Thought for Today

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BarbaraTherese

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**When something turns out not very well or even badly, do not be disturbed nor think it a real evil; but be humble before God and be confident that from it He will draw some good. **- St Anthony Mary Gianelli (1789-1846)
 
BarbaraTherese said:
**When something turns out not very well or even badly, do not be disturbed nor think it a real evil; but be humble before God and be confident that from it He will draw some good. **- St Anthony Mary Gianelli (1789-1846)
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It is not that it turns out wrong but it is the way we perceive it to be that can be the cause of our pain.
Jesus own words that the corner stone was the one rejected. Michael Angelo made David out of a rejected piece of marble.
I asked Jesus why He gave me Love andHe said it was because He could find no other person mor unworthy. God’s ways are not our ways. God is so far above our thoughts that even the thought of God’sthoghts are far above how we might think.

Oh pressious and loving Lord God almight. You alone are Love un equiled. There is no love unless it is from You. Fill me and all the little ones Lord fill them for ever.
I love You Lord God almighty. Praise and Glory to You For ever.

Godbless forever.
 
**I find a heaven in the midst of saucepans and brooms. **- Saint Stanislaus Kostka (1550-1568)
 
BarbaraTherese said:
**I find a heaven in the midst of saucepans and brooms. **- Saint Stanislaus Kostka (1550-1568)
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I agree if that is how you think, and Good for you.
A person once said to me, You are strange you see God in a blade of grass! Well I do and always will. a saying I once wrote is like this.
The person who sees the creation may never see the creater. But the person who sees the creater (God) already knows the creation for they are one and the same.

In all we do and think and say, give thanks to God, for from God came all in the first place.

Sause pans pots and pans there is no end to the creative love of God for His children. He firstly gave them the thought pattern and the energy to create them all.

Sorry BT but thes could go on for ever they just come to my mind as part of Gods creation to me.

Godbless
 
Godlovestrength said:
I agree if that is how you think, and Good for you.
A person once said to me, You are strange you see God in a blade of grass! Well I do and always will. a saying I once wrote is like this.
The person who sees the creation may never see the creater. But the person who sees the creater (God) already knows the creation for they are one and the same.

In all we do and think and say, give thanks to God, for from God came all in the first place.

Sause pans pots and pans there is no end to the creative love of God for His children. He firstly gave them the thought pattern and the energy to create them all.

Sorry BT but thes could go on for ever they just come to my mind as part of Gods creation to me.

Godbless
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Hi GLS…No need whatsoever to be sorry!🙂 …these little gems of wisdom and inspiration and at times great encouragement and understanding come into my email inbox and I thought I would post them as they occur. If anyone has reflections about them, this makes matters even better.

Not only is God reflected in the whole of creation, but in saying “I find God amongs the saucepans and pans” I think St. Stanislaus was also saying that we dont need to be doing great things like preaching or teaching etc. etc. to find God in an extraordinary way leading to holiness…St. Therese of Lisieux was a great example of this, finding God in the most ordinary of occupations. She is said to be the saint of the ordinary lived extra ordinarily.

Blessings and my regards…Bar:)
 
BarbaraTherese said:
Hi GLS…No need whatsoever to be sorry!🙂 …these little gems of wisdom and inspiration and at times great encouragement and understanding come into my email inbox and I thought I would post them as they occur. If anyone has reflections about them, this makes matters even better.

Not only is God reflected in the whole of creation, but in saying “I find God amongs the saucepans and pans” I think St. Stanislaus was also saying that we dont need to be doing great things like preaching or teaching etc. etc. to find God in an extraordinary way leading to holiness…St. Therese of Lisieux was a great example of this, finding God in the most ordinary of occupations. She is said to be the saint of the ordinary lived extra ordinarily.

Blessings and my regards…Bar:)
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You have such a way with words Barb!🙂

I often think that the far excelling prayer is to pray in day to day things (those mundane pots and pans of which life is made up of and Jesus spent thirty hidden years doing with His Mother) and bring this to the Altar of God in all our ordinariness and weakness and offer this little prayer to Him, when we lift up our hearts and bring our gifts of bread and wine united to Jesus in His Eternal and Perfect offering upon the Cross which is then united to Him Crucified and Risen in the Eucharist and all we do is transformed in Him. Then, ready for the week ahead, all nourished in the Lord, we can go about the day with Jesus as prayer in everything always thanking Him for everything as He sees to it that all is to His accord.

