Community Chat

[gloriajean]

We are judged by our actions, not by our intentions. Lord, may I show
my love for You through charity and goodness toward others.

Scripture for the day:

"Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may
give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise." ~Psalm 106:47

Meditation for the day:

We can always remember that we are weak but that God is strong. God knows
all about our weakness. God hears every cry for mercy, every sign of
weakness, every plea for help, and every sorrow over every failure, every
weakness felt and expressed. We only fail when we trust too much
in our own strength. We need not feel bad about our weakness. When we are
weak, that is when God is strong to help us. When we trust God enough, our
weakness will not matter. God is always strong to save.

Prayer for the day:

I pray that I may learn to lean on God's strength. I pray that I may know
that my weakness is God's opportunity.

Hello my friends! Hope your day went well - it was another nice day here
today - and while picking raspberries even a little hot! Seems like a
record for October here in MN. Nice ordinary day - and at the spur of the
moment we went out to eat at Applebee's after he got home from work - it
just so happened that Lori would have come home for supper tonight, but when
she called I had the cell along and told her where we were and it's not far
from her office so she came there and joined us - it was such a nice,
enjoyable time being with her. It always is. So that was my blessings for
the day - and there are much more numerous to count! A big blessing was
that Linus' day at work went well, and he wasn't too worn out when he got
home. Oh wow, another one I shouldn't forget - when we got home, I let
Sammy out - and I lost my balance and almost fell but I caught a stake that
holds up the tomatoes - yes, they are close to the patio, and it got my
balance right and I never fell!! Praise the Lord!! Maybe my Guardian Angel
made sure I caught that stake!!


Homily of the Day


October 11, 2011


God Doesn´t Do It. we Do It to Ourslves.
by Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.

Rom 1:16-25 / Lk 11:37-41

At first glance, Jesus’ advice at the end of today’s gospel sounds a little
strange, almost like a suggestion that we try to make a deal with God: “I’ll
give alms, Lord, if you’ll let me off the hook.” Well, that’s not at all
what Jesus was trying to tell us.

When we sin, we ourselves are the first of the victims of our own ‘crime.’
Here’s how it works: Every sinful choice damages our spirit by reinforcing
one of the unloving pathways in our soul, and by taking us a little further
into ourselves and a little further away from God and his people. As we move
further and further away and grow more and more preoccupied with ourselves
and our own desires, it becomes ever easier to turn our backs on God and
everyone else. And that means cutting ourselves off from the only source of
true joy. It’s a downward spiral that ultimately can leave us in total
isolation, trapped inside a hardened heart. What better definition is there
of h ell? And remember, God didn’t do this to us. We did it to ourselves, one
choice at a time.

God’s attitude towards us never changes. He’s always waiting to take us back
into his embrace. But it’s very hard to escape from a truly hardened heart,
as we can see so clearly from observing the pharisees. In fact, there’s only
one way out of that cold, bitter place, and that is by doing what we may
have nearly forgotten how to do: looking beyond our own needs to the needs
of others, giving instead of taking. As we begin to do that with God’s help,
we are in fact returning to the “scene of the crime” and repairing the
damage we’ve done to others. In the process, our own hearts begin to heal,
and more and more we can receive the love that God and his people have been
trying to give us all the while.

There’s healing and repair work to be done in all of us. Why not let God
help!

The Rosary
"For myself, I know of no better way of establishing the kingdom of God,
Eternal Wisdom, than to unite vocal and mental prayer by saying the holy
Rosary and meditating on its fifteen mysteries."
St. Louis De Montfort

For Reflection:
Why is the Rosary such a useful prayer in establishing the kingdom of God
within the soul? How have I seen this to be so in my own life? What can I do
to make progress in my daily meditation of the mysteries?

The Smell of God
A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor
walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from
surgery,her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the
latest news.
That afternoon of March 10 , 1991, complications had forced Diana, only
24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver the couple's
new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one
pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature.
Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. "I don't think she is
going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10%
chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim
chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."

Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the
devastating problems Danae would likely face is she survived. She would
never walk. She would never talk. She would probably be blind. She would
certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to
complete mental retardation and on and on.

"No! No!" was a Diana could say. She and David with their 5-year-old son
Dustin, had long dreamed of the day that would have a daughter to become a
family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.

Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest
thread, Diana slipped in and out of drugged sleep, growing more and more
determined that their tiny daughter would live-and live to be a happy,
healthy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire
details of their daughter's chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much
less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable.

