Community Chat

[gloriajean]

Many of life's hassles are mere tests of our strength.
Lord, help me remember that patience can often diffuse
a situation quicker than a snap response.


S C R I P T U R E F O R T H E D A Y

"May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of
Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything needed for life
and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory
and goodness." 2 Peter 2-3

M E D I T A T I O N F O R T H E D A Y

There is only one way to get full satisfaction from life and that is to live
the way we believe God wants us to live. We can live with God in that
secret place of the spirit and we will have a feeling of being on the right
road. We can have a deep sense of satisfaction. The world can have meaning
and we can have a place in the world, work to do that counts in the eternal
order of things. Many things can work for us and with us, as long as we try
to stay on God's side.

P R A Y E R F O R T H E D A Y

I pray that I may have a sense of the eternal value of the work I do.
I pray that I may not only work for now, but also for eternity.

Hello my friends! Hope you all had a great day today. Today was blessed with first Lori taking us out for breakfast, and then going with us to my sister, Deil's. Now I said before that Deil was 87. I was wrong. She is 88! And going strong! She cooked us a wonderful meal, fruit pizza to start with because she knows Lori loves this, and she made dinner buns, delicious! Barbequed ribs, and scallopped corn and strawberry pie for dessert, oh and a good salad. She loves to cook and bake. If I had her energy when I'm that age, I would be so fortunate! She has had a battle with cancer, a breast removed, no radiation, but she is a survivor! Lori is so interested in our ancestors and she wanted to see old pictures of our grandparents, cousins etc. which Deil had. It was fun and interesting to look at them, and Lori wrote on the back of the pictures who they were because only Deil knew! This was way before my time, so I was't in any of them. I learned that my parents lived at my uncle's farm before they got theirs where we all grew up in. Never knew that before. It was nice seeing old pictures of our Mother when she was younger. Nothing younger than when she was working as a maid somewhere which I never knew either, but before she married. My sister, Erma, called Deil while we were there and we all talked to her. Her X-Rays showed no breaks from her fall, but she is so bruised up and is still in lots of pain and taking lots of pain meds. It was nice visiting with her on the phone, and Lori promised her she'll take me there again soon and we'll go over her big box of old pictures too. Thanks, friends, for keeping us in your prayers - it looks like we will be selling our house and maybe try to find another house that is way low on price, so we can have smaller payments, which sounds better than renting an apt. We'll see what God has in store.

Homily of the Day


April 2, 2011


Open Your Eyes and Take Heart
by Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.

1 Sm 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a / Eph 5:8-14/ Jn 9:1-41 or 9:1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38

There was a great boat race between a Japanese company and an American company. The Japanese won by a mile. So the Americans hired an analyst to figure out what went wrong. He reported that the Japanese had one person managing and seven rowing, while the Americans had seven managing and only one rowing.

“Aha,” said the Americans who immediately restructured their team: Now they had one senior manager, six management consultants, and … one rower. In the rematch, the Japanese won by two miles!

After further intensive consultations, the Americans fired their rower! Reality was staring them in the face, but they just couldn’t see it.

We are all blind to many things, and we’re much the poorer for it. We rarely see how much people love us, and how much God loves us; we see only a fragment of our gifts and only a few of the possibilities God lays out for us; we catch only glimpses of the marvels that surround us, especially the marvelous people we take for granted. So much joy, so much comfort, so much excitement, missed because we’re blind to half the goodness around us.

And just as sad, we don’t see half the things in our lives that are broken and need fixing: the relationships, the marriages, the children, the lifestyles. We don’t see them; so we can’t fix them. And so our sadness continues on and on.

Why are we blind to so much? In part, it’s fear. Very often we’re afraid to look at what may be broken or what may be a dead end because we fear it can’t be fixed, we fear we have no alternatives. That’s why battered women stick around and tell themselves, “It’s not so bad.” It IS bad, but they won’t look, and sometimes we won’t look — for fear.

