Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour

Today was the beautiful feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. I have a very ‘old’ love for this image. It is probably the most familiar image of Our Lady to me as I was growing up (besides the Immaculate Heart of Mary.)

When we were living in the country Victorian town of Benalla, St Joseph’s had a weekly holy hour in honor of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and my childlike love grew from those weekly devotions. Many of the beautiful hymns to Our Lady I learnt there, “I’ll Sing a Hymn to Mary” “Mother of Christ” and the sorrowfully beautiful, “Mother of Perpetual Succour.” When you learn them in childhood, you never forget the tunes, you often can sing many verses from heart even if you haven’t heard them in many years...

There was always petition time during the hour where the petitions were read from the pulpit and I have to confess that my petitions featured strongly. As I made quick visits during the week (my school was next door to the church) it meant that I would usually not leave, until I had placed a petition.

When I was expecting my oldest, I would pray and beg my mother’s heavenly intercession in front of this image. Asking for answers to all my needs and fears as an approaching new mother and she did not let me down! A little miracle was granted, is all I can say, the day my boy was born.

My darling little 2year boy, fractured his arm yesterday afternoon and you would rather suffer their agonies for them...I know you will all understand what I mean there. Today we were just grateful for the things that could have happened but didn’t and I had been anticipating this beautiful feast, hoping to do something special. So I decided to buy a beautiful caramel mud cake. The exact colour of the distinctive background of this ancient picture. The children were so excited!



This beautiful picture hangs in our bedroom and draped around it always, is my Mexican rebozo. (Brought it as a birthing aid, but yet to use it..) Rebozos are used by mothers to wrap their young in and of course it makes me think of the most beautiful motherly words in the world, “Are you not in the folding of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms?”

I wanted to finish with the words to the beautiful hymn I had mentioned, I have also put a recording of the first verse so you can hear the tune. It is a lovely hymn to learn! It would also make beautiful copywork for the feastday.

Mary, from Thy sacred image,
With those eyes so sadly sweet,
Mother of Perpetual Succour!
See us kneeling at Thy feet.
In Thine arms Thy Child Thou bearest
Source of all Thy joy and woe;
What Thy bliss, how deep Thy sorrows,
Mother, Thou alone canst know.

On Thy face He is not gazing,
Nor on us is turned His glance
For His anxious look He fixes
On the Cross, the Reed, and Lance.
To Thy hand His hands are clinging
As a child would cling in fear
Of that vision of the torments
Of His Passion drawing near.

And for Him Thine eyes are pleading
While to us they look and cry;
Sinners spare my Child! your Saviour,
seek not still to crucify
Yes, we hear Thy words, sweet Mother
But, poor sinners we are weak;
At Thy feet Thy helpless children,
Thy Perpetual Succour seek.

Succour us when clouds of sadness
Hide the light of heaven above
Hope expires and faith scarce lingers,
And we dare not think we love.
In that hour of gloom and peril
Show to us Thy radiant face,
Smiling down from Thy loved image
Rays of cheering light and grace.

Succour us when stormy passions
Sudden rise within the heart;
Quell the tempest, calm the billows,
Peace secure to us impart.
Through this life of weary exile,
Succour us in every need;
And when death shall come to free us,
Succour us, ah! then indeed.

I had to add this darling little picture, these two can down the hallway just before dressed with whatever they could find....Jesus, Mary and Joseph I place all my trust in you!

Feast of St John the Baptist and Guido's Hand

Today is the feast day of St John the Baptist, a great saint of the Church. We are celebrating his birthday on the 24th of June.

He has another feast day in the Church Calendar, on the 29th of August we remember his death, his beheading. Both his birth and death are mentioned in the New Testament. The readings and psalms of today’s Mass (Is 49:1-6; Acts 13:22-26; Lk 1:57-66, 80) are beautiful. We are all reminded that we are formed in secret in our mother’s womb:

“Already You knew my soul,
my body held no secret from You
when I was being fashioned in secret
and moulded in the depths of the earth.”

