Praising God for the greatest news ever!  We are blessed to announce, outside of raising four beautiful children, a new grace from God awaits us!  We were told by our son and daughter (lets drop-in-law part) are pregnant with their first baby.  The excitement has been non stop and we are given this precious opportunity to experience and share in their new celebration of life together!

And yes, God surely does make - all things new!  And a seed of love is growing every single day, hour, minute, second, until our ever precious Lord completes his awesome creation, in its entirety.  

The human anatomy built only by God, for God, is a master piece in and of itself.  We were given a picture of the ultrasound and this precious baby is shown with a waving hand.  If that does not melt the heart of a parent/grandparent, I don't know what else does!  

To my family of friends who listen in and read this podcast, I so greatly would appreciate it if you would consider joining me in daily prayer for the safety of our Daughter pregnant with Child.  

We do realize how delicate life is - - - Especially in the womb, and you can never ask for too many prayers!  It is an honor to share my journey as a future 1st Time EVER grandmother in the waiting, and I know in my heart this precious bundle of joy, has two rock solid, loving, caring,  grandparents, excited, prayerful, and thankful, for the gift of God's choosing!  

Bless you little one, love you! Nana

In knowing the faith we know the truth in all circumstances, especially the truth of God living within us.  The truth of Mary, his mother, our most powerful intercessor, is remembered especially today, for all who believe in her Son.  Today is no different.  As we commemorate this holy feast day of Our Lady Of Sorrows.  We know that Mary experienced many, but how she had handled every sorrow,  is different than how we choose to handle our difficulties.  In that respect Mary should be our perfect role model in time of sorrow in time of difficulty let us reach out to her in prayer and request that we receive a very special grace and a very special strength to help us through this time.  She is the perfect role model for us.  She continues to show us the way to live.  The way to be reserved, and I know sometimes we don't make the honest effort that we should as women to get this example right, and Mary gives us freely to us to learn from and she also teaches us to be modest in our behavior, in our speech, and we constantly fail.  So in order to become like Mary we need to pray to her and ask her to help us and to hide us in the hidden life under the veil of simplicity.  So we too can become that marvelous treasure that French priest, Father Jean Du Ceur De Jesus, D'Elbbe speaks of when he shares with us his most eloquent perspective on Mary.

 Also let us reflect deeply tonight on Mary's 7 Sorrow's:  Simeon's Prophecy, The Flight Into Egypt, The Loss In The Temple, The Carrying Of The Cross, The Crucifixion, the Taking Down From The Cross, The Burial Of Jesus.  And as we do enter into a more fuller union with the Mother of us all.  

O' Mary, Mother of God continue to inspire us in prayer, in uncertainty, in loss, and in gain, may we never ever forget you!  May our day begin with the recitation of the holy rosary.  May we sing always reflect upon powerful meaning of every Marian hymn sung in all the churches throughout the world.  

Every church, every hymn, every priest, every mass, were all- - - inspired by God.  And with every Creed we recite, and every Our Father, every Hail Mary, and every special intention we request may we experience the greatest  of all blessings and healing power of your Son.  As we await patiently for each prayer to be heard and answered in its entirety and through Christ's perfect timing.  For now, you and I wait upon our Lord.  He wants us to be with him forever.  And let me close in sharing with you a gift given to me from my dear friend Norbert, who is also a professed Dominican.

A saint I had not heard about before was given to me to share with others.   A Saint by the name we should all remember.  Marie Rose Ferron "Little Rose" born May 24, 1902, and received her eternal reward  May 11, 1936. A stigmatized Estatic from Woonsocket Rhode Island.  Was bedridden, paralyzed young woman whose terrible sufferings, loving acceptance of Gods will made her a sign of hope and a messenger of the healing presence of Christ during the years of the American Depression.    

In Her Own Words:  "Grind up all your sufferings in the mill of patience and silence; mix them with the Balsam of the passion of the Savior; make them into a small pill and swallow it with faith, and love, and the Fire of Charity Will Digest It."  "There is a secret in the art of suffering and for those who asked for it, I gave this recipe."  

Prayer to obtain a favor through the intercession of the Little Rose:  "O gentle Jesus, Thou who has loved little souls, we beseech thee grant us through the intercession of Little Rose, the favor we so earnestly request...so that she may be glorified in the church.

My Jesus, pardon and mercy through the merits of thy sacred wounds.  Eternal Father, I offer thee the wounds of our Lord, Jesus Christ to heal the wounds of our souls.  Our Father.  Hail Mary.  

