PRAYER

Greetings to you all, Glory here, If we realised just how much God loves us, it would take our breath away!   God loves each individual one, infinitely, just as we are, with all our flaws and failings.  Remember He left the 99 sheep to search for the one who had strayed.
Jesus can change your life.  Are you weak?  He is strong. Are you full of worries?
Then drink at the Life Giving Fountain  Jesus!
Dear Friends the first step on your journey to Jesus is prayer.  A prayer from the heart is very powerful.  Here are some beautiful simple prayers.

O! Holy Spirit I humbly implore You, be with me always, so that in all things I may act only under the influence of Your holy inspirations.  Amen


O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You!

Eternal Father, I offer You the adorable Face of Your beloved Son for the honour and glory of Your Name for the conversation of sinners and the salvation of the dying.

THE  OUR  FATHER
Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed by thy name,  Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil  Amen

THE  HAIL  MARY
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death.  Amen

GLORY  BE  TO  THE  FATHER
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

God bless you
Love from Glory.

THE BROWN SCAPULAR OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL

THE  BROWN  SCAPULAR  OF OUR  LADY  OF  MOUNT  CARMEL
The  16th July is the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
In the year 1251 on the 16th July, St Simon Stock was praying for his Carmelite order, where there were many disputes among the members. Kneeling in his tiny cell, he pours forth his soul with deep and longing sighs in what has been called "after the Hail Mary, the most beautiful of all Marian prayers".

" Flower of Carmel, Vine blossom-laden,
Splendor of Heaven, child-bearing maiden,
None equals thee!  O Mother benign, Who no man didst know,
On all Carmel's children Thy favors bestow,

Star of the Sea!

As the Saint lifts his tear-dimmed eyes the cell is suddenly flooded with a great light.  Surrounded by a great concourse of angels, the Queen of Heaven is descending towards him, holding forth the Brown Scapular and saying:

"RECEIVE  MY  BELOVED  SON,  THIS  HABIT  OF  THY  ORDER;  THIS  SHALL  BE  TO  THEE  AND  TO  ALL  CARMELITES  A  PRIVILAGE,  THAT  WHOSOEVER  DIES  CLOTHED  IN  THIS  SHALL  NEVER  SUFFER  ETERNAL  FIRE"

"This most extrordinary gift of the Scapular from the Mother of God to St Simon Stock - brings its great usefulness not only to the Carmelite Family of Mary but also to all the rest of the faithful who wish, affiliated to that family, to follow Mary with a very special devotion"  - Pope Pius 1X

God made His Mother the great missionary at the foot of the cross on Calvary.  To understand the wherefore of Her Scapular's being an instrument of Divine Providence in the salvation of souls, we have to go back to Calvary.  It is there that we learn the meaning of Mary's universal Motherhood. 
When Jesus says "Woman behold thy son; son, behold thy Mother" and then His cry  " I thirst"! We understand.  One is standing there who is achieving  the mission of co-Redemptrix and receiving that of Universal Mediatrix.  "Mother all the souls so dearly purchased at the price of this suffering are the object of My desire.  You love me so dearly that I commission you to bring them to Me that thus My pierced Heart may receive them.  Satan has no dominion over you; I make them your children; save them by your prayers! Mother!  I thirst for souls.  It is with awe that we picture to ourselves Her descent to St Simon Stock, surrounded by the pomp of Her Heavenly Court, to cloth us in Her garment, to proclaim Her Motherhood even as at Lourdes She has proclaimed Her Immaculate Conception Moreover, we see the explaination of the Scapular.

In considering Mary from any angle, we are struck with particular force by two prerogatives: Her power and Her love - the one omnipotent, the other fathomless.  It is because of Her love that she made the Scapular Promise and it is by her prayer-power that she keeps it.

St Brigid of Kildare Abbess of Kildare [c. A.D.525]

With St Patrick, St Brigid is our very cherished patron saint.  There can be no doubt that Brigid must be numbered among the greatest and most highly venerated of the saints whose virtues lent glory to Ireland and helped, at least indirectly, to christianize Europe.  Her memory, as it lived in the hearts of the people, was identified with an extraordinary spirit of charity.

St Brigid was born about 451 at or near the present Umeras between Rathangan and Monasterevan.  Her father Dubthach was a pagan chieftain of Leinster and her mother Brocca was a christian Pict who had been baptised by St Patrick. 
Brigid showed signs of great holiness from an early age.  Brigid became a nun, and beneath a beautiful oak tree she built her first church, and ever since it has been named Cill Dara [Kildare]  the church of the oak.  [The oak tree under which St Brigid built her oratory was preserved with great veneration down to the tenth century, when it succumbed to age and the violence of a winter storm].

