Novena to the Sacred Heart

Novena to the Sacred Heart~
Say once a day for 9 days, especially beginning on the Feast of Corpus Christi and ending on the Feast of the Sacred Heart

O most holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore Thee, I love Thee and with a lively sorrow for my sins, I offer Thee this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to Thy will. Grant, good Jesus, that I may live in Thee and for Thee. Protect me in the midst of danger; comfort me in my afflictions; give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, Thy blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death. Within Thy Heart I place my every care. In every need let me come to Thee with humble trust saying, Heart of Jesus help me.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Family Prayer

We have been handed these prayer cards in Church these last weeks and I really like the thoughts to meditate on in regards to REAL family prayer.

Families Become what you are.....

God our Father, You are Love and Life.
Be with us as we pray for all families.

Guide and protect all families that, together,
we may be a true shrine of your life and love

Direct our thoughts and actions
so that we may be both a sign and
active presence of your love to all families.

Bless and strengthen our families
so that our children and youth may
experience the gift of dignity and so
grow strong in love and truth.

Let our home be  a place of welcome,
forgiveness, love and acceptance.

We humbly ask that you strengthen
our Sacrament of Marriage and our
bonds of family. Grant us the grace,
courage and strength to face our
trials  and weaknesses, and a sense
of awe and thankfulness during our times of joy.

We offer our prayers with and
through the Holy Family of Nazareth.
Help us to be the greatest
and most visible sign of evangelism in
our Church.

We ask this of You, who are Life,
Truth and Love with the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

The Family Rosary!!

I wrote this post for our Australian Catholic Families Blog recently and my friend Erin suggested I post it here as well!
So I hope you enjoy~

The children come quietly into the family room carrying their Rosaries in hand and the booklets they have to help them meditate on the Mysteries. Each child goes to the place in the room that they feel most comfortable to pray. They kneel look over to me as I finish feeding the baby and start to take this sweet dumpling up to his bed.
While I am gone Daddy reads a short bible story from our picture bible, mainly for our little children.
As I come back down stairs again I glance at the clock and see that it is 7:30pm, it is perfect timing as usual.

I come back into the room cuddle our next little one who has her Rosary beads all ready. She looks at mine and asks sweetly if we can trade tonight. I let her and we look at Daddy as the signal to begin.

At this everyone except me with the sweet snugly one kneel to pray and we being the nightly process -
'In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit........"

During the Rosary our little ones curl up next to an older child and nearly drop off to sleep. Each child know when it it their child to lead a decade and we have a most meditative and rewarding prayer time.

Twenty minutes later the younger children say good night to everyone with hugs and kisses and softly start up to bed, being very quiet so as not to wake the baby. The older children take up their reflective reading and spend some more quiet time together.

I know you all have families who pray the Rosary like this!

Sadly this is not how our family does either. As I was typing this our I wondered would there ever be a time in our lives when we would pray the Rosary like this.
Perhaps! When we do not have little ones to participate in our prayer time. However that in itself will be a  sad time for me I am sure.

Our Family Rosary is a little  very much different form the perfect scenario I described.

Let me give you a little sneak peak~
The time, well the time can be anything from 7:00pm onwards and sometimes way past our little peoples bedtime. Oh and read carefully, sometimes we do not say the Rosary AT ALL - GASP. SHOCK, HORROR.

Yes you did read that right. We are a Rosary loving family but we go through stages where  we just don't pray it together every night. Our goal is to pray daily as a family, but that family goes through well, 'stuff' that means we fall of the 'Rosary Wagon' every so often.

So on those nights when we pray our Rosary as a Family it more likely resembles this~
Mum calling all the children from all over the house. We have a large house and some children will be finishing up the Dinner clean up. Others will be helping to get our little ones ready for bed; teeth cleaned, toilet stops etc.
I usually am feeding our little dumpling (that part is true from the ideal picture above) and sometimes he even goes to sleep.
Some of the children come when called but experience has shown that there are always stragglers to the family room and no one wants to just hang around waiting for the stragglers. So it becomes a situation of calling for the stragglers while keeping those who came after leaving their own individual pursuits to remain in the room waiting for said stragglers.

Of course then there is the battle  choosing of spots ready to pray. I would love to say we all knelled down for the Rosary, and there was a time when we did, but I find it difficult when holding a little one or too far pregnant and I do believe the children got out of the habit as I came to full term.