Of course we are first aquainted with St John in his mother’s womb, when he jumped with joy. Newadvent.org reminds us of this beautiful fact:

"And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant" -- filled, like the mother, with the Holy Ghost -- "leaped for joy in her womb", as if to acknowledge the presence of his Lord. Then was accomplished the prophetic utterance of the angel that the child should "be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb". Now as the presence of any sin whatever is incompatible with the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the soul, it follows that at this moment John was cleansed from the stain of original sin.”



This also impresses upon us that Mary, the mother of God had to be conceived without sin, when we witness in scripture the removal of the stain of original sin from John the Baptist, six months after his conception.

I was reading my copy of Cooking for Christ, a lovely liturgical cookbook that Jenn had personally tracked down for me last year. It is as wonderful book as Jenn tells us! On the pages dedicated to St John the Baptist’s feast it mentions this interesting custom:

“Singing groups in the northern countries would go from door to door much like Christmas carollers only on this day they sang:

“Ut queant laxis resonare fibris (Do-re)
Mira gestorum famuli tuorum (Mi-fa)
Solve poluti labei reatum (Sol-la)
Sancte Johannes.” (Si)

“As thy sevants sing with full voice the marvels of thy works, do thou purify their sinful lips Saint John.” And as the hymn mounted the scale from Do to Si, the housewife of Latvia would rush rush to the door with her hands full of bread and cheese while her husband stood in the background holding a mug of beer with which to lure in the singers.”

I belong to a Gregorian Chant choir, Schola Cantorum. Our choir master often runs a couple of workshops each year and this is the first point discussed, which is always such a great fascination to the participants, not realizing that this wonderful saint’s hymn has given us the basis of the Sol-fa and the foundation for modern Western music!



When I first joined choir, I had no musical theory background at all BUT I had watched Sound of Music many, many times in my childhood. And so for most people, that is how they make any connection to the Sol-fa. I am so thankful for that movie, it gave me my own ‘base’ in which to build an understanding of the chant notation as I was learning it.



Information on Guido's Hand

So how did Saint John’s hymn give us famous medieval teaching aid, the Sol-far?

Well, I will quote directly from my choir master’s workshop sheet:

“It was all thanks to a famous teacher of music, Guido d’Aezzo who lived in the eleventh century. He worked at the Benedictine monastery of Pomposa, Italy. One of his teaching aids for beginners was the hymn in honour of St John the Baptist, Ut queant laxis. Guido had noticed that each of the first six phrases of this tune begins on a new note of the rising major scale, so you hear in sequence – and remember – the sounds DOH – RAY – ME – FAH – SOH – LAH. The ‘DOH’ used to be called ‘UT’ and this is the clue to the Latin syllables used for the not names; they came originally from the beginning of each line of the first verse of St John’s hymn:

So that we may freely sing
Thy marvellous deeds,
Cleanse thy servants’ lips
From all stains of guilt
O blessed John.”

Cooking for Christ book had also given the translation, slightly different use of words, but same meaning.

Listen here - Ut queant laxis.

So when you think of music as we know it, think of St John the Baptist!

Prayers of the Little Children....

We woke up to something wonderful today. I clicked on the online news as I do every morning to read the headline news, “Child Rescued from Porn Network” (I don't wish to link to the article as some of the reading of what they discovered is very disturbing.) The article went on to say that 31 children were rescued from a global paedophile ring involving 700 people. Hundreds have been charged including four Australians. The investigation had spanned 35 countries over 10 months. One of the children released was an Australian. These poor children ranged from babies to early teens. (Horrifying – babies?!?) That they had been rescued from the biggest ever online child abuse sting that had its centre based in Britain.

Nine days ago I had read a prayer thread on Madeline who was stolen away from a Portuguese resort in early May. What had disturbed me further was the very real possibility that she could have been stolen by a paedophile ring. It is every parent’s worst nightmare, no doubts about it.

I felt such sorrow over the fate of so many children in these satanic inspired rings. You are left feeling very helpless in the face of such feelings of distress and horror, you wonder if there is anything tangible that you can do to help... Of course we do have the most powerful and effective ‘weapon’ of all – prayer. Children’s prayers in particular, so innocent.

