Prayer

 Lord,

Take my life and let me live serenely for today.

Open my mind to happy thoughts.

Take away my self-pity, I don’t want it.

Take away my ill will towards others.

Make it possible for me to feel 

joy, love, and compassion.

Help me to accept what is, to hold my tongue, 

to do my daily task, and to let go with love.

Take away my worry about the future.

Make me realize that in your hands 

everything will be provided.

Help me to understand that I have no control over anything 

but my own actions.

Make me know that today is precious and will soon be gone.

Help me to remember that all hatred and pain directed toward me 

are the hatred and pain the other person is feeling toward himself.

Thank you for your willingness to accept my burden and lighten my load.

~~ By Unknown

4th Sunday of Lent

In today’s gospel from John 9:1-41, we have another story about healing and conversion. The action focuses on a man blind from birth who, after an encounter with Jesus, can see. Like the Samaritan woman at the well, the blind man was an unlikely candidate for a meaningful role in his society. Until he met Jesus, all he could do was "sit and beg." Only Jesus saw the potential for “the works of God” to “be made visible through him.”

The drama of this story occurs after the healing miracle takes place. Unlike the experience of the Samaritan woman at the well, whose town welcomed Jesus based on her testimony, the healed man becomes more of an outcast than he was before he met Jesus and received the gift of sight. His neighbors do not believe him (they did not even recognize him); his parents abandoned him because they were afraid and the Pharisees threw him out of the synagogue because he recognized and acknowledged Jesus as a prophet. In a series of dramatic confrontations with the Pharisees, the man becomes more and more enlightened about the truth of who Jesus is while the Pharisees become more and more entrenched in their blindness to the truth. The irony of this situation is not lost on Jesus who observes, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.”

To me the best part of this story comes at the end. Although abandoned by the people closest to him, the healed man is not abandoned by Jesus. In fact, Jesus searches for and finds the man. He is not left alone with his new-found faith. The healed man’s rejection draws him closer to Jesus and into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Before he healed the man blind from birth, Jesus told the disciples "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (John 9:5). Today Jesus is a very real presence in our world. And those of us who follow Jesus are challenged to be "the light of [our] world" (Matt. 5:14). St. Paul tells us in today's Second Reading "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth" (Ephesians 5:8-9). Although most of us cannot restore sight to those who are blind, anyone who encounters us should recognize the light of Christ shining through us and hopefully, we will not be blind to the light of Christ shining through them.

O God,

the author and source of all light,

you gaze into the depths of our hearts.

Do not permit the powers of darkness to hold us captive

but touch our eyes and open them to our failures and sins.

Touch our ears and open them to the cries of the poor and the lonely. 

Touch our hearts and open them to your love and trust.

We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

holy and life-giving God for ever and ever.

AMEN.

Release the Past

"Do not dwell upon the sins and mistakes of yesterday so exclusively as to have no energy and mind left for living rightly today, and do not think that the sins of yesterday can prevent you from living purely today." - As A Man Thinketh

It's been said that the majority of conversations by men over 40 are about the past. Sometimes it's about the "good old days" and sometimes it's about the deals gone bad, the "if I only had" stories, the missed opportunities, etc.

Letting our "sins and mistakes of yesterday" dominate our thinking today robs us of our present joy and our future happiness. It causes us to miss the real opportunity of TODAY!

John Maxwell, in his outstanding best seller, Failing Forward, gives some great practical advice: "To move forward today, you must learn to say goodbye to yesterday's hurts, tragedies and baggage. You can't build a monument to past problems and fail forward."

Take time right now to list the negative events from your past that may still be holding you hostage. For each item you list, go through the following exercise:

• Acknowledge the pain.
• Grieve the loss.
• Forgive the person.
• Forgive yourself.
• Determine to release the event and move on.

Your best days are definitely ahead of you if you treat your "mistakes" as necessary lessons to be learned. If you understand that each lesson brings with it a certain amount of wisdom, you can understand how truly enhanced your life is becoming. Many people can't achieve the success of their

dreams because they won't leave their past behind. They won't tear down the monuments they've built to their old hurts and problems.

One of the best teachings I've ever heard on this was from a motivational speaker whose name has escaped me, but whose message didn't: "In life there are no mistakes, only lessons."

And that's worth thinking about.

