Hello my friends! Another start of another week!! Praying it all gives you many blessings! We all need those special Blessings that only come from our Lord and Savior, Jesus! He blesses us with our Faith, He blesses us with our families and our loved ones, pets and everything good comes from Him. You all know where the bad comes from, not Him. Well today's blessings - a restful day, and just an ordinary day except that it was Sunday filled with the Blessings of Holy Mass this morning! We will try harder to get to daily Mass again, it's such a wonderful way to start out our day! I was surprised that with all the standing I did yesterday in canning, my part of it, I didn't have leg cramps last night and today I felt normal, so that's a great blessing! What are your blessings? Praying for you all and praying for healings from surgeries, Felicia, and Love Roses. May God grant you healings faster than normal, that is my prayer for you.
If a person or a situation causes you to feel insecure, you have
forgotten who you really are. Lord, You are my Father. I am Your
child. How can I ever feel like less.
Scripture for the day:
"No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one
and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and wealth." ~Luke 16:13
Meditation for the day:
Sometimes we'd like the full and complete satisfaction that we can
find in serving God and all the satisfactions of the world as well.
It is not easy to serve both God and the world. It is difficult to
claim the rewards of both. If we work for God, we can still have
great rewards in the world. We can also be prepared to sometimes
stand apart from the world. If we turn to the world for all the
rewards which life has to offer we can be disappointed. If we try
sincerely to serve God, we can have other and greater rewards than the
world has to offer.
Prayer for the day:
I pray that I may not expect too much from the world. I pray that I
may be content with the rewards that come from serving God.
Father,
May I always remember
that all the parts of my body are good because you made them,
that my body does not belong to me but to you,
who bought it at my Baptism
at the price of Christ's Cross
and that my body is the living temple of the Holy Spirit.
Give me self-control over my passions, appetites and imaginations;
give me respect for the opposite s#x
and esteem for my own;
create in me that wholeness and integrity
that all my powers may be consecrated to your service
according to my state in life.
May Mary the Blessed Virgin Mother,
watch over me through Christ our Lord. Amen.
- - -
Matthew 5:8 - "Happy are the pure in Heart; they will see God!"
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - Don't you know that your body is a temple for the
Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not
belong to yourselves but to God; he has bought you for a price. So use your
bodies for God's glory.
Mother Teresa Said...
"That is why Jesus made himself bread
to satisfy our hunger for God.
See the humility of God.
He also made Himself the hungry one
to satisfy our hunger for God
through our love, our service.
Let us pray that none of us will be unfaithful.
Let us pray for our poor people.
They are also hungry for God."
THE WAY TO GOD
If my days were untroubled
and my heart always light
Would I seek the fair land
where there is no night;
If I never grew weary
with the weight of my load
Would I search for God's Peace
at the end of the road;
If I never knew sickness
and never felt pain
Would I reach for a hand
to help and sustain;
If I walked not with sorrow
and lived without loss
Would my soul seek solace
at the foot of the cross;
If all I desired was mine
day by day
Would I kneel before God
and earnestly pray;
If God sent no "Winter"
to freeze me with fear
Would I yearn for the warmth
of "Spring" every year;
I ask myself this
and the answer is plain--
If my life were all pleasure
and I never knew pain
I'd seek God less often
and need Him much less,
For God's sought more often
in times of distress,
And no one knows God
or sees Him as plain
As those who have met Him
on the "Pathway of Pain."
By Helen Steiner Rice
[source: Only The Real Matters by Francis Kong]
"No one knows what he can do until he tries. Do not let countless job
promotions and opportunities pass you by for fear that you would not be able
to do what is expected of you.
Such fears are baseless."
Handel wrote his best music after his doctors had told him about his
impending death. While Beethoven wrote the Fifth Symphony after he had
become deaf.
Three of the world's greatest poets - Homer, Milton, and Dante were blind
men.
Hannibal and Lord Nelson, both outstanding generals, each had one eye.
Daniel Defoe wrote the classic Robinson Crusoe while in prison. So did John
Bunyan with his Pilgrim's Progress. Martin Luther translated the Bible in
the Castle of Wartburg.
Dante wrote for 20 years in exile while awaiting execution, Cervantes wrote
Don Quixote in a Madrid jail. The apostle Paul himself wrote his epistles
joyfully while under arrest.
Hold on to your dreams. Tell God about them and if He approves them, lift
them up in prayer and they will come to pass. Without God, it is not worth
dreaming about them.