Very quickly I set to writing a new prayer intention to pin to our Miraculous Medal Prayer Petition Mobile “Praying for the collapse of all paedophile rings throughout the world and for the souls of their victims and for the salvation of the souls of the evil perpetrators” (That last prayer intention is very hard for me to write. There is a part of me that really does not want to write it, I don't really want to pray for those who could inflict such horrors upon innocents in such a calculated way but I know with my will it is what God wants – to pray also for forgiveness and redemption for all.)

I had explained to my children our new and very special intention we were adding to the Mobile and the importance of praying earnestly for it. So when I woke today and saw this wonderful news, nine days after our initial decision to pray (sort of like a novena, the passing of these nine days, and therein it a little sign..) I felt that Our Lady was sending us a powerful grace and message. Not that our children had been responsible for its collapse (but that the prayers would have played a very small part in it) but that it was VERY PLEASING in the eyes of God and His Blessed Mother. A great encouragement to continue this important little ‘apostolate’.

And I know the children have been praying...Last night I was lying in bed feeling particularly green. My husband was putting the children to bed and he was in the girl’s bedroom tucking in our 7 and 10 year old girls. He must have been slightly exasperated with our 10year old as I heard dh say, “Have you said ANY prayers today??” I heard my daughter’s very quick reply, “I have said many, O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!!”

I smiled and was comforted. I had not been as diligent in the past few days due to being in a fog of great tiredness and being fairly ‘green’ in the stomach, more to do with recovering from a virus than anything. But I was reassured to know that my children were lifting those intentions mightily when I was only saying a few a day at this present moment.

So when I read today’s great news I thought of her response last night. That daughter was the first child I told the news to. “See the fruit of your prayers, (and many others throughout the world) they are not in vain!!”

It is good for the children to know that they can topple great evils with their simple and small prayers offered to their Heavenly Father through the loving hands of their Blessed Mother.

We continue to pray for the uncovering and collapse of more rings around the world and for the safe return of dear Madeline McCann.

The Feast of the Sacred Heart

Our beautiful picture that hangs above our dining table.

Today is the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Two years ago at this moment, as I type, I was driving into the middle of our city to pick up my great grandfather’s enormous Sacred Heart picture (about 4 ft by 3 ft) from a restoration business. I had talked about this picture and also another treasured Sacred Heart image in these two posts, here & here. The children and I were very joyful, singing hymns and reciting little ejaculations to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, our picture was coming home to us on the feast itself....

Almost 3 years ago we put this beautiful framed Sacred Heart picture into a shop to have it restored. It is almost 100 years old and the back of the frame was not completely sealed anymore, with a gaping hole in the brown paper that had been used so long ago for its back. It had hung on a thin, twisted bit of wire all those years, it is amazing it had not just gone, “Sprong!!” one day and fallen off the wall. The Sacred Heart image itself was buckling and the frame needed to have mold markings removed. It was fortunate that we had put it in when we did. We were told that the paper was extremely delicate and it would not have been long before it would have disintegrated completely upon removal.

We were given a quote for restoration of the picture which needed to be ‘bonded’ to special rice paper due to the fragility of the image. This was to be a very slow, laborious task that was very expensive. It needed slight touch ups here and there. The frame needed special cleaning and a small inner board needed to be placed between the glass and image to stop the image from touching the glass again. It then needed conservation framing, with a new wiring system at the back, distributing the weight of this big picture so that it would not put the frame under undue pressure over the next 100 years or so. It was expensive but as a treasured family heirloom it was worth it, giving it a new lease of life that would last much, much longer than it had so far.

I had been told it should be ready within 3 months. I rang in 3 months time to be told that there had been delays and that another 6 weeks were needed....I rang 6 weeks on, to be told the same thing again....and on it went. The last time I rang, I just said, “You ring me when it is finished...” He didn’t sound very hopeful that it would be anytime soon....I just couldn’t believe it all!

But it wasn’t long after that final call that he rang me – 4pm in the afternoon on a Friday – it was on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I can’t begin to express the profound shock, excitement and joy I felt and that quickly ran through the children like a buzz of electricity. Jesus had chosen to return to us on His feast!

