Hello my friends! We are having a very windy day here in MN! But it's in the 75 mark. Being Darla is planning on driving home alone this month, Linus thought he'd take a one way flight to Dallas and help her drive back so she doesn't have to be alone. The time and day isn't quite set yet, but they talked on the phone about it this morning. Guess she likes the idea! Then Greg flies in about a week later - right now everyone is very concerned about Greg's Dad, he's sleeping all the time, they don't know what's going on at this point. Please do say a prayer for him, his name is Gilbert.
When we want things around us to change, the best place to start in within
ourselves. Lord, grant that my frustrations can be a motivation to better
myself and my environment.
S C R I P T U R E F O R T H E D A Y
"Be still and know that I am God." ~Psalm 46:10
M E D I T A T I O N F O R T H E D A Y
Calmness is constructive of good. Agitation is destructive of good.
I need not rush into action. I can first "be still and know that God
is God." Then I can act only as God directs me through my conscience.
Only trust, perfect trust in God can keep me calm when all around me
are agitated. Calmness is trust in action. I can seek all things
which can help me to cultivate calmness. To attain material things,
the world learns to attain speed. To attain spiritual things, I can
learn to attain a state of calm.
P R A Y E R F O R T H E D A Y
I pray that I may learn how to have inner peace. I pray that I may be
calm, so that God can work through me.
MOTHER TERESA´S ROSARY
- Author Unknown
Jim Castle was tired when he boarded his plane in Cincinnati, Ohio, that
night in 1981. The 45-year-old management consultant had put on a week-long
series of business meetings and seminars, and now he sank gratefully into
his seat ready for the flight home to Kansas City,Kansas.
As more passengers entered, the place hummed with conversation, mixed with
the sound of bags being stowed. Then, suddenly, people fell silent.
The quiet moved slowly up the aisle like an invisible wake behind a boat.
Jim craned his head to see what was happening, and his mouth dropped open.
Walking up the aisle were two nuns clad in simple white habits bordered in
blue. He recognized the familiar face of one at once, the wrinkled skin, the
eyes warmly intent. This was a face he'd seen in newscasts and on the cover
of TIME. The two nuns halted, and Jim realized that his seat companion was
going to be Mother Teresa!
As the last few passengers settled in, Mother Teresa and her companion
pulled out rosaries. Each decade of the beads was a different color, Jim
noticed. The decades represented various areas of the world, Mother Teresa
told him later, and added, "I pray for the poor and dying on each
continent."
The airplane taxied to the runway and the two women began to pray, their
voices a low murmur. Though Jim considered himself not a very religious
Catholic who went to church mostly out of habit, inexplicably he found
himself joining in.
By the time they murmured the final prayer, the plane had reached cruising
altitude. Mother Teresa turned toward him. For the first time in his life,
Jim understood what people meant when they spoke of a person possessing an
"aura". As she gazed at him, a sense of peace filled him; he could no more
see it than he could see the wind, but he felt it, just as surely as he felt
a warm summer breeze.
"Young man," she inquired, "do you say the rosary often?" "No, not really,"
he admitted. She took his hand, while her eyes probed his. Then she smiled.
"Well, you will now." And she dropped her rosary into his palm.
An hour later Jim entered the Kansas City airport, where he was met by his
wife, Ruth. "What in the world?" Ruth asked when she noticed the rosary in
his hand. They kissed and Jim described his encounter.
Driving home, he said. "I feel as if I met a true sister of God."
Nine months later Jim and Ruth visited Connie, a friend o f theirs for
several years. Connie confessed that she'd been told she had ovarian cancer.
"The doctor says it's a tough case," said Connie, "but I'm going to fight
it. I won't give up." Jim clasped her hand. Then, after reaching into his
pocket, he gently twined Mother Teresa's rosary around her fingers. He told
her the story and said, "Keep it with you Connie. It may help."
Although Connie wasn't Catholic, her hand closed willingly around the small
plastic beads. "Thank you," she whispered. "I hope I can return it."
More than a year passed before Jim saw Connie again. This time, face
glowing, she hurried toward him and handed him the rosary "I carried it with
me all year," she said. "I've had surgery and have been on chemotherapy,
too. Last month, the doctors did second-look surgery, and the tumor's gone.
completely!" Her eyes met Jim's. "I knew it was time to give the rosary
back."
