Community Chat

[gloriajean]

Faith is what lifts me to the level of possibility and opens the door to
God's promises. Lord, continue to strengthen my belief and bless me with
unyielding faith.

Scripture for the Day
"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am
gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light." — Matthew 11:28-30

Meditation for the Day
I can believe that fundamentally all is well. Good things can happen to me.
I believe that God cares for me and will provide for me. I need not try to
plan ahead. I know that the way will unfold, step by step. I can leave
tomorrow's burden to God, because God is the great burden-bearer. God only
expects me to carry my one-day's share.

Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may not try to carry the burden of the universe on my
shoulders. I pray that I may be satisfied to do my share each day.

Greetings to all! Hope you all had a very blessed Sunday! We did, first a
beautiful Mass - great Homily - and then wonderful weather today for Linus
to put the plastic on the screens for the winter. He's made the plastic in
frames last year so he can just put them back on this fall. Saves a lot of
work. And now our patio should stay warmer and we can enjoy it maybe a
month or two longer. We'll see. I know plants love it there - until it
freezes. We had another nice Church meeting tonight discussing and reading
about the new Mass changes. The changes make the Mass even more prayerful,
and looking forward to when it begins - First Sunday of Advent.

MOTHER TERESA´S ROSARY

- Author Unknown

Jim Castle was tired when he boarded his plane in Cincinnati, Ohio, that
night in 1981. The 45-year-old management consultant had put on a week-long
series of business meetings and seminars, and now he sank gratefully into
his seat ready for the flight home to Kansas City,Kansas.

As more passengers entered, the place hummed with conversation, mixed with
the sound of bags being stowed. Then, suddenly, people fell silent.

The quiet moved slowly up the aisle like an invisible wake behind a boat.

Jim craned his head to see what was happening, and his mouth dropped open.
Walking up the aisle were two nuns clad in simple white habits bordered in
blue. He recognized the familiar face of one at once, the wrinkled skin, the
eyes warmly intent. This was a face he'd seen in newscasts and on the cover
of TIME. The two nuns halted, and Jim realized that his seat companion was
going to be Mother Teresa!

As the last few passengers settled in, Mother Teresa and her companion
pulled out rosaries. Each decade of the beads was a different color, Jim
noticed. The decades represented various areas of the world, Mother Teresa
told him later, and added, "I pray for the poor and dying on each
continent."

The airplane taxied to the runway and the two women began to pray, their
voices a low murmur. Though Jim considered himself not a very religious
Catholic who went to church mostly out of habit, inexplicably he found
himself joining in.

By the time they murmured the final prayer, the plane had reached cruising
altitude. Mother Teresa turned toward him. For the first time in his life,
Jim understood what people meant when they spoke of a person possessing an
"aura". As she gazed at him, a sense of peace filled him; he could no more
see it than he could see the wind, but he felt it, just as surely as he felt
a warm summer breeze.

"Young man," she inquired, "do you say the rosary often?" "No, not really,"
he admitted. She took his hand, while her eyes probed his. Then she smiled.
"Well, you will now." And she dropped her rosary into his palm.

An hour later Jim entered the Kansas City airport, where he was met by his
wife, Ruth. "What in the world?" Ruth asked when she noticed the rosary in
his hand. They kissed and Jim described his encounter.

Driving home, he said. "I feel as if I met a true sister of God."

Nine months later Jim and Ruth visited Connie, a friend o f theirs for
several years. Connie confessed that she'd been told she had ovarian cancer.
"The doctor says it's a tough case," said Connie, "but I'm going to fight
it. I won't give up." Jim clasped her hand. Then, after reaching into his
pocket, he gently twined Mother Teresa's rosary around her fingers. He told
her the story and said, "Keep it with you Connie. It may help."

Although Connie wasn't Catholic, her hand closed willingly around the small
plastic beads. "Thank you," she whispered. "I hope I can return it."

More than a year passed before Jim saw Connie again. This time, face
glowing, she hurried toward him and handed him the rosary "I carried it with
me all year," she said. "I've had surgery and have been on chemotherapy,
too. Last month, the doctors did second-look surgery, and the tumor's gone.
completely!" Her eyes met Jim's. "I knew it was time to give the rosary
back."

In the fall of 1987, Ruth's sister, Liz, fell into a deep depression after
her divorce. She asked Jim if she could borrow the rosary, and when he sent
it, she hung it over her bedpost in a small velvet bag.

"At night I held on to it, just physically held on. I was so lonely and
afraid," she says, "yet when I gripped that rosary, I felt as if I held a
loving hand." Gradually, Liz pulled her life together, and she mailed the
rosary back. "Someone else may need it," she said.

