Mother's Reflection: A Note to Her Child

My child, as your mother,

I am the vessel of God to give you life;

but I cannot live it for you.

I can give you directions and guide you;

but I cannot lead you there.
I can teach you things and help you remember;

but I cannot learn it for you.

I can teach you right from wrong; 

but I cannot decide for you.

I can allow you freedom; 

but I cannot account for it.

I can offer you advice, but I cannot accept it for you.
I can tell you facts of life, but I cannot build your personal reputation.

I can give you love, but I cannot force it upon you.

I can teach you respect, but I cannot force you to show honor.

I can teach you to share, but I cannot force you to give.

I can teach you to be kind, but I cannot force you to be gracious.

I can advise you about friends, but I cannot choose them for you.

I can warn you about drugs and alcohol but I cannot say "no" for you.

I can buy you beautiful clothes, but I cannot make you beautiful inside.

I can tell you about lofty goals in life, but I cannot achieve them for you
I can tell you to dream, but I cannot think for you.

I can show you God and tell you to believe;

but I can only hope that you believe and have Faith

My son and me

I can warn you about sins, but I cannot make you moral.
I can love you more than myself my;
but I cannot place you in God's family.
I can pray for you, but I cannot make you walk with God.
I can teach you about Jesus;
but I cannot make Jesus your Lord.
I can tell you how to live, but I cannot give you eternal life.
I can love you unconditionally all of my life...and I will!

I love you, my son!

As I reflect on most of the things I can offer to my son; I also reflect on Mary - Our Queen; how much she loved her Son Jesus, she suffered as He suffered on the cross for humanity. Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother indeed...How much more for Mary, the Mother of Our Saviour and the Mother of all mankind, hence she deserves honor and praise from us. Let us not forget to thank her for accepting the role and responsibility that God asked her to do.

A Beautiful Story: Mother and Child

Note: I've heard this story as a homily in the church, a number of times.

A little boy came up to his mother in the kitchen one evening while she was fixing supper, and handed her a piece of paper that he had been writing on. 

After his Mom dried her hands on an apron, she read it, and this is what it said:

For cutting the grass:  $10.00

For cleaning up my room this week:    $2.00 

For going to the store for you:    $1.00 

Baby-sitting my kid brother while you went shopping:    $0.50 

Taking out the garbage:    $2.00 

For getting a good report card:   10.00 

For cleaning up and raking the yard:   $5.00 

Total owed: $30.50

Well, his mother looked at him standing there,and the boy could see the memories flashing through her mind. She picked up the pen, turned over the paper he'd written on, and this is what she wrote: 

For the nine months I carried you while you were growing inside me:  No Charge 

For all the nights that I've sat up with you doctored and prayed for you:  No Charge 

For all the trying times, and all the tears that you've caused through the years:  No Charge 

For all the nights that were filled with dread, and for the worries I knew were ahead:  No Charge 

For the toys, food, clothes, and even wiping your nose:  No Charge 

Son, when you add it up,the cost of my love is:  No Charge

When the boy finished reading what his mother had written, there were big tears in his eyes, and he looked straight at his mother and said, "Mom, I sure do love you."And then he took the pen and in great big letters he wrote: "PAID IN FULL". 

Reflection: You will never know how much your parents worth till you become a Parent. Be a giver, especially to your parents, there's a lot to give, besides money. If your mom is still alive and close to you, give her a big hug and a kiss, say thank you for bringing you out in this world. If she is far away, call her and tell her you love her, if she'd passed away, pray for her.

*from unknown author*

image source: stock photo

Mary Our Mother: The Full Moon

Look at the moon, amazingly beautiful!

Thomas Merton's Poetry: The Evening of the Visitation - Written in 1947; p1 & p4

Like the morning star in the midst of the cloud and as the moon at its full she shines (Eccl. 50,6). 


The blessed Mary is said to be the full moon, because in every way perfect. The moon is imperfect when a half-moon, because it is stained or horned. But the glorious Virgin neither in Her birth had any stain, because sanctified in Her mother's womb, guarded by angels, nor in Her days had She the horns of pride. Hence, She shone fully and perfectly. She is said to be light because. She dispels the darkness.


Source/Reference: St. Anthony of Padua

Springtime: Mary's Month

“Here’s flowers for you;

Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram;

The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun,

And with him rises weeping; these are flowers

Of middle summer, and, I think, they are given

To men of middle age.” 

