When the end of the year comes around, there’s this desire to reflect on our lives. We think about our successes, our failures, and ways that we can improve in the new year. Each year seems to go by faster. Summer seems like it was just a month ago instead of almost half a year ago. In this holiday rush, I want these reflections to be a time for you and me to reflect. The Heart of Mary Women’s... Read more
From Heart of Mary Women’s Fellowship: If you ever find yourself at a time when the attitude of gratitude is just not coming to you, come back to these reflections. There is always a time to find gratitude, even after we acknowledge all the negative emotions that come into our lives. As strange as that sounds, we can even be happy during the times we also feel sad or angry or lonely. The happiness I’m talking about isn’t the excited,... Read more
From Heart of Mary Women’s Fellowship Whether you’re struggling with a temptation, an addiction, hoping to lose weight or get fit, all of these things are rooted in a sense of self-worth. We can’t fight for others if we don’t value ourselves. I’m not just talking about appreciating the way we look on the outside, but learning how to define yourself. The greatest battle we’ll ever have to fight is the fight over our soul. Once we know how to define... Read more
From Heart of Mary Women’s Fellowship: Think of somebody that you’ve lost, either through their death or because time drifted you apart. No matter how far apart we are from the ones that we love, we can be thankful the time that we had with them. Read the rest here! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Say a prayer for your dearly departed and the souls in Purgatory today! Read more
From Heart of Mary Women’s Fellowship: Forgiveness isn’t an easy thing. Some people think that forgiveness is a sign of weakness, as if saying that the bad things people do to us are okay. Others think “forgive and forget,” acting as if the bad things never happened. Neither of these perspectives are what forgiveness is really about. How can we love our enemies? Find out here! Read more
From Sirach 6:14-17 Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter: whoever finds one has found a treasure.Faithful friends are beyond price; no amount can balance their worth.Faithful friends are life-saving medicine; and those who fear the Lord will find them.Those who fear the Lord direct their friendship aright, for as they are, so are their neighbors also. Read today’s reflection here! Read more
From Heart of Mary Women’s Fellowship I love volunteering for Vacation Bible School at my local church. Two of the themes from Vacation Bible School centered on God’s providence. One theme was “Wilderness Escape” in which I taught the kids about the adventures of Moses and the Israelites in the desert. Through teaching the kids about God providing for the Israelites, I reminded myself that God will also provide for my needs. Every day in the week-long Bible School had... Read more
From Heart of Mary Women’s Fellowship This is not gonna be an easy reflection, sisters in Christ. Gratitude is something that can be found in happy times, in the lessons that we learn from the trials we face, through other people and the things we do for others. The hardest place to find gratitude, however, is when we find ourselves inside a dark pit of lies that tells us that God isn’t with us at all, that he doesn’t exist,... Read more
From Heart of Mary Women’s Fellowship Today’s passages reflect on being thankful for the trials and temptations we endure. The concept of being grateful for the bad things that happen to us and the struggles we deal with is a bizarre concept, I know. God doesn’t tempt us. He doesn’t will our pain or the pain others inflict upon us. Instead, he allows these things to happen to those he loves the most. Jesus, after all, was tempted in the... Read more
From Heart of Mary Women’s Fellowship: When life puts us through storms, we often react the way the disciples did in today’s passage: we panic, feeling like this storm is bigger than us. Worse still, we may think that God may not be with us. Fear not, my dearest sisters in Christ, because when we find ourselves in the middle of a storm (literally or metaphorically), God is with us to help us through it and out of it. Read... Read more
Monique Ocampo Writes
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