Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Out with the old and in with the new!

We are ushering out the "old" year and ringing in the new one tomorrow on the feast of our Blessed Mother.

Even adding one extra daily prayer to the Blessed Mother will help to transform your New Year.
What are your spiritual resolutions for the New Year? Have you taken a moment to think about it? Why not resolve to pray a Hail Mary every morning at the breakfast table after you pray your Grace Before meals, asking the Blessed Mother to guide your day?

As well, starting each day with the Morning Offering is essential. You will be offering all of your prayers, works, joys, and sufferings to Our Lord in advance of your day asking Him to transform all of it into prayers by uniting them to His passion and suffering. You can pray a simple prayer in your own words or use a formal version. Each one is pleasing to God.

For instance:

O Jesus,
through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer You my prayers, works,
joys and sufferings
of this day for all the intentions
of Your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
throughout the world,
in reparation for my sins,
for the intentions of all my relatives and friends,
and in particular
for the intentions of the Holy Father.

Amen.


Perhaps you might want to also pray to your Guardian Angel each morning and evening asking for protection and guidance throughout the day and protection through the night.
Angel of God, my guardian dear, To whom God's love commits me here, Ever this day, be at my side, To light and guard, Rule and guide. Amen.
These "prayer habits" require some effort to form, but once you have decided to carve out that essential time for prayer, and then do all you can to make it happen, you'll be off to a wonderful start--weaving prayer throughout your day--keeping that conversation going with your Creator.

And, exactly what is prayer? You might wonder. Yes, it's a "surge of the heart" as St. Therese has pointed out. Yet, it is also our decision to use our will which God has given us, to choose to pray. So, form those good prayer habits in the New Year. Choose to make prayer happen on a more regular basis.

Take a few moments today to ponder leaving the "old" year behind and bringing in the "new." Of course, you'll want to start by attending Mass on the holy day tomorrow (or the vigil Mass tonight).

What can you do in the New Year to please Our Lord. What will you do?

God bless you and yours!

Happy (almost!) New Year!

Friday, December 13, 2013

Catholic Mom's Cafe: What do Catholic Moms really want for Christmas?

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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Catholic Mom's Cafe: Keeping the season of Advent holy in our domestic ...

Catholic Mom's Cafe: Keeping the season of Advent holy in our domestic ...: It's that wonderful and holy time of year that our Church calls "Advent." We might be planning to observe this Advent in a ...

Saturday, September 14, 2013

A snippet of my audio version of "Embracing Motherhood."

Hello!

Book and Audio book
available at my website:
www.donnacooperoboyle.com


Did you know that you can listen to a part of my book, Embracing Motherhood? I narrated my book to produce an audio version and the publisher and Amazon has provided a portion of it here. It's a part of the Introduction. I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Motherhood-Donna-Marie-Cooper-Boyle/dp/B00CC7RXKE/ref=la_B001JS5YFS_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379169525&sr=1-14

Just click on the above link and then click on the "listen" button under the book cover image.

God bless you and yours!

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

View from the Domestic Church: My daughter's happy day!

View from the Domestic Church: My daughter's happy day!

My daughter got married!

It was a whirlwind of a week end. Here's a photo to start you off with and I will be writing a post very soon.

Celebrating my daughter's happiness on her wedding day!


God bless you and yours!

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Angels this fall!

I am excited to share this cover image (back and front) of my upcoming Angels For Kids book. learn more about it on my website: www.donnacooperoboyle.com


Click on image to see it larger

God bless!

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Our Lady's Protection: A Sacramental from our Church

Beth

This sweet young lady, named Beth wore a Miraculous Medal to Mass today. Her mother is reading my book, The Miraculous Medal: Stories, Prayers, and Devotions. Her grandmother sent me this precious photo.

Are you wearing a blessed Miraculous Medal? Our Blessed Mother Mary instructed Saint Catherine Laboure that those who wear the medal will receive great graces, especially if they wear it around the neck.

The prayer on the medal is: "O, Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."

Autographed copies of my book, The Miraculous Medal are available here: www.donnacooperoboyle.com  Each order is sent with a blessed Miraculous Medal.


May God bless you and yours and may Mother Mary keep you close to her Immaculate Heart!



[photo posted with permission from Beth's family]

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Catholic Mom's Cafe: Wonderful endorsement from Fr. Mitch Pacwa S. J.