*Historical Note*  The interior of Saint Mary Major Basilica, depicts the preservation of thirteen centuries of history from 5th to 18th c.  All traces of L. Berin Basilica have disappeared.  In August 352, tradition has it, Pope Liberius was told by Mary where a new church was to be erected.  The exact church of Saint Mary Major.  Todays structure goes back to 5th c. , Papacy of Sisto III 432-440.  He constructed the church , dedicated it to our Blessed ever Virgin Mary, probably after the Council of Efeso 431 which confirmed pre-eminent roles of the Mother of Christ.   

I encourage you to research further the beautiful and rich faith God has imposed upon this earth for man and for woman to know and abide by.  Our Lord, our Mother, have left us the greatest of all gifts.  Treasures of a lifetime.  Should we decide to find them, and discover not only our creator, not only his creation, but in all the above we receive the true understanding of humanity.  In it, we discover our true sense of self, our true sense of purpose in this life that will lead us into the next.  Fear not this challenge, embrace it and you will be given everything you need to follow in the light, and truth that burns through any darkness of or in this universe.  

Fear nothing.  Have faith over fear and allow your faith to guide you through the darkness into the light which is everlasting.  Which is Christ!  

Mother Mary most holy, most chaste, most powerful, the greatest defender of life, pray for us!  Show us the way to live in your Son.  Show us how to speak with great respect and reverence, help us to always be aware of the Christ, living within us.  That we will deliberately choose never to offend him in our minds, thought, and action.  We need to be disciplined as the faith filled, we need to be aware and account for our every weakness.  We have obviously a lot of needs that need our immediate attention, that need correction today.  We have to care about what is weak and wrong within, and work through it with Mary.  In my lifetime, I recently became aware of one of my weaknesses, and it really surprised me that I went through life not seeing it, not working through it, and not realizing how much it hurt me as an individual and how it had hurt other people.  Not sure if a lot of us have this problem, but, I learned that I never confronted bad behavior.  Nor did I realize how much effort it takes to get to the bottom of a problem once confronting a person.  By no means does it make the situation easier, however, it does bring to light the truth, and in order to execute a truthful correction this takes a lot of thought, energy, and courage, and this combination isn't always easy at first to do.  Being prayerful Christian, being a daily mass communicant, being a holy woman, I have taken my accountability to Christ very seriously.  And what I have learned is this.  The sacraments are all very sacred and important, and the most important of them all is the sacrament of confession, because when we confess our sins to a holy catholic priest we trust, we believe God is working with that priest to help me to free myself of repetitive sin and prepare myself and my soul for eternal life. And not only that, receive Christ at every single holy mass in the state of GRACE, and not in the state of DISGRACE.  Eternal life in Christ is my sole purpose.  And I want my soul purified of all sin, past, present, and future, in order to be forever in Him, every day until that day happens, when my body will die and He will come for me.  We are all eternal beings.  We don't think about it, nor do we discuss it, we forget and we go on living without acknowledging this truth, this important truth, that should be the life force within us compelling us to desire the greatest level of holiness imaginable, attaining that spiritual perfection worthy of Christ accepting us all into heaven.  Please join me in praying daily for the souls in purgatory who have no one to pray for them.  For those who never knew better, in working towards a holier more educated life, so that the fruitfulness of Mary can reign forever and exponentially through infinity.  In my heart and in my soul, I know better, this is why I write this apostolate to recreate the awareness that has been lost in this generation and to reignite that spark of truth we so desperately need to hear and aspire to. We absolutely and whole heartedly need our holy Mother Mary's guidance.  Mother Mary's maternal love so pure, so l grace filled, teach us the way we have forgotten to love as you have loved your Son.  It is only then we can take back the torch of life and ignite it once again in every heart, in every soul, that ever was, and ever will be.  We love you Mary, our first and holiest Mother, and role model, blessing every womb that desires life, blessing every pregnancy to be delivered with great health,  great love, great faith in you! Our role model for life!  May it begin again and again, with you, with every prayer we recite, trusting you will always bring that special prayer for us to your Son.  And Mary I so thank you in advance for the next generation of children yet to be born, yet to serve you, yet to love you the way we do!        

