Hello my Friends! Peace of Jesus be yours! It was a very nice and beautiful funeral Mass for Father Al. And I'm so glad I went, and asked our friends, Harold and Lorraine to come with us - they were so glad they went too. Father Al was their pastor for many years so they knew him well. Well our wine is good! We siphoned it out, and added another half cup sugar to it, hope it's enough, and put it back. Now all the crud is out and it's clear wine. Gosh! there's a lot of it! It's still working yet, then I guess the next thing will be bottling it. Have to buy some bottles and corks at the wine kit store. This wine is blueberry and apples (apples from our trees) the next one will be cranberry and apples. That's all we bought for wine starters. Nice to see you, Felicia, on the last thread - so sorry about your fall!! Praying for you all - for healings, and all your needs, in the Name of Jesus, I pray.
Do not take any action until you've prayed and listened and then you
will have guidance to reach the understanding necessary to complete
the things you need to do. Lord, I know that there is no obstacle for
You and ask that You will guide me along the right path.
Scripture for the day:
"If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this
mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey
you.'" ~Luke 17:6
Meditation for the day:
Day by day we can slowly build up an unshakable faith in God and in
God's ability to give us all the help we need. By having these quiet
times each morning, we can start each day with a renewing our faith,
until it becomes almost a part of us and a strong habit. We can keep
furnishing the quiet places of our souls with all the furniture of
faith. We can try to fill our thoughts each day with all that is
harmonious and good, beautiful and enduring.
Prayer for the day:
I pray that I may build a house in my soul for the spirit of God to
dwell in. I pray that I may come at last to an unshakable faith.
Love
To do ordinary things with extraordinary love
Let us love one another as God loves each one of us. And where does this
love begin? In our own home. How does it begin? By praying together
God told us, "Love your neighbor as yourself." So first I am to love myself
rightly, and then to love my neighbor like that. But how can I love myself
unless I accept myself as God has made me?
Contemplatives in the heart
We are not social workers. We may be doing social work in the eyes of some
people, but we must be contemplatives in the heart of the world.
Created to love
God has created us to love and to be loved, and this is the beginning of
prayer--to know that he loves me, that I have been created for greater
things.
Something beautiful for God
What I can do, you cannot. What you can do, I cannot. But together we can do
something beautiful for God.
The child
The child is God's gift to the family. Each child is created in the special
image and likeness of God for greater things - to love and to be loved.
Family
The family that prays together stays together, and if they stay together
they will love one another as God has loved each one of them. And works of
love are always works of peace.
Holiness
Holiness is not the luxury of the few; it is a simply duty, for you and for
me.
The Gift of Freedom
The mere ability to choose between good and evil is the lowest limit of
freedom, and the only thing that is free about it is the fact that we can
still choose good.
To the extent that you are free to choose evil, you are not free. An evil
choice destroys freedom.
We can never choose evil as evil: only as an apparent good. But when we
decide to do something that seems to us to be good when it is not really so,
we are doing something that we do not really want to do, and therefore we
are not really free.
Perfect spiritual freedom is a total inability to make any evil choice. When
everything you desire is truly good and every choice not only aspires to
that good but attains it, then you are free because you do everything that
you want, every act of your will ends in perfect fulfillment.
Freedom therefore does not consist in an equal balance between good and evil
choices but in the perfect love and acceptance of what is really good and
the perfect hatred and rejection of what is evil, so that everything you do
is good and makes you happy, and you refuse and deny and ignore every
possibility that might lead to unhappiness and self-deception and grief.
Only the man who has rejected all evil so completely that he is unable to
desire it at all, is truly free. God, in whom there is absolutely no shadow
or possibility of evil or of sin, is infinitely free. In fact, he is
Freedom.
Thomas Merton (Father Louis, OCSO)
New Seeds of Contemplation
This story tells of the man who set out to adopt a troubled teenage girl.
One would question his logic. She was destructive, disobedient, and
dishonest.
One day she came home from school and ransacked the house looking for money.
By the time he arrived, she was gone and the house was in shambles.
Upon hearing of her actions, a friend urged him not to finalize the
adoption. "You haven't completed the paperwork. You haven't signed any
documents. Let her go."
His response was simply, "But I've already promised her that she would be my
daughter."
God, too, has made a covenant to adopt his people. His covenant is not
invalidated by our rebellion. It's one thing to love us when we are strong,
obedient, and willing. But when we ransack his house and steal what is his?
