Daily Positive Thread for Saturday

gloriajean · ‎03-10-2010

Hello my friends! Hope your day is going well. Nice out here today - sure does look like spring, but March isn't here yet, anyway love the weather right now. My cold and cough is gone now, and I thank God and thanks for your prayers. My dear husband has the cold, but not that bad, his voice is down there, he's lucky he's had these two days off work, he goes again tomorrow. Praying for you all, for all your needs! God bless you!

Nothing in your day is too small to be a big part of God's plan for you.

Lord, I trust in Your design for me and I thank You for all of my moments,

even the grey ones.

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

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." ~Romans 12:21

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

The spiritual and moral will eventually overcome the material and immoral.
That is the purpose and destiny of the human race. Gradually the spiritual
can overcome the material in our minds. Gradually the moral can overcome
the immoral. Faith, fellowship and service are cures for most of the ills
of the world. There is nothing in the field of personal relationships that
they cannot do.

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

I pray that I may do my share in making a better world. I pray that I may
be part of the cure for the ills of the world.

Lent Day 17 - Lenten Reflection by Bishop Robert Barron

Mass and the Mountain

Yesterday we talked about the divine light as it appears through holy men and women. But is it possible for us ordinary people to see this light? I suggest that we do so every time we enter into the drama and beauty of the liturgy.

As Jesus appears in full glory, Peter, James, and John fall down in holy fear. This suggests an attitude of worship, the stance that all of us assume every time we approach the altar of God.

See also how the story paints an icon of the liturgy, both earthly and heavenly. At the center of it stands Jesus, the light of the world, the source of life. On either side of him stand Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the prophet). In the course of the liturgy, we read from the Old Testament, described in Jesus’ time in the shorthand of “the Law and the Prophets.”

Moses and Elijah also stand for the communion of saints, those who have been drawn into the heavenly life and who commune with Jesus. They are present at the liturgy, too, as we invoke them just before the Eucharistic prayer: “with the angels and the saints.”

There is also a “bright cloud” and from the cloud a voice declaring, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him.” The bright cloud signifies the Holy Spirit, and the voice is that of God the Father. This is a Trinitarian theophany—as at the Baptism of Jesus—and this theophany runs right through the liturgy from beginning to end.

After the vision, Peter, James, and John return to their day-to-day lives, coming back down the mountain. So, after we have glimpsed the light, we are told, “Go, the Mass is ended."

HOW TO BE HAPPY

Keep your heart free from hate and your mind free from worry,

live simply, expect little, give much,

sing often, pray always,

forget self, think of others and their feelings

fill your heart with love, scatter sunshine.

These are tried links in the golden chain of contentment.

The Break with the Past

You have surely heard the nice saying that's been around for a few years: "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." But now I'd like to coin a companion saying: "Today is the last day of your past."

Those two messages don't mean the same thing. The first advises us to get our life going the way we want it to go. The second means: get rid of old failures, taboos, inhibitions that have kept us from being what we can be.

As we grow, we pick up warnings like: "That's a no-no." "Don't you dare do that!" "Know your place." We learn what people around us consider to be "customary" or "proper" or "a shame." We also hear why something is "impossible" to do. If we are brainwashed by all this and go out as an adult into a very competitive world, we are short of our initiatives. We are handcuffed by these warnings which we have dragged up from history.

What we need are the unlimited vision and the natural imagination which we had as children. Let today be the last day of your past...

God's Hand

Sometimes...

We must be hurt in order to grow;
We must fail in order to know,
We must lose in order to gain.

Some lessons are learned best
Only through pain.

Sometimes...

Our vision clears
Only after our eyes are
Washed with tears.

Sometimes...

We have to be broken,
So we can be tender,
Sick so we can rest and think better;
On things more important
Than work or fun;
Trip near death,
So we can assess how we've run.

Sometimes...

We have to suffer lack,
So we can know God's provision,
Feel another's pain,
So we can have a sense of mission.

So take heart, my friend,
If you don't understand today,
Instead of grumbling,
Ask God what He means to say,
In order to learn you must endure,
And learn to see the bigger picture.

In order to grow, you must stand;
Look beyond the hurt
To God's loving hand
That takes what is good,
And gives what is best,

And on this blessed thought, rest:

As your anxious heart,
With questions, waits,
God's hand only gives
What His loving heart dictates.

Sometimes the Lord calms the storm;
Sometimes He lets the storm rage...
And calms His child.

Better the storm with Christ...
Than smooth waters without Him.

- Author Unknown

THE VISITOR
Author Unknown

One day, a man went to visit a church. He arrived early, parked his
car, and got out. Another car pulled up near him, and the driver told
him, "I always park there. You took my place!"

The visitor went inside for Sunday School, found an empty seat, and
sat down. A young lady from the church approached him and stated,
"That's my seat! You took my place!" The visitor was somewhat
distressed by this rude welcome, but said nothing.

After Sunday School, the visitor went into the church sanctuary and
sat down. Another member walked up to him and said, "That's where I
always sit. You took my place!" The visitor was even more troubled by
this treatment, but still said nothing.

Later, as the congregation was praying for Christ to dwell among them,
the visitor stood, and his appearance began to change. Horrible scars
became visible on his hands and on his sandaled feet. Someone from the
congregation noticed him and called out, "What happened to you?"

The visitor replied, "I took your place."

The Cross prepares the soul for patience

The Cross opens Heaven and earth together, that is, God and the soul.. The virtue of the Cross is powerful and when it enters into a soul, it has the power to take away the rust caused by earthly things. Not only that but it gives the soul boredom, annoyance and scorn for earthly things, and instead it gives it the taste for Heavenly things. But the virtue of the Cross is recognized by only a few, that is why many despise it.

A Prayer for Lent

"Lord, I kneel before you in my sinfulness and my greed, I repent of my wrongdoing and with Your help will try to avoid all occasions of sin. Your forgiveness cleanses me, washes me anew, so that I now shine out as a child of grace. Help me in my weakness, keep me strong and faithful to Your ways, Lord. Help me to wear the shield of Your protection"

BLESSINGS ON YOUR DAY

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.

There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much. I believe in person to person. Every person is Christ for me, and since there is only one Jesus, that person is the one person in the world at that moment.

There is but one love of Jesus, as there is but one person in the poor -- Jesus. We take vows of chastity to love Christ with undivided love; to be able to love him with undivided love we take a vow of poverty which frees us from all material possessions, and with that freedom we can love him with undivided love, and from this vow of undivided love we surrender ourselves totally to him in the person who takes his place.

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love. Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living _expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.

When Christ said: ''I was hungry and you fed me,'' he didn't mean only the hunger for bread and for food; he also meant the hunger to be loved. Jesus himself experienced this loneliness. He came amongst his own and his own received him not, and it hurt him then and it has kept on hurting him. The same hunger, the same loneliness, the same having no one to be accepted by and to be loved and wanted by. Every human being in that case resembles Christ in his loneliness; and that is the hardest part, that's real hunger.

Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

February 26 - Jesus Calling

I am leading you, step by step, through your life. Hold My hand in trusting dependence, letting Me guide you through this day. Your future looks uncertain and feels flimsy—even precarious. That is how it should be. Secret things belong to the Lord, and future things are secret things. When you try to figure out the future, you are grasping at things that are Mine. This, like all forms of worry, is an act of rebellion: doubting My promises to care for you.

Whenever you find yourself worrying about the future, repent and return to Me. I will show you the next step forward, and the one after that, and the one after that. Relax and enjoy the journey in My Presence, trusting Me to open up the way before you as you go.

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
—Deuteronomy 29:29

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.
—Psalm 32:8