Top Gift Idea this Christmas!

I have just returned from a weekend away at Collaroy Beach. I went for a Discipleship retreat run by the awesome Youth Minister at my Parish and attended by a group of passionate young adults (including myself)! We have come away better equipped with stronger foundations for our faith, new friendships formed, affirmations of who we are in Christ, and our most effective armour and one we are all excited about - new Bibles!! (Thank you Luke)!!

We are fortunate to have seen the fruits of our experience made visible by the powerful workings of the Holy Spirit. But, I believe the seeds planted in the hearts of the young ones over the weekend, will in God's time, bring fourth more blessings than we could possibly understand or even be made aware of. My biggest prayer on returning from the retreat is that we will be filled with the love of Christ and the fire of the Holy Spirit so that we will have a greater desire to share God's living word with those who do not yet know Him, to proclaim the truth that is Christ Himself, and lead others to the God through the workings of the Holy Spirit. In short, to evangelise. :-)

I especially feel the desire to bring Christ to people as we draw closer to Christmas. This time of the year inspires me to be a little more outgoing in my attempts to speak about my faith as it is such an exciting time and I want to share the reality of Christmas with everyone. This video is a favourite of mine. I love new ways of telling people the same story and spreading the message that Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

You must check it out!!! :-)



I pray that your hearts will be on fire this Christmas!! May you overflow with peace and joy this season and be inspired to spread your gifts of faith and love to all the world in new and exciting ways!

"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."
Mark 16:15

Advent Meditation

Click here to check out the Advent Calendar on Xt3 for daily reflections! 

 Also, just had to share....

I made purple and pink cupcakes for our Young Adult's Lectio Divina in the spirit of Advent. 

They didn't last long. :-)

What Not To Wear

Life is full of dilemmas. Here's hoping that with a little faith, you can finally resolve that all important question.. What will I wear??? 

Matthew 6:25-34

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."   

^"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Collosians 3:12

Lord God, Clothe me today in your righteousness. 

When others look at me, let them only see you. AMEN!

Most Sacred Passion

All who see me deride me.
They curl their lips, they toss their heads.
‘He trusted in the Lord, let him save him;
let him release him if this is his friend.’
Many dogs have surrounded me,
A band of the wicked beset me.
They tear holes in my hands and my feet.
I can count every one of my bones.
They divide my clothing among them.

They cast lots for my robe.”

Psalm 22:7-8, 16-18

How can we hear the account of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and not be moved by it? The Passion of Jesus Christ moves us deeply simply because Jesus suffered immensely. He suffered great physical and spiritual torment and he did so on our behalf.  We are sorrowful when we meditate on His Passion because it is our sin that inflicted the suffering on Jesus – The one who is innocent and all deserving of our love. 

A devotion to the Lord’s Passion shows us who we are as sinners and allows us to be healed. To meditate on His sacred Passion brings awareness, repentance, remorse, healing and gratitude.  

We are remorseful because it is our sin that has crucified Jesus – and in the sacrament of Reconciliation we turn to Jesus again and ask for His mercy. “through his wounds we are healed.”  Isaiah 53:5

When we are hurt by things in our own life and hurt by what we see happening in the world around us and need answers and healing and reassurance let us turn to meditating on the Passion of Jesus and find the answer there: “through his wounds we are healed.”

Spend time with Jesus meditating on His Passion. See what we have done to Jesus. Repent and seek His healing.

According to Leunig

I find Leunig's cartoons to be insightful and challenging. I have posted a few of my favourite here for you to muse upon. I haven't included my own interpretations, I thought you might appreciate the blank canvas for your own personal breakdowns and thoughts. Ponder away...

"...the history of happiness is as old as each of us. We just have to reach inside and find it."



"God help us to change. To change ourselves and to change our world. To know the need for it. To deal with the pain of it. To feel the joy of it. To undertake the journey without understanding the destination. The art of gentle revolution. Amen."



"At the very simplest, I think as Van Gogh said and St Francis would have said, we must find nature. Just to be in the presence of nature your feelings and 'little seedlings' start to awake. So if we disassociate ourselves from God we cut nature out, too. More and more we turn nature into a commodity, into eco-tourism. But we must integrate it into the way people live every day."

Seek God in Your Insecurity

Thomas Merton's prayer below is a favourite of mine. It is often distributed to those discerning their vocation, as it points to the uncertainty we feel when we cannot see the road ahead.

The prayer calls us to acknowledge our ignorance and have hope in our insecurities. We are ignorant because we cannot see what God can see and we cannot know what lies ahead of our choices. To acknowledge our own ignorance makes us vulnerable and insecure. But this is a beautiful thing because in our vulnerability, we seek the guidance and protection of God. And we know that through seeking Him, we will discover the path which He has set for us.

Our insecurity is a great hope. Do not fear it and worry that you are ignorant. Instead, ask for God's wisdom and grace to fill you. God will be pleased that you sought His guidance, whatever path you choose.

AMEN!

You Promised!

"I know you have your reasons for everything so I will  keep believing… I know that you can find a way to keep me from the pain but if not, I’ll trust you. No matter what."

Powerful words. Awesome song. Got me thinking, and thinking and then feeling guilty, and then thinking some more….

In the greater scheme of things, I trust God. I know that He has a plan for me and that He is by my side. Always. I know this, I really do. I tell people this all the time. But in the midst of my hardships and pain, some of these thoughts go out the window. I sometimes doubt God’s promises to me and sometimes I feel quite alone. I fail to recognise that the hand of God plays a part in my heartache (unless the direct purpose of God’s plan for my suffering hits me in right the face. Which, let’s face it, generally isn’t God’s way of working!)