This is the test of love. And God passes the test; Despite our sin, in the
face of our rebellion, He chose to adopt us.
- - -
Romans 5:8 - But God has shown us how much he loves us - it was while we
were still sinners that Christ died for us!
Matthew 9:12-13 - (Jesus said) "People who are well do not need a doctor,
but only those who are sick... I have not come to call respectable people,
but outcasts."
Ephesians 1:5 - God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would
make us his sons...
Let Go Of Sorrow
I've heard it said don't go to bed while hanging on to sorrow,
you may not have the chance to laugh with those you love tomorrow.
You may not mean the words you speak when anger takes its toll,
you may regret your actions once you've lost your self-control.
When you've lost your temper and you've said some hurtful things,
think about the heartache that your actions sometime bring.
You'll never get those moments back, such precious time to waste,
and all because of things you said in anger and in haste.
So if you're loving someone and your pride has settled in,
you may not ever have the chance to say to them again...
"I love you and I miss you and although we don't agree,
I'll try to see your point of view, please do the same for me."
Author Unknown
FLAME OF LOVE
Author Unkown
"I can master it," said the Ax. His blows fell heavy on the hard,
strong steel. But each blow only made his edge more blunt until he
ceased to strike.
"Leave it to me," said the Saw. With his relentless teeth, he worked
back and forth. But to his dismay, all of his teeth were worn out or
broken off.
"Ha!" said the Hammer. "I knew you could not do this. Let me show you
how." But with the very first blow, his head flew off, and the steel
was unchanged.
"Shall I try?" asked the Flame. And it curled itself gently around the
strong, hard steel, embraced it, and would not let it go. And the
tough steel melted.
There are hearts that are hard enough to resist the forces of wrath
and the fury of pride. But hard is the heart that can resist the warm
flame of Love.
"'For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with
their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see
with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes because
they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth,
many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not
see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.'" Matthew
13:15-17 (NIV)
We Salute You, O Mary, Mother of God
We salute you, O Mary, Mother of God, treasure of the universe,
inextinguishable flame, crown of virginity, sceptre of the true Faith,
indestructible temple, and tabernacle of the One Whom the world cannot
contain. In your virginal womb you enclosed the Immense and Incomprehensible
One.
It is through you that the only-begotten Son of God, Who is light, shone
amid the nations who were seated in darkness and the shadow of death. What
human voice can ever worthily celebrate the ineffable greatness of Mary? She
is Mother and Virgin at the same time. Through her, peace has been restored
to the world. What peace? Our Lord Jesus Christ, Whom Mary has brought
forth!
- Saint Cyril of Alexandria
For A Brighter Life
Go forth with each new dawning day
With faith in God and you,
And you will find that all your fears
Will disappear from view.
Go forth with faith in heart and mind
And confidence anew,
And there is nothing in this world
You'll find you cannot do.
Look at the brighter side of life,
Cast out glooms and despair,
And when you need a helping hand
You'll find God always there.
~ Harold F. Mohn ~
Then Why Don't We Pray?
The highest privilege ever afforded to man is the power of prayer...
...then why don't we pray?
The right to talk to the highest potentate in all the universe...
...then why don't we pray?
The most powerful force accessible to man is the potential of prayer...
...then why don't we pray?
The greatest longing in the heart of God is to talk to His children...
...then why don't we pray?
Nothing is impossible to those who pray...
...then why don't we pray?
No man ever fainted or faltered who gave himself to prayer...
...then why don't we pray?
Every sin is forgiven, every stain is washed clean, all guilt diminished to
the man who prays...
...then why don't we pray?
H ell moves farther away, Satan flees from the man who prays...
...then why don't we pray?
Anointing will come, mountains will be moved, valleys made smooth, rivers
made crossable, the inaccessible made accessible, the impossible made
possible, dreams come through to the man who prays...
...then why don't we pray?
Jesus said that men ought always to pray...
...then why don't we pray?
Paul encouraged prayer without ceasing...
...then why don't we pray?
The riches of heaven are open to those who pray in His name...
...then why don't we pray?
Everyone can pray, the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the strong, the
weak, the child, the aged, the sinner, the prisoner, in any nation, in any
language, all can pray...
...then why don't we pray?
Pass this on and encourage others to pray...
- Author Unknown
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