Then one night in 1988, a stranger telephoned Ruth. She'd heard about the
rosary from a neighbor and asked if she could borrow it to take to the
hospital where her mother lay in a coma. The family hoped the rosary might
help their mother die peacefully. A few days later, the woman returned the
beads. "The nurses told me a coma patient can still hear," she said, " so I
explained to my mother that I had Mother Teresa's rosary and that when I
gave it to her she could let go; it would be all rosary in her hand.

Right away, we saw her face relax. The lines smoothed out until she looked
so peaceful, so young." The woman's voice caught. "A few minutes later she
was gone." Fervently, she gripped Ruth's hands. "Thank you."

Is there special power in those humble beads? Or is the power of the human
spirit simply renewed in each person who borrows the rosary? Jim only knows
that requests continue to come often unexpectedly. He always responds though
whenever he lends the rosary. He says, "When you're through needing it, send
it back. Someone else may need it."

Jim's own life has changed, too, since his unexpected meeting on the
airplane. When he realized Mother Teresa carries everything she owns in a
small bag, he made an effort to simplify his own life. "I try to remember
what really counts - not money or titles or possessions, but the way we love
others," he says.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU ABUNDANTLY, MOTHER MARY ASK HER SON JESUS TO SHOWER YOU
WITH GRACES.

Please feel free to pass this mail on especially to all those in despair so
that they might know that they are not alone in their hour of need. The
reason I sent you this mail is because I know the power of these simple
beads, and I wanted to share it with you.

Sent by Amelita Villon

PRAYER

Show us the way to follow you, by a change of heart and mind. The Kingdom of
God will soon prevail. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.


The window from which we watch the world!

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they
are eating breakfast, The young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash
outside. "That laundry is not very clean", she said. "She doesn't know how
to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap. "

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would
make the same comments.
About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on
the line and said to her husband:
"Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her that."

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows."

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others depends on the
purity of the window through which we look.

Faith Of A Mustard Seed



"...He said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith [that is, your
lack of firmly relying trust]. For truly I say to you, if you have faith
[that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain,
Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be
impossible to you..." - Matthew 17: 20

It only takes a little faith!

We often think of ourselves not having much faith. We look at others and
think they have a lot more faith. But Jesus said here that even if we had
faith as small as a mustard seed we could do incredible things in God –
nothing will be impossible, because with God all things are possible. We can
speak to our mountains and conquer them with our faith firmly placed in God.

Don't limit yourself. Take your mustard seed of faith today, and see what
God can do.

It only takes a little bit of faith
To conquer the mountains that we have in our lives!

GOD IS ALWAYS NEAR
Author Unknown


One thing can always cheer me
When I'm feeling sad and low
When I tired of daily trials
That I have to undergo,
When those who should
Seem closest, seem like
People I don't know,
One thing can always cheer me
I know that God is near me.


One thing can always cheer me
When I do not understand
How pain and sadness
In our lives
Can get so out of hand,
When the best of human efforts
Doesn't meet the days demands,
One thing can always cheer me
I know that God is always near me.


One thing can always cheer me
More than anything I've known
And show me I will never
Have to struggle on my own
For no matter what might happen
I will never be alone
The thing that will always cheer me
Is just knowing God is near me.


Our lives are in God's loving
Hands, in everything we do
He is with us constantly,
He always sees us through.
And if our faith is strong enough
We'll never walk alone,
For with His great and perfect love
He takes care of His own.

Serve Others

May the Holy Spirit guide us to be generous in building up our society so
that no one's genuine needs go unmet. Like Jesus, may we come to serve, not
to be served.

— from A Retreat With Pope John Paul II


PRAYER WHEN YOU NEED HEALING INSIDE

O God,
These prayers come from all of us. Someone prays on our behalf, but the
prayers belong to everyone, and come from our hearts more than from our
mouths. In some ways none of us really knows how another feels, because
each of us must struggle with his own fears, cope with his own problems,
hurt from his own pains, search for his own goals, forgive and be forgiven
his own failures. In such matters, God, when we seek understanding and
hope for encouragement, it is to you that we turn. In moments such as
these, we reach beyond ourselves and our troubles to you...asking not so
much for things, but for a second or two of your presence. Just your
slightest touch, and the day will be blessed, the raw spots will be healed
and there will be peace in the hours ahead. And so we pray to you
Dear God, Almighty, Everlasting One--all of us--giving thanks for
this moment, your touch and our healing. Amen.

Good night all - Sweet Dreams and may you all enjoy Monday!! I pray it's
filled with many blessings. Just ask for them - the are yours.