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Delivered Monday through Friday!
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April 4,
2007
What a Difference
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Joy from the Monastery |
Thoughts from Sister Patricia
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To send today's card: Saint John Baptist de la Salle
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Quote for the Day:
I would advise those who practice prayer; especially at first,
to cultivate the friendship and company of others who are working in the same way.
This is a most important thing,
because we can help one another by our prayers,
and all the more so because it may bring us even greater benefits.
St. Theresa of Avila
From "101 Inspirational Stories of the Power of Prayer"
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I'm definitely in the hum de dums. Which is a step below the doldrums. Which means (possibly) that I just maybe shouldn't have had those extra couple of chocolates. Could be that. Could also be that I am in that sort of depression one sometimes gets when working on a big project (like the book) and one wonders "Was it worth it? Should I keep doing this? Why?"
Today at recreation we watched a video about Saint Padre Pio. When it started out.. the last thing I wanted to watch was a video of any saint... I wanted something silly, and happy and let's forget we live in the real world for awhile sort of video. But no, it was Sister Jane's turn to select the video and she wanted something a bit on the holy side. Sigh. So I grumbled a bit out loud and a bit to myself. Truthfully, I'm not the sort of hold everything in sort of person. I've got rolling my eyes and heavy sighs down pretty darn good. So... I know the merit I'm chalking up is soooo in the red, and we'll have to work on it.. but its the way things stand with me at present.
Anyway, as the video progressed, I did enjoy it. And it was probably exactly what Jesus ordered as I was definitely heading down the old, "I'm so sorry for me" path. The thing I picked up that was sort of cheerful in a uncheerful sort of way... was how much trouble Padre had in doing good. It's like, "Hey, if things are not going so well... buck up... that's part of the tour. It's all part of the "Saint" package you signed up for when you were baptized. Welcome to the Club!"
Sigh.
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Coming Soon!
FOREWORD (Part One)
By Jerry Usher
One of my theology professors at Franciscan University of Steubenville once told our class, "If you want to lose your faith, just stop praying, and breathe." His statement initially seemed rather odd, since I assumed that falling away from God would take a bit more effort than simply not spending time with Him in prayer. It turns out what he said can almost serve as a one-line summary of the Christian faith. In reality, prayer is the sine qua non of our relationship with the Lord, the essential element without which we would, indeed, soon fail to even think of Him, let alone love Him.
Understanding prayer strictly in that way, however, results in an incomplete appreciation of its power and importance. If we pray merely to avoid losing our faith in God, that's a sort of white knuckle approach to seeking salvation, a kind of insurance policy by which we hope to make it to heaven by tossing up an occasional prayer. But God wants prayer to be so much more than that for each of us. Prayer is the means by which we build our relationship of love with the Holy Trinity, how we share everything with God, and receive all that He has for us.
From the Foreword for "101 Inspirational Stories of the Power of Prayer"
Jerry Usher is the Creator and radio host of Catholic Answers Live, www.catholic.com, and
co-author of Called by Name: The Inspiring Stories of 12 Men Who Became
Catholic Priests
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Blessings of Peace,
Sister Patricia and all the Sisters
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Reverend Fun
Motivational
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Rejoice in Me
by Msgr. David E. Rosage
Everything God Created is Good
Ongoing Creation
Psalm 119:73
Your hands have made and fashioned me:
give me discernment that I may learn your commands.
In this prayer we ask God, whose love fashioned us, to endow us with the gift of discernment that we may learn his commands and know his will.
God's commands are not merely rules and regulations to curtail our freedom; rather they are directives, given in love, to guide us on our journey back to our Father.
St. Paul explains the fruit of discernment in these words: "What you have done is put aside your old self with its past deeds and put on a new man, one who grows in knowledge as he is formed anew in the image of his Creator." (Col 3:9-10).
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Healthy Eating from Barbara George
Elder Care Diet Tips
Your resource for hints on nutrition and health;
a place to learn and a place to share!
Visit Barb's Blog to leave comments and find more great tips.
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A Smile from Home - Danielle Bean
Today's Thought
Visit Danielle's Blog to see
pictures and links to go with this text.
Seeking Smallness
"Do you think we'll ever really be grown up?" I remember asking my next-door neighbor and best friend Krissy years ago. "Do you think we'll ever talk about gas prices and health insurance and stuff?"
We two ten-year-olds sat on our purple bicycles with sparkly tasseled handle bars and funky flowered banana seats as we considered our futures. Standing there in my parents' driveway, I had an overwhelming sense of my own smallness in a big world. I was keenly aware of my youthful freedom and content to leave the "big stuff" to grownups. It felt good to be small.
So how did I get here? One marriage, eight children, and 25 years later, I know more than I care to know and talk more than I care to talk about "gas prices and health insurance and stuff." There are other things too -- like laundry stains and property taxes -- things so crushingly mundane and reeking of responsibility that my ten-year-old self could never have imagined them as she flew downhill on her purple bicycle with legs out straight, hands gripping the handle bars, and mouth wide open, laughing and shouting into the wind.
More
http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3299&Itemid=48
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Greetings from London with Sister Janet Fearns, FMDM
Pause for Prayer
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On a personal note…
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Spiritual Blessings from Father Rory Pitstick
A Virtual Retreat
Reflections following the Daily Liturgical cycle
Visit Fr. Rory's Blog
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Monday
Acts 6: 8-15
Ps 118(119): 23-24.
26-27. 29-30
Jn 6: 22-29
Daily Readings
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Apr 7 Mon: John Baptist de la Salle, p, rf M
From today's readings:
“Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people.... Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!... Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you....”
Witness and Testimony
The word “martyr” is used for St. Stephen and all those who die in loyally testifying to their faith, but originally, the word simply meant “witness.” Because those who die in persecutions are the supreme witnesses of the Faith, the term “martyr” gradually came to refer primarily to these who lay down their lives as the ultimate testimony of their true love for God and His Church.
However, there was a reason that the early martyrs suffered death: generally, they were the most outspoken and zealous in proclaiming the Faith with their lives, before they were called to proclaim it with their deaths! This is certainly true in Stephen’s case, as Scripture records, he “was working great wonders and signs among the people.... [And his opponents] could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.”
In other words, all of us need to be martyrs, loyal “witnesses” to the Faith! While few, if any, of us will be called to the glorious vocation of literally dying for our faith, all of us are called to stand tall in living and giving testimony to the Faith for which the martyrs died!
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