Love and Marriage

In 2014, my husband and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary and also celebrated my parents’ 50th!

2015 started with a wedding.  Our son was married in the Catholic church in January to a beautiful woman.  It was an awesome sight to see the generations of grandparents, parents and children sharing in this beautiful and life-giving sacrament.

Weddings have changed over the years!  My parents wedding was very simple. She had a maid of honor and he had a best man.  Our wedding had a couple of more attendants, but was still simple.  There were no engagement parties, dinners, registries, wedding planners…the list goes on and on.

The focus back then was on the sacrament.

As I watched my son’s bride being escorted down the aisle in the gorgeous St. John’s Cathedral; I realized that the very heart of the wedding for our family had not changed.  The bride’s father escorted her up the center aisle towards her future husband, towards Our Lord and His altar.  It was before Our Lord that these two young people took their wedding vows.  They received the Lord’s blessing and were joined in Holy Matrimony.

My son and his wife expressed their gratitude to our Blessed Mother by presenting roses in front of her statue.  I felt love and pride for the man my son had become and accepted a rose from him knowing my job was done.  He was no longer only my son – he was now a husband.  His job is now being the spiritual head of his family and that means making sure his wife and future children leave this world prepared to enter into God’s Kingdom.

He is off to a good start.

C’est Bon

Love,

Sherry

I will follow Him

I think we all follow something or someone..

Dorothy followed the yellow brick road.  The magi followed the star.  Wall street junkies follow the stock market.  Some people follow blogs…the list goes on and on.

As Christians we are called to follow Christ Jesus.  It is a road that is hard and rocky.  To truly follow His ways and not the ways of man means ridicule, discrimination, and even today, death.

Today at mass, the gospel reading spoke of Jesus’ Baptism.  One may ask why Jesus, our Savior, needed to be Baptized.  The answer is He did not.  In order to fulfill the Will of God, Jesus did seek John for Baptism.  It was during this Baptism that the waters of the Jordan became sanctified and became the first “holy water”.  How could John Baptize our Lord without first being Baptized himself?  John was sanctified by Jesus when Mary visited Elizabeth.  John leapt in the womb when receiving his sanctifying grace.

Jesus’ Baptism was the beginning of His ministry.  His mission was to love and to show us how to love.  He asked that we give up our worldly influences and give ourselves to Him for our salvation.  He asked that we follow Him.

The reason to follow Him….because He loved us first.  He loved us so much that He gave all of Himself for our salvation.  With one drop of blood, Jesus’ mission for our salvation was complete.  Why did He give Himself up to torture and humiliation and total loss of blood then?  The answer is simple: He gave all of His blood because He had it to give.  He loved us that much.

Message given to Nancy Fowler in Conyers, Georgia, January 13, 1992:

Mary: “Tell my children, they have been marked with the sign of the cross.  The cross is on your forehead. (Father Jorge later added that we are marked at Baptism)  Nancy asked if the cross was of white light. “Yes, it is a cross of white light. You name your children and we name ours.”

“Dear children of America, be children of light.  Walk away from sin.  Please children, many of you are in danger of losing Heaven forever.  There is no greater suffering than the loss of God.  Prepare yourselves for eternal happiness.  Come follow my Son’s light.  Banish all darkness from your souls.  Keep the laws of God.  You cannot love God without keeping His commandments.  I bless you.  I am praying for you to come to the light.  As my Son went to the water for His Baptism, I ask you to return to the light of your Baptism.”

I am today making a commitment to follow Him.

He loves me.

C’est Bon

Love,

Sherry

 

Hit the Emergency Button

Recently my daughter and my two grandchildren took a beach vacation.  Upon returning, my daughter shared a cute story with my husband and I that I would like to share with you.

My daughter and her children frequented an arcade while on vacation.  The arcade had a virtual reality roller coaster.  It sat two people who are fully enclosed in the ride which rises, falls, and rotates around to give the extra added sensation of being on an actual roller coaster.  My grandson noticed this ride on the first day and begged his mother to let him on it.  But his mother felt that a four-year-old was just too young for the ride.

This went on the entire trip.  An arcade visit always ended up with the four-year-old begging his mom to let him ride the roller-coaster.  On the last day of the trip my daughter noticed that her son did meet the height requirement for the roller coaster.  She spoke to the attendant, who informed her that the ride had a slow, medium, and fast speed.  She was told the slow speed was appropriate for her son’s age.  So, with much trepidation, she let the four-year-old with his seven-year-old sister get on the virtual reality roller coaster.

The two kids sat in the ride.  The attendant explained to the older sister to pick the “slow” speed and advised her of the “emergency button” should there be a need to stop the ride.

The attendant closed up the ride.  My daughter watched as her no longer visible children rose up in the air in the machine.  As the ride started up, the attendant looked at my daughter, smiled and said, “She picked the fast speed!”.  Yes, my little angel of a granddaughter decided that she would give her little brother a ride he would remember!