We are better off knowing God.  In knowing him, we love him.  In loving him, we serve him.  In serving him, we mature into great Christians who desire only to do the will of God.  When we prioritize our lives, when we get ourselves straight with God, the possibilities are endless. The fruit that becomes us is abundant.  Abundant fruit means the harvest is rich and the fruit is plenty.  And the world needs rich harvest and we need more eager and willing servants of Christ to create the environment perfect in growing in the rich and fruitful garden of Christ.  I believe He would be very pleased if we would all leave our ego - Easing God Out- at the front door.  We need to let go and let God.  In my own life I have made a great mess of things.  But when I surrendered my life to him, something forever changed deep within me.  I had wanted more than who I was, and what I was seeking.  I was seeking the Christ.  And when I found him, I left everything and followed him.  He allowed me to let go of the baggage I was carrying forever as if it were some treasure, and to be honest it was the junk in my life that I really should have just let go of, problem was, I did not know how.  I held on so tight, for dear life and a part of me died within.  But being as powerful as he is, he lifted me up so high and never let me go.  He brought me to a better place, and I found myself within the best company ever.  Although I was alone, Christ was nearer still helping me to grow up and out of myself.  There is an inner struggle within each of us, we are either battling through life or accepting it as it is.  As I said I had to leave everything behind in order to find Christ, and find myself.  I was successful at both.  But I had to be removed from everyone.  I needed a fresh new start, I needed Christ to be at the helm of my life guiding me in his truth, in his wisdom, in his love.  It all happened and my story is a beautiful and powerful one.  In making my life fruitful, joyful, meaningful, and inspirational, I chose the Christ and he chose to make a living breathing example of me that delivered a powerful message for anyone seeking the great I AM.  He loves us beyond love.  He wants us happy.  Complete.  And in order to meet him, we must deny ourselves completely of our selves, our needs, our desires, and only desire him.  That is where we meet him.  In our nothingness.  Nothing is more real than to be humbled, greatly humbled by our nothingness, it is then we see, we live, and enter into his greatness, his power, his glory, his every reason for creating us in his likeness and in his image.  We were meant for greater things, not man made things, but godly things.  We were made for heaven, for eternal life, that is our true destiny.  And I think when we all die, and go to our Lord, we will be given eternal blessings, maybe even eternal ministries, that have something to do with the assisting God in the process of saving souls.  You just cant make this up.  I believe we have a soul.  We have the honor of glorifying in it during our lifetime.  God gave us a beautiful heart to love others, and arms to serve others, and a mind to be kind, no matter what it takes.  We have a duty, a responsibility to be Christ in this vast universe.  How are you being Christ?  Is Christ truly living and breathing freely in you?  We have to live, truly live, allowing him to be in the forefront of our lives, otherwise, we kid ourselves and others, and we place a stumbling block before us, that prevents us from being one of God's finest possessions.  Let us give God the reigns, and allow him to control what he has created, I believe his ways will always be better, his choices will always outshine any of our own.  He wants us to be Free in him.

We never know how the recitation of just one prayer, one novena can change the life and a soul living in just one human being.  I was given this gift by a very dear friend from church, who received it from his brother.  It is my honor and my gift to share it with you tonight with the greatest hope and greatest blessing imaginable. For the entire state of Florida is under a state of emergency with a hurricane about to strike in the gulf.    We place every concern at the foot of our Lords cross, and ask him to take care of us.  Prayer and Faith over all Fear tonight and the next forty eight hours.  

When we choose to rely totally on Jesus, and our holy Mother Mary, our perspective changes, it strengthens us internally and empowers us to be strong in Christ Jesus.  As faith filled men and women of God, let us devote each day to God  for the blessing to be upon our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Let us be holy.  Trustworthy.  Prayerful citizens.  Let us never forget one another and place others before ourselves.  Especially our elderly, our widowed, our infirmed, let us be Christ to them, to our family, to our friends, to our neighbors, and those that God himself is bringing to us.  

May we see in them our mission for Christ and his kingdom.  Let us embrace the newness of their presence, let us welcome them, and it is then we will see Christ face through them and our good deeds having a chance to shine in the life of another, this is where trust Christianity lives.  Go forth in His name and the name of Mary our Mother, whose maternal love needs to exist in this world more than ever before! 

What a Great Gift this day has become!  I was very pleased, and greatly honored to share this podcast with my Mom this afternoon.  She too expressed excitement in her voice that I had chosen to actively follow Christ, as I reflected upon the life and the death of the matriarchs of our family.  She went on to share with me how God works in mysterious ways.  One day my great grandmother was jay walking in the street, and word got back to my great uncle her son, and immediately he had asked his sister my grandmother to consider driving her daily to mass.  At that time five masses were being offered and what an experience that had to have been for my grandmother, that responsibility had added a certain richness to her life that she may not have understood fully in that moment.  My Mom also told me her mother became holy and I knew this at first hand because we as a family of women all attended mass together all four generations, it was a real blessing to see and experience, and grow up with. 

