52. How to find Hope and Healing in a Broken World: The Catholic Mother's Retreat

The news cycle overwhelms us with tragedy—political assassinations, church shootings, global conflicts, and the cries of suffering people worldwide. Where do we turn when darkness seems to engulf our daily lives? This deeply moving episode offers a spiritual sanctuary through a special Mother's Day retreat that feels perfectly timed for our current moment of collective grief.

We journey together to the Garden of Gethsemane, reflecting on how Jesus himself responded when facing his greatest suffering—by turning to prayer. Following His divine example, we're invited to bring our heaviest burdens to the foot of the cross, looking to Mary's "Feminine Genius" as our guide. Her unimaginable strength watching her son die transforms our understanding of suffering, revealing how God can turn even the most horrific evil into the path of salvation.

The retreat begins with "Freedom from Fear," honouring Saint Anne, Mary's mother, whose quiet and little known life of raising the Mother of God reminds us that our daily tasks as mothers—cooking, cleaning, teaching—become part of God's Divine plan when done with love. Sheila's personal testimony of healing through Saint Anne's intercession brings our Catholic faith n into our everyday lives, offering tangible hope when we feel most helpless.

Mary's humble "Yes" to God appears as weakness to a secular world, yet reveals the profound courage found in surrendering our will to God's greater purpose. Through beautiful prayers and a litany honouring Our Lady's  presence around the world, we're equipped to embrace our vocations with renewed trust and peace amid uncertainty.

To find the retreat, please search for "Prayerful and Powerful Retreat for Mothers with Our Lady"
https://hozana.org

To see more of Charlie Kirk's legacy, please visit:
https://www.youtube.com/@UCfaIu2jO-fppCQV_lchCRIQ 

Please subscribe to the Veil and Armoir podcast for weekly inspiration that views Catholic motherhood through both a journalist's lens and a mother's heart. Let's journey together, finding strength to Be Brave, Bold, and Blessed even in life's darkest moments.

Chapters

• 0:00 How do we respond to suffering and global tragedies?
• 1:55 Introduction to the Veil and Armour Podcast
• 4:30 Beginning the Mother's Day Retreat
• 6:26 Saint Anne's Intercession and Miracles
• 8:47 Prayers and Closing Thoughts

Transcript

Sheila Nonato: 0:00

Sisters in Christ, Welcome to the Veil Armour Podcast, and this has been a tough couple of weeks, a tough few weeks. Whichever political side you're on, the compassionate side of humanity weeps for Erica Kirk, the widow of conservative Christian speaker, political organizer, charlie Kirk. She has lost her best friend, her beloved husband, in the most horrific, tragic way, and she and her children witnessed his cold-blooded, horrific murder, and so did we around the world. There was also the tragic shooting of Catholic students at Annunciation Church in Minnesota, the death of two precious children and the cold-blooded murder of Ukrainian artist Irina Zerutska on a public bus in North Carolina.

Sheila Nonato: 0:53

We still have the ongoing wars around the world Ukraine, Gaza, the Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza. We have the famine in Yemen. The list of suffering around the world is long. Do these unsettling headlines make you wonder what to do?

Sheila Nonato: 1:12

Let's reflect on what Jesus did when he was going to face his greatest suffering and trial. He went to the Garden of Gethsemane and reached out to the Heavenly Father to pray. I thought it appropriate to bring back a retreat. I wrote for the Hozana Prayer app on hozana. org is where you'll find it. It was a retreat for Mother's Day last year and about 2,000 people joined, and please let's bring our sorrows, our heavy hearts, our burdens, whatever is weighing us, to Jesus at the foot of the Cross. Let's bring it to the Holy Trinity in prayer.

Sheila Nonato: 1:55

And let us look to the example of the Feminine Genius of Mother Mary and how she was able to carry her own cross, of watching her only son die in the most horrific, torturous way, and how God transformed the act of torture, the act of execution, into eternal love, how he turned that evil act into the path towards our salvation. And his last words on the cross were father, forgive them, for they know not what they're doing. And that speaks to us in terms of love, that jesus, even though he was dying, he was also still thinking of us. And how we can turn our sins, turn around our lives and our sins and give it over to God. Give it over to Him and come back to God, and so we can finally, when it is our time to leave this earth, we can meet our Heavenly Father face to face in heaven. Please join me and thank you so much for being here this week. May God bless you and protect you, keep your family safe, strong in the faith, God bless.

Sheila Nonato: 3:24

Hello and welcome to the Veil and Armour podcast. This is your host, Sheila Nonato. I'm a stay-at-home mom and a freelance Catholic journalist, Seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of Our Lady. I strive to tell stories that inspire, illuminate and enrich the lives of Catholic women, to help them in living out our vocation of raising the next generation of leaders and saints.

Co-Host: 3:47

Please join us every week on the Veil and Armour podcast, where stories come alive through a journalist's lens and mother's heart.

Sheila Nonato: 3:59

Hello and welcome to the Veil and Armour podcast. This is your host, Sheila Nonato. I'm a stay-at-home mom and a freelance Catholic journalist, Seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of Our Lady. I strive to tell stories that inspire, illuminate and enrich the lives of Catholic women, to help them in living out our vocation of raising the next generation of leaders and saints.