Listen to the song above if you feel so inclined. It makes some really important points. Several actually. But these ones were important to me:
“I know that you can find a way to keep me from the pain but if not, I’ll trust you. No matter what.”

“Anything I don’t have You can give it to me, but it’s ok if You don’t… no matter what I still love You and I’m gonna need You.”

These lyrics point to something I needed to remind myself of – That even if God allows suffering and pain in my life, I’m still going to love Him. I’m still going to trust Him and continue to call upon Him. And I should because His promises never fail.  

I realised that if I pray to God to watch over me and keep me safe, and if I ask Him to help me to grow closer to Him, then why do I reject and question what comes next in my life just because it happens to be something I don’t like, something that hurts or is just too hard? Don’t I trust that what hand I’ve been dealt is the one that is going to answer all my prayers???? "Before a heartache can ever touch my life, it has to go through your hands." So if I trust your love for me, why do I keep questioning the purpose of my suffering? And why do I get angry when there is pain in my life? Surely, by your promises I should see that it is all in your plan to make me the wonderful person you truly want me to be.  

I suppose it’s about surrendering in the hard times and asking God’s light to shine in the midst of my pain. Without His light, it can be so lonely and so difficult to pull through.

So, like the songs says…

"I’m running back to your promises one more time. Lord, that’s all I can hold on to...."

Father's Love Letter

This is lovely! You all need to take some time out to listen to this message from God to you... It's a love letter composed entirely of Bible verses from the Old and New Testament.  Sit yourself in a quiet place and immerse yourself in God's awesome love for you...




What did you think?? Beautiful, isn't it? :-)


If you're like me, you might be keen on forwarding this to your friends and loved ones, and even strangers if you feel compelled to do so! Check out http://www.fathersloveletter.com/ to get the text version and other vidoes. (Yes, there are slightly shorter ones available. I just realllly love this one!) You never know what impact this video will have on someone...


Happy listening! ♥

Holy Spirit - The Soul of My Soul

“’Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit,’ says the Lord.” Zechariah 4:6

The Holy Spirit had been given to us and dwells within each of us. To pray to the Holy Spirit means to know Him, to love Him and to invoke Him.


The Holy Spirit is the giver of all life, and calling upon Him in prayer is a pwerful experience. God himself gave the Holy Spirit to us as our comforter, our advocate, our helper to be with us always.  


The prayer above was given to me by a Sister of Mt Schoenstatt. It is written by their founder - Fr. Joseph Kentenich and adapted from a prayer by Cardinal Mercier. It is a beautiful daily devotional and especially helpful in times of uncertainty and doubt. It is my favourite prayer when I am discerning God's will for something particular in my life and an incredible uplifting when I am afriad of where God is leading me. 


I really wanted to write about this topic because so often friends say to me they don't know what they are doing with their lives, what their purpose is and how to find direction in their lives. The Holy Spirit can answer these questions. The Holy Spirit was given to us as our guide, so seek Him through prayer and you will be enlightened and protected. He lives in you and will do awesome things in your life if you call upon Him.    


I pray that you will have a greater devotion to the Holy Spirit so that you may be inspired and enlightened to know the will of God in your life, strengthened in the works which you carry out, filled with an abundance of graces and grow ever more in holiness. 

 * I recommend this book to everyone. It is an easy read, and an awesome guide to understanding the works of the Holy Spirit in your life.

In the School of the Holy Spirit, Jacques Philippe 


Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, "If I go, I will send you another Comforter." But are we aware of the Holy Spirit in our lives? In the School of the Holy Spirit by renowned retreat master Jacques Philippe will help. It will lead you to be more attentive to the movements of the Holy Spirit in your life as you learn to value the third person of the Trinity as the Sanctifier of your soul.


"May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." 2 Corinthians 13:14

All for One and One for All!

I heard something amazing in a course I did through my Parish recently. It gave me a whole new way of looking at the cross. A new appreciation for the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. You may have reached this understanding already, but for me it was a fresh insight and I want to share it with you.

We all know that Jesus Christ was crucified and that He willingly accepted His death on a cross for all of us. That's right, every single one of us! We believe that His death meant salvation and eternal life for all the world. He died for you and me and your neighbour and your friend and so forth...


But did you ever stop to think of it like this? Did you realise that Jesus Christ would have suffered the exact same fate if it were only to save you? He would have allowed the exact same suffering if only one of us were to be saved.


Think about that for a second. Forget about the fact that the gift of the cross is inclusive of you. And imagine now that the cross was exclusively for you. That means, Jesus would have been accused, stripped bare, mocked, spat upon, tortured and nailed to a cross to give life to you alone. How precious you are to Him that He would suffer that for you! He wouldn't try to halve the suffering or better yet, ask God for one/ ten millionth of the suffering he faced. But He would have allowed the exact same suffering for you, and you alone.


Now, although this isn't the reality of it and Jesus did in fact die to save all of us, inclusive of you and I, I still like to be reminded of the great depths that our saviour would go to for me. And this doesn't in any way diminish the awesome saving power of the death of the Son of God.


So, the implications of this realisation were, and still are, pretty big for me. It really made me think… How much was I willing to suffer and to give of myself to help someone? Even just one person? We always want to do big things with our lives, save the world and bring all our friends to know Jesus Christ. But sometimes, we don’t want to do the small tasks in front of us. It doesn’t always seem worth the effort. But knowing what effort Jesus would go through for you alone can change your heart and make you more generous in your gift of self.