Their mother was helpless.  She could only watch the machine rise, fall and rotate.  Her stomach felt sick and her heart was pounding.  What was happening in that thing?

Near the end of the ride, the attendant once again looked at my daughter, smiled, and said, “They pressed the emergency button!”  Finally, the ride came to an end.  It lowered and the amused attendant opened the hatch.

Once open my daughter saw her own daughter sitting, giggling and just tickled with herself!  The little brother was in tears and wanted his mommy!

I love this story.  It holds so many of life’s lessons in that one story.  Life is like a roller coaster – it has its ups and downs.  Be careful for what you wish for..

Most of all, I love the “emergency button.”  Sometimes in life we want that emergency button.  Sometimes we want to just say “stop, I need time to collect myself and my sanity!”

For me that emergency button is my Lord.  When things get too much to handle, I need to just relax, pray, and give it to the Lord.  He is my Healer, my Strength and my Sanity!

Here is a poem that sums it up by Shirley Powell

His Presence Within

God never sends sorrow without joy, Nor the sun without the rain.

He never gives us a cross too heavy that we can’t bear the pain.

He is always present within our hearts, whispering encouragement to you and me.

He lifts us up when we are down and listens to our humble pleas.

Who else would have the patience to listen to our complaints, yet hold us close to His gentle heart and love us without restraint?

There is always another river to cross and another mountain to climb.

If we but put our trust in Him, we’ll be filled with His love sublime.

His arms are always opened wide, waiting patiently to embrace troubled souls like you and me and to fill us with His grace.

When despair and sadness come our way, just always remember this…

Tomorrow or another day soon we’ll be filled with happiness and bliss.

C’est Bon!

Love,

Sherry

 

 

“Behold Your Mother”

My husband and I are members of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church.  I have attended mass at this church all of my life, beginning at my baptism soon after birth.  There is a beautiful replica of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Icon in our Church.  I have always loved the icon, but never took the time to understand its meaning or significance to our church history.

It is the tradition of the Catholic Church that Our Lady of Perpetual Help is the oldest Icon of the Church.  It is believed that it was painted by St. Luke while Our Blessed Mother was still in Jerusalem.  According to legend, St. Luke showed the painting to Mary and she blessed it, saying her grace would accompany the Icon.  Many miracles have been attributed to the veneration of this Icon.

St. Luke reportedly gave the Icon to his best friend, Theophilus.  There is little reported on it until the 5th century when St. Pulcheria erected a Shrine in honor of the Icon as “Our Lady of Perpetual Help” in Constantinople.  The Icon disappears around 1453 when Constantinople became under siege.  It reappears years later on the island of Crete.

After exchanging hands a couple of times, the Icon finally found its way on March 27, 1499 to Rome.  There are still centuries of war and reconstruction.  The Icon spent many years hidden away and at one point forgotten.  But the Lord gave us His Mother and He did not want her forgotten!  The Icon was eventually discovered and restored.  It is kept today in The Church of St. Alphonsus Ligouri in Rome.

The Icon is full of symbols and messages.  There are angels on the left and the right sides of Mary and Jesus.  The left angel has the Greek initial for St. Michael the Archangel  He is holding the lance and gallop of Christ’s Passion.  On the right is the Greek initial for St. Gabriel, the Archangel.  He hold the nails and the Cross.

Mary is silent, but speaks volumes.  She is wearing a red tunic; which was worn by virgins at the time of Christ.  The dark blue mantle was worn by mothers at that time.  She is virgin, but also a mother.  Her eyes are large and turned toward us.  She seems to be pleading to us to avoid sin and love Her Son.  Mary’s left hand is supporting Christ possessively; she is His mother.  She comforts Her Son, but also everyone who calls on Her for help.

“Behold your mother.”  John 19:27

She was the mother of God.  She comforted Him and nurtured Him.  She knew of His fate; but she knew it was God’s Will.  She was full of faith and love even as He was dying on the Cross.  Her Son’s last gift to His faithful followers was His Mother.

Every part of Jesus that was human was from His mother – our mother – Mary.  She still sees Him suffer.  There are many more sins in the world today.  She is still trying to comfort and mother His followers.

Happy Mother’s Day to Mary, the Mother of God and of us all!

May mankind finally learn to follow the examples of your Holy Family.  It is not about making you and Jesus happy – You are radiant and in God’s Kingdom.  Following the ways of Jesus and His family will lead to OUR HAPPINESS!

C’est Bon,

Love Your Daughter,

Sherry

 

 

The Cross is Love

My grandchildren attend St. Bernadette’s Catholic School.  My granddaughter is in first grade and I was very pleased to hear the first graders were doing a passion play.

If you think children are too young to understand the passion and its meaning, think again.

This past weekend, the grandkids spent a night with their Grams and Pop.  Of course we watched “Frozen”.  They had seen the movie several times already and really were not paying much attention to it.  I lost interest as well.  But on Saturday night, we were able to watch “Mary, the Mother of Jesus”, a movie none of us had seen before.