Shakespeare The Winter’s Tale

Flowers and herbs are included in works of Christian art not only because they are pretty and decorative, but also because they had a particular meaning. A bouquet or wreath to honor Mary can be made of real flowers or silk flowers, and could include those that traditionally symbolize Mary and her virtues and attributes. Here are some examples:
Our Lady of the Flowers

"The mood of springtime informs the church's interior; nature's blossoming, the warm air of May evenings, human gladness in a world that is renewing itself -- all these things enter in. Veneration of Mary has its place in this very particular atmosphere, for she, the Virgin, shows us faith under its youthful aspect, as God's new beginning in a world that has grown old. In her we see the Christian life set forth as a youth-fullness of the heart, as beauty and a waiting readiness for what is to come."

-- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Seek That Which is Above (Ignatius, 1986), pp. 95-96.

Mary gardens existed way back in the Middle Ages when flowers referred to Our Lady's life, attributes and virtues. Every monastery and convent had a special Mary garden to provide flowers in May that it became Mary's month, and people delighted in decorating her statue and altar with flowers. It is said that in those days of faith, the flowers honored Mary, the Perfect flower; the "Mystical Rose". The beauty and peculiar characteristics of various flowers reminded the medieval men and women of Our Lady, and so they received their names.

Now that you know some of the flower legends immortalized by the attributes and virtues of Our Blessed Mother; spend time with the meditations they inspire.

Novena to Our Lady of Fatima

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 today, May 5. Two versions of the novena is presented in this blog:

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

Say the prayer for Day 1: Day 2: Day 3: Day 4: Day 5 :Day 6: Day 7: Day 8: Day 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

Novena source: Prayerbook
Image source: Mary's flowers

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

May Crown: Finding of the Holy Cross

It's May 3, and as promised; here's another poem in honor for the Blessed Virgin Mary

If two of you shall agree on earth about anything at all for which they ask, it shall be done for them by My Father in heaven. St. Matthew 18:19

May 3 of every year is also the day to commemorate "The Finding of the Holy Cross" by Saint Helen, mother of Constantine the Great, who resolved to build a magnificent church in the City of Jerusalem. Saint Helen made a journey into Palestine in 326 A.D., inspired with a great desire to find the identical cross on which Christ Our Lord had suffered for our sins, in order to build the proposed church on the site of Calvary.

The Roman pagans who were dominated by an aversion to Christianity had done what they could to conceal the place where our Saviour was buried by heaping on it a great quantity of stone and rubbish, and building there a temple to Venus. They had also erected a statue of Jupiter in the place where Our Lord rose from the dead. The Emperor's mother ordered the profane buildings to be pulled down, the statue broken in pieces, and the rubbish removed. And then, upon digging to a great depth, the holy sepulchre was uncovered.

Near it were found three crosses and the nails which had pierced Our Saviour’s body, with the title which had been fixed to His cross. By this discovery they knew that one of those three crosses was the one they sought, and that the others belonged to the two criminals between whom Our Saviour had been crucified. But because the title was found separate from the cross, it was difficult to distinguish which of the three crosses was the one on which our Redeemer consummated His sacrifice for the salvation of the world. In this perplexity the holy Bishop of Jerusalem Macarius, knowing that one of the principal ladies of the city lay ill and at the point of death, suggested to the Empress to have the three crosses carried to the sick person, not doubting that God would reveal which one was the cross they sought. Saint Macarius prayed that God would have regard to their faith, and then he applied the crosses, one after another, to the patient. She was immediately and perfectly cured by the touch of the True Cross, after the others had been tried without effect.

Saint Helen, full of joy at having found the treasure which she had so earnestly sought and so highly esteemed, built a church on the site and placed the cross there with great veneration, after providing for it an extraordinarily rich silver reliquary. She afterwards carried part of it to her son Constantine at Constantinople, who received it with great veneration; and another part she took to Rome, to be placed in the church which she built there, called Church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, where it remains to this day.

The Church of the Holy Cross is located on a Roman imperial estate and is built into part of the Sessorian Palace. Several sources, including an inscription in the church, verify that the Sessorian Palace was owned by the empress St. Helen, Constantine's mother.

The discovery of the cross would have happened in the spring, after navigation began on the Mediterranean Sea, for Saint Helen went the same year to Constantinople and from there to Rome, where she died in the arms of her son on the 18th of August of the same year, 326.

Reflection: In all pious undertakings, above all in the sanctification of the soul, the mere beginning does not suffice. “Whoever perseveres to the end, he shall be saved.” Matt. 24:13

Sources:  Lives of the Saints in May  and  Sacred Destinations: Rome, Italy

It's a Beautiful Life

If I go back to college again, I'd concentrate on learning to write and speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more beautiful than the ability to communicate effectively. It's a beautiful life to be able to express and describe the beauty of this world.




My favorite lyrics from the song "Beautiful Life" written by Sebastian, Guy Theodore/Patterson, Rahsaan/Rogers and Jarrad Leith.