But there’s more than fear here. Our values can keep us blind. Our culture tells us it’s a waste of time to take time every day to remember who we are, to look at ourselves, one another, and our world — the good parts and the not so good — and see a little more clearly. “Don’t waste your time,” says the culture. So we stay blind and busy, and we wonder why life doesn’t get any better.

Jesus reached out to the man born blind and helped him see for the first time. In just the same way, he reaches out to us, calling us out of the dark and into the light. Listen to what he’s saying: “You have no reason to be afraid of anything you may ever see. Our Father loves you dearly, and has already given you everything you need to become your complete self.

Open your eyes and give thanks for what already is, and for what can be.

Open your eyes and take his hand which has always been right there.

Open your eyes and take heart, for you are truly blessed! You’ll see that, if you look!

Success

Success is speaking words of praise,
In cheering other people's ways,
In doing just the best you can,
With every task and every plan,
It's silence when your speech would hurt,
Politeness when your neighbor's curt,
It's deafness when the scandal flows,
And sympathy with others' woes,
It's loyalty when duty calls,
It's courage when disaster falls,
It's patience when the hours are long,
It's found in laughter and in song,
It's in the silent time of prayer,
In happiness and in despair,
In all of life and nothing less,
We find the thing we call success..

~ Author Unknown

Profit By Your Sufferings!
By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P.

There's a stranger, usually unwelcome, who makes an appearance in
each of our lives. His name is "Suffering." Because he is a
mysterious stranger-too many of us don't know just why he comes,
or exactly what he expects of us.

Let us immediately say that suffering in itself is an evil-for it
is a deprivation of a certain good of mind, or heart or spirit.
The saints never considered suffering as desirable in itself, but
only as the manifestation of the will of God.

To love pain for the sake of pain is not only un-Christian, it is
unnatural. The saints looked upon suffering as a caress in the
arms of Christ Crucified. They realized with St. Paul that "to
those who love God all things work unto good." To them the Cross
without Christ was meaningless!

With this in mind, let's consider the triple role of suffering
in the life of the Christian:
1) The first role of suffering is to save us from ourselves.
We need this saving, because our tendency is to become so absorbed
with the creatures of this world as to lose sufficient concern for
the life to come. We become wrapped up in our little plans, our
preoccupations, our round of pleasures and get side-tracked in our
march to eternity.

We become like the Apostles looking on the Transfigured Christ
upon the heights of Tabor. Ecstatic over the heavenly vision they
called out: "Lord, it is good for us to be here." We sometimes
tell God not to dare change anything; we like things just as they
are.

We're not really content, just comfortable. Not resigned, just
placid. Why? Because there's no real hunger for the things of
God-no real desire for the vision for which we were created.
And so, God sends the Cross to shake us up and regain perspective.

2) The second role of suffering is to destroy our self-centeredness.
The cancer of selfishness is usually so deeply rooted in us that
only the Divine Physician can cut it out. Suffering is often the
spiritual surgery by which He removes this malignancy.

An honest scrutiny of our hearts quickly reveals how much in life
revolves about self. How frequently we cater to our desires for
comfort and pleasure. How often we pamper our vanity and pride.
How little we are concerned with the good pleasure of God. We are
fearful lest having God we have naught else besides, as the poet
expressed it.

3) The third purpose of suffering is the key to all the others.
It is to increase our Christlikeness. This indeed is the ultimate
purpose of God's handling our lives. It's true that suffering can
scar or disfigure the spirit of man, but it can also heal and
redeem. It is an invitation to share the redeeming pain of the
Passion of Jesus.

Suffering then casts us in the mold of Christ Crucified. It then
becomes the highest and most fruitful expression of the Christlife.
It is a continuing of the Passion of Christ in time. And if we
suffer with Him, we shall be glorified with Him.

God always uses the cross as a mold in which He forms the most
perfect reproductions of His well-beloved Son. That's why it can
never hurt you when borne with patience and love. It may deprive
you of something you want or something you think you need, but it
always offers something far more precious in its stead.