I said, “What time do you close?” “5pm is our closing time” was the reply. I think he was thinking I would come in early the next week to pick it up. “Please, please, I would like to collect it today, I will be there just on 5pm, I promise! Don’t close without me arriving, I’ll do my best to get there on time!” I begged. That was fine. Now I’ve got to do it. "The traffic, at this time of night?!?" I’m shaking my head... It is a good half hour drive from where we live but with evening traffic that can easily double.

“Quick kids, get dressed, put on shoes!! Take the hairbrush to the car, quickly change the baby’s nappy! Get to the door, jump in the car!!! “ I yelled. “Yahoo, let’s go!” they shouted in reply. Off to the nearest ATM machine, drawing out the final payment, finally we were off!
We arrived right on 5pm, what a whirlwind of an hour! And there it was, all done, all finished, looking beautiful. I will never forget that day as long as I live. I was so deeply affected by the day this precious picture was returning to us for good.

A little tired today, virus earlier in the week, fortnightly shopping yesterday, doctor’s visit, herbalist visit, choir practice last night after missing 3 previous practices...We will renew our family consecration to the Sacred Heart and go to Mass tonight for the feast and sit down to a beautiful vegetarian quiche and pavlova all provided for by the Cheesecake shop at half the price. So much I would have liked to have done, crafts...that would have been nice but just not this year.

But I had a talk to my little 4 year old as we drove to the herbalist together and we talked about the Heart of Jesus. “What does it look like?” I asked. “Well, it has flames....a crown of thorns....a cross.” And we chatted about what all that meant. We talked about the Immaculate Heart of Mary, he knew all the symbols. They take in more than you realize.... We talked about little prayers we could say for the feast, just little ones, simple ones.

“What can you pray, for someone dear to you on this day?” I asked the little fellow. He didn’t say anything, he just hummed a tune, a tune we sing every day in our morning prayers. The words to it go like this, “Heart of Jesus I adore you, Heart of Mary I implore you, Heart of Joseph pure and just. In these three I place my trust.” (Click on the words to hear it but I'm afraid you won't detect my aussie accent when I sing!!!)

Darling little chap...it is so nice to be writing this down, they are precious moments that you don't ever want to forget.


Just editing...I didn't really look at the pav I bought, but as I brought it out to serve for sweets, I noticed it was covered in heart shaped strawberries - Yahoo!

The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Over at The Castle of the Immaculate, Helen has suggested a week of posts dedicated to the Immaculate Heart. I had wanted to come back an post a picture of the matching Immaculate Heart to my great grandfather’s unique Sacred Heart and so it is a perfect opportunity to do the two together..

The trouble is I’ve got a virus at present with wicked headaches and I can’t think too straight to write much but I found a beautiful article on the Immaculate Heart of Mary over at Theotokos which I was so thoroughly enjoyed, I thought I would post the article here for you to enjoy as well.




But I do have a few things to say...When I was designing the Immaculate Heart to match the Sacred Heart, it was easy to draw the heart symbolizing the Immaculate Heart of Mary but the scroll required a bit more thought. I needed to write a similar phrase to the Sacred Heart’s “The Heart that is never strange or cold...The Love that is ever new and old” After praying for help I came up with this phrase that describes Mary’s Heart: “How tender Thy love for the human race...Thy Motherly Heart in the fullness of grace.” The scroll was surrounded by Myosotis (blue forget-me-nots) or “Our Lady’s Eyes”

When I look at the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I hear the echo of her motherly words to Juan Diego, “I am your merciful mother, the mother of all of you...of all mankind, of all those who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who seek me, of those who have confidence in me...I will hear their weeping, their sorrow, and will remedy and alleviate their suffering, necessities and misfortunes.”

Then this beautiful discourse continues again to us when Our Mother says, “Listen and be sure...that I will protect you; do not be frightened or grieve, or let your heart be dismayed, however great the illness may be that you speak of. Am I not hear? I, who am your Mother, and is not my help a refuge? Am I not of your kind? ...Is there anything else that you need?”