Today that growth is missing, and it is quite obvious that there is a gap separating family from each other that wasn't something acceptable or acted up during my upbringing. Obviously I saw the power of  a great choice chosen by my blood ancestors, their  examples of great determination and great strength truly and positively affected me and molded me into the woman I have become.  And I am truly grateful for their sacrifice, in taking the higher road.  They gave me the key to the truest joy known to woman.  To love our Lady, our Blessed Mother Mary, to love her Son, by loving each and every family member whether they love me or remember me or not.  I have peace, I have the knowledge of Christ and His Mother, I have all the riches of the Catholic teachings to sustain me and there in lies the strength needed and necessary to go through this life unscathed. 

The Matriarchs, and the Patriarchs are the backbone of our lineage.  They were men and women whose strength was greatly tested through world wars, famine, poverty, they had less, but in essence, they had more.  They had faith in God, they entrusted their love to family, and that stood for everything!  Today I remember all of them, living and deceased.  Thankful, blessed, in knowing the story of love, faith, family, continues on,  with the help of God... 

What does the Associate Pastor, and the late Pope Benedict XVI have in common with Mother Teresa?  All the above have strived and lived like Saints.  Although I have never met Saint Teresa of Calcutta or Saint Benedict XVI whose lives both imitate a great love for God and a great love for our catholic faith.  They are some of the most influential and most faith filled people living during our life time.  For six years I have had the honor to be at daily mass with Fr. Paul, who was also my spiritual director, and a great one at that.  I learned very quickly how special of a teacher and Carmelite priest he was and is.  His homilies were especially impressive, very reverent and humble, two very beautiful and important traits to have as a priest and a public speaker speaking daily at the pulpit.  There was a message that spoke directly to ones heart and it was personal.  How God could do that and allow everyone to experience an individual gift through this priest was remarkable.  He is someone worth sharing with you!  This is why today I am sharing this beautiful charism that he brought to us everyday and every Sunday for six years.  You may question how can a priest make such an impact in the lives of the people within the church.  It can happen and it did happen right here.  Fortunately, I have taken to heart his every homily.  And every heart felt confession was received with such grace, I always walked away empowered and strengthened by the power and will of my holy Father in Heaven speaking and praying through this priest from India.  I consider it the greatest honor to know of this caring individual who made such a positive impact on the lives of our community, he will be forever remembered and revered and respected for the great devotion and love he brought to our church community.  Father Paul was and is definitely a balanced priest, he served God with great reverence and he served our community with great love and great humility.  How he struck the perfect balance as a man of God, and a man of the Church and yet he did not lord it over any one.  He was enflamed with the goodness and humility of Christ. And I believe in my heart that he brought us all a little closer to God.  We miss you Father Paul Thomas! And we remember you for the kindness you have given to each and everyone of us!  I honestly don't think that you will mind that I have taken the liberty of sharing one of your last homilies on the Blessed Mother!  In this episode I share the notes I had written inside the pages of my Magnificat, never to be forgotten.  I truly believe within the depth of my heart one can find a lesson within a lesson learned.  And this can be true for anyone willing to pay attention and to listen with an attentive ear to hear God through every message.  And this is exactly what I had experienced in my short time shared with Father Paul.  His holiness needs to be shared across the world.  And tonight in thanksgiving we have the wisdom of God right at our fingertips.  May every word from his homily pierce your very soul and change your very life forever!