Both the seven-year-old and the four-year-old were very captivated by the movie.  When Herod ordered the infants killed, my grandson became very upset.  Jesus was just a Baby and he wanted to know why they wanted to kill Him.  I watched as his sister explained that Mary and Joseph fled and kept Jesus safe.  After she thought about it, my granddaughter continued to explain to her little brother that eventually the people do kill Jesus and He dies on a cross.

Her little brother was still very upset.  He asked the big question, “Why did Jesus have to die on a cross?”.

My mind was racing…How do you explain this big question to a four-year-old?

But, the Holy Spirit was at work.  His big sister smiled a huge smile, and simple said, “JESUS HAD TO DIE SO THAT WE COULD LIVE!”

Words so simple and so true.  He died because He loves us.

Jesus gave this message to Nancy Fowler in Conyers, Georgia in December of 1990: “I give you the love of My Heart.  When you walk in My light you know the way.  Then you have My Peace because you are walking with Me.  When you have My Peace, you know of My Love.  I was brutally struck everywhere.  If you start to count My wounds do you not miss the point?  See not My wounds, but My Love for you and all of mankind.  See My love first, then My suffering.  The Cross is Life.  The Cross is Love.  I am the Cross.”

Philippians 2:7 : “He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness.  He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death – His death on the cross.  For this reason, God raised Him to the highest place above and gave Him the name that is greater than any other name.  And so, in honor of the name of Jesus, all beings in heaven, on earth and in the world below, will fall on their knees and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”

Amen.

C’est Bon,

Love,

Sherry

 

A piece of your heart

Message from Jesus to Nancy Fowler, December 10, 1990

“Nancy, please tell My children about love.  My children are all mixed up. The evil one has deceived them about love. he gives them a false love and impure love.  Like a loving father, I want to warn you and protect you.. Tell the people I have the greatest gift to them…I will spell the gift for you: L-O-V-E and M-E-R-C-Y.  If you don’t take the gift and unwrap it, then how will you have the gift?

I am the greatest gift giver and I receive the fewest gifts of all.  The gift My children can give Me will not cost them any money.  They don’t have to wrap the gift in fancy paper with a pretty bow.  They don’t have to send a card to Me.  All I ask is for a piece of your heart.

If you give Me just a piece of your heart, do you not know that I will give you much more in return.  I don’t ask very much.  I am grateful to receive a piece of your heart, which is imperfect in every way and lacking in many virtues, and still I cherish this gift from each of My precious children.

Remember My teaching about the heart. It takes a heart to mend a heart.  You don’t take part of your eye to mend a torn heart.  The tissues must be alike.  Does it not make sense that I, who give My Heart, need your heart in return?  I give you all of Myself, completely and totally.  I only ask for a small part of yourself to be returned to Me.”

Romans 11:11 “Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion.”

On this day of hearts, please remember our Savior who gave us His Sacred Heart.  Give Jesus your heart today.  Tell Jesus you love Him and thank Him for His Love and Mercy!

C’est Bon,

Love,

Sherry

Go Jimmy Graham!

Jimmy Graham | New Orleans Saints (Photo credit: Football Schedule)

Since it is Halloween and I am thinking about my two grandkids, I decided to share a cute story concerning my four-year-old grandson.  I will call him Luke.

My daughter and her children live about an hour away from New Orleans.  The New Orleans Saints are very big in their home town and we are all Saints fans.

Earlier this year, my daughter’s husband adopted a dog from a local shelter.  The shelter had named the dog “Jimmy Graham” after the Saints’ tight end.  Jimmy was a beautiful dog; however he was also very busy and was routinely eating up furniture, doors, and walls…  My daughter worked with him as best she could, but in the end the family had to say good-bye to Jimmy Graham when they found him a new family with lots of yard for him to play in and be mischievous.  Luke took the good-bye the hardest.  He made friends quickly with Jimmy Graham and being a four-year-old boy, was likewise mischievous.  They were in a way “kindred spirits”.

Along comes football season.  My daughter and family were watching the New Orleans Saints in their living room.  The kids were playing nearby and could hear the cheers and jeers depending on how the game was going.  It was not long that Jimmy Graham, the Saints football player, caught a pass and was headed for the goal line.  My daughter and husband were yelling, “Go Jimmy Graham!”.  This immediately caught the ear of Luke, who jumped up in front of the TV and yelled out in amazement, “My DOG turned into a MAN?”.  This was followed by, “…AND HE’S A FOOTBALL PLAYER?… GO JIMMY GRAHAM, IT’S ME LUKE!  I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!”.

Luke’s love for his dog was so great, that he did not mind the separation if it meant that Jimmy Graham could become a man!

I just love kids.  They see the world through eyes that are so innocent and so loving. Pure Love. Love like God intended it to be.

I will be watching the Saints this weekend.  I will be rooting for Jimmy Graham…  but, it is Luke who makes Grams proud!

C’est Bon,

Love,

Sherry