We usually then have more than one child want to 'sit next to mummy' or 'I was just about to sit in that spot' issues to deal with which lead to more waiting time.
I suppose this could be avoided if we started without some of the children or adults BUT I do believe that if we are praying together as a family then we show respect and courtesy by waiting for ALL family members to be present. Sure we might get finished quicker but I think it effectively diminishes the value of family prayer and devalues the weight of an individual if we start without them. In effect  it says you are not really very important to this family activity and your prayers are not valued either.

On with the story ~
During the Rosary we usually have the baby babbling, the special needs boy fidgeting a bit (or a lot) depending on how his day has gone. Our other special girl, 99 our of 100 times falls asleep during this time and has to be carried up to bed. Sometimes we have even had a race to see who can lead the decade first! We have had older people fall asleep and only a few end up praying. I am sure I could think of a few more examples to shock you with but I wont go on.

Why not......you were enjoying how lacking in piety we are!

Well believe it or not we really do have a devotion to praying the Rosary as I am sure a lot lot of other families do. I do believe we are doing this to the best of our ability.....not perfect but as best we can for OUR FAMILY, RIGHT NOW AS WE ARE NOW.

Change will come upon our family you can be sure. In fact I see a change again for us in the coming year, and yet we will continue to pray the Rosary as best we can - and perhaps if we are truly blessed we will become that perfect Rosary praying family!!

However I do believe that  God reads our hearts and intentions and I can say that our intentions are pure, even if our 'follow through' is not up to standard. I do  think it important that we lead our little ones in prayer and that it is a VERY important part of our training our children.

However I also believe that prayer is a conversation with God  and how we show our love and respect to the children in our families as they 'interupt ' our perfect Rosary/prayer time, can be a great example of having a servants heart and drawing our children toward God.

And is that not what we are called to do..........to lead our children to their Heavenly Father!

Blessings to you and your homes,
   

St Andrew Novena Starts Today

Say 15 times a day from St. Andrew's Day (30 November) until Christmas

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires. (Mention your intentions here) Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Trahaearn's Hospital Adventure

 We are Home!!

Yes after five days in hospital Trahaearn and I have returned home.
Thank you for all your kindness and prayers for our little dumpling.

Well, actually he isn't a round and chubby dumpling hence our visit to the Doctor and hence admittance to hospital.

So here is the rundown on the situation:
We have had over the past couple of months been trying to monitor Trahaearn's weight as he has not put on lots of weight and has even lost weight over time.

Trahaearn has been having medication for the reflux that the Doctor prescribed for him when we went to see him last. I am not sure if the dosage was right or not because he still kept sicking up after feeds and even in between feeds. However of course you know the whole time we were in hospital he DID NOT vomit like he had been at all. So perhaps the re adjustment of the medication was all he needed to stop this.

While in hospital Trahaearn had tests,what they were exactly I need to ask tomorrow, (update:when I asked no one was able to sahre the tests with me, so still need to find out) as they did not tell me and I was  a little surprised when we were discharged without being told what specifics they checked for.

Our little baby did have to have a blood test (2 attempts at this one, my poor baby), a sample of poo and wee  (I had to catch that sample in mid air.....a challenge for sure) and an ultrasound which was clear.

In between all this was the various conversations with the Pediatric team and nursing staff was well as the Lactation Staff on what we should do. Of course the Doctors wanted him to start solids straight away (which is what the Dr told me at three months and put me off going back to see him). I did not want to do this and so we then had the discussion (well they decide and then tell you why you should do it like they want you too) about supplementing with formula. Again I wasn't too thrilled but agreed as I wanted Trahaearn to put on weight. Of course our little boy did not like the formulae and refused to drink it. Did you know that Trahaearn means  'strong as iron, Oh yeah, we are going to have to watch this boy I am sure. Perhaps he gets this stubbornness from some where......

Back for the next attempt at an idea.

Working in this post on Sunday night - second attempt as i lost all I had typed up when the power on my computer went off and now said Baby is awake again.

Well we came home with a plan to feed every 3 hours and express after a feed and then give the expressed breast milk (EBM) in a bottle every feed as well.
Did I mention our children are not very happy about mummy 'spressing' again and Saxon said tonight that 'spressing' sounds very much like stressing.

Well this seemed a fine plan but when I went to weigh Trahaearn at the hospital today he had lost weight again. So I was just a little stressed about this and not knowing what to do to help him put on weight.

