A Daily Dose of God

 

 

 

Christians are Optimists who are guided by Hope

 

We Christians are Optimists because our HOPE is Jesus Christ!  We are on this earth for a limited amount of time.  Therefore, we should Use that time wisely!

The movie Brian’s Song, (about Brian Piccolo & Gale Sayers), begins with a voice saying, “Every true story ends in death.  This is a true story.”  Every true story ends in death, except the story of Jesus Christ – He dies BUT He rises!

Today take some time to “… to talk to the Lord about life and death.” (Little Black Book) Remember you are on a journey and heaven is your destination.

Bob Simpson a retired Lutheran pastor was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  Starting in 1995 and over a four-year-period, Bob and his wife, Anne, wrote about their life with Alzheimer's in the book, Through the Wilderness of Alzheimer's: A Guide in Two Voices.  

 

 

The wilderness is the central image of their life with this devastating illness.  Anne wrote:  "The process of watching my beloved husband deteriorate is painful, lonely, and immensely sad.  I cannot deny it; I have spells of depression and self-pity. 

I have days when I am so frustrated that I go into the garage and sit in the car with all the windows rolled up, so I can scream without being overheard.  I can see the losses, the bad side, the half-empty glass." 

Bob wrote, "I have good days now.  If I think about the past, I get sad.  If I think about the future, I'm scared.  I only have the present.  Today is the only day I have to live." 

This experience tested their love, it has also deepened it.  "I'm not angry with God," Bob wrote.  "I believe God is here, somewhere.  There is a purpose."  Anne wrote, “We cannot determine our pace or our final destination; we cannot make straight the path. We trust God to guide us ….” 

Our crosses those are the unknown or terrifying places where we struggle to make our way still searching for answers; sometimes even still trying to articulate the questions.

But the desert of our hearts – the silent place where God speaks to us of possibility and transformation, there God wants us to be with Him in humility and hope. (Connections, 02/21/10)

Today let’s work to accept our crosses and with FAITH and TRUST let’s go to Jesus to ask for forgiveness from our sins & strength to carry our crosses with grace and dignity.

Allow God’s grace to transform you, allow God’s Love to purify you and allow God’s mercy to fashion you.  Adopt as your goal in life to “Be who we are and be that well.”  

(de Sales).   Remembering, always, you are a child of God.

 

May God Be Praised!

COVID 19 Pandemic Prayer

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.”  You are my refuge and my hope, I turn to you during this COVID 19 Pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Psalm 143 and Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Send Your light to me as I wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give me hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly

 

 

 

 

A Daily Dose of God

 

Beginning Again

 

 

 

"How I wish that there was some wonderful place

Called the Land of Beginning Again,

Where all our mistakes and all out heartaches

And all our poor selfish grief

Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door,

And never put on again."            [Barclay Commentary John 8:1-11]

There is a Beginning Again, His name is Jesus Christ and in Him and with Him you can begin each day, Again, in His love and His care.  He will never abandon you, His love is never ending and never failing.

 

Saint Leonie Aviat said it this way, “When Jesus died on the cross, He was thinking of you!  When He rose from the dead, He was thinking of you.

Now in the Kingdom He is thinking of you!  You are precious to Him!  So, Let us work for the happiness of others.”

 

 

 

Matthew in his Gospel 6:21 provides us with a paradigm for the examination of our discipleship, “For where your treasure is, there also will be your heart.”  Today take a few minutes to reflect on this thought from St. Francis de Sales and then pray the COIVD 19 Pandemic Prayers below.  "Work hard every day at increasing your purity of heart, which consists in appraising things and weighing them in the balance of God's will."

 

May God Be Praised!

 

COVID 19 Pandemic Prayer

 

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.”  You are my refuge and my hope, I turn to you during this COVID 19 Pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….”

[Psalm 143 and Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

 

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Send Your light to me as I wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give me hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Daily Dose of God

 

As we suffer through COVID 19 and Election 2020 fatigue I offer you three items today two visual and one story.  May you day be blessed.

 

Here is the story for you; it is about a 3-year girl whose parents just brought her newborn baby brother home from the hospital.  She excitedly asked if she could be alone with her brother for a few minutes?