"David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral
arrangements," Diana remembers. "I felt so bad for him because he was doing
everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn't
listen - I couldn't listen. I said, "No, that is not going to happen, no
way! I don't care what the doctors say Danae is not going to die! One day
she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!"

As if willed to live by Diana's determination, Danae clung to life - a
marvel her miniature body could endure. But, as those first days passed, a
new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae's underdeveloped nervous
system was essentially "raw," the lightest kiss or caress only intensified
her discomfort - so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against
their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as
Danae struggled alone beneath the ultra-violet light in the tangle of tubes
and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little
girl.

There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger. But, as the
weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of
strength there.



At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her
in their arms for the very first time. And two months later-though doctors
continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less
living any kind of normal life, were next to zero

Danae went home from the hospital, just as he mother had predicted.

Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with
glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for like. She shows no signs,
whatsoever, of any mental or physical impairments. Simply, she is everything
a little girl can be and more-but that happy ending is far from the end of
her story.

One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving,
Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local
ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing. As
always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and several other
adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent.

Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, "Do you smell that?"
Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana
replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."

Danae closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?" Once again her
mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like rain.
"Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders
with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It
smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."

Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with
some other children. Thinking back on her daughter's word's it confirmed
what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at
least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her
first two months of her life when her nerves were too sensitive for them to
touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest - and it is His loving scent
that she remembers so well.

Motivation
A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a twenty dollars
bill.
In the room of two hundred people, he asked, "Who would like this twenty
dollars bill?"

Hands started going up.

He said, "I am going to give this twenty dollars bill to one of you. But
first, let me do this."

He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up.

He then asked, "Who still wants it?"

Still the hands were up in the air.

"Well," he replied, "What if I do this?"

He dropped the bill on the ground and started to grind it into the floor
with his shoe. He picked it up but it is now all crumpled and dirty.

"Now who still wants it?"

Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I
did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value.
It is still worth twenty dollars."

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt
by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as
though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will
happen, you will never lose your value. You are special - Don't ever forget
it!

Please pass this message to everyone you know. You will never know the lives
it touches, the hurting hearts it speaks to or the hope that it can bring!

My Hand In God´s


Each morning when I wake I say,
"I place my hand in God's today;"
I know He'll walk close by my side
My every wandering step to guide.

He leads me with the tenderest care
When paths are dark and I despair---
No need for me to understand
If I but hold fast to His hand.

My hand in His! No surer way
to walk in safety through each day.
By His great bounty I am fed;
Warmed by His love, and comforted.

When at day's end I seek my rest
And realize how much I'm blessed,
My thanks pour out to Him; and then
I place my hand in God's again.

By Florence Scripps Kellogg



Taste A Little Honey (Daily Bible Reading Proverbs 24:13-14)

It was in my mouth as honey for sweetness Ezekiel 3:3

The story is told of Samuel L. Brengle walking into a New York
office on a stifling, humid day. As he approached the chic secretary,
he mopped his brow and implored her to tell him how to keep cool.

Ignoring his question under the weight of her own problems, she
begged "I wish someone would tell me how to keep sweet."

Obviously she had been facing situations that continually brought
out the worst in her. One can only imagine her resolutions day after
day as she came to work. She would not let the lazy janitor upset her.
She would not get so annoyed with the salesman who was always
having to phone back for something he had forgotten. She would be
patient with her boss when he was just too fussy to deal with. She would
not snap back at persistently complaining and demanding customers.

But each day ended the same as the day before. Not in one instance was
she able to act like the person she wanted to be. Short, snappy words
able looks and actions plagued her.

More than she wanted the physical comfort of relief from extreme heat,
she wanted the inner assurance that she as a person could handle each
minute sweetly and calmly.

We have an answer to our personality problems. We have a source of
sweetness that we can draw on. The Psalmist in 119:103 declares,
"How sweet are they words unto my taste! Yea sweeter than honey to
my mouth!"

As we daily feed upon God's word, we can become more like Him. His
sweetness will be evident in our lives as each day we taste a little honey.

THREE STRANGERS
Author Unknown
October 11, 2011


A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards
sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them.

She said "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please
come in and have something to eat."

"Is the man of the house home?", they asked.

"No", she said. "He's out."

"Then we cannot come in", they replied.

In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had
happened.

"Go tell them I am home and invite them in!"

The woman went out and invited the men in.

"We do not go into a House together," they replied.

"Why is that?" she wanted to know.

One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he said pointing
to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, "He is
Success and I am Love." Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with
your husband which one of us you want in your home."

The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was
overjoyed. "How nice!!", he said, "Since that is the case, let us
invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!"

His wife disagreed. "My dear, why don't we invite Success?"

Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of the
house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: "Would it not be better
to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!"

"Let us heed our daughter-in-law's advice," said the husband to his
wife.
"Go out and invite Love to be our guest."

The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of you is Love?
Please come in and be our guest."

Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other 2 also got
up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success:

"I only invited Love, Why are you coming in?"

The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth or Success,
the other two of us would've stayed out, but since you invited Love,
wherever He goes, we go with him. Wherever there is Love, there is
also Wealth and Success!!!!!!"

GOD LIVES UNDER THE BED

I envy Kevin. My brother, Kevin, thinks God lives under his bed. At least
that's what I heard him say one night. He was praying out loud in his dark
bedroom, and I stopped to listen, 'Are you there, God?' he said. 'Where are
you? Oh, I see. Under the bed...'

I giggled softly and tiptoed off to my own room. Kevin's unique perspectives
are often a source of amusement. But that night something else lingered long
after the humor. I realized for the first time the very different world
Kevin lives in. He was born 30 years ago, mentally disabled as a result of
difficulties during labor. Apart from his size (he's 6-foot-2), there are
few ways in which he is an adult.

He reasons and communicates with the capabilities of a 7-year-old, and he
always will. He will probably always believe that God lives under his bed,
that Santa Claus is the one who fills the space under our tree every
Christmas and that airplanes stay up in the sky because angels carry them.


I remember wondering if Kevin realizes he is different. Is he ever
dissatisfied with his monotonous life? Up before dawn each day, off to work
at a workshop for the disabled, home to walk our cocker spaniel, return to
eat his favorite macaroni-and-cheese for dinner, and later to bed. The only
variation in the entire scheme is laundry, when he hovers excitedly over the
washing machine like a mother with her newborn child.


He does not seem dissatisfied. He lopes out to the bus every morning at
7:05, eager for a day of simple work.

He wrings his hands excitedly while the water boils on the stove before
dinner, and he stays up late twice a week to gather our dirty laundry for
his next day's laundry chores.

And Saturdays - oh, the bliss of Saturdays! That's the day my Dad takes
Kevin to the airport to have a soft drink, watch the planes land, and
speculate loudly on the destination of each passenger inside. 'That one's
goin' to Chi-car-go! ' Kevin shouts as he claps his hands. His anticipation
is so great he can hardly sleep on Friday nights.


And so goes his world of daily rituals and weekend field trips.


He doesn't know what it means to be discontent.


His life is simple.

He will never know the entanglements of wealth of power, and he does not
care what brand of clothing he wears or what kind of food he eats. His needs
have always been met, and he never worries that one day they may not be.

His hands are diligent. Kevin is never so happy as when he is working. When
he unloads the dishwasher or vacuums the carpet, his heart is completely in
it.


He does not shrink from a job when it is begun, and he does not leave a job
until it is finished. But when his tasks are done, Kevin knows how to relax.
He is not obsessed with his work or the work of others. His heart is pure.


He still believes everyone tells the truth, promises must be kept, and when
you are wrong, you apologize instead of argue.


Free from pride and unconcerned with appearances, Kevin is not afraid to cry
when he is hurt, angry or sorry. He is always transparent, always sincere.
And he trusts God.


Not confined by intellectual reasoning, when he comes to the Lord, he comes
as a child. Kevin seems to know God - to really be friends with Him in a way
that is difficult for an 'educated' person to grasp. God seems like his
closest companion.

In my moments of doubt and frustrations with my beliefs, I envy the security
Kevin has in his simple faith.

It is then that I am most willing to admit that he has some divine knowledge
that rises above my mortal questions.

It is then I realize that perhaps he is not the one with the handicap. I am.
My obligations, my fear, my pride, my circumstances - they all become
disabilities when I do not trust them to God's care.

Who knows if Kevin comprehends things I can never learn? After all, he has
spent his whole life in that kind of innocence, praying after dark and
soaking up the goodness and love of God.

And one day, when the mysteries of heaven are opened, and we are all amazed
at how close God really is to our hearts, I'll realize that God heard the
simple prayers of a boy who believed that God lived under his bed.

Kevin won't be surprised at all!

When you receive this, say a prayer. That's all you have to do. There is
nothing attached. This is powerful.

Just send this to four people OR MORE and do not break this, please.

Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive. There is no cost, but a lot
of rewards.

FRIENDS ARE ANGELS WHO LIFT US TO OUR FEET WHEN OUR WINGS HAVE TROUBLE
REMEMBERING HOW TO FLY !!!

Good night - Sweet Dreams - Have a positive day tomorrow - and let us pray
for one another.