tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16518977464493326112023-11-15T22:15:07.728-08:00The Woman at the WellI thirst...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-71909953360127731082016-12-15T21:42:00.004-08:002016-12-15T21:42:43.924-08:00Perfect Imperfections<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What is it you want to change? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Your hair, your face, your body?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For God is in love with all those things and He might weep when they are gone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">-St. Catherine of Siena </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Make it Larger than you</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">PC http://postris.com/post/20411/happiness-in-black-and-whiteb</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Whole of your Soul is in the Symmetry of your Body. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For there is nothing more magical nor mysterious,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">than the contouring, the working of your miraculous body.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I don't remember much about dissatisfaction,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">with self, looks or shape;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">when I was once a child</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was <u><i>taught</i></u> that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In more ways than one </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In smaller and more subtle ways than the television. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bring me back,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">the innocent indifference of my childhood</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Restore me the fullness of my glory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">#PerfectNever </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-85123316373287536692015-07-25T11:56:00.003-07:002015-07-25T11:56:46.977-07:00Faith in Beautiful Dark Places<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For years and year, I thought faith was all about being faithful to routine and rituals. Being true to chanting certain prayers, being real sharp on days of obligation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Doing it all on self-strength and diligence. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">For years and years...till I was fatigued and confused.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nothing good seemed to come from it except maybe a self-righteous sense of accomplishment, which left me even more empty inside.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The fact was that, I was chained. Not by the Holy ways and movements but by own sense of duty and commission. I thought or rather I believed that by doing something good, even by sheer will, receives it due the gift of salvation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Maybe so...The Lord is kind and looks at the heart of the worshiper. He found the rich young man who kept the law in me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sometime we grow so used to the chains that bind us that we cleave to it even when the Saviour comes to set us free.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Faith is Never Ever Giving Up. It always hopes. Always Strives. Always Believes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So Faith himself came and took me to a dark place. A place where I couldn't see him, found lost, left alone and without hope...It was there I questioned the years of slavehood and discipline. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Did it count for nothing, O Lord? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He said, No!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You Count for EVERYTHING, said Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">There, in the midst of that dark place, I found Hope. I found the unshakable truth that I am loved and the Beloved. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There in that dark place, I found Faith...that moved beyond sight and signs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There, in that dark place, I found His Peace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Found, say I, because these gifts were ever present, ever mine but never received. For Faith, in my blindness, consisted of a barter and exchange. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You can never exchange for a gift. Gifts are always received. Only goods or merchandises are exchanged and bargained. The Lord had refused to barter anymore.He wanted nothing from me. Nothing I had to give or offer or promise to offer. He wanted Nothing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There, in that beloved dark place, I received Faith which humbled me to a child who received and received and received. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And when I learnt obedience in that fortunate dark place, </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I received the Joy that came from the rituals and routine. I received hope with a return to those disciplines which suffocated me in my sterile chanting. I received great meaning and revelation in all that I forced myself to undertake and instead allowed it to bless me again and again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was found. And all that I had thought, lost, was restored. Greatly and abundantly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Never believe that God cannot out-give your expectations. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We sometimes sin greatly when we drop our hopes and expectations from Christ because we think him to be a stingy lover. He gave up his life as God and gave away his life as Man. Will he not give us all good things?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The greatest of all his gifts is this- He gives All of Himself to us. ALL!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let him take you to that dark place. It is there, where you will learn that faith is believing God's promises because</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">, in that dark place, Christ is all you will Have. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And Christ will be All Enough...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="text Ps-145-13" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; position: relative;">The <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> is trustworthy<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-16334AG" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-16334AG" title="See cross-reference AG">AG</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span> in all he promises<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-16334AH" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-16334AH" title="See cross-reference AH">AH</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span></span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;" /><span class="indent-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-145-13" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">and faithful in all he does.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="indent-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="text Ps-145-13" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">-Psalm 145: 13</span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-87943643320309112392014-09-07T07:30:00.001-07:002014-09-16T21:26:20.815-07:00Hope and Expanding the Soul<p dir="ltr">Mary, Mother of God<br>
Mother of Sorrows, <i>Ora Pro Nobis</i>!</p>
<p dir="ltr">They say that suffering expands the soul to receive God. I found that hard to take. </p><p dir="ltr"> Suffering by itself can drown the soul, deep into bitterness and spoil clear light of idealism into the vinegar of cynicism. We are fallen and half-blind; which is worse than complete blindness. The blind man believed the Messiah in faith; the rich young man, half seeing, not perceiving left his Lord and walked away sad. </p><p dir="ltr">Maybe if he had known that his soul's sorrow came not from the bitter choice but from leaving the Beloved; he might have tarried. Perhaps.</p><p dir="ltr">Aye, a little knowledge and an ill-instructed spirituality is a dangerous thing.</p><p dir="ltr">But this post is about hope. The strength to believe against all disbelief and unbelief.</p><p dir="ltr">What does Mary tell us about the night of her soul? That it's hope that expands the soul to grow big enough to carry the Cross and not lose sight of eternity.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Suffering without hope is a withered tree in the desert; hope without suffering is a cloud grasped in the fist of one's hand.</p>
<p dir="ltr">As Mary believed, so Mary hoped. </p>
<p dir="ltr">A mustard seed of Faith. A little phial of Hope. That is enough.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I like to contemplate her sorrows not through a dark well of tears but rather through her resilience to hope against all hope hopen.</p><p dir="ltr">At the prophesy of Simeon, she hoped.</p>
<p dir="ltr">During her harried journey into Egypt, she hoped.</p>
<p dir="ltr">At the loss of her child, through each excruciating day, she hoped.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Under the excruciating weight of the Cross, she hoped.</p>
<p dir="ltr">At the foot of the Cross, she hoped.</p>
<p dir="ltr">As she looked upon the face of her cold still child, she hoped.</p>
<p dir="ltr">When they took him away for the last time...she still hoped.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And Hope did not fail.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Mary, Mother of Sorrows <br>
Mary, Mother of Hope. <i>Ora Pro Nobis</i></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj-yxo32EQgPcrQeBYWLi0WIdgv_N1rcNmvMGpL88KtJWdwoN396wylHGzoEAQMP4msQWvpOJqE9hOrGbZLB_Ajs6bUdjuZVFd_xY7We-0dAlPf1jUOn23t610uxHMxqLxy-IY_b8ClTzz/s1600/IMG_457232075550048.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj-yxo32EQgPcrQeBYWLi0WIdgv_N1rcNmvMGpL88KtJWdwoN396wylHGzoEAQMP4msQWvpOJqE9hOrGbZLB_Ajs6bUdjuZVFd_xY7We-0dAlPf1jUOn23t610uxHMxqLxy-IY_b8ClTzz/s640/IMG_457232075550048.jpeg"> </a> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-35374369014487519562014-08-03T06:29:00.001-07:002014-08-03T11:53:55.604-07:00Forgiving... God<p dir=ltr>Forgiveness...a state of letting go.</p>
<p dir=ltr>Forgiving God. <br>
What about forgiving, God?</p>
<p dir=ltr>The Lord confronted me with this challenge and I found it hard to accept. He showed me the story of Martha, Mary and Lazarus.</p>
<p dir=ltr>When word was sent to Jesus, friend and wonder-worker to come quickly, for the 'one he loved' was sick. He delayed, so long that the 'one he loved' was dead three days.</p>
