Autumn News 2021 for GloryGloryGioryGifts.com

Happy Autumn to you all! We hope that you all had an enjoyable Summer. We have some updates for you all and are looking forward to this last quarter of 2021. It's going to be a good one, the good Lord willing!

Word of God Bible Study Group:

Unfortunately, we have done away with the Word of God Self-Study Bible Group on Facebook. We were having issues scheduling daily Gospel readings. It started in the early days of June, and we had absolutely no help from the FB team in resolving the issue. After three months of torture working with them, being passed around, ignored and with no resolution in sight, we pulled the plug. We do hope that you are continuing to read your Bible

Feedback:

Soapbox alert. I'm stepping on it. In the last 12 months we have had over 1,000 transactions at our ebay store. Only 37% of those people left feedback for us and a few were neutral or negative. Our feedback used to be over 60%!!! We ask you to please remember to leave positive feedback if your experience was a good one. We strive to make every person feel valued and for them to get the best quality items into their hands. Understandably though, sometimes things happen. If there is an issue with the order, please CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY. Feedback should be about your entire experience with us, not just the purchase. We replace items, we track items with the post office that have gone astray, and we do everything in our power to make a customer happy. We do and will work with you to get an issue resolved so please respond to any messages we may send. If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands and let us hear from you with your positive feedback!! Small businesses need support!!

Postal changes:

Effective October 1, the USPS is going to slow down some of the services. According to the news release: "Starting Oct. 1, the USPS will implement new service standards for its first-class mail and packages, lengthening delivery time for about 30% of its volume. That means some letters, parcels and magazine subscriptions traveling longer distances could take up to five days to arrive, instead of two or three days. The changes are part of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's 10-year Delivering for America plan to overhaul the agency and try to tackle its massive debt. The plan, which has generated controversy, would also reduce post office hours, raise postage prices for customers and kick in even more postage hikes during the holiday season." In other words, it will cost you more and will take longer for your items to arrive. We will do our best to keep your shipping cost as low as possible, but wanted you to be aware of this change.  (Frankly, we aren't looking forward to the holiday season as last year was just disastrous but God willing we will all get through it.) REMEMBER TO ORDER AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE, TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU GET YOUR ITEMS IN TIME!!

New Items:

We have beautiful new framed artwork available for purchase of The Last Supper in a few different sizes and styles. The artists include DaVinci, Fratelli Bonella, Zabateri, and Chambers to name a few. We also have new bulk prayer cards for Jesus and Mary. They are from Italy and are laminated and sold in packs of 25, 50, 100. You can find them all at the link at the left of this post. 

 

Thanksgiving Friday, Christmas Week Delays & Closures:

We will be here Thanksgiving weekend (November 26, 27) however, any items that ship from our Attleboro or Plainville, MA, and North Caldwell, NJ warehouses will not ship until the following Monday, November 29th, at the earliest. Larger items take a day more. We want you to be aware of that delay in shipping.

This year we are going to be closed from Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24th, through Monday, January 3, 2022. SHOP EARLY!!!

Contacting Us:

Feel free to contact us any time with any questions about us or our products. You can contact us via this blog, Facebook, Ebay or the website. our email is mare@gloryglorygifts.com and our phone number is 347-562-4921. With regard to the phone, please leave a message with your question and phone number. Because of the amount of spam callers that we get, we do not answer the phone directly. So leave that message or write us. We promise we will get back to you!

To summarize: Bye, bye Bible Group. Leave that good feedback! Snail mail is going to get snailier.... and SHOP EARLY!

God bless and have an awesome day in the Lord.

Peace,

Mare

John Cardinal O'Connor, the Angels and Me

Lately, I've been thinking about my Mom and Dad, who I lost in 1994 and 1989 respectively. The holidays, and particularly this year, loss and solitude is weighing heavily on not only my heart, but so many others too.

But, this post isn't about loss or loneliness, it's about hope and angels and someone always having your back.