Co-Host: 4:22

Please join us every week on the Veil and Armour podcast, where stories come alive through a journalist's lens and mother's heart.

Sheila Nonato: 4:30

Welcome to day one of the retreat for Mother's Day. Let's begin with a prayer In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Day one freedom from fear. Day 1 Freedom from Fear, trusting in God, Opening Prayer.

Sheila Nonato: 4:47

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of all mothers, especially on this Mother's Day. We thank you for the gift of Mother Mary and her heroic witness of faith. We have gratitude for the grandparents who raised mothers well and to the husbands and children who support mothers. In what GK Chesterton wrote was the most important vocation, the homemaker has the ultimate career, chesterton wrote. All the other careers exist for one purpose only, that is, to support the ultimate career. May we continue to be inspired by Our Lady's courage and trust in you and your divine plan as we go about our daily responsibilities of making family meals, nursing the baby, washing dishes and going about our work of motherhood. May we look to her example of faithful witness to Mother Mary's vocation as the mother of Jesus, when she fulfilled her daily tasks with love. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Reflection.

Sheila Nonato: 5:59

Welcome to Day 1 of the Retreat for Mothers. We will start the retreat with Good Saint Anne, the Mother of the Virgin Mary, our Lady. We start with the Grandmother of Our Lord Jesus, because she too had a noble vocation in raising Mary and in helping to prepare the Virgin Mary for her monumental role in salvation history as the Theotokos, the God-bearer, the mother of God. As a mother who homeschools two of my children, I look to Saint Anne as a role model, in addition to Our Lady, and how her work in the home was part of God's divine plan, how she must have gone about her daily tasks of cooking, cleaning and teaching Our Lady about homemaking and how to run a household with great love.

Sheila Nonato: 6:50

The patron saint of my home parish in Ontario, canada, is St. Anne, and she has helped my family in so many ways, including healing from temporary hearing loss in my right ear two years ago. A relic of St Anne, which is part of a larger relic from France of the saint's hand, which resides in the world-renowned Marian Shrine honoring the grandmother of Jesus at St. Anne de Beaupre in Quebec, Canada, resides in our home parish. One day our pastor, fr Jeffrey Oehring, left out the relic of St. Anne after Sunday Mass and I prayed in front of the relic, seeking healing from Our Lady and Our Lord through the intercession of St. Anne. A few days later, before my appointment with a specialist at the hospital to assess and decide on treatments, my hearing returned. I attributed to Our Lord's Divine healing and the help of the prayers of Good Saint Anne and Our Lady.

Sheila Nonato: 7:46

When we reflect upon the universal call to holiness, many have fears, doubts and anxiety about the future. Will we be able to live our vocation? Are we equipped enough? How can we answer the call to which God is calling us?

Sheila Nonato: 8:01

We look to the examples of Saint Anne and Our Lady in preparing Mary for her pivotal role in salvation history. Our Blessed Mother's humble yes may be seen as a sign of weakness in the secular world's eyes, a world that doesn't believe in God. Yet she chose to answer God's call with humility and trust in God, a surrender of her will to God's will. The Virgin Mary had a pivotal role to play, just like we all do in our own way, however big or small we see our daily tasks to be. As for Our Lady, she showed us courage in saying "yes to God. May we learn to embrace our God-given vocation in motherhood Litany.

Sheila Nonato: 8:47

Good Saint Anne, please pray for us.

Sheila Nonato: 8:49

Our Lady of Laval please pray for us.

Sheila Nonato: 8:52

Our Lady of Penaf rancia, please pray for us.

Sheila Nonato: 8:55

Our Lady of the Cape, please pray for us.

Sheila Nonato: 8:59

Our Lady of Czestochowa, please pray for us.

Sheila Nonato: 9:02

Our Lady of Kibeho, please pray for us.

Sheila Nonato: 9:05

Our Lady of Lourdes, please pray for us.

Sheila Nonato: 9:09

Dear Jesus, we ask you, through the intercession of St Anne, to help us in our vocation as mothers to guide our children, to teach them about your unconditional love, and to invest love, time and attention to the domestic church in our families by making it a peaceful, loving and life-giving home that honors and glorifies you. In our daily tasks of motherhood and our mission as a family, sent to every encounter we come to you, O Good Saint Anne, you have always been attentive to God's action, responding wholeheartedly to His call. Give us the gift of listening to everyone with compassion and commitment and to embrace every event in our lives with peace and serenity. By sharing the joys and sorrows of the men and women of today, we will become missionary disciples capable of revealing your merciful presence. Watch over all those whom we carry in our hearts. Intercede with Jesus, your beloved grandson, that he may grant us the grace we ask for.

Sheila Nonato: 10:11

Please mention your prayer request here, O Good Saint Anne. Always be our guide so that we may undertake with wisdom and courage the path that leads to the only encounter, the one where we will journey with faith and hope into the loving heart of the Father. Good Saint Anne, pray for us In the name of the Father and hope into the loving heart of the Father. Good Saint Anne, pray for us In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sheila Nonato: 10:50

Thank you for listening to the Veil and Armor podcast.

Co-Host: 10:53

I invite you to share this with another Catholic Mom today. Please subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel and please spread the word. Let's Be Brave, let's Be Bold and Be Blessed together.