That's God!

Have you ever been just sitting there and all of a sudden you feel like doing something nice for someone you care for?
THAT'S GOD! He speaks to you through the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever been down and out and nobody seems to be around for you to talk to?
THAT'S GOD! He wants you to speak to Him.

Have you ever been thinking about somebody that you haven't seen in a long time and then next thing you know you see them or receive a phone call from them?
THAT'S GOD! There's no such thing as coincidence.

Have you ever been in a situation and you had no clue how it is going to get better, but now you look back on it?
THAT'S GOD! He passes us through tribulation to see a brighter day.

Don't tell GOD how Big your storm is.
Tell the storm how Big your GOD is!

Contradictions of Life

French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson pioneered modern photography as an art formThirteenth Century priest Thomas Aquinas once said, “No one can live without joy.” But many people do live joyless lives. And the reason is often simply because they don’t know how to be happy. They are so intent on the three Ps – power, prosperity and prestige – that they miss out on simple joy.

French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson pioneered modern photography as an art form during the early decades of the 20th Century. He was a master of candid photography and something of a genius at spotting and photographing apparent contradictions: pictures that left mysteries unexplained.

One of his famous photographs was shot in a poor section of Seville, Spain in 1933. The picture depicts a run-down alley surrounded by decaying walls, strewn with rubble and riddled with bullet holes dotting gray walls. The setting alone evokes feelings of sadness and despair.

But then, the contradiction. Within the grim alley children are playing. They wear dirty and tattered clothes, as one might expect in such a setting, but like playing children everywhere, they laugh with carefree joy. In the foreground, a tiny boy on crutches hobbles away from two other boys, his face lit up with a broad grin. One boy is laughing so hard he has to hold his side. Others lean on the cracked walls, beaming with delight.

It is easy to spot the contrast – and the point. Joy amid the rubble of life. Laughter among life’s ruins.

We cannot avoid pain, however hard we try. But we can avoid joy. We cannot escape hardship and trouble, but we can miss out on much of life's peace and laughter.

If you feel as if you could use more joy, here are a few tips:

• Do something today just for the fun of it.

• Decide to fill your thoughts with less anxiety and more peace.

• Laugh a little more. A little more heartily and a little more often.

• Practice a hopeful attitude.

• Love as much as you can. Love people. Love experiences. Love ideas. Love beauty. In short -- love life.

You may occasionally find yourself amid life’s rubble. But strangely - even there you can discover joy.

It’s one of the beautiful contradictions of life.

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s Gospel, Mark 6:7-13, Jesus sends the disciples out on their first mission to preach repentance, cure the sick and expel unclean spirits. We do not know exactly where the disciples went or how long they were gone, but we do know that sometime later they reported to Jesus “all they had done and taught” (Mark 6:30). The disciples, sent out two by two, traveled lightly, stayed with locals and apparently were very successful in their first missionary experience. At this point in their spiritual development, the disciples became apostles.

A disciple is a follower or an imitator of someone, in this case a follower of Christ. An apostle is a special messenger or an envoy, chosen and trained to fulfill a specific mission, spreading the good news. The word apostle (apostolos) is Greek. Translated into Latin, it is missio, from which we get the word missionary. As baptized Christians, we are called to be both disciples and apostles. We hear and accept the teaching of Jesus and then we share our faith with others. In our second reading today from Ephesians 1: 3 – 14, St. Paul reminds us that each one of us is “chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ.”

Our Church has an apostolic mission as well. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that “The whole Church is apostolic, in that she remains, through the successors of St. Peter and the other apostles, in communion of faith and life with her origin: and in that she is "sent out" into the whole world. All members of the Church share in this mission, though in various ways. "The Christian vocation is, of its nature, a vocation to the apostolate as well." Indeed, we call an apostolate "every activity of the Mystical Body" that aims "to spread the Kingdom of Christ over all the earth" (CCC 863).

God placed us in Peachtree City, Georgia. Our mission is to share the good news of the Kingdom of Christ right here. 

God of justice and mercy,

you have set us free from the evil of sin

by the life and death and rising again

of your living reflection and Word,

Jesus Christ.

Let his life and message inspire us

to voice his truth and bring his freedom

to everyone on this earth.

Give us no other assurance

than that we proclaim his Good News

and that our companion on the road is

your own Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Prayer for Protection

 

Don't Undermine Your Worth

 Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others.

It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.

Only you know what is best for you.

Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart.

Cling to them as you would your life, for without them life is meaningless.

Don't let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future.

By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.

Don't give up when you still have something to give.

Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect.

It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other.

Don't be afraid to encounter risks.

It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to find.

The quickest way to receive love is to give love,

the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly,

and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don't dismiss your dreams.

To be without dreams is to be without hope;

to be without hope is to be without purpose.

Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been,
but also where you're going.

Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.

Make One Person Happy

Try to make at least one person happy every day,

and then in ten years you may have made

three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy,

or brightened a small town by your contribution

to the fund of general enjoyment.

~ Sydney Smith

(1771-1845)

To Err is Human

 To err is human; to blame it on the other guy is even more human. ~ Bob Goddard

We are on a path that leads us to become better people with greater insight and stronger character. A central theme on this path is learning to take responsibility for ourselves, our mistakes, and our choices as we deal with our situations. We can make progress on this path by noticing our defensive reactions when we make a mistake or when someone criticizes us. Our old ways were aimed at shifting the blame or counterattacking to get someone else off our case. Now we are learning how to take on the blame when it honestly belongs to us.

One of the first things we need to learn in taking responsibility is that there is no shame in making a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. But some people don't accept responsibility for them, and others do. We have much greater respect for someone who does. Admitting when we were wrong doesn't mean speaking in vague generalities, saying that "mistakes were made." It doesn't mean saying, "Yes, I did this, but only because you did that." It means saying what we did or didn't do and laying the facts out there for us and others to deal with. When we can do that, forgiveness almost always follows shortly.

Today I will hold back my defensiveness and admit the facts as they are.