<p dir=ltr>What could possibly have gone through the hearts and spirits of the bereaved sisters? Anger. Disappointment. Abandonment...</p>
<p dir=ltr>'If you were here, Lord, my brother would not have died'</p>
<p dir=ltr>Accusation. </p>
<p dir=ltr>You said you loved him, but came not when we called.</p>
<p dir=ltr>You said call to me and I will hear you in heaven...but answered not.  For days. Weeks. Months. Years.</p>
<p dir=ltr>I will protect you, you said but here I am still broken by life...</p>
<p dir=ltr>The same refrain and sorrow.</p>
<p dir=ltr>When Martha met the Lord, she was in need of forgiving the Lord. It was the only way she could have received the Lord's blessings and allowed his power to raise Lazarus. </p>
<p dir=ltr>Is it possible to forgive God? Can a good, merciful, gracious God have erred us so bad to be needing forgiveness.</p>
<p dir=ltr>No. But in our minute humanity and brokenness, we need to forgive God and let go of our bitterness to allow him to make a miracle out of our dead hopes.</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-25501895176834648302014-04-17T05:23:00.001-07:002014-04-17T05:23:09.388-07:00Do you love the Desert?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I think not...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I hate the loneliness, emptied out all that good and meaningful. I hate the sad melancholy of world that takes all but gives no solace. I hate the waiting...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I remember during my painful desert experience during Nov-Dec last year, how I rued my my prayer- try me, Lord and make me more like you. Give me a more giving heart like yours. Tear down the stone walls around my heart and teach me to love like you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">O boy, he did answer that prayer...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The thawing of a frozen heart requires the furnace of love. Tough love. The dross of doubt, fear and complacency all rise to the surface during this purification of the soul. It's excruciating and there is no respite.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When there is a cross, there follows also the joy of the resurrection. A new life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The month following the breakthrough was a time of keeping low. A time of recovering and restoration. Our Father is a God of Love. He is a pursuant lover and he never gives up (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1cor+13%3A7&version=NIV" target="_blank">1 Cor 13:7</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The breakthrough was a time where he taught me the meaning of faith without sight, hope without proof and even patience in the midst of clamour. It all rests on the bedrock of a single truth- God is Love.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">40 years in the desert to learn one truth. God is faithful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The desert, the cross, the sorrow- and then the revelation. My Almighty Father loves me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's seems like a paradox but the Lord never forgets his own. The <a href="http://biblehub.com/songs/8-5.htm" target="_blank">Songs</a> proclaim- Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her Beloved?</span><br />
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courtesy: <a href="http://www.christinecouncil.com/leaning-on-her-lover.html" target="_blank">christinecouncil</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-17084954367988279562014-03-09T10:16:00.000-07:002014-07-29T23:26:45.435-07:00Prayer & Solace<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have been having some wonderful time with the Lord and in a completely new dimensions.</span><div>
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<div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Has my work life suddenly sorted itself out aka work ends at 6 PM, Life starts at 6:01 PM?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nope...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Did I suddenly discover my truests, deepest calling for the Kingdom?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nah... The Lord still like me to turn a bend before he gives me a new assignment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is He patient? Is He Still forgiving? Does He still love me to bits?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yes... and that's the breakthrough.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The faithfulness of God can only be counted when you look back on the mountains you've traversed and seen how high you have flown. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Walking with the Lord builds Character. He helps you see beyond the visible mayhem around you and into deeper realities that may be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He taught me that the only thing worth defending is his Peace. The battle is always of the mind and the Enemy seeks to plunder you of your peace. So, raise a standard of praise against him. Sing of the glory of God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let our Lady, Star of the Sea help you. She is the one person God has not permitted the Enemy to malign. She will counsel you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Forget not the Counselor. He is gentle and humble. Will he not speak words of wisdom and direction into your ear? </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br></span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif" size="4">Forget not the promises of God, for he is faithful.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif" size="4"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif" size="4">"I have called you by name, you are mine"</font></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-80714434942693458332013-12-23T03:41:00.000-08:002014-01-03T06:28:13.652-08:00A X'mas Rhyme<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-size: x-large;">THE HOUSE OF CHRISTMAS </b><br />By <a href="https://www.facebook.com/G.K.Chesterton">G.K. Chesterton</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">There fared a mother driven forth</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Out of an inn to roam;</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">In the place where she was homeless</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">All men are at home.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The crazy stable close at hand,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">With shaking timber and shifting sand,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Than the square stones of Rome.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">For men are homesick in their homes,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And strangers under the sun,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And they lay on their heads in a foreign land</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Whenever the day is done.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Here we have battle and blazing eyes,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And chance and honour and high surprise,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But our homes are under miraculous skies</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Where the yule tale was begun.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">A Child in a foul stable,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Where the beasts feed and foam;</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Only where He was homeless</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Are you and I at home;</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">We have hands that fashion and heads that know,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But our hearts we lost - how long ago!</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">In a place no chart nor ship can show</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Under the sky's dome.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">This world is wild as an old wives' tale,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And strange the plain things are,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The earth is enough and the air is enough</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">For our wonder and our war;</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And our peace is put in impossible things</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Round an incredible star.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">To an open house in the evening</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Home shall men come,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">To an older place than Eden</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And a taller town than Rome.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">To the end of the way of the wandering star,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">To the things that cannot be and that are,</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">To the place where God was homeless</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">And all men are at home</span></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-80156137833027705832013-12-18T09:21:00.002-08:002014-01-03T06:27:20.807-08:00The Pearl of Great Value<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That dreaded season. Why does the Lord keep bringing the same bitter cup to my lips, to be drunk to the very dregs?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There are a lot of analogies for suffering- gold being purified, clay being molded, vines being pruned... but though they made a lot of sense intellectually, to my spirit it brought no solace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But the beauty of the Lord is this, He is Truth and Truth is manifested in so many ways, in so many forms and so in many of us. As much as we try to classify people, we still are so unique and varied. He likes that, I think. So he speaks to our spirits in ways that only we, as individuals can understand. And so he spoke to me...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today, was one of those vicious days where nothing went right, no task was getting ticked as 'done', no comfort, so peace... and a sleep-deprived headache. Heaven was quiet and I knew I was nearing melting point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was walking to a nearby cafe to grab some lunch, when I had a 'moment of meeting' with the Lord. I was upset, tired, disgruntled and very unhappy but in spite of all that, I did not put the Lord to the test. I just humbled myself in my heart and said, 'Lord! LORD!' He didn't saying anything but his presence remained like a lingering fragrance. I had my lunch and that moment passed...