My heart is deeply affected by these words, I cannot help but to cry every time I read them...I have a piece of my own father’s heart, he cried at beautiful things. But tell me, is there anything more beautiful than those words? When I look at the Immaculate Heart of Mary I see a refuge to ALL things, without fail - to all life’s needs, in good and bad and in the times of joy and in times of sorrow and trial. I pray that Mary gives me a piece of her heart when I open my eyes each day and look upon the blessings entrusted to my care.

Here is the article over at Theotokos:

The link between devotion to Mary's Immaculate Heart and the Sacred Heart of Jesus is shown in the following passage:

"...a short time after Pascal had carried out the first experiments in modern physics and Descartes had perfected the mathematical instruments which would make possible the development of the sciences, Jesus appeared to an obscure nun and, showing her his heart, said to her: 'This is the heart that has so loved men.'

"Then, as men did not listen to the message of Paray-le-Monial and the corruption of the world continued, the Virgin Mary appeared to the children at Fatima; she showed them her heart and said: 'The Lord wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world. If what I say is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.'
"The remedy that God offers for the evils of the world is to show us his heart and that of his Mother. 'We have learned to recognize the love God has in our regard, to recognize it, and make it our belief,' said St John (I John 4.16).

"The Christian solution to the problem and desperate call of the world will always be to believe in love, to give ourselves up to it and so receive the will and the strength to serve others." (Fr Henri Marduel, "The Christian Pursuit," London, Burns & Oates, 1964, p. 22).
Historically, devotion to the Heart of Mary grew up in parallel, but at a lesser pitch than that of devotion to the Heart of Jesus, only starting to become more prominent during the time of St John Eudes. Even then it was not until after the Apparitions at Rue du Bac concerning the "Miraculous Medal" made to Catherine Labouré in 1830, and the establishment of a society dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, at the Church of Our Lady of Victories in Paris in 1836, that this particular devotion became really well known.

Since then devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, has gradually grown more widespread in the Church, particularly since the apparitions at Fatima.

The main difference between these two devotions is that the one concerned with Jesus emphasises his divine heart as being full of love for mankind, but with this love for the most part being ignored or rejected, while devotion to Mary's heart is essentially concerned with the love that her heart has for Jesus, for God.

It is not an end in itself, and really the love of her heart is meant to be a model for the way we should love God. So as in all things Marian, she leads us closer to God, rather than becoming an obstacle in our way. The fact that her heart is immaculate, that is sinless, means that she is the only fully human person who is able to really love God in the way that he should be loved.
Honouring Mary's Immaculate Heart is really just another way of honouring Mary as the person who was chosen to be the Mother of God, recognising her extraordinary holiness and the immense love she bestowed on Jesus as his mother, the person who was called to share in and co-operate in his redemptive sufferings.

The whole aim of this devotion is to unite mankind to God through Mary's heart, and this process involves the ideas of consecration and reparation. A person is consecrated to Mary's Immaculate Heart as a way of being completely devoted to God. This involves a total gift of self, something only ultimately possible with reference to God; but Mary is our intermediary in this process of consecration.

There have been some criticisms of the whole idea of "consecration" to Mary, with some arguing that it is improper to speak in such terms, since it obscures the essential consecration to God. This position, though, seems to go against the traditional approach as exemplified by St Louis de Montfort, one that has been essentially accepted and acted upon by Pius XII and John Paul II in the twentieth century.

If it was unacceptable to consecrate the world to Mary's Immaculate Heart then obviously the above popes would not have done so. To criticise the principle of Marian consecration is also to lose sight of the central reality of the various Marian apparitions, that they concern Mary rather than Jesus.

If Jesus had only wanted a consecration to his own Sacred Heart, then clearly he, rather than Mary, would have appeared repeatedly over the last several centuries. The fact that it is Mary who has appeared in so many places, and that the Church at its highest level has accepted this, indicates that Mary's role is central and that consecration to her is not illogical, providing it is clearly understood that "belonging to Mary is a privileged means of belonging to Christ."