.....You can do what you want just seize the day
        What you're doing tomorrow's gonna come you're way. 
          Don't you ever consider giving up......
Because you will find, it's a beautiful life you have. 
             When you're feeling down, take a walk outside, there's so many things outside that's gonna lift you up; see the nature in bloom and a laughing child...


It's a beautiful song that makes you feel beautiful inside out; don't you think?

Beautiful Deeds

Beautiful Deeds

- by Mia

Beautiful deeds we do, 

Tender words we spoke to; 

They are sealed in heaven. 

One day, someday, 

It will fall, it will spread; 

Like scattered seeds on earth, 

Rainfall waters them, 

And makes them grow green 

All over the world. 

Just Being Happy

Today, see if you can stretch your heart and expand your love so that it touches not only those to whom you can give it easily, but also those who need it so much. Remember that just being happy helps other souls along; Their burden may be heavy and they are not strong; And your own sky will lighten, if other skies you brighten, by just being happy with a heart full of song. Just being happy makes you beautiful inside out.

7 Beautiful Quotes to Inspire You

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. - Helen Keller

All that is worth cherishing begins in the heart, not in the head. - Suzanne Chapin

The heart has eyes that the brain knows nothing of. - Dr. Charles Henry Parkhurst

Happiness is inward and not outward; and so it does not depend on what we have but on what we are. - Henry van Dyke

Beauty Surrounds Us

When I was still living in Tokyo, a Japanese friend once told me that the 15th of each month is dedicated as the day of the Sun, and this friend recited to me a quote from Rumi- “Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others' faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear.” And I said, we must do this not only on the 15th of each month but every day of each month as long as we live. Yes, be as the Sun, be beautiful inside out!


“That which God said to the rose, and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty, He said to my heart, and made it a hundred times more beautiful.” - Rumi


Here's 7 picture quotes for you;

Physical Beauty Fades

When a woman has beauty and nothing else, it's like a display of beautiful pieces of fashion jewelries in a shop window that soon fades; a time will come and that woman is like a faded jewelry to be thrown aside. Good looks can be sacred and profane; consoling and disturbing; exhilarating and sad; inspiring and discouraging: Beauty can affects us in so many ways but always demands to be noticed.

When a woman has beauty that shines; a woman who can give happiness to the world, appreciation, sensitivity and understanding of life that fills them with compassion and love; That woman is like a diamond that last forever. Her physical beauty fades but her beautiful memories will remain forever.

Be a person of inspiration, compassion and understanding, be kind to yourself and others, be happy and people around you will be happy as well....give love and be loved....count your blessings and be grateful. Thank God for who you are and what you have; be beautiful inside out...

Be happy, and You Are Beautiful Inside Out!

The Beauty of Nature

Beauty in itself is perfect, but no beauty is perfect. Trying to be perfect makes one miserable. Here's a good story for accepting beauty in itself. A story that tells us to let nature take its course, it may not be perfect but beautiful in itself.

*A priest was in charge of the garden within a famous Zen temple. He had been given the job because he loved the flowers, shrubs, and trees. Next to the temple there was another, smaller temple where there lived a very old Zen master. One day, when the priest was expecting some special guests, he took extra care in tending to the garden. He pulled the weeds, trimmed the shrubs, combed the moss, and spent a long time meticulously raking up and carefully arranging all the dry autumn leaves. As he worked, the old master watched him with interest from across the wall that separated the temples.
When he had finished, the priest stood back to admire his work. "Isn't it beautiful," he called out to the old master. "Yes," replied the old man, "but there is something missing. Help me over this wall and I'll put it right for you."
After hesitating, the priest lifted the old fellow over and set him down. Slowly, the master walked to the tree near the center of the garden, grabbed it by the trunk, and shook it. Leaves showered down all over the garden. "There," said the old man, "you can put me back now."*

Source: "Zen Stories to Tell Your Neighbors"


God created man in His own image; He gave nature a natural beauty....Nature or Man or Animals are created a certain way for a reason!
As human beings, we are entitled to appreciate beauty in itself....You are beautiful inside out!

Life is Beautiful

Life is beautiful. It’s full of surprises. Strange things happens every day, the choices  we make defines who we are;  A woman’s character, defines her beauty.  God gave us life and everything around us, we are entitled to find and appreciate beauty in all of His Creation.

When I was younger, I wanted to have a perfect face and body; But now I want to wear the life I’ve lived. I’ve enjoyed every age I’ve been, each had its own merit; the joy, the sorrow, the laughter, the tears, the envy, the fame, the winnings, and the struggles; each is a badge I wear to prove I was there; the symbol I display so proudly for all to see.  Life is beautiful; I am beautiful.

Happy people are beautiful. I’m pretty because I am happy. Happiness is like a mirror of the soul that reflects your beauty inside out….YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL INSIDE OUT!