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then all of a sudden the Holy Spirit brought it to me, that it was the first time that I did not question (in doubt) the hand of the Lord in my present. I saw this vision of the good thief and the bad thief on either sides of the cross. Both were in need to help and liberation. One chose to challenge, the other chose to let go and let be lead, in faith. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I understood... </span><span style="font-size: large;">I had moved and in my suffering, made pure. My suffering took me to a higher ground; not to whinge and challenge but to trust and be made small.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And this is wisdom, when you understand divine truths in the light of who you are and how you are tuned. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I understood, that sufferings is needed because it helps you find gold in the sludge. Mining gold is a dirty, backbreaking, messy process. If you watch any of the videos on youtube on gold mining, you'll understand what I mean. Find that one piece of precious metal and it will suffice for all your labours. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Suffering helps dredge virtue from the sludge. It scrapes away all your masks, washes off your self-pretense and disperses all forms of factitious spirituality, till you find that one virtue that your previously felt you had but never knew it's true worth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Suffering makes your treasures worthwhile. If it was as simple as breathing to mine gold and diamond, do you think we would treasure the metal and the rock so well? Similarly, suffering contributes</span><span style="font-size: large;"> great value to your virtue, even in God's eyes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And when you know what they are truly worth because of the price you've paid in pain and tears, then your heart will be even greatly captivated by the Lord who is the source and summit of all virtue and grace. And w</span><span style="font-size: large;">here your treasure lies , there will your heart lie... utterly. </span><span style="font-size: large;">W</span><span style="font-size: large;">ith God.</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-28027953591846615452013-09-13T22:23:00.002-07:002013-09-17T11:39:59.837-07:00Remembrance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God in the Old Testament was one who constantly commiserated his people to Remember.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>'Tell it to your children and do not forget how the Lord delivered you from the Egyptians...'</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">'<i>Remember the Lord's commands that I entrust to you today...</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>'Remember when your fathers forgot me in the dessert...</i>'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Remember... Remember... Remember...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When one goes through the Night of the Senses, memories of the Lord's faithfulness and mercy can give hope even in the darkest night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">'I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.'</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">- <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+27%3A13&version=NIV" target="_blank">Ps 27: 13</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is the confidence of one who has tasted the Lord and found him true. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then there is another kind of reminiscence and it has nothing to do with one's memories or experience. It is a remembrance of the nature of God, who he is and how faithful he yet remains in the face of man's faithlessness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is a brokenness that comes with this remembrance. Like Mary at the foot of the cross. A place of 'hoping against hope' in a God who remains silent. Nothing made sense during that dark night of her soul. There was no silver lining on Golgotha, no comfort in her loneliness. I doubt if she remembered the words of her Son about his death and resurrection; and even if she did, I wonder if it brought her any comfort while watching her firstborn torn on the cross.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And Christ, </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">ripped from his Father's bosom, </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">bereft of all imaginable hope and yet he <i>said</i> ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Faith shines through.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This faith is born of hope. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">'Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">- <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb%2011:1&version=NIV" target="_blank">Heb 11:1</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sometimes, I do believe it translates into- Faith is being sure of Who we hope in and certain of Him who we do not see. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-70523260500013500862013-07-17T22:20:00.001-07:002013-07-17T22:20:20.027-07:00Come away with me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What is intimacy?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is it a union of two souls or two minds? Could it be that moment when a man becomes one with his wife? Could it be when two friends bond in silence, or a mother suckling her child...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">or maybe, it could be all of the above.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For Christ,I think it was a little more. For Christ, it was an immersive moment. Akin to a single drop of water becoming part of a great ocean. A realization that the Lord is GOD... and I am held in the midst of his existence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He is "my existence". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He is Existence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"I am, who am"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He revealed himself to all humanity and for all time, as an invitation to a greater knowing of God- face-to-face, man to Creator. He <a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/gnt/hosea/11-4.html" target="_blank">leans</a><a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/gnt/hosea/11-4.html" target="_blank"> down to us</a>. Know me, he says. Know me...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The most important prerequisites of intimacy is trust and vulnerability. He did that when he spoke his name to Moses. He showed his most vulnerable side when he became man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Friendship, motherhood, spousal love are all relationships that grow with intimacy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But for God, it becomes a deeper engagement. Mortal man can never bond perfectly with an immortal eternal God. So, God gave man a soul. A spirit, eternal and immortal as God is. It an intimacy of two spirits that God seeks. It goes beyond feeling, above physical bodies and remains suspended like a single drop of consciousness in an ocean of silence. A stillness... A time of completeness, at rest and in Peace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is intimacy with an Almighty, Eternal God. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He meets us in the physical as he does in the spiritual. H</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">e comes to us in the Holy Eucharist, </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">becoming one with us, </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">nourishing us, enveloping us, overshadowing us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He lets us touch him because our senses are so important to us.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqGfgkD28A8BnTpCQmFWwMDvAGkXCnKnF3KOsVavXG9jLvCnA7XxsgTSiziyTjYTlRQKlp2OV_4wFH6KDwA0orPE33iOOwV0WjICz_MVVLcwVoqngs7QKDJIl-qZBkU4LZ1_L04XqN5x1H/s1600/jesus_doubting-thomas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqGfgkD28A8BnTpCQmFWwMDvAGkXCnKnF3KOsVavXG9jLvCnA7XxsgTSiziyTjYTlRQKlp2OV_4wFH6KDwA0orPE33iOOwV0WjICz_MVVLcwVoqngs7QKDJIl-qZBkU4LZ1_L04XqN5x1H/s1600/jesus_doubting-thomas.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcjUSi44HzBiFwPccNs59HxOiDy2lpAQjMAj_ibphC9mMspXcDTh4z7CCnJUzogDoOgcmOUxhyrhu6I5WuxkxDLcXBPVuo6k3wFvvV0WHWfENnONl3UmxBKhCjQJlpkyQoEkvywnda6XAz/s1600/jesus_doubting-thomas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcjUSi44HzBiFwPccNs59HxOiDy2lpAQjMAj_ibphC9mMspXcDTh4z7CCnJUzogDoOgcmOUxhyrhu6I5WuxkxDLcXBPVuo6k3wFvvV0WHWfENnONl3UmxBKhCjQJlpkyQoEkvywnda6XAz/s640/jesus_doubting-thomas.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He woos us with his <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song+of+Songs+1&version=NIV" target="_blank">songs</a> because our passions move us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He bends down to us seeking intimacy and friendship. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">'Come away with me to a lonely place'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">'Come abide in me, rest awhile in me'</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-65096226500516344692013-05-28T11:09:00.002-07:002013-05-28T11:09:35.045-07:00Blessed among Women<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Bible raises a few women to look upon as an example of 'Highly Favoured', 'Richly Blessed', 'Woman of Faith' and I find myself a bit skeptical. They had hard lives, all of them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In ancient Israel, women and children were relegated to the fringes of Jewish society. If that wasn't bad enough, being out of sync with the norms i.e. unmarried, widowed, childless were considered curse or punishment by God. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was a hard life for a woman...much less one who was considered despised and abandoned by God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sarah was seven times widowed when we first meet her in the Book of Tobit. Seven in Jewish lore is considered a full, complete number. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sarah had drunk deep of her cup of sorrow so much so that it came to be even her servant-girl did not scruple to abuse her. The ancient community would have have denounced</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> her worse. She was ready to take her life when she remembered her beloved father, and then turned to God.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: center;">
"Lord, I look to you for help."</div>