I have to start this story from the beginning, which was way back in 1994 when my Mom was ill and bedridden. In May of that year our church was having a dedication and John Cardinal O'Connor, who was the Archbishop of New York at the time, was coming to bless the new altar. My Mom had wanted to go in the worst way, but it just wasn't physically possible for her to do that. My brother was going to be at that Mass though with his family. After the service my brother managed to talk to Cardinal O'Connor and tell him about our Mom and how sad she was that she couldn't be there. Cardinal O'Connor asked for her phone number and promised my brother that he would call her once he was on his way in the car.

As they say, timing is everything... I lived in an apartment next door to my Mom and just happened to be walking over to her house when my brother excitedly pulled up and he and his family piled out of the car with him yelling, "Mare get in the house quick! Mom's getting a phone call!" I had no clue what was happening but of course we all ran into the house as the phone was ringing. Mom picked up the receiver and the moment she heard the Cardinal's voice,  her tears started to flow. We will never know everything that he said to her but I do know that he promised to pray for her at the Mass the next day. He wouldn't mention her name, but she would know that it was her specifically that he was praying for. 

My Mother was raised as a Lutheran. As a matter of fact, her grandfather was a Pastor. She converted to Catholicism to marry my Dad. Growing up, we were raised to pray the rosary as a family, attend Mass weekly and say grace at every meal. My Dad used to do Eucharistic Adoration on the first Fridays of the months, so we were all raised in the faith.  After my Dad passed away I went to Mass with her on occasion. I had Tom at the time so sometimes we had other commitments so we couldn't go with her but the times I did go it seems that she was always in tears by the end. If I was there I would sit there and hold her hand for as long as she needed, but it always just killed me to think of all the people, and priests, that might be just passing her by when I wasn't there. When she got too ill to go, she watched the Mass, from St. Patrick's Cathedral, daily on the t.v. She had a devotion to Mary too and used a one-decade crystal rosary that I had given her to say her daily prayers on. That little rosary would go on to spur me to a rejuvenation of my own faith after she was gone, as I have written about in another post.

After the telephone call, I wrote a thank you note to Cardinal O'Connor but I also mentioned to him my concerns about her spiritual support, or rather lack of it, from our parish. I also wrote about my own struggles with dealing with her illness and just my life in general. I was gob-smacked when I received a response from him. Even more humbling, was the personal note that he added at the bottom, 

"I hope to be able to visit your mother personally on the occasion of the very first opportunity I have. Please tell her I did offer Mass for her in St. Patrick's Cathedral."

Something else happened around that time though. Somehow I found the incredible strength to get through this very difficult time and I could actually feel the presence of some very large angels around me. I believe that it was the prayers and Masses that Cardinal O'Connor offered for my family and I that carried us through those dark months. I could literally feel them beside me and behind me, every day and all day for months. Their presence was so strong, I felt like other people should be able to see them with me, towering over my petite frame.  

I know for a fact that my Mother had angels surrounding her as well. She spoke about them being in her room and protecting her from the other fallen ones that were there too.

Prayer is a very powerful aid, very powerful indeed. I even know the exact day that they left me. At the time I lived literally around the corner from town and had walked up to the pharmacy. When I was in there I met a man, Mr. DePonte, who I've known since I was a little girl. Mr. DePonte had an amazing baritone voice and sang with our church choir. He sang solo at my Mom's funeral Mass. When I met him in the pharmacy he looked a little down-trodden but I went over to him and thanked him for his amazing performance and complimented him on his voice. It was like the sun shone again when he heard my words. He left the pharmacy with a smile on his face. I distinctly remember when I was walking home I felt suddenly elated. I felt like the angels were patting me on the back and saying you did good!  You will be fine! Our work is done here. In an instant, I didn't feel them anymore, but they had gotten me through my Mom's birthday, which was in mid-October.  

It was truly a blessing to have Cardinal O'Connor in my life over those few months. One person's prayers and support can make such a huge difference in a person's life. I thank God that the spirit moved my brother to say something to him when he had the opportunity. I thank God that the Cardinal was not only a man of word but one of action as well. He gave me the incredible strength to go on and my Mother the peace that she needed in order to let go of us and to move on. 

