Vacation Message

 

I am on vacation with my family, while on vacation I will be praying for you, and I ask that you pray for us.  My blog, "A Daily Dose of God” will return on Thursday, August 1, 2024.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 7/18/2024 – When Difficulties Arise - “Do whatever He tells you” & Vacation Message

 

Pope Francis said, "When we are in difficult situations, when problems arise that we do not know how to resolve, when we feel a lot of anxiety and distress, when we lack joy, go to Our Lady and say: ‘We have no wine. The wine has run out: Look at the state I am in, look at my heart, look at my soul’….  And she will go to Jesus to say: Look at this one: he or she has no wine. And then, she will come back to us and say: “Do whatever he tells you”."  [Pope Francis, His Words. Your Journey. Together, 6/22/2024]

 

 

Please note: Tomorrow, I depart for vacation with my family, while on vacation I will be praying for you, and I ask that you pray for us.  My blog, "A Daily Dose of God” will return on Thursday, August 1, 2024.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 7/17/2024 – Your life matters.

 

St. Augustine of Hippo said, “Let us sing a new song not with our lips but with our lives.” 

As we sing to the Lord by how we live our lives, may God’s gift of light shine on us today and may we be salt of the earth for each person we meet today.

 

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 7/16/2024 – The Master Craftsman

 

 

“Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart .”  [Matthew 11:29]

“O Lord, my heart is not proud nor haughty my eyes….  Truly I have set my soul in silence and peace."

 

St. Francis de Sales teaches us, “Be who you are and be that well. So that you may bring honor to the Master Craftsman whose handiwork you are.”

We are called by the Master Craftsman to childlike trust in the Lord, the God Who breathed us into life and is looking to us to love Him back, not for His sake, but for our fulfillment.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 7/15/2024 – Trust that God will make All Things New.

 

                                                          Listen to Elaine Hagenberg’s                                                       “All Things New, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGNU0Wz2ors it is based on Revelations 21:5-6 and  Poem by Frances Havergal, ‘Light after Darkness.”

God will indeed make All Things New, today do your part pray for peace in our nation and our would and commit to turning your "swords into plowshares."  Whatever in your heart need God’s love and forgiveness offer them To God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

“Light after darkness, gain after loss,
Strength after suffering, crown after cross.
Sweet after bitter, song after sigh,
Home after wandering, praise after cry.

Sheaves after sowing, sun after rain,
Sight after mystery, peace after pain.
Joy after sorrow, calm after blast,
Rest after weariness, sweet rest at last.

Near after distant, gleam after gloom,
Love after loneliness, life after tomb.
After long agony, rapture of bliss!
Right was the pathway leading to this!” [Light after darkness]

Revelations 21:5-6

“The one who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' Then he said, 'Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and true.'  He said to me, 'They are accomplished.  I [am] the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water.'”

 

May God Be Praised. 

 

Blog Post 7/14/2024 - Pray

 

St. Therese of Lisieux advises us, "You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them."

Today start your road to sainthood by offering each action and each thought to the Lord and ask the Lord to pave your road to Heaven with them.

May God Be Praised.

 

Once again we pray for an end to violence in our nation, ask the great statesman and Saint, Thomas More and the Great Pope Saint John Paul II to beg God for an end to all violence.  St. Francis of Assisi, “Lord, make me a channel of thy peace, that where there is hatred, I may bring love ....  And Deacon Greg Kendra, “Amid our brokenness, we pray for healing. In our anger and hostility, pray for understanding …. In our despair, pray for hope.”

 

Blog Post 7/13/2024 “Be Eccentric in Loving God”

 

In 1984 a short movie called “Umbrella Jack” was released, you can find it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUYPHAngykg

 

In it boy named Billy befriends an eccentric old man, “Umbrella Jack”, who was a W.W. II veteran suffering from P.T.S.D. [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder].  He carried a tattered old umbrella, hence his name.  Several youngsters taunted him as a weird old man.  Billy was one of them, the short movie tells how and why Billy stopped participating in the taunts and befriended “Umbrella Jack”.  We are called to befriend the unloved and the unwanted.

The Holy Spirit filled the disciples, and they were thought to be “eccentric.”  Some people are afraid of the Holy Spirit, some people make fun of the Holy Spirit, some people try to ignore the Holy Spirit, and some allow the Holy Spirit to guide their lives. 

“To be Catholic is to be a person of hope & of vision, a person who sees meaning in life in this world & promise beyond.”  [Fr. Michael Hayes]

For a few minutes, in silence, reflect on how you are using the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

May God Be Praised!

