Click to Return to Main Page
Delivered Monday through Friday!
May 19,
2008

Colors of the Wind

Click to stop
Free E-Cards
Poor Clares  
Our Community
Vocation
Prayer Request
Joy from the Monastery
Thoughts from Sister Patricia




Visit Sr. Patricia's blog
to leave a comment and share with others about this topic.


St Celestine

For more beautiful cards All Cards

Quote for the Day:
What did our Lord do during the last hours before his arrest
and the beginning of his passion? He went apart alone to pray.
So we, too, when we have a grave trial to undergo, or danger
or suffering to face, should spend the last moments, the last hour
separating us from it in prayer, solitary prayer.

Venerable Charles De Foucauld

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


Good News! The books are done! The printer called me on Friday to share this wonderful news. She (Kathy) says they look wonderful and would easily sell for $25.00 no problem.Which really I know they would because, well, I went over budget in creating them. But the books are primarily an outreach for us so though it does help if they sell well they are mostly a ministry. Which is why we can justify making them two color, full 8 page color insert, complete index, etc. etc. Which is also why we "HAVE" to self-publish because no major publisher would ever give us the "OKAY" to do a book like this without raising the price to $25.00. They have expenses that we don't have. So we do our one little book a year, making it the best we can, for as little cost as we can. AND this may sound like self promotion.. but I don't care.. it is the truth. I think it is going to be a wonderful, wonderful book and do wonderful, wonderful things.

Today I was able to bring my mom over for some time together and dinner. It was so nice. The weather was beautiful and the two of us sat outside on chairs underneath the Maple tree and just enjoyed the day. It's funny but I never seem to justify the time to just sit and breathe and enjoy the fulness of God's glory for very long - always thinking I should be doing something. But when I am with my mom.. it's God's gift to me to slow down, take a load off and just be. Isn't that terrible to say in a monastery? But I guess if you are an A type person it is just going to show up everywhere!

One thing I am trying to do more and more and that is to make Sunday a real rest and praise day. I am getting better - but I think God knows I need my mom to help me keep it that way! I think I need more input on keeping the Sabbath a holy day... I loved the workshop I did with Susan Rowland about clearing out the clutter.. because what she taught so beautifully was the mind clutter that seems to fill every nook and cranny of our thought processes. And the Sabbath was the cure! Imagine that. God created the cure thousands of years ago... just for this busy, busy world of today. Now all I have to do is take the medicine!

Blessings of Peace and All Good!
Sister Patricia

P.S. Only ten days left of the Presale for 101 Inspirational Stories of the Power of Prayer

http://101prayer.com

Click to View Peace Card of the day from Franciscancards.com
Today's Peace Card

Subscribe to
Joy Notes
Your Email:
Your Name:
Your information will not be used in any way except for subscribing to JoyNotes.


Book on Reconciliation

Send Video Card
Sr. Patricia and Oprah

Saint of the day

Reverend Fun

Motivational
Meditation
from Greatday.com

Catholic Search Engine

Powered by Google
Special Book Presales
May 1 - May 28, 2008

101 Inspirational Stories
of the Power of Prayer

http://101prayer.com


This project is placed under the patronage
of the Blessed Mother.

A Challenge to Trust
Marcella E. Kiesel
Tampa, Florida


During a transition period in my ministry as a nurse and teacher, I experienced a prompting from the Holy Spirit that took me completely by surprise. At the time, I was not working because I was undergoing intensive therapy for a back injury. Physical pain and fatigue prevented me from taking on a consistent work schedule, so I prayed for God to show me what His will was for me during this period.

Soon I began volunteering at a soup kitchen in the basement of an old abandoned school in a neighboring parish. While I was there, I decided to re-open the clothing dispensary room that had been closed because of a lack of volunteer help. The need for clothing was so great that I began working more hours there each day.

One Friday afternoon the director approached me and asked if I would consider opening a family resource center in the room next to the clothing room. However, there would be no allocation of funds for this project—nothing for construction and no operational or program budget. I wondered how I could even consider saying yes to something as big as this.

Part of me wanted very much to do this but I hesitated, concerned that I would begin the project and not be able to keep it up because of my back problem. I told the director that I would pray about it and consider his proposal over the weekend.

Read the rest of the story

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

Providential Love

Ps 68:10-11
A bountiful rain you showered down, O God,
upon your inheritance;
you restored the land when it languished;
Your flock settled in it;
in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.


With these pastoral images the psalmist tries to verbalize his appreciation of the overwhelming providential love of God for us.

