baby steps & Padre Pio

Since my new found commitment last week of working on my apostolate everyday, it seems that things have been slow going. But - I see so much improvement. There were several days that serious family matters came first. I know that as a mother and grandmother, that is my first apostolate and that I am fulfilling God's will for me. It's hard though, because I want to see this work further. God is so good to me. I had an awesome mini-retreat with my friend's son who is preparing for Confirmation in which I am acting as his sponsor. It happened on 9/27 and one of the sponsors brought up Padre Pio as one of his influences. The next day as I was reading some of my old prayer materials, I happened to look in the front of the Padre Pio prayer booklet and saw that 9/27/1899 was HIS Confirmation date. I took that as a sign and am ordering these booklets for all of the people preparing for Confirmation and their sponsors. I know Padre Pio prompted that. If anyone would like to order this little booklet in Padre (Saint) Pio's own words, it can be obtained from this apostolate:
Vincent Falco
4514 Sheridan Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33140
305-673-8403
* You can get 30 for $10. shipping and handling donation

I would also love to promote several of my favorite resources. These are materials that I use and love so much that I distribute often.

One Bread One Body - daily mass scripture readings and commentary in everyday terms. This is such a powerful ministry. Fr. Al Lauer died some years back, but he started this from a small, poor parish in Cincinnati and it has grown to international distribution as well as many other outreaches. I love it because reading the bible can be confusing. This little one page per day booklet makes it so understandable, and it's so awesome that every Catholic mass in the world is hearing the same scripture for that day - how powerful! Check out http://www.presentationministries.com/

Mary's Call - I order these little cards that can be used as bookmarks or put in your wallet. It has the prayer of St. Gertrude the Great which was told to her that 1,000 souls would be released from purgatory every time it is said. Then those souls can pray for us! You can reach them at 660-388-5308 or http://www.maryscall.com/

I also distribute a small wallet sized examination of conscience leaflet. Of course, Jesus in the Eucharist at mass is the most beautiful prayer, but we can must utilize and spread the word of the importance of the sacrament of Penance. This is from Human Life Internation www.hli.org

All of these materials are at minimal cost and can reach so many people to receive God's love and give more hope to this hurting world.

So, these are baby steps but I still feel much more empowered to keep my apostolate active and am spreading God's mission for me anywhere and everywhere I can!

New Day

Today is a new day. Every day a new beginning full of God's love, gifts, and mercies. I was looking forward to going to mass yesterday on the feast of Padre Pio. I tried to offer up the sacrifice of not going to help out someone who needed me. So, with my beautiful grandsons, a three year old and one and a half year old twins here with me, my plans got interrupted. But, I know God is working here and just pray for my son and his wife to gain some healing and let Him in their lives more fully. As far as the progress of the apostolate and furthering the work, yesterday was actually fruitful. I was able to submit and receive receipt of promoting it through a grant opportunity from Matthew Kelly. I don't even care if I am accepted for the grant, as long as I am sharing the work and trying to further the power of the rosary to end abortion and transform lives to Christ. For today, I hug the babies and sit and play with the kids inbetween my online college coursework. I also received more information to forward the blog from Michelle. (http://www.godisatworkinyou.com/) I pray everyday and at every mass, trying to remember the intentions for the end of abortion, abuse and addictions. Of course there are many others, release of all souls from purgatory through the intercession of St. Faustina, conversion of sinners, for the pope and the Church, for healings, comfort in suffering, for family, friends and neighbors and all who need prayer. Our Catholic faith is more beautiful and powerful to me every day. Thank you Lord for all of the blessings in my life!

