Trials and hopes

My lack of posting recently has probably been an implication to visitors and friends that all in my camp is not running quite as smoothly as it usually does. I have to say I have never experienced a start back to school quite like this one and myself and the kids have been struggling not to buckle under the new pressures placed on both of us by the institution we share and the systems that govern that institution. I am not afraid of a bit of hard work, but lets just say this has taken things to new lengths. As a result I have not been too well with a bug I just can't shift in the last couple of weeks (it is not of the swine variety) and I am now on antibiotics which I hope will help. I know I sound like I am moaning but I promise you I am not, on the contrary I am really just explaining myself. I miss posting but probably more than that I miss visiting the blogs of others and sharing thoughts, prayers and ideas with inspirational Catholics from all over the world. I remain blessed in so many ways and I cannot even attempt to complain in any way about the life I lead when I have so much (just thinking of the Gospel today). So on to a few cheery things I have been party to of late, of a more uplifting nature.

I am sure that no one here in England can fail to have missed the wonderful shower of hope being poured out upon us by the relics of St. Therese which I look forward to visiting in Westminster this Tuesday. So in preparation for their arrival lots has been going on this weekend. Yesterday at the Cathedral there was a day for Mary which I attended and found filled 1) With people 2) With hope. Who can be downcast when we have a mother who offers such love and leads us to her son and the hope of serving Him with real strength and honesty? Young Catholics here are responding and you can see it in their attendance at events such as these. There was further evidence of the on the afternoon procession.

In the afternoon we went to the 'Rosary Crusade' which has now been running for 25 years and led by the statue of our Lady of Fatima we walked through the streets of central London with the traffic stopped for us while we prayed the Rosary. We were permitted to walk on the roads, because of our large numbers. It was awesome! In the true sense of the word as Catholics of all ages joined together to pray in the heart of our city. We started in Victoria and walked through Chelsea and Knightsbridge to Brompton Oratory praying the Rosary with a special intention for our priests and the affect of St Therese's relics here. These busy consumer areas were brought to total standstill on a Saturday afternoon, just for a few moments by Our Lady and her powerful prayer. It was a great witness and I have to say I had a lot of fun walking down Sloane Street, Kings Road Chelsea and bypassing Harrods with the likes of Prada and Louis Vitton dominating, and watching people's bemused but interested faces. Of course I am under no illusion that many of them probably thought we were nuts but who cares? Our Lady is a powerful advocate and the act itself was just a tool - who knows what a witness like this might do? Only Christ knows. I know being part of it was wonderful and I am so grateful for this privlidge.

So there is hope, our country has many flaws indeed but one side of its desire for total freedom is that we are free to witness to Truth. We didn't try to intrude upon any body in a combative way we simply brought our prayer to the street, and to be totally honest, I found people ultimately respectful of that. Our Church is alive! For all that our media tries to insist it is not, for all our struggles against the terrible, crushing wrongs which our law supports and promotes we are here and we have something that can never be broken: we have FAITH and through faith we have an endless sense of hope and possibility. We cannot deny or put away our struggles but we can say that we will face them in a united way with an unbreakable sense of what Truth is.

For anybody else who is having a tough start to Autumn lets not forget that light in our lives and remember all those who can't quite find that light. My life would be so dark without it.

Dear friends you are always in my prayers.

A very kind blog award

I am so grateful to Roz at Our Beautiful Catholic Faith for awarding me such a kind blog award. She writes a beautiful blog of reverence and prayer with some stunning photography to boot. I thank you truly and I would like to pass it on to:

Anne at Imprisoned in My Bones - Releasing My Inner Jeremiah

Cathy at A Bit of Blarney

Jennifer at My Chocolate Heart

Andrea at Arise to Write

The official rules are as follows:

1. Copy the picture above and post it on your blog.
2. Pass it on to who you think who is/are deserving.
3. Leave a message to them.
4. Pass as many as you want.
5. Message back or leave a comment to the owner.

