Author: Apple Lacbay

“Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” Lk. 2:19. 

Oh, her heart so pure.
Whenever I look at Mother Mary, or simply think of her, my heart feels so overwhelmed and
my mind cannot comprehend the very fact of how pure she truly is. How holy she truly is.
She is so pure. She is so beautiful.
I just imagine if I ever did meet her in person, I think I’ll just be staring at her (and maybe add in some tears too) Have you ever met someone and you just know that that person has no hint of judgment in their veins? Like they are just so nice, just such a nice person.
I feel like Mother Mary is that, just a million times more.

Her heart is so pure and so in love with the Lord, that Love, Himself radiates within her and
shines her whole entire being. She is a true model of obedience.
A true obedience that allowed her to be assumed into heaven.
A true obedience that allowed to fully, wholehearted trust our Heavenly Father.
A true obedience that allowed her to truly love.

I pray that my heart be like hers. To be truly obedient like her. To love like her.
To keep things in my heart so I can truly hear God.
I pray the same for you my dearest brothers and sisters,
that we may all be able to keep things in our heart
and ponder truly so that we may truly hear the words of our Father,
so that we may truly hear our calling.

Our God loves us so much.
He truly does 🙂

God bless us always.
I hope that you are all doing very well 🙂

Peace and Love,
Apple
🙂

Novena Prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

O Most Blessed Mother, heart of love, heart of mercy, ever listening, caring, consoling, hear our prayer. As your children, we implore your intercession with Jesus your Son. Receive with understanding and compassion the petitions we place before you today, especially …(special intention).

We are comforted in knowing your heart is ever open to those who ask for your prayer. We trust to your gentle care and intercession, those whom we love and who are sick or lonely or hurting. Help all of us, Holy Mother, to bear our burdens in this life until we may share eternal life and peace with God forever.
Amen.

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.

Amen.

“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”
– Mother Teresa

When I first read this quote by Mother Teresa, I felt like someone sat me down and said,
“What are you doing?”. It reminded truly of our calling as God’s children, to LOVE.
                                          Being and bringing Christ wherever we are.
Through a simple smile, we can share the goodness of the Lord and bring light to others.
Living out what this quote states can be difficult at times. There can even be moments when we bring sorrow and sadness to others. But living out every word stated in this quote is not impossible. Our God is a kind God, a happy God, a joyful God and because we are created in His likeness, in nature, we are also kind, happy, and joyful. 🙂

I truly believe that through a genuinely heartfelt and sincere smile in the light of our Lord Jesus Christ truly brings Christ to brothers and sisters. Through a smile, we can share God’s amazingly beautiful love. When someone smiles at you, don’t you just want to smile back 🙂

SMILE 🙂

Let us let our Lord’s smile shine through our hearts, our faces, our being.
May we always allow Him to put a smile on our faces.
“A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” – Proverbs 15:13
Only our Heavenly Father can make our hearts genuinely happy. He knows what makes our hearts feel warm and fuzzy. He knows what can make our hearts tingle for joy 🙂 Only Him can make our faces cheerful. Only Him can bring us true joy. Let us let our Lord make our hearts joyful and our faces cheerful. Our Father really wants us to be happy. He really does. Every day I am reminded by the Lord to smile. Every day we are reminded by our Awesome God to smile. He asks us to make His people smile. All He wants is for us to feel loved and be joyful. He is our reason to smile. He makes us smile.
All He wants is to see us smile 🙂

“Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other – it doesn’t matter who it is – and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.” – Mother Teresa

My sisters and my brothers, go on and take a smile 🙂
You are beautiful 🙂

Have a wonderful day!
God bless us always.

Peace and Love,
Apple
🙂

Today is Wednesday, the 31st of July 2013 and we pray the Glorious mysteries.

I boarded the plane this morning at about 9:30am. I asked the intercession of our  Blessed Mother to cover us and all those who are  traveling with her mantle of protection to keep us safe from sin and any harm.

The plane started to go faster as it prepared to take off. As we prayed the first mystery, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, I was reminded of the resurrection that also happens in our very own lives through the grace of God. We have been resurrected from the death of our souls through our Lord Jesus Christ. The joy that is made available for us each and everyday is the product of the resurrection. We are made joyful by Our Father, In Him we find joy. The death that we suffer because of our sins and the hardness of our hearts are overcome through the amazing love from our Heavenly Father. In the resurrection, it is joy that we find, true joy that comes from the depths our hearts whose deep source is in the Lord. True joy that is everlasting, true joy that is divine.

