Community Chat

[gloriajean]

Good is always coming to you. No matter what is happening in your life,
you can bless it with prayer and be peaceful. Lord, You give me the courage
to face any situation confidently and victoriously.


Scripture for the day:

"Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up
and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundred-fold." And
he said, 'Let anyone with ears to hear listen!'" ~Mark 4:8-9

Meditation for the day:

God's kingdom on earth is growing slowly, like a seed in the ground.
In the growth of God's kingdom there is always progress among the few
who are out ahead of the crowd. We can keep striving for something
better and there does not need to be stagnation in our lives. Eternal
life, abundant life can be ours for the seeking. We need not misspend
time over past failures. We can count the lessons learned from
failures as rungs upon the ladder of progress. We can press onward
toward the goal.

Prayer for the day:

I pray that I may be willing to grow. I pray that I may keep stepping
up on the rungs of the ladder of life.

Hello my friends! Hope your day went well - today I did experience hot and humid! Quite different from yesterday. Woke up with thunder and rain, but it went away quickly. I didn't have to cook - Linus spent a lot of time at Lori's landscaping and ate there. I made plans with Kevin in Colo. a man on my list who loves to receive the Homily of the Day and gave me many men to sign up for it. He and another one of my subscribers are coming to our neighboring town Sunday -Kevin's sister, a Benedictine nun will be installed as Prioress of the order and he's flying here for that. So I'll be going to the reception and will meet him. He called me today and he emailed me his picture and I sent him mine, too. With our cell phones, we'll find each other. That will be so much fun meeting someone from my list - the Glory of God List which is almost 11 years old and he was one of the first ones on it.
I have almost 200 members on the list. The weather Sunday should be beautiful. I will also see my friends who are Benedictine Nuns there. Looking forward to it.

Homily of the Day


June 3, 2011


Are You Doing Violence Without Noticing It?
by Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.

Acts 18:9-18 / Jn 16:20-23

Government statistics tell us that the majority of violent crimes, including murder, are committed by friends or family members of the victims. Sometimes, of course, the crime is for gain: I want what you’ve got, so I take it by force. But more often, there is no such gain in sight, just anger, a desire for revenge, or some desperate form of escape.

In most families and church communities disputes don’t ordinarily reach the level of physical violence, but they do quite often reach a level where real violence is done to people’s spirits. It seems that we are far too willing to cross the threshold of spiritual violence, even when the matters in question are trivial. If you doubt it, look at the hatefulness that is sometimes so visible within church communities about matters of taste or preference which ultimately have nothing to do with morality or the real core of life.

Our vocation as Christians is to help one another thrive, each in our own way. There’s a simple habit that can help you do that more consistently and effectively. Before you act or speak, ask the simple question: Will this help my neighbor to thrive or not? The answer is almost always obvious, and the very habit of asking the question with a sincere heart will lay you open to receive the grace to speak or remain silent, to act or be still. And your heart will be glad!

A Higher Calling

If God has called you to be truly like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He will put on you such demands of obedience that you will not be allowed to follow other Christians. In numerous ways, He seems to let other good people do things which He will not let you do. Others who seem to be very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and scheme to carry out their plans, but you cannot. If you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others can brag about themselves, their work, their successes, their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of money, or having a legacy left to them or in having luxuries, but God may supply you only on a day-to-day basis, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward while keeping you hidden in obscurity because He wants to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade.
God may let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit, but He will make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing. Then, to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work which you have done; this to teach you the message of the Cross, humility and something of the value of being cloaked with His nature.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a jealous love rebuke you for careless words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and that He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.

God will take you at your word; if you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love and let other people say and do many things that you cannot. Settle it forever; you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue or chaining your hands or closing your eyes in ways which others are not dealt with.

However, know this great secret of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed with the Living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven, the high calling of God.

