Community Chat

[gloriajean]

Hello my friends! Today's blessings started out with having Jeremy over for lunch - he was ordained a deacon a few weeks ago, going on to being a priest next June. His parents are friends of ours for many years, it's nice to see Jeremy again as an adult and being in our parish for the summer learning Parish Work etc. It was a very nice visit - I made homemade chicken soup with garden veggies, and also served lunch meat sandwiches. Forgot the dessert which would have been ice cream with our raspberries on top, but he said he'll take a raincheck on that, so he'll come again - Before his ordination, the last time I saw him when he was a kid. Before going to bed last night I picked more lettuce and greens and got them all rinsed and sorted - and in the fridge. Soon our banana peppers are ready to be picked. They look so good already, maybe they are already ready to go! Hope to see you here with blessings to share and positive thoughts and prayers.

In your search for peace, look within. If you are looking elsewhere,
you are looking in the wrong place. Lord, help me to open my heart
to Your gift of peace and refuse to let anything in that disturbs it.


Scripture for the day:

"Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well." ~Matthew 6:33

Meditation for the day:

"Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well." We need not seek material
things first, but seek spiritual things first and material things will
come to us, as we honestly work for them. Many of us seek material
things first and think they can then grow into knowledge of spiritual
things. We cannot serve God and earthly things at the same time. The
first requisites of an abundant life are spiritual things: honesty,
purity, unselfishness and love. Until we have these qualities,
quantities of material things are of little real use to us.


Prayer for the day:

I pray that I may put much effort into acquiring spiritual things. I
pray that I may get right spiritually and enjoy the many gifts around
me.



Words of Encouragement

The Hope That Awaits!
2 Corinthians 5:1

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a
building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,” said Jesus. His
enemies, thinking him the enemy of the Herodian temple, made this claim the
basis of the charge against him and used it to destroy him. It was the
greatest turnabout in history, since in so doing they fulfilled his words
and God, for his part, kept his end of the prophecy as well—-three days
later. Now Jesus reigns eternally in the heavens and we who are baptized
into his death will share with him in that risen life as well. Today, thank
God for the new life of soul and body that Jesus won for us in the
destruction of his earthly tent and the establishment of his eternal and
heavenly House.

Just a Word of Encouragement
from Mark Shea and Jeff Cavins.

The Right Moves

One day, many years ago, when I was working as a psychologist at a
children's institution in England, an adolescent boy showed up in the
waiting room. I went out there where he was walking up and down restlessly.

I showed him into my office and pointed to the chair on the other side of my
desk. It was in late autumn, and the lilac bush outside the window had shed
all its leaves. "Please sit down," I said.

David wore a black rain coat that was buttoned all the way up to his neck.
His face was pale, and he stared at his feet while wringing his hands
nervously. He had lost his father as an infant, and had lived together with
his mother and grandfather since. But the year before David turned 13, his
grandfather died and his mother was killed in a car accident. Now he was 14
and in family care.

His head teacher had referred him to me. "This boy," he wrote, "is
understandably very sad and depressed. He refuses to talk to others and I'm
very worried about him. Can you help?"

I looked at David. How could I help him? There are human tragedies
psychology doesn't have the answer to, and which no words can describe.
Sometimes the best thing one can do is to listen openly and sympathetically.

The first two times we met, David didn't say a word. He sat hunched up in
the chair and only looked up to look at the children's drawings on the wall
behind me. As he was about to leave after the second visit, I put my hand on
his shoulder. He didn't shrink back, but he didn't look at me either.

"Come back next week, if you like," I said. I hesitated a bit. Then I said,
"I know it hurts."

He came, and I suggested we play a game of chess. He nodded. After that we
played chess every Wednesday afternoon - in complete silence and without
making any eye contact. It's not easy to cheat in chess, but I admit that I
made sure David won once or twice.

Usually, he arrived earlier than agreed, took the chessboard and pieces from
the shelf and began setting them up before I even got a chance to sit down.
It seemed as if he enjoyed my company. But why did he never look at me?

"Perhaps he simply needs someone to share his pain with," I thought.
"Perhaps he senses that I respect his suffering." One afternoon in late
winter, David took off his rain coat and put it on the back of the chair.
While he was setting up the chess pieces, his face seemed more alive and his
motions more lively.

Some months later, when the lilacs blossomed outside, I sat starring at
David's head, while he was bent over the chessboard. I thought about how
little we know about therapy - about the mysterious process associated with
healing. Suddenly, he looked up at me.

"It's your turn," he said.

After that day, David started talking. He got friends in school and joined a
bicycle club. He wrote to me a few times ("I'm biking with some friends and
I feel great"); letters about how he would try to get into university. After
some time, the letters stopped. Now he had really started to live his own
life.

Maybe I gave David something. At least I learned a lot from him. I learned
how time makes it possible to overcome what seems to be an insuperable pain.
I learned to be there for people who need me. And David showed me how one -
without any words - can reach out to another person. All it takes is a hug,
a shoulder to cry on, a friendly touch, a sympathetic nature - and an ear
that listens.

12 Signs of a Spiritual Awakening

1. An increased tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.

2. Frequent attacks of smiling.

3. Feelings of being connected with others and nature.

4. Frequent overwhelming episodes of appreciation.

5. A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fears based
on past experience.

6. An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.

7. A loss of ability to worry.

8. A loss of interest in conflict.

9. A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.

10. A loss of interest in judging others.

11. A loss of interest in judging self.

12. Gaining the ability to love without expecting anything in return.