Dear Lord,
Please keep your arm around my shoulder,
and your hand over my mouth!
-unknown
Thursday, April 21, 2011
A Prayer for Today...
Dear Lord,
Please keep your arm around my shoulder,
and your hand over my mouth!
-unknown
Saturday, April 16, 2011
A Reflection for Holy Week
Stepping into Holy Week
by Bill Donaghy
TOB writer and speaker
http://www.tobinstitute.org/
We all know that time flies, and that there are moments we wish we could recapture or really savor, having brushed past them so quickly before. Well, the Week of Weeks is approaching, the week we call HOLY. It is unique and it is extraordinary, for it's the sequence of these days that led to the unthinkable... the death of God in the flesh and the rebirth of all creation. This is the time when we were ransomed, rescued, and redeemed by God Himself. Let's not let this week slip past without some serious reflection.
The events of Palm Sunday leading up to Easter Sunday hold within their precious hours all of the seeds of all of the greatest stories. There is faith and there is doubt, trust and betrayal, courage and cowardice... amazing love and blinding hatred. There is the shocking horror of an innocent man's death and the unexpected brilliance of Him coming back to life. And what is most beautiful about this story and the events of this week is the fact that they are true. Christianity is the hope that's rooted in real history, the fairy tale that is factual. The blossoming of all the sacred art and music and poetry and people and prayers that have stretched up and into the sky over these 2000 years all trace their roots back to these days of Holy Week, and into the turbulent soil of southern Palestine.
So let's sit still for some time this week. Sit back and crack open the Gospel of John. Take the scriptures to a quiet, out of the way place and get into this story; in a chapel before the Blessed Sacrament, on an old farm road as the sun is setting, in the backyard as the spring wind comes whistling through the trees. Let's take and read like Augustine's tolle et lege, as if for the first time, this ancient story. And let's see in it our own story. Let's make His Passion our passion.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Abandonment
So I am trying to understand why we are being called to make some big changes in our lives as we finally seem settled and content
and this is the passage I was led to most recently from Abandonment to Divine Providence.
In the introduction John Beevers describes the similar thoughts of spiritual views
between Jean-Pierre de Caussade (author) and St. Francis de Sales...
"...Caussade says "abandonment,"
St. Francis generally uses the word "indifference,"
but this is merely a matter of vocabulary.
St. Francis tells us to "ask for nothing and refuse nothing," and declares that
"the indifferent heart is like a lump of wax in God's hands, readily receiving every impression of His will."
He describes as a sure sign that we are truly and perfectly indifferent if we stop in the middle of some meritorious work if God wills it
and turn back halfway toward a worthy goal if He says we should.
Another word used by St. Francis is "detached":
"The detached soul does not care if it is serving God by meditating,
or serving Him by looking after a neighbor.
What matters is what God wants the soul to do at this particular time."
So my prayer today is,
"Lord, mold me as you wish
and make sure I don't get in the way of Your plans!"
and this is the passage I was led to most recently from Abandonment to Divine Providence.
In the introduction John Beevers describes the similar thoughts of spiritual views
between Jean-Pierre de Caussade (author) and St. Francis de Sales...
"...Caussade says "abandonment,"
St. Francis generally uses the word "indifference,"
but this is merely a matter of vocabulary.
St. Francis tells us to "ask for nothing and refuse nothing," and declares that
"the indifferent heart is like a lump of wax in God's hands, readily receiving every impression of His will."
He describes as a sure sign that we are truly and perfectly indifferent if we stop in the middle of some meritorious work if God wills it
and turn back halfway toward a worthy goal if He says we should.
Another word used by St. Francis is "detached":
"The detached soul does not care if it is serving God by meditating,
or serving Him by looking after a neighbor.
What matters is what God wants the soul to do at this particular time."
So my prayer today is,
"Lord, mold me as you wish
and make sure I don't get in the way of Your plans!"
Friday, February 25, 2011
Malachi 3:3
Malachi 3:3
"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."
This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.
That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work.
She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up.
He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire
where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot then she thought again about the verse that says:
"He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver."
She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver,
but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire.
If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith,
"How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"
He smiled at her and answered,
"Oh, that's easy - when I see my image in it."
-Author Unknown
Remember, if you are feeling the heat from the fire and feel you can't take much more,
remember God is carefully tending to you in the heat and keeping watch over you until
He sees His image in you...
Thanks Liz G...
"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."
This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.
That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work.
She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up.
He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire
where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot then she thought again about the verse that says:
"He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver."
She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver,
but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire.
If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith,
"How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"
He smiled at her and answered,
"Oh, that's easy - when I see my image in it."
-Author Unknown
Remember, if you are feeling the heat from the fire and feel you can't take much more,
remember God is carefully tending to you in the heat and keeping watch over you until
He sees His image in you...
Thanks Liz G...
Friday, February 18, 2011
Paddy Kelly: Rock Star to Rock Monk!
PRAY
By Paddy Kelly
http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=0J00JNNU
The world is like a river
of which we drink
but our sins pollute the water
and now the river is flooded
so we must build an ark of faith
and trust in divine providence
Was in a room of darkness
it wasn't enough to open the window for air
I had to unlock the door
I searched for the key
and what I found was our Lady of Medugorje saying to…
Pray, pray pray pray,
pray pray pray, for a happier day,
Oh come on and pray, pray pray pray,
pray pray pray, the Lord will show you the way
Me and my brothers and sisters
we were struggling between heaven and hell
we found it hard to understand
how we got sunk into a spiral of negative and demonic spells
so we went on a pilgrimage searching for healing at the heavenly wells
we came across a wise man telling us children it's very simple,
conversation, mass,the sacraments and…
Pray, pray pray pray,
pray pray pray for a happier day
Oh come on and pray pray pray pray
Pray pray pray the Lord will show you the way
Oh we’ve got to pray, pray pray pray
Pray pray pray for a happier day
Need a childlike faith to enter into heaven
'till the harvesters come don't be afraid
We all have our crosses to carry
if we carry them humbly there's no need to worry
if we forgive we'll be forgiven then our purified hearts will feel the presence
of God's eternal love burn inside
I ain't no religious expert
but I don't have to be to know thet God ain't an illusion
I'm testifying what I witness 'cause a faith without acts is a dead faith
that's why I wrote this song so we can…
Pray, pray pray pray,
pray pray pray for her to show you the way
Pray pray pray pray
Pray pray pray for a happier day
…Pray pray pray for a happier day
got to pray for a better day
…Pray pray pray for a happier day
got to pray for a better day
…Pray pray pray for a happier day
got to pray for a better day
…Pray pray pray prayfor a happier day
got to pray for a better day
Pray pray pray for a happier day…
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
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