So phase three of the plan was to continue with the other plan but to wake him during the night. Did I mention that he sleeps all night and this is the only really good sleep he has. I am not really looking forward to this as I do like my night sleep, that is when the other small children  stay in their own beds.
so we are on three hourly feeding and bottle feeding along with expressing during the night...wish me luck with this.

Also we will be adding some formula to the  EBM until we can  increase our milk output that hopefully will be assisted by some medication I received today.

We will be going back on Tuesday to asses Trahearn's weight and hopefully he will have put on weight 

After arriving home today I spoke to  a friend on facebook who has some specialty in this area and she gave me some much needed ressurancea and lots of information and advice.

So the short version is we are now expressing every 11/2 hours and feeding every 2-3 hours. Until Trahaean gains weight and I am sure my milk supply is 'happy' we will use the formula too....for mummy's piece of mind really.

So all in all I think I will wrap up here now and have a few minutes before the next feed.


I will keep you updated as we go along but can you Please can you keep us and Trahaearn in your prayers please ☺

Blessings to you and your homes,

Massive St Jude Novena

Would you like to Pray a Novena with me?

Here are the details~
10,000 “Impossible” Novenas to St. Jude!
Starting Wednesday, I am joining over 5,000 Catholics to pray the St. Jude Novena!
I’m looking forward to the answered prayers from this amazing saint! With so many faithful Catholics around the world praying this novena, I thought you’d like to join too!
Do you have any ‘impossible causes’ to pray for?
You can sign up for handy email reminders to get the the novena prayers here: St. Jude Novena
Now that you’ve signed up, I’d like you ask you a little favor. We are trying to get 10,000 people to pray this novena together. Right now, there are about 5,200 signed up. Will you help me get more?
Here’s what you can do:
+ Go to the Facebook event here and invite all your Catholic friends.
+ If you have a website, post about it there!
+ Email your friends and family and get them praying too!
Let’s get all the Catholics we know to pray this novena together to St. Therese!

Blessings to you and your homes,

My Needle Falters....

"Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern--it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that...one stitch at a time, taken patiently." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Am I too impatient with my life?
Have I missed too many stitches for my work to be a beautiful pattern.

Our lives are so stagnant and still, as we await so many answers to too many questions.
There arise difficulties within from the constant drain on thoughts and hearts that need to be re-newed.

I wait and work my needle into the pattern and see life passing by with no progress. I falter more and more daily and despair of the rose ever coming into the pattern of my life.

Some days it seems so wearing and grim, my fabric is dirty from too many words said from hearts that are sore.

If only the pattern had more explicit instructions!

But alas I walk by faith and my faith is sorely tested.

I yearn to have a beautiful pattern that has been worked over dilegently, and yet I struggle and fall to often.

Oh Lord help me to work the pattern dutifully to yield the beautiful rose.

Blessings to you and your homes,

Prayer to be a good Mother

I have always desired to be a good mother to our children.
I pray for the ability to be all that I can be in this regard  to this vocation along with my other prayers.
The desire to be gentle of ~ heart, word, deed and face (smile with love)
To show unconditional love at all times and that the unconditional live is evident to our children.
I try to show interest in all that interests them even if it really isn't 'my cup of tea'
I try to tell the children I love them and cuddle or hug them each day...giving physical affection.
I try to be thankful for any work or task I ask them to do and use my 'best company manners' with them.
Mostly I just try to be there for them and love them to the best of my ability.

I am always looking at ways to improve how I am being a mother to our children and finding new prayers and encouraging quotes helps me. I found this one a long time ago and thought it time to share it with any who desire it.

Prayer to Be a Good Mother:

Mary, my Mother, grant that my little children may instruct me in the ways of God.
Let their innocent eyes speak to me of the spotless holiness of Jesus.
Let their open smiles remind me of the great love God has for his creatures.
Let their helplessness teach me the unbounded power of God.
May their first feeble efforts to speak call to mind the wisdom of the Almighty.
May their simple trust in me lead me to cherish a like confidence in God.
May my love for God be stimulated by the deep-rooted affection my children have for me.
May I in all these things grow in a greater appreciation of my holy motherhood.
Mary, I trust in you to obtain this favor for me.
Amen.
Mother of Mothers, pray for me

Blessings to you and your homes,

Prayers for our Baby's Birth

Hi Mummy's Blogging Friends,

This is Autumn filling in for Mummy and asking  for your prayers tomorrow as Mummy goes to hospital to have our little brother or sister.