In the Living Prayer of my life
 
If we take stock of where we are in life and the duties connected with wherever we may be, we have the circumstances that are going to make saints of us and elected by Divine Providence. We see the outline of God’s Will for us and the details are filled in by the circumstances of our duties. St. Therese, for example, found herself a Carmelite nun in a strictly enclosed contemplative monastic situation and the duties connected with that, which in St. Therese’s instance were quite ordinary as contemplative monastic life goes, she insighted that these duties would make a saint of her and they did. St. Therese was called by Divine Providence to live the ordinary life of a Carmelite nun…St. Therese lived out the duties of that life in an extraordinary manner. I can become a great saint by caring for a family -doing the shopping, the washing, the ironing and the cooking for example. If I tell myself “I am only a housewife”, then I miss the point of God’s Will and His Divine Providence in my life.
The Mass in a Catholic life should be the heart of soul of my whole life, whether I am a wife and Mum, a contemplative nun or the Pope. In these three vocations I do not sight any scale of ‘importance’ rather I sight how God’s Will can be working in different roles or calls in a life. Prayer and the Sacrament of Reconciliation need figure in my life too as of vital importance and no matter what my role in life may be. In the Great Mystery of God’s Divine Plan, He really does need a Mum for example, to be a good Mum. He needs the Pope to be a good Pope. He needs the contemplative nun to be a good contemplative nun. This is all a great mystery to our human logic, while Faith sees it with clarity.
That is two rather short paragraphs and to fill in all the details could comprise a very long book. In fact a rather good book (just one book amongst many on the subject of spirituality) has been written “A Rule of LIfe for Mothers” and if nothing else, I think it can be an excellent way for Mums to time manage.

Blessings and my regards, BS…good to catch up with you again!..Barb:)
 
Barb, here’s something I posted in another thread, but it fits in here and says in other words what you have said, so I don’t know why I am posting it other than I am saddened that people cannot see their ‘little whte martyrdom’ upheld by the Saints of the ‘Red Martyrs in the Blood of Jesus’: Even in the smallest of acts the greatness of God’s love may be contained and so these smaller acts are no small act to carry out and offer to God.

I** was very sad to read in my Parish bulletin a moaning complaint about the recent beatifications of those martyrs of the faith. The person complaining was saying what does this have to do with married life or looking after children and why do all Saints have to be martyrs or religious. I was very saddened that this person had not seen the martyrdom of daily life in all the little things we do and translated these heroic Saint’s beatification to bring meaning to their 'pots and pans ’ of daily life. Rather they had seen fit to publish this rant and critise the Beatification process. This ‘red’ martyrdom serves to sanctify in prayer the ‘white’ martyrdom of our daily Living Prayer in all its smallness. To pray to these martyrs and ask for the intercession for the spirit of martyrdom in serving another even if it is to get up in the middle of the night when we are very tired to go to a crying child and find they had had a bad dream and settle them down again, then we will see our little acts are washed in the blood of these Saints and in the blood of Christ Jesus in Whom the courage to die for faith was found.**

In the Living Prayer of my life
 
blessedstar said:
Barb, here’s something I posted in another thread, but it fits in here and says in other words what you ahve said, so I don’t know why I am postign it other than I am saddened that peple cannot see their ‘little whte martyrdom’ upheld by the Saints of the ‘Red Martyrs in the Blood of Jesus’: Even in the smallest of acts the greatness of God’s love may be contained.

I** was very sad to read in my Parish bulletin a moaning complaint about the recent beatifications of those martyrs of the faith. The person complaining was saying what does this have to do with married life or looking after children and why do all Saints have to be martyrs or religious. I was very saddened that this person had not seen the martyrdom of daily life in all the little things we do and translated these heroic Saint’s beatification to bring meaning to their 'pots and pans ’ of daily life. Rather they had seen fit to publish this rant and critise the Beatification process. This ‘red’ martyrdom serves to sanctify in prayer the ‘white’ martyrdom of our daily Living Prayer in all its smallness. To pray to these martyrs and ask for the intercession for the spirit of martyrdom in serving another even if it is to get up in the middle of the night when we are very tired to go to a crying child and find they had had a bad dream and settle them down again, then we will see our little acts are washed in the blood of these Saints and in the blood of Christ Jesus in Whom the courage to die for faith was found.**

In the Living Prayer of my life
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Hi again BS…The Church does recognize such a thing as ‘spiritual martyrdom’ and chiefly in the case of Mary. Undoubtedly Our Lady died ‘a thousand deaths’ at the foot of the cross. Anyone too who has given birth to and then raised a child knows a type of spiritual martyrdom or ‘white martyr’ as you call it and, as you mention, getting up at night to a child when all one wants to do is have a good night’s sleep - just once!!! In fact I would venture to state that every single life in any faithful baptized person for sure (and I would venture to say in any loving human life) will know a spiritual martyrdom of some kind and of some degree. Every time I put another first, I die a little - I die to myself and what I may want and desire. Every time I put what God may be asking of me ahead of what I may want, I die to myself. Somehow or other, in some way or other we are all “crucified with Christ”…and “make up in our own bodies what was lacking in the Sufferings of Christ” - an astounding thought!!!

Perhaps one of the worst kinds of ‘spritual martyrdom’s’ can be that where our life is the totally necessary most ordinary and full of the mundane and routine. One can either lament this, or one can embrace it for the love of God and as God’s Will for one’s life.

