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May 13,
2008

Ave Maria (Schubert)

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Our Lady of Fatima

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Quote for the Day:
O Lord, come in my heart and soul and mind,
guide my every thought, word, and deed.

St Germaine De Pibrac

Quote from the book, "101 Inspirational Stories of the Power of Prayer"


I do not know what to write about. I set my timer for five minutes and decided to just start typing and see what happens. Before I came into my office I went into the chapel and asked God to give me something to write about that would help someone. So far nothing has popped onto the radar.

I seem to be in a praying slump. Not that I'm not praying or that God is not listening...just that it all seems pretty much more effort than anything. This afternoon I had to take a sister to a medical appointment and while she went into the doctor's office I stayed in the car and attempted to pray the rosary. There wasn't a lot of focus. Every so often I would come back to the reality... of, "Oh yes, what mystery am I on?"

So this is one of those days where... as Bishop Skylstad so plainly put it, "To try to pray, is to pray." I tried.. but it really was more trying than anything... but I think it counts. I think right now I'm too hung up on results. I want to see results!

Don't you just hate praying and praying and praying and nothing seems to be moving? [There's the five minutes!]

Anyway I'm just one of those persons who gets really hung up on wanting miracles. I know that is supposed to be step one of how many steps in the level of prayer... and I've been here 26 years and I should have moved beyond this by now I suppose. But I just love miracles don't you know?

Over the weekend we had a friend share a story of his encounter with the devil. Really. Scary. Every so often we get these stories. It's pretty easy to tell which are real and which are more mental. When you live in a monastic setting.. and prayer is pretty much your life.... you sort of pick up a sort of sense. Maybe a lot of people do. Its pretty easy to recognize evil when you are not swallowed up in it.

One of the most amazing things about these encounters is how the people describe him. So many times its almost exactly the same. Sometimes he is threatening as was the case with this person.. but often he is just gloating and sarcastic. Which is very weird you know.. because actually.... the devil sometimes gets more prayer mileage and turning to God out of me.. than just staying in the background.

Even when I can't seem to pray... knowing that the creepy weasel is a foot... helps me to keep on trying!

Today is the beautiful, beautiful feast of Our Lady of Fatima. I love this feast. I love this apparition. Wonderful things happen when we bring our Lord's mother into our praying circle. And if anyone knows the power of prayer and intercession it certainly is Mary.

Well, I am going to bed.. I'm starting to hear the clock ticking.. I only seem to notice when its late. I'm also going to pray for each and everyone of us to get a miracle tomorrow. A big one! Might as well ask for a big as a small don't you think?

Blessings of Peace and All Good,
Sister Patricia and all the Sisters

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Notebook of Miracles
Susan M. Walker
Wheeling, Illinois


One day, while I was sitting in my car, a song came on the radio. It is called “I’ve Always Loved You” by Third Day. I had heard the song many times before, but this time, the words spoke to my soul:

Don’t you know I’ve always loved you
Even before there was time
Though you turn away
I’ll tell you still
Don’t you know I’ve always loved you

There, still in the parking lot, I realized that song was the long-awaited answer to one of my prayers. It was a prayer that began a long time ago when I begged God to show me the way to deal with a troublesome relationship—one that I had endured for many years—as it slowly but continuously ate away at my self-esteem. I had just left an appointment with my spiritual director at church and was feeling down about the direction my life was heading. But the words from the song began to make sense. How could God ever explain His love in words if I regularly ignored His miracles, signs and wonders? I mean, if they weren’t enough to prove God’s love for me, then what would?

Just then, a soft, gentle rain began to dance on my windshield. I watched and cried as the droplets hit the glass and rolled down. I had been so caught up in my own world of pain and my loveless marriage to an alcoholic that I rarely noticed the rain or any of the other small wonders of my daily life.

Less than an hour earlier I was telling my spiritual director how I felt I had traded years in a no-win relationship for bits of my soul, and in the process, I lost so much of who I was and all that mattered to me. He listened compassionately and then gently asked, “If God could give you anything right now, what would you ask for?”

Without hesitating, I replied, “I want God to give me a miracle.”

My desire was for God to wave some sort of magic wand and say “poof” to solve my problems and to fix my husband and take away his addictions. I wanted the “happily ever after” that we are promised as little girls. I wanted to love and be loved in a healthy relationship. I wanted my husband to find God, or at least for God to find him. I wanted everything to be perfect without my having to do all of the work.

My spiritual director smiled and asked me to be on the lookout for my miracle. He asked me to make a list of all the miracles I encounter each day and to keep praying to God for what I needed. We prayed together and as I left, he reminded me, “Our God is a God of miracles.”