They will start induction at 7am our time Monday morning which is about 8 hours from now.
Prayers for a quick and safe delivery for Mummy and our baby would be much appreciated.

I will keep you up todate with detaails as we get them in the morning

Thank you so much

Autumn and siblings

The Privilege of Prayer ♥

"Where two or more are gathered in my name, there will I (God) be also."

It is a wonderful opportunity and privilege when  people ask you to pray for them.

Over time I have been honoured to be asked to pray for quite a few people: sometimes the prayer request is for an individual person and the intention they are petitioning our Heavenly Father for, and at other times I am asked to join in with a group who are praying for another person.

In my belief it should be considered an honour to be asked to pray for others. What an opportunity to be a part of the body of Christ. To be able to share in the dependence and love of our Saviour,  whom we come to in complete faith and trust.

I also have been blessed to ask for prayer for individual and family concerns both here on my blog, on various message boards and since on FB to my various friends there as well.

We are very privileged in our society to be able to ask for prayer from far away by those  known to us through the various Internet exchanges we have made, and the friendship developed. We have  the scope for true world wide prayer that has been opened through this medium. For those of us who are more isolated it is a gift I think we should be truly thankful for........ and so I am.

So as I join in with  Trish in her lovely 'LACEwork' this week (click on the image below) I hope not only to encourage you in line with Trish's guidelines

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

but to also thank those of you who visit here and encourage me too, whether through comments or prayer of just with the opportunity to share a little of the important things in my life ♥

Blessings to you and your homes,

My Work..........

There is not a day goes by that I am NOT thankful for the life God has chosen for me.
To be a wife and mother has as far as I can remember has always been my goal.

I even remember back in the school years when we were told to 'choose a career', even back then girls were encouraged and expected to have a career that did not involve marriage and motherhood.
Not knowing any different as this is what I was taught I tried to choose a 'career' that would allow me to  be able to stay home with my children and perhaps only work part time.

Even then it was not my first choose and I was blessed to have know my now husband before I left for college. In fact we were engaged before I went away (while he attended Uni in another part of the country) and we really were only waiting to be married until after I had finished my 2 year course.

I look back now and see how the fact that we were 'brainwashed' both at home and school to think this way.
Thank God that he showed us a different way..........

I could not imagine my life if it were any different and the thought of not having this life is well.....unimaginable.
How trite and unimportant for me to not be a wife and mother. The ability to share so many special moments AT HOME, with those I care most about is a gift I will never undervalue.

So when I read these type of poems below and books by like minded people I can really appreciate the value that they place on the role of Motherhood.

I pray you are as encouraged by them as well!!

My Work

I have the greatest work in the world;
The job of rocking a baby to sleep,
That of guiding his tottering feet,
A baby's clothes to launder and fold,
A precious life to shape and mold,
A drink to give from a little cup,
At night his toys to gather up,
Hurts to heal and fears to quell,
A baby to keep clean and well,
A stack of diapers to put,
Oh, what a happy worthwhile day!
I am a "Mother."

I have the greatest work in to world;
A husband to encourage when things go wrong,
When he comes from work to greet with a song,
Denims and shirts to wash and mend,
A helping hand, when needed, to lend,
Three times a day is meals to cook,
To strive to be my best to look,
His back to rub at the close of the day,
For his faithfulness to God I pray,
When hubby's in the field I take lemonade,
for all these tasks his love has Paid.
I am a " Wife."

I have the greatest work in the world;
A home to keep happy, clean and bright,
Make things go smooth and strive for the right,
Jams to cook and jellies to make,
Cookies and pies and bread to bake,
Washing, ironing, and sewing to do,
So many tasks, will I ever get though?
Lettuce to wash and peas to pick,
floors to scrub, lost items to seek,
Dishes to wash and windows to shine,
These and many more tasks are mine.
I am a "Homemaker."

Help me, Father, to faithfully work,
Forgive if I unconsciously shirk,
give me the patience and love I pray,
To keep myself in duties way;
With all the hustle that each day brings
May I not neglect the needing things;
Each day to spend time alone with Thee
That Jesus Christ be seen in me.
Thank you for husband, our home, our girls and boys;
Thank you for love which brings me much joy.
Thank you , Lord.

----Mary Lou Burkholder

I love J R Miller's work and the book on Homemaking is one of my favourite books on homemaking.
I think that this is the new version of my book, but not sure.