As the plane rose from the ground, i was reminded of our rising, we have risen from the dead. We have been forgiven, we are saved. Through our Loving Saviour we rose from the dead and just as Jesus had ascended to heaven, He has also brought us with Him. Each and every day our Redeemer lifts us up, raises us up and brings us back to life. We our raised from the dead, our souls ascend to heaven to be purified and made holy. We are loved. We are made worthy by our King. He makes us worthy. He makes us complete. Our Heavenly Father brings us up to His presence and finds joy in us. He will never abandon us.

The descent of the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that moved the apostles is the same spirit that moves in us today. The very being of our Father in the Spirit makes us known that He is always with us, within us. This same spirit, our Lord God in His Humble Being, He lives within us, we are made holy. Through His Spirit, we are able to love. With this spirit, we are filled to brim, we are loved.

Our Mother assumed into heaven, so beautiful so divine. The loving presence of a mother through her, His light truly shines. She leads us closer to Jesus, her obedience inspires us to obey our Father. Our Holy Mother in Heaven, who is full of grace, who is with the Lord, who is with Father, who prays for us and intercedes for us. She brings light into our hearts.

The coronation of the Blessed Mother as queen of heaven and earth. The most humble of all,is she. With the Father who is the King of kings, and a mother crowned to be queen, we are princesses and princes of the heavenly courts. Let us value our presence in the light of the Father. Heirs and heiresses of the kingdom of God, we are royalty. In complete submission to our Father we are the ones given the favour. To live in a heavenly, majestic kingdom with a banquet that is never ending, We will never hunger. With a well that overflows with the blessings from the Lord, we shall never thirst.

In his glory we are saved. In each mystery we are conquered. With each prayer we are healed. With each breath we become lighter. With his mercy, we become one with the lord.

Your mercy, Oh God, is so great.
You forgive, You forgave,
Your amazing love, it truly saves.
Your most Holy Name, Oh Lord, cleanses me from any stain.
My tainted soul, You made holy, my name You have claimed.
My glory and praise are Yours.
Forever I will proclaim Your name.
You shower me with Your love, I simply cannot contain.
My cup overflows, in Your presence I will stay.

You captivated me from the start.
You’re the only one who captures my heart.
I am Yours and You are mine.
You are my life’s source, Bread of Life. You are the Vine.
My Father, My God, You are truly DIVINE.
I will worship you forever.
For eternity I am Yours.
The Lover of my soul, my Redeemer, my Saviour, my all.

“My heart is restless until I rest in You”,
My heart is at peace whenever I hear you say, “My daughter, I love you”
Forever I will sing praises to you, my Messiah.
To be with You, my Father is my one and only desire.

 ———

Our Lord God is so good. So wonderful. So Faithful. So True.
Praise be to God forever.

“I love You my Heavenly Father” =D

My sisters and brothers, God bless our hearts and our lives always and forever =D

Peace and Love,
Apple
=D

On Canada Day, July 1^st, my parents woke up my siblings and I and opened our doors and said “STRAWBERRY PICKING”. So we just got up and got ready and went on to go strawberry picking.
🙂

Personally, I really love it when we go to the farms [So fun :)] and just have a different view from the busy city life. It is simply so relaxing and just simple.
We got to the place, got a few baskets and hopped on the tractor that would bring us to the fields 🙂
There were other people at the farm, children, parents, grandparents, friends, families. Once we got to the strawberry fields, I couldn’t help but thank the Lord for this wonderful blessing, I was with my family eating the most delicious fruit, so fresh and so refreshing. I was surrounded by many families who are happily and joyfully spending several hours with each other. Mothers and daughters picking strawberries together. Young children slobbering their mouths with the juiciest strawberries until their mouths became so red [So cute :)] Grandparents who have difficulty bending down to pick some strawberries have their lawn chairs and remained to look over their families and their grandchildren handing them some to eat.
EVERYONE WAS JUST SO JOYFUL!!! 🙂
It was a truly nice day. The sun was out up so high shining down upon all of us on earth. The sun the nourished the plants so that it will bear good fruits. I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by all the joy that I was being blessed to witness, the joy that I was experiencing, the love that was just outpouring. 🙂
As I bend down to pick some more strawberries, I couldn’t help but notice something about the fruit that I was picking, I said to myself, “HEY! LOOK AT THESE CUTE STRAWBERRIES, THEY LOOK LIKE HEARTS!!!” Then I was like “WHOAH?! That is so true. HEARTS EVERYWHERE!!! EVERYWHERE!!!”
Our Awesome Father loves us so much and He wants us to know that He is always here to love us. He physically wants to show us His love that He even created a fruit that taste ohhh so sweet that is shaped like a heart! A plant that is well grounded and rooted with fruits that could be reached by all His children. Just like our Great Heavenly King’s love for us: free, total, faithful, fruitful.
As I looked around the fields around me, I couldn’t help but give praise to our Father. “Lord God, thank you for giving me a taste of Heaven.” Where I was, was God’s fields, a field filled with people exchanging love, sharing love, experiencing love, exuding love, they were being loved. Looking at the strawberry field, all I could see was sheer joy. 🙂

“Eternal Father, may we always see You and experience Your Amazing Love in the beautiful world around us. Through the beauty of nature, You speak to us. Through the beauty of nature, You show us Your great love for us. Thank you for loving us. We love You so much.”

