11 BEATITUDES FOR A MARRIED COUPLE

    

1.  Blessed are the husband and wife who continue to be affectionate, considerate and loving after the wedding bells have stopped ringing.
2.  Blessed are the husband and wife who are as polite and courteous to one another as they are to their friends.
3. Blessed are they who have a sense of humor, their marriage shall be much brighter.
4. Blessed are the parents who abstain from alcohol (I would add ", tobacco, and drugs"),  their children will surely follow their example.
5. Blessed are they who are faithful to each other and mutually helpful. God will surely guide them.
6. Blessed are the husband and wife who thank God for good things which come to them. They shall receive both good things and thankful children.
7. Blessed are the parents who recognize their children as gifts from God, their home shall be filled with love.
8. Blessed are those mates who make their home a place "where seldom is heard a  discouraging word". They shall inspire others to do likewise.
9. Blessed are the parents who attend and support their church. Their children shall develop a strong faith.
10. Blessed is the couple who are good stewards of all God's gifts, their children will bless them and follow their example.
11. Blessed are all those whose lives are a testimony of faith in God, they shall be the channels through which God's kingdom will come on earth. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow them all the days of their lives and they shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Source: The Christian Builder

Beautiful Story of a Mother

Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them. St. Matthew 18:20

This is a short story about Saint Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine.

Saint Monica was given in marriage to Patricius, a pagan; even though she came from a Christian family and grew up in singular innocence and piety. After marriage, she devoted herself to her husband's conversion, praying for him always and winning his reverence and love by the holiness of her life and her affectionate forbearance. She was rewarded by seeing him baptized a year before his death.

When her son Augustine went astray in faith and habits, her prayers and tears were incessant. She once begged a learned bishop that he would talk to her son, in order to bring him to a better disposition, but he declined, despairing of success with a young man at once so gifted and so headstrong. At the sight of her prayers and tears, he nonetheless bade her be of good courage, for it could not happen that the child of those tears should perish.
Augustine, by going to Italy, was able for a time to free himself from his mother’s importunities, but he could not escape from her prayers, which encompassed him like the providence of God. She followed him to Italy; and there, by his marvelous conversion, her sorrow was turned into joy.

At Ostia, shortly before they were to re-embark for Africa, Augustine and his mother sat at a window conversing on the life of the blessed. She turned to him and said, “My son, there is nothing now I care for in this life. What I shall now do, or why I remain on this earth, I know not. The one reason I had for wishing to linger in this life a little longer was that I might see you a Catholic Christian before I died. This grace God has granted me superabundantly, seeing you reject earthly happiness to become His servant.” A few days afterwards she had an attack of fever and died at the age of fifty-six, in the year 388.

Reflection: It is impossible to set any bounds to what persevering prayer may do. It gives man a share in the Divine Omnipotence. Saint Augustine’s soul lay bound in the chains of heresy and an illegitimate union, both of which had by long habit grown inveterate. They were broken by his mother’s prayers.

Source:  Lives of Saints

Here's the 4th poem dedicated to Our Blessed Mother

On May 13, we commemorate the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a little town in Portugal. I am inviting you to join me in offering a nine day Novena to Our Lady of Fatima starting tomorrow, May 5. Two versions of the novena is presented:

First, the same verse or prayer is said once each day for the nine days to come.:

 Day 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9

Second, is the Nine Day Novena to Our Lady of The Rosary of Fatima.

Nine Day Novena to Our Lady of The Rosary of Fatima