We are his inheritance. His solicitude for our spiritual welfare is even greater. He gives us every grace and blessing we need to reach our home with him.

How encouraging is Jesus' reminder to us: "If God can clothe in such splendor the grass of the field, which blooms today and is thrown on the fire tomorrow, will he not provide much more for you, O weak in faith!" (Mt 6:30)

Joy in Eating!
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.

Joy from Home
A Smile from Home - Danielle Bean

Today's Thought

Visit Danielle's Blog to see
pictures and links to go with this text.


I’ve found it.


The perfect cupcake. Easy to make. Simple ingredients. Fudgy chocolate. Who could be un-cheered by a cupcake as lovely as this? We made them to celebrate the dog’s birthday today, but really, do you need a reason?

Fudgy chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Fudgy Chocolate Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup and 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup and 1 teaspoon butter, softened
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper cupcake liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for about 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Makes 24 cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

6 tablespoons cream cheese
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth. Add more milk or confectioners sugar to achieve desired consistency.

Joy from Rome
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…


We can still pray

The day before yesterday, as I walked home from work, I overtook a couple walking in the same direction. For a brief moment, it was inevitable that I overheard some of their conversation. At the time, I had no idea of what they were talking and paid no attention…and then I saw the news on television. It was then that I realised that the woman had just witnessed a man slip to his death between two train carriages as he tried to retrieve the presents he’d bought for his wife and son and then accidentally left on the train as he jumped from his seat on arriving at the station.

Also, at this time, the news is full of the sights and sounds of China. Gone are the grumbles about human rights, Olympic Games and the countries through which the Olympic flame travelled. Suddenly, we hear of a desperate race against time as the country is mobilised towards the earthquake zone. We see miraculous rescues and distraught families, electricity in Chengdu and rubble outside this important city. There is a tragedy that is too big for the human mind to encompass. We reach a stage when numbers become almost impersonal simply because something beyond our imagination and experience has taken place within the past few days and, as C.S. Lewis once wrote, “The human mind cannot take too much suffering.”

Not far away, in Myanmar, there are staggeringly high numbers of people who are displaced, starving, homeless and grieving for whole families, entire towns and villages that, only days ago, were thriving and busy. Stories of suffering, frustration, anger, grief and indifference abound. We know so little and can do even less. My own contacts with the country during the course of the week have all ended in the same way: “Please, just pray for us.”

We travel across the globe to Zimbabwe, where injustice, brutality and hardship have become the order of the day…

There are so many people who need our prayers at this present time, so many who need our love. Huge numbers are grieving over the loss of those they have loved and still love, but who have been abruptly taken away or are suffering beyond their capacity. We can do so little, but we can pray, whoever and wherever we are, for people who are in desperate need of God’s comfort and support at this time.

God bless,
Sr. Janet
Joy from Church
Spiritual Blessings from Father Rory Pitstick

A Virtual Retreat
Reflections following the Daily Liturgical cycle

Visit Fr. Rory's Blog

Monday

Jas 3: 13-18
Ps 18(19): 8. 9. 10. 15
Mk 9: 14-29

Daily Readings
May 19 Mon: Ordinary Weekday (Seventh Week in Ordinary Time)


From today's readings: “...the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.... The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.... This kind can only come out through prayer....”

Jealousy and Selfish Ambition


You and I both know many people who have way more than we do, and yet they are unsatisfied. We moan, “If I only had his income, that would be more than enough for me. Or her intelligence. Or their sense of family peace. Or his opportunities, or her charm, or their good fortune. They have so much - why aren’t they ever satisfied?” Yet even as you and I complain about so many ingrates, these people who don’t realize how good they have it, if we would ever stop and listen, we’d probably be able to hear just as many people hungrily longing for the abundant blessings in our own lives which we so much take for granted!

So jealousy is like a poisonous but invisible gas which can so easily permeate the air we breathe, robbing us of peace and contentment and gratitude to God for His super-abundant goodness to us. Selfish ambition, the sinister sister of jealousy, likewise can snare our souls so softly and subtly, leading, as St. James observes, to “disorder and every foul practice.”

How can we resist such insidious fiends? Only the wisdom from above can detect and discover and expose and expel these intrepid intruders, for jealousy and selfish ambition cannot long co-exist with Christian charity and “the humility that comes from wisdom!”


Some Nice Links
Mass Reflection
Daily Readings
Saint of the Day
Sacred Space
USCCB
Minute Meditations
Guideposts
Angels_Earth
Rosary 101
Vatican Radio
Confession 101
Sacred Heart Radio
Copyright 2008 JoyNotes - all rights reserved