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.


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

"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

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

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.

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

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.

Greetings to all - I chose this top sentence because I need to read this - Good is always coming to you. I have to believe this, and to me, too. Hope your day is going well, I have been having a hard time again in signing in, two nights ago it took me about a couple hours to sign in for getting the thread out, and since we're leaving for our Mission in an hour, I don't want that trouble again, so as long as I'm signed in now I'll get the thread out early - and that's a positive! Today was meeting with the banker, finding out that we can't be helped and that we do have to sell our house if he doesn't work anymore and at 72, why should he have to? He could still work, but then he wouldn't have to. Just got a call from Ann, they are picking us up for the Mission tonight! That'll be nice.

Homily of the Day


April 4, 2011


He Wants to Make All Things New!
by Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.

Is 65:17-21 / Jn 4:43-54

No matter how young and healthy we are, there are times when we feel mighty old. It’s a feeling that comes from deep inside, a feeling that we’ve ‘been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt.’ Our routines and the ordinariness of life can back us into that frame of mind, and even more so our perceived lack of progress and advancement: After all this time and all this effort, what have I got to show? Why am I still just running around the same old track again and again, like an over-the-hill racehorse?

Those feelings can be messages from God, sometimes warning us that we have indeed lost our way and are wasting our time, and sometimes warning us that we’ve forgotten the very good reasons why we’re doing some of the things we need to do every day. In either case, as Isaiah says in today’s first reading, God wants ‘to create new heavens and a new earth.’ He wants to teach us ‘the words of a new song,’ and give us a fresh and hopeful vision of what our present can mean and what our future can be.

Let the Lord refresh your drooping spirit. Let him show you how the world looks through his eyes. You have a wonderful destiny. Don’t ever forget it, and don’t ever betray it.

Mother Teresa Said...


"Cheerfulness should be one of the main points of our religious life.
A cheerful giver is a great giver.
Cheerfulness is a sign of a generous and mortified person,
who, forgetting all things, even herself, tries to please God in all she does for souls.
Cheerfulness is often a cloak which hides a life of sacrifice,
continual union with God, fervor and generosity."

Meditation for Lent:
Psalm 79:1–9
Remember not our past sins; let your compassion be swift to meet us; for we have been brought very low (v. 8).

“Everyone complains of a lack of memory,” the American humorist Ken Hubbard wrote, “but nobody of a want of judgment.” Indeed a photographic memory is an envied ability—unless it enables you to remember something you want to be forgotten. You might wish for some things to be left in the past. Or feel haunted by the memory that “we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and done those things which we ought not to have done,” as the traditional Prayer Book confession puts it. As you journey through Lent, reflect on what you carry with you, particularly the memory of sin. Ask for healing strength to carry on. You’ll be asked to repent and then to accept that God not only forgives us but forgets your sins, even if others do not. Then use God’s compassion for you as a blueprint for the way to forgive others.

THE VIRTUES OF LOVE

The first virtue for good loving is DISCIPLINE. Discipline means doing
something hard because it is right. We are not usually very disciplined
people. We tend to avoid the difficult thing, to take the easy way out. We
often avoid doing what is right because it involves SACRIFICE. Love is
hard. It demands SACRIFICE OF THE SELF, which is the last thing we want to
give up.

Love also demands PATIENCE. It is not something that comes easily and
instantly. You have to work at it and let it grow. Loving is a slow,
tedious process that comes with time. We also have to be patient with
ourselves and each other. Willing to wait and let love grow. Love always
grows in patience.

Love must be REASONABLE. It must have an intellectual basis. Many of the
caricatures of love we see around are based on emotion and impetuosity. If
we act without thinking, we distort love. If love is unreasonable, it can
only lead to disaster, and eventually, to disillusionment.

It is also impossible to love without HUMILITY, for the biggest obstacle to
love is pride. Humility demands acceptance of the truth. Humility is not an
easy virtue. It makes demands on us, it threatens the ego, it forces us
into excuses or self-justification. But the real lover is a truly humble
person.

