Community Chat

[gloriajean]

Hello my friends! This week seemed to go fast as it's Friday already tomorrow! Our weather has really been nice today - in the 40's and we even sat out in the patio for a while - it was so nice and the shining of the sun right in there! Was nice to be back on the swing again! Today I was blessed with finding three things that I prayed to St. Anthony to help me find, and sure enough, he helped me find them! He is the Patron Saint for finding lost items. Daily you all are included in my daily Rosary - May God grant you all your hearts desires, I pray.

Our time here is short and there is still so much to be done. Lord, please

let me do a little more for You today so that the world may be a little

better because of me.

Scripture for the day:

"Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit

lead me on a level path. For your name's sake, O LORD, preserve my

life. In your righteousness bring me out of trouble. In your

steadfast love cut off my enemies, and destroy all my adversaries,

for I am your servant." ~Psalm 143:10-12

Meditation for the day:

When we are honestly trying to live the way we believe Gods wants

us to live, we can get guidance from God in times of quiet

communion. We can direct our thoughts toward God's will and all

good thing. The attitude of "Your will be done" leads to clear

guidance. We can act on this guidance and we can be led to better

things. Our impulses can seem to become less our own and more the

leading of God's spirit acting through our thoughts. Obeyed, they

can bring us the answers to our prayers.

Prayer for the day:

I pray that I may try to think God's thoughts after God. I pray

that my thoughts maybe guided by God's thoughts.

Here's some food for thought:

TRAPPED

By Sally I. Kennedy

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the

one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John

4:4) Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that

Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:5) To him who overcomes, I will

give the right to eat from the tree of life. (Revelation 2:7)

It was irresistible. Too warm and sunny, too lovely an afternoon to

not take a few minutes to sit outside on the back porch where we were

staying. I moved the rocker over to get a better view of the moss-

covered towering oaks.

A cat crawled into a space under the house. Bees busied themselves

around a clematis vine. I heard a faint buzzing. Another mosquito?

Thought I'd cleared out the corner of the porch of those pesky

critters.

The hum persisted. Turning around, I spied a glint of green. Near the

sliding door was a glass bottle. It looked antique-y. The glass

stopper had a green bee, or fly perched on top.

I picked it up, an saw that there were legs about ½ inch high to keep

the bottle barely off the ground. It also had a fake bottom - a large

hole with a lip around the inside of it. Inside were a couple dead

flies, and another flying frantically around the top trying to get

out.

Apparently the insects entered from underneath. They could leave the

same way they came in, but it looked as if for some reason they didn't

do that. They would continue towards the stopper, which was a dead

end.

Sometimes we feel trapped. We try and escape pressures of the world,

panic or just give up from the stress, yet sometimes the way out is

available. Jesus overcame the world and all its trappings (John 16:33)

and He has told us that we can too.

We are more than conquerors in Christ (Romans 8:37). Our Savior rose

from the dead and transcended circumstances; we can too b/c our lives

are hidden IN Him (Colossians 3:1-3).

Let's start living out the truth, above our circumstances. We are not

trapped. We are more than conquerors in Him who gave His life for us

and saved us.

This is good news!

The Difference

I got up early one morning

and rushed right into the day.

I had so much to accomplish

that I didn't have time to pray.

Problems just tumbled about me,

and heavier came each task.

I wondered "Why doesn't God help me?"

He answered, "You didn't ask."

I wanted to see joy and beauty,

but the day toiled gray and bleak;

I wondered why God didn't show me.

He said, "But you didn't seek."

I tried to come into God´s presence;

I used all my keys at the lock.

God gently and lovingly chided,

"My child, you didn't knock."

I woke early this morning,

and paused before entering the day;

I had so much to accomplish

that I had to take time to pray.

The Dress of Love

================

"Do you like my dress?" she asked of a passing stranger.

"My mommy made it just for me." She said with a tear in her eye.

"Well, I think it's very pretty, so tell me little one, why are you crying?"

With a quiver in her voice the little girl answered. "After Mommy made me

this dress, she had to go away."

"Well, now," said the lady, "with a little girl like you waiting for her,

I'm sure she'll be right back."

"No ma'am, you don't understand," said the child through her tears, "my

Daddy said that she's up in heaven now with Grandfather."

Finally the woman realized what the child meant, and why she was crying.

Kneeling down she gently cradled the child in her arms and together they

cried for the mommy that was gone.

Then suddenly the little girl did something that the woman thought was a

bit strange.

She stopped crying, stepped back from the woman and began to sing. She

sang so softly that it was almost a whisper. It was the sweetest sound the

woman had ever heard, almost like the song of a very small bird.

After the child stopped singing she explained to the lady, "My mommy used

to sing that song to me before she went away, and she made me promise to

sing it whenever I started crying and it would make me stop." "See," she

exclaimed, "it did, and now my eyes are dry!"

As the woman turned to go, the little girl grabbed her sleeve, "Lady, can

you stay just a minute? I want to show you something."

"Of course," she answered, "what do you want me to see?"

Pointing to a spot on her dress, she said, "Right here is where my Mommy

kissed my dress, and here," pointing to another spot, "and here is another

kiss, and here, and here, Mommy said that she put all those kisses on my

dress so that I would have her kisses for every boo-boo that made me cry."

Then the lady realized that she wasn't just looking at a dress, no, she

was looking at a Mother who knew that she was going away and would not be

there to kiss away the hurts that she knew her daughter would get. So she

took all the love she had for her beautiful little girl and put them into

this

dress, that her child now so proudly wore. She no longer saw a little girl

in a

simple dress, she saw a child wrapped in her Mother's love.

To Give the Special Blessing

The Special Blessing may be passed on by anyone

to others in person or at a distance in prayer.

If in person, place your hands on the person's head

with your right thumb on his/her forehead. If at a

distance, hold your hands over, or in the direction of,

the person or group and pray:

May the Reign of Jesus King of All Nations be

recognized in your heart;

May the Reign of Jesus King of All Nations be lived

in your heart;

May the Reign of Jesus King of All Nations be

given through your heart to other hearts;

So that the Reign of Jesus King of All Nations

may be lived in every heart all over the world.

I ask this Special Blessing through Our Lady,

Mediatrix of All Graces, who as Queen and Mother

of All Nations, has obtained it for you as a

tremendous grace from the Sacred Heart of her

Divine Son, in the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Make the sign of the cross on the person's forehead

with your thumb, or make the sign of the cross with

your hand in his/her direction.

The gifts of the Special Blessing are the gift of

receiving, understanding, and living Jesus' Word

in Scripture; the gifts of intimacy with Jesus, Mary,

and souls as partners in the Body of Christ; and

the gift of knowing the secrets of God's love. The

blessing also grants healing and brings unity to

the Body of Christ.

Jesus wants everyone to receive the graces of this

kingly Special Blessing. Pray for it for your family,

your friends, your priests, the lost, the sick,

the dying ---- everyone who is in need of God's mercy.