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-<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Tobit+3&version=GNT" target="_blank">Tobit 3:11-12</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Beyond coincidence and chance, came Tobit and the sorrows of two families came to an end. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then there was Rachel, Sarah, Abraham's wife and Elizabeth, Mary's cousin. Bereaved in their childlessness; yet hoping when all cause for hope was over.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Judith the young widow faced with a despondent nation and Ruth, the foreigner who chose love and loyalty over home.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Then God remembered..."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> - <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2030:22&version=GNT" target="_blank">Gen 30:22</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But where there is Christ, there is always Hope and (this) Hope does not disappoint. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">God will fulfill the desires of your heart, because he himself put it there. He is glorified in your joy as he glorified in your patient obedience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: left;">When all seems bleak and the promises seem late in flowering; remember...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"For nothing is impossible for God"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> - <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201:37&version=GNT" target="_blank">Luke 1: 37</a> </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-12658569230636882672013-04-26T10:10:00.001-07:002013-04-26T10:17:57.006-07:00She believed...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">May is nearly here- the Month of Mary.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mary was a natural contemplation mystic. Contemplation being a form of prayer where a person turn things over, not in his or her mind but in her heart. Heart being the seat where one finds God, not quite the fluffy, pansy, emotional-driven core but a place of truth and trust. Feelings do have a play but more than that it's a place of surrender and abandonment to God.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieiFEq1dKtZJOsn_WrLT5afzT00uyGJfYdtLy7OTTUYgEHcfvLBBWeoDrdwL5Jw-TGUPc6ZU0K7SATsfsEk62l7pZI-VJeGHoUtiP-4mNOirbYudeF18j6F6PEQn5KF78_9RMkL5KMQDXV/s1600/Mary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieiFEq1dKtZJOsn_WrLT5afzT00uyGJfYdtLy7OTTUYgEHcfvLBBWeoDrdwL5Jw-TGUPc6ZU0K7SATsfsEk62l7pZI-VJeGHoUtiP-4mNOirbYudeF18j6F6PEQn5KF78_9RMkL5KMQDXV/s320/Mary.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">'Do unto me as thou hast said'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Those are not easy words if one truly understood the full implication of saying them. Mary weighed the words in her heart and spoke- Fiat. A complete consummation of consent. And the history of mankind changed forever.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This May, I thought of doing Mary's Way. To contemplate and to sit abide in God. The fruit of contemplation, is surrender. But before that happens, there is something else... belief. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I often wondered what the difference was between faith and trust and belief. This is what I understood- </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Faith is a gift. To become aware of God and trust in who he is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Trust is confidence in the credibility of God.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Belief. I think Belief becomes more personal and intimate. Belief is a 'knowing'. It is faith in action.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Paul received the gift of Faith at Damascus. Mary (the sister of Martha) trusted Jesus to have done something to save Lazarus.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But Mary believed... she knew. Old Simeon knew he held the Messiah in his arms. He didn't need a white dove hovering over. Abraham believed God. To believe is to translate faith into action.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the most beautiful proofs I have read on belief is from 'The Children of Hurin' by J.R.R.Tolkien. The story is one of tragedy surrounding the family of Hurin who challenged the might of Melkor. Melkor was a fallen Elect, an immortal. Not of flesh and blood but of pure spirit. He seek to subdue all the earth and creation but the elves and men of Middle-Earth challenged him. They failed and Hurin, the leader of men was captured.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thus begins a dissertation between Melkor the immortal and Hurin the man. Melkor tries to destroy every belief that Hurin has held sacred since his youth. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To break a man's beliefs is to subjugate him completely. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Man needs to believe, in order to live. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But in the end, Hurin pronounces his one true creed- I know this and I know it with all my heart, that you are not the Lord of men and you shall never be its master.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mary believed...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God is Just. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God is True. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">God is Love.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">God is Good.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And the scripture resounds- 'Blessed is she who believed...' </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-20518352718475422192013-04-20T00:13:00.000-07:002013-04-20T00:13:09.079-07:00A Prayer for Everyday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A SHORT WISH, DEAREST JESUS </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Servant of God </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Duff_(religious_worker)" style="line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">Frank Duff</a></b></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, my God, I do not ask for the big things - the life of the missionary or the monk, or those others I see around me so full of accomplishment, I do not ask for any of these; but simply set my face to follow out unswervingly, untiringly, the common life which day to day stretches out before me, satisfied if in it I love You, and try to make you loved. Nature rebels against this life with its never-ending round of trivial tasks and full of the temptation to take relief in amusement or change. It seems so hard to be great in small things, to be heroic in the doing of the commonplace; but still this life is Your will for me. There must be a great destiny in it. And so, I am content. And then to crown the rest, dear Jesus, I beg you to give me this, fidelity to the end, to be at my post when the final call comes, and to take my last, weary breath in Your embrace. A valiant life and faithful to the end. A short wish, dearest Jesus, but it covers all.<br /><br /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">- Servant of God </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Duff_(religious_worker)" style="line-height: 18px;" target="_blank">Frank Duff</a><span style="line-height: 18px;">, Can We Be Saints ?</span></span></span><br /></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Amen</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #37404e;">It is a hard prayer for those of us who find ourselves vaguely trapezing through life. But it is</span><span style="color: #444444;"> a</span><span style="color: #37404e;"> good prayer and much needed one. In world where one's self-worth is measured by achievements and lauds. It hurts to take the common path. It's deeply humbling and almost embarrassing to say- I am waiting on the Lord to open new paths and doors. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 18px;">'What! You don't have a PLAN?'</span><br />
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<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 18px;">Nope. I only hope to be obedient through where the Holy Spirit gently prods me go. Even when I fail to hear his voice, I trust t</span><span style="color: #37404e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">he Holy Spirit know his way through the wilderness of my thoughts and the labyrinth of my heart. He will find me, the foolish lost sheep, the meandering coin. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">He will make this commonplace life of mine yield a song for my King. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I do not ask to see, </span></span><span style="color: #37404e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 18px;">the distant scene</span></div>
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<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">One small step </span></span><span style="color: #37404e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 18px;">enough for me</span></div>
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<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 18px;">-Cardinal Newman</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-65428734806870679712013-03-26T22:46:00.001-07:002013-03-26T22:46:03.953-07:00A Man for All Seasons<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I know I haven't written anything on this blog about our new Pontiff- Pope Francis but that's just because I have been too busy celebrating and rejoicing over his election. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But now, something has come up which has made me want to post about him. It is about that news flash where His Holiness descended from the Popemobile to greet a disabled man in the papal audience. I had seen the picture of this but the video really moved my heart. Truly, this man is chosen by God...</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-56032263359116032482013-03-20T06:29:00.004-07:002013-03-20T23:52:00.588-07:00An Unrelenting God<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is this lovely skit by the Skit Guys called God's Chisel. It is a beautiful analogy of how we respond to God's pruning and most of the time not very well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The part I like is where the main protagonist begs God to leave it off him for a while, take a break, come back later, resume the work, whenever that may be. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">God sighs...