St Brigid's monastery flourished and soon became famous as a place of pilgrimage, and helped spread christianity through Ireland and beyond her shores.

St Brigid was famous for her great compassion and her hospitality, she never turned anyone in want away.  She prayed and the food would multiply, and would be enough for everybody who came to her door.

St Brigid was blessed by God with the gift of healing. Many are the stories of her healing people and animals.  She cured people of leprosy, blindness, so many healings but I think this one stands out:
" One evening as the sun went down, Brigid sat with sister Dara, a holy nun who was blind, and they talked of the love of Jesus Christ and the joys of Paradise.  Now their hearts were so full that the night fled away whilst they spoke together, and neither knew that so many hours had passed.  Then the sun came up from behind the Wicklow mountains and the pure white light made the face of earth bright and happy.  Then Brigid sighed, when she saw how lovely were earth and sky, and knew that Dara's eyes were closed to all this beauty.  So she bowed her head and prayed, and extended her hand and signed the dark orbs of the gentle sister.  Then the darkness passed away from them, and Dara saw the golden ball in the east and all the trees and flowers glittering with dew in the morning light.  She looked a little while, and then, turning to the abbess, said, " close my eyes again, dear Mother, for when the world is so visable to the eyes, God is seen less clearly to the soul".  So Brigid prayed once more, and Dara's eyes grew dark again".

St Brigid is patron of Milkmen, poets, cows, and yard animals, blacksmiths and healers.

Her feastday is 1st February.

St Dominic Savio

Dominic was born on 2nd April 1842 in Riva, near Turin, one of 10 children born to poor parents.  His father was a blacksmith, and his mother was a seamstress.  When Dominic was twelve he joined the school of St John Bosco at Turin.  Under the guidence of St John Bosco, Dominic grew in sanctity.  Dominic was outstanding for cheerfulness and friendliness.  He said "I can't do big things, but I want all I do, even the smallest thing to be for the greater glory of God."

We get the most facts about Dominic's life from the account written by St John Bosco about the spiritual experiences that were given to Dominic such as supernatural knowledge - of people in need, of their spiritual state, of the future.  St John Bosco tells us that the needs of England had an important part in Dominic's prayers.  Dominic saw a wide mist-shrouded plain, with a crowd of people groping about in it, then came a figure carrying a torch that lighted up the whole scene, and a voice said "This torch is the Catholic faith which shall bring light to the English people."  At Dominic's request St John Bosco told this to Pope Pius 1X who declared that it confirmed his resolution to give great care and attention to England.

Dominic's delicate health got worse, on the evening of March 9th 1857, he asked his father to read the prayers for the dying, suddenly his face lit up with a smile of intense joy, and he said "I am seeing most wonderful things!"  They were his last words.  Dominic was beatified in 1950, and canonized in 1954.

Saint Elizabeth Seton [American Saint]

St Elizabeth Seton  [August 28th 1774 - January 4th 1821] was the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Church. [September 14th 1975]
Elizabeth was born on 28th August 1774 in New York.  She was raised in the Episcopal Church.  Her mother died when Elizabeth was 3 years old.
In 1794 Elizabeth married William Seton.  They were very happy and had five children.  But William got ill and his doctors advised him to go to Italy for the warmer climate. Elizabeth and their eldest daughter went with him, but William died of tuberculosis on 27th December 1803.
While staying with the Italian family[William's Italian business partners] Elizabeth was introduced to the actual practice of Roman Catholicism.

After her return to America she converted to Catholicism.  Elizabeth supported herself and her children by starting an academy for ladies but when news of her conversion to Rome spread, however, most of the parents withdrew their children due to the anti-Catholic sentiment of the day.  Around this time Elizabeth met a visiting priest the Abbe Louis Dubourg, S.S., who was a member of the French emigre community of Sulpician Fathers.
In 1809 after trying and difficult years Elizabeth established in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the St Joseph's Academy and Free school, a school dedicated to the education of Catholic girls.  In July that year Elizabeth established a religious community in Emmitsburg, dedicated to the care of the children of the poor.  It was the first congregation of Religious Sisters to be founded in the United States, and its school was the first free Catholic school in America.

From that point on Elizabeth was known as "Mother Seton".  The rest of her life was spent leading her new congregation.  She advised her sisters "To do the will of God, to do it in the manner He wills it, and to do it because it is His will.
Elizabeth had a heart full of love for the poor, the Eucharist, Mary our Mother and her community.  She died of tuberculosis on January 4th 1821 at the age of 46.  Her remains are entombed in the Basilica that bears her name:  the Basilica of the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Seton.

Elizabeth was beatified by Pope John XX111 on 17th March 1963 and she was canonized by Pope Paul V1 on 14th September 1975.