In reality because of the strong analogy between Jesus and Mary, the consecration to Mary's Immaculate Heart is closely linked to the consecration to Jesus' Sacred Heart, although it is subordinate and dependent on it. That is, although the act of consecration is ultimately addressed to God, it is an act that is made through Mary.

This point is also illustrated by the strongly Christocentric nature of both the 1982 and 1984 acts of Consecration made by Pope John Paul II. Because Mary is so closely linked to Christ, and because she is mankind's spiritual mother, he felt fully justified in carrying out the act of consecration to her Immaculate Heart. The Pope referred to Jesus' words of self-consecration during the Last Supper, as found in St John's Gospel: "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."

Here the word sanctify has the meaning of "consecrate oneself to God," and Jesus' self-consecration to the Father is taken as the model for the way that we too should be consecrated to God. This is to be accomplished by a consecration to Mary, since she is wholly consecrated to her Son. By joining with her we join with Jesus, based on the way that she united herself with Jesus' sufferings on the cross in the most intimate manner possible.
Mary holds her position as intermediary in the process of consecration by reason of her dignity as Mother of God and her role as spiritual mother of all Christians. Because love and devotion shown to Mary are referred by her to God, it follows that acts of reparation for sin directed to her also apply to God, especially when we consider how closely united the hearts of Jesus and Mary were and are.

The theme of the need for reparation for sin, which is very prominent in the various Marian apparitions, has remained central to the preaching of Christianity from the time of the Apostles onwards: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt 3:2).

The idea of making reparation, both for our own sins and, because of a common membership of the mystical body of Christ, for those of others, is only an extension of this basic Gospel message, a message that continues to be valid. As St Paul said: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church ..." (Col 1:24).

Sources: John F. Murphy, "The Immaculate Heart," in Mariology, Vol. 3; The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. VII, s.v. "Heart of Mary;" Calkins, Totus Tuus.

Saints Pages/Files to share..from Mum to Mom

About a week ago I mentioned how we use the Liturgical Calendar Wheel with our children. We have tried incorporate the daily remembering of the saints with this colourful calendar. Last year I had designed saints pages for each month. Each page/file has at least one saint's image for each day, sometimes more and images for the moveable feasts as well. (with Stef designing January and February) So that they can be cut and glued to the liturgical wheel for a beautiful ‘mosaic’ of colour and saints! Our children really love the daily adding of a saint to the wheel.

I am trying to make these sheets easily accessible to others, who wish to use the saints pages for this particular wheel or other similarly designed one. Or for those who would like to use the little saint’s images for other liturgical arts and craft purposes.

So what I have done is uploaded June and July onto my website and linked it to my blog sidebar – when June is finished I will take June down and put up August and continue on in that manner. Always having the two month’s sheet available. When you click on the links you can open the document or you can save it – by saving it onto your computer you will eventually have the whole year’s worth of sheets to use year after year with your children.

For any Aussie mums wanting to order this wheel for next year contact Heather at St Paul's Bookshop in Brisbane.

One Man's Faith in the Sacred Heart

In my last posting I mentioned that something special had happened to my great grandfather and his treasured Sacred Heart image that you can see above, well here is the story:

A young married man about 27 years of age, who lived with his wife in Yarrawonga, made a visit to his local doctor, because he was very ill. He was medically examined and was told by his doctor he had TB on his lung and would or could only live about 6 months. This was in the early 1920’s and there was definitely no cure for this complaint, at this time. The young couple were very distressed by this report and they turned to God for help and direction.

The patient had a great devotion to the Sacred Heart. In his home he had a picture of the Sacred Heart that hung on the wall at the foot of his bed. The picture was of a heart encircled by a crown of thorns and flames, flames of burning love. One night while deep in prayer and gazing upon the picture an amazing transformation took place in the picture. The heart began to beat and the flame encircling the heart began to move and flicker. A voice invaded his consciousness and told him that although he would have much to suffer, he would live.

The patient then asked the doctor to give him a referral to a doctor who worked in Melbourne, whom they both knew. This doctor also confirmed the local doctor’s opinion that it was TB, but he decided to keep the patient in Melbourne to watch his condition and placed him on an open verandah of a hospital.