In the fall of 1987, Ruth's sister, Liz, fell into a deep depression after
her divorce. She asked Jim if she could borrow the rosary, and when he sent
it, she hung it over her bedpost in a small velvet bag.
"At night I held on to it, just physically held on. I was so lonely and
afraid," she says, "yet when I gripped that rosary, I felt as if I held a
loving hand." Gradually, Liz pulled her life together, and she mailed the
rosary back. "Someone else may need it," she said.
Then one night in 1988, a stranger telephoned Ruth. She'd heard about the
rosary from a neighbor and asked if she could borrow it to take to the
hospital where her mother lay in a coma. The family hoped the rosary might
help their mother die peacefully. A few days later, the woman returned the
beads. "The nurses told me a coma patient can still hear," she said, " so I
explained to my mother that I had Mother Teresa's rosary and that when I
gave it to her she could let go; it would be all rosary in her hand.
Right away, we saw her face relax. The lines smoothed out until she looked
so peaceful, so young." The woman's voice caught. "A few minutes later she
was gone." Fervently, she gripped Ruth's hands. "Thank you."
Is there special power in those humble beads? Or is the power of the human
spirit simply renewed in each person who borrows the rosary? Jim only knows
that requests continue to come often unexpectedly. He always responds though
whenever he lends the rosary. He says, "When you're through needing it, send
it back. Someone else may need it."
Jim's own life has changed, too, since his unexpected meeting on the
airplane. When he realized Mother Teresa carries everything she owns in a
small bag, he made an effort to simplify his own life. "I try to remember
what really counts - not money or titles or possessions, but the way we love
others," he says.
MAY GOD BLESS YOU ABUNDANTLY, MOTHER MARY ASK HER SON JESUS TO SHOWER YOU
WITH GRACES.
Please feel free to pass this mail on especially to all those in despair so
that they might know that they are not alone in their hour of need. The
reason I sent you this mail is because I know the power of these simple
beads, and I wanted to share it with you.
Sent by Amelita Villon
PRAYER
Show us the way to follow you, by a change of heart and mind. The Kingdom of
God will soon prevail. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Power of One Hail Mary
HAIL, MARY, full of grace; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
HOLY MARY, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our
death. Amen.
Millions of Catholics often say the Hail Mary. Some repeat it hastily not
even thinking on the words they are saying. These following words may help
some say it more thoughtfully.
They can give God's Mother great joy and obtain for themselves graces that
she wishes to give them.
One Hail Mary well said fills the heart of Our Lady with delight and obtains
for us indescribably great graces. One Hail Mary well said gives us more
graces than a thousand thoughtlessly said.
The Hail Mary is like a mine of gold that we can always take from but never
exhaust.
Is it hard to say the Hail Mary well? All we have to do is to know its value
and understand its meaning.
St. Jerome tells us that "the truths contained in the Hail Mary are so
sublime, so wonderful that no man or Angel could fully understand them."
St. Thomas Aquinas, the Prince of Theologians, "the wisest of Saints and
holiest of wise men," as Leo XIII called him, preached for 40 days in Rome
on the Hail Mary, filling his hearers with rapture.
Father F. Suarez, the holy and learned Jesuit, declared when dying that he
would willingly give all the many learned books he wrote, all his life's
labors, for the merit of one Hail Mary prayerfully and devoutly said.
St. Mechtilde, who loved our Lady very much, was one day striving to compose
a beautiful prayer in her honor. Our Lady appeared to her, with the golden
letters on her breast of: "Hail Mary full of grace." She said to her:
"Desist, dear child, from your labor for no prayer you could possibly
compose would give me the joy and delight of the Hall Mary."
A certain man found joy in saying slowly the Hail Mary. The Blessed Virgin
in return appeared to him smiling and announced to him the day and hour that
he should die, granting him a most holy and happy death.
After death a beautiful white lily grew from his mouth having written on its
petals: "Hail Mary."
Cesarius recounts a similar incident. A humble and holy monk lived in the
monastery. His poor mind and memory were so weak that he could only repeat
one prayer which was the "Hail Mary." After death a tree grew over his grave
and on all its leaves was written: "Hail Mary."
These beautiful legends show us how much devotion to Our Lady was valued,
and the power attributed to the Hail Mary devoutly prayed.
