ChristianTales.com
  • Home
  • Spiritual Blog
  • Contact Me
  • The Ghost Driver
  • A Scandalous Education

Spiritual Lollipops

12/17/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
I was feeling very let down by Our Lady a few weeks ago.

I’d asked her for help with my difficult horse (pictured below left) at a show where I was competing on the Feast of the Assumption. That morning I had gone to Mass to celebrate the Holy Day of Obligation. That should cinch it, I thought.

But my horse behaved worse than he’s done in a long time and I came home crushed.

And Another Thing….

Three years ago I drove to fetch my son from his school, to attend evening Mass together on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Instead of making it to his school, my alternator failed and I got stuck at a red light. Our Lady really had it in for me: I was trying to do the right thing and see where it got me!

Then this week, here I was yet again - trying to do the right thing. Instead of a peaceful resolution,  one more piece of bad news arrived.

What Does Our Lady Want From Me?

O.K. I thought: I can either wallow in the belief that Our Lady ‘has it in for me’ or take another approach. So I asked her for a sign that she doesn’t disapprove of me or what I’m doing.

I arrived early at Mass on Friday, and opened the ‘Pieta Prayer Book’  a good friend had given me, and which I carry in my purse. It contains many wonderful prayers. (Including The St Bridget Prayer I mentioned in my last post.)

The blue booklet fell open at a 54 day Rosary novena to Our Lady: 27 days of reciting the Rosary in petition, followed by 27 days in thanksgiving.

Since I can’t go to Communion, I began to recite the Rosary while the others went up to receive; then I stayed behind after Mass to finish it. After that I sat in my pew, and wrote down 54 novena days on the blank pages for notes at the back of ‘The Mass Journal’ by Matthew Kelly.  Father had given it to me for writing down what I learn at each Mass I attend and I highly recommend it.

Our Lady Responds

I must admit to feeling that no one cared, but kept my unhappiness to myself and completed the Rosary. I duly ticked off 'Day 1' in my book.

‘I’m going to stick to this!’ I promised. ‘Our Lady, I trust you to give me a sign that you are interceding for me, and that my petition will be granted.’

As I was leaving the church, Father called out to me. He’d just finished hearing confession (another Sacrament closed to me) and held out something in his hand. It was a CD by Matthew Kelly on ‘The Best Way to Live.’ 
 
It was a sign! Our Lady was already starting to let me know of her presence. I beamed at Father as I took the CD, asked for a prayer on my behalf, and thanked him.

Spiritual Lollipops

Listening to Matthew Kelly’s inspiring words in my vehicle, I remembered the what a fellow Catholic told me - she’d already been through the scary annulment process. (Link to previous post.) A priest once told her that sometimes we are given ‘spiritual lollipops’ along our difficult journey, to lighten the load and help us keep faith.

The CD from Father was a spiritual lollipop from Our Lady.

Later that day, I went to a large store to buy some packing materials. A lady in a wheelchair looked at me. Before I could smile and brighten her day (so I’d planned) she smiled first and said, “You look pretty!”

Another lollipop :)

Look for these spiritual bon-bons in your own life, and you'll discover them all the time. God is always supporting us with His grace and talking to us - we just need to be on the watch for the different ways He chooses to speak.

NOTE: This post was written during the year when I was waiting for my husband's annulment of his previous marriage.

He is not Catholic, and was the only one in his Baptist family who understood the importance of our being properly married in the Catholic Church after I returned to the faith.

Those were bleak times!

Do you have a story to share about the misery of not being able to receive the Sacraments and not knowing whether you ever will?

Related Articles:

- Graces & Blessings and How to Recognize Them
- From Seeming Futility to Utility
- Blossoming Prayers
0 Comments
    Tweet

    Hilary Walker

    A fanatic horse rider and writer of Christian Inspirational Fiction, who's beginning to understand that making it to Heaven is a tad more important than winning at horse shows.

