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Delivered Monday through Friday!
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May 14,
2008
Morning has Broken (2)
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Joy from the Monastery |
Thoughts from Sister Patricia
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St Matthias
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Quote for the Day:
This is our Lord?s will,... that our prayer and our trust be, alike, large.
For if we do not trust as much as we pray,
we fail in full worship to our Lord in our prayer;
and also we hinder and hurt ourselves.
The reason is that we do not know truly
that our Lord is the ground from which
our prayer springeth;
nor do we know that it is given us
by his grace and his love.
If we knew this,
it would make us trust to have
of our Lord?s gifts all that we desire.
For I am sure that no man asketh
mercy and grace with sincerity,
without mercy and grace being given to him first.
Julian of Norwich
Quote from the book, "101 Inspirational Stories of the Power of Prayer"
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Day by day.... that's the thing....no matter what you are doing... aiming for, striving.. it's all got to be done day by day. And there's no magical formula. This morning it was confession time. I had some stuff I wasn't too happy to discuss... which I am sorry to say happens even to nuns in monasteries. Very sad but very true. AND you also might find comfort or not.. to know that even after 26 years of going to confession on a regular basis... I still find it difficult at times. Not the actual process.. just the admitting part. Like oh.. well.. you know.. we did it again.Yep, and the biggest thing I pray for in making a good confession is that I will actually say what needs to be said. Confess what needs to be confessed.
I can relate with anyone who has difficult with confession.. because sometimes... I do too! So life goes on.... the one thing I am very glad of .. is that in the monastery its like.... when confession is scheduled.... you go.... because if you don't.... you feel like the rest of the nuns are thinking, "Well, what's up with her?" And of course you are so humble you don't want them to know... that there is something up... so you just bite the bullet and get it over with. Makes it so much more simpler than having to wrestle with the decision of "Should I go or shouldn't I?" Really, sometimes its a very good thing to have things like this built into your routine.
Tomorrow I have to get up very early to take Sr. Colleen to the airport as she is going to a Poor Clare Federation meeting. Somewhere in Pennsylvannia. We have to leave at 4:30. Which means I suppose.. I will have to get up at 4:00.. which means I suppose I should look around now for something like toothpicks to hold my eyelids open. I could try driving with my eyelids close.. but Sr. Colleen gets so overly upset if we don't stay on our side of the road.. so guess I better find something to help. I could even try going to bed like now.. instead of later... but that seems a bit radical.
Blessings of Peace and All Good,
Sister Patricia and all the Sisters
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Only God Knew
Sr. Ann Shields
Ann Harbor, Michigan
As I was preparing to travel to Brazil, I was praying for all the people I would encounter and the word “more” kept coming into my head.
“More?” I thought. “I’ve given everything I have and am continuing to give…I don’t have any more to give.”
Touched with a bit of self-pity, I repented and said to the Lord, “Okay, if You really want more from me, I need You to show me what You want. I will trust You.”
From the beginning of the trip, I was amazed at the lavishness of the care I received from the people I met. For a few days, I mistakenly attributed it to being just a series of coincidences. Then, as my every need and every wish continued to be effortlessly granted, the sister accompanying me looked at me wide-eyed and asked, “What is God doing?”
Her question rang like a bell in my head. Maybe this was God at work here. Maybe the “more” I kept hearing in prayer was Him teaching me that He has “more” blessings for us than we can imagine. I had been thanking Him for all of His blessings, but now my heart soared with a real hymn of praise.
Soon after my revelation, a young mother walked up to me holding her ten-month-old baby boy. “Joao Paulo has something he wants to give you, sister,” she said. The little guy looked at me solemnly for a moment, and then reached up and pulled off what I learned was his favorite bib. It was beautifully embroidered with his name and little animals, and he held it out to me.
“Oh, I couldn’t take this from you,” I said. But the mother smiled and said, “Sister, we all need to learn to give. We practice that here by trying to anticipate the needs of others, or what we think God would want us to give. It is most often something little, but, given with a whole heart, it becomes a sign of God’s love for His people.”