Here is an entry from the diary of St. Faustina:
This Thursday, when we were having nocturnal adoration, at first I could not pray; a sort of dryness engulfed me. I could not meditate on Jesus’ sorrowful Passion. So I lay prostrate and offered the most sorrowful Passion of the Lord Jesus to the heavenly Father in reparation for the sins of all the world.
When I got to my feet after this prayer and walked to my kneeler, I suddenly saw Jesus next to it. The Lord Jesus
appeared as He was during the scourging. In His hands He was holding awhite garment with which He clothed me and a cord with which He girded me, and He covered me with a red cloak like the one He was clothed withduring His Passion and a veil of the same color, and He said to me…Fixyour eyes upon Me and live according to what you see. I desire that you penetrate into My spirit more deeply and understand that I am meek and
humble of heart.
After Holy Communion, I saw the Lord Jesus, who said these words to me: Today, penetrate into the spirit of My poverty and arrange everything in such a way that the most destitute will have no reason to envy you. I find pleasure, not in large buildings and magnificent structures, but in a pure and humble heart. (532)
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The routine and very ordinary and mundane is a true poverty. St. Faustina found her poverty in enduring patiently her illness. Poverty takes a myriad of forms in life. Again, I can either lament this, or I can embrace it as a true reflection of the Poverty of Christ and in unity with that.
A white garment, incidentally, is mentioned in the Book of Revelations as identifying the martyr “the white robed army of martyrs”. Reading a diary such as that of St. Faustina who saw and spoke with Christ reminds me of the words to St. Thomas “blessed are they who have not seen and yet believe”. Living life on Faith alone can be another form of poverty. “I have no sight of you, Lord, nor do I speak with you, yet I do believe”.
 
**

Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.
(Dr. David M. Burns)**
 
God has promised forgiveness to your repentance; but he has not
promised tomorrow to your procrastination.
  • St. Augustine
A saint: A sinner recyled, pruned and edited.
(author unknown)
 
This is the first day of my life, for yesterday has gone, and tomorrow may never come, but today Jesus is right here beside me to guide me, and the Holy Spirit is here to speak through me.

For this day I pray, one day at a time sweat Jesus, thats all I ask.
The grace to take, one day at a time.

Godbless
 
Thanks heaps for contributing, GLS!👍

One day only at a time is something I need always remind myself…

God Bless…Barb:)
 
Read and read again, and do not despair of help to understand thewill and mind of God though you think they are fast locked up fromyou. Neither trouble your heads though you have not commentariesand exposition. Pray and read, read and pray; for a little from Godis better than a great deal from people.
  • John Bunyan
 
**
**Worry is a weakness from which very few of us are entirely free. We must be on guard against this most insidious enemy of our peace of soul. Instead, let us foster confidence in God, and thank Him ahead of time for whatever He chooses to send us. **
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- Venerable Solanus Casey (1870-1957)
**
 
I may do much to help others , I may become known for my contributions.
But …it is in my being forgiven for my faults that I know how little I am,and a little of the magnatude and majesty of GOD
Godbless
 
mommyof4 said:
I’m still working on this. And I’m trying to find Him in the laundry room, where I spend so much time, too.🙂
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Hi again Mommyof4…the laundry is your just occupation and hence a duty granted by God. God’s Ways are rarely going to make sense to human logic, but present to us none the less. Why God needs you in a laundry at work may be a mystery to you - there nonetheless. God is there in your duties waiting. Mary spent her life as a wife and mother and then as a widow living alone…her life to outward eyes was not remarkable in anyway- hence probably the reason we are not told anything about it at all really in Scripture - she was probably in the kitchen and laundry and other housewifey duties for most all of her life - and a greater saint is none! And the great St. Joseph worked away to support his family for as long as he lived and became a great saint and patron of The Church - and his life was so ordinary and hidden, Scripture hardly mentions him also.
Most of us are not going to do anything in the least way approaching ‘special’ and will live very ordinary hidden type lives that no one will take any note of at all, and this is much as Mary and Joseph did and also St. Therese.
I used to know a group of some anyway very holy contemplative nuns whose days were occupied in the laundry and ironing and this is how they earn a penny and hence a duty gifted by God. A couple of them if their inner lives had come to any attention anywhere would probably have been made saints.
Have you read “Practise of The Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence:
practicegodspresence.com/brotherlawrence/index.html

…and also St. Therese’s autobiography. Truth is, that if St. Therese had not been asked to write her life story in which she focused on her inner life since her outward life was not of any note at all, she never would have come to the attention of The Universal Church and been declared a saint. To outward eyes, St. Therese was just a very ordinary day to day type contemplative nun - nothing special at all.

It is never what we are doing so much…but why we are doing whatever we may be doing.

God’s Blessings and His Peace and Joy…Barb:)
 
Godlovestrength said:
I may do much to help others , I may become known for my contributions.
But ……it is in my being forgiven for my faults that I know how little I am,and a little of the magnatude and majesty of GOD
Godbless
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Thank you for the contribution again, GLS - and a beautiful one indeed…do post away - these little inspirations and maxims are just short sentences about which whole books could be and often are, written. Very often they can appeal and speak to the heart more than sitting down and reading the book written about them.

God’s Blessings with His Peace and His Joy…Barb:)
 
I have help in the spiritual life from a lot of people along the way, but there are a couple of very special people who have influence for the good probably far beyond what they realize and barbarateresa is one of them, just want to say thanks, for always striking the right chord.
 
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