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Monday, July 8, 2013

Please pray for baby Adele

Little Adele needs prayers please. She's the baby girl with brain cancer. She is running a fever and is in the hospital. She had a recent blood transfusion. Her Mom has said:


We had a lovely week at home with a happy Adele and lots of fun, family time (minus Daddy throwing his back out). I have a hard time with change and I really like schedules so it was difficult for me to come to the hospital today.
Adele started running a fever this afternoon and by around 6 pm it was up to 101.5 which is the magic "go to hospital now, do not pass go" ticket. Because she is neutropenic (no white cells, can't fight infection) if she spikes a fever she has to get antibiotics on board right away. Any little bug can be devastating to her.

So, Adele and I headed to our local hospital. Thankfully CMH had called ahead and they sent us straight to a room. Then it was hurry up and wait. Things finally picked up and she got lots of blood drawn to check for infection and she got a chest xray just to rule anything out.

The resident has been great so far, she has already popped in to let me know her platelets and hemoglobin are low. She will be getting some red blood cells soon. We are still waiting to hear where her white count is sitting.

Adele is getting antibiotics right now to knock out whatever might be going on. She will have to be in the hospital at least two days. Her discharge requirements are no fever for 48 hrs, negative blood cultures (meaning no infection in her blood) and an ANC (infection fighting ability) of at least 500.

There is a possibility that we will be transported to CMH in the next day or so. Adele was due for a clinic appt and her last chemo med on Tues. Wed she is supposed to get a catheter and start stem cell harvest on Wed.

Please pray that this is something little and easily overcome. Please pray for Peter to recover quickly, he can barely move right now. Thank you. Jesus, I trust in you. Thank you for this past wonderful week our family had. Please grant Adele complete healing of whatever is causing this fever and of all at/rt present in her body.


Please pray for baby Adele and her family. Thank you in advance.

God bless you and yours,

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Monday, June 24, 2013

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Thursday, June 20, 2013

Prayers for Adele update

Adele suffers from brain cancer
Remember little Adele whom I spoke about recently? Her mom is desperate for prayers for her. She said:

And our plans have changed again.

We've been discussing with Adele's doctor her inability to stand up on her own and her leg weakness but he hadn't really gotten to see it himself until today. She is having a really hard time walking and is not able to stand up from being seated. A few weeks ago when she originally presented with legweakness she had an MRI that showed her tumor had grown. She started on steroids and regained her strength. She is now off steroids.

Originally her doctor wanted to get her started on her next round of chemo before doing a scan but today he changed his mind. If she has an MRI that shows her tumor has grown she can't stay on this clinical trial she is on. It makes sense, if her tumor grows then this isn't the right treatment for her. Her doctor decided it would be wise to see what we are dealing with instead of putting her through more chemo that might not be working.

There is a little confusion over her MRI time because they just scheduled it today. I believe it is set for 9 am tomorrow but we won't know for sure until tomorrow morning.

Peter is hanging tough in KC for now and I am in a holding pattern here in Wichita. We have no idea what we are doing at this point. No matter what the MRI shows she can't start chemo until this bacteria is gone.

I'm really scared that we will get bad news tomorrow. Of course, things are already bad. Maybe I should say worse news.

I am just begging God to let us keep our sweet girl. It's killing me being away from her this long, I will not let her go. We are in a very critical place right now. This is one of the worst possible tumors anyone could get. It has a very low survival rate and those that do survive undergo grueling surgery, chemo and radiation with many sometimes devastating long-term side effects.

I can't even think about side effects right now, I just want her to survive. I might just implode if I start thinking about things like long term effects. She already has no hearing in her right ear. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining and I welcome deafness if that's what it takes. It just sucks. It sucks to have to beat up our baby to try to maybe cure her.

Like I said, I'm begging Jesus to let us keep her. I told him today, now is the time. It's time to step up. We trust in You, we are ready to take Your hand and walk out on the water. Please Jesus, Mother Mary, all the Angels and Saints in Heaven, pray for Adele that she be completely healed of this at/rt cancer. Fr. Kapaun, we are really lobbing you a softball here, this is your chance to knock it out of the park. Please heal our Adele.


UPDATE: Adele's tumors have shrunk! Please keep praying!