Over the months I wrote a few more times to him to keep him current on the situation. He responded every time I wrote to him, though it took a few weeks.

The Cardinal added a note to our last correspondence that said, 

"I am so grateful for having met her, if only by phone." 

I just wanted you all to know that you are never alone. Your Guardian Angel is ALWAYS with you. Jesus, is ALWAYS with you. Prayers do work. Pray for someone today that they may feel your love. After all, prayer is the greatest gift of love.

Peace to you all.

Mare

 

 

Prayers and Miracles

I have been thinking about prayer and doing a whole bunch of it lately too. When I woke up on Thursday morning I found an email from one of our Glory Glory Gifts family members that she wrote at 4:13 am while in the hospital. Her message was short but filled with anxiety and she had one simple request, Mare can you please pray for me. Of course I was reading it a little later in the morning but my response to her was of course, I will head over to the chapel immediately.

Now you know that normally I go to the perpetual adoration chapel in Holy Child Church on Staten Island, but that day I went to the one on Victory Boulevard by the Society of St. Paul. The magnificent picture shown here is right by the door to the chapel and I thought it was just so beautiful that I took a photo of it before heading into the chapel. Inside I said my prayers for her and when I was done I asked God for a sign that he had heard my prayers for this special woman, nothing fancy like a clap of thunder or the sun spinning, just a simple butterfly would do. When I stepped out of the chapel, sure enough, there was my butterfly fluttering around the photo. The next day I knew that God had definitely heard my prayers when she gave birth to two healthy little boys. My cup runneth over with happiness for her and her husband and her beautiful little bundles of joy. Praise God!

She and I met the first week of December last year at a Christmas Fair. Quite often when I meet people at our local venues we get into all types of discussions and that is exactly what happened that day. She told me of her wish to be a mother, her heartaches during her journey and the next step they were going to take. I told her that I would pray for her. That is how this all began, but what she may or may not know is that I take prayer very seriously. If you ask me to pray for something I will, diligently and daily, until there is a resolution. It might not be the answer that one wants from God, but he does hear all prayers. Now I am not saying that I am the only reason why she attained her miracle, there were quite a large number of people praying for her, but it is a humbling experience to see a prayer answered. I have witnessed a number of answers to prayers this year from someone having inoperable bone cancer now being in remission, to another childless couple holding their soon to be adopted baby in their arms and I give all the glory to God. There have been some deaths too, but the way that I look at it is that their job here is done and they have been called home. It is not the answer that their loved ones wanted, but it is a part of life and a part of our journey here, to live, to learn, to love and then return home.

Yesterday while at my regular adoration hours I was moved to read 1 Timothy and it just happened to include a chapter on prayer and conduct. It reads:

First of all, then I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. For there is one God. There is also our one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as ransom for us. 1 Timothy, 2:1-6

Beautiful! Pray! Pray often and with a pure heart for others. Pray for the souls that have gone before us. Pray for your enemies. Pray for your loved ones. Pray for your neighbors, your places of worship and those you worship with, your freedoms, the destitute, the lame and even your leaders. Thank God for every good thing in your life and for all of your answered prayers, whether you like the outcome or not. Say prayers when you get up in the morning, at 3:00 pm (the hour of his mercy) and in the evening. Say prayers before you eat and thank him that you have something to put into your mouth; there are millions all around the world that do not. Thank him when you lay your head on the pillow at night under a safe roof. Millions more do not have that luxury and when you are done praying for everyone else then ask him to give you the strength to keep on praying and living a life of faith.  Pray in your living room, your bedroom, your car, the supermarket and just about any place you can think of. You do not have to be in a place of worship to talk to God. You might be just the one he is waiting to hear from. Teach your children to pray. Pray as a family. That seems to be sorely lacking in so many families today.

Thank you Father for hearing all of my prayers and for allowing me to see this miracle of two new lives.

My heart is filled with joy and I hope that you too experience the beauty and grace of a prayer that has been answered or said for you. Have a good and blessed week.

Mare