Link to some great posts on Lourdes

Just wanted to tip you off about some great posts on Lourdes which I have been really enjoying over on Poetry, Prayer, and Praise  - they can be found here.  

TRUE HEART AWARD

A week ago my friend Jennifer over at My Chocolate Heart  gave me something very special and I hope she will forgive me for taking so long to fulfil my bloggerly duties. I have had crazy week at school and wanted to give this post the time it deserved. Jennifer awarded me the True Heart Award and I am so pleased to be chosen to pass it on. She is a wonderful and poignant voice in the blogging world and when it comes to pro-life issues she writes about this modern tragedy of our world with tragic beauty. So thank you Jennifer!

"Those who receive this award are of the sweetest nature. They are kind, friendly, funny, loving, eager to share their love for Jesus with others, and brave in their efforts to reflect Him to this darkened world. They are the kind of folks you're blessed to know, even if it's only in the bloggy-sphere."

I must pass this award on in order to warm Jennifer's chocolate heart...

I would like to give it to

Lisa at ARE WE THERE YET?

Laura at CATHOLIC TEACHER MUSINGS

Ann at PRAYER, POETRY AND PRAISE

Julie at JOYFUL DAYS

Tracy at A CATHOLIC MOM IN MINNESOTA

Andrea at ARISE TO WRITE

 

Nacy at BE NOT AFRAID

Fr Anthony at  FATHER ANTHONY HO

KREATIV BLOGGER AWARD

I was humbled and touched to receive this award from Andrea at Arise2write http://arise2write.blogspot.com/2009/06/kreativ-blogger-award.html. Having a blog has opened up a whole world of awareness for me with regard to the many strong and faithful Catholics in the world living out their vocations day by day. I feel privileged to 'know' them - and share faith with them. I am required to nominate 7 other bloggers for this award and they are supposed to nominate 7 others. (Be sure to leave a comment on their blog about the award.) After they accept the award they are then asked to write a list of 7 things that their blog readers may not already know about them.

1)When deciding what profession I wished to enter I seriously considered publishing but the call to be a teacher was very strong and I followed that path instead. However, I love literature and the smell of bookshops always draws me in. I can get lost in a bookshop in the morning and not reappear until the afternoon. I think it started when I was little and my Mum would let me stay in Hatchards bookshop while she went shopping next door. I would spend hours sitting in there reading. All the girls who worked there used to know me.

2) I can take no credit for the poems I have written in my life. For what they are worth, they have come to me as gifts and I have felt them like fluttering wings. Until I had put them on this blog I can think of only two other people who had read them and I am so grateful for peoples' kindness and generosity when they have read them here. Nothing better summarises my feeling than a quotation from the Czech poet JAROSLAV SEIFERT who wrote

"Poetry is with us from the start.
Like loving, like hunger, like the plague, like war.
At times my verses were embarrassingly foolish.

But I make no excuse.

I believe that seeking beautiful words is better than killing and murdering."

Writing has been like a gift given to me and I am so grateful to have received it.

3)I have a penchant for braking various bones. I have thus far fractured a finger once, my arm three times and my ankle once. Nice.

4)I used to LOVE to act. Right up until the end of University I participated in all sorts of different productions but right now I can't imagine anything worse than being somebody else on stage. I have become what I like to call confidently shy about these things and I feel like I don't want the spotlight anymore - when I was a kid it gave me a real boost. I had a great time and it let me explore all sorts of different things. It also let me wander round as a Victorian for while - I really liked the elegance- especially the long glov.es.

Also, I got to travel- visiting Vancouver while with a touring production. It was a beautiful place.

4) I am terrible at maths - I managed my GCSE but after that I ditched it with delight and haven't looked back since. I have a lot of admiration for people who are great with numbers. My brother is an engineer and he can work out any mathematical problem - its fascinating! I just see a bundle of numbers, panic and run for the hills!

5) I have a passion for 16th century history. I love to wander round monastic ruins and find places where the old relics of Catholic England have been stored. There is something sad and strangely beautiful about the whole thing. I mourn for the lost Catholics of England and feel as though I could reach out and touch the last monks and nuns who walked the stony corridors of great buildings. The picture below shows a pair of 12th century Rosary beads, a crucifix and alter piece from a monastery that was dissolved on a Scottish island.