What was thought by two medical men to be TB (and in the 1920’s, there was no known cure) – on the specialist’s probing and examination of these 9 spots he had marked, he found dead Hydatids. The Hydatid was thought to be caused by the serum given to the patient for TB, or it was possibly caused through handling rabbits. Hydatid was a disease carried by rabbits. The specialist and his medical friend were very convinced it was the consistent trust and faith, that this young couple had in God’s help, that the specialist had been given help to find the answer he was looking for.

This young man was only 6 stone in weight and very black and weak. But after major surgery on the lung, ribs, etc. and with tender loving care, he lived to the age of 83 years. He spent many hours of praise and thanksgiving to his good Lord, for the help he was given in all those years, as well as raising a family of 9 children. The operation left him with a hole in his back that required bathing and dressing for many years. For all of his trials and afflictions he had a ready humour and any suffering or personal inconveniences were never seen in his countenance.

In 1932 he lost his dear wife in giving birth to their ninth child. (Aunty Mary) Hers was an unselfish love. She had been warned that in her state of health she would place her life in jeopardy by bearing another child. Acknowledging the risks, she went ahead and became pregnant. The last six months of her confinement she spent in bed. She died shortly after giving birth. Later in life he married again. He often joked to his grandchildren that he could breathe through the hole in his back while having his head in a bucket of water.

The trimmings at the end of his rosary were legendary. The trimmings provided for all the people he prayed for individually and the invocation of the saints to strengthen the faith of all his children and the children’s children. As a child when visiting grandpa and it was rosary time. We would all kneel down and listen to him dispensing the decades with a love and devotion that can only come from a person who has a deep and personal relationship with his God. The children were dispensed from the trimmings, as he well understood the attention span of the young.

(This was written by one of John Joseph Mullin’s grandchildren after hearing the full story from his second wife.)

John Joseph Mullins

The Month of the Sacred Heart

We have entered the month of June, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A beautiful season to honor Our Lord’s Heart. The Sacred Heart that was formed in the hidden depths of Mary’s pure womb. This Heart that would have physically beat in rhythm and unity with the Immaculate Heart that would have been like heavenly music to His ears. Her Immaculate Heart pumped the blood, with the needed nutrients, in the forming of this Sacred Heart. It is truly a profound thought to ponder on. The Creator allowing Himself to be knit from the smallest atom by His most chosen creature, His mother, that He created! It is a love of such intimacy that it would bring any mother who has carried precious life within, to tears.

As mothers we know that it is more than just supplying the sustaining nutrients via the placenta that we contribute in the formation of our children. We know that the emotional state and well being of the mother can affect the baby. I can look at the child of my most peaceful pregnancy and see a very calm and peaceful child. I have one of my precious children who is a little more highly strung than the others and it was a pregnancy where I was involved with on-going counseling outside the home of someone who was in deep distress, hearing a lot of pain and anguish on a daily basis...There is definitely more than the physical involved in the development of a child.

Then there is the spiritual aspect. We pray for our babies from the moment we know they are within. I like to particularly think that when we receive Jesus in Holy Communion that our child is also nourished in some spiritual way through this Divine communication. The importance of receiving pre-natal blessings, being blessed with relics, the use of sacramentals are all important to baby. At present I bless myself and baby with the Holy Oil of Loreto each morning.

So when we think of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we hear the ‘echo’ of Mary in His heartbeat.

I think these realities should also explain to us WHY Our Lady had to be created by God, "Immaculate" and without sin. Our Lady needed a Saviour, but Christ used the graces from the cross to save her in the most perfect manner possible. That is why we see Mary as the masterpiece of His creation AND of His redemption. When we honor Our Lady we are honoring God in a way that pleases Him greatly because Mary's glories are the beautiful manifestation of God's grace, never rejected. Therefore we should acknowledge, rejoice and praise God's own handiwork.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a tradition in my father’s family that goes back to my knowledge, to his grandfather – my great grandfather, John Joseph Mullins. When my nanna passed away, we were given the enormous Sacred Heart picture that my great grandfather had bought (which would have been very expensive in its day.) I hope to show this beautiful image on the feast of the Sacred Heart later this month.