 

Her parents hesitated but said o.k. since they had the baby monitor in his room & it was on.  She went in walk next to his crib and whispered, “Tell me about God I’ve almost forgotten.”             (Celebrations 1/18/15)

 

As disciples we are called to search for God; to search for what we’ve almost forgotten.  Jesus asks us, What in the deepest part of your being are you searching for?  He tells us to Follow Him and to Trust Him

 

This advice from St. Teresa of Calcutta [a.k.a. Mother Teresa] can help us,

"God speaks in the silence of the heart, and we listen. And then we speak to God from the fullness of our heart, and God listens. And this listening and this speaking is what prayer is meant to be."

 

We are called to pray, to do our best and to trust the Lord, it is that simple and that difficult.  Have you almost forgotten?  Go the crib of your heart God is waiting for you.

 

May God Be Praised!

COVID 19 Pandemic Prayer

 

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.”  You are my refuge and my hope, I turn to you during this COVID 19 Pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….”

[Psalm 143 and Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

 

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Send Your light to me as I wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give me hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

 

 

 

A Daily Dose of God

 

Isaiah gives us this beautiful insight in the scriptures, “Let me now sing of my friend, my friend’s song concerning his vineyard.”  Isaiah writes about the spiritual fruits of judgment and justice.  He wanted his people to change their lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In psalm 80 we pray, “O Lord, God of hosts, restore us; if your face shine upon us, then we shall be saved.”  

 

 

 

St. Paul advises us to “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.”

 

Some day we are going to answer for the way we live our lives here on earth, there will be a judgment day!  You and I are disciples of Christ, we are witnesses to His Gospel!  I recommend we prepare for our Judgment Day – not out of fear but out of love for Jesus.

Christ offers us the vision of how God wants us to live our lives.  A vision of love for and of God!  A vision of love of ourselves and of our families and of our neighbors!  A vision of forgiveness and peace!  A vision of HOPE because Jesus is us the Way, the Truth and the Life. 

Today commit to producing God’s fruit in abundance by loving God and loving your neighbor.

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

COVID 19 Pandemic Prayer

 

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.”  You are my refuge and my hope, I turn to you during this COVID 19 Pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….”

[Psalm 143 and Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

 

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Send Your light to me as I wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give me hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

 

 

 

A Daily Dose of God

 

 

Temptations & Living Jesus!

 

 

 

 

 

Today we conclude our short walk with St. Jane de Chantal using the short publication: “Spiritual Light from St. Jane de Chantal” which is available at www.EmbracedbyGod.org

 

Temptations:

 

Regarding Temptations, St. Jane asks us, “What are spiritual enemies?  Our own will, our own judgement, the world, our passions, inclinations, and the evil spirit…. Never be astonished at any temptations which you may see in yourself or others: but having compassion, be assured that our Lord never permits them but for our own good, so that by overcoming them we may receive an increase of grace …. [and] we learn to know our weaknesses, turn to God….” 

 

 

Live Jesus:

 

The saint tells us “I greet you all … with the very greeting our great and worthy Father (Francis de Sales) taught us: Live Jesus! ....  Live Jesus in our memory, in our will, and in our actions…. in your interior spirit: a spirit of gentle cordiality toward one another a spirit of recollection of your whole being before our divine Master…. Strive for that loving union of hearts….”

 

Living Jesus is the core of Salesian Spirituality, may it become the core of your spirituality because it is a sure path to Jesus and His Way, His Truth and His Life.

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

 

COVID 19 Pandemic Prayer

 

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.”  You are my refuge and my hope, I turn to you during this COVID 19 Pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….”

[Psalm 143 and Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

 

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Send Your light to me as I wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give me hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

 

 

A Daily Dose of God

 

Simplicity, Suffering and Death

 

 

 

 

 

Simplicity

Our saint tells us, “We must seek God alone, wish for God alone, tend to God alone.”  Now that is real simplicity, seek God in all things every day.

 

Suffering

Regarding suffering St. Jane offers us this advice, “When you are experiencing some physical pain or sorrowful heart, try to endure it before God, recalling as much as you can that he is watching you at this time of affliction, especially in physical illness when very often the heart is weary and unable to pray.”

 

Recognizing that you are unable to pray when suffering can, in itself, be a form of prayer.  Be satisfied that God knows, and God is with you, you don’t need to do anything, but offer your suffering to the Lord.

 

 

 

St. Jane says, “… suffering borne in the will, quietly and patiently, is continual, very powerful prayer before God, regardless of the complaints and anxieties that come from the lower part of your being….  May God make us strong in his holy love, and soft and supple as a glove….”