 

Blog Idea 7/12/2024 – Are you Listening?

Pope Francis offers us this sage advice, "Just as we know how to distinguish one language from another, we can also distinguish the voice of God from the voice of the evil one.  The voice of God never forces us: God proposes himself, He does not impose himself. Instead, the evil voice seduces, assails, forces: it arouses dazzling illusions, emotions that are tempting but transient.  At first it flatters, it makes us believe that we are all-powerful, but then it leaves us empty inside and accuses us: ‘You are worth nothing’.  The voice of God, instead, corrects us, with great patience, but always encourages us, consoles us: it always nourishes hope."

Listen to God the One who offers us the Way of Life, the Way to Joy, the Way to Completeness.

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 7/11/2024 - God’s Mercy Awaits Our Heart

 

 

“Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the lord, your God.”  [Book of Joel 2:12]

God seeks us and wants us to “rend” our hearts so that His mercy can envelop our souls and heal us.

 

May God Be Praised.

 

Blog Post 7/10/2024 – Why is it so Difficult to Conform our will to God’s Will ?

We pray in Psalm 17, “Guard me as the apple of Your eye; in the shadows of your wings protect me.”

The effects of original sin beguiles us to keep some of ourselves for “self’ and withhold it from God.  We forget that God our Father has chosen us and so we must constantly give over our entire self to God, and always conform our will to God’s will and serving God with a docile heart, a docile soul and a docile will.

Meditate on “Only a Shadow”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2NziYJh99Y

Remember to start anew constantly because God is with you.

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 7/09/2024 – Mind Work

 

St. Thomas More advised, "Occupy your mind with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones. Unoccupied, they cannot be."

 

A Beautiful and Productive habit to develop is directing your thoughts to God’s love frequently and when bad thoughts enter your mind nudge them out with good [God] thoughts.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 7/08/2024 Gifts from the Holy Spirit

 

Gifts given to us to share with the world, the message of God’s discipleship, where our true joy is found.  Cardinal Dolan offered this insight into our three most recent Popes – St. John Paul II, [the late Emeritus Pope] Benedict XVI and [Pope] Francis.  He said all three "are all giants," yet each "has particular talents." 

 

John Paul II emphasized the soul, with his eloquent call to prayer & the revival of the spirit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the head, renewing the Church's vast intellectual heritage, reminding us  that faith and reason are allies. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pope Francis emphasizes the heart: warmth, mercy, joy, tenderness, outreach, acceptance and love.

 

We are called by God to share our glimpse of God with the world, and our world desperately need that glimpse.

 

May God Be Praised.

 

Blog Post 7/07/2024 - Homily Cycle B [Offered @ OLPH]

Blog Post 7/07/2024 - Homily Cycle B [Offered @ OLPH]

 

The 1960 musical “Camelot” was based on a 1958 novel, The Once and Future King.  One of the songs in the musical was Camelot, in the final stanza we hear these words: “… there’s simply not A more congenial spot, For happily-ever-aftering, Than here in Camelot.”  That song really hints at Faith, it tries to answer the question of our deepest longing, to be loved completely and to live happily forever.  St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless God until they rest in You.”

The Gift of Faith enables us to journey here on earth seeking completeness, wholeness that only God can satisfy.  In the Gospel, Jesus was “… amazed at their lack of faith.”  Jesus, the Son of God, couldn’t “perform any might deeds” in Nazareth because their faith was in themselves, not in God, not in the Lord.  They tried to view Jesus only through the lens of the son of Mary and Joseph the carpenter.

Jesus, God, does not force Himself on anyone.  Jesus invites to find our completeness, our wholeness in Him and through Him.  Faith is TRUSTING in the Lord when we are living through the darkness.

Linda Taylor was putting her three [little children] to bed.  Suddenly Peggy who had just completed kindergarten, said “Mommy, if the world came to an end, right now …”  Linda gulped & said a quick prayer for guidance; “Yes, dear,” she said, “go on.” 

Peggy said, “Would I have to take my library book back, or would it be okay to leave it at home?”  [Action, Cycle C, Sunday, Ordinary Time, p.300]  Peggy’s innocent question reminds us of what Ezekiel said to us to listen to the Lord and, of what St. Paul taught us this morning, the Lord’s “grace is sufficient for us.”