The Cross (Today we celebrated the Exultation of the Holy Cross)
The power of the cross...an incredible story
In 1967 while I was taking a class in photography at the University of
Cincinnati, I became acquainted with a young man named Charles Murray, who
was also a student at the school and training for the summer Olympics of
1968 as a high diver. Charles was very patient with me as I would speak to
him for hours about Jesus Christ and how He had saved me. Charles was not
raised in a home that attended any kind of church, so all that I had to tell
him was a fascination to him. He even began to ask questions about
forgiveness of sin. Finally the day came that I put a question to him. I
asked if he had realized his own need of a redeemer and if he was ready to
trust Christ as his own Saviour. I saw his countenance fall and the guilt in
his face. But his reply was a strong 'no'. In the days that followed he was
quiet and often I felt that he was avoiding me, until I got a phone call
from him. He wanted to know where to look in the New Testament for some
verses that I had given him about salvation. I gave him the references to
several passages and asked if I could meet with him. He declined my offer
and thanked me for the scripture. I could tell that he was greatly troubled,
but I did not know where he was or how to help him.
Because he was training for the Olympic Games, Charles had special
privileges at the University pool facilities. Sometime between 10:30 and
11:00 that evening he decided to go swim and practice a few dives. It was a
clear night in October and the moon was big and bright. The University pool
was housed under a ceiling of glass panes so the moon shone brightly across
the top of the wall in the pool area. Charles climbed to the highest
platform to take his first dive. At that moment the Spirit of God began to
convict him of his sins. All the scripture he had read, all the occasions of
witnessing to him about Christ flooded his mind. He stood on the platform
backwards to make his dive, spread his arms to gather his balance, looked up
to the wall and saw his own shadow caused by the light of the moon. His
shadow was in the shape of a cross. He could bear the burden of sin no
longer. His heart broke and he sat down on the platform and asked God to
forgive him and save him. He trusted Jesus Christ twenty some feet in the
air. Suddenly, the lights in the pool area came on. The attendant had come
in to check the pool. As Charles looked down from his platform he saw an
EMPTY pool which had been drained for repairs.
He had almost plummeted to his death, but the cross had stopped him from
disaster.
Galatians 6:14
Invocation to the Cross
Oh Almighty God who has suffered death on the Cross for all my sins... Be
with me.
Holy Cross of Jesus Christ... Have pity on me.
Holy Cross of Jesus Christ... Be my hope.
Holy Cross of Jesus Christ... Ward off from me all cunning weapons.
Holy Cross of Jesus Christ... Pour unto me all good.
Holy Cross of Jesus Christ... Turn away from me all evil.
Holy Cross of Jesus Christ... Make me reach the road of Salvation.
Holy Cross of Jesus Christ... Ward off from me all murderous attempts.
Holy Cross of Jesus Christ... Preserve me from all corporal and temporal
accidents.
May I adore the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ forever.
Jesus of Nazareth crucified... Have mercy on me.
Grant that the evil and harmful spirit fly away forever. Amen
In honor of the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
In honor of the Incarnation by which He can lead us to Eternal Life...
Have Mercy on us.
Note: While these invocations are apparently addressed to the Holy Cross, in
fact, we are praying to Jesus Christ hanging on the cross. Just as on Good
Friday we have the ceremony which we call the Veneration, or even Adoration
of the Cross, but, in fact, we are venerating or adoring the: One hanging on
the cross. The Cross itself is simply a piece of wood, used as an instrument
of our salvation. When we come to kiss the cross, it is the Body of Christ
that we kiss, and not the wood of the cross itself.
TURN YOUR SECURITY SYSTEM ON!
Author Unknown
A horrible thing happened to me today.....a thief broke into my house. It
happened shortly after I awoke this morning. I got up and began rushing
about. I had a thousand things on my list and was already running behind.
Quickly, I gulped down breakfast, took a shower and got ready for work.
In my rush, I forgot to turn the security system on at my house. It was just
about a half an hour later that the thief broke in. Of course, he didn't
make a sound. Just kind of snuck inside, not drawing any attention to
himself. In fact, none of the neighbors ever saw him.
But, I did.
You see, I WAS HOME when the thief broke in.
He naturally startled me, as I was unprepared for his visit. He, of course,
didn't announce that he was coming and I certainly had not invited him over.
And yet, I found myself face to face with danger and I felt so powerless. I
also felt so very stupid, because this whole incident could have been
avoided if I had just taken the time to turn the security system on.
You better believe I'll be turning it on tomorrow morning! I thought I'd
warn you about this guy, because he's still on the loose. Chances are, he's
in your area. Possibly even headed for your house.
His name? His name is Satan. You see, this morning when I jumped up in my
haste to get started on my busy day, I skipped my prayer time - opting to
"pray later today." In other words, I DIDN'T TURN ON THE SECURITY SYSTEM. My
defense wasn't on, my guard was dropped ..... and when the thief came into
my home to attack me, I was unprepared to do battle. He tempted me and I
felt powerless. Like I said, I also felt so very stupid, because I could
have avoided the incident if I had just taken the time to pray.
My friend, the thief has come to "steal, kill and destroy." And, as a Child
of God, you are on his "hit list." He'll probably pop over to your house
today. He may be lurking outside your door right now, just waiting to catch
you off guard.
Take time to pray this morning. Ask God to bind Satan from your very
presence, to protect you and empower you to do battle. In short ..... don't
forget to turn your security system on.
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