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That's a problem with me. As much as I love the Lord and truly desire his will in my life, it is hard to toe the line when the going gets tough. Like the time he asked me to forgive this really nasty person at the workplace or graciously accept a time of desolation to <a href="http://thewomanathewell.blogspot.in/2013/02/autumn-and-lent.html" target="_blank">thaw my frozen heart</a>. I find myself so broken that I wish (and pray) that God gives me a break. And hopefully a long break, at that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But this is what I have understood about the Lord. One he puts his hands to the anvil, he doesn't let go till he has fulfilled his purpose. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; thy steadfast love, O LORD, endures for ever.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">- Psalm 138:8</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">An Unrelenting God. A Stubborn Saviour. Where would we be without him? Undone, half-done, without... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I don't trust myself to hold on to Christ. But this I know. I can trust Christ to hold on to me, no mater what. No matter how many times I tell him to leave me alone. He won't give up on me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Maybe it's a litany to the One I love.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No matter how many times I tell him to leave me be.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No matter how many times I tell him I am tired of his hand</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No matter how many times I have given up on myself</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For the times I have cheated, bribed, counselled and coerced Him to do my will as His</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For the times I have fallen and couldn't forgive myself</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For the times I have wounded his Sacred Heart </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For the times I have wounded and maligned his people</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For the times I had an opportunity to proclaim his name, speak of his goodness and spread his love; and did not</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When I gave away my time in far cheaper pursuits than knowing his command and heeding his call</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When I am in sin and my pride prevents me from hearing the Master's call</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To the Lord who took on torn humanity to save me</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To the Lord who humble himself to the pits of death and hell, that I may not suffer either</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To the unquenchable fire of his love waiting to renew me</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christ won't give up on me</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Christ won't give up on me. Christ won't give up on me. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Not just yet. Not ever. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"><b>Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced with a lance. Have mercy on us.</b></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-67279244147420552142013-02-14T09:39:00.001-08:002013-02-14T21:33:09.223-08:00Autumn and Lent<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I like a bird's eye view... I like to see the whole picture. The distant past and a cloudy glimpse of the future with Today and Now, in retrospect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It gives me comfort. To understand how the world comes to be and how it finally knits itself together. Like a puzzle. All is awry till the final piece falls in. I think that is why God instituted the Second Coming, when all things are unveiled as they truly are. I look forward to it...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But that is not what this post is about. This is post is about recognizing the seasons in your journey with Jesus. Reading signs from your life, your circle of friends and the Church.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For me, it seems like it is autumn again. When the old gives way to the new. I been through it once before, so I recognize it again. This time, it started with a death. My grandmother who suffered many years with Demensia, passed away in her sleep. She had become a child towards the end but the Good Lord remembered her faithfulness and took her home gently and kindly. It was a <a href="http://thewomanathewell.blogspot.in/2012/11/a-good-and-happy-death.html" target="_blank">peaceful, good death</a>. It was followed by another death. Sudden and unexpected of a missionary's father. In midst of it came Pope Benedict's announcement to step down (I grieved that it had to be). Then, there was also a sudden resignation by the head of my department. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It feels like autumn again...Change is in the air. Spring is coming, it surely will not delay.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And to welcome Spring, is the time of Lent for preparation. This time, I thought of forgoing my favourite soap but I got smarter... no more <a href="http://thewomanathewell.blogspot.in/2012/04/this-is-not-what-i-planned.html" target="_blank">my plans for Lent</a>. I asked Jesus what were his plans for me. Jesus said, 'Humility.' </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I cringed... a little. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Accepting suffering has always been hard for me and humility comes by the way of brokenness. But Lent is also that time when we rest from our crosses and look up to Jesus and ask him for our restoration. That's the whole point- 'Come away with me to a lonely place and rest awhile' (<a href="http://bible.cc/mark/6-31.htm" target="_blank">Mar 6:31</a>). When we seek Jesus, we are in it for the long haul. Even those of us who are weighed down by daily worries of the world, this is a time of rest. A time to put down our burdens and anxieties, hopes and fear and spend time with Jesus. This is the Jesus who prepares you for the good fight. Reminds you of your Baptismal Promises. Fills you with his Love. And strengthens you for the everyday, ordinary life's Way of the Cross.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We need that rest. Autumn is the time of letting go and letting God. Then, Spring arrives. With it come joy, hope and solace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have been there before and I know the time is nearly here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is why I like the Bird's eye view. I start to have expectant faith. I know Spring is coming...</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-39219596252689052802013-01-15T20:59:00.002-08:002013-01-15T20:59:22.172-08:00A Time for Consolation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">St.Ignatius wrote at length about </span><a href="http://www.discerninghearts.com/?page_id=2690" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">spiritual consolation and desolation</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">While, consolation is the easy part. It's the season where the soul is enveloped in peace, a sure sense of God's presence, great interior joy and hopefulness. It is manifested as one's personal prayer life becomes deeply satisfying, scripture reading becomes more meaningful and one's vocation, blossoms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Desolation, is just the opposite and also afforded by God. St. Ignatius described it,</span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">'I call desolation what is entirely the opposite of (consolation), as darkness of soul, torment of spirit, inclination to what is low and earthly, restlessness rising from many disturbances and temptations which lead to want of faith, want of hope, want of love. The soul is wholly slothful, tepid, sad, and separated, as it were, from its Creator and Lord.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Unspeakable sadness...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The last 6 months have been a trying time for me at every level. Reading some of my earlier posts, I realise now that I was slowly entering a dark hole, from whence the light slowly dimmed and finally went out. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My work related stress kept building up till it got really bad
in December and I mean...Bad. So much so, I think my low BP and the general lethargy and
sickness came as an off-shoot of all that. To say that I was broken within
would be an understatement. During that time, I even began to doubt God's love and
lost hope that he would intervene for me. A lot of what I was going through
was not just because of the work. It was crazy, but what made things worse was
that for the longest time my personal prayer life was dry, the Bible was no
longer speaking to me, sharing with my spiritual elder made no difference and
nothing seemed to be breaking through. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">At least earlier on, I had the 'lights' of
God's presence. Even when I couldn't sense his presence, I knew he was near when suddenly things miraculously fell into place, difficult situations
suddenly became simpler, people relented or at least I had confidence in God's word when things looked hopeless but here
there was no comfort, no solace and no sense of God's presence and then, the
stress. Many people came and told me that God wanted them to affirm me - 'God
loves you' but those words, which earlier used to thrill my heart seemed empty
and dead.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">
There was no hope and none seemed to be coming. Last year, Christmas was not
really a feast of old and New Years was just plain
depressing! That was the lowest point. I just broke down during mass in Church and even
then, there came no help from above.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">
There was one discipline I following during this time- I spent a lot of time in front of
the Blessed Sacrament. Hours together, just sitting there. I did not try to
force myself to pray or try to discern anything. I guess, by that time, I was
fed-up and tired. If God wanted to reach me, then he had to come. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It was during
this time, I came across this thin book called '<a href="http://books.google.co.in/books/about/Miracles_Do_Happen.html?id=vV0GAAAACAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">Miracles Do Happen: God can do the impossible</a>' by
Sister Briege. </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I thought the title of the book pretty clichéd and there was nothing </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">really </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">t</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">o attract me but I just picked it up and started reading from the middle.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">She speaks about a 'torn tent' where the Lord sits waiting for us.