God’s Word will nourish us if we accept it and follow it.  If we allow it to guide us and form us.  Are you ever amazed at God’s Word?  Astonished by God’s Word?  Do you Allow God’s Word to guide your life, your decisions, your actions?  After all, “Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.”  [D.E. Trueblood, American Quaker & Theologian]

We have been given the gift of faith, although we only see partially now, we believe that one day we will see fully and clearly.  Christianity is a way of seeing and a way of living, of sharing the Lord’s light in our darkening world.

 

St. John Henry Newman offers us this prayer to aid in living our faith.

“God has created me to do Him some definite service.

He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.

I have my mission.

I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.

Therefore, I will trust Him ….” 

[Excerpted from, The Mission of My Life, the entire payer can be found here: https://www.dioslc.org/images/newmanprayer.pdf]

Trusting in the Lord will enable God’s grace to help us fulfill our mission here on earth.  The people of Jesus’ Hometown asked where did He get “all this”, His authority, His wisdom, His empathy, His humility?  Jesus’ authority, wisdom, humility, is God’s work made visible by Jesus’ life.

Our life should be marked by Jesus’ authority, wisdom, humility, generosity, selflessness needs to be made visible by our lives.  To make your mission successful – live the Gospel, shine Christ’s LIGHT in the world.

Maybe this image can help us, in a Trapeze Act there is a Flyer and a Catcher, they enter the circus ring and greet the audience with smiles and movement that cause their wide capes to swirl about them.  They pull themselves up into the large net and start to climb rope ladders to positions high up in the big tent.  As the Flyer swings away from the pedestal board, somersaults and turns freely in the air, only to be safely grasped by the Catcher.  The secret is for the Flyer to TRUST the Catcher to grasp them, grasp the Flyer.

So it is with God and us, we need to TRUST that the Lord will grasp us each time we fly into His arms.  God longs for us to fly to His loving embrace, fly now, fly tomorrow and one day fly into eternity with the Lord.  Having followed the Lord here in eternity you will discover your mission.

For a few minutes, in silence, think about how you’re nourishing your faith each day?

 

May God Be Praised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blog Post 7/06/2024 An Insight from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.

Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

 

Jesus is true God and true man.

May God Be Praised.

 

Blog Post 7/05/2024 – How to be Joy-filled!

 

“Know, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today.” [Deuteronomy 4:39-40a]

 

The secret to living a Joy-filled life is found when we focus our hearts, our wills and our actions on God.

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 7/04/2024 – The Miracle Continues & Our Celebration of Independence

 

The miracle continues to unfold, Laurie, Brian, Caiden John and Berkleigh are at home  in Kennesaw, GA.  It’s July 4, 2024, and once again, Brian’s sister Elizabeth and her family [husband Kyle, their children: Declan, Deacon, Maren & Kellen] are celebrating my-daughter-in-law Laurie’s continued recovery from the brain aneurysm she suffered on July 4, 2018.   Every year since 2018 Brian’s sister Elizabeth and her family visit the Georgia Kellys to share the 4^th of July Holiday, a.k.a. HOPE FILLED DAY, to celebrate Laurie’s continued recovery from her aneurysm.  That recovery is remarkable, her recovery is a miracle, her recovery is a blessed gift to Brian, Caiden, Berkleigh, and all of us. 

 

Perseverance in Prayer [pleas, tears, shouts & joys], assistance from friends, family and others from the community and Laurie’s tenacity with her therapies, have contributed to her recovery.

Six years ago Brian prayed for Divine Intervention and The Lord answered Brian’s prayer and said, it is not Laurie’s time to enter eternity but it is your time to help her carry her cross here trusting in God’s never-failing mercy.

 

 

Laurie’s progress has been steady and wonderful to behold.  She has therapy three times a week and continues toward her goal of full recovery.  Laurie, Brian and all of us are grateful for your prayers over the years and hope that you will continue praying for them.  Trust that we pray for you and your families every day.

 

In 1776 our Declaration of Independence announced our break with Great Britain and offered these ideals: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

 

 

 

With all of our current problems [political, social, economic, etc.] today take time remember to count your many blessings and thank God for our nation, however, flawed.  May we heal, hope, seek and pray for the United States of America and may we seek to live the ideals we proclaim.

 

May God Bless America and May God Bless all people of all nations today and every day.

May God Be Blessed.

Blog Post 7/03/2024 - All who are hungry & thirsty

 

“All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat;

Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!”  [Isaiah 55:1-3]

 

Sometime today go to the Lord and say thank you God for everything I have, You are the source of all Good & all goods.

May God Be Praised.