent- we are in the midst of the Wilderness with Our Lord- our own desert.

We have set up our prayer spaces. One for the school area and one in our sitting room.
We spend a lot of time in this room, as we have minimalised our TV usage. That in itself is hard.
People ask, did you see this.... and we say no.... we don't watch it.... it reminds me of the school hard pressure, when I was asked did you watch blah blah last night?..... Its very freeing.

We are running a Lenten group from our home together, this year. We have in the past participated in seperate male & female groups, but it can make Lent very busy, and its nice to faciliate this group together. So a Sacred space in our sitting room will be a focal point in this Lenten journey.


Apart from Lent, The Lord is showing us the way, in our new parish. Brid is alter serving, we are making contributions with music, and other roles we have always played in the church. He is leading us gently into this parish, and we need to Trust his ways.

We are learning the ways other parishes and priests celebrate Lent and the seasons of the year.
I have to keep my mouth zipped often, as I learn the way I once knew, was just that one way.

My word for the Year

Over at Aussie coffee shop, Therese has posted about her word for the year. I wanted to comment, but thought it would rather long, so .......mine would have to be Don't Worry for the future.
I have in the past worried about all types of situations, kids, strategies etc, but in reality, Our Lord doesn't wish us to do this.
I just need to concentrate on today, this moment, and plan into the future, but Our Lord has this in hand.
So my word would be Don't worry, God has it in hand. He is so deeply concerned and involved in our lives, of course he wants us to give him our troubles and leave them with him.
It doesn't mean we won't think of them, but we will be more at peace if we leave it to him you And trust in his plan for us.
This is something I have endeavoured to do over the last year or more, but at Summer School Our Lord showed me how in a deeper way.

Peace and Love

Moved by Faith

Several months ago, we decided we needed to move out of our current home. This was a very hard decision for us, as we built the home we were in 17 years ago, to remain in it until we were 'old and ready for a nursing home'.
This decision was taken away from us though. We have been abused and mistreated by a neighbour. We tried to turn the other cheek, ignore, but it got to much for us. In fact, it was escalating.
So.... we began the arduious task of looking for a family home. where?? what do we want in a family home?
We always watched our spending and didn't like to over spend, so we took time to decide what our needs were. We prayed for guidance and direction. I asked St Joseph for his help, and prayed a novena.
We began internet searching, looking at some homes, still not knowing where or even if we should move.
A funny thing kept on happening, I would look at an area on the 'net', and the area we have moved to would come up in the middle of a search. This happened quite a lot. Was God telling us something!!
So we took a drive up this way, and on sharing we both realised that this could be the place for our new family home.
We continued to be open to where The Lord wanted us.
We looked at several homes, and thought we had found the perfect home but....
In the mean time, we needed to sell our existing home. We prepared it for sale, and had a lot of fun doing so. My Dad helped a lot, and he enjoyed being involved.
So our home went on the market May 20th. We sold it 5 days later- although this was not an easy time for us, as a building inspector reporting on our current home was rather dodgy.
So when we exchanged, it was rather a weight off our shoulders.
Throughout all of this time, God had his hand firmly on us as a family. We found a lovely home, on a 1/2 acre. Kristie says its enough for a soccer field. It is exactly what we were looking for. God directed us here, It has even the carpet we were looking for, our bedroom size is exactly what we dreamed of. We moved 11 weeks later.
The house we thought was perfect for us was sold when we enquired, but on looking at it during a walk the other day, we realised, it was just not for us.
My Mum took my statues of The Sacred Heart of Jesus and The Miraculous Mary when we were moving and once they rejoined us, we now feel like its home.
Our children love this home, we love it, and we know we will spend many happy days here.
To make it really special for my emotion charged darlings on the day of moving we all moved together.
We closed the door on one home and 2 hours later opened the door on our new home Together.
It was a really good thing to do, particularly for the older ones.
We know God directed us here, for what purpose we shall yet to know, but he didn't bring us here for nothing.
His will will be done.
God knew what we needed, we just needed to move by Faith and trust in him entirely.

Trusting

Its been a huge journey over the last 12 months. One I would not like to place on anyone, but we are stronger and much more resilient than before.

Who would have believed the way family and others have turned there backs on our pain and judged us.

It has spiralled us both to a very dark pit, and climbing back to middle ground- can't say we are at the top-, it has renewed our faith in Our Lord. The last few weeks have shown that to us in a big way.

I can truly say, I Trust in YOU Lord, because I know it is through him that we will receive any healing that we need.

I know He has a plan and we just need to let him show us the way.

If this means to pack up and follow him to the ends of the Earth, we will.

I still struggle in crowds and places of familiarity. This is my humanness, and its an area again I need to ask Our Lord to heal.

So as we, as a family, place each step on the ground and walk with Jesus, we just Trust that he knows what we need.

We place before him our lives and our needs, and saying that we say, we surrender all to You and 'Yes', I will do it according to you will. So out of this comes newness, new life, new hope, new challenges and a new family. And in it all, deeply aware of God's providence in our lifes.

So with all this in mind we can sing

New Spirit, New heart give us a brand new start,

so the world can proclaim the glory of Your name.

Take pride and resistance,

give faith and obedience and love.

You give us new life!