So there I sat in the church parking lot, his suggestion of a miracle list still fresh in my mind and a song playing on the radio. The song continued, “I don’t know how to explain it, but I know that words will hardly do if miracles, signs and wonders aren’t enough for me to prove to you.…”

The rain kept falling. A little miracle perhaps? Was it God’s way of starting to cleanse my soul?

It occurred to me that if I did focus on seeking out the little miracles and tiny wonders that are all around me, I might learn a bit of the lesson I needed before my life and relationship could change.

So I found a piece of paper and wrote “one gentle rainstorm and a perfect song.”

I decided that I would identify just one little gift from heaven each day and spend a few minutes thanking God for it. I recorded my little miracles in a notebook. Each has a date and inscription such as “saw a butterfly” or “my daughter has the most beautiful blue eyes.” It didn’t take long before I realized that as I looked for little signs of God’s love for me, I found more than I could count, and many of the signs were not so little. My notebook of miracles was quickly filled.

God never did fix my husband or solve my problems for me, but He has been changing me. He has been working on me and rebuilding me over these last few years so that now I can deal with the relationship differently. I got my miracle. The one I needed instead of the one I prayed for. I came to see that God shows His love for me all the time. He never stops loving us and He never tires of showing us the depths of His love. As the song says, “Don’t you know I’ve always loved you and I always will?”

From the book 101 Inspirational Stories of the Power of Prayer
Joy from Meditation
Rejoice in Me
by Msgr. David E. Rosage

Love Unlimited

Ps 36:6-7
O Lord, your kindness reaches to heaven;
your faithfulness, to the clouds,
Your justice is like the mountains of God;
your judgments, like the mighty deep;
man and beast you save, O Lord.


In picturesque language the psalmist portrays the kindness and the faithfulness of God by comparing God's goodness to the immensity of the mountains and the depths of the sea. Even these metaphors cannot encompass the unfathomable, limitless love which God has for us.

God is eternal and immutable. His love is just as great today as always. All he asks of us is to let him love us, to be open to receive his gifts.

The beloved disciple explains it in these words:
"God's love was revealed in our midst in this way:
he sent his only Son to the world
that we might have life through him."
(1 Jn 4:9)

Joy in Eating!
Healthy Eating from Barbara George

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A Smile from Home - Danielle Bean

Today's Thought

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pictures and links to go with this text.


Calling Home


“Hello?” I answered the phone yesterday afternoon.

“Gah!” said the caller.

“Uh, hello?” I said again. I looked quizzically at Juliette who stood nearby, but remained polite. The Caller ID had told me it was a cell phone but didn’t list its number. I figured that it might be somebody important.

“Gah!” the caller repeated before bursting into giggles. Familiar giggles. Very familiar giggles. In fact, these very familiar giggles were coming from nearby, I realized.

I looked across the living room and saw baby Daniel with my cell phone pressed against his ear. My open, gutted purse lay at his feet; its contents covered the floor. When his eyes met mine, he shrieked with the thrill of his own delicious naughtiness.

I was right. It was somebody important.


Joy from Rome
Greetings from London with Sister Janet Fearns, FMDM

Pause for Prayer

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On a personal note…




Joy from Church
Spiritual Blessings from Father Rory Pitstick

A Virtual Retreat
Reflections following the Daily Liturgical cycle

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Tuesday

Jas 1: 12-18
Ps 93(94): 12-13a.
14-15. 18-19
Mk 8: 14-21


Daily Readings
May 13 Tue: Ordinary Weekday/ Our Lady of Fatima


From today's readings: “No one experiencing temptation should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and He Himself tempts no one..... Blessed the man You instruct, O Lord.... Jesus said to them, ‘Do you still not understand?’ ”

How Tempting!


Temptation, of course, is not the same as sin - temptation is the “lure and enticement of desire” which leads to sin. Even though temptation comes from Satan (never from God!), remember, Jesus Himself was tempted, so there is no sin involved merely in experiencing temptation. In fact, it has been said that a person unaware of any temptations in his life has a lot to worry about, because the Devil evidently assumes such a one is already in his possession! So, when a person perseveres, fighting against temptation, he is being virtuous. That does not mean, however, that one should deliberately entertain temptation, for to do so intentionally would be a sin of presumption that one could successfully resist the temptation.

In fact, the most effective and straightforward resistance to sin is at the level of temptation. When a person falls regularly into sin, an essential defense tactic is for him to quarantine himself as much as possible from the sources of temptation. That’s the reason that, when making an examination of conscience, not only must we take responsibility for our sins, but we need to go the additional step of identifying the “near occasions of sin,” so as to avoid them in the future. This is why we pray, “Lead us not into temptation...,” imploring God to lead us away, as far as possible, from sources of temptation, not because God Himself ever would lead us into temptation (note how emphatic James is about this point)!


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