Experience the power of confession and experience the healing power and presence of Jesus.  Mending our broken hearts that have left us completely detached from our soul.  And yet God in his powerful love heals us from deep within.  Some hurts are just too difficult to overcome on their own.  That is why we need God.  We need faith.  We need holy scripture to teach us "The Way"!  I was lost until I was found in the loving company of my Lord, in tears, on my knees, praying at the altar of St. Andrew's Catholic Church, a light bulb went off and captured my attention, it was then I had been reminded to deny all darkness and come and walk into the light which was and still is Christ!  All thanks forever be to God!  The pain of sin especially of our youth, when we are too young to handle situations that were done to us, by others,  we suffered, carrying the baggage alone,  yet I have to believe the prayers of all my ancestors were not in vain.  Every single one of them have brought me to this very moment of understanding the power of God living in everyone he has ever created.  This brings across to me the point very clearly how every relationship must be second after God.  For He must be the most important relationship we encounter, first.   Because it is there, with God,  we get to be real about our self, our inability to be more than who we are.  Sometimes I think I was meant to suffer all these years because Christ suffered for me and you and the world, on the cross, to save us from ourselves.  And although I didn't quite look at it as clearly as that, I wasn't meant to prosper like everyone else, but I was meant to prosper in the silence, in the prayers, in the service of quietude in loving and serving my brothers and sisters.  When I had decided to open, for the first time, the Duay Reims bible given to me by my mother, (given to her by her mom and dad), it was then, that I began a true encounter with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, (while caring for a 90 year old woman from England).  I was a late bloomer, twenty eight years old, leaving home for the first time, while most left home at the age of 18 to pursue college, I had cut another path of my own.  Never desiring to follow, but lead by trusting the still small voice that became my guide, all throughout my lifetime.  It took decades to understand my nature, my gifts, my short comings, and the great depth of love our Lord placed inside of my heart.  I was different than everyone else I knew.  Because I was taken for granted, laughed at, and not taken seriously and that made me become ultra sensitive.  And I could feel the pain of others. A charism I still carry within me.  God gave me a love so deep, and it was and still is genuine, beautiful, and greatly misunderstood. I can recall being asked, why are you so happy?  Can you imagine that being bothersome to another human being?  Sadly but truly that did happen.  One day God and I will have our chat together when he comes for my soul, and I pray it will be good enough to keep, he will then explain why certain things happened to me the way that they did.  But today, I sense the power of God moving much more freely and actively as I keep Him first.  My eyes are set upon Him, every thought, every prayer, every action is for HIM.  Keeping my eyes on Him, he allows me to see his face, and his mothers face and all the faces of the saints that I have ever prayed to.  At every mass and every Eucharistic feast Christ offers me the greatest gift, honor, and privilege, of knowing Him, and sharing HIM with you.  At the consecration I can feel my left hand being squeezed ever so tight.  I am not sure what that means but trust my heavenly Father and my late father are both holding me close. 

Blessed, to be present.  Blessed, to see the life of Christ, through the lives of all of the saints. We can begin again and again, in Christ.  We can learn from the saints too,  who have gone before us and returned to our Lord for their great reward.  Its an honor and a great privilege to speak with you tonight and share with you the awesome discoveries  about the saints and how much we are so much like them(If only we were given that extra measure of courage and fortitude to expound upon the mission given to us personally by God.  What are we afraid of?  Why do we take so long to respond yes Lord I come to do your most perfect will.  Why the hesitation, why the procrastination?  All that comes to mind is selfishness on our part.  We are so consumed with ourselves, we have forgotten God and others.   So today I believe God himself is bringing to our very attention this important reality.  Let us for just one day stop looking within and start looking outside of ourselves and our selfish tendencies that only lead us into trouble.  When we have a purpose in life and we strive for that purpose we are either going to be successful or a complete failure.  The results depend greatly upon our determination to fulfill a goal.  Some goals are just not attainable by some, while others go for the gusto and win!  Today I am in a room full of winners, all are willing to share in the great riches of our catholic faith.  Shared in the importance of learning from the past lives of the saints, who were themselves true living examples of men and women striving to attain the love of God in the highest degree of perfection.  Why is it so very few of us can attain it?  Because it requires concentration and hard work.  It is a life long endeavor.  
But, with great faith, we can work toward inner spiritual fulfillment and grow beyond our worldly knowledge and enter into spiritual realm of perfection in discovering, the great I AM.  A place many of us would love to be, fulfilling ones faith in God and in one another.  Something we all must do to accomplish the great faith in Christ and step over the threshold of truth.   We certainly have our work cut out for us.  And we need humility to carry us through that work.  For every distraction and discouragement will try to get in the way of your work with, in, and for, Christ.  Its the evil ones greatest goal.  To destroy the great plans we have set before us  and with out Lord.  I pray that nothing ever enters into the heart, mind, soul, and body of everyone of God's children, other than His great love for us.  Our prayers must be steady and increasingly powerful day in and day out. Our love for Christ will burn away the evil and the darkness that have entered into the spirit and soul of mankind.  We need Christs to sustain us from the beginning to the end.  We cannot endure this life to the degree we need to in pursuing our eternal reward, that can only come from our contribution to the faith and our connection of daily living in a relationship with Christ.  Do not be deceived my brothers and sisters, but believe in the truth for our Lord has spoken.  Remain in Him, and every blessing beyond measure will be yours in this life time and well into the next.  We will have to fight to the end, perhaps to our very last breadth, the evil one will try to take our very soul from Jesus.  Ignore him, and keep your eyes locked onto our Lord.  For He is everything to those who love his truth and his teachings.  Anything that goes against our faith, goes against everything created by God himself.  We must stand up and fight with all our might to protect souls from final damnation.  Only good thoughts and good deeds as my friend Connie told me bring us into Gods realm.