Community Chat

[gloriajean]

Hello my friends! Here's hoping you all had a very blessed Sunday! We did, and I got some Christmas cards done, more to go, but a good start! Then Lori invited us for supper tonight, she made Cornish Game Hens on the grill - Delicious indeed!! What a blessing it is to have her only 5 miles away. It's also a blessing for me to see you here, and to have you as friends. Praying for all your needs, and for your sons, Lucy and Bobbiesue.

Do not take any action until you've prayed and listened and then you

will have guidance to reach the understanding necessary to complete

the things you need to do. Lord, I know that there is no obstacle for

You and ask that You will guide me along the right path.

Scripture for the day:

"If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this

mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey

you.'" ~Luke 17:6

Meditation for the day:

Day by day we can slowly build up an unshakable faith in God and in

God's ability to give us all the help we need. By having these quiet

times each morning, we can start each day with a renewing our faith,

until it becomes almost a part of us and a strong habit. We can keep

furnishing the quiet places of our souls with all the furniture of

faith. We can try to fill our thoughts each day with all that is

harmonious and good, beautiful and enduring.

Prayer for the day:

I pray that I may build a house in my soul for the spirit of God to

dwell in. I pray that I may come at last to an unshakable faith.

Love

To do ordinary things with extraordinary love

Let us love one another as God loves each one of us. And where does this

love begin? In our own home. How does it begin? By praying together

God told us, "Love your neighbor as yourself." So first I am to love myself

rightly, and then to love my neighbor like that. But how can I love myself

unless I accept myself as God has made me?

Contemplatives in the heart

We are not social workers. We may be doing social work in the eyes of some

people, but we must be contemplatives in the heart of the world.

Created to love

God has created us to love and to be loved, and this is the beginning of

prayer--to know that he loves me, that I have been created for greater

things.

Something beautiful for God

What I can do, you cannot. What you can do, I cannot. But together we can do

something beautiful for God.

The child

The child is God's gift to the family. Each child is created in the special

image and likeness of God for greater things - to love and to be loved.

Family

The family that prays together stays together, and if they stay together

they will love one another as God has loved each one of them. And works of

love are always works of peace.

Holiness

Holiness is not the luxury of the few; it is a simply duty, for you and for

me.

The Gift of Freedom

The mere ability to choose between good and evil is the lowest limit of

freedom, and the only thing that is free about it is the fact that we can

still choose good.

To the extent that you are free to choose evil, you are not free. An evil

choice destroys freedom.

We can never choose evil as evil: only as an apparent good. But when we

decide to do something that seems to us to be good when it is not really so,

we are doing something that we do not really want to do, and therefore we

are not really free.

Perfect spiritual freedom is a total inability to make any evil choice. When

everything you desire is truly good and every choice not only aspires to

that good but attains it, then you are free because you do everything that

you want, every act of your will ends in perfect fulfillment.

Freedom therefore does not consist in an equal balance between good and evil

choices but in the perfect love and acceptance of what is really good and

the perfect hatred and rejection of what is evil, so that everything you do

is good and makes you happy, and you refuse and deny and ignore every

possibility that might lead to unhappiness and self-deception and grief.

Only the man who has rejected all evil so completely that he is unable to

desire it at all, is truly free. God, in whom there is absolutely no shadow

or possibility of evil or of sin, is infinitely free. In fact, he is

Freedom.

Thomas Merton (Father Louis, OCSO)

New Seeds of Contemplation

This story tells of the man who set out to adopt a troubled teenage girl.

One would question his logic. She was destructive, disobedient, and

dishonest.

One day she came home from school and ransacked the house looking for money.

By the time he arrived, she was gone and the house was in shambles.

Upon hearing of her actions, a friend urged him not to finalize the

adoption. "You haven't completed the paperwork. You haven't signed any

documents. Let her go."

His response was simply, "But I've already promised her that she would be my

daughter."

God, too, has made a covenant to adopt his people. His covenant is not

invalidated by our rebellion. It's one thing to love us when we are strong,

obedient, and willing. But when we ransack his house and steal what is his?

This is the test of love. And God passes the test; Despite our sin, in the

face of our rebellion, He chose to adopt us.

- - -

Romans 5:8 - But God has shown us how much he loves us - it was while we

were still sinners that Christ died for us!

Matthew 9:12-13 - (Jesus said) "People who are well do not need a doctor,

but only those who are sick... I have not come to call respectable people,

but outcasts."

Ephesians 1:5 - God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would

make us his sons...

Let Go Of Sorrow

I've heard it said don't go to bed while hanging on to sorrow,

you may not have the chance to laugh with those you love tomorrow.

You may not mean the words you speak when anger takes its toll,

you may regret your actions once you've lost your self-control.

When you've lost your temper and you've said some hurtful things,

think about the heartache that your actions sometime bring.

You'll never get those moments back, such precious time to waste,

and all because of things you said in anger and in haste.

So if you're loving someone and your pride has settled in,

you may not ever have the chance to say to them again...

"I love you and I miss you and although we don't agree,

I'll try to see your point of view, please do the same for me."

Author Unknown

FLAME OF LOVE

Author Unkown

"I can master it," said the Ax. His blows fell heavy on the hard,

strong steel. But each blow only made his edge more blunt until he

ceased to strike.

"Leave it to me," said the Saw. With his relentless teeth, he worked

back and forth. But to his dismay, all of his teeth were worn out or

broken off.

"Ha!" said the Hammer. "I knew you could not do this. Let me show you

how." But with the very first blow, his head flew off, and the steel

was unchanged.

"Shall I try?" asked the Flame. And it curled itself gently around the

strong, hard steel, embraced it, and would not let it go. And the

tough steel melted.

There are hearts that are hard enough to resist the forces of wrath

and the fury of pride. But hard is the heart that can resist the warm

flame of Love.

"'For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with

their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see

with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes because

they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth,

many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not

see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.'" Matthew

13:15-17 (NIV)