It always offers you Christ, the unchanging Lover, because you
can't embrace the cross without embracing the God-man on it!

You Have Prepared A Cross For Me

O my people, what have I done to you?
How have I hurt you? Answer me.

I led you out of Egypt,
From slavery I set you free;
I brought you into the land of promise,
You have prepared a cross for me.

I led you as a shepherd,
I brought you safely through the sea;
Fed you with manna in the desert,
You have prepared a cross for me.

I fought for you in battles,
I won you strength and victory;
Gave you a royal crown and sceptre,
You have prepared a cross for me.

I planted you, my vineyard,
And cared for you most tenderly;
Looked for abundant fruit, and found none,
Only the cross you made for me.

Then listen to me my pleading,
And do not turn away from me;
You are my people: will you reject me?
For you I suffer bitterly.

Cross Bearers

Once a man complained loud and long to the Lord about the heavy cross he had to carry. So the Lord said to him: "Come along with me to the factory where they make crosses. And you can choose one for yourself."

So off they went and got to the factory. They went inside the door and the Lord said: "You just shop around in here and take any one you want." So the man too off his cross and set it alongside the door, and started to shop around.

He tried this cross and that one but none of the really fit him. Some were too long or too short, some were too heavy, and others too light... Just as he was about to give up, he noticed one cross leaning against the wall... He tried it on for size and weight and it just fit... He walked around with it and it felt just fine. So he turned to the Lord and said: "I'll take this one."

And just as they got past the door, the Lord turned to the cross bearer and said with a smile, "I'm glad you like that one... It's the one you brought in."

The Lord knows what is best for us! As St. Paul says in 2 Cor. 12:9 "My grace is all you need. My power is greatest when you are weak."

Ten Rules for Ending Resentment
by NORMAN VINCENT PEALE

FIRST: When anyone hurts you, put "spiritual iodine" on the wound at once. That is, pray hard about it. If you do not do this it will fester.

SECOND: If resentment has hardened in your thoughts, apply grievance drainage. That is, open your mind and let the grievance flow out.

THIRD: Do this by unburdening yourself to a trusted counselor or write a letter to the person against whom you have the resentment. Then tear it up and and while holding the pieces in your hand pray for the person and forgive them.

FOURTH: Become fully aware of the harm resentment can do to you, even to making you ill. Think of that whenever a hate thought comes.

FIFTH: Don't stop with forgiving a time or two. Do it, if necessary, seventy times seven---490 times to be literal.

SIXTH: Thinking about forgiving is not enough. You must come to a specific moment when you say "With God's help I now forgive."

SEVENTH: Repeat the Lord's Prayer inserting your offender's name, "Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive..........."

EIGHTH: Pray for the other person, asking specific blessings for them, especially concerning matters which have previously annoyed you the most.

NINTH: Speak in a kindly and complimentary manner and as often as possible about the person against whom you harbor antagonism.

TENTH: Make a sincere study of the personality factors which created an unhappy relationship so that the "mistake pattern" in yourself may not recur.

Closing prayer:

OFFERING OF THE HOLY FACE TO APPEASE GOD'S
JUSTICE AND DRAW DOWN MERCY UPON US

ETERNAL Father, turn away Thine angry gaze from all guilty people whose faces have become unsightly in Thy eyes. Look instead upon the face of Thy Beloved Son, for this is the Face of Him in Whom Thou art well pleased. We now offer Thee this Holy face, covered with shame and disfigured by bloody bruises, in reparation for the crimes of our age, in order to appease Thee anger, justly provoked against us. Because Thy Divine Son, our Redeemer, has taken upon His head all the sins of His people that they might be spared, we now beg of Thee, Eternal Father, to grant us mercy. Amen.

Good night everyone - Sweet Dreams and enjoy your Sunday - may you all have good Church services or Masses and may you all have a very restful, and blessed day!