Hello my friends!! God blessed us today with 73 degree temp and was that ever good! It still is that now at 6:45. Blessings today: A very beautiful Easter Mass - many, many flowers at the altar! I'm going to share a bit of Father's homily with you. He asked the people for a 20 dollar bill - promised to give it back when he was finished. So two people gave him a twenty and as he's crumbling up the twenties, he's talking about how life sometimes make us feel so down, and crumbled up, and so hurt sometimes, just like those twenty dollar bills. And he asked if even if the bills are so crumbled up, are they still worth their money? Of course they are, and so are we - we are all worth it - the feeling of us being so crumbled up is from the Devil, not God. He wants us to be happy and strong - the devil wants us to crumble and be hurt and he's such a lier! So people, remember that when you are feeling down and out, like the crumbled twenty dollar bill, we are worth a lot more, we are worth our full potential as the bill. He straightened out the bills and gave them back to the owners, and said to remember that we are worth a lot more than we think - Jesus gave His life for us - redeemed us by his Blood, and rose from the dead on the third day! We are so blessed to have Jesus as Lord of our lives. When we got home from Mass, Lori was here making us a delicious Easter meal with ribs, sweet potatoes, green beans and a salad with wine followed by a game of Dominoes in our patio - it was so nice and warm there!!! What a blessing. Another blessing was while we're there playing the game, here comes Mr. and Mrs. Mallard Duck walking so peacefully across our yard, both dogs, Ollie and Sammy watching them so quietly through the screened in porch (patio) and now we just got home from visiting with our new neighbors next door - and the ones next to them on their deck - what nice neighbors we have - another blessing - thanks be to God!! Hope you can share your Easter blessings.
No gift is so precious as love. Gratefully trust God and give Him your love.
Lord, I give You my heart.
Scripture for the day:
"Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus
Christ, the Father's Son, in truth and love." ~2 John 1:3
Meditation for the day:
God is with us, to bless and help us. God's spirit is all around us.
We need not waver in our faith or in our prayers. All power is God's.
We can say that to ourselves often and steadily. We can say it until our
hearts sing with joy for the safety and personal power that it can mean to
us. We can say it until the very force of the utterance drives back and puts
to nothing all the evils around us. We can use it as a battle cry. All
power is the Lord's. Then we can pass on to victory over all our sins and
temptations, and we can begin to live a victorious life.
Prayer for the day:
I pray that with strength from God I may lead an abundant life. I pray that
I may lead a life of victory.
Mother Teresa Said...
Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
Why Did Jesus Fold the Napkin?
Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection? I never
noticed this....
The Gospel of John (20:7) tells us that the napkin, which was placed over
the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes.
The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly
folded, and was placed at the head of that stony coffin.
Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the
tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.
She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus
loved. She said, 'They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and I
don't know where they have put him!'
Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. The other disciple out
ran Peter and got there first. He stopped and looked in and saw the linen
cloth lying there, but he didn't go in.
Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen
wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was
folded up and lying to the side.
Was that important? Absolutely!
Is it really significant? Yes!
In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to
understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day.
The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every
Jewish boy knew this tradition.
When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it
was exactly the way the master wanted it.
The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out
of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not
dare touch that table, until the master was finished..
Now if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his
fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and
toss it onto the table.
The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the
wadded napkin meant, "I'm finished.."
But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it
beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table,
because..........
The folded napkin meant,
"I'm coming back!"
Have you noticed?
+++++++++++++++++++
Have you noticed how beautiful the world is today? Have you
seen some of the fresh, new opportunities that are coming to
life?
Have you remembered today what a unique and wonderful
blessing it is to be alive? Can you feel the richness that
lives in this very moment?
Do you understand how truly fortunate you are to be you? Can
you see the magnificent possibilities that are close enough
to touch?
Do you realize the immense value that your thoughts and
actions are able to create? Do you feel the power of your
own special purpose?
This is not just any day. It is the day that you now have to
work with, and a day in which you can accomplish so very
much.
Open yourself to the best possibilities. This day is now
yours to fulfill.
Ralph Marston
The Law of the Garbage Truck!
I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport . We were driving in
the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space
right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and
missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped
his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled
and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.
So I asked, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car
and sent us to the hospital!"
This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, "The Law of the
Garbage Truck."
He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around
full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger and full of
disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it
and sometimes they'll dump it on you.
Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well and move on...
Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home,
or on the streets.
The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take
over their day.
Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so.....
"Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't."
AN EASTER REFLECTION / HAPPY EASTER!!!
The passion and death of Jesus initiated a process through which the old
order was passing away and a new was dawning.
At the death of Jesus Matthew reports that many strange events took
place: darkness, earthquake and holy people rising from their tombs.
Similar events occur in Matthew's story of the resurrection of
Jesus.
"Towards dawn on the first day of the week", the women who had
stood firm through the tragedy of the Cross, Mary Magdala and the other
Mary go to visit the sepulcher of Jesus. The setting of the following
events "towards dawn" on the first of all Easter Sundays
promises the reader that the women will find more than a sepulcher. A
new light is breaking into the darkness of the night.
For a moment the women on their journey are forgotten, as a series of
"end-time" events are reported as happening at the tomb. In a
way similar to the events surrounding Jesus' death on the Cross,
there is a violent earthquake. An angel of the Lord descends from
heaven, rolls away the stone and sits upon it. Through his angel, God
enters the story. . The description of the angel "his face was like
lightning, his robe white as snow" adds the terror of the moment and
the guards, collapse to the ground like dead men. At the cross the
Gentiles came to faith in Jesus, here the guards are part of the
description of an anticipated "end-time".
The angel speaks to the women, assuring them that they need not fear.
They need no longer search for the crucified one. He has been raised.
The tomb, the place of death, is empty. However, it is not enough simply
to gaze in awe at an empty tomb. The women are commissioned to carry the
Easter proclamation to the disciples: "Go quickly and tell his
disciples, `He has risen from the dead, and now he fore you into
Galilee, it is there you will see him."
The women recognize they have been touched by the action of God: it is
the reason for their awe. They are also filled with great joy at the
privilege given to them. But on their way back to the disciples, the
risen Jesus meets them and they fall down and cling to him. He greets
them, and repeats almost exactly the same message as the angel,
commissioning the disciples to go into Galilee. However, there is an
important difference. While the angel told them to speak to Jesus
disciples, Jesus himself refers to them as my brethren. It is not failed
disciples who must go to Galilee; it is a group of people who once again
belong to the family of Jesus.
Earlier in the Gospel the disciples had forsaken Jesus and fled. All
such failures have now been forgiven. The broken bond has been healed.
The resurrection of Jesus has completed the turning point of the ages
which began with his death. Now the women are filled with joy; now the
sinful disciples are restored to the family of Jesus. Shortly he will
indeed meet them in Galilee, to send them out to the whole world.
May Easter lead us to awe and joy as we recognize the greatness of our
God who raised his Son to life that we too might have life, no matter
how often and how seriously we have fled from Him.
By Fr. John Cef Ledesma
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