But there was also another picture of the Sacred Heart that my great grandfather treasured. A smaller picture, that was always by his bedside for as long as anyone could remember. There is a special story that I hope to share later, in regard to this picture. I have no memory ever seeing this picture in the flesh, my great grandfather died when I was very young. My nanna’s youngest sister, Aunty Mary, is the only still living child, and she has this image. She sent me a black/white photocopy of it with a listing of the colours for everything on the image, many years ago. I re-drew this beautiful and rare image (I also did a few drawings for other relatives) and we have ours hanging in our lounge, above our altar, along side a matching Immaculate Heart I designed from the original Sacred Heart.

I have never seen a Sacred Heart like this image. My great aunt does not know the origins of this particular image either. Has anyone ever seen it? I have searched extensively on the internet in years gone by and never found it. There is a beautiful caption written in the scroll,

“The Heart that is never strange or cold,
The Lobe that is ever new and old.”

This is written in a very old, fancy font and when I questioned my great aunt Mary about ‘the Lobe’ she says it clearly looks like a ‘b’ but I have a feeling that ‘v’ can sometimes look like a ‘b’ in some scripts. A lobe is a word associated with the liver not the heart...I wonder if it really reads, “The Love that is ever new and old.” I have drawn mine exactly as the original and so I suppose it is up to private interpretation, and I say myself, "Love". Though I would love anyone’s thoughts on this, on how they think it should read, knowing more on scripts or this expression... These beautiful words echo St Augustine's famous cry, "Late have I love Thee, Oh Beauty, ever ancient and ever new."


My great grandfather had a special prayer that he recited everyday in front of this image,

Though I ask for a long, long time, still I ask of Thee,
Oh, Sacred Heart of Jesus once more to plead for me
To Thine Eternal Father, for a great favour.
I place it in the centre of Thy broken bleeding Heart,
When covered with the crimson cloak of Thy most
Precious Blood, They Eternal Father cannot refuse
To hear, ot my prayer, but Thine.
Jesus Christ my God and my Redeemer,
I trust in Thee, in Thy Heart – in spite of all –
And forever. Amen.

What I do remember is my dear nanna, lovingly reciting this prayer of her father’s. This dear great grandfather instilled a deep love and devotion in his children for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May it never be neglected in his generations to come, to the end of time. That would be a legacy to give him great joy.

2 Meme's - Combining the two

Paula and Christine both tagged me for different meme's so I've sort of combined the two - Paula I have written 8 things (meant to write 8 facts/habits about myself), just 4 of I have written and Christine I've written 4 new things done in the last 4 years. (As suggested.) I've tagged 8 girls and maybe if they would like to choose which of the two meme's they like best!

Four facts/habits..... (You have to laugh with me Paula - I'm actually coming back now to edit all this - these 4 of mine are unusual facts about me because I had it in my mind that they had to be unusual because I had been reading yours! - and some of them were a bit unusual in a funny way! My husband is impressed with your Mensa qualifications...)

1. I was born on the mighty Murray River (not in it! A hundred metres from it) The same hospital Tommy Woodcock died in - the famous strapper to Australia's treasure, the legendary 'Phar Lap'

2. My husband and I are portrait artists and we use to work together as a ‘team’ drawing and selling our work.

3.There is a famous Aussie expression, “living in the back of Bourke” and I really did for a year in my childhood on a remote property not far from Bourke, called, “Joseph’s Town” (Named in honor of St Joseph) how unusual is all of that?!?

4. I first met my husband when I was 10years old. (In the back of Bourke!!!!)

Four new things in the last four years......

5. I started blogging. (last week in fact)

6. My world was opened up to a new and beautiful horizon when Erin introduced me to 4Real.

7.We built our new deck.

8.I joined a Gregorian chant choir, Schola Cantorum and absolutely loving it.

Here are my 8 tagged girls:

Erin
Ruth
Matilda
Stef
Mary
Philothea
Dawnie
Joann