~ Vic Johnson

Making a Mess

Six-year-old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes. He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor. He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten. Brandon was covered with flour and getting frustrated. He wanted this to be something very good for Mom and Dad, but it was getting very bad.

He didn't know what to do next, whether to put it all into the oven or on the stove and he didn't know how the stove worked!. Suddenly he saw his kitten licking from the bowl of mix and reached to push her away, knocking the egg carton to the floor. Frantically he tried to clean up this monumental mess but slipped on the eggs, getting his pajamas white and sticky.

And just then he saw Dad standing at the door. Big crocodile tears welled up in Brandon's eyes. All he'd wanted to do was something good, but he'd made a terrible mess. He was sure a scolding was coming, maybe even a spanking. But his father just watched him. Then, walking through the mess, he picked up his crying son, hugged him and loved him, getting his own pajamas white and sticky in the process.

That's how God deals with us. We try to do something good in life, but it turns into a mess. Our vocation gets all sticky or we insult a friend, or we can't stand our situation, or our health goes sour.

Sometimes we just stand there in tears because we can't think of anything else to do. That's when God picks us up and loves us and forgives us, even though some of our mess gets all over Him. But just because we might mess up, we can't stop trying to "make pancakes" for God or for others. Sooner or later we'll get it right, and then they'll be glad we tried.

Did Anyone See Me?

I first noticed it on a hot, July evening when the moon was full and bright. Several beautiful, large white flowers, emitting a fragrant perfume, were blooming on one of the cactus plants in our front yard. The following morning, when I took my family outside to show them this stunning sight, not a single blossom remained.

I soon discovered that this was a Night-blooming Cereus, called the "Queen of the Night". The flowers for this remarkable plant not only bloom just at night, but each one for only one night. Imagine - their one moment of glory and hardly anyone sees it.

I can relate to that. As a stay-at-home mom, I often feel I do my best work when no one's around to know. Such as when I find the magical combination of stain remover and elbow grease that saves my son Ross' favorite shirt from ruin. Or I call every Burger King in Phoenix finally to unearth the last remaining doll from the current Disney movie, the only thing Maria wants for her birthday. Nobody sees my moments of glory either, and sometimes I wonder about the merits of so much blooming in the dark.

But watching the Queen of the Night more carefully, I've noticed something wonderful. Come morning, after the flower closes, from it grows a bright red fruit, a delicacy for birds and small animals and the source of the seeds for new growth. It's the tiniest part of a great cycle just as it's supposed to be, just as God has planned it.

It's the same for me. The little things I do for my family, the many tasks whose nearly invisible results help make our life together run more smoothly, are my contribution to the plan God has mapped out for us, and as I watch the fruits of my work grow strong, the rewards -- a smile, a giggle, a thank you -- are the tiny seeds that inspire me joyfully to begin the process anew each day.

Have a wonderful day!


~ From The Inspiration List

No One Can

 

Happiness Within

Even before Christ, there existed wonderful philosophy in Greece and Rome. The ancient Romans were practical people. They did not ask themselves theoretical questions. They asked how they, as people, could become happy. They concluded that they must keep the source of happiness within themselves. They were the Stoic Philosophers. The writers included Epictetus and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. They were wise and wonderful.

The Stoics believed that they could not depend on the "outside" for happiness. The "outside is beyond my control. I must keep some control over my happiness or I will always be a victim. Example: I would be happy if my wife (or husband) were cheerful in the morning. I will be happy when I win the lottery. This is not the road to happiness. Happiness is securely found only from within.

The Stoics said that we could not let our desires go unrestrained. If I let my desires go wild, I can convince myself that I need a yacht to be happy. I do not need a yacht, or a DVR or a Porsche, or a widescreen TV. We can decide what we need; we can be content with what we have. In this regard, there are two ways to get rich. I define a rich person as one who earns more than s/he wants to spend. You could earn a fortune, more than you could ever want to spend. Or you could limit your desire to spend. J.P. Morgan chose the first way. Francis of Assisi chose the second. They were both rich.

The Stoics were a secular philosophy. They did not bring God into the picture. When we take the Stoic wisdom and add our spirituality, then we really have a plan of life. Look inside yourself for happiness. Inside you find the God who loves you. This God is the only sure source of happiness. Now we find that Francis of Assisi just might have been the happiest individual whoever lived.