Hello my friends! Tomorrow is the Feast of Pentecost! Big celebration in our Church! We celebrate when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles and it's in Acts 2. Today was a bit chilly out, Linus worked - sold some appliances which make him feel great!! But got an email from a friend who says her husband had a stroke, he's at the Vet's hospital here in town. We've known them as long as we're married, even before. He will be 80 in July. I called her then, and we talked - she said he'll never drive again, one leg doesn't seem to have any feeling in it, his arm is better now, but he'll have physical therapy. His name is Al, and she is Carol. She said she'll have to be his caretaker now.
When your mind takes you to places you don't want to go, you have
the power to bring yourself back. Lord, strengthen my ability to focus
on that which I am experiencing now so that I will truly live and lose
none of the time You have given to me.
Scripture for the day:
"Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning."
~Psalm 30:5
Meditation for the day:
We can constantly live in preparation for something better to come.
All of life can be a preparation for something better. We can
anticipate the morning to come. We can feel, in the night of sorrow,
that understanding joy that tells of confident expectation of better
things to come. "Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with
the morning." We can know that God has something better in store for
us, as long as we are making ourselves ready for it. Our life in this
world can be a training for a better life to come.
Prayer for the day:
I pray that when life is over, I may enjoy eternal life with God. I
pray that I may make this life a preparation for a better life to
come.
Prayer for Peace to Mary, the Light of Hope
Immaculate Heart of Mary, help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so
easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today, and whose
immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world and seem to
block the paths toward the future.
From famine and war, deliver us.
From nuclear war, from incalculable self destruction, from every kind of
war, deliver us.
From sins against human life from its very beginning, deliver us.
From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God,
deliver us.
From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us.
From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us.
From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us.
Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of all
individual human beings, laden with the sufferings of whole societies. Help
us with the power of the Holy Spirit conquer all sin: individual sin and the
"sin of the world," sin in all its manifestations.
Let there be revealed once more in the history of the world the infinite
saving power of the redemption: the power of the merciful love.
May it put a stop to evil.
May it transform consciences.
May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of hope.
Amen.
(Pope John Paul II)
- - -
Matthew 5:9 - "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called God's
children."
.
Words of Encouragement
The Work of God!
1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Steve Wood has observed that it is highly unlikely that any person, on his
or her deathbed, will lament, “If only I had spent more time at the office!”
There is something in all of us that recognizes that “work” as it is usually
meant (that endless shuffle of paper, numbers, and filing) is not quite what
life is all about. Yet even this can have eternal significance if it is
done for what it, like all work, ultimately is: the work of the Lord. For
the fact is, no work is vain if it is done unto God through Christ. Work
done for the sake of loving God and neighbor is work that is not vain—even
if it consists of picking lint out of dryer filters. On the other hand,
magnificent, “important” and interesting work that is done with no thought
for God and in the cold egoism that holds all people in contempt is work
that will, in the end, be vain, except for the saints who thank God for its
fruits. Today, whatever you do, do it with all your heart, giving thanks to
God the Father through Jesus Christ.
Just a Word of Encouragement
from Mark Shea and Jeff Cavins.
My Dear Child:
I just wanted to remind you today of how beautiful you are because there is
a father of lies who will try to deceive you. He will try to tell you that
you are not good enough, not attractive enough, not thin enough, Not strong
enough, not smart enough, not righteous enough, and that you are simply
unimportant to Me.
He will try to tell you that you have broken one too many promises, that you
have fallen one too many times, that you have lived one too many lies, and
that you've been going in the wrong direction so long that it is pointless
to turn back now.
But guess what?
YOU DO NOT BELONG TO HIM.
HE IS NOT YOUR father. I AM.
You see, you are My creation. My workmanship. You have been borne of My
thought, every part of you placed together by My hands. You have My
thumbprint upon you. You are a princess/prince, did you know that?
You are My child, the child of THE King! I look at you and see a precious,
priceless pearl. There is no ocean I would not swim, no mountain I would
not climb, no price I would not pay to have you and to be with you and call
you my own.
I already have. I have done all that I could, given all that there is. I
desire to be with you every moment of every day.
How I long for you to talk to Me every day. My love for you never grows
cold. My promises are never broken (contrary to what he might lead you to
believe). My character never changes. And you, my child have been made in
My image.
I love you dearly, unconditionally and completely. I understand every
emotion that you have. I've been there. I count every tear that you cry. I
know every hair on your head. And do you know what? I even know your
weaknesses and your failures and your fears. I know those hidden parts of
you that you wish would go away.
Those dark corners of your world that you stuff deep down, praying that no
one will ever see. I have already seen them and they will not change my love
for you. Nothing will. I love your heart and I desire all of it. I just
wanted to remind you today of how beautiful you are and how precious you are
to Me.
With Unmeasurable Love,
Your Heavenly Father
-- Author Unknown
COPING WITH STRESS
Author Unknown
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a
glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?" Answers
called out ranged from 20g to 500g.
The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends
on how long you try to hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.
In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the
heavier it becomes."
He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we
carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes
increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on."
"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and
restbefore holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on
with the burden."
"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down.
Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens
you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can."
So, my friend, Put down anything that may be a burden to you right
now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.
Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the
statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat
them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the
middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their
maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was
probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to
others.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you
won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
* The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the
world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once .
* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty
and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different
colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit of light and love, you are the substantial love of the Father
and the Son; hear my prayer. Bounteous bestower of most precious gifts,
grant me a strong and living faith which makes me accept all revealed truths
and shape my conduct in accord with them. Give me a most confident hope in
all divine promises which prompts me to abandon myself unreservedly to you
and your guidance. Infuse into me a love of perfect goodwill, and act
according to God's least desires. Make me love not only my friends but my
enemies as well, in imitation of Jesus Christ who through you offered
himself on the Cross for all people. Holy Spirit, animate, inspire, and
guide me, and help me to be always a true follower of you. Amen.
Prayer to Saint Anthony of Padua, Disperser of Devils
Dear Saint Anthony, it is still as Saint Peter said: The devil prowls about,
lion-like, looking for someone to devour. I confess that I don't always
resist him; I sometimes toy with temptation. Saint Anthony, Disperser of
Devils, remind me of my duty to avoid all occasions of sin. May I always
pray in temptation that I may remain loyal to my Lord Jesus. Pray for my
other intentions, please. [name them]
Franciscan Mission Associates
Mother Teresa Said...
Yesterday is gone and tomorrow has not yet come; we must live each day as if
it were our last so that when God calls us we are ready, and prepared, to
die with a clean heart.
Meditations by Padre Pio
Do not be surprised at your weakness, but acknowledge what you are, and
blush at your infidelity towards God, then confide in Him and abandon
yourselves tranquilly in the arms of the Heavenly Father, like a child in
the arms of its mother (AP).
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