 

Death

“Why should we fear are own death.... We are not attentive enough to this truth:  nothing happens outside the will of God and to rest in his arms like a child without fears.”

 

“At the time of someone’s death, truly your sorrow can be great, and when looked at only in terms of this earthly life it is overwhelming.”

 

But we should remember St. Augustine’s insight we here on earth are in “the land of the dying”, those who have gone before us are in “the land of the living.”

 

The psalmist tells us:

“I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness

in the land of the living.

Hope in him, hold firm and take heart.

Hope in the Lord!

 

There is one thing I ask of the Lord,

for this I long,

to live in the house of the Lord,

all the days of my life,

to savor the sweetness of the Lord,

to behold his temple”.

 

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

COVID 19 Pandemic Prayer

 

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.”  You are my refuge and my hope, I turn to you during this COVID 19 Pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….”

[Psalm 143 and Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

 

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Send Your light to me as I wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give me hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Daily Dose of God

 

 

 

Walking with the Lord & Humility

 

 

 

 

 

St. Jane de Chantal recommends Walking with the Lord, “You cannot always offer God great things, but at each moment you can offer him little things with great love ….  Live joyously and serenely with whatever our Lord will do with you and for you.”

 

She said, “All God wants of us is our heart.”  

She means our will, our souls our entire life. 

 

St. Jane teaches, “All day and at each hour, even at each moment, if possible, let us raise our hearts to God.”  That takes an interior act of the will, try it.

 

Regarding Humility St. Jane wrote, “The core of humility lies in the very center of our being.  If we have real self-knowledge and love of our lowliness and our nothingness, and if we accept being overlooked by others, then we can be sure we have true humility.  God wants you to be humble, but in the ways he chooses for you, not in those you would choose.”

 

Being humble is the best way to walk with the Lord, give it a try.

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

COVID 19 Pandemic Prayer

 

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.”  You are my refuge and my hope, I turn to you during this COVID 19 Pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….”

[Psalm 143 and Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

 

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Send Your light to me as I wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give me hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prayer & God’s Fidelity and Simplicity

 

 

 

 

 

St. Jane advises us that “The best method of prayer is no method at all, buy simply complete openness to whatever God will do in your heart.”

 

Heart here means listening to God in the deepest part of our being, allowing God to direct our lives.  We, then, direct our actions to God as our gift to our loving God. 

     

The saint says, “In prayer more is accomplished by listening than talking….  Prayer is the true life of the soul …[keeping] our will united to that of God in every event.”

 

Further she recommends that we “Follow [our] own way of speaking to our lord sincerely, lovingly, confidently, and simply, as [our] heart dictates.”

 

On prayer this advice from St. Francis de Sales is very important during our COVID 19 Pandemic time, “Let the world turn upside down, let everything be in darkness, in smoke, in uproar—God is with us.”

Regarding God’s fidelity and Simplicity, we learn that “God loves each one of us tenderly and is very creative in attracting us to respond to his invitation…. The divine Heart will never fail you …. His fidelity is greater than our unfaithfulness.”

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

COVID 19 Pandemic Prayer

 

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.”  You are my refuge and my hope, I turn to you during this COVID 19 Pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….”

[Psalm 143 and Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

 

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Send Your light to me as I wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give me hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

 

 

 

 

Today we will reflect on Gentleness and God’s Presence

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gentleness

1.    “… nothing wins souls as gentleness and cordiality…. Gentleness encourages [hearts].”

2.    “Love your neighbor so tenderly as never to let a single word escape that might hurt them.”

3.    “Help others along very gently by word and deed and good example, without worrying too much about those who don’t profit from your efforts….  God will be your guide in all things ….”

 

 

 

 

God’s Presence

1.    “To feel God’s presence so intimately and powerfully, so that you are no longer aware of yourself is to have that little drop of water, the self, dissolved in the ocean of divinity.”

2.    “It is a great consolation to know that God sees the bottom of our heart.”

3.    “We must keep our hearts open and wait for the heavenly dew to fall….”

 

 

Spend time with the Lord in the quiet of your heart and seek His gentleness for yourself.

 

May God Be Praised!

 

COVID 19 Pandemic Prayer

 

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.”  You are my refuge and my hope, I turn to you during this COVID 19 Pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….”

[Psalm 143 and Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

 

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Send Your light to me as I wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give me hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]