This is my second day of this blog. It's all new to me and I only gave my address to one person so far. Guess I'm just not ready yet, or comfortable enough yet to share it more. But I will get there and hopefully someone reading this later will be inspired to start one. We all have a dream that we want to materialize in our lives someday and hope somehow it will come true. Most of the time, we are sure it could never come true so we don't fight for it. This blog is a step in my process to make my dream come true of working full time on my apostolate. I need to provide income for me and my family and feel called that if I pursue this work, that I can find a mentor or some guidance to start a nonprofit organization which will help me to gain funding. I have worked on these endeavors at a slow pace for several years and have seen it be fruitful. I just want more and more people to implement and share my ideas to make positive change in their lives and the world. We are God's children and He loves us so much! I believe that most people even though they may believe this, they don't go about their days really living in that truth. He can heal us just by our closeness to Him. It is the bond that has been broken in so many lives and despair is the result.
My first tasks in this new found life into the apostolate is to just keep working on it everyday - even without all the roads marked ahead or the financial means to do it. I know God will provide. Yesterday was the beginning of a new road for St. Gerard Majella Prolife/Prayer Project. It was the day I determined to spend some time every day through the week just promoting it and strengthening my prayer life. I went to mass yesterday and am heading to confession and mass this afternoon. I need that so much to keep this dream alive.
I also was able to get a lot accomplished yesterday. I found "God is at work in you" and was encourage by Michele to watch it grow. I stumbled across the blog and got started! That was big. I stopped by the Matthew Kelly Foundation in Cincinnati to pick up free copies of Rediscovering Catholicism to share with others and put more on order. I had been wanting to do that for weeks after reading the book and finally got it done. I shared my apostolate mission statement with Matthew's representative Shane and offered to provide some materials to them. A couple of pieces of material that I share all the time and are included in my rosary packet project are the bookmark from Mary's Call about the St. Gertrude prayer to release souls from purgatory (1,000 each time it is said - how powerful) and the wallet sized examination of conscience card. I think we don't take advantage of the sacrament of reconcilliation as much as we could. It is such a healing sacrament and it leads us to a more sincere reception of Jesus in the Eucharist - our food!
Keep reading to hear about my rocking chair project for moms and more!

Save babies - Save souls

I have an apostolate called St. Gerard Majella Prolife Prayer Project. It has many components, but it starts with prayer. I have found the rosary to be such a powerful prayer tool and want to share it's benefits with others. It has a calming psyiological affect because of the rhytmn and because you are meditating on the mysteries of Jesus' life and praying for specific virtues on each decade, the prayer is focued. This focus allows God to put different people in mind for intentions based on what they might be going through, or show me a reflection of Jesus' life I did not have before. The beauty and power of these mysteries is infinite. Here is just one example, when I am praying the sorrowful mysteries and get to the third decade of the crowning of thorns (virtue focus is courage), I might think of Jesus' head with the crown of thorns and pray for all those suffering from mental anquish, depression, brain cancer, eye problems, etc) These prayers bring me so much peace and take my mind off of my own problems, giving God the control to work miracles in people's lives and give them strength to carry their own crosses as well as me carry my own. People of all ages need something to hold on to during difficult and joyous times in their lives and I want to give them the rosary. My original work included providing rosary packets to parishes that included the prayer sheet I made up regarding how to pray the rosary (some people do not remember exactly how to do it or noncatholics can learn) - it included the virtue prayed for during each decade which really helps to focus. I always feel that even if God's will is not the specific thing we are asking for, it is definitely His will to help me grow in these virtues. IT IS VERY EMPOWERING! My goal is for the priests to announce this distribution but more importantly, to share with the parishoners of all ages, about the power and benefits of the rosary in reaching personal potential to feel God's love fully and sharing this with the world. This will strengthen the parish over time and I feel, could save a life. There might be a young person contemplating suicide sitting in the pew and this could be just the small piece of hope they need to hear. It could benefit the sick or lonely - any trial is lightened with prayer and hope, especially knowing that you have a faith family that really believes in God's power!
The next step in this project is for the parish to enlist the patron saint of the parish for intercession and introduce or reintroduce the parishoners to the saint, their gifts and mission. The church's are not named after a particular saint for no reason. That saint can come alive and produce those same virtuous results in their parish today. Book/discusssion groups about the saint is a great way to involve people in the parish life, especially teens. I like to put a quote from that saint in the bulletin every week just to perk the interest in them. Blessed medals of the saint can be distributed, novenas started, and celebrations of their feast days honored.
This is just the first couple of steps in my apostolate - I will write more each day. You will see, the prolife aspects unfold as well as personal sanctity strived for. We can change our world - give people hope - love and respect everyone from conception until natural death - and defeat the evil forces in our world with hope and trust in God.