6) My dog is called Fleur - this is her wearing a pumpkin hat - I don't normally put her in hats but somebody bought it for (strange I know but what can I say?) so I thought I better take a picture of her with it on. She looks very unimpressed:

7) I am going to write a whole post on number seven so stay tuned - it is linked to another post and I need a little time to put it together.

SEVEN NOMINEES

I always feel sad with these things that I can't give them to more people but these are some blogs that I really enjoy

1) A Catholic Mom in Minnesota

http://mnmomtwofour.blogspot.com/

2) A Catholic Journey

http://romancatholicjourney.blogspot.com/

3) Catholic and Loving it!

http://www.lovingit.co.uk/

4) The Pondering Catholic

http://theponderingcatholic.blogspot.com/

5) Thoughts on Grace

http://colleenspiro.blogspot.com/

6)Mum to 12...Now My Bakers Dozen

http://mum2twelve.blogspot.com/

7) Aussie Coffee Shop

http://http//aussiecoffeeshop.blogspot.com/

A great new initiative

Myah has begun a new blog which will offer us the opportunity to pray for particular Mums and their babies. For those who don't know Myah had a beautiful little girl called Faith. Check out the new blog http://prayers-for-mommies-and-babies.blogspot.com/

FOLLOWING GLITCH

Dear All,

There seems to have been a glitch with the 'following' gadget on my blog. This means some people have dropped off the list. I thought I had done something to deeply offend people till I noticed that several others had lost followers or had dropped off blogs they follow (Aussie Therese has also posted on this glitch with the followers gadget.). If you have dropped off please feel most welcome to rejoin the fold.

Yours,

Edel

LOVELY!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so very much to Joyful Days (pop in there if you have time http://ourjoyfuldays.blogspot.com/ -a great blog!) for this award- my first ever!

I have been enriched and continue to learn from the incredible strength, faith and fortitude of the amazing Catholics who take the time to blog. Thank you for welcoming me and giving me a place among you. It has been a great grace in my life.

The award says: “These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

I want to pass this award onto:
To Dismas at http://hopefordismas.blogspot.com/ who only started blogging recently and is going great guns!

To Ponte Sisto Pellegrinaggio crossing the Ponte Sisto one of the first Catholic blogs I came across

To Totus Tuus Family & Catholic Homeschool which I only discovered recently

I also want to offer it to people who I know have received it already but I feel write a great blog- I want to offer it right back to Joyful Days which is a wonderful blog, Lisa at Are We There Yet?, Therese at Aussie Coffee Shop, Esther at A Catholic Mom in Hawaii, Sarah at Ora et Labora - A Faithful Catholic Blog, to Lisa at Catholic Teacher Musings , Grandma K at A Bit of the Blarney, Jennifer at My Chocolate Heart and Tracy at A Catholic Mom in Minnesota (I've already broken the rules by adding far more than 8)

...AND ALL THE GREAT BLOGS ON MY FOLLOWERS LIST OTHERWISE I'LL BE HERE ALL DAY BECAUSE THERE ARE MANY, MANY, MANY OF THEM :-)

-Also, just a note to say I have added a slightly lengthier video of Bernadette's body from my time in Nevers to my original post as I promised some readers I would. I am only sorry that it has taken such a very long time. From Lourdes to Nevers

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND THANK YOU!

One of the things that has lifted my heart this Christmas and New Year has been joining the blogging world and discovering there are so many dedicated and sincere Catholics of all nationalities composing blogs with insight and love. I think it is a great thing that the Internet can be used to allow us to share faith and communicate. We are a world Church and this is just one way that we can celebrate our unity though we may be writing from hundreds of miles apart. Thank you to all of you and I hope that there are many blessings for you and your families in 2009!

John Paul II says “The future starts today, not tomorrow.” Let us live with joy in our hearts for nothing is impossible for God.

Happy New Year!