Please pray for Adele and her family.
God bless!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Prayers for Adele



Recently while in Olathe, Kansas to give a key-note address at Prince of Peace, I met a woman named Tami who was wearing a blue wristband with the words, “Prayers for Adele.” She approached me at my book-signing table and told me immediately about baby Adele who is just 18 months old and has brain cancer. Little Adele is currently undergoing chemotherapy and needs a lot of prayers.




Tami is a friend of Melissa (married to Peter) who is baby Adele’s mother. They live in Wichita, Adele is the youngest of four children. She has a brother, Simon, and two sisters, Cabrini and Mattie. 






I asked about where I could get a bracelet and Tami took it off promptly and gave it to me. I immediately put it on and right then and there my prayers began for baby Adele.


I'm happy to wear this wristband to be reminded to pray for Adele


There’s a Face Book page set up for Adele: https://www.facebook.com/InGodsHandsPrayersForAdele?fref=ts

This is from the face book page: “Stormin' heaven with prayers for sweet, baby Adele! Adele and her family have been given a particularly heavy cross to carry with her being diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of 16 months old. PRAYERS!!”

If you would like to help support baby Adele with prayers, please do. You can also get the wristband that I wear which are $1 each and come in adult and kid sizes. There’s a $5 charge for shipping.

Orders can be submitted to Michele at prayersforadele@yahoo.com Somehow this small donation helps the family and the wristband will be a constant reminder to pray for baby Adele.

 
Adele at the hospital being silly. :)

May God bless little Adele and her family. 



God bless you and keep you!

Friday, June 14, 2013

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Beautiful celebration and lovely views!


This past week end was spent celebrating my daughter Mary-Catherine at her college graduation. I shared some photos over at "View From the Domestic Church" here: http://viewdomesticchurch.blogspot.com/2013/05/this-past-week-end-was-spent-in-grand.html

I will share some different kinds of photos here.

First of all, here is the happy graduate:

Notice the ocean in the background,
a lovely back drop for the past four college years .

After the graduation, we enjoyed a walk around town. A few things caught my eye and I'll share them here.

First of all, here's a photo of the front door of the inn where we stayed over the week end. A mother Robin was busy caring for her eggs in the nest above the wreath on the door.




Here are a few other sights that caught my eye:


















By now, you might have figured out that I love pansies!
Well, I do love birds and bird houses too. :)



St. Francis just happened to be right behind me
when having lunch outdoors in a little garden we came upon.



The Blessed Mother was in the garden too!


We discovered this little chapel upstairs from a restaurant!
We went in for a moment of peace.


One of the frescos on the wall of the chapel.



Another fresco.


Pansies again and interesting storefront with window reflections!










Nearby to where my daughter is temporarily living.
I should have zoomed in.


Hopefully, you'll be able to view this very short video clip.


God bless you!

Friday, May 10, 2013

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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

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Thursday, May 2, 2013

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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

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Embrace your Motherhood with "Embracing Motherhood"!


Mother's day is coming! 


I am blessed to have Cardinal Dolan's beautiful endorsement: "In this small volume, Embracing Motherhood, Ms. Cooper O'Boyle offers a sensitive reflection on what it means to tune into faith, hope, and charity, living out the vocation of raising children, passing on our Catholic faith, and providing our kids with the necessary roots and wings to live virtuously. Mothers and fathers too can grow spiritually from this book, and draw inspiration from her tender perspective. This is a substantive and practical gem as well as an ode of joy for God's gift of motherhood!" ~Reverend Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York

This book as well as all of my others is available at my website: www.donnacooperoboyle.com Autographed copies are shipped along with a blessed Miraculous Medal.

God bless!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

"Blessed, Beautiful, and Bodacious" by Pat Gohn


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Pat Gohn

Pat Gohn has some special words for you which you can listen to here:
http://audioboo.fm/boos/1325282-embracing-motherhood-hosts-the-blessed-beautiful-bodacious-blog-tour



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Published by Ave Maria Press




Reflect and share on this quote from Bl. John Paul II:

“The moral and spiritual strength of a woman is joined to her awareness that God entrusts the human being to her in a special way. Of course, God entrusts every human being to each and every other human being. But this entrusting concerns women in a special way – precisely by reason of their femininity.
A woman is strong because of her awareness of this entrusting…”

- Bl. John Paul II, Mulieris Digatatem, par. 30 (emphasis added.)



God bless!