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2021
    December 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    August 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011

    Categories

    All
    Absolute Relativism
    Acknowledging Christ
    Acts Of Heroism
    Agony In The Garden
    A Happy Christmas
    Air Travel
    Alternative To Cow's Milk
    Anger
    Baby Jesus
    Baby Jesus
    Bad Horse Show
    Battling Relativism
    Battling Ulcerative Colitis
    Believing In The Invisible
    Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit
    Blessings
    Blind Faith
    Body And Blood Of Christ
    Body And Blood Of Jesus
    Body And Blood Of Jesus Christ
    Canonization
    Carrying The Cross
    Catholicism
    Chaplet Of Divine Mercy
    Chicago
    Chicago River
    Choosing Absolute Truth Over Absolute Relativism
    Choosing Christianity Over Relativism
    Christ
    Christ Crucified
    Christian Faith
    Christian Faith
    Christian Hero
    Christian Heroism
    Christianity
    Christianity And Tim Tebow
    Christian Response
    Christians
    Christmas
    Christmas Fall
    Christmas Stars
    Christmas Thanks
    Christmas Thanks
    Christ's Passion
    Confession
    Constellations
    Cross
    Cross Of Christ
    Crucifixion
    Daily Commute
    Daily Mass
    Dairy-free Product
    Definition Of Grace
    Despair
    Devil
    Disowning God
    Divine Mercy Sunday
    Dogs And Ulcerative Colitis
    Donkey Work
    Driving
    Easter
    Easter Monday
    Evangelizing
    Evil
    Extraordinary Graces
    Faith In The Unseen
    Falling Over
    Fasting
    Father Gerald Vann
    Father Jean C.J. D’Elbée
    Fear Of Flying
    Feast Of The Assumption
    Feeding Horses
    Feeling An Idiot
    Fighting For The Bride Of Christ
    Forgiveness Of Sins
    Funeral
    Gaudete
    Getting Children To Go To Mass
    Getting Young Adults To Go To Mass
    Give And You Shall Receive
    Giving Thanks
    Giving Thanks
    God
    God And Horses
    Golgotha
    Good Deeds
    Good Friday
    Good Habits
    Grace
    Green Chicago River
    Happiness
    Happy News For Easter
    Heaven
    Hematidrosis
    Holistic Approach To Ulcerative Colitis
    Holistic Bee Nutrition & Welness
    Holistic Healing
    Holy Communion
    Holy Spirit
    Home
    Hope
    Horses
    Horses And Heaven
    How To Get Your Child To Go To Mass
    Humility
    Hurt
    Husbands
    I Believe In Love
    Is Heaven Boring
    Jesus
    Joy
    Judas
    Judas' Betrayal Of Christ
    Judas The Weasel
    Keeping Faith Through Adversity
    Lent
    Lenten Mass
    Love
    Love Is An Act Of Will
    Loving Our Neighbor
    Mary Our Mother
    Mary The Mother Of God
    Mass
    Medjugorje
    Men
    Merciful Savior
    Mercy
    Merry Christmas
    Merry Christmas
    Miracles
    Mother's Day
    Mother Therese Of Jesus
    Nature Of Love Of God
    Nature Of Sin
    Novena
    Old Priests
    Our Lady
    Overcoming Doubts In God
    Overcoming Sin
    Parish Priest
    Patience
    Peace On Earth
    Peter
    Pope Francis
    Power Of Prayer
    Prayer
    Praying For Enemies
    Praying For Suicides
    Praying For Those Who
    Priests
    Reconciliation
    Redemption
    Rejecting Evil
    Rejection Of Christ
    Relativism
    Relic
    Relocating
    Repentance
    Resentment
    Rosary
    Sacrament Of Absolution
    Sacrament Of Confession
    Sacrament Of Reconciliation
    Satan
    Seven Daily Habits For Faithful Catholics.
    Sign Of The Cross
    Sins
    Son Of Man
    Spirituality Of Small Jobs
    Spiritual Lollipops
    Spiritual Oasis
    State Of Grace
    St Bridget's Prayers
    St Bridget's Promises
    St Faustina
    St. Jude
    Stroke
    Struggling Christians
    Suffering
    Sweating Blood
    The Agony In The Garden
    The Chaplet Of Mercy
    The Divine Mercy Chaplet
    The Gospel
    The Greatest Sin
    The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge
    The Power Of Setting The Example
    The Real Presence
    The Road To Destruction
    The Road To Perdition
    The Road To Ruin
    The True Presence
    Tim Tebow
    Tony Dungy
    Transubstantiation
    Treadmill
    Trust In Jesus
    Ttruth Not Relativism
    Ulcerative Colitis
    Voting Against Evil
    Weekday Mass
    Widow
    Young Adults And The Catholic Church

    RSS Feed