Have a wonderful day!
God bless us always.

Peace and Love,
Apple
🙂

“You have captured me today…Jesus.
You completed all my days…ohooh!”

This line from the beautiful song “I Know” truly strikes a chord in my heart.
Praise God for the Gift of Music  🙂

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the lover of my heart and soul, the lover of our heart and soul, the one who loves me the most, the one who loves us the most, never ceases to pursue all our hearts. (Until we give our ultimate YES, our complete surrender).
He is SO in LOVE with us.
Through the grace of our Eternal Father, His love for us was made known through His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. These few lines from the song enlightens my heart each and every time. I am in awe for the love that I given to me by someone who is so much greater than myself. “How can Jesus love me this much?” When most of often than not, I fall short in my capability of fully loving Him with all my heart. That even with the things of the world, I allow my self to be given temporary satisfaction.

But time and time again, our Lord God is so faithful to me, to us. He never ceases in loving us. NEVER. He never abandons us. He never will. With His bountiful mercy, He renews us each morning and reminds us that we are worthy of His love and there is nothing, absolutely nothing that we can do for our loving Father to love us any less. In the Holy Eucharist, God allows us to witness the greatest of all miracles, where He offers Himself each and every time for our consumption so that we may be consumed by His love: Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, we are infinitely blessed; the great mercy available for us each day, each and every moment of our lives. At Mass, we are truly in His most Holy Presence. With the Holy Angels and the Saints and our dearest Mother Mary, Heaven and Earth meet at His Great Mercy.

With someone who never ceases to show His love every single minute and moment of our lives, The Holy One who is not even asking for anything back, the one who can TRULY love, how can we not be CAPTIVATED.

Loving Father, I pray that I will always be in Your presence and always seek Your love. I place myself in the womb of our Mother, Mary, the sole place that was perfect to bear Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, so that I may also be molded and be purified so that I may live a Holy life. Thank you for loving me, Everlasting Father. I love you.

Have a wonderful day brothers and sisters.
We are infinitely blessed.
God bless us always.

Peace and Love,
Apple
🙂

p.s. When you have time, just give this song a listen. You might have heard it before, it’s a song from WYD. “Jesus Christ, You are my life” Simply beautiful and brings joy to the heart.
🙂

Enjoy!
🙂

2 Corinthians 4

This morning I decided to watch an episode of “Mother Angelica Live”.
[Thank you Lord for YouTube :)]
I searched for a video regarding our human suffering.
And found myself choosing a video entitled “Living in a dysfunctional world”.
Mother Angelica is such a light-hearted, joyful and faithful woman of God.
[love her, she’s so cute and wise :)]
She has such great wisdom that transcends through time. That even though the video that I had watched was recorded more than ten years ago, the same message of Love and Hope from the Lord can still be heard: LOUD AND CLEAR.
That at times, it can even put you to tears.

I would like to share this video with you all and I hope that it finds you well.
Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xflGAWh55bI

A simple reminder on how to find joy within our suffering,
how to find joy in our world that is suffering,
how to find joy within our world with its people who are suffering.
Mother Angelica reflected on one great saint’s journey through suffering but overcoming it with his great faith, our beloved, St. Paul 🙂

One Mother Angelica’s reflection of 2 Corinthians 4 according to St. Paul:
” When we have no answer to our prayer, we do not despair. We answer with a blessing when we are cursed. When he (St. Paul) worked and got nothing out of it, he was gentle. When he was hungry and beaten, had no place to go, he praised God.”

“We must live in God in order to live in joy and hope.” – Mother Angelica, EWTN

I continue to pray that we may always seek God at all times.
Let us continue to pray for each other and love each other.
May our Great God bless us all always and forever.
Praise be to God always and forever.

Peace and Love,
Apple
🙂

p.s. I would also like to share this prayer with you 🙂

Litany of Humility
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved…
From the desire of being extolled …
From the desire of being honored …
From the desire of being praised …
From the desire of being preferred to others…
From the desire of being consulted …
From the desire of being approved …
From the fear of being humiliated …
From the fear of being despised…
From the fear of suffering rebukes …
From the fear of being calumniated …
From the fear of being forgotten …
From the fear of being ridiculed …
From the fear of being wronged …
From the fear of being suspected …

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I …
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease …
That others may be chosen and I set aside …
That others may be praised and I unnoticed …
That others may be preferred to me in everything…
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…