Padre Pio

The Padre Pio dvd

Recently I have watched a great dvd of a Miracle worker. 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.

A wonderful movie.....a review

By Leanne

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 was fairly full. It looked like lots of people 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. 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, and 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 yo dance with her, in public place. He didn’t. 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 fighting scenes, which she needed me to talk her through, and scenes were 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.

A Mother's Approval

Continuing our posts on motherhood for Our Lady's month of May

By Leanne

How I needed her approval.

It’s been a long and sometimes hard road. I wanted so much for my Mum to want to confide in me and love me as I wanted her too, but it seemed to me that it would never happened.

I began resenting her and her relationships with my children. They would talk, move or cry and what I was saying was completely irrelevant. They were the centre of her life. Mum appeared to me, to want their relationship over mine. That stuck in my throat like a sharp object. I was bitter and unable to confide or have a relationship with her.

I kept telling myself it was Ok. But deep down it was festering. I yearned for that friendship I saw other Mums have with their daughters.

My Nanna introduced me to Our Lady very early in my life. I confided in Our Lady in these hard years. I took her as my Mum. I would confide in her, talk to her and cry with her over this situation and other parts of my life. I loved chatting and smiling, crying and being raw with my heavenly Mum.  It was so easy.

Then one day, God intervened. A serious situation occurred with one of our children and I needed to have my parents involved completely. They needed to know the real situation, not a fabrication made up by a wayward teen. I had an internal struggle - will I call or will I not, but within 2 minutes I had make the phone call. Both my parents arrived within the hour, concerned, but were also concerned for me. Our relationship began to heal.

It wasn’t easy but I made myself vulnerable to her for the first time in a long time.  It took her a lot longer.

Mum finally started sharing with me, her secrets and little things I didn’t know about her, my Dad, my Grandparents and various situations.

It has been a major breakthrough and now we chat easily and our children see this and I hope with God’s grace I keep my relationships strong with our girls. I am always looking of little ways to draw the older children into a deeper relationship with me. Brid & I through being together, with homeschooling, throughout her growing years have a very different relationship.

I wondered how my relationship with my mum started declining, but that is looking back, and I feel called to move forward. Through this healing I am able to be the person I was hiding from her.

I had a friend who wrote me a letter one year and she asked God to heal this brokenness.
Thanks Margaret.

Please share more of Leanne's posts at her blog, Roses, Tea and Our Lady

A Morning Coffee Habit

By Leanne

Dermot & I are very Blessed to be able to share our Morning Coffee together. Dermot works from home, and has done most of our married life.

We started sharing a coffee as a form of chatting when the children were little, staying connected. We claimed it as our time. We even took the phone off the receiver in the early days. It was our special time alone together. No children allowed. The children knew this and would leave us alone for that time.

Sometimes on weekends they would come to the door. "It's been long enough." We would laugh, and probably it was long enough.

It is still our time. We continue to claim it as ours, but now we have invited another person to sit with us.

No, it is not a child....

We have asked God to come into our coffee time so we can hear his word, ponder on it, and share our insights with each other.

So every morning while Brid starts her school day, we sit down together, coffee in hand and we read to each other.

We read the reflection set out first. Then Dermot & I take it in turns to read each reading from the Bible, and it is always he who reads the Gospel. We have been subscribing to The Word Among Us for a while, but it is always very nice to share it together. We tend to find it opens up a conversation for us.

We have been sharing our morning coffee now with God since the beginning of the year and it has now become a habit.

Please share more of Leanne's posts at her blog Roses, Tea and Our Lady.