She says that we get so hassled with the state of our souls and the demands of
out lives that we forget that the Lord will repair the 'battered tent' and sort everything else if only we sit before him in silence. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the same time, I received
several 'Words' from my online intercessory group about holding on and God
working through my suffering. Finally, after New Year's, Mother Mary came to my rescue. I really don't know how or when but one day during the rosary, she
inspired me to tell the Lord how much I loved him. It was hard! In the middle
of the mess of my life, to focus on Love is very hard. But with her, I manage to
tell Jesus- 'I love you, Lord'. It was like breaking through the waters for a
breadth of fresh air. Saying it over and over again with Mary, I suddenly got
perspective. The most important thing in life is to remember- God loves you and
you love him too. It's as if, the troubles and the sufferings are just
ancillary because what matters is that you love the Lord. (The strength to love
him comes from God so to tell Jesus that you love him is impossible without his
grace)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
My work troubles did not magically go away but I have received new strength. I
am no longer fearful or as fearful as I was, though I still get panic attacks
but going to Mary and asking her to take me to that lonely place where the Lord
is found, telling him again and again that I love him, is healing in itself.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">As the light keeps growing brighter, I have to come understand why this period of desolation is so important. It is to purify the spirit. To look to Jesus even when it seems that you receive nothing from him (</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">'Lord, to whom can we go to? You have the words of eternal life.') </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is the love that he desires and the fruit of desolation.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-52547226970689680452012-12-25T07:57:00.001-08:002013-01-02T03:06:51.190-08:00Tis the night the Saviour was born...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There came upon a starlight</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When the Saviour of man</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Chose to be born</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When hope, joy and peace </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Came to us in a babe of swaddling cloth</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The angels rejoiced, Shepards thrilled, wise men searched and one, yes one seeked to kill</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But in the cold opulence and crass consumerism of open malls and red nosed reindeers</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Did you hear the babe cry?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Did you see the heavens rent open and angels come down?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Did you hear the heralds? Did you see the star in the East? Did you wait for the Father's promise come true?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our God with Us is fulfilled this very night again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Christmas is not about us or even about others but it is about the Christ child and his humility and the unfathomable Love of the Father.</span></div>
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<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKDJoGyrOidtUV6FwljbayEO7dsUfQD3Gyz1Mk_Scrsuk3oT0AE86PDHc3kRPHLPFyqliIgGC7nxOJTHSToMsuBbwT4EkI3FbKhRn7pLbH-eX-rEb9Aec7ZqIuZUZu4U6SuV-uWbuR7wNj//" /></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-25398618950680519702012-11-23T22:05:00.003-08:002012-11-23T22:08:10.077-08:00A Happy and Holy Death<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This week saw the death of a much beloved nana. She lived to 93 and witnessed the marriage of many of her grandchildren. She was blessed with Hannah's heart when she gave up her only son to become a full-time lay missionary. Nana continued to live with him surrounded by his missionary community, in the same house where she raised her 8 children till she breathed her last, peacefully in her sleep.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">She lived a full life in the midst of her loved ones and close to her Lord and saviour. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was a good death indeed...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I believe that a good peaceful death is a gift from God. One that we must ardently pray for irrespective of one's age. Some of us</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> may be elevated to die as martyrs but for those of us who are elected to not to, a peaceful death must be our aim. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">A good death is also the fruit of a long and perilous journey, it requires life-long preparation... like a successful marriage.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here is an excerpt from a beautiful article </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">on </span><a href="http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/i_am_very_happy_now" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">MercatorNet</a> <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">which describes a death that I would love to have </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #660000;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">...the phone rang. It was from my niece in Ireland, to tell me that my older brother, Johnny, who had been taken into hospital a few days earlier with what they thought was a problematic lung infection, was not responding to treatment; he was now in a very critical condition. I instantly dropped what I was doing and caught the next plane to Cork. I arrived late the same night. Early the next morning, All Souls Day, I went to the Bon Secours hospital where he was lying in the intensive care unit. There was my dear brother, only a year older than me, who had stayed with me only a fortnight before and with whom I shared so many memories of the past, now lying helpless and struggling to breathe, with an oxygen helmet on his head and surrounded by bleeping and flashing machines.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #660000;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But he was also entirely conscious and completely at peace. The first thing he said to me (he had been an army officer for thirty years and had always described himself as a “bluff soldier”) was, “I think courage and dignity are required right now”, with a wry smile. The second was, “Do you remember Churchill’s last words?” I quoted them. We had both shared a great interest in Churchill’s life and I was always looking out for memorabilia relating to him to give to Johnny. I reminded him now that my best find had been a 1940s biscuit tin at our local waste disposal dump, decorated with the key quotes from Churchill’s wartime speeches.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #660000;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The third thing he said was, “A friar in sockless sandals came round earlier and, to use an old-fashioned word, he has shriven me.” He then told me the hymns he wanted at his funeral, the simple inscription for his grave – no mention of honours or army rank – and the words for a memorial card. They were from St Thomas More, and Johnny recalled his own father, to whom he had been very close, telling them to him: “Do thou pray for me and I will pray for thee, that we may meet merrily in heaven.” The word “merrily” particularly mattered to him. He always had a great, if sometimes mordant, sense of humour, and heaven had to be a merry place. When someone placed a blanket over his feet so they wouldn’t be cold, he said with a characteristic smile, “Don’t worry, they will be the first to burn”.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #660000;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">These little conversations and remarks went on for most of the day. Johnny’s children never left his side. My brother and sister joined us. A palliative care doctor came by and gently indicated that his lung capacity was decreasing and that his oxygen levels were dropping. A nurse quietly and sensitively monitored the situation, explaining to us that they would only give him morphine when his breathing had clearly become very distressed. A young lay pastor came and prayed a decade of the Rosary with us. A huge plate of sandwiches materialised from nowhere in the relatives’ waiting room. The sockless friar (a Capuchin) came back with Communion, the nurse opened a small aperture in Johnny’s “helmet” and he received a fragment of the Host with great reverence and recollection. He called for a sip of cordial and managed to suck a tiny amount with a straw. He also had a spoonful of ice cream. He made it clear that he didn’t need any more food.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #660000;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At four in the afternoon he was asked if he would like some morphine to ease his, by now, very laboured breathing. He said “Yes” quite firmly. The doctor explained that the oxygen helmet was no longer of any use and it was gently removed. The machines were then unplugged and Johnny was made comfortable. He fell asleep. We all stayed with him, talked to him, sang to him, held his hands and stroked his head until, an hour later, he drew his last breath. My younger brother turned to me and said in a voice of awe, “What a mystery death is!” I thought of a favourite remark of Johnny’s, which he had repeated to me only a couple of hours before: “There are no pockets in a shroud.”The Capuchin returned and reminded us that All Souls Day was a wonderful day to die on. The palliative care nurse wept along with us all. I remembered that Johnny had chosen St Joseph, patron of a happy death, as his Confirmation saint and had always had a special love for him. In fact he had named a succession of his boyhood tortoises “Joseph” in the saint’s honour. In his last hours St Joseph had not deserted him.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #660000;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have described Johnny’s dying in this detail – and what a privilege it was to have witnessed such a death, his last loving legacy to his family – to show the kind of experience we would all wish for: sensitive and attentive care, spiritual and medical, by all the staff and the vital opportunity for Johnny to make his own inimitable farewells. It is a memory that his children and the rest of us will carry until our own dying day...Johnny died, as he said, in the country he loved and surrounded by the people he loved; “My faith, my family and my friends are what matter to me” he told us in his soldierly fashion. In the intensive care unit of the Bon Secours hospital, with its Catholic ethos and atmosphere – a crucifix on the wall and a statue of Our Lady in the corridor – patients are treated as children of God: “Johnny is in God’s hands” the nurse said as she monitored him. It makes all the difference – in life and in death.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #660000;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And Johnny’s own last words, before he slipped into unconsciousness? </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #660000;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“I am very happy now.” <span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000;"></span></span></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To d</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">ie a holy death, at peace with one's neighbour and God is a blessing indeed. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinuvfQy9wzmCOPUYuk74dq5rAidoTFBQszBmQOJGhVcddqdA3OalfcZnBkPrGCR158NnkYMlnweyyj4dEkPK98xa-y6uXyw0JghEM4wmvpRLjZArg_40HbkJdS8RoZstffsw_A7CHC0OKS/s1600/Death+of+St+Joseph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinuvfQy9wzmCOPUYuk74dq5rAidoTFBQszBmQOJGhVcddqdA3OalfcZnBkPrGCR158NnkYMlnweyyj4dEkPK98xa-y6uXyw0JghEM4wmvpRLjZArg_40HbkJdS8RoZstffsw_A7CHC0OKS/s320/Death+of+St+Joseph.jpg" width="249" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">O to die in the arms of Mary and Jesus...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">St.Joseph, patron of happy and holy death</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ora pro nobis</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-47884451327647958962012-11-03T23:09:00.001-07:002012-11-03T23:09:53.133-07:00Song of Hope...