Author unknown

The story starts out where she, Beth, is sitting at an airport terminal, waiting
to board a plane. She was sitting there with several other people who were
also waiting, whom she did not know. As she waited, she pulled out her Bible
and started reading. All of a sudden she felt as if the people sitting there
around her, were looking at her. She looked up, but realized that they were
looking just over her head, in the direction right behind her. She turned around
to see what everyone was looking at, and when she did, she saw a stewardess
pushing a wheelchair, with the ugliest old man sitting in it, that she had ever
seen before. She said he had this long white hair that was all tangled and such a
mess. His face was really, really wrinkled, and he didn't look friendly at all. She
said she didn't know why, but she felt drawn to the man, and thought at first
that God wanted her to witness to him. In her mind she said she was thinking,
"Oh, God, please, not now, not here." No matter what she did, she couldn't get
the man off of her mind, and all of a sudden she knew what God wanted her to
do. She was supposed to brush this old man's hair. She went and knelt down
in front of the old man, and said "Sir may I have the honor of brushing your
hair for you?" He said "What?" She thought, "Oh great, he's hard of hearing."
Again, a little louder, she said, "Sir, may I have the honor of brushing your hair
for you?" He answered, "If you are going to talk to me, you are going to have
to speak up, I am practically deaf." So this time, she was almost yelling, "Sir
may I please have the honor of brushing your hair for you?" Everyone was
watching to see what his response would be. The old man just looked at her
confused, and said "Well, I guess if you really want to." She said, "I don't
even have a brush, but I thought I would ask anyway." He said, "look in the
bag hanging on the back of my chair, there is a brush in there." So she got the
brush out and started brushing his hair. (She has a little girl with long hair, so
she has had lots of practice getting tangles out, and knew how to be gentle
with him.) She worked for a long time, until every last tangle was out. Just
as she was finishing up, she heard the old man crying, and she went and put
her hands on his knees, kneeling in front of him again looking directly into his
eyes, and said "Sir, do you know Jesus?" He answered, "Yes, of course I
know Jesus. You see, my bride told me she couldn't marry me unless I knew
Jesus, so I learned all about Jesus, and asked Him to come into my heart many
years ago, before I married my bride." He continued, "You know, I am on my
way home to go and see my bride. I have been in the hospital for a long time,
and had to have a special surgery in this town far from my home. My bride
couldn't come with me, because she is so frail herself." He said, "I was so
worried about how terrible my hair looked, and I didn't want her to see me
looking so awful, but I couldn't brush my hair, all by myself." Tears were
rolling down his cheeks, as he thanked Beth for brushing his hair. He thanked
her over and over again. She was crying, people all around witnessing this
were crying, and as they were all boarding the plane, the stewardess, who
was also crying, stopped her, and asked, "Why did you do that?" And right
there was the opportunity, the door that had been opened to share with
someone else, the love of God.

We don't always understand God's ways, but be ready, He may use us to meet the need of someone else, like He met the need of this old man, and in that moment, also calling out to a lost soul who needed to know about His love.

The Power of Holding Hands

-- By Rabbi Harold Kushner

I was sitting on a beach one summer day, watching two children, a boy and a
girl, playing in the sand.

They were hard at work building an elaborate sandcastle by the water's edge
with gates and towers and moats and internal passages. Just when they had
nearly finished their project, a big wave came along and knocked it down,
reducing it to a heap of wet sand.

I expected the children to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened
to all their hard work. But they surprised me. Instead, they ran up the
shore away from the water, laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build
another castle.

I realized that they had taught me an important lesson. All the things in
our lives, all the complicated structures we spend so much time and energy
creating, are built on sand.

Only our relationships to other people endure. Sooner or later, the wave
will come along and knock down what we have worked so hard to build up. When
that happens, only the person who has somebody's hand to hold will be able
to laugh.

God want us to be H.U.M.B.L.E.!

"H" is for the HUMILITY to acknowledge we are sinners in need of a Savior. Jesus Christ is his name!

"U" is for UNITY. He wants us to be united as brothers and sisters in love. He wants us to "bear with one another lovingly". (See EPH 4:1). We must "bear with one another" because we are sinners with the strengths and weaknesses that come with being human.

"M" is for MISSION. We must understand His mission for us as a Church community and as individuals in the Body of Christ. We must continuously seek God's will in our lives and then DO IT! ("When all is said and done, more is said than done!")

"B" is for BOLDNESS. We must be bold in sharing God's love with others. We must be willing to take the risk of being rejected. Rejection will happen to us just as it happened to Jesus. We never know how the Holy Spirit may be using us to plant seeds in another person's life even though we may initially experience rejection. Be BOLD for Jesus!

"L" is for LOVE. Love God will all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. P.S. - Don't forget to love yourself. God made you in His image!

"E" is for EVANGELIZE! It is the mission of the Church and everyone in it. Tell the world and those around you that God loves them, that Jesus loves them so much he died on the cross for them and that he sent the Holy Spirit to purify us, to make us holy and to empower us to carry out his mission for us with charisms!

Remember, God wants us to be H.U.M.B.L.E.

Humility, Unity, Mission, Boldness, Love, Evangelize!

Joe Boroden

Prayer to Jesus

O Christ Jesus,
when all is darkness
and we feel our weakness and helplessness,
give us the sense of Your presence,
Your love, and Your strength.
Help us to have perfect trust
in Your protecting love
and strengthening power,
so that nothing may frighten or worry us,
for, living close to You,
we shall see Your hand,
Your purpose, Your will through all things. Amen.

Good night and sweet dreams to all! May your Saturday be filled with blessings you won't even imagine! God's best to you and yours!!