The Friendship of Mothers

May our friendship honor our Lord.
May our friendship serve our families.
May our friendship bring joy to our husbands
and bear fruit in our work,
and in the hearts and minds of our families.
May our friendship draw compassion
and good council.
May it serve to nurture those we serve.
May the words we share prosper our vocation.

May god bless and honor our friendship
by giving us moments to magnify His glory in our deeds.

May Our Lady be a silent witness
to the charity that bears forth
from each meeting and each conversation.

May our friendship encourage our children
and be an example to them of all that is good
in women, wives, mothers and daughters.
We are daughters of the Good Shepherd
and may all who witness us in friendship
sing praises to God in thanksgiving for His Divine Providence.
He is the provider of our friendships
He fashions our friends and places them in our lives
and he calls us to love and cherish them.

In Thanksgiving, I return to Him the fruits of this friendship.
May our friendship always serve to honor Him in every form of expression.
Amen.
SharonMarie

Mother Mary,
Portray for me the image of a mother invested in her daughter,
This light would flow over my memory, my being and my works.
As I continue in this office of motherhood, I cherish those souls who have presented this image to me.
Those mothers and daughters
who have come into my life as partners in faith,
have been a gift to me.
They have witnessed to me the model of your love.
Please, offer my thanksgiving to Your Son
for bringing them into my life.
Still, I am poor in this image, Mary.
Please, come to me as you did in Lourdes,
when you showed to me that daughters do matter.
Grant me the relationship with you that I seek.
Help me not to waste my days on frivolous concerns of myself.
help me to firmly plant my life in service, stirred by my loyalty to Your Son.
Blessed Mother, please stay with me.
I need your protection. I need you Son.
He is most present to me, when I am close to you.
What may I do for you today?
If I were all that God would will of me, what, then, would you ask of me?
I desire to serve you, today, Oh, Mother of God.
I am praying to become your hand-matron.
As I am today, I am not what I would be
if your tender affections were to come my way.
Please, grant me those graces entrusted to you by your Son.
I will wait and pray.
My love, though incomplete, is all I have to give.
What little of it that I behold, I give it ALL to you, mother of my Savior.
Perfect this love I give and present it to your Son, so that,
by your hand, it is pleasing to Him.
Your daughter,
SharonMarie

My Morning Offering to a Mother-Friend
April 11, 2005
SharonMarie

For today, I pray we are able to receive the grace we need,
to give the love that others need,
to offer all of our senses up to our purpose in His plan.
I pray for all the crosses that we bear,
for moms who work with all their heart.
I hope something in the weather, today, speaks to me of His presence.
I pray that something in the laundry today speaks to me of His Divine Providence.
I ask that something in the dust today reminds me of where I am to return and how to cherish every moment.
I pray that something in the time today gives me pause to play.
I pray that something in my coffee, today, speaks to me of my need for hte strengthening of His seven gifts in my life.
I pray that something in my smile speaks to my children of the tender affections of Our Lady.
I ask that something in my meals speaks to them of the works of Mercy, generated from His love.
I hope that something in my voice today is heard over the phone by my husband that speaks to my gratitude for the gift he is in my life.
I pray that, somehow, a mother's love is all it takes for teens to pass through this world and home again, safely, in The Their Hearts.

Prayer to St. Gianna for an Expectant Mother
June 22, 2004
SharonMarie

In thanksgiving, we turn to you in our hour of need,
beloved Gianna.
Our God has seen to it that we come to know you,
even after your passing.
As a physician,
your compassion magnified a heavenly love and caring
for your neighbor.
As a wife,
your devotion poured forth in your thoughts, words and actions,
as you nurtured your marriage with gentle attentiveness.
In your motherhood, your joy was complete.
Can a mother know a greater earthly sadness
than the loss of her child?
In your two miscarriages,
we know you entered into a sorrow that was not of this world.
Yet, to know you as a mother is to know that joy was the nature of your being.
We ask you this day to assist us as we pray for all mothers who carry life within them,
especially~(mother's name).
Assist us as we lift our hearts to heaven, that God will return His favor with grace and joy.
may this little life within, grow to the world's awareness, so that the world may come to know God.
Saint Gianna, we ask for your faithful, motherly intercession for~(mother's name).
Obtain for her the interior peace she seeks as she endures all that is unseen,
in the unfolding of this hidden miracle of life.
Ask Our Heavenly Mother to impart her tender affections to this mother,
who is living in the advent of God's plan to be revealed.
Guide her in the desire to pray, fervently, to seek God's will
in all the hidden mysteries of motherhood.
Plead, on her behalf, that her faith be preserved should sorrow be in her midst.
Pray that a childlike trust continues to grow within her,
and that this trust may ignite the healing flames of Divine Love and Mercy
to all who have been entrusted to her care.
Join us, Saint Gianna, as we pray:
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
Jesus, Mercy!

Prayer to Saint Gianna for a Mother Who is of Ill Health.

Saint Gianna,
You are a mother who was faced with the painful awareness
that your health would not keep you with your children.
Your intense suffering was sustained
by the consolations you received in the Eucharist.
We ask for your faithful, motherly intercession
for this mother~(name of mother).
Obtain for her the interior peace she seeks to endure her suffering.
If it be God's Holy will,
ask that she be freed of this cross of ill health
so that she may continue to radiate God's purpose in her family.
Impart a fervent desire in this mother
for a renewed devotion to the
Blessed Sacrament, the font of all graces!
Entrust to her the image of the crucified Christ,
where, laboring beneath the Cross,
His Mother gave birth to us all.
As Mother Mary remains at the foot of all crosses,
plead to Our Lady to present this request
of healing and mercy to her Son,
for the sake of His sorrowful passion,
We ask this, beloved Gianna, in humility and thanksgiving.
Join us, Saint Gianna, as we pray:
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be...
Jesus, Mercy!

Written by Sharon Willoughby
June 22, 2004

Your Daughter First
Through the subtle workings of friendship, you called me to You in Lourdes. You called me there at a very certain time in my life that I never could have anticipated. I arrived in Lourdes with the blessed identity of wife, mother, daughter, aunt and friend. But it was there in Lourdes, where You reminded me that I was Your daughter first! You gave to me this special time with only You. The mystery of Your Perpetual Maternity prompted my deep petition. You permitted me to rest in Your Maternity, as my own had come to an end, just two days before departing on this pilgrimage. Your Perpetual Maternity was a font of grace for me in Lourdes. As true as it is that the deepest of sorrow can not find the words to express itself, so too, did I realize that within Your Perpetual maternity, all motherhood is completed. My soul experienced the effects of Your tender love, completing my maternity. The joy that embraced me renewed my awareness of what it means to be Your daughter first! Nothing was broken, because You would not leave me on this cross of loss. I experienced that You did not wish for me to see myself alone, and so, we were mother and daughter. More important to You was my daughterhood, not my motherhood. This daughterhood increased in me a tremendous source of joy. Even if I should be visited by my loss again, I feel certain that You will be there to remind me that I am Your daughter first!

As You permitted me to return to all that I love, I was never to forget that daughters matter to You. I could not imagine that You would seal this truth in me by granting me a precious little daughter of my own, Marianna Bernadette, nine months after my return; conceiving nine days after my miscarriage, born shortly after midnight of February 11, 2004, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. I have cherished my six sons all of these years. Each one of them is a unique treasure to me. Their love of life and free-spiritedness have shown me glimpses of an awesome God. Truly, Marianna is the daughter that will always remind me that I was Your daughter, first!
As He looks into your eyes, may He know me...in the end. SharonMarie