Daily Positive Thread for Saturday

gloriajean — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 03:28:22 GMT

Hello my friends! Hope your day is going well. We went to the noon Mass today at the Cathedral - it's been a long time since we were there for their noon Mass, due to his working hours etc. but today was his day off, and it is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, and Father Jerry had the Mass, nice surprise! He read a bit about Juan Deigo's life with the Blessed Virgin appearing to him, wanting a big Church built right there in her honor, and he was supposed to tell the Bishop. Well, after a few tries with the Bishop, Our Lady provided a GREAT MIRACLE to show it's really her - the Blessed Virgin asking for this. I'll have a bit on this in this thread if you're interested. The Mass was the highlight of this day! What a blessing to receive the Body and Blood of Christ at each Mass we attend! Father Jerry is our Spiritual Director too, and I need to call him for our Confessions with him and visit before we leave on the 22nd. He is a GREAT Spiritual Director for us and a lot of other people! Since his retirement from active duty being in charge of Parishes all his priestly life, he's now doing a lot of Spiritual Direction. He is gifted. Praise the Lord. Praying for you all, and now as Lucy says, I will hush.

  The important thing is not how long your life is, but how good your life is.
Lord, may I glorify You all the days of my life.


S C R I P T U R E F O R T H E D A Y

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were
called in the one body. And be thankful." ~Colossians 3:15

M E D I T A T I O N F O R T H E D A Y

We can be at home and comfortable in the world. Yet some of us live
lives of quiet desperation. This is the opposite of being at home and at
peace in the world. We can let our peace of mind be evident to those around 
us.
We can let others see that we are comfortable, and seeing it, know that it
springs from our trust in God. The dull, hard way of resignation is
not God's way. Faith can take the sting out of the winds of adversity and
can bring peace even in the midst of struggle.

P R A Y E R F O R T H E D A Y

I pray that I may be more comfortable in my way of living. I pray that
I may feel more at home and at peace within myself.

Prayer to
Our Lady of
Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe, mystical rose, intercede for the Church, protect the 
Holy Father, help all who invoke You in their necessities. Since You are the 
ever Virgin Mary and Mother of the True God, obtain for us from Your Most 
Holy Son the grace of a firm and sure hope amid bitterness of life, as well 
as an ardent love and the precious gift of final perseverance.
Dearest Lady, fruitful Mother of Holiness, teach me Your ways of gentleness 
and strength. Hear my prayer, offered with deep felt confidence to beg this 
favor.
O Mary, conceived without sin, I come to your throne of grace to share the 
fervent devotion of your faithful Mexican children who call to Thee under 
the glorious title "Guadalupe" - the Virgin who crushed the serpent.

Queen of Martyrs, whose Immaculate Heart was pierced by seven swords of 
grief, help me to walk valiantly amid the sharp thorns strewn across my 
path. Invoke the Holy Spirit of Wisdom to fortify my will to frequent the 
Sacraments so that, thus enlightened and strengthened, I may prefer God to 
all creatures and shun every occasion of sin.

Help me, as a living branch of the Vine that is Jesus Christ, to exemplify 
His divine charity always seeking the good of others. Queen of Apostles, aid 
me to win souls for the Sacred Heart of my Savior. Keep my apostolate 
fearless, dynamic, and articulate, to proclaim the loving solitude of Our 
Father in Heaven so that the wayward may heed His pleading and obtain 
pardon, through the merits of Your Merciful Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Amen.

The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the 16th century. 
Chronicles of that period tell us the story.

A poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given the name Juan 
Diego. He was a 57-year-old widower and lived in a small village near Mexico 
City. On Saturday morning, December 9, 1531, he was on his way to a nearby 
barrio to attend Mass in honor of Our Lady.

He was walking by a hill called Tepeyac when he heard beautiful music like 
the warbling of birds. A radiant cloud appeared and within it stood a young 
Native American maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. The lady spoke to him 
in his own language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico, a Franciscan named 
Juan de Zumarraga. The bishop was to build a chapel in the place where the 
lady appeared.

Eventually the bishop told Juan Diego to have the lady give him a sign. 
About this same time Juan Diego’s uncle became seriously ill. This led poor 
Diego to try to avoid the lady. The lady found Diego, nevertheless, assured 
him that his uncle would recover and provided roses for Juan to carry to the 
bishop in his cape or tilma.

When Juan Diego opened his tilma in the bishop’s presence, the roses fell to 
the ground and the bishop sank to his knees. On Juan Diego’s tilma appeared 
an image of Mary exactly as she had appeared at the hill of Tepeyac. It was 
December 12, 1531.


