No Worries

So we are off to spend the weekend with our family scattered round the North Island and we have a 4 hour journey. Part of that journey takes us past a volcano which has just started having "minor eruptions" such as just ash on the roads and fumes in the air and flames and lava above us. "No worries" as Kiwis say. "The Lord is my Shepherd What have I to fear?" No worries. But just to be sure, I'll check out saints who'll protect us from volcanoes. And I'll take my rosary for sure!

Crazy Seasons

The seasons here in NZ are always haywire. This is the last month of winter yet when Alex and I went walking today in the beautiful University grounds, we saw in a one small area snowdrops, daffodils, bluebells and violets are flowering together! Crazy...but lovely. Praise God for the beauty of His creation.

Learning a new habit.

I have set myself a challenge to learn a new habit. I'm ashamed that I don't do already do this, but the truth is, I don't, and it's pretty hard to learn a new habit at my age. What I'm challenging myself to do is to say a Grace before Meals at EVERY meal. There I've admitted it! Alex and I usually pray together before our evening meal, but we take our other meals casually and often at separate times and I always forget to thank God for them. So, for the past 2 weeks I've been really hard to remember, and even leave myself little reminders on the dining table but I still often forget. I DO improve a little when I ask my guardian angel to remind me in my morning prayers, but I often even forget to ask him! But I keep trying and thank God when I do remember. One day soon, with God's and my guardian angel's help, it will become a true (and blessed) habit!

Prayers Please

I recently had some very bad news. Our beloved Latin Mass priest, Fr Tom, has been having quite a struggle with reading the variable parts of the Latin Mass and even at the daily English Mass he had some difficuly reading the prayers. I wondered why he didn't get his glasses checked out but this week I was told that he has a incurable, degenerative eye disease. He's going to see Fr John Reay. a NZ priest with a healing Ministry, and ask him for prayer and we're ALL praying. He is he such a dedicated, blessed and loving priest and lives to say Mass. "Healer of the blind man, please heal Fr Tom, your priest." Please pray for him.

Celebrating Sundays

I love Sundays. I definitely see it as a day of celebration and rest. I spend most of Saturday preparing for Sunday so that I can have a complete rest (Thank you Lord for giving us a day of rest. Please help us rest!) When our children were young it was hard to have a day of rest, but we tried. My husband who comes from a more Protestant background has never quite grasped the Catholic Sunday. We go to Mass first and on the way home I may suggest having an icecream together (the only day I allow myself icecream) and he asks "Do you think we should eat icecream on a Sunday?" or I may suggest watching a favourite dvd and get the same response. I reply cheerfully "Away with your Puritan notions. We Catholics celebrate the Resurrection on Sundays. It is a day of rest and rejoicing!" Another taste of heaven perhaps?

Religion as a hobby

My old friend Rita was talking to her neighbour. Rita, a staunch Catholic, mentioned that she had just come back from Church. "Oh" said her neighbour "I think religion is such a great hobby for older people. I might take it up myself when I retire." For once in her life Rita was lost for words.

My Lord and my God.

It sometimes hits you doesn't it? Sometimes you realise, quite suddenly, that something about our Faith which we accept faithfully but peacefully is actually amazing, awe-inspiring and almost terrifying. This evening I was at an English Mass and everything was calm and quiet, it was just before Communion. Father held up the consecrated host and suddenly the reality of what was happening shook me. This was Jesus, the Son of God, our beloved Saviour, and soon I would hold Him in my workaday hands that do so many messy, dirty jobs. I would hold HIM. What could I do but kneel before Him and say, with utter humility, love and awe, "My Lord and my God."