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">"To the pure, all things are pure,</span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29908A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white;"> but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure.</span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NIV-29908B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white;"> In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted." - </span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus+1%3A15&version=NIV" target="_blank">Titus 1:15</a></span></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I found this </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">true, </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">time and again; especially when exposed to secular media, films and music. Numerous were the times I heard the Lord sing and coo to me through the din. Numerous too, were the times my mind was dulled from perceiving the evil therein. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I like to believe that I am protected and my Father sings songs of gladness over me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some of the most beautiful lessons I learnt were from sources far, far from religious or spiritual.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The most distant memory that comes to me (considering that my memory is like a sieve) is of my watching the undeniably morbid movie, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_English_Patient_(film)" target="_blank">The English Patient</a>. Lust, adultery, fornication and lies abound in that love-in-the-time-of-WWII film. But this is what I remember most- the scene where the lady-much-desired and her (cuckold) husband were flying their two-seater propeller jet to their dug-out site in the North African wasteland, where the lady's lover was waiting to be picked up. The affair was broken off by then and the husband knew that he was cheated upon, though he did not reveal it to his wife or the friend/lover. As the plane descended, the husband's feral rage took over and he tried to drive the jet into the lover, hoping to kill all of them together. Instead, the husband dies instantly, the wife gets mortally wounded and perishes in the desert and the lover dies much later, a victim of euthanasia, broken-hearted, burnt beyond recognition and a traitor. The film treated the entire story very romantically... but all I heard, was a still soft voice saying- The wages of sin is death.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God did not need to meet out their punishment. Their own flawed decision set into motion the wheels of fate which they could not stop and led to their untimely destruction, and that of others as well. I felt sorry for them... I really did; but it brought home to me the truth that death was not just metaphorical; it was real and concrete. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then there was Avatar. Who can forget the memorable Na'vi greeting- 'I see you.', which is to see into another, to truly look into their souls. How poignantly it reminded me of <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+139&version=NIV" target="_blank">Psalm 139 </a>...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then there is the other side of the spectrum. When evil warps the imagination, nothing then can remains innocent. Before predators became, there was the thought, the fantasy that foreshadowed it. There are those who after encountering the Light, now practice extreme abstinence, not out penance but out the desire for protection. It doesn't take much to awake the old demons...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Lord often does deliver them but sometimes he desires to strengthen their will by asking of strong measures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">St. Augustine knew of it. St Paul remarked of it when he spoke of the <a href="http://bible.cc/2_corinthians/12-7.htm" target="_blank">thorn in his flesh</a> . </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But take heart, in the end, Grace and one's love of Jesus will see one through...</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-48651788407451713622012-10-19T11:16:00.001-07:002012-10-19T11:29:27.000-07:00A Mustard seed of Faith<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: #660000;">God does not make mistakes!</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is the Truth and Truth it is. The catch is whether we believe it or not. Not believe it being the Truth but </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">believe </i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Truth (who is God) about Himself. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, we all believe in God and as Jesus so poignantly said- Even the demons <a href="http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbible.cc%2Fjames%2F2-19.htm&ei=9HeBUOLaO43QrQek64HoDA&usg=AFQjCNHK3rmO4d8RqsBlEHzI06EPxgFO_Q&sig2=M1ZBP5s-E2JjvOs2R96Aow" target="_blank">believe in God</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">They just don't trust Him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And so, when one does introspect, "Do I believe that God does not make mistakes?", it is the simplified version of, "Do I trust God never to mess up even after all the mess I created for myself?"</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This 'Parent' question spawns numerous off-springs like, why does God allow children to suffer from cancer? Why are there so many wars? Or closer home- Why me, Lord?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">...a dim echo of, 'Could God have made a mistake?' </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Your really don't have to search your memory to recall instances of people asking you this question in retrospection They pose it as a rhetoric and they </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">really</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">don't expect an answer. There isn't one, they think; seeing the situation they are locked in. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And what about the many times we have whispered it to ourselves in the secret recesses of our soul? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My times-of-distress teaser was a simple- Lord, where are you?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I never expected an answer... because I believed He did NOT have an answer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then something happened that made me wonder...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The week that was, was a roller-coaster. A high and a low and a low. It was a difficult, difficult time, especially for a person like me who does not like change or a disturbance in my daily rhythm. I don't remember if I threw one of my posers at God but I definitely was wondering what on earth was happening. Somewhere in the middle of the week, I received a card from a close friend in Canada. It was posted weeks ago to a common friend and was waiting to be received. I just didn't have the time to collect it. It finally found its way to my hands through a fellow choir member and I opened it...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was small-ish, simple card, with a caricature on the cover. On the inside was my pals' neat, tidy handwriting on the two facing sides. Then there, right at the bottom of card was this printed verse from Daniel...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"God loves you very much."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I nearly <i>wept</i>...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In all the Bible, that was my favourite verse. I never told it to anyone. I loved that verse before I even knew how to read the Bible. It called to me as no other verse ever did. My favourite Bible meditation was to imagine myself in Daniel's shoes and hear the salutation, '<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+10%3A19&version=GNT" target="_blank">Daniel</a>! God loves you' over and over and over again.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nOIDajQ09CA/UIGYonlpABI/AAAAAAAAAlk/ENQtqiYdrcg/s1600/daniel-byrembrandt.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nOIDajQ09CA/UIGYonlpABI/AAAAAAAAAlk/ENQtqiYdrcg/s400/daniel-byrembrandt.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Fear not! God loves you...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He knew my soul even before that week arrived. He timed it to reach my hands at the opportune time. He sent his Spirit to remind me... </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">He does not make mistakes.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Though it is not quite the correct response to my, 'Lord, where are you?' cry; it is the best One. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">What I am going through, is well and foreseen. Even in the midst of the chaos I created for myself and for others, He does not make mistakes. There are no wrong judgement calls and there is disaster-recovery for Him. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Light has shone in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-24366666610556373472012-10-06T04:35:00.000-07:002012-10-06T04:35:07.956-07:00The Return of the Eldest Son<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: #660000;">“There was once a man who had two sons." </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I had read the story of the prodigal son a very many time and heard beautiful homilies from the pulpit a thousand times over... but the story never sang to me.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One was the elder and one was the younger.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There was the obedient and there was the rebel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Even after my heart's conversion; I knew I had walked the prodigal son's broken path and came home after much barrenness... but even then the story never spoke to me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My selfishness and arrogance, I was aware. I still remember the times I told the Father, the ancient curse behind my demand for independence- I wish you were dead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But the Love of God rescued me and I felt the soft mantle of the Father's robe as I pressed my heart into His. Then I heard his agonizing cry...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #660000;">"My heart won't let me do it, my Love for you is <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea%2011:8&version=GNT;CEV" target="_blank">too strong</a>" </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I continued my journey with God till I finally saw the Eldest Son was I. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"but this son of yours..."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am the eldest in my family and I know better than others the heavy responsibility to care for the younger while young myself. I knew better than others the pain of being favoured under and disciplined harsher. In my minds eye, I saw it run through out the Bible, I saw younger being greatly loved. Jacob over Esau, Joseph apart from his 11 brothers, David ahead his brothers, Mary before Martha and John, beloved of the Lord. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Eldest Son, did all things right and true to his father, so much so he despised his brother for having made the foolish choice. Deep in his heart, it was not the property but laud he gave himself for adhering to his father's rule. Such self-discipline is truly admirable but it made him proud. It gave him a seat of judgement, a throne. His brother's disobedience, heightened his obedience. He never waited with his father for his brother's return.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And many were the times, I judged others. Not consciously but in my attitude. Protestants with dodgy theology, homosexuals, casanovas and weak-willed politicians... my brothers who I despised. My own who I could not acknowledge as mine. Who I begrudged the Father's patience and his mercy.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But the Father loved them both</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is where the parable began to make sense to me. The Father asks for one thing and one thing alone- Love. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The father in the parable was already old and infirm,nearly blind, he had already died a thousand deaths and waited for his lost son to return. To a man who has seen death face to face, the past and hoary remembrances do not matter. Only the beloved does. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The light of his eyes was gone, but the light of his spirit had grown acute. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">In his very spirit, he sensed his son's return. With this light, he saw his youngest from afar. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s2zv-JLmGYE/UHAB3xA5wqI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/s9sMtl4yEpE/s1600/Return-of-the-Prodigal-Son.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s2zv-JLmGYE/UHAB3xA5wqI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/s9sMtl4yEpE/s640/Return-of-the-Prodigal-Son.jpg" width="507" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I only saw the erring and the fallen. Coming into the Light helps you recognise the obvious which those who are steeped in sin do not. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My calling was to love them into return. My calling was to love the wounded who did not how how to return. My calling was to rejoice with the Father when my lost brother returned. But for that I needed to love into dying to myself. </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Like the Father who loved man so much as to give up his greatest Love, his only Son to redeem us. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is the paradox of love, when you have lost everything, you have everything to give. When one is nothing, then one can love truly those who are nothing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">When I understood this, I returned to the banquet to celebrate my brother's return.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-76927331718316706672012-09-18T23:54:00.001-07:002012-09-18T23:54:26.082-07:00Suffer little children<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I read this article about a man named Ken, who was conceived in an act of rape. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">His mother was </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">15, unmarried and alone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is his story...</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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<blockquote>
<span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ken explained that he was adopted as an infant, and at age 30,
located his birth mother and learned the circumstances of his
conception.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“Her story was that she was hit over the head with a baseball bat and
was raped at 15. So she went away to Catholic Charities, had me, made
the brave decision to keep me — and, well, keep me alive. And then I was
adopted and I have three beautiful children now, have been married for
15 years – and I would just like to speak up for those [voice breaks]
who have no voice.”</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ken defended both women who are the victims of rape, and their innocent children who are conceived in violence: </span></span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">“It really eats me up when I hear people talk about rape, because it </span><em style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is</em><span style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">
horrible. My mother won’t tell me who my father’s name is because he
threatened to kill her if she ever said anything. So she has not told me
his name, but if I was ever to meet him, the first thing I would
probably do is punch him. I think rape is horrible, but what I want to
say to women out there is: you can take something that was terribly done
to you, and make something good out of it. And that’s, [voice breaks]
that’s me.”</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ken talked about growing up in a loving adoptive home – his parents had just celebrated their 50<sup>th</sup>
wedding anniversary — and how he shares a relationship with his birth
mother, her husband, and their children (his half-siblings). He
expressed gratitude for his birth mother’s going through so much to give
him life. He admired how she rebuilt her life after her assault,
pregnancy, and adoption placement, saying: “That was a hard time in her
life. She sacrificed a lot….But she moved on in her life, and she was
able to overcome the shame that was put on her.”</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He urged people to see that children conceived in rape are just as
human, just as “real”, as everyone else. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“It’s an emotional topic
because I just get tired of people treating these unborn children like
they’re, like they’re <em>nothing</em>. And they <em>can</em> be born, and they <em>can</em> grow up, and they <em>can</em> have a great life.”</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Most of all, they are human <i>beings</i>...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">More than 2000 years ago, there was another girl, maybe younger who found herself with a child and chose to have him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">His name was Jesus and his mother was, Mary. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>"I have called you by name; you are mine!" Is 43:1</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He was still a toddler when He and his parents had to flee from their town. The ruler of that land gave the <a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/2-16.htm" target="_blank">order to massacre</a> all male chidren, 2 years and under.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Strange! The blindness of not recognising the humanity of a child within the womb can well extend into their early years. The rage of a tyrant wiped out an entire generation in his state</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was born in the 80's. Many of my generation never lived to be born because they were considered less-than-human. They called it choice then, now it's some sort of 'right'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">How come no one ever recognises the unborn for what they truly are- a Gift, a Blessing, a Ray of Hope?</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-14985429666703967532012-09-08T10:38:00.000-07:002012-09-08T10:38:28.346-07:00A Season of Waiting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is a season of waiting...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Good Book makes much of this season. It begins with the waiting for the Messiah just after the Fall and it end with the waiting for the return of The King.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Abraham waiting a hundred years for Isaac to be, is lot of time. But 40 years of wandering about in a desert to reach the Promised Land is enough to make one cry. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And yes, the desert. Why does it always have to be in the desert?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The strange thing about this desert is that it's not necessarily geographical. Jonah's desert was a the belly of a whale. A Whale! </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Have any of you ever got a chance to sniff the breadth of a blue whale!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jesus had his desert in a garden.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Mother of God had her's for three days in the house of John, son of Zebedee, before she saw her Son after she laid him in the tomb. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And some of us find this desert in our very souls. A dryness that companionship and prayer does nothing to elevate.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Even the Saviour was alone in his waiting</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And then there is the waiting... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I personally dislike having to wait- whether be it in queues or for websites to load or for promises to unfold. Most of all, I dislike ambiguous waiting-in-the-dark type of situations! The kind where you do not know what is expected at the end of the wait. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The wait would become a little bit less painful if at least you know what is expected, is to be. But strangely, that is not the hope that is promised to us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"But if we hope for what we do not <i>see</i>, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">- Rom 8:25 </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When I cannot see, it is to walk with eyes of faith. <a href="http://bible.cc/john/20-29.htm" target="_blank">Blessed are those </a>whose eyes are turned towards the Lord of Hosts and believe that good things await the righteous.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sometimes, with waiting in the desert comes doubt and hopelessness. The death of hope where hope once was, only makes the darkness darker. This cynicism made <a href="http://bible.cc/genesis/18-12.htm" target="_blank">Sarah laugh</a> inside the tent. A defeatism that made Nathaniel wonder if even God could bring good out of Nazareth. Then there is regret, which caused the Israelites to murmur against Moses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But in the waiting is purification. A deadening of the senses and awakening of the Spirit. A fullness that the saints speak of, in the midst of poverty. God loves the desert. He knows that there can be no distractions and no other who can penetrate your soul as He could. There he will make you wait till your thirst for him is cleaned of every unworthy intention but to have him alone. In the desert you will learn the depth of your love for the Lord. You will understand hope, in no other way as from Hope himself. In the desert...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">...he will come, like the bridegroom in the night, softly calling your name. You will not see him but you know that the Master is near. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When the waiting is done and your cup is full, then will you understand, why the waiting, why the desert?</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1651897746449332611.post-55302237099552726792012-08-26T23:45:00.000-07:002012-08-26T23:45:57.211-07:00Give me hope, Lord<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am tired, tired, tired...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's 8:30 in the night and I am still in my office hole. I must have put in more than 10 hours of work at no extra charge and I am famished...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That's not all. I was also caught up in the biggest downpour of </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">the year,</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">in a city that's nearing drought estimates in precipitation and when I finally reached home nearing 11 PM, I was too tired to sleep. I was up at an unearthly hour next morning thanks to my insomnia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But strangely enough, I am also grateful that it gives me an opportunity to offer my suffering for a greater good. It makes it almost sweet...my suffering that is, though it does not make it any easier. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">It certainly hasn't dimmed my ardent desire to run away from this place. It is so hard to look up and acknowledge something beautiful is at work already. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Grant me hope for tomorrow, Lord</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, I pray for hope and I pray for fortitude. I cannot have one without the other, for without hope, fortitude calls for ruthlessness, a hard stone-man; and without fortitude, hope has no substance.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #660000;">St. Teresa of Avila's Bookmark</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #660000;">Let nothing disturb you,</span></span></div>
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All things are passing</div>
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God never changes.</div>
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Patience obtains all things.</div>
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He who has God</div>
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finds he lacks nothing;</div>
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<span style="color: #660000;">God alone suffices.</span></div>
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And the end of all things, GOD ALONE SUFFICES...</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07439614087264567341noreply@blogger.com1