Comment:
Mary's appearance to Juan Diego as one of his people is a powerful reminder 
that Mary and the God who sent her accept all peoples. In the context of the 
sometimes rude and cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, the 
apparition was a rebuke to the Spaniards and an event of vast significance 
for Native Americans. While a number of them had converted before this 
incident, they now came in droves. According to a contemporary chronicler, 
nine million Indians became Catholic in a very short time. In these days 
when we hear so much about God's preferential option for the poor, Our Lady 
of Guadalupe cries out to us that God's love for and identification with the 
poor is an age-old truth that stems from the Gospel itself.

Quote:
Mary to Juan Diego: “My dearest son, I am the eternal Virgin Mary, Mother of 
the true God, Author of Life, Creator of all and Lord of the Heavens and of 
the Earth...and it is my desire that a church be built here in this place 
for me, where, as your most merciful Mother and that of all your people, I 
may show my loving clemency and the compassion that I bear to the Indians, 
and to those who love and seek me...” (from an ancient chronicle).

A Dozen Christmas Roses
Bobby was getting cold sitting out in his back yard in the snow.
Bobby didn't wear boots; he didn't like them and anyway he didn't own any.
The thin sneakers he wore had a few holes in them and they did a poor job of 
keeping out the cold. Bobby had been in his backyard for about an hour 
already. And, try as he might, he could not come up with an idea for his 
mother's Christmas gift.

He shook his head as he thought, "This is useless, even if I do come up with 
an idea, I don't have any money to spend,"

Ever since his father had passed away three years ago, the family of five 
had struggled. It wasn't because his mother didn't care, or try, there just 
never seemed to be enough. She worked nights at the hospital, but the small 
wage that she was earning could only be stretched so far. What the family 
lacked in money and material things, they more than made up for in love and 
family unity. Bobby had two older and one younger sister, who ran the house 
hold in their mother's absence. All three of his sisters had already made 
beautiful gifts for their mother.

Somehow it just wasn't fair. Here it was Christmas Eve already, and he had 
nothing. Wiping a tear from his eye, Bobby kicked the snow and started to 
walk down to the street where the shops and stores were. It wasn't easy 
being six without a father, especially when he needed a man to talk to.

Bobby walked from shop to shop, looking into each decorated window.
Everything seemed so beautiful and so out of reach. It was starting to get 
dark and Bobby reluctantly turned to walk home when suddenly his eyes caught 
the glimmer of the setting sun's rays reflecting off of something along the 
curb. He reached down and discovered a shiny dime. Never before has anyone 
felt so wealthy as Bobby felt at that moment.

As he held his new found treasure, a warmth spread throughout his entire 
body and he walked into the first store he saw. His excitement quickly 
turned cold when the salesperson told him that he couldn't buy anything with 
only a dime.

He saw a flower shop and went inside to wait in line. When the shop owner 
asked if he could help him, Bobby presented the dime and asked if he could 
buy one flower for his mother's Christmas gift.

The shop owner looked at Bobby and his ten cent offering. Then he put his 
hand on Bobby's shoulder and said to him, "You just wait here and I'll see 
what I can do for you."

As Bobby waited he looked at the beautiful flowers and even though he was a 
boy, he could see why mothers and girls liked flowers.

The sound of the door closing as the last customer left jolted Bobby back to 
reality. All alone in the shop, Bobby began to feel alone and afraid. 
Suddenly the shop owner came out and moved to the counter. There, before 
Bobby's eyes, lay twelve long stem, red roses, with leaves of green and tiny 
white flowers all tied together with a big silver bow. Bobby's heart sank 
as the owner picked them up and placed them gently into a long white box.

"That will be ten cents young man," the shop owner said reaching out his 
hand for the dime.

Slowly, Bobby moved his hand to give the man his dime. Could this be true? 
No one else would give him a thing for his dime!

Sensing the boy's reluctance, the shop owner added, "I just happened to have 
some roses on sale for ten cents a dozen. Would you like them?"

This time Bobby did not hesitate, and when the man placed the long box into 
his hands, he knew it was true. Walking out the door that the owner was 
holding for Bobby, he heard the shop keeper say, "Merry Christmas, son,"

As he returned inside, the shop keeper's wife walked out. "Who were you 
talking to back there and where are the roses you were fixing?"

Staring out the window, and blinking the tears from his own eyes, he 
replied, "A strange thing happened to me this morning. While I was setting 
up things to open the shop, I thought I heard a voice telling me to set 
aside a dozen of my best roses for a special gift. I wasn't sure at the 
time whether I had lost my mind or what, but I set them aside anyway.
Then just a few minutes ago, a little boy came into the shop and wanted to 
buy a flower for his mother with one small dime.