FAITH is at the bottom of all happy loving. Faith means that we believe
even if we do not have evidence for the belief. You cannot love another
person if you do not have faith in yourself. The most deadly enemy of love
is lack of trust and faith.

The final virtue that is needed for good loving is COURAGE. In many ways,
it is the most important of them all. We are good people; we need and want
to love. But what gets in the way is our insecurity, our lack of courage.
We are afraid that we cannot do it, or we are afraid of what other people
will say or think. It takes a lot of courage to love.

Letting Go of Resentments (This I posted on Viewpoints this morning)

A story tells of a merchant in a small town who had identical twin sons. The boys worked for their father in the department store he owned and, when he died, they took over the store.

Everything went well until the day a dollar bill disappeared. One of the brothers had left the bill on the cash register and walked outside with a customer. When he returned, the money was gone. He asked his brother,

"Did you see that dollar bill on the cash register?"

His brother replied that he had not. But the young man kept probing and questioning. He would not let it alone.

"Dollar bills just don't get up and walk away! Surely you must have seen it!"

There was subtle accusation in his voice. Tempers began to rise. Resentment set in. Before long, a deep and bitter chasm divided the young men. They refused to speak. They finally decided they could no longer work together and a dividing wall was built down the center of the store. For twenty years hostility and bitterness grew, spreading to their families and to the community.

Then one day a man in an automobile licensed in another state stopped in front of the store. He walked in and asked the clerk,

"How long have you been here?"

The clerk replied that he'd been there all his life. The customer said,

"I must share something with you. Twenty years ago I was 'riding the rails' and came into this town in a boxcar. I hadn't eaten for three days. I came into this store from the back door and saw a dollar bill on the cash register. I put it in my pocket and walked out. All these years I haven't been able to forget that. I know it wasn't much money, but I had to come back and ask your forgiveness."

The stranger was amazed to see tears well up in the eyes of this middle-aged man.

"Would you please go next door and tell that same story to the man in the store?" he said.

Then the man was even more amazed to see two middle-aged men, who looked very much alike, embracing each other and weeping together in the front of the store. After twenty years, the brokenness was mended. The wall of resentment that divided them came down.

It is so often the little things -- like resentments -- that finally divide people. And the solution, of course, is to let them go. There is really nothing particularly profound about it. But for fulfilling and lasting relationships, letting them go is a must. Refuse to carry around bitterness and you may be surprised at how much energy you have left for building bonds with those you love.

Don't Say You're Not Important

Don't say you're not important,
It simply isn't true,
The fact that you were born, !!
Is proof, God has a plan for you.

The path may seem unclear right now,
But one day you will see,
That all that came before,
Was truly meant to be.

God wrote the book that is your life,
That's all you need to know.
Each day that you are living,
Was written long ago.

God only writes best sellers,
So be proud of who you are,
Your character is important,
In this book you are the "Star."

Enjoy the novel as it reads,
It will stand throughout the ages,
Savour each chapter as you go,
Taking time to turn the pages.

Author Unknown.

Closing Prayer:
PRAYER WHEN YOU FEEL THANKFUL FOR YOUR FRIENDS

O God, I know there is nothing so precious as friendship and nothing
so rich as love.
Thank you for all my friends.
Thank you for all the people I have met, with whom I have worked,
with whom I have talked, and with whom I ate.
Thank you for all the friends with whom I have listened
To music, played games or watched movies.
Thank you for those who are even closer to me than my friends,
those whom I love and those who love me.
Help me always to be loyal to my friends
and true to those who love me. Amen.

Good night - Sweet Dreams - God bless you Always - Praying for you all for all your intentions! Hope you don't mind this early thread. I may do this until the Mission is over Wednesday night. Enjoy the Gift of God's Day - Rejoice and be glad!