"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse into the future of that life as it  reaches into eternity; could she look into it's soul to see it's possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for it's destiny,- she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." - JR Miller

Once again I am joining in with Trish with her Lace Post
L...Lovely  A...Admirable  C...Cheerful  E...Encouraging
                                  ~ LACE ~

So please join Trish in her lovely 'LACEwork' this week (click on the image below)

Blessings to you and your homes,

My thoughts for this Day......

Just recently I received a beautiful prayer booklet from the very talented Kimberlee at Pondered in My Heart.

This morning as I was reading before Mass the booklet and found this beautiful prayer that was in the booklet. I was struck by how appropriate this prayer was to ACTUAL daily living, my daily living, each and every day.
Truly if I strive for this each day I am sure I will be  a better servant, Christian, wife and mother.

I would like to share it with you as well:

Adorable Jesus! Divine Pattern of that perfection to which we should all aspire, I will endeavour this day to follow Thine example: to be mild, humble, chaste, zealous, patient, charitable and resigned. Incline my hear to keep Thy commandments.
I am resolved to watch over myself with the greatest diligence, and to live soberly, justly and piously, for the time to come.
I will take care of my words, that I may not offend with my tongue.
I will turn away my eyes, that they many not see vanity; and I will be particularly attentive not to relapse this day into my accustomed failing, but to struggle against them with Thy gracious assistance.
Enlighten my mind, purify my heart, and guide my steps, that I may pass all my life in Thy divine service.
Amen.

I pray you all have a blessed and Holy Sunday!

Blessings to you and your homes,

Prayers I am Pondering ♥

 

It is always a joy for me to return to some of my well loved prayers that I have prayed over the years.
I often go through times where I focus more on prayers for our home and for the children especially. Tranquility in our home is based around my heartfelt attitude to my vocation and I usually find when I focus on these type of prayers that my heart tends to respond in a more gentle and caring manner.

These prayers below are some  that are on my heart at the moment~

Just for Today:
Oh God, give me grace for this day.
Not for a lifetime, not for next week, not for tomorrow,
just for this day.
Direct my thoughts and bless them.

Direct my work and bless it.
Direct the things I say and give them blessing, too.

Direct and bless everything that I think and speak
and do. So that for this day, just this one
day, I have the gift of grace that comes from
your presence
Oh God, for htis day, just this day let me live generously, kndly, in a state of grace and goodness that denies my many imperfections and makes the more like you.
by Marjorie Holmes

 

Learning the Joy of Giving:
Lord, help my child to be a giver rather than a taker.
Help my child to experience the joy of giving.
May, my child be swift to give time, talent, money,
possessions, thaks, conpliments, healing words, smiles, love,
hugs and a hand or an ear, whenever the opportunity presents itself
by William and Nancie Carmichael

For Right Goals:
Heavenly Father, please give our children the right goals.
Keep them from driftin, from gooing with the crowd
to gain popularity and plenty of friend.
Please enable them to sort out their strengths and weakness.
Help them to see their talents and abilities , not  as accidents of birth
or random combination of genes, but as  gifts from yourself,
to be treasured, develope and used in living life as you,
God, mean it to be lived.
And help them to have their priorities right.
Then the rest of life's concerns will fall into place.
So we would ask you Father - please give our children the right goals.
by Marion Stroud

Thank You Lord:
For all these smallnessesI thank You, Lord:
small children
and small needs;
small meals to cook
small talk to heed,
and a small book
from which to read
small stories;
small hurts to heal,
small disappointments, too,
as real
as ours;
small glories to discover
in bugs,
pebbles,
flowers.
When day is through
my mind is small,
my strength is gone;
and as I gather
each dear one
I pray, “Bless each
for Jesus’ sake—
such angels sleeping,
imps awake!”
What wears me out
are little things:
angels minus
shining wings.
Forgive me, Lord,
if I have whined—
it takes so much
to keep them shined;
yet each small rub
has its reward,
for they have blessed me.
Thank you,
Lord.
By Ruth Bell Graham

 

Refuge for my Children: 
 I pray that my children will be kept safe, safe from physical harm and especiall safe fro the evil one, who would destroy.
I pray that my children will have that wonderful sense of
being cradled by God, even in the stormy times of their lives,
that they will run to the shelter of the Lord's presence for refuge.
by William and Nancie Carmichael

Blessings to you and your homes,