That generous way of serving God and His people is what I had been receiving for days. As I accepted the bib, the little boy reached his arms out and hugged me. I felt like I had been visited by the child Jesus!
Being the skeptic that I am, I asked the Lord for a sign that this was truly the message He was sending me. “If all this kindness and generosity is really from You, and if You want me to see and experience first-hand how You are more attentive than I ever knew to all our needs—great and small—then Lord, grant me this sign; have someone give me an embroidered altar cloth for the little altar on which the Blessed Sacrament sits in our convent back in Michigan.” It was something I had wanted to buy for several months, but could not find the one I had in mind.
The next morning, a very poor woman in the neighborhood came to me with a gift. When I opened it, there it was! It was the exact altar cloth that I had been looking for. Only God knew I wanted an altar cloth like this; I had never told a soul I was looking for one. As I looked at the woman’s face, I saw her joy in my obvious shock and delight. It was a wonderful moment!
This experience taught me that the Lord has more blessings for us than we can imagine. I felt like He said to me, “Nothing in your life goes unnoticed by me. I did this because I want you to tell my people it is true that, ‘Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for those who love Him.’ What I have prepared for you in heaven is beyond anything you can imagine, trust Me!”
From the book 101 Inspirational Stories of the Power of Prayer
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Rejoice in Me
by Msgr. David E. Rosage
No More Thirst
Ps 36:8-9
How precious is your kindness, O God!
The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They have their fill of the prime gifts of your house;
from your delightful stream you give them to drink.
The bounty of God's prime gifts to us is compared to a delightful stream of refreshing water. Water is essential to life.
Jesus often used the image of living water to signify the divine life which he shares with us. The living water of Jesus' divine life is essential for our eternal salvation.
Jesus himself best describes its potential:
"Whoever drinks the water I give him
will never be thirsty;
no, the water I give
shall become a fountain within him,
leaping up to provide eternal life." (Jn 4:14)
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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
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pictures and links to go with this text.
Coffee Talk Tuesday
Good morning, all! Here’s a little something to go with our coffee today. I used a whole cup of milk and substituted whole wheat for half of the white flour. Now they’re health food! What’s on your minds today?
UPDATE: Duh. Perhaps I should open comments.
Comments
http://daniellebean.com/?p=4219#comments
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Greetings from London with Sister Janet Fearns, FMDM
Pause for Prayer
Visit Janet's Blog to see pictures to go with this text.
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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Wednesday
Acts 1: 15-17. 20-26
Ps 112(113): 1-2.
3-4. 5-6. 7-8
Jn 15: 9-17
Daily Readings
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May 14 Wed: Matthias, ap F
From today's readings:
“Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the Eleven Apostles.... The Lord will give him a seat with the leaders of his people.... You are My friends if you do what I command you.”
The College of Apostles
Chapter 15 of Acts (the Council of Jerusalem) recounted an instance of the inspired and decisive leadership of the Apostles in the early Church. This was also seen even earlier in the election of Matthias, which was the Church’s first order of business after the Ascension of Jesus.
The “apostolic” foundation is one of the four marks of the Church, which is “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.” The New Testament relates that the Apostles were more than once at odds with one another, yet they managed to preserve and pass on the unity of their faith. To continue their work, they chose Matthias, and after him, a long line of others who were ordained among the college of Apostles, continuing in an unbroken tradition to the bishops of this day.
The apostolic foundation is the anchor of our Christian faith - neither the Pope nor all the bishops together are able to contradict the original teachings of the Apostles in matters of faith and morals. However, disciplinary practices in the Church can change though - for instance, I wouldn’t imagine that bishops today are chosen by drawing lots, as was Matthias! But, what cannot change is the apostolic commitment to appointing successors - even the Pope and all the bishops together could not decide never to ordain more bishops, because such a decision would contradict the apostolic precedent.
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