Each time that we say the Hail Mary we are repeating the very same words
with which St. Gabriel the Archangel saluted Mary on the day of the
Annunciation, when she was made Mother of the Son of God.
Many graces and joys filled the soul of Mary at that moment.
Now when we say the Hail Mary we offer anew all these graces and joys to Our
Lady and she accepts them with Immense delight.
In return she gives us a share in these joys.
Once Our Lord asked St. Francis Assisi to give Him something. The Saint
replied: "Dear Lord, I can give You nothing for I have already given you
all, all my love."
Jesus smiled and said: "Francis, give Me it all again and again, it will
give Me the same pleasure."
So with our dearest Mother, she accepts from us each time we say the Hail
Mary the joys and delight she received from the words of St. Gabriel.
Almighty God gave His Blessed Mother all the dignity, greatness and holiness
necessary to make her His own most perfect Mother.
But He also gave her all the sweetness, love, tenderness and affection
necessary to make her our most loving Mother. Mary is truly and really our
Mother.
As children when in trouble run to their mothers for help, so ought we to
run at once with unbounded confidence to Mary.
St. Bernard and many Saints said that it was never, never heard at any time
or in any place that Mary refused to hear the prayers of her children on
earth.
Why do we not realize this most consoling truth? Why refuse the love and
consolation that God's Sweet Mother is offering us?
Is it our lamentable ignorance which deprives us of such help and
consolation.
To love and trust Mary is to be happy on earth now and afterwards to be
happy in Heaven.
Dr. Hugh Lammer was a staunch Protestant, with strong prejudices against the
Catholic Church.
One day he found an explanation of the Hail Mary and read it. He was so
charmed with it that he began to say it daily. Insensibly all his
anti-Catholic animosity began to disappear. He became a Catholic, a holy
priest and a professor of Catholic Theology in Breslau.
A priest was called to the bedside of a man who was dying in despair because
of his sins.
Yet he refused obstinately to go to confession. As a last recourse the
priest asked him to say at least the Hail Mary after which the poor man made
a sincere confession and died a holy death.
In England, a parish priest was asked to go and see a Protestant lady who
was gravely ill, and who wished to become a Catholic.
Asked if she had ever gone to a Catholic Church, or, if she had spoken to
Catholics, or if she had read Catholic books? She replied, "No, no."
All she could remember was that------when a child------she had learned from
a little Catholic neighbor girl the Hail Mary, which she said every night.
She was Baptized and before dying had the happiness of seeing her husband
and children Baptized.
St. Gertrude tells us in her book, "Revelations" that when we thank God for
the graces He has given to any Saint, we get a great share of those
particular graces.
What graces, then, do we not receive when we say the Hail Mary while
thanking God for all the unspeakable graces He has given His Blessed Mother?
With Ecclesiastical Approval.
KEYS FOR LIVING
1. The best way to get even is to forget...
2. Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death...
3. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts...
4. Some folks wear their halos much too tightly...
5. Some marriages are made in heaven, but they ALL have to be maintained on
earth...
6. Unless you can create the WHOLE universe in 5 days, then perhaps giving
"advice" to God isn't such a good idea!
7. Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, and faith looks up...
8. Standing in the middle of the road is dangerous. You will get knocked
down by the traffic from both ways.
9. Words are windows to the heart.
10. A skeptic is a person who, when he sees the handwriting on the wall,
claims it's a forgery.
11. It isn't difficult to make a mountain out of a molehill just add a
little dirt.
12. A successful marriage isn't finding the right person-it's being the
right person.
13. The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground.
14. Too many people offer God prayers, with claw marks all over them.
15. The tongue must be heavy indeed, because so few people can hold it.
16. To forgive is to set the prisoner free, and then discover the prisoner
was you.
17. You have to wonder about humans, they think God is dead and Elvis is
alive!
18. It's all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure
to flush when you are done.
19. You'll notice that a turtle only makes progress when it sticks out its
neck...
20. If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you can bet the
water bill is higher.
And last but not least -- God gave the angels Wings, and He gave humans
CHOCOLATE.
"The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance
between your knees and the floor.
The one who kneels to the Lord can stand up to anything."
You are richer today if you have laughed, given or forgiven.
-- Author Unknown
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