"When I looked at him, I saw myself, many years ago. I too, was a poor boy 
with nothing to buy my mother a Christmas gift. A bearded man, whom I never 
knew, stopped me on the street and told me that he wanted to give me ten 
dollars.

"When I saw that little boy tonight, I knew who that voice was, and I put 
together a dozen of my very best roses." The shop owner and his wife hugged 
each other tightly, and as they stepped out into the bitter cold air, they 
somehow didn't feel cold at all.

May this story instill the spirit of Christmas in you enough to pass this 
story along. Have a Joyous and Peace-filled season.

Signs of simplicity

The simple person may stand out for:
- His thoughtful way of treating others
- Her sincere joy when he greets a friend
- His ability to accept the things he has without needing to compare himself 
or feel superior to others
- How she spontaneously praises others for their qualities, without 
exaggerating
- How he deals with God in a respectful, loving way
- How she rejoices in others’ successes and achievements
- How he doesn’t need complicated, expensive toys to have fun
- How she does not need to be the center of attention or talk about herself 
incessantly
- How he listens to his friends, valuing them for who they are, not for 
their external achievements
- How she can acknowledge her own victories without getting puffed up or 
complicated

Advent Day 13 - Active Waiting

As we've already seen, Advent is a time of waiting. But does this mean that 
we do nothing? That we sit like lumps? No. In fact, there is something very 
"active" about waiting.

Do you recall how lively and attentive you are when you are eagerly waiting 
for someone to arrive? When you watch for every car that comes by when you 
are waiting at the airport? Every sense strains to take in what is 
happening. Your mind is alive with expectation; your spirit is jumping.

This is what waiting means in the spiritual sense; this is the mood of 
Advent. We're invited to actively wait, attuned to the coming Christ, 
looking for him in the liturgy, the Scriptures, in prayer, and in all those 
around us who bear his image.

Re: Daily Positive Thread for Saturday

lovestopaint — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 04:22:12 GMT

Hi Gloria, I hope Lori can help you with your tablet, I don't think I can help with cut and paste. Counting my blessings and blessings to all. Harlene(lovestopaint)

Re: Daily Positive Thread for Saturday

Puzzle Piece — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 18:35:47 GMT

Hello To All!

Many blessings in my life. We finally had rain - real rainfall here in S.California. A much needed blessing. Water is for me a cleanser, a purifying agent, a life giver, something that quenches, a fresh start. Many spiritual goods that water represents.

I was in Mexico City as an older teen and saw the Cathedral where the Lady of Guadalupe is displayed - more or less. At the time, it was suspended high above an altar in a sealed frame. No one was allowed to get near and I believe it was only lowered for the Pope or another dignitary - John F. Kennedy I believe. At the time there were and still are the Indian Natives who did not inter-marry with the Europeans and they are very obvious. They were still mistreated and looked down upon but I observed that they were the most devout.

This holiday season and throughout the year, is a reminder for me to always humble myself in the face of the creator and to offer what I can to make life and living a better place for others. Not an easy task and I too often don't succeed but when I do, it's another blessing I am graced to observe.

I daily give thanks for this nation, her people, her strength, her resilience, and her tapestry of good from shore to shore. She has outstanding troops and allies along with generosity and mercy. What a wonderful place to live and grow in peace and in love. Take care all.

Re: Daily Positive Thread for Saturday

HeresLucy — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 20:04:12 GMT

Peace and blessings to all.

Re: Daily Positive Thread for Saturday

Bobbi sue — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 20:15:05 GMT

Counting my blessings....Blessings to all here. Got my car back and love it. God is good.

Re: Daily Positive Thread for Saturday

gloriajean — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 09:00:21 GMT

Harlene - I'll get it yet - I'm determined to learn how! Never too old to learn new things, right?

Julie - Enjoy your Christmas with your loved ones especially DH! Hope we see you yet before I leave. Beautiful graphics.

Love Roses - That's great that you got the rain that was much needed! Praise the Lord. Water does many spiritual cleansing also, with Baptism, Holy Water etc. etc. So you were in Mexico City and saw where Our Lady of Guadeloupe was displayed, That had to be wonderful - were you able to see it alright? To just think that Mary left her picture on his cloak for proof that she wanted a Church built there. And also roses fell out of his cloak too, in winter!! Just amazing!!!

Hi